Towards a Future Airline's Reduced-Crew: Theoretical Analyses and Models from Human Factors and Ergonomics Research

Abstract

Since almost two decades, Reduced-Crew Operations (RCO) have been investigated in research regarding commercial aviation. Whereas the technology per se is ready to be applied a concept of operations lacks behind. Pilot health monitoring system and threat detection and assessment systems have been examined in different projects. We established a concept of commercial RCO which is centered on human mental workload during flight operations including the new automation tools originating from research projects. The main highly topical issues of RCO were addressed by applying Human Factors and Ergonomics methods. The functions were allocated to the agents in a cognitive work analysis. An extension of the analysis by a social network analysis shed light on possible solutions in case of a data-link break-up and reveals the overall network's resilience to security intrusions. Pilot incapacitation, homicide-suicide and laser attacks were investigated under a system theoretic view. The concept's models predict to be robust against these security intrusions in theory. In the next steps, the models' predictions should be evaluated in simulation studies involving a ground station.