There are two aviation related safety areas that made the NTSB's 2014 list. The first is Unique characteristics of helicopter operations and the second is General Aviation: Identify and communicate hazardous weather. I am more concerned about the second issue because it address's a very significant problem with information and communication.
The NTSB is interested in developing better ways to identify and communicate hazardous weather in a more timely manner in an attempt to make general aviation safer. One of the problems today though is that the weather information is very timely. So much so in fact that pilots feel they have an up to the minute picture in the cockpit on a well colored technically advanced display screen. Pilots feel they have the weather right there in front of them and can utilize the picture to navigate through hazardous conditions narrowing there safety margins dramatically. One thing forgotten about weather is that it is very dynamic and ever changing. Many pilots of general aviation aircraft get to far into hazardous weather and are to slow to escape when things get dangerous often finding themselves disoriented.
Pilot ability to read and understand weather is also a major issue. Some pilots of general aviation aircraft have weather display equipment that rivals that found in commercial airliners. The difference is the time spent using and level of training on the equipment combined with the understanding of actual weather phenomena. That is what makes up the large difference in the accident statistics and fatalities between the two different operations. In my opinion, at the private pilot level, there is an insignificant amount of relevance placed on weather training. You are taught the regulations of visibility and ceilings that you must abide by to conduct a flight but do not have thorough enough coverage of frontal zones and changing pressures to understand what weather is or may be developing. Timely information is not the answer if you don't understand the information you are being given.
This has been a significant topic for me because nearly anyone can fly an airplane on a calm, severe clear day. It is when the weather changes that causes the greatest workload on general aviation pilots. You have to collect the weather for the route of flight, recognize and understand what weather is significant, and determine what weather may develop throughout the flight. With the amount of gadgetry in the cockpit today, the question arises as to how much weather information is actually being collected and utilized in the preflight go no-go decision anyway.
The NTSB aims to make hazardous weather communication a forefront issue this year and as a result there will be new jobs. There will be expansion in weather collection and forecasting as well as weather research. Although these jobs may not increase those available under the aviation title, there will be new jobs none the less. The place where there may be new jobs in aviation as a result would be teaching weather to new pilots and training on new weather depiction equipment.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
A Southwest 737 lands at wrong airport
Southwest flight 4013 landed at the wrong airport on Sunday, January 12th, 2014. The high time captain and first officer said they had the airport in site after being told they were still 15 miles out by the Branson Airport controller. They were cleared for a visual approach and proceeded to land at the much smaller M. Graham Clark-Taney County Airport. The pilots appeared to be confused by the smaller airports runway lights and beacon mistaking it for the larger airport farther south.
So, now we have a big airplane at a little airport. What do we do next? First, we commend the pilots for stopping the Boeing 737-700 mid-size airliner on the pavement of that short of a runway. The airport is listed as over 3,700 feet long but in reality, the landing distance available was considerably less. If you notice in the video from the first link, you can see that runway 30 has a displaced threshold as does runway 12 that you don't see (google maps and zoom in). So both pilots definitely deserve a job well done.
Next we have to ask the two high time pilots, why they weren't paying attention to and believing there navigation equipment? The pilots told investigators they programmed the flight management system for Branson but didn't go there. They should have also realized the heading was off by possibly 20 degrees, runway 12 at Taney County and runway 14 at Branson. The pilots were looking for an airport in a small city, in the middle of nowhere, in the Ozark mountains and found one that seemed to fit so they landed.
Why did the pilots land at the wrong airport? There were certainly cues, as stated above that should have tipped them off. These are not fresh out of school pilots, no offense to anyone, we all start at zero time, but a captain with 16,000 hours and a first officer with 25,000 hours of flight time. There may have been some perceptual blindness, they were looking for an airport in a small city in the mountains and they found one. They did make mistakes that led to this event and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate and hopefully uncover for all of us to learn from.
Now Southwest has passengers to deal with that need to be transferred to the correct airport and the final leg of their trip still needs to be completed. Busing becomes a priority because they certainly can't take off safely with the passengers on board. Once the passengers and luggage have been safely transferred, the concern changes to getting an airplane out of a 3,700 foot airport that requires a minimum 3,000 foot takeoff roll when empty. There is very little tolerance here for an aborted takeoff so the regulators will be heavily involved in the planning process for an incident like this.
