Human risk factors associated with pilots in runway excursions

• Runway excursions are the most common types of accidents in worldwide.
• A survey of 145 airline pilots is used to develop a human factors model to categorize the risk factors in runway excursions.
• Expert opinions are deployed on relative weighting and improvement-achievability to develop priority risk management strategies.
• The findings provide a valuable reference to reduce the human risks related to runway excursions.

A breakdown analysis of civil aviation accidents worldwide indicates that the occurrence of runway excursions represents the largest portion among all aviation occurrence categories. This study examines the human risk factors associated with pilots in runway excursions, by applying a SHELLO model to categorize the human risk factors and to evaluate the importance based on the opinions of 145 airline pilots. This study integrates aviation management level expert opinions on relative weighting and improvement-achievability in order to develop four kinds of priority risk management strategies for airline pilots to reduce runway excursions. The empirical study based on experts’ evaluation suggests that the most important dimension is the liveware/pilot’s core ability. From the perspective of front-line pilots, the most important risk factors are the environment, wet/containment runways, and weather issues like rain/thunderstorms. Finally, this study develops practical strategies for helping management authorities to improve major operational and managerial weaknesses so as to reduce the human risks related to runway excursions.