Aviate, Navigate, Communicate: Silence, Voice and Situation Awareness in Aviation Safety A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Drexel University by Theodoros Katerinakis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2014 © Copyright 2014 Theodoros A. Katerinakis. All Rights Reserved ii Dedications To my family iii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the support of my five committee members for their patience, guidance and constructive approach during the process of completing the current dissertation. There are several more specific contributions (among others) that I would like to point out for each member: Dr. Douglas Porpora, Professor of Sociology at Drexel for the whole coordination, support, mediation and the open ear to discuss and refine all my ideas, as well as of prompting me to frame the broader project. Also, for the numerous hours of scholarly (and not only) discussion which was quite helpful in keeping the focus for this dissertation. My appreciation extends to his mentoring skills and his “broad-mindedness” to cope with diverse ideas, motivate and restrict when necessary, and being a real mentor for the current dissertation and beyond. Dr. Thomas Hewett, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and of Computer Science at Drexel for his availability to read through my texts, his steady pace to follow-up on the drafts as well as the accommodating approach during proposal defense. His directive to focus on knowledge acquisition from pilots, as “experts”, was quite fruitful, as well as his suggestions regarding protocol analysis and some real-life cases. Dr. Janeen Kochan, a Human Factors Scientist and Designated Pilot Examiner, of “Aviation Research, Training, and Services, Inc.”. Her willingness to participate in this endeavor from the start was really encouraging. Her systematic way of looking to my drafts, as well as the comments on how to deal with pilots and controllers as “decision makers”, using concepts from grounded iv theory, were quite productive. Her remarks, as a content expert, offered a cleared orientation and several extensions of the current study. Dr. Emmanuel Koku, Associate Professor of Communication at Drexel, for the time we have spent in discussions of network theory and sociological issues of culture and power relations, as well as for his comments on power structures and methodology. Dr. Koku was also really supportive in one of my first relevant independent studies and other classes. Dr. Alan Zemel, Assistant Professor of Communication at State University of New York at Albany, for the infinite hours we spent in classes for conversation analysis, data collection and suggestions on how transcripts are used. His detailed comments in the final draft of the proposal were really useful, mainly in the early phases of this study. Also, during the defense his comments helped me clarify key questions, focus on the appropriate data, and narrow down the topic on emphasizing on key informants and appropriate methodology. As the topic has a clear context of the Greek Aviation realities, I would like to extend my thanks to Dr. Maria Hnaraki, as Director of Greek Studies at Drexel, for the opportunity to teach various Greek-oriented classes which allowed me to keep close contact with institutions and authorities of the Greek State. This type of contact was decisive for the completion of the current dissertation, as classes were conducted both in Drexel campus and abroad in Greece. Dr. Hnaraki was also enthusiastic about the project and its potential contribution to Greek Authorities. v I would also like to acknowledge Mr. Jack Medendorp, Executive Director of Human Research Protection of Drexel Institutional Review Board for his guidance and cooperation and the opportunity to participate in the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). This training process was quite informative and constructive when I was able to complete it. Last but not least in importance, I would like to express my gratitude to group of my informants/experts and the aviation community I have discussed my scenarios with. More specifically the members of Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority, the Hellenic Aviation Incidents Reporting Committee and the Hellenic Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board, the Control Tower shifts in “Eleftherios Venizelos” Airport of Athens and the Area Control Center of Athens. In the end, I am thankful to the community of pilots of 115 Combat Wing (Chania, Crete, Greece) where I spent substantial time of my military service, as well as several pilots of the former Olympic Airways airliner. The names do not appear due to the requirement for anonymity. The collaboration with all the members of the aviation community in Greece, on site while doing their work, was the ignition of the informal discussion with scenarios used for the ongoing terminological project in Greece (Special Committee for Air Traffic Management Terminology) and the current dissertation at Drexel. Blank page vii Table of Contents LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS …………………………………………………11 LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………13 ABSTRACT.………………………………………………………………......14 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………...17 1.1 Overview of the Current Dissertation ...................................................... 17 1.2 Intended Contributions to Communication .............................................. 22 1.3 Communication Phenomena in Aviation ................................................. 26 1.3.1 Silence and Voice Labels in Phenomena .......................................... 26 1.3.2 Language-based Communication Errors in Aviation ........................ 35 1.4 Implementing the Study ........................................................................... 44 1.5 Two Landmark Flights ............................................................................. 48 1.5.1 A Major Accident in the Saved Falcon VIP flight ............................ 49 1.5.2 A Fatal Silent flight: the Helios “Ghost Plane” flight ....................... 56 1.6 Personal Background Regarding this Study ............................................. 61 CHAPTER 2: METHOD………………………………………………………68 2.1 Overview of this Study in a Grounded Theory Approach ....................... 68 2.2 Application of a Grounded Theory Approach for Selecting Sources ...... 69 2.3 Towards the Core Concept of the Study .................................................. 77 2.3.1 Core Concept: Aviation Safety and Grounded Theory Dimensionalization .................................................................................... 77 2.3.2 A Grounded Theory Causal Category: Situation Awareness ............ 80 2.3.3 The Grounded Theory Emergent Theoretical Model ........................ 89 2.4 The Flow of a Grounded Theory Approach ............................................. 95 2.5 From Theory to Scenarios with Protocol Analysis Lessons .................. 105 2.5.1 Introducing the Scenario of Silence ................................................ 110 2.5.2 Introducing the Scenario of Hesitation ........................................... 112 2.6 A Process of Sorting and Coding in Grounded Theory with an Example ...................................................................................................................... 116 2.7 Discourse Analysis with Close Reading in this Grounded Theory Approach ...................................................................................................... 123 viii CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………..128 3.1 Intended Advancements of Literature .................................................... 128 3.2 Overview of Literatures ......................................................................... 130 3.3 Systems Theory ...................................................................................... 136 3.3.1 Limits of Systems Theory in Aviation ............................................ 136 3.3.2 Topics and Types of Analysis in Systems Approach ...................... 138 3.3.3 Communication Literature and Soft Systems Theory ..................... 142 3.4 Human Factors in Aviation-Related Issues ............................................ 145 3.4.1 Limits of Human Factors Literature in Aviation ............................ 146 3.4.2 Extending Human Factors with Lessons from Discourse Theory .. 148 3.4.3 What is Human Factors ................................................................... 150 3.4.4 Describing Human Factors in Aviation........................................... 152 3.5 Concepts in Discourse Theory for Communication ............................... 155 3.5.1 Discourse-Oriented Topics and Intended Contributions of the Study .................................................................................................................. 155 3.5.2 Range of Topics for Machine- Mediated Communication ............. 157 3.5.3 Flight Tele-copresence, Discourse and Inquiry .............................. 161 3.6 Summary of Intended Inquiries .............................................................. 165 CHAPTER 4: WHEN SILENCE IS NOT GOLDEN………………………..167 4.1 Organizing the Chapter of Silence ......................................................... 167 4.2 Aviation and Silence in Interaction and Beyond.................................... 169 4.3 Using the Silence Scenario to Address Safety ....................................... 174 4.4 Pilot Silences with Air Traffic Controllers’ Point of View ................... 177 4.4.1 Pilot Initiating,