Southwest management will have to work closely with the Federal Aviation Administration to determine if the 737-700 can takeoff safely. This will become a planning and dispatching nightmare. There will be waivers to fill out, insurance forms to update, minimal crew but excess regulatory personnel on board, optimal weather to wait for and the list goes on. If not, the plane will have to be disassembled and trucked to a larger airport or back to Southwest maintenance and reassembled.
So, for management to suspend the pilots pending the investigation, I would agree. A mistake like this is very costly both economically and to the face of Southwest. If they do nothing to the pilots, the seats will start to empty as the flying public's concern grows over the quality of pilots that Southwest hires. Late night talk shows will make jokes and everyone will be made aware of the incident. An airline of any size can not afford that kind of bad press so they must take action. Southwest is honorably suspending the pilots at this time and not just firing them which says a lot about managements faith and equity they put into their flight staff. This is certainly not an isolated incident though, there are other airplanes that land at wrong airports. The significance here is the size of the airport and the fact they can't just create a new flight plan and release the aircraft.
Another similar incident occurred when a Boeing 747 Dreamlifter landed at the wrong airport in Wichita, Kansas November 20, 2013. Fortunately the very large airplane was able to get out successfully as you can see in the video. This case everything worked out but again it is bad press for the aviation industry. People quickly jump to the negative and focus on the fact that the airplane landed at the wrong airport and not the fact that it got out safely.
So, now we have a big airplane at a little airport. What do we do next? First, we commend the pilots for stopping the Boeing 737-700 mid-size airliner on the pavement of that short of a runway. The airport is listed as over 3,700 feet long but in reality, the landing distance available was considerably less. If you notice in the video from the first link, you can see that runway 30 has a displaced threshold as does runway 12 that you don't see (google maps and zoom in). So both pilots definitely deserve a job well done.
Next we have to ask the two high time pilots, why they weren't paying attention to and believing there navigation equipment? The pilots told investigators they programmed the flight management system for Branson but didn't go there. They should have also realized the heading was off by possibly 20 degrees, runway 12 at Taney County and runway 14 at Branson. The pilots were looking for an airport in a small city, in the middle of nowhere, in the Ozark mountains and found one that seemed to fit so they landed.
Why did the pilots land at the wrong airport? There were certainly cues, as stated above that should have tipped them off. These are not fresh out of school pilots, no offense to anyone, we all start at zero time, but a captain with 16,000 hours and a first officer with 25,000 hours of flight time. There may have been some perceptual blindness, they were looking for an airport in a small city in the mountains and they found one. They did make mistakes that led to this event and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate and hopefully uncover for all of us to learn from.
Now Southwest has passengers to deal with that need to be transferred to the correct airport and the final leg of their trip still needs to be completed. Busing becomes a priority because they certainly can't take off safely with the passengers on board. Once the passengers and luggage have been safely transferred, the concern changes to getting an airplane out of a 3,700 foot airport that requires a minimum 3,000 foot takeoff roll when empty. There is very little tolerance here for an aborted takeoff so the regulators will be heavily involved in the planning process for an incident like this.
Southwest management will have to work closely with the Federal Aviation Administration to determine if the 737-700 can takeoff safely. This will become a planning and dispatching nightmare. There will be waivers to fill out, insurance forms to update, minimal crew but excess regulatory personnel on board, optimal weather to wait for and the list goes on. If not, the plane will have to be disassembled and trucked to a larger airport or back to Southwest maintenance and reassembled.
So, for management to suspend the pilots pending the investigation, I would agree. A mistake like this is very costly both economically and to the face of Southwest. If they do nothing to the pilots, the seats will start to empty as the flying public's concern grows over the quality of pilots that Southwest hires. Late night talk shows will make jokes and everyone will be made aware of the incident. An airline of any size can not afford that kind of bad press so they must take action. Southwest is honorably suspending the pilots at this time and not just firing them which says a lot about managements faith and equity they put into their flight staff. This is certainly not an isolated incident though, there are other airplanes that land at wrong airports. The significance here is the size of the airport and the fact they can't just create a new flight plan and release the aircraft.
