Influence of Fatigue on Flight Safety: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

Currently, pilot fatigue is considered to be a significant factor that affects aviation safety. In order to investigate the impact of fatigue on flight safety, we design a questionnaire to conduct a survey on the pilots of Shandong Airline, process and analyze the data through the SPSSAU data analysis platform, and construct a structural equation between fatigue and pilot unsafe behaviors. The study findings indicate that there is a significant relationship between situational awareness, safety awareness, crew atmosphere, work pressure and pilot fatigue, and the higher the pilot fatigue level, the lower situational awareness and safety awareness, the worse crew atmosphere and the higher work pressure. Compared to physical fatigue, mental fatigue was more vulnerable to the above four factors, and at the same time, it was also more likely to lead to the pilot’s unsafe behaviors, thus threatening flight safety. Therefore, in order to guarantee flight safety, airlines and aviation administration should pay more attention to pilot’s mental fatigue problems.