What that means Aviation Safety?

Sept. 17, 1908: First Airplane Passenger Death

What is the exact definition that a pilot needs to know what that means Aviation Safety?

The career to be a Private Pilot, Commercial Pilot or a Ground / Flight Instructor etc., is often considered to be respected and interesting profession. However, most people probably who are in this business maybe don’t see the meaning of Aviation Safety in today’s new generation , well maybe yes until and aircraft crashed. Since the Wright Brothers did the first flight until today there have been many air crashes in general and commercial aviation. I remember I was reading regarding the first fatal crash described that the first fatal airplane crash occurred on September 17, 1908. Orville Wright was flying the plane. Wright survived the crash, but his passenger, Signal Corps Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, did not. The Wrights had been allowing passengers to fly with them since May 14, 1908.

The story is very interesting, and all the people who are dedicated and working in this profession must know more about why accidents happen and how we can prevented. So, the question is how much do we really know about Aviation Safety? The inventors of the first airplane were Orville and Wilbur Wright. On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made the first successful testing in which a machine (aka airplane) carrying a man rose by its own power, flew naturally and at even speed, and descended without damage.

I remember asked myself when I was as a child what is an airplane how these machines flight? 

Well, I always visualized of being a pilot and I realized that dream, but the most important for me at that time and questioned some interrogations  why a plane crashed , what’s happening ? 

So, I constantly  focus on this important part of Aviation, Safety, Protection, Security good training etc., this is the most important issue that any pilot before flying his plane must know all the essential concerns about flying safe all the time, no matter how many total time you as Pilot gathering in your logbook, any pilot before flying his plane must know all the important limitations, must be well trained, must be a conservative pilot at all times if not well trained may suffer an incident or accident at any time , also my best advice to all my colleagues  is  always be prepared for the unexpected , remember that all passengers when boarding a plane trust their lives to you guys and know that these pilots are the best trained and who will take you to your destination safely, Safety is first all have a family waiting for us these passengers also too , I  am here today write  some about Aviation Safety. 

You have certainly heard that Aviation is one of the safest transports in the world. Safety begins with Team Work, Safety is our Business, keep in mind we as pilots learned lessons from Airplane Accidents, working without safety means failure learn from others mistakes; don't have others learn from you.

Remember Always  Safety! You Family is Waiting for you at Home.

Safety Management Systems (SMS)

Safety Management Systems (SMS), in General and Commercial Aviation operators can proactively identify and manage risks. Under a formal SMS, operators identify potential hazards and guarantee that a development is positioned in place to effectively manage them to prevent incidents and accidents.

So, what that mean SMS? How to applying Safety Management System to your organization?

Perhaps this should be a good titled Why to introduced and implementing SMS in to your organization?

Starting in 2009 all participant States of ICAO and all aviation service providers within those states must implement a Safety Management System that as a minimum:

ü  Identifies Safety Hazards.

ü  Make sure the implementation of corrective action necessary to maintain established safety performance.

ü  Provides continuous monitoring and regular assessment of the safety performance to prevent incidents and accidents.

ü  Seeks continuous improvement in the overall performance of the Safety Management System.

According to ICAO, an SMS is defined as “a Systematic Approach to Managing Safety including the necessary organizational structures, responsibilities, policies and procedures.”

So, what does this all mean to You? Also how to implementing?  If you are a regulator, an aircraft operator, a maintenance organization, an aircraft manufacturer, an air traffic services provider, or a certificated airport operator, the owner of a Flight Training School etc., you MUST have a Safety Management System (SMS) in place inside your group as soon as possible to implement more safety concepts. In the SMS established development you will be introduced to the basic concepts of Safety and the up-to-date approach to Safety Management to all your team inside your organization.

The Key is to be familiarized and adapted with according to the ICAO regulations, and also everyone inside your team, will learn more Safety Management Systems as applied to Aviation Operations, learn how to communicate effectively with and involve all levels to the prevention of aviation accidents in general and commercial aviation.

