Analysis of a tool ergonomic working in air traffic control: perceptions of operators and contributions to workload

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the perception of the operators and the role of the strips in the workload of air traffic controllers in light of the ergonomic analysis of work. It was developed during the data collection for the doctoral thesis defended in 2007 at the Post-graduate in Production Engineering at UFSC. Submitted to and approved by the Ethics Committee  in Research of the  Tuiuti University of Paraná. A number of 35 military operators of both sexes (80% male and 20% female) participated, all belonging to the Brazilian Air Force, which carried out their functions in the Second Integrated Center of Air Defense and Air Traffic Control (CINDACTA II), located in Curitiba-PR. It was used the methodology of analysis of work ergonomics. The results made it possible to know the content of the prescribed electronic strip and the complexity of work in real activity, such as the manual entry of the strip and the AFIL flight plan. It was verified that the operators build operational strategies in terms of organization of the strips in order to facilitate their work. The conclusion is that in the work of air traffic controller there are several interacting variables, and when the content of the work required is different from what is established, the workload increases, which may endanger the health of workers as well as aircraft safety.