Communication Pitfalls between Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers - Term Paper Example

Communication Pitfalls between Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers Name Institution Summary Pilots and controllers play equal roles in the maintenance air traffic control system. Controllers provide the assistance that has made it possible for all skilled pilots to complete flights successfully. Pilots do not have any knowledge concerning traffic; therefore, they place their lives and that of the passengers on the controllers. They greatly rely on the information from the air traffic control system. Communication pitfalls may present extremely hazardous incidents. Majority of the factors that cause hazardous incidents are closely interconnected and in most cases, communication breakdown results from not just one cause. Pitfalls come along as a result of human factors, phonemes, noise, and intelligibility among other factors. Phonemes refer to any words or phrases that may be interpreted into different sounds and significant psychological difference results. The most common type of noise is random noise which is a ‘hishing’ sound comprising of distinct frequencies of tremor in equivalent magnitudes. All these factors present extreme difficulties in communication between pilots and air traffic controllers. Communication Pitfalls between Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers Introduction Communication between controllers and pilots are a significant part of air traffic regulation operation (dos Santos, Vieira & Morais, 2014). If issues arise in this communication, dangerous situations may arise. For instance, miscommunication has been identified as the primary factor contributing to runaway incursions. The major step in the reduction of such hazardous situations is the comprehension of the reasons and circumstances that lead to the communication difficulties. The responsibilities of pilots and controllers overlay in majority of the areas in the provisions of redundancy. The overlap in these responsibilities aims at compensating for communication letdowns that may compromise safety. This paper seeks to give a report on the communication pitfalls between pilots and air traffic controllers. Communication Relations between Pilot and Air Traffic Regulators Pilot and controller communication loop aims at supporting safety and redundancy of the pilot-controller communication as the diagram below illustrates. (Van Es, 2004). Pilots and controllers play equal roles in the maintenance air traffic control system. The air traffic controller plays a significant role in the safety of the air traffic system. The controller minimizes the tasks of the pilot by playing the role of conflict detection and resolution with other air craft operators. Also, they offer counsels and warnings concerning recognized weather dangers and probable military airspace contravention. Though qualified to handle various distinct potentialities, pilots ought not to meet problems in their ideal work (McMillan, 1998). However, the routine responsibility of a controller includes mainly of problem solving in the attempt to put up with traffic securely, efficiently, and in an organized way. Pilots and controllers do not have similar standpoints of the contradictory pressures of security and competence. First, a controller has more than one aircraft to handle but a pilot is concerned with just a single aircraft. The pilot wants to fly the aircraft in the most effectual way by selecting straight routes or those with the most auspicious winds and ideal altitudes. However, the choice is not always in line with the controller’s selection. Additionally, a controller’s viewpoint of competence is different because the goal of a controller is to uphold a consistently spaced flow of aircraft in different airports even if it means delay. The aircraft team is pressured to transport their passengers timely and ensure that the aircraft is accessible for its subsequent planned flight. The controller attempts to maintain compassion to the team’s requirements by avoiding excessive maneuvering whereas attaining safe parting with different aircraft. On any flight, pilots work with various controllers that are not known to them personally. Likewise, controllers work with various pilots that are not known personally to them. For efficient working of the system, all exchanges ought to be calm and specialized. Controllers provide the assistance that has made it possible for all skilled pilots to complete flights successfully. Pilots do not have any knowledge concerning traffic; therefore, they place their lives and that of the passengers on the controllers (dos Santos, Vieira & Morais, 2014). They greatly rely on the information form the air traffic control system. The pilot’s role then with exception of emergency is to acquire advisory information, adhere to instructions, and to act accordingly. The pilots ought to entrust a controller’s command because they do not receive sufficient information concerning air traffic. Communication Pitfalls The achievement of effectual radio communications includes various factors that ought not to be ignored. Majority of the factors are closely interconnected and in most cases, communication breakdown results from not just one cause (dos Santos, Vieira & Morais, 2014). Errors in the communication may result from; altitude deviation, operational deviation, near midair-collision, runaway incursion, lateral deviation, ground conflict and airborne conflicts. Communication drawbacks may also arise as a result of human factors. It occurs when the mental process is unable to accommodate and construe the information a message contains. It is based on how the information is perceived; how the information in a certain message is reconstructed; how the information is related to the common goal; and the kind of errors that arise in the process (McMillan, 1998). Workload, exhaustion, failure to observe cock pit rules, pressure, interruptions, and conflicts may result to imperfect communications, utilization of substandard phraseology, failure to listen or give an appropriate response, failure of effective implementation, and exclusion of call-signs. Phonemes Phonemes refer to any words or phrases that may be interpreted into different sounds and significant psychological difference results. There are various phonemes in the pronunciation of every letter when spelled. Spoken language is more multifaceted than written language because consistent physical borders do not exist between words and phrases analogous to the gaping in writing. At times, there are perfect pauses amid phonemes; however, these do not automatically occur