ENHANCED TRAINING TO REDUCE PILOT ERROR ACCIDENTS

This paper addresses the historical problem that a very high percentage of helicopter accidents are related to "pilot error". Through extensive research since 1977, the Federal Aviation Administration determined that the predominant underlying cause of these types of accidents involved decisional problems. To attack these problems. Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM) training materials were developed and tested for ten years. Since the publication of the ADM training manuals in 1987, significant reductions in helicopter human error accidents have been documented both in the U. S. and worldwide. However, shortcomings have been observed in the use of these materials for recurrency training and in their relevance to more experienced pilots. The following discussion defines the differences between expert and novice decision makers from a cognitive information processing perspective, provides training and accident scenarios which exemplify those differences and proposes pilot training innovations designed to expedite the development of expert decision making skills.