Partners and Programs:
Partners and Programs:

FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

701 N. Fairfax Street, Suite 250,
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Phone: +1 703 739 6700 Fax: +1 703 739 6708

CFIT-Reduction Products

The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) international CFIT Task Force completed its work in 1995, after creating several unique products, including:

  • The “FSF CFIT Checklist,” which helps pilots and aircraft operators assess the CFIT risk for specific flights, is available in Arabic [PDF 869K], Chinese [PDF 1,300K], English [PDF 24K], French [PDF 73K], Russian [PDF 316K] and Spanish [PDF 71K] versions. More than 30,000 copies of the checklist have been distributed worldwide and many thousands more have been reproduced from FSF resources.
  • The “FSF CFIT Checklist Worksheet” appeals to pilots who would rather make selections from a computer display than perform manual calculations. The purpose of this free software is to help flight crews and others assess CFIT risks for specific flights, identify factors that reduce those risks and enhance pilot awareness of CFIT risk. The worksheet is designed to be equivalent to the printed FSF CFIT Checklist (above) so that wording, calculations and risk scores correspond between the two formats, except as required to take advantage of Microsoft Excel functions. This user-friendly software runs on computers equipped with Microsoft Windows operating systems and the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet application. The worksheet was developed as a collaborative effort by staff from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Flight Safety Foundation. William L. McNease, an FAA flight standards inspector, and Gerald H. Pilj, an aircraft certification engineer, initiated the project. Pilj programmed the worksheet’s interface and automated functions. FAA is not responsible for the accuracy of this educational tool and does not require its use by U.S. aircraft owners and operators. Download the software, user advice and a descriptive article using the following links:
  • A 32-minute video training aid, CFIT: Awareness and Prevention, designed primarily for regional and business aircraft operators, presents CFIT statistics, examines three representative CFIT accidents and presents cockpit-voice-recorder (CVR) and data simulation to illustrate accident-reduction strategies. More than 6,000 copies of the video have been distributed worldwide.
  • The CFIT Education and Training Aid, a two-volume package developed under the auspices of the FSF CFIT Task Force and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group, presents an in-depth examination of CFIT hazards, specific educational material, a model training program and effective CFIT-avoidance strategies. The training aid comprises five sections. Section 1 provides an overview of CFIT problems and possible solutions. Section 2 identifies areas in which CFIT-prevention efforts can best be addressed. Section 3 discusses CFIT causal factors and how flight crews can recognize these factors and take in-flight action to maintain flight safety. Section 4 provides a model CFIT-prevention training program, including classroom briefings, flight-simulator instruction and airplane-specific examples of the CFIT escape maneuver. Section 5 provides background material on CFIT, including selected reading. The training aid also includes the video Controlled Flight Into Terrain: An Encounter Avoided, which analyzes in detail a jet transport CFIT accident and shows how such accidents can be prevented.
  • The FSF ALAR Tool Kit [special flyer, PDF 88K] is a multimedia resource on compact disc (CD) for safety professionals and training organizations working to prevent the leading causes of fatalities in commercial aviation: approach-and-landing accidents (ALAs), including those involving controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). The CD contains a wide range of textual material and graphic material based largely on the data-driven studies of the FSF Approach-and-landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) Task Force. The ALAR Tool Kit has 2,600 searchable pages that include: FSF ALAR Task Force findings, conclusions and recommendations — and the data on which they were based; briefing notes on 34 major ALAR issues; supplements to approach briefings; guidelines for evaluating training, standard operating procedures and equipment; recommended standard operating procedures and risk-assessment checklists; four posters illustrating lessons learned; five slide presentations on accident data, flight operations and training, equipment, pilot-controller communication and instrument-approach design; two videos exploring ALAs and CFIT accidents, and how they could have been avoided; over 100 FSF publications; and links to aviation-data sources on the Internet.

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