The practical application of human error assessment in UK air traffic management

The strong safety record of UK air traffic management (ATM) must be reinforced by identifying controller errors and minimising the risks arising from such errors. This is critical at a time of continued growth and impending changes in ATM technology. National Air Traffic Services (NATS) have developed and applied a number of methods to assess human error for a variety of new systems and procedures. This paper reports two illustrative case studies, describing the approaches and sample findings. Overall, the combined methods helped to contribute to important design and policy decisions. Each method is evaluated comparatively in light of NATS´ experience