My only purpose with this information writing these words is to promote Safety to prevent accidents and incidents all around the world, please take your time go to the link and read and be more clear what that SMS mean to you and how your team can executing if your organization have not incorporated into your organization yet your SMS program.

Remember Safety First, Safe Pilots, Safe Skies. Safety is the Key !!!!

http://www.icao.int/safety/SafetyManagement/Documents/Doc.9859.3rd%20Edition.alltext.en.pdf

Aviation Situational Awareness

         What is Situational Awareness?                

 

Situation Awareness or (SA) is the perception of environmental elements within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning. It is also a field of study concerned with perception of the environment critical to decision-makers in complex. Situation Awareness (SA) involves being aware of what is happening around you to understand how information, events, and your own actions will impact your goals and objectives.

Deficient SA or having inadequate SA has been identified as one of the primary factors in Aviation Accidents attributed to human error.

Situational Awareness is the Key Component of a Safe Flight in all type of phases during flights, takeoff, cruise or landing. Anyway of where or what you fly, pilots will perhaps find themselves involved in acknowledged good training  to  helping GA and Airline Pilots achieve and maintain high-level Situational Awareness in the cockpit.

Always consider Where am I?" and "What's going on around me?" This develops a principal concern.

So, if we review a list of recent aircraft accidents you quickly find Situational Awareness-related aviation accidents like the American Airlines Flight 965 that crashed near Cali, Colombia, on Dec. 20, 1995.

In my personal view and interpretation some accidents related in the past are good to recall, I just want you to share with all pilots to learn many things why these accidents happen and how we can prevented in the future.

After I read and study the final reports of the accidents, I continuously like to share knowledge’s with the aviation community to learn more why accidents happened. The American Airlines final report, reported that a confusing list of way points led to an incorrect data entry, which programmed the flight management system to incentive and directed the B-757 into a mountain. Distractions and misplaced priorities prevented the crew from noticing that the FMS had changed their intended routing until it was too late to escape and avoid the accident.

Not only this accident, there are several more where Situational Awareness are involved.

Researchers have studied Situational Awareness for years in fatal accidents; we must always be alert at all times not to lose Situation Awareness.

So, we need to understand that pilot distractions, doubts, poor communications, automation-induced complacency, fatigue, etc, to avoid incidents and accidents in General and Commercial Aviation .

The key in Aviation Safety is to maintain a good training programs work severe to help all GA and Airline Pilots achieve high-level Situational Awareness and to participate their Situational Awareness tools and knowledge into the overall group of professional skills to maintain high parameters in Safety.

Tips for keep Situational Awareness.

ü  Develop a plan and assign responsibilities for handling problems and distractions.

ü  Decide Crew roles for high-workload phases of flight and follow your company SOPs.

ü  Ask contribution from all the Crew Members including your entire team flight attendants,  maintenance staff, ATC, etc.

ü  Monitor and evaluate your flight all the time, focus on continue a good CRM workload. Be a conservative pilot.

ü  Speak up when you see something bad if you think you are dropping your Situational Awareness breaking down.

    

      These clues can warn of an "Error Chain" in progress that can contribute to an accident if you don’t pay attention to identify, also there are more tips you as a Pilot can evaluate during your flights. Anybody with some flying experience can be involved in lost Situational Awareness.   

      Safe Pilots, Safe Skies. Always Fly Safely .

Dangerous Approaches / Keep on Outside / Can be Fatal if you don’t Understand.

Dangerous Approaches / Keep on Outside 

Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong

The final approach accidents have increased in the final years, according to final reports of incidents and accidents in the development of my own research into this analysis by myself, also I want to write and post here my personal view regarding why accidents happen in this final phase of the flight.

Why didn’t the Flight Crew follow Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)?

Why didn’t they fly their instruments? Why didn’t they hear and respond to the Ground – Proximity Warning System (GPWS). Sometimes, poor decision making in many cases caused by stress overload that resulted in the reduction of crew focus to the point that warnings were not heard, recognized.

