1.0 Introduction
While air transportation is one of the safest and fastest ways of traveling, there are still some problems associated with it. While aircraft systems have developed so far to help aid the pilot, there are still some major issues that we still have. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) defines situational awareness as “the accurate perception and understanding of all the factors and conditions within the five fundamental risk elements (flight, pilot, aircraft, environment, and type of operation that comprise any given aviation situation) that affect safety before, during, and after the flight” (Aeronautical). With all of these factors playing a role in each flight, there is a risk of something happening during the flight to cause a negative outcome.
For a pilot, situational awareness begins far before the flight itself actually takes place. Unlike getting in a car, where the driver walks up and drives away, special and sometimes meticulous planning has to go into a flight. There are many phases that occur other than just the actual flight part that has to have attention paid to it.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is in charge of investigation aircraft accidents in the United States and compiles statistics of each accident. Part 135 is classified as air taxi operations meaning airlines. This data shows accidents for fixed wing aircraft, which most people travel on. Airline pilots have accumulated the most flight time out of most pilots in any other category. According to the NTSB, “Pilots involved in these accidents had an average total flight time of 5,459 hours, with a range from 611 to 16,010 hours, and an average time in the type of accident aircraft of 2,502 hours, with a range from...
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...://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2012/ARA1201.pdf
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You can do think by taking step by step out of the problem or emergency that you are in. For example, in the Scholastic Scope Article, “Disaster in Space,” on page 8 it says “They knew rule number one in an emergency is to focus on the problem. Worry and panic do not get you close to a solution. And so the astronauts got to work.” This clearly shows that the astronauts knew that panicking would only make it worse and the only way to make it better way by staying focused. Another example, in the Scholastic Scope Article, “Disaster in Space,” on page 9 it says “Now they would do everything in their power to bring the astronauts home. Soon both Kranz’s team and the astronauts had come up with the same idea: to use their LEM as a lifeboat.” This clearly shows that the astronauts didn’t panic and used their head to think of an idea that would get them home safely. In conclusion, one way how to react to an emergency is by staying calm and focused on the
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Most of the Aviation accidents have been greatly attributed to “Pilot Fatigue” (Mohler, 1998). This is because a pilot’s input into the aircraft is majorly dependent on his consciousness on the job, therefore incase he or she may be fatigued then this provides room for error in his inputs (Smith, 2008). Even though the technological advancements in avionics the flight systems of the current aircrafts have preventive mechanisms put in place that makes sure that the pilots are always alert, without sleep and freshened, small effects of fatigue can greatly jeopardize flight safety (Mohler, 1998). This is so because the duties performed by the pilot in the cockpit require a lot of vigilance, care as well as both mental and physical well being and alertness. Having considered this it is very hard to eliminate the cockpit noise, aircraft vibration, the long flights; little sleep as well as irregular work schedules which are the major contributors to pilot fatigue and which can have great influence on his or her performance. This paper dissects the major factors that cause pilot fatigue; the impact of pilot fatigue as well as the damages associated with the same and concludes with ways of managing the same.
viVigilance tasks require great deal of attention for an extended period of time. (Helton & Warm 2008) People who take place in such tasks usually find themselves struggling to concentrate after a period of time, this leads to decrease of accuracy and speed of the task, also known as vigilance decrement. There have been previous researches that suggest studies that have been the introduction to vigilance decrement theory. During the years of World War 2, radar system were used to detect enemy’s means of transport (submarine) while being under water. (Caggiano & Parasuraman , 2004). The radar monitor was also used couple of years after the world war 2 on Royal Air Force, same results had occurred. (Helton & Warm 2008). It was concluded that there has been a decrease in performance, the longer someone spends staring at radar monitors, their level of vigilance drops significantly. (Caggiano & Parasuraman , 2004) There have been many more studies that were carried for people who work for Macworth, studies showed attention can only be sustain for a short period of time, the longer the period of time was for vigilance task the worse they performed. This has been said for both human beings and non-human beings. (Helton & warm 2008)
After World War II there was an excess of aircraft and trained pilots in the United States, which significantly increase in private and commercial flights. An increase in the use of private aircraft and large passenger planes meant an increase in the possibly of aircraft safety incidents. Even though safety measures had been put in place to tend to large number of aircraft in the skies, in late 1950’s there were two unfortunate accidents that finally led to legislation that would be a major change to the world of aviation that affects us even today. The introduction of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 spurred several changes in aviation that eventually led to the creation of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Collision avoidance is something that has been a problem in aviation for a long time. Most of the flights conducted today rely on the see and avoid concept and ground radar. Both of which have their flaws. The FAA predicts that mid-air collisions will increase by 300% over the next 20 years due to the increase in flights being flown by all areas of the aviation community (Kraus xiv). Civil aircraft have had onboard protection from midair collisions only since 1990 and general aviation aircraft are not required to have any collision avoidance technology onboard(www.cassd.org 1).
