The Comparative Hazards and Benefits of EFBs and Paper Documents in the Cockpit 2016 - 2022

Abstract: In aviation, the Pilot oversees the gathering all material required to be present in the cockpit. These materials are referred to as a “flight bag” and include performance calculations, charts, and other documents critical to the flight. Due to the volume of documents which can weigh up to 35-pounds, many pilots utilize electronic flight bags (EFBs). A previous archival study from 1995 through 2015 found significant human factors issues with EFBs that include a lack of training, inhibited access to information, and distraction/workload (Sweet & Strybel, 2016). Today, companies such as Airbus have made the use of EFBs as part of their standard operating procedures. The present archival study compared the hazards and benefits of carrying EFBs to the hazards and benefits of carrying paper documents in the cockpit utilizing the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) from 2016 through 2022 because of the increased use of EFBs since 2016. We found several human factors issues with EFBs such as accessing information, missing or incorrect information in databases, and limitations of the physical EFB apparatus and its auxiliaries.

Keywords: Electronic Flight Bag, Distraction, Workload, pilot error

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004278

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