Safety
Loss-of-Control Issues in Focus for Industry
December 2, 2011
Two fatal airline accidents in 2009 have brought worldwide attention to the dangers of loss-of-control (LOC) in flight, and led many to further explore resources to ensure pilots are adequately trained to react correctly to unfamiliar flight configurations and other unusual conditions. Although both 2009 incidents involved airliners, the overall safety concern is shared by the business aviation community as well, and NBAA is working on a new program to address the issue.
The June 2009, downing of an Air France Airbus A330-200 over the Atlantic Ocean demonstrated the tragic result of a scenario pilots did not (and, arguably, could not) anticipate. “It's the things we don't normally train on, such as what a high altitude stall looks like,” said Doug Carr, NBAA vice president, safety, security & regulation. “We must ask, is there training available to give pilots a reasonable expectation of what might occur, and how to recover from it?”
Additional risk occurs when a pilot's instincts override his or her training, such as what may have occurred in the February 2009 crash of a Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 near Buffalo, NY. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ruled the probable cause of that accident was the pilot's “inappropriate response to the activation of the stick shaker,” when he attempted to raise the aircraft's nose to gain altitude, rather than lowering it to build airspeed and break the stall.
Carr noted incidents like these point to a possible flaw in training programs that increasingly focus on managing cockpit systems, over fundamental flight skills. “The milestone technologies available in today's cockpits – systems like TCAS and TAWS – have provided measurable improvements in safety," he said. “What we haven't focused on is how do we keep the pilot fully engaged? I don't think we have a good system to reengage the pilot, after the autopilot is disengaged. How do we best plug that pilot completely back in to the task at hand?”
NBAA Safety Committee Secretary Steve Charbonneau noted that work is underway to improve pilot training for the business aviation community, including a greater emphasis on basic skills. “Our goal over the next two years is to evaluate and consider the status of business aviation pilot training, and make recommendations to our membership, industry and regulators how to improve the value proposition,” he said.
Among the topics of discussion, Charbonneau added, are developing best practices in managing effective pilot training methods; identifying ways the industry may work with client partners in developing training programs that better meet pilot needs and expectations; and making recommendations to the FAA on how to develop regulations focusing specifically on business aviation operations.
“The way the system is designed now is to allow pilots to recertify their pilot-in-command status through the 61.58 courses they take,” Charbonneau added. “Those courses are required by the FAA to retest pilots to the practical test standards given through type rating certification. The curricula developed by training providers do an excellent job of renewing that, but do little to explore and accomplish other training opportunities.”
Carr concluded a new approach is needed to “make sure pilots retain their basic stick-and-rudder skills. The safety exercise now underway will develop tools that we think will help with training and moving the regulatory hurdles out of the way that have kept safety training regulations in a 30-year-old mindset." Learn more about NBAA’s Safety Committee initiatives.
