Performance Review of Non-Nominal Scenarios in a Validation Exercise of the Flight Centric Air Traffic Control Concept

A validation campaign was set up to evaluate the flight centric ATC concept within the Hungarian airspace. Part of this validation campaign was a focus on non-nominal conditions (emergency decompression, radio failure and thunderstorms). An analysis of the results of these scenarios was performed. On the one side, the conflicts both medium-term and short-term, were analyzed with respect to their detection horizon and subsequent resolution timeframe, as well as their respective resolution method. Further, human performance data in terms of workload and situational awareness were analyzed to better understand how the controllers handled these specific scenarios. The results show that both situational awareness and workload ratings of the controllers are within acceptable ranges. Further, it was seen that if the controllers did not follow the conflict resolution advisory given by the tools, they preferred conflict resolution methods that required a single command, like a direct to, heading or flight level change.