Handover/takeover situations are critical moments, when a number of failures (e.g. forgetfulness, communication breakdown, etc.) are most likely to occur and lead to incidents. Although this issue is addressed in a number of Team Resource Management (TRM) training courses, the need to increase Air Traffic Controllers’ (ATCOs) awareness, especially during refresher courses, was identified independently by the EUROCONTROL Safety Enhancement Business Division (DAP/SAF), today merged into the new Safety, Security and Human Factors Division (DAP/SSH), and by training experts at the EUROCONTROL’s Institute of Air Navigation Services (IANS).
In preparation for the development of this training material, a research study was conducted to identify the factors affecting handovers and takeovers. This document reports the findings of this research.