Transport
Current Projects
Safety culture in air traffic control
Project leads: Dr Kathryn Mearns and Prof Rhona Flin, E-mail: k.mearns@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-273217
Funded by Eurocontrol, this is a collaborative project (with Boeing Madrid et al) to assess safety culture in air traffic control centres.
Completed Projects
Behavioural markers for crew resource management
Prof Rhona Flin and Paul O'Connor, School of Psychology, mail: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-272341
Crew Resource Management (CRM) is a special type of human factors traning given to pilots which is designed to improve team work and to reduce errors on the flight deck. An initial project, funded by the Civil Aviation Authority, Safety Research Group (1997-98) examined the critical behaviours for CRM performance. This study was based on an EC funded European Project (NOTECHS) which developed an evaluation form for pilots' non-technical skills. This group included participants from DLR (Germany), NLR, Sofreavia, and IMASSA (France) participated in a major EC study of non-echnical skills (JARTEL) (1997-2000) with DERA, Alitalia and BA.
Evaluating crew resource management training in the aviation industry
Prof Rhona Flin, Dr Paul O'Connor, and Georgina Fletcher, School of Psychology, email: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-272341
This project was sponsored by the Civil Aviation Authority Safety Regulation Group to evaluate the effectiveness of human factors training in the aviation industry. All UK pilots are given special human factors training (known as Crew Resource Management training) designed to enhance the skills needed to enable them to work together as safe and efficient crews on the flight deck. These skills include leadership, team working, communication and problem solving. A survey was undertaken of UK air operators to determine how they are evaluating the impact of this training. In addition a literature survey reviewed 48 articles which examined the effectiveness of CRM training in aviation and other high reliablity industries.
Well-being in bus drivers
John Tse, School of Psychology, email: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-272341
This was a 3-year Ph.D. sponsored by FirstGroup plc running from September 2002 to September 2005. The aim of the project was to further understand occupational stress in bus driving professionals. Specifically, the relationship between job strain and physical/psychological health was explored. Further analysis concentrated on how job strain affected job satisfaction, safety performance, labour turnover, absenteeism, coping behaviour, and health habits of bus drivers. Using interviews, focus groups and questionnaire survey, stressors specific to drivers were identified, as well as the identification of practical intervention strategies.
Tel: +44 (0)1224 273210
Email: w.booth@abdn.ac.uk