Another similar incident occurred when a Boeing 747 Dreamlifter landed at the wrong airport in Wichita, Kansas November 20, 2013. Fortunately the very large airplane was able to get out successfully as you can see in the video. This case everything worked out but again it is bad press for the aviation industry. People quickly jump to the negative and focus on the fact that the airplane landed at the wrong airport and not the fact that it got out safely.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Hello and Welcome
Hello everyone and welcome to my aviation blog. I am currently a senior at Eastern Michigan University enrolled as an undergraduate in the Aviation Management Technology program with an accompanying business minor. I will be graduating in April, 2014 with a Bachelor of Science and intend to complete the Dispatch practical exam shortly after graduation to obtain that certificate.
I started flying when I was 16 years old in a Piper Cherokee 140 at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti. I accrued about 4.5 hours that summer cutting grass to pay for flying lessons. At $5/hour cutting grass and $60/hour for the flight training, you can see why I only accrued 4.5 hours. I stopped flying for awhile until years later when I got a gift certificate to the Aviation Center at the Ann Arbor Airport. I logged another 1.3 hours in a Piper Cherokee 140/180 in 2005 and thought my flying career was going to take off.
Well, it didn't. I decided to start saving money to finish my private license but couldn't seem to save enough, something always came up that took the funds. Eventually, in 2011, I decided to finish my education so I enrolled at EMU in the Aviation Management Program to fix my flying bug. Coming in with an Associate degree in Applied Sciences, I was able to dive right in to the aviation classes and haven't looked back since. I have been enrolled at least 12 credit hours every semester, except summers, to finish the degree in three years and have also started flying again.
I took a job at the Aviation Center in February 2012 as a line crew member. I never took a paycheck, just loaded up my credit account and started flying again, you guessed it, in a Piper Cherokee 140. Since, I have logged about 35 hours and am nearing the end of my private training. I did not fly much in 2013 because I was saving to purchase an airplane. With two other partners, I did just that in July 2013. We bought a 1973 Piper Archer I (a grown up Cherokee) with an IFR certification so I can move into instrument training when I am ready. I have just begun to fly again and am planning on finishing the private pilot license before I graduate. I will move into the instrument training this spring/summer with an expected late summer completion.
So that is a little about me and my aviation career up to this point. I hope to be employed at an airport or with an air carrier this spring after graduation and intend to keep this blog active with current aviation topics, both commercial and general aviation.
Thanks for looking,
Scott
I started flying when I was 16 years old in a Piper Cherokee 140 at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti. I accrued about 4.5 hours that summer cutting grass to pay for flying lessons. At $5/hour cutting grass and $60/hour for the flight training, you can see why I only accrued 4.5 hours. I stopped flying for awhile until years later when I got a gift certificate to the Aviation Center at the Ann Arbor Airport. I logged another 1.3 hours in a Piper Cherokee 140/180 in 2005 and thought my flying career was going to take off.
Well, it didn't. I decided to start saving money to finish my private license but couldn't seem to save enough, something always came up that took the funds. Eventually, in 2011, I decided to finish my education so I enrolled at EMU in the Aviation Management Program to fix my flying bug. Coming in with an Associate degree in Applied Sciences, I was able to dive right in to the aviation classes and haven't looked back since. I have been enrolled at least 12 credit hours every semester, except summers, to finish the degree in three years and have also started flying again.
I took a job at the Aviation Center in February 2012 as a line crew member. I never took a paycheck, just loaded up my credit account and started flying again, you guessed it, in a Piper Cherokee 140. Since, I have logged about 35 hours and am nearing the end of my private training. I did not fly much in 2013 because I was saving to purchase an airplane. With two other partners, I did just that in July 2013. We bought a 1973 Piper Archer I (a grown up Cherokee) with an IFR certification so I can move into instrument training when I am ready. I have just begun to fly again and am planning on finishing the private pilot license before I graduate. I will move into the instrument training this spring/summer with an expected late summer completion.
So that is a little about me and my aviation career up to this point. I hope to be employed at an airport or with an air carrier this spring after graduation and intend to keep this blog active with current aviation topics, both commercial and general aviation.
Thanks for looking,
Scott
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