Investigating pilot’s decision making when facing an unstabilized approach: an eye-tracking study

Abstract : Unstabilized approach has been identified to be a major causal factor of approach-and-landing accidents (e.g. off-runway touchdowns, hard landing, tail-strikes, etc). We conducted an experiment in order to analyze pilots’ performance during such approaches. Ten type-rated, commercial pilots flew each in a B737 full-flight simulator during an unstabilized approach at Hamburg airport. The Pilot Flyings’ (PF) eye gazes were collected. The results revealed that half of the pilots persisted in an erroneous landing decision. These latter pilots had higher dwell time on the attitude indicator/flight director whereas the group of pilots who perfomed the go-around exhibited more fixations on the navigation display prior to their final decision. These findings indicate that the decision whether to land or to go-around is taken considerably long before the respective task is executed, and that the use of heuristics impair pilot’s performance.