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Human Error in Aviation (Critical Essays on Human Factors in Aviation)
Human factors that caused the British Airways flight disaster
Human Error in Aviation (Critical Essays on Human Factors in Aviation)
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On July 6, 2013 at around 11:28 am PST, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777, Flight 214 was on visual final approach to San Francisco International Airport’s (SFO) runway 28L when it struck a seawall located at the end of the runway and subsequently crashed. When the aircraft impacted the seawall the main landing gear broke off and the aft fuselage separated at the main bulkhead. As the 777 slid down the runway it managed to partially lift into the air, rotate about 330 degrees and finally came to rest after it impacted the runway a second time (NTSB). The right engine which separated from the aircraft landed adjacent to the main fuselage and caught fire. While tragic, the final outcome of the crash could have been far worse given the major structural damage the 777 sustained. Of the 291 passengers, 12 flight attendants and 4 flight crew members aboard, 3 of the passengers were fatally injured and 40 passengers, 8 flight attendants and 1 of the flight crew were seriously hurt (NTSB). Evidence investigated in the aftermath of the crash would lead NTSB and Asiana to ultimately conclude that the accident was the result of the crew’s mismanagement of the descent during approach and the follow-on effect of the …show more content…
As the investigation unfolded it was clear that there were multiple root causes that contributed to the series of unfortunate miscalculations and mismanagement of the flight. The NTSB’s 4-member Safety Panel investigating the accident surmised that there were multiple causal factors at work such as pilot capability deficiencies, physiology, training, aeronautical decision making, communication, assertiveness, and group dynamics; all of which contributed to the final conclusion that the accident was due to pilot error. The senior air safety investigator Roger Cox noted that “there are cascading errors. Some were corrected” as the flight was on approach to the airport (Asiana
On September 11, 2001 terrorists crashed two American airline airplanes into Twin Towers, killing thousands of people. It was the worst terrorist attack in American history and it showed us that we are not protected by Atlantic and Pacific. It showed us that we could be attacked by anyone at anytime. It showed us that if we will be attacked again that we can only depend on each other and not on other nations to help us. The 9/11 changed people forever, some lost family members or friends, others lost their jobs even so called “American Dream.”
On July 17, 1996, Trans World Airlines flight 800, A Boeing 747-100, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near New York 12 minutes after its departure. All 230 people on board died.
According to “A Human Error Approach to Aviation Accident Analysis…”, both authors stated that HFACS was developed based off from the Swiss Cheese model to provide a tool to assist in the investigation process to identify the probable human cause (Wiegmann and Shappell, 2003). Moreover, the HFACS is broken down into four categories to identify the failure occur. In other words, leading up to adverse events the HFACS will identify the type error occur.
Today, we have better forms of communication and technology, including a collision alarm system, “The collision alarm system not only warns both planes anytime a conflict over air space arises, pilots are given specific instructions to move them out of danger”(Johnson).This definitely helped improve where both the planes are and how to avoid a collision from happening. But on occasion collisions happen from poor maintenance and or pilot’s error, the PSA crash was still one of the worst plane crash in U.S. history, even when it was forty years ago. Though the PSA crash happened due to lack of information and understanding that infromation and taking action, it proved that the airlines need to make careful assumptions of where they are and what other planes are flying around in there direction, and how they can avoid the other
It is very sad that it took two tragic and deadly accidents to make a significant change in the way aviation was regulated. The incidents that led to the creation of the bill that created the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 could have been prevented if safety precautions had been put in place sooner. Unfortunately, the aviation industry was only reactive rather than proactive when it came to airline safety. Nowadays, the private and commercial aviation safety is much more proactive and safety is the number one priority. FAA regulation has not only help aviation become one the top modes of transportation, but also one of the safest in the
In conclusion, many contribution factors led to the Crossair flight 3597 crash but is mainly triggered by Crossair’s incapability of assessment, pilot error and lastly the air traffic controller. Analysis of a flight crash is important so that we will know the causes, thus being able tackle it, making sure that there are no other flight crashes like Crossair flight 3597.
It was the afternoon of July 25, 2000. One hundred passengers, most of them German, boarded the Concorde Air France Flight 4590. This was a trip of a lifetime for many people, as Concorde was restricted to the wealthy class of people. The excitement in people was cut short by the unfortunate delay in flight, because of maintenance in one of its engines. The passengers boarded the plane a couple of hours after the scheduled time. Finally, it was cleared for taxi on runway 26-Right. The pilots lined the aircraft parallel to the runway. A tragic accident, however, was about to befall.
The United States spends billions on transportation safety to prevent terrorist or any type of attack on American citizens. Airport security are one of the major problems that the government faces, and the solution is the TSA, also known as the Transportation Security Administration. Passengers believe the TSA is effective in abolishing problems such as terrorism, however, this is not the case. Airport security is not effectively protecting the passengers which is shown through the negligence and violations of the TSA employees, ineffective profiling techniques used by the TSA, and unqualified workers that are placed to protect citizens.
Moreover, after the investigation was conducted, the NTSB had issued safety recommendations for the FAA to consider. The FAA had considered some of NTSB safety recommendations, for example, improving the mechanical procedure of locking and stronger latches for oversized cargo doors. One can agree that survivals of Flight 811 would remember that day.
The amount of coverage that CNN dedicated towards Flight 370 wasn’t the only thing that was criticized. The ways that CNN filled their airtime with coverage of the missing coverage have been criticized for not being journalistic and being out of control. The coverage began as traditional, hard news coverage of the facts and the situation as a whole. CNN went live with Pierce Morgan when the news broke that the plane was missing. He immediately got on the phone with David McKenzie, the International Correspondent; James Kallstrom, a former FBI assistant director; and Matthew Wald, the New York Times Aviation Correspondent.
Another theory is that the pilot, Jason Dahl might have purposefully crashed the plane to prevent the hijackers from taking it over. Or perhaps that Dahl had cut off the planes fuel with out the hijackers being aware. It was said that the plane looked like it went straight down; and that the plane had almost completely disintegrated on impact leaving a hole several feet deep.
Introduction Plane crashes occur for a number of reasons. There seems to be a consensus with the general public that flying is dangerous, engines fail and planes crash. That is true sometimes, although the majority of plane crashes occur largely due to a combination of human error and mechanical failure. In many aviation accidents mechanical failure has been a contributing factor. It is impossible, however, to blame plane crashes on one reason, since events leading up to an accident are so varied.
After the accident, a full-scale investigation was launched by the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). It concluded that the accident was caused by metal fatigue exacerbated by crevice corrosion, the corrosion is exacerbated by the salt water and the age of the aircraft was already 19 years old as the plane operated in a salt water environment.
The primary cause is of airplane accidents does at some stage contain an element of a person being unable to discharge his duties correctly and in an accurate manner. More than 53% accidents are the result of ignorance or faults by the pilot during flight. Other staff is responsible for about 8% accidents. The most obvious errors by pilot are made during the take off or landing on the runway. Additionally errors can occur during the maintenance of the airplane outside the plane, whereby a lack of thorough inspection and oversight can lead to complication during mid-flight. Fueling and loading of the plane also sometimes create problems (Shapiro, 2001).
This term paper reviews the three most common catagories of aviation accident causes and factors. The causes and factors that will be discussed are human performance, environmental, and the aircraft itself. Although flying is one of the safest means of transportation, accidents do happen. It is the investigators job to determine why the accident happened, and who or what was at fault. In the event of an accident, either one or all of these factors will be determined as the cause of the accident. Also discussed will be one of the most tradgic plane crashes in aviation history and the human factors involved.