Description

This article describes the contributing factors that may lead to controllers not performing a proper structured scan (and ultimately result in a “blind spot” event) as well as the best practices to be used for preventing this.

Blind Spot Effect

The mechanism of the blind spot occurrence by definition is “controller not detecting a conflict”, i.e. inadequate attention and situational awareness. Attention is a limited resource and there are numerous processes that compete for it. It consists of two elements – vigilance (maintaining awareness) and focus (concentration on the task) which may be affected by: