AeroSafety World May 2011
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Entire Issue
AeroSafety World May 2011
68 pages. [PDF 4.3M]
The captain of the Boeing 737-800 insisted on continuing the unstabilized approach to the Mangalore, India, airport — despite three calls from the first officer for a go-around and warnings from the enhanced ground-proximity warning system. The airplane overflew two-thirds of the runway before touchdown. Faced with the likelihood of an overrun, the captain made the fatal decision to stow the thrust reversers and apply full thrust for a belated go-around.
The airplane overshot the runway and runway end safety area, striking the localizer antenna structure. The right wing was shattered and its engine separated. The airplane plunged into a gorge, broke into three sections and caught fire. Fatalities included 152 passengers and all six crewmembers, including the first officer who had urged the go-around when it could have been accomplished. Mark Lacagnina recounts the accident and investigation findings.
Also in the May issue of AeroSafety World: guidance and proposed regulations to reduce the special risks of nonrevenue flights; electronic FOD detection; the latest Corporate Aviation Safety Seminar; NTSB investigation of TCAS resolution advisories; and other important safety stories.
Features
Fatal Persistence (Text only)
Sounds of snoring and deep breathing captured by the cockpit voice recorder indicated that the captain of the Air India Express Boeing 737-800 was asleep until the last 25 minutes of the ill-fated flight. And during those last few moments, his judgment might have been impaired by sleep inertia, said an Indian court of inquiry. [Download PDF 6 pages. 427K]
Declaration of Independence (Text only)
As government-industry exchanges of vast banks of operational data flourish, incident-level investigations by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board can appear to be out of step with the times. Some aviation safety professionals have seen the board’s approach to near-midair collisions as a case in point, specifically the latest requirement for operators to report certain resolution advisories issued by traffic-alert and collision avoidance systems. [Download PDF 4 pages. 354K]
**Web Exclusive** Declaration of Independence (Expanded Version of original article) Text Only
Improving Nonrevenue Flight Safety (Text only)
A spate of recent accidents and serious incidents has raised awareness of the increased risk involved in nonrevenue flight operations and has spurred action to address those risks. Nonrevenue flights, also called nonroutine or nonstandard flights, include functional check flights, ferry and positioning flights, and training flights. [Download PDF 4 pages. 195K]
Ready, Set … Test (Text only)
Usability testing has direct applications in aviation safety. Aviation safety professionals who write standard operating procedures, special procedures and operations manuals should be as concerned with usability testing as software designers are. If a manual or procedure is unclear, verbose, poorly formatted or does not efficiently transfer information, its value as a safety tool diminishes. [Download PDF 3 pages. 134K]
Say Again, Please (Text only)
Native English-speaking air traffic controllers need to speak more clearly and more slowly and to be patient with pilots who do not immediately understand their instructions, according to U.S. air carrier pilots who offered their observations as part of a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration study. [Download PDF 4 pages. 217K]
A Gathering Storm (Text only)
Government and industry specialists framed pressures to reinvent the training of airline pilots as a seismic shift compared with recent history as they addressed the World Aviation Training Conference and Tradeshow 2011. Atypical public concerns about the role of human performance in air transport safety mean that substantial changes have to occur almost simultaneously under time constraints, most agreed at the April 19–21 event in Orlando, Florida. [Download PDF 4 pages. 202K]
Right to the Point (Text only)
“What do the customers — the people who are paying for aviation services — want?” said Robert Sumwalt, member, U.S. National Transportation Board, speaking at the 56th annual Corporate Aviation Safety Seminar at San Diego in April. “Do they want substandard performance, just meeting regulations, cutting corners? [Download PDF 4 pages. 244K]
Clean Sweep (Text only)
Airports traditionally have relied on regular visual inspections and sweeping to clear foreign object debris (FOD) from runways. In recent years, however, new systems have incorporated advanced technologies to help attack the problem, estimated to cost the industry $4 billion a year worldwide. [Download PDF 4 pages. 493K]
Assert Yourself (Text only)
Crew resource management (CRM) training should be expanded to include assertiveness training for first officers, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says, citing a 2009 crash in which the first officer did not press the captain on his decision to continue an approach even as they struggled with problems associated with asymmetric flaps. [Download PDF 3 pages. 178K]
Departments
Executive’s Message | Coaches (Text only)
Right now, a lot of attention is being focused on issues like intentional noncompliance and the lack of professionalism. Some of the biggest and most powerful regulators are very worried. The problem reaches across professional disciplines and cultures. [Download PDF 1 page. 86K]
Editorial Page | Flawed Training (Text only)
Industry consensus seems to be that traditional training for avoiding stall onset and for recovering from a stall has been, essentially, full power, wings leveled, speed brakes retracted and minimal pitch angle reduction. [Download PDF 1 page. 75K]
Safety Calendar | Industry Events (Text only)
A listing of aviation safety-related conferences, seminars and meetings. [Download PDF 1 page. 83K]
In Brief | Safety News (Text only)
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is proposing a “substantial and wide-ranging overhaul” of training for the crews of U.S. air carriers as part of a plan to emphasize their handling of in-flight emergencies. [Download PDF 3 pages. 229K]
Data Link | Nothing Doing (Text only)
For U.S. Federal Aviation Regulations Part 135 on-demand operations, the striking improvement in the fatal accident rate and numbers noted in 2009 reversed course in 2010, although both rate and numbers remained well below 2001–2008 averages. [Download PDF 4 pages. 134K]
Info Scan | The Limits of Realism (Text only)
Simulation in aviation training appears to be growing in importance. “While the most intensive instruction occurs in initial flight training, pilots are required to continue training to learn new technologies, fly different aircraft, upgrade to captain or just stay current with the aircraft they fly,” the editors say. [Download PDF 4 pages. 112K]
On Record | Turbulence Triggers Roll Upset, Stall (Text only)
The following information provides an awareness of problems in the hope that they can be avoided in the future. The information is based on final reports by official investigative authorities on aircraft accidents and incidents. [Download PDF 8 pages. 319K]
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