A Human Error approach to aviation errors analysis such approaches black hole landings, since they were characterized as occurring leads pilots to fly low approaches .

In another point of my personal analyses, in the course of working with accidents similar to those in this post, I noted that many times the Pilots appeared to lack knowledge of the design criteria for the instrument approach procedures that they were conducting.

In both Standard for Terminal Instrument Procedures (TERPS) and the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) equivalent for Air Navigation Services – Aircraft Operations (PANS – OPS) there are severe and different limitations of which pilots must be aware. Without knowledge of the limitations, pilots may inadvertently wandering outside the protected areas and place themselves and their aircraft in danger.

I have been studied some accidents reports and also working as an Aviation Accident Investigator, when the crew are in the final phases approaching to the airport, occasionally the crew they get lost to the point that they strayed from a protected area and failed to respond properly to GPWS warnings for the last 22 seconds of the flight .

This is many times related accidents by CFIT (Controlled Flight in to Terrain).

On occasion the findings of the accidents investigation show that the flight crew Risk Factor long duty period, reduced alertness likely was involved.  

My best recommendation to all pilots do not assume that all airports in the same Country o Foreign Countries use the same design criteria, always remember that the PIC (Pilot in Command) is the only person responsible to land the aircraft safely all the time.

ICAO provides the following information in the DOC 8168, Aircraft Operations.  

A circling approach is a visual flight maneuver… After initial visual contact, the basic assumption is that the runway environment (i.e, the runway threshold or approach lighting aids or other markings identifiable with the runway) should be kept in sight while at MDA/H (Minimum Decent Altitude / Height) for circling. If visual reference is lost while circling to land from an instrument approach, the Missed Approach Specified for that particular procedure must be followed.

Flying will never be risk free, but is every pilot’s duty to mitigate the risk as well as he or she can. It is the responsibility also the every Flight Safety Department in any organization must follow and do the same.

It is the responsibility of the operator’s, operations Flight Safety Departments to express this kind of Safety Information to pilots , to avoid future accidents similar that are studied in the last accidents reports .

Always keep in mind Fly Safely all the time. Safe Pilots / Safe Skies. Accident Prevention is the Key!!!

DOC 8168.

http://dcaa.trafikstyrelsen.dk:8000/icaodocs/Doc%208168%20-%20Aircraft%20Operations/Volume%201%20Flight%20Procedures,%205th%20ed..pdf

Avoiding Loss of Control Accidents

Avoiding Loss of Control Accidents.

Aircraft Accidents it can happen to anyone, although the final report when is still on development, data from the Black Boxes recovered from mishaps of different accidents in the past.

And in my personal view is sadly, that accidents do occur on a much too-frequent basis to Pilots with a lot of knowledge and also with a lot of experience and gathered many flight hours in their logbooks .

According to a recent Accident Data Pilot Error is a cause of fatal action or decision of the Pilot that , if not caught and corrected on time , could contribute to the occurrence of an accident or incident , but I want to be  more real and want to be emphasize that the term Pilot Error does not  imply that all errors are the fault of the pilots , so as I wrote on my last comments sometimes external circumstances  are the cause , such as other possible causes .

The bad things about the statistics, is that people continue to crash and killed because we are humans and no human being  is perfect 100 % but when we talk about accidents we are referring to accidents in which the Pilot should have either maintained or regained control of the aircraft. I remember I was reading a good article on a Human Factors Book that the Pilot was found to be a broad cause / factor in 84 % of all accidents, and 90.6 % of all fatal accidents. This means that the responsibility is largely the fault of people, not the machines they fly.

The only purpose on my Safety Comment of this post is to show how a lack of knowledge, inadequate confusion and distractions has contributed to accidents.

A study of many Aviation Accidents reports indicates that an alarming number of experienced pilots, as well as inexperienced pilots were involved in accidents.

To me writing this comments to share with all the people around the world who read my safety blog and also as an experienced aviation accident investigator as well, I know we all learn from mistakes of other, yet seems many pilots must make the same costly mistakes themselves before they really learn.

Flight Safety should be our top priority to every buddy in this career, just because we as Pilots we are humans and also we need to learn from the mistakes of recent accidents.

For this reason, I like to promote aviation safety through my safety blog, and also to inspire that a Safe Pilot consistently makes good judgment all the time inside the cockpit. I want to be more precisely that a good judgment it is the ability to make an instant decision, which guarantees the safest possible continuation of the flight. Good Judgment guarantees the positive aspects of flying the freedom to walk to your aircraft, go flying, and return to your home safely all the time. All people have a family and children that are waiting for us at home .

My best advice to all Airline Pilots and Private Pilots in GA , In fact, learning all the time that a good judgment is just as much an important part of flying as learning to make good Take Off and Landings .

The Pilot in Command always has direct responsibility for the operation of his aircraft.

The exercise of good judgment is so critical to flying safely all the time.

Always be prepared to reduce the threat and learn from accidents, continually keep your mental and physical skills strong, and review to learn something new, that accidents and incidents can occur any time anywhere at any phase of the flight.

Always be prepared for the unexpected. Be alert, know your limitations and the limitations of your aircraft learn from the mistakes of others and avoid similar accidents.

Safety First!!!!  Safety is Something We Can Live With!!!!

How to Improve Air Safety?

How to Improve Air Safety?

The majority of accidents over the last years have occurred during the Approach, Landing and Go-Around flight phases. Accidents in Commercial Aviation and GA occurred during these phases of flight.

The lack of a Go-Around decision is the primary risk factor in approach and landing accidents and is the primary cause of runway excursions during landing. Even so, less than 5% of Unstabilized Approaches lead to a Go-Around.

The height at which a Go-Around is initiated during an approach presents different challenges and risks. Procedures and good training should clearly, and will make pilots to land safely all the time during any type of adverse weather conditions.

Major factors inducing crash involvement accidents during the approach and landing configuration.

All pilots need to focus on the last accidents to increase and studied accidents during approaches for improving the safety of all flights in Commercial and General Aviation to reduced flying out of see and avoid an accident or incident in conditions into that require them to fly using their all resources in your cockpit .

Learn and review accidents in the past it is very important how to improve Air Safety. So to make further improvement, Aviation Safety have focused on pilot skill, training and experience as a key questions.

One vast task is getting pilots to encounter complacency and better understand all the technology given to them so they can respond well to unusual events. Today the new generation of Pilots and also the technology in the cockpit works well 99% of the time. It's the 1% of the time when you look at the other colleague and say, 'Why this accident happened why the crew did that?

All Accident rates vary considerably by different type of situations, and also multiple causes are typically cited in investigation reports, so all pilots need to learn and study these accidents to acquire and improving safety all the time.

So far Safety is first all the time. The best Safety device in any Aircraft is a well-trained Safety Pilot.

Team Work is a priority all the time and a good CRM is the key to avoid accidents.

Factors Causing Visual Illusion

Eyeball Error LESSONS IN FLYING

If we were meant to fly we would have evolved a vision system more like birds.  Birds see more sharply than humans, with some birds of prey even sporting a second fovea - that part of the retina where light receptors needed for vision are concentrated.  Humans have one fovea. Birds are able to adjust focus more rapidly because they have extra muscles to change the eye's focal length. They have also developed enlarged optic lobes to process visual information faster. Their enhanced visual system is critical for flight. The human visual system provides 80 percent of total spatial orientation.  However, unlike birds, our vision is not adapted to the demanding nature of flight with the high speeds and three dimensions of movement requiring a lot of visual information to help judge distance, height and changes in these parameters.

It is the limitations of human vision that make it susceptible to illusions, particularly at night, in poor light or in conditions with few external visual cues. Powerful illusions can occur when the pilot, presented with limited visual cues, "fills in" the rest of the picture, or when what the pilot sees conflicts with a strong response from the sense of balance or orientation, which has its sensors in the inner ears. Approach and landing illusions can have serious consequences.

American Airlines Crash

One of the deadliest air crashes occurred 40 years ago in November 1965 when American Airlines flight 383 crashed 3 km short of the Cincinnati airport runway threshold. The aircraft was under full power during a visual approach in deteriorating weather conditions. Of the 62 on board, 58 died.

While the official listing of probable causes said the accident was due to the failure of the crew to properly monitor the altimeters during a visual approach into deteriorating visibility conditions, a common visual illusion was also implicated. Studies of illusory effects produced by lights on the Ohio River bank, viewed in conjunction with the more distant but 400ft higher runway lights, demonstrated that pilots approaching to land on this runway could receive visual cues that produced powerful sensations of being much higher than their aircraft's actual altitude.

Factors Causing Visual Illusion

A range of factors can induce illusions on approach and landing. In the airport environment, these include ground texture and features; off-airport light patterns, such as brightly lit parking lots or streets; the "black hole" effect along the final approach flight path; and uphill-sloping or downhill sloping terrain in the airport vicinity.

In the runway environment, the factors include the runway dimensions, runway slope (uphill gradient or downhill gradient), terrain drop off, approach and runway lighting and the condition of the runway. The cloud ceiling, visibility and obstructions to vision are key weather factors that contribute to illusions.

In the approach and landing phase of flight, visual illusions are most critical when you are transitioning from IMC and instrument references to VMC and visual references.  Any illusion can lead to crew corrections that cause the aircraft to deviate from the vertical or horizontal flight path.

Runway Appearance. The visual appearance of the runway, its dimensions, slope and lighting has a large role to play in creating illusions. Generally, pilots assume the runway is flat as they make their final approach to land. At a certain point from the runway, you expect to see a particular runway shape, which helps you judge whether you are too high, too low or correctly on the glide slope. If the runway shape is not as you expect, you will be tempted to make corrections to the flight to make the runway appear as it should.

Approach on Down Sloping Runway. If you are at a particular height and distance from the runway, a down-sloping runway will present a smaller image to the eyes. This will give you the same impression as if you were making a low approach to a level runway, as in both conditions you see less of the runway- So flying an approach to a down-sloping runway will seem like you are undershooting, even if you are on the correct glide-slope. If you are unaware of the sloping characteristics of the runway, you may fly higher to make the runway appear normal. This will look to you like you are on the correct approach path, but in reality you will be flying too high an approach. This could lead to an unstable approach and tricky landing, or a landing well down the runway, which may result in an overrun.

Approach on up Sloping Runway. The opposite will occur if you fly an approach to an up sloping runway. In this situation you will see too much of the runway, which will give you the impression that you are high and overshooting. If you attempt to correct this impression, you will fly a lower than normal approach, which could result in a hard landing, or possibly even a landing short of the runway.

Effect of the Width of Runway. The width of the runway is also an important consideration. It also depends on the width of the runway that you are used to operating on. At a certain distance and height from a runway, you expect to see the runway fill a certain amount of your peripheral vision, which helps you judge height from the runway and distance to touchdown.

Wider Runway. If you fly an approach to a runway that is wider than the one you are used to, at the same height and distance from the runway you will see more of the runway and this will give you the impression that you are much closer to the runway than you actually are. This may cause you to flare the aircraft at a much greater height from the runway than you would prefer. The result of this can be a high rate of descent and subsequent heavy landing, or at the very least an unstable approach and memorable arrival.

Narrower Runway. The opposite situation can arise when you fly into a narrower runway than the one you are used to. At the same height and distance from the runway, you will see less of the runway in your peripheral vision than normal. This may give you the impression that you have still some distance to travel before getting to that point where you begin the flare and reduce the throttle. You may well arrive on the runway before you are expecting to, with an unexpected hard landing.

