A study of decision-making behavior of aircraft pilots deviating from a planned flight

This paper outlines an investigation into the worth structures of pilots facing a deviation from a planned flight. A "paper and pencil" simulation was used to frame the situation into which pilots interjected their own decision-making skills in a simple ranking of candidate diversion airports with varying locational, navigational aid, radar, and weather attributes. Using the conjoint measurement technique, attribute worth functions of 30 pilots were constructed. Systematic differences in the worth functions of the pilots were not found as a result of dividing the pilot sample according to any measure of flight hours' experience. However, differences were found when the pilot sample was grouped according to grade of pilot certificate, type of pilot training, and type of flying most commonly done.