Cover Story
 Users of night vision goggles (NVGs) are acutely aware of the advantages these devices offer in improving a pilot's ability to see in darkness and enhancing safety during night flight. They may be less cognizant, however, of some of the limitations that NVGs impose on night visual performance.
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Human Factors
 Among the factors that caused one perfectly good aircraft to fall out of the sky, killing 50 people, while another very crippled aircraft made a safe water landing that resulted in only a few minor injuries, technical flying skills obviously play a major role. However, success or failure to a large degree can be linked to the captain’s ability to control his own emotions in order to think clearly, while being aware of the crew’s emotional and mental states.
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Causal Factors
 Confusion and spatial disorientation prevailed when a bank angle warning sounded. The captain responded with erratic flight control inputs that aggravated the situation and precipitated a spiral dive. The pilots were wrestling the controls when the 737 disintegrated in a mangrove swamp, killing all 114 people aboard.
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Helicopter Safety
 Flight Safety Foundation and Air Methods, the world’s largest air ambulance operator, have begun a two-year project designed to use flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) — sometimes known as flight data monitoring — to gather safety information on helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) operations.
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Flight Training
 Defenses against loss of control in flight (LOC-I) figured prominently in recent conference presentations to pilot training specialists from major and regional airlines. A recurrent theme was how to apply lessons learned from transport airplane accidents that happened in unremarkable flight conditions with properly functioning autoflight systems. [Download PDF 6 pages. 489K]
Expanded Version of this article
Human Factors
 The Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit says its investigators were unable to pinpoint the cause of a May 2008 incident in which five crewmembers and an undetermined number of passengers on an Airbus A319-132 became ill, with symptoms ranging from drowsiness to a loss of sensation in their limbs.
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Traffic Control
 Amid negotiations for the reunification of Cyprus, risks of pilot confusion persist in the Nicosia FIR. The airspace of concern extends northward to Turkey from the Turkish Cypriot–governed northern part of Cyprus, an island nation in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
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THreat Analysis
 Between November 2007 and January 2009, U.S. civil aviation experienced four major accidents caused by bird strikes. The accidents demonstrated the range of aircraft categories and types affected by this threat, and served as a reminder that the entire aviation community is challenged.
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Executive's Message
During the last several decades, complexity has increased, and the pressure on the training system has increased. Cost pressures force training to be done in the absolute minimum amount of time. New training requirements are layered on top of one another and compete for what little training time is available. That doesn’t leave much time to develop understanding of complicated systems.
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Editorial Page
Airlines and corporate flight departments don’t want their complete training process mapped out for them, but if the training footprint is not enlarged voluntarily to deal with the complexities of modern cockpit systems we may see regulators move more and more in that direction, especially should there be one or two more high-profile accidents.
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Safety Calendar
A listing of aviation safety-related conferences, seminars and meetings.
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In Brief
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a $230,000 civil penalty against Continental Airlines for allegedly operating a Boeing 767 on 22 revenue flights during a time when the airplane was not in compliance with U.S. Federal Aviation Regulations.
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In Sight
Last winter’s unusually heavy snowfall caused major disruptions at most U.K. airports. Many scheduled airlines were obliged to cancel services, while charter airlines continued to fly, albeit with substantial delays. However, with the benefit of hindsight, could the current U.K. practices regarding operations with contaminated runways be improved?
[Download PDF 3 pages. 248K]
Data Link
The 2009 picture of fatal accidents in worldwide commercial aviation showed no overall improvement from 2008, but in one important category, there was good news. Runway excursion accidents — targeted by the Flight Safety Foundation Runway Safety Initiative and the Runway Excursion Risk Reduction Toolkit — were fewer, according to newly released data from Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
[Download PDF 4 pages. 232K]
Info Scan
Thanks to trickle-down technology, new light aircraft have undergone a transition from analog flight instruments to computer screens similar to those on modern transport category aircraft. The “glass cockpit,” in which the electronic displays integrate aircraft control, autopilot, communication, navigation and systems monitoring, represents a significant change for general aviation.
[Download PDF 5 pages. 130K]
On Record
The following information provides an awareness of problems in the hope that they can be avoided in the future. The information is based on final reports by official investigative authorities on aircraft accidents and incidents.
[Download PDF 8 pages. 289K]
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