Aviation Inspection and Maintenance System - Case Study Example

Aviation Inspection and Maintenance System The aim of this research paper is discussing the facts surrounding an aircraft accident that occurred on December 20, 2008. An aircraft departed the side of the runway during take-off due to improper maintenance procedures and poor situation awareness. It also explores how the situation could have been prevented, and thus recommends the safety measure that should be put in place in future to prevent occurrence of such accidents. There are several literatures in place regarding the issue of aviation inspection and regulation. According to Eichenberger (1996), since the beginning of the FