Week 3: Airfield, air traffic control and Weather. AD13

       For this week I want to look more into Airfield, ATC and weather. Also will will look at air detective tip #13. As previously looked at this is considered the Medium of the 5M process. We are going to open up Aircraft Accident investigation tips and dig into why its important to learn about the airfield, atc and weather containing to Controlled flight into terrain.

                                                                       AIRFIELD
       First, lets look in depth at the airfeild. During any accident, photography will be your most important information to determine the cause of the accident. However when the crash occurs at an airport as opossed to elsewhere you have many other documents to help determine the cause of the crash. First you need to collect all available published information about the airfield current as of the date of the acccident (Woods & Sweginnis, 2006). Airports change all the time and Investigators need to also collect a current aerial photo to use will investigating the cause. Next will break it down to look at the airfield status, post accident activity, airport standards and disaster response and rescue.

1. Airfield Status: While all airports generally the same purpose, the amount of information available about an airport depends on the status (Woods & Sweginnis, 2006). Most airports that operate a scheduled air carrier must follow procedures found under FAR/AIM 139. This regulation also requires that the airport be certified and have a regular inspection (Woods & Sweginnis, 2006). While the airport must be inspected, it also must have and follow an prescribe operations manual as well as an emergency plan. Some examples of subjects in the operations manual are

• Operational Responsibilty
• Limitations
• Obstructions
• Markings and lighting system
• Traffic and wind direction indicators

        Some examples of the emergency plane includes

• Aircraft omcodemts amd accidents
• Bomb accidents
• Natural Disaster
• Power Failure
• Water Rescue

    2.  Post Accident Activity: Following an aircraft accident. it is common for the FAA to collect all 
         the records on all the facilites and Navaids at the airport and recertify the Navaids in use at the
         time of the accident (Woods & Sweginnis, 2006). Most accidents and fatalities take place             during the departure (take off / climb) and arrival (approach/ landing) stages up to 36%.
         During these phase aircraft are close to the ground and in a more vulnerable configuration
         then during the other phases ("1001 Crash - Airplane accidents statistics - Flight phases," n.d.).
         If an aircraft is flying a VOR approach and crashes the FAA take the VOR out of service until
         it is inspected and recertified.

   3.  Airport Standards: Since every airport is different the ICAO have agreed to adopt a standard
        service manual for airports around the world. While this is not binding to any one country they
        gernerally been adopted throught out the whole world (Woods & Sweginnis, 2006). As
        previously discussed the United States operates under Part 139 of the FAR/AIM.

   4. Disaster Reposnse and Rescue: In almost every accident on or near an airport, the question of
       emergency always come up (Woods & Sweginnis, 2006). Some questions the might arise are

• Was the equitment, facilities and personnel adequate
• Was there an emergency or disaster plan
• Was the notification and response timely
• Were th rescue procedures at the scene adequate

                                                               AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL
     Second, lets look at the air traffic control. finding out what was done by air traffic controllers and tower operations is not a difficult task. Much of it is recorded or logged (Woods & Sweginnis, 2006).
All of the avaliable information can be found through various site. ATC Live can give you information however it is not a credible source. For invesigators the FAA keeps record of all the recorded

• Voice transmission
• Controller statments
•  Flight Plans
• ATIS information
• Position Logs

Another use for collecting the voice transmissions is the ablity to locate and talk to other pilots that were in the area at the time of the crash. Getting a different view from other pilots can help the investigator piece together the accident.


                                                                       WEATHER
     Last, and in my opinon the most important one is weather. When the accident happens investgators want to gather as much information the can. However weather can change in the blink of an eye and may not be able to see what the weather looked like at the time of the crash. It is possible
resurrent the data at the time of the crash and recreate the weather the existed. It takes an experienced meterologist to know where to find this information and what to do with it (Woods & Sweginnis, 2006). Some information that will be gathered to determine the crash is

SOURCE OF DATA

• NWS
• FAA
• Airline Meterological office
• TV and Radio Stations

TYPES OF DATA

• Weather Radar Data
• lighting Data
• Low Level Wind Shear
• Airmets
• Sigmets
• Area Forcast
• Terminal Forcast
• Pireps

     In the world of aviation record keeping is ideal and required by the FAA . It is know as a Paper trail. With accurate records investigators can go back and determine possible factors of a crash by analysing information that is kept of record.

