Analysis of Routine Pilot-Controller Communication

Although pilot-controller communication is central to aviation safety, this area of aviation human factors has not been extensively researched. Most research has focused on what kinds of communication problems occur. A more complete picture of communication problems requires understanding how communication usually works in routine operations. In the present paper, we describe our investigation of a sample of routine pilot-controller communication in the TRACON environment. After describing several dimensions of routine communication, we focus on three kinds of communication problems: Inaccuracies such as incorrect readbacks, Procedural deviations such as missing callsigns and readbacks, and Nonroutine transactions where pilot and controller must deal with misunderstandings or other communication problems. Preliminary results suggest these problems are not frequent events in daily operations. However, analysis of the problems that do occur suggest some factors that may cause them.