aviation

Excerpts from the NASA ASRS

January 28, 2012
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One of my students last semester (thanks, Ronney!) turned me on the “Callback” publication from the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System. These are almost all first person stories written as case studies of errors and accidents or near accidents. There aren’t so many that it falls under my list of neat databases, but it certainly is interesting reading. I’ve collected [...]

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What values are pilots allowed to enter for the weight of the plane?

January 22, 2012
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I’d assume when pilots enter a weight estimate for the plane prior to takeoff that there would be a decision aid to prevents gross miscalculation. It certainly seems like an undue load (no pun intended) on the pilot to require entering multiple components for weight correctly. From the article linked below I am no longer sure how much automation is [...]

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Rudder knob in cockpit mistaken for door latch

November 1, 2011
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Any aviation experts want to chime in about a knob turning a plane upside down? Also, please note this was characterized as “pilot error.” Pilot error causes airliner to flip, fly upside down From the article: According to the safety board, an analysis of the aircraft’s digital flight recorder indicated the co-pilot, alone in the cockpit while the captain used [...]

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Human Factors in the News: Next Generation Aviation

August 17, 2011
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I don’t know how I missed this back in March! They even use the words “human factor” in the title! The article is an interesting overview of the “NextGen” systems coming to aviation and explains our field to the general public. Air traffic overhaul hinges on ‘human factor’ From the article: Human factors’ engineering Even amid the amazing technological achievements [...]

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Verdict Reached for Air France Rio Crash

July 29, 2011
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The BBC has reported the incident analysis of the Air France crash that killed 228 people was due to lack of pilot skill in dealing with a high altitude stall. Here is a link to the BEA Report from the Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses. It’s a frightening read, as they give a moment by moment analysis of the last minutes in the cockpit. No emergency [...]

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Automation Issues Hit the Big Time on NPR

February 22, 2011

NPR brings home the safety issues of too much cockpit automation. From the NPR story: “It was a fairly busy time of the day. A lot of other airliners were arriving at the same time, which means that air traffic control needed each of us on very specific routes at specific altitudes, very specific air speeds, in order to maintain [...]

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Accidental Activation During Seat Adjustment on Plane

December 1, 2010
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CNN posted this story where a co-pilot accidentally bumped a control while adjusting his seat, sending the plane into a 26 degree dive. Disaster was only averted by the pilot returning from the restroom, as apparently the co-pilot lacked the training to correct the error. From the article: The aviation agency report concluded that the 25-year-old co-pilot had not been [...]

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Impending Disasters Announced Via Computer

September 3, 2010
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I had no idea that there were automated disaster warnings on planes, such one telling passengers to prepare to crash. Apparently they exist. Apparently it’s not too difficult to mistakenly broadcast them. From one article on the event: “This is an emergency announcement. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water.” … Passenger Michelle Lord said: “People [...]

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Blogging APA Division 21: The Cost of Automation Failure

August 27, 2010
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Arathi Sethumadhavan, currently of Medtronic and recently of Texas Tech, was this year’s winner of the George E. Briggs dissertation award, for the best dissertation this year in the field of applied experimental psychology. Her advisor was Frank Durso. Her work was inspired by our need to increase automation in aviation, due to increases in air traffic. However, automation does [...]

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Blogging APA Division 21: You’re Looking Harmless Today

August 23, 2010
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I‘m on a plane writing this post and I look harmless, or at least not threatening. According to work presented by Poornima Madhavan from Old Dominion University, being a female in the screening line means I am less likely to be hassled by a false alarm of a screener seeing a threat in my bag.* In work done with her [...]

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“Sully” Sullenberger to Speak at the HFES 2010 Conference

March 17, 2010
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I received word today that Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger will give the keynote address at the 2010 Human Factors and Ergonomics Conference in San Francisco this October. Not only am I excited to hear him speak, I am excited because he is the perfect choice for a Human Factors audience: he has spoken publicly on interface and instruction issues in [...]

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Visual Search and Airport Security Screening

February 8, 2010
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Funny I should have mentioned conjunction search the other day, since this post is all about new research by Jeremy Wolfe who has and continues to contribute to the visual search literature. In this new work, already mentioned on i09, Wolfe and his former research assistant Michael van Wert investigated complex visual search as it applies to baggage scanning at [...]

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Emergency Checklists and Aviation

June 10, 2009

The recent water landing into the Hudson is still being investigated. This AP article focuses on whether flight attendants were trained not to open the back door of the plane during a water landing, but the most interesting bit comes at the end: Another concern is whether the FAA and airlines need to revise emergency procedures for pilots in the [...]

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