Effect of the Length of Runway. The length of the runway is also a contributor to approach illusions. It also depends on the length of runway you are generally used to. At the same height and distance from the runway, a long runway will present a bigger Image to the eyes than a shorter one. The impression you will get is that you are too high on approach. This may lead you to make the same corrections as during the approach to an up-sloping runway, with the same potential outcomes of an unstable approach and possible undershoot. A shorter runway than you are used to will give you the opposite impression, that you are too low on approach. This may make you take corrective action similar to that with the down-sloping runway, and end up making an unstable, high approach.

Effect of Runway Lighting. The lighting on a runway can also cause illusions. Your depth perception is influenced by the lighting intensity and ambient conditions. Bright runway lights create the impression of being closer to the runway, and so the idea that you are on a stepper glidepath. On the other hand, low intensity lights create the impression of being further way, and so on a shallower glidepath. Also non-standard spacing of runway lights can modify your perception of distance the runway. If the runway is only partially visible, say, while on base leg during a visual or circling approach, the runway may appear further away or at a different angle.

Effect of Weather. Weather conditions can affect depth and distance perception. Flying in light rain, fog, haze, mist, smoke dust, glare or darkness usually creates an illusion of being too high.

Flying through fog. If you are on top of shallow fog about 300 ft in thickness, the ground can be seen, but when you enter the fog layer you will lose forward and slant visibility. This can create the perception of a pitch up, which can cause you to respond with an inappropriate nose-down correction that steepens the approach path.

Flying through Haze/ Light Rain. Flying in haze creates the impression that the runway is further away, inducing a tendency to shallow the glide path. When you are in light or moderate rain the runway may appear indistinct because of the rain halo effect, increasing the risk of misperception of the vertical or horizontal deviation during the visual segment flown after transition from instrument to visual references.

Flying through Heavy Rain. Heavy rain can also affect depth and distance perception. Rain on the windshield creates refraction effects that can lead you to believe that the aircraft is too high, with the risk of an unwarranted nose-down correction and flight below the desired flight path.

Effect of Approach Lighting System (ALS). In daylight, rain diminishes the apparent intensity of the ALS, resulting in the runway appearing to be further away. As a result you might be tempted to shallow the flight path. Rain at night increases the apparent brilliance of the ALS making the runway appear to be closer than it really is. The risk is that you will land short of the runway threshold.

Runway surface conditions can also induce illusions. Because a wet runway reflects very little light you may think that the aircraft is further away from the runway, contributing to the risk of a late flare and hard landing.

Prevention

To reduce the dangers of visual illusions on approach and landing, accident prevention strategies and personal lines of defence should be developed. You should assess your exposure to visual illusions on your route, and understand what conditions might increase the possibility of visual illusions. During the approach briefing you should review the hazards, including

Ceiling and visibility conditions.

Weather, including wind, turbulence, rain, showers, fog or smoke.

You should know the surrounding terrain features and man-made obstacles. At night, an unlit hillside between a lit area and the runway may prevent you from correctly perceiving surrounding terrain.

Specific airport and runway hazards, such as obstructions, the black-hole effect and off-airport light patterns.

The type of approach including the approach lights.

VASI or PAPI Availability.

Multi crew operations on approach and landing should adhere to defined task sharing after the transition to visual flying. This should involve

Monitoring by the pilot flying of outside visual references while referring to instrument references to support and monitor the flight path during the visual portion of the approach.

Monitoring by the pilot not flying of head down references while the pilot flying flies and looks outside for effective cross-check and back-up.

If you are flying in to an unfamiliar airfield, consider the implications of the runway dimensions. If it is narrower than you are used to, think of the approach illusions that may affect you on final approach to land.

Conclusion

Approach illusions are relatively common in aviation. Landing an aircraft is an intensive visual task, requiring both focal vision and peripheral vision to help build an accurate model of the aircraft's flight path so that the flare and touchdown can be accurately judged.

Visual illusions are a fact of life. While there is no substitute for good airmanship, being aware of the possible illusions that may arise during a particular flight will help you increase the safety of the flight.

Source: MEATBALL Naval Aviation Journal