HUMAN factors is a newish discipline, dealing with how people relate to their work it is allied to occupational psychology and ergonomics. In Human Factors in Air Traffic Control (Taylor & Francis, £29.95, ISBN 0 7484 0357 4), David Hopkin provides a comprehensive account of how human factors research impinges on the work of air-traffic controllers.
A theme is the cautious attitude to new technology in a field that would seem ripe for it. The working currency in many air-traffic control centres is still the “flight progress strip” – a slip of paper representing an aircraft handed between controllers like a relay baton. One reason for this conservatism is that controllers are responsible in law for their actions, and distrust a machine whose legal status is hazy.
Another, more interesting, reason relates to the subtle processes by which controllers maintain a detailed mental model of the airspace. A controller may take up to twenty minutes to build up a picture of the traffic, which becomes the basis for planning and decision-making.
A live issue is how, and whether, the controller’s picture may be maintained if much of the data-gathering and decision-making functions are handed over to computers. Controllers report that even modest forms of computer assistance reduce their active engagement and diminish the detail of their picture.
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This is a scholarly book, fully referenced, and not a light read. But anyone with a practical interest in air-traffic control will benefit from Hopkin’s humane and penetrating insights.
