Air Transport Incident and Accidents Caused by Crew Situation Awareness Errors

This paper examines the various aircrew situation evaluation errors that resulted in one near fatal commercial airline incident and two fatal commercial airline accidents. The incident and accidents involved events that distracted the aircrews from a timely and accurate evaluation of the emergency situations that confronted them. Summary narratives of the incident and each of accidents are provided. Each emergency situation is examined to identify the distractions that caused the crews to misinterpret the nature of the emergencies they faced. Situation awareness as a construct is briefly reviewed. Recommendations for situation awareness training for aircrews are made. Recommendations are also made for improvements in aircraft crew alerting systems and operating procedures