                                                             AIR DETECTIVE TIP #13
 AD #13 goes over in detail what was discused in previous sections. AD #13 goes over Paper trails. All accident events can be narrowed down by just following the paper trails. Researching and reading records could determine the possible cause of many accdients and use them to help train pilots and controller to prevent a future accident of its kind.

                                                                      REFERENCES

1001 Crash - Airplane accidents statistics - Flight phases. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.1001crash.com/index-page-statistique-lg-2-numpage-3.html

Wood, R. H., & Swegonnis, R. W. (2006). 22. In Aircraft Accident Investigation (2nd ed., pp. 171-174). Casper, WY: Endeavor Books.

Week 2 Continue

       To continue with week 2 I want to look into the 5M process investigators may use to determine what caused pilots to fly their airplane into terrain or any object for that matter. Will the 5M process go pretty in depth we can also look at the 5P process as well as the IMSAFE checklist that may also help in the investigation.

1. Man: First thing they need to look at is if the pilot was current. Sometimes pilots lapse on time flying and there skill becomes rusty. Pilots who have not flown in a long time may not know new regulations or their skills may not be up to regulation standards.
2. Machine: While the airplane may be examined during the intial examine NTSB        investigators will process all the required documents to determine if the airplane was in fact airworthy at the time of the crash.
3. Medium: Weather usally plays a major factor in aircraft accidents. Most pilots now a days dont even check the weather. they use the have hearted pirep method which is go out side at see what the weather looks like. Pilots flying may only see the closer picture and not realize that there may be a storm or low level clouds where they are going.
4. Misson: External pressures can always get the best of pilots. From flying bussiness people to flying your family home every pilots get that get there itis and become complacent.
5. Managment: With airliners and GA airplanes always requiring maintainence companies and GA pilots are begining to cut maintainence to help reduce the operating cost.

       Some other examples you could use is the 5Ps. The 5Ps are used the determine by the pilot if they can make the flight in a safe manner. Also using the IMSAFE method to determine if they are in a good state of health for they flight as well as keeping the flight safe for them an their passengers.  

Week 2 Posting

Like a previously stated I choose this topic to allow pilots and non-pilots alike to learn and understand the reality of CFIT. As a flight instructor one of the key topics or special emphasis area as the FAA calls it is CFIT. It must be learned and understood by student pilots as well as commercial pilots in order to gain a new rating. Will many pilots can recite a few details of what can prevent CFIT I really want to dig deeper as to why it happens and ways we can avoid it. I understand preparation and certain ways to avoid it but those steps may not be enough to prevent it. To understand it we must look at the history behind it to get a concept of what’s going on.

 

            Controlled Flight into Terrain is describes an accident in which an airworthy aircraft, under

pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, water, or an obstacle. CFIT is very

 

dangerous because most pilots are unaware of the danger they just put them self in until it’s too late.

 

Boeing was credited for coining the phase in the late 1970's and is the leading cause of airplane

 

accidents. From 1991 - 1995 a total of 17 Aircraft were lost due to CFIT will a total of 971 lives lost

 

in My option that’s 971 to many. (FAA, Section 3, Pg. 3.3)      

                                                                       References

Controlled flight into terrain accident history:

https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/training/media/cfit/volume1/3Sec.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

Controlled Flight Into Terrain

I have choose this topic because as a flight Instructor i find CFIT not only an interesting topic but a great tool of knowledge to learn and understand. Many people fly today with the mindset of little risk and great rewards however i believe the risk reward is jointly the same and we must fully understand the risk we are taking to complete each flight safely and with minimal risk.