Air Crash Investigations: Cockpit Failure (S10E01). (2014, March 5). Retrieved May 19, 2014, from Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1FG8gOKMoo
In the text, Carr states, “The autopilot disconnected, and the captain took over the controls. He reacted quickly, but he did precisely the wrong thing…The crash, which killed all 49 people on board as well as one person on the ground, should never have happened.” This shows that by depending on technology, pilots run the risk of potentially crashing the plane. Although technology has made it easier to fly planes, many things can go wrong with technology which is why it is dangerous to depend on it the way many pilots do. In addition, Carr also talks about how pilots are unable to react during an emergency due to their lack of knowledge. In the text, Carr states, “Automation has become so sophisticated that on a typical passenger flight, a human pilot holds the controls for a grand total of just three minutes...They’ve become, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say, computer operators.” This shows how pilots are losing their knowledge which is putting the lives of the passengers at risk. Although technology has helped to an extent, it harmful as well since pilots are relying more on the computer than on their
Safety in the ethics and industry of aerospace technology is of prime importance for preventing tragic malfunctions and crashes. Opposed to automobiles for example, if an airplane breaks down while in mid-flight, it has nowhere to go but down. And sadly it will often go down “hard” and with a high probability of killing people. The Engineering Code of Ethics states first and foremost that, “Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public.” In the aerospace industry, this as well holds very true, both in manufacturing and in air safety itself. Airline safety has recently become a much-debated topic, although arguments over air safety and travel have been going ...
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People who love to travel to different counties and places of the world, face one big problem, i.e. surviving in airplane till that long period. It gets worse if you have fear of travelling in airplane which is commonly known as ‘aviophobia’ among the homosapiens. Even you don’t have that fear, you have a way long journey to go and test your tolerance ability.
One of the disadvantages of being a sensor in my job is that one might fail to see possible alternative outcomes of a mission if one only puts focus on actual facts. Sometimes unexpected events happen. In those cases a lot of people do not know what to do because they have previously failed to look for other possibilities and what other random evens that could possibly occur during the mission. Interesting personal application
... problem are under constant development and analysis, in a hope to avoid these situations. The civilian industry continues to lead in development due to commercialization, with the military not far behind. The only real deficiency in CRM program development seems to be the area of general aviation as described earlier. Until this problem is addressed, there will still be a glaring weakness in the general area of aviation safety. However, with the rate of technology increase and cheaper methods of instruction, we should begin to see this problem addressed in the near future. Until then, aviation will rely on civil commercial aviation the military to continue research and program development for the years to come, hopefully resulting in an increasingly safe method of travel and recreation.
It’s true what everyone talks about safety – you are the key to your safety, when you do it safely you do it the right way and the best gift you can give to your family is to always stay safe. We have been taught by our parents and teachers to be cautious while doing a number of things. That’s very essential in our daily lives, because one needs to be extra cautious to prevent unavoidable accidents. However, mishaps do happen everywhere in the safest of places, no matter how careful we are in our actions. It is highly unpredictable, what’s going to happen the very next instant. There are numerous incidences we come across like simple trips, falls, cuts due to sharp objects, burns or sudden worsening of a person’s health condition, causing