Pilot Flying and Pilot Monitoring’s Aircraft State Awareness During Go-Around Execution in Aviation: A Behavioral and Eye Tracking Study

Abstract : Objective: Examination of the performance and visual scanning of aircrews during final approach and an unexpected go-around maneuver. Background: Accident and incident analyses have revealed that go-around procedures are often imperfectly performed because of their complexity, their high time stress, and their rarity of occurrence that avails little time for practice. We wished to examine this experimentally and establish the frequency and nature of errors in both flight-performance and visual scanning. Method: We collected flight-performance (e.g., errors in procedures, excessive flight deviations) and eye-tracking data of 12 flight crews who performed final approach and go-around flight phases in realistic full-flight transport-category simulators. Results: The pilot performance results showed that two thirds of the crews committed errors including critical trajectory deviations during go-arounds, a precursor of accidents. Eye-tracking analyses revealed that the cross-checking process was not always efficient in detecting flight-path deviations when they occurred. Ocular data also highlighted different visual strategies between the 2 crew members during the 2 flight phases. Conclusion: This study reveals that the go-around is a challenging maneuver. It demonstrates the advantages of eye tracking and suggests that it is a valuable tool for the explicit training of attention allocation during go-arounds to enhance flight safety.