China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Accidents
Published in Suzanne K. Kearns, Fundamentals of International Aviation, 2021
CFIT accidents (pronounced see-fit) occur when an aircraft flies into an obstacle, terrain, or the water without any indication that the crew lost control of the flight (anecdotally described as “flying a perfectly good aircraft into the ground”). CFIT accidents are associated with situational awareness, which refers to the pilot’s mental picture of his or her surroundings. Most CFIT accidents are the result of the pilot losing situational awareness, not understanding that the aircraft is too close to an obstacle or terrain, and flying a functional aircraft into that obstacle or terrain. However, as in the case of the Germanwings flight 9525 accident, CFIT accidents may also be the result of deliberate action. Although CFIT is still the second-deadliest occurrence category, the rate of this type of accident has been reduced over the years with the introduction of flight management systems (FMS) and global positioning systems (GPS), which assist with the pilot’s awareness of their aircraft and the surrounding environment. The CFIT accident rate has also been reduced as a result of ground proximity warning systems (GPWS), which alert pilots when they are flying close to terrain and broadcast a loud auditory warning: “terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up.”
Accidents
Published in Suzanne K. Kearns, Fundamentals of International Aviation, 2018
CFIT accidents (pronounced see-fit) occur when an aircraft flies into an obstacle, terrain, or the water without any indication that the crew lost control of the flight (anecdotally described as ‘flying a perfectly good aircraft into the ground’). CFIT accidents are associated with a pilot’s situational awareness, which refers to the pilot’s mental picture of his or her surroundings. Most CFIT accidents are the result of the pilot losing situational awareness, not understanding that the aircraft is too close to an obstacle or terrain, and flying a functional aircraft into that obstacle or terrain. However, as in the case of the Germanwings flight 9525 accident (see Case Study), CFIT accidents may also be the result of a deliberate action. Although CFIT is still the second-deadliest occurrence category, the rate of this type of accident has been reduced over the years with the introduction of flight management systems (FMS) and global positioning systems (GPS), which assist with the pilot’s awareness of their aircraft and the surrounding environment. The CFIT accident rate has also been reduced as a result of ground proximity warning systems (GPWS), which alert pilots when they are flying close to terrain and broadcasts a loud auditory warning: ‘terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up’.
Error Traps and Recurrent Accidents
Published in James Reason, The Human Contribution, 2017
Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) occurs when the flight crew loses situational awareness in proximity to the ground. CFIT accidents account for about 74 per cent of fatal accidents worldwide in commercial aviation. A study by the Flight Safety Foundation9 discovered the following recurrent features: More than half of all CFIT accidents occur during step-down instrument approaches involving intermittent descents at relatively steep angles, or during approaches at abnormally shallow angles – less than one degree.About half of all CFIT accidents involve freight, charter or positioning flights.About half of all CFIT accidents involve less than three per cent of the world’s total fleet. This three per cent are not equipped with ground proximity warning systems (GPWS). It should also be noted that less than 30 per cent of the corporate and business fleet is equipped with GPWS.Inadequate charts together with significant differences between government- and commercially produced charts were regarded as a significant causal factor in many CFIT accidents.
Investigating a Computational Explanation of the Black Hole Illusion
Published in The International Journal of Aerospace Psychology, 2022
Victoria Jakicic, Logan Boyer, Gregory Francis
From 1975 to 2019, there have been 1,865 fatal hull-loss airline accidents globally (Aviation Safety Network, 2021) with 34% and 42% of the crashes occurring during the middle (en route) and the end (approach and landing) of the flight path, respectively. The two main categories of fatal aviation accidents, taken from data between 2001 and 2016, are loss of control inflight, or LOC-I, and controlled flight into terrain, or CFIT (Federal Aviation Administration, 2018). The main factors that contribute to LOC-I are weather, environmental phenomena, and environmental threats, which are more prevalent in the middle, or en route, portion of the flight path (Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association, 2021). On the other hand, CFIT crashes occur because the pilot unintentionally flies the aircraft into some portion of the earth’s surface, whether it be a body of water, the ground, or another object (FAA Aviation Safety, 2018; Federal Aviation Administration, n.d.), which typically occurs during the end portion of the flight – during approach and landing. Weather conditions can cause CFIT crashes, but the biggest factor for this kind of accident is pilot error (FAA Aviation Safety, 2018; Federal Aviation Administration, n.d.).