at word borders in usual speedy speech. Ambiguity may take place due to non-existence of acoustic space cues (Van Es, 2004). Distinct languages utilize different subsets of all probable phonemes and one language consists of phonemes that are absent in another language; thus, it extremely difficult for speakers from another language. Noise Noise is another drawback of communication between pilots and controllers. The information theory holds that a sender conveys a sign over a channel to a receiver, conveyors are message creators and listeners are passive recipients. Errors may arise during the encoding and decoding process or while the signal is being transmitted over the channel. The most common type of noise is random noise which is a ‘hishing’ sound comprising of distinct frequencies of tremor in equivalent magnitudes. It is corresponding to white light and therefore it is referred to as white noise (McMillan, 1998). As noise upsurges, the listener’s ability to differentiate differences reduces, meaning that the capacity to acquire information is minimized. The outcome of aggregate noise is the reduction of the area existing for communication signals. In normal speech, spoken messages are interpreted by analyzing visual cues which include gesticulations and body language in the supplementation of verbal information. The possibility of miscommunication between pilots and controllers who are in different localities is very common due to absence of non-verbal cues. Spoken speech may be followed as quickly as more than 400 words in a minute. This is much faster compared to what is picked up in any sequence of sounds. An individual can pick only about 30 phonemes in a second (Tsai & Ho, 2011). More than thirty distinct sounds of anything which is not natural language are alleged as white noise. Additionally, the most common noise encountered by pilots and controllers is the sound of another individual’s voice. It is comparatively easy for a listener to differentiate between only two voices; however, as the amount of noises increase, the speech of interest diminishes in the general prate, despite the fact the intensity of the speech does not change. (Van Es, 2004).With quite a few voices, an enduring masking signal s released and the sound of many voices results to the drowning out of the preferred speech as efficiently as type of other noise. Equipment noise results from electrical equipment which results to ‘line noise’. Also, radio in influenced by atmospheric conditions and are enough to affect communication by masking phonemes and words. Intelligibility Intelligibility affects the communication between the pilot and the controller. In a conversation, syntactic rules hold that various words ought to appear in certain normal and predictable pattern (Tsai & Ho, 2011). Normally, many words are utilized when encoding a message than are theoretically required, which is referred to as redundancy. It is advantageous in that sections of the massage may be lost or changed but the original message remains intelligible due to the additional words. Also, the actual discernment of a spoken word is dependent not just upon the acoustic characteristics of the word, but the expectation in which the word befalls (Van Es, 2004). A measure of intelligibility is referred to as the articulation index and it includes a measure of spoken material which the listener is able to comprehend. Even if a few words are missed out, it is possible to construct build what was meant by the speaker basing on the context of the condition. Context usually clears many of the semantic content as a person utilizes general knowledge to understand a message. Expectations Furthermore, expectations influence communication between pilots and controllers. Expectations effect perceptions and hence cause other probable mistakes in voice communications. Expectations play significant role daily routines and at times may be sources of vulnerability. Under cases of elevated workloads, events may take place which are not in line with what was expected. Expectation mistakes may result from fatigue and information burden. Noise may obstruct signals such that we hear what we anticipated to hear instead of what was said. The expectation of and order can prime a pilot to mistakenly take a distinct communication for the expected one. In another context of expectancy, poor communication by controllers may result to distinct expectations (Tsai & Ho, 2011). Air traffic controllers expect that pilots will act in a specific way in case of a partial phraseology. Hence, the controller disregards the measures that would make sure the pilots acts in the presumed way. Absent –mindedness and Nonstandard Phraseology Absent –mindedness is a category of miscommunication which occur frequently controllers and pilots. Absent-mindedness may result to various errors and may not always show signs incompetence (Tsai & Ho, 2011). Also, workload increases elusiveness and imprecision. Vague words results to confusion and the information may not be received efficiently. In some instances, pilots and controllers may have distinct understanding of words and processes. Both the pilot and the controller may have distinct interpretation of the same message. Utilization of nonstandard phraseology is a primary hindrance of effective voice communication. Standard phraseology is often easy and quick to comprehend. Pilots and controllers ought to make use of standard phraseology. These phraseologies assist in the reduction of ambiguities of verbal communication. Non-standard phraseology may at times lead to complete alteration of the original message. Conclusion In conclusion, this paper reports on the communication pitfalls between pilot and air traffic controllers. The tractability of the air traffic system is dependent on the extremely dynamic information conveyed via voice message between controllers and pilots. Without recent, unmistakable information, both the pilots and the controllers are not able to make proper decisions. Extensive research is still required in the pitfalls of communication between controllers and pilots and how the hazardous effects may be reduced. References dos Santos, I. C., Vieira, A. M., & Morais, P. R. D. (2014). Poor Communication Skills Means High Risk For Aviation Safety. Gestão & Regionalidade, 30(88). McMillan, D. (1998). Miscommunications in Air Traffic Control (Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology). Tsai, W. L., & Ho, H. (2011). Assessing Communicative Competence in Pilots and Controllers at Risk for Miscommunications. Van Es, G. (2004). Air-Ground communication safety study: Analysis of pilot-controller occurrences. EUROCONTROL DAP/SAF Ed, 1. Read More