Why are go-around policies ineffective? The psychology behind Go Around Policy non-compliance

With a vision and goal of finding strategies to reduce approach and landing accidents (ALAs), the Flight Safety Foundation launched a project to research and analyze issues associated with go-around decision-making – Flight... [ view full abstract ]

With a vision and goal of finding strategies to reduce approach and landing accidents (ALAs), the Flight Safety Foundation launched a project to research and analyze issues associated with go-around decision-making – Flight Safety Foundation’s ‘Go Around Decision Making and Execution Project’. The project terms of reference state “Recent studies have reaffirmed that over 30% of all aviation accidents are runway excursions. Many of these excursions result from unstable approaches. About 3% of all unstable approaches result in "go-arounds" while 97% continue to land - Why?” Over 65% of industry accidents are approach and landing accidents, of which over 80% could have been prevented with the decision to go around. The impact on our industry accident rate from improved go-around decision-making can be profound, yet our performance of 3% is very poor.

This presentation will illustrate, based on two white papers written for the study, various psychological and psychosocial causal factors that lead to non-compliance of go-around policies – specifically the factors that lead to flight managements’ actions, or inactions, in managing this aspect of flight operations, and the influence they have on operating flight crews, and those factors that affect the psychology of flight crews’ compliance and noncompliance with GA policies when pilots decide to continue to fly UAs rather than call for GAs.

In depth analysis has been applied to the data collected using a unique nine dimensional method of psychological and psychosocial awareness. The presentation will illustrate and explain the key contributors of flight crews’, and managements’, methods of addressing the issue of decision making and non-compliance. It will also present preliminary recommendations and direction for making go-around policies and their execution more effective.