Abstract
Accident statistics cite the flight crew as a causal factor in over 60% of large transport aircraft fatal accidents. Yet, a well-trained and well-qualified pilot is acknowledged as the critical center point of aircraft systems safety and an integral safety component of the entire commercial aviation system. The latter statement, while generally accepted, cannot be verified because little or no quantitative data exists on how and how many accidents/incidents are averted by crew actions. A joint NASA/FAA high-fidelity motion-base human-in-the-loop test was conducted using a Level D certified Boeing 737-800 simulator to evaluate the pilot’s contribution to safety-of-flight during routine air carrier flight operations and in response to aircraft system failures. To quantify the human’s contribution, crew complement (two-crew, reduced crew, single pilot) was used as the independent variable in a between-subjects design. This paper details the crew’s actions, including decision-making, and responses while dealing with a hydraulic systems leak.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Li, G., Baker, S.P., Grabowski, J.G., Rebok, G.W.: Factors associated with pilot error in aviation crashes, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine, vol. 72, No. 1, January 2001
Air Line Pilots Association: Air Line Pilots Association White Paper on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, April 2011
Federal Aviation Administration Advisory Circular: Aviation Safety Action Program, AC-120-66B, November 2002
Emergency and Abnormal Situations in Aviation Symposium: LOSA data and Emergency and Abnormal Situations, 10–11, June 2003. http://human-factors.arc.nasa.gov/flightcognition/download/EAS_Symposium_Presentations/LOSA.pdf
Etherington, T.J., Kramer, L.J., Kennedy, K.D., Bailey, R.E., Stephens, C.L.: Quantifying pilot contribution to flight safety for normal and non-normal airline operations. In: Paper Presented at AIAA Digital Avionics Systems Conference, October 2016
Hart, S.G., Staveland, L.E.: Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): results of empirical and theoretical research. In: Hancock, P.A., Meshkati, N. (eds.) Human Mental Workload, pp. 139–183. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1988)
Acknowledgments
This work was sponsored by NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program, Safe Autonomous Systems Operations project, led by Parimal Kopardekar, Project Manager. This work was conducted as part of an Interagency Agreement, No. IA1-20800, between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Langley Research Center, and the U.S. Department Of Transportation, FAA. This work could not have been possible without the hard work, diligence, assistance and support of Mr. Harry Hodges (AFS-440), Mr. Doug Rodzon, and the entire AFS-440 Flight Simulation Branch who were instrumental to this research. The support of Mr. Bruce DeCleene (AFS-400) was also critical and is gratefully acknowledged. The technical assistance of Dr. Robert “Buck” Joslin - the FAA Chief Scientist and Technical Advisor for Flight Deck Technology Integration - was critical to the simulation planning. Further, the help of Mr. Bryan Burks, Alaska Airlines, was instrumental in the development of our test scenarios.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kramer, L.J., Etherington, T.J., Bailey, R.E., Kennedy, K.D. (2018). Quantifying Pilot Contribution to Flight Safety During Hydraulic Systems Failure. In: Stanton, N. (eds) Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation. AHFE 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 597. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60441-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60441-1_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60440-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60441-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)