Navigating the Airport Environment at Night: An Analysis of Pilot Confusion

The statistical significance of airport environment incidents related to pilot confusion at night was explored. Some articles suggest there is a higher rate of incidents during the day than during the night, while others suggest any low visibility environment will a greater processing time for the brain to react to outside references. Other researchers suggest incidents are not tied to time of day but to time spent looking inside the cockpit compared to outside the cockpit. Using this research and an analyzation of incident reports collected by the Aviation Safety Reporting System, this paper suggests there is a statistically significant relationship between incidents involving pilot confusion on the surface and time of day.