Weather-Related Decision Errors: Differences across Flight Types

Abstract

Aviation incidents involving poor weather may be related to cognitive and contextual factors that lead pilots to continue with flights in the face of cues suggesting that doing so could be hazardous (i.e., commit “plan continuation errors” or PCE). To test this, 276 ASRS incident reports involving in-flight encounters with weather were analyzed. Part 91, 135 and 121 operations were found to differ significantly in their relative frequency of commission of PCEs. Factors such as hours of pilot experience, poor visibility, and crew conflict were related to the performance of a PCE. Different factors were related to PCEs committed within the three Part operations.