One second far from death

We frequently travel for different purposes in life such as for work, medical reasons and leisure via train, road or by air. In today’s high paced life, we are susceptible to danger and there is a need to know the escape strategies to shield our families while travelling through any mode. 

The main intent of this write up is to generate awareness regarding human error in aviation hazards. It is considered that flying is the safest mode of transport as there is aviation technical team to look after and crew members take care of passengers. Still we hear dreadful aviation mishaps.

 It is a big question, why airplane crash and innocent passengers are killed.

Human errors are highlighted when any airplane crash news normally flashed. It is well evident that humans make mistakes therefore human error has been implicated in several occupational accidents. It is a general consensus of investigators, aviation intellectuals that most aviation accidents do not happen in remoteness. Instead, these are the consequence of series of events often ending with the perilous acts of aircrew. Errors signify the mental or physical actions of aviation members that fail to attain their intended outcome. When we talk about these errors in aviation, the most common error is decision errors which represent conscious, goal-intended behavior that proceeds as designed. Yet, the plan proves inadequate or inappropriate for the situation. These denotes to honest mistakes and such unsafe acts usually manifest as poorly executed procedures, unsuitable choices, or simply the misunderstanding or misuse of relevant information.

Another form of error in aviation disaster is skill-based errors which occurs with little or no conscious thought. Basic flight skills happen without momentous conscious thought. Consequently, these skill-based actions are particularly susceptible to failures of attention and/or memory. Actually, attention failures have been associated with numerous skill-based errors like the breakdown in visual scan patterns, inadvertent activation of controls, and the misordering of steps in procedures.

Lastly, there is perceptual errors which receives less attention in airplane crash. Perceptual errors happens when sensory input is ruined or “unusual,” especially when flying at night, in rough weather, or in other visually disadvantaged conditions. Pilots act on inadequate information and run the risk of miscalculating distances, altitude, and decent rates, along with responding erroneously to several visual/vestibular illusions. Basically, it is the pilot’s flawed response to the illusion or bewilderment.

For example, “Tenerife Airport Disaster”, the most heartbreaking incident occurred in March 1977. It was the vilest aviation disaster happened on Tenerife, with neither plane actually in the air. A total of 583 passengers in two different planes lost their lives unreasonably because of a combination of poor visibility due to fog and disordered communication between air traffic control and the two pilots involved, resulting in loss of situational cognizance.

Another dreadful aviation accident was “Air France Flight 447” in May 2009.  Air France flight 447 took off from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil bound for Paris with 228 passengers on board. Investigators found that main cause of the accident was the freezing of the pitot tubes which caused the autopilot to disconnect. This resulted in the aircraft switching from normal law to alternate law with no stall protection on control inputs. The poor diagnosis of the situation led to the pilot demanding full nose up.

A collision took place when one of the planes mistakenly thought they had been cleared for takeoff while the other was still on the runway. The pilot and co-pilot of the KLM flight only realized too late when they caught site of the PanAm flight through the fog.

To end this important discussion, we can sense that human factors have pivotal role in wellbeing in the aviation sector. Because single or hairline error of aircrew due to misapprehension or poor procedures can throw the passengers to death mouth and result in calamitous events. The state of passengers travelling from air is just One second far from death if things are not perfect.

Important:

This write-up is based on available information and personal views of writer. Writer is not responsible for any disagreement.