FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM- 26/07

Title and Subtitle: A Targeted Review of Safety Culture Interventions: Tools and Insights for Aviation Regulators

Report Date: March 2026

Authors: C. S. Sanders

Abstract:
This report describes a methodology for sorting and prioritizing safety-critical aeronautical information, developed in response to a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation. The methodology integrates human factors and risk assessment principles to identify systemic vulnerabilities in information management and to align information delivery with operational, cognitive, and contextual demands. The approach applies the bow-tie risk model to represent human factors constructs as threats that weaken preventive barriers. Information characteristics, including volume, relevance, timeliness, and modality, are modeled as drivers of these threats and are explicitly linked to preventive and mitigative controls. The resulting framework supports operationally realistic filtering, sequencing, and delivery strategies. The methodology is executed in phased activities, including expert knowledge elicitation, scenario-based simulation, and development and validation of a decision support tool. Certified professional controllers and other operational roles complete realistic scenarios varying in complexity, traffic load, and environmental conditions. Data include event-linked performance metrics, post-scenario interviews, and standardized measures of workload, Situation Awareness, and trust. Integrated quantitative and qualitative analyses identify patterns in information use, decision making, and operational outcomes. Outputs include evidence-based recommendations for training, interface design, and policy and procedural improvements to reduce operational risk and support resilient operations. The scope is limited to the contiguous United States, with future research recommended for non-contiguous regions.

Key Words: Safety-critical Information, Contextual Demands, Standardized Measures

No. of Pages: 122