Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Pilot Error and Aircraft Accidents

"Pilot Error" is the identified cause of a large fraction of aircraft accidents, and the role of pilot error (and other human errors, e.g. by ground controllers) is tending to increase as improvements in aircraft design, weather forecasting, and other technical areas of aviation reduce the role of structure failures and other "unavoidable" causes of aviation mishaps. By the 1970s, fifty-five percent of accidents were attributed to pilot error (Hurst 13). Clearly, the human factor, in various forms, plays an ever increasing role in air accidents.

Human error may take many forms, from gross displays of bad airmanship to unconscious errors which can be attributed to fatigue or to unconscious perceptual errors. When human error is identified as the primary or contributory cause of an accident, our principal concern is not to fix blame, but to identify corrective actions which can be taken in training or procedures to reduce the likelihood of similar accidents in the future.

Broadly, human-error accidents can be divided into three categories. One, reckless or careless flying, allows little scope for direct preventive action; we can tighten up on licensing practices, but some people are always going to do careless things in the air, even though they know better (Slepyan 10-12). Since a major fraction of all accidents are midair collisions, however, we can develop our understanding of "defensive flying" practices, by which pilots can guard themselves against collisions due to the bad practices of others. One private pilot paused, properly, before turning onto the runway for takeoff to check for incoming traffic, though none was reported by the tower. He scanned the downwind and base legs, saw nothing, and swung onto the runway for takeoff - only to have a near-miss with a plane that came in for a reckless, unannounced straight-in landing. The pilot preparing for takeoff had neglected to look for incoming traffic on final (Slep...

Page 1 of 5 Next >

More on Pilot Error and Aircraft Accidents...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Pilot Error and Aircraft Accidents. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 20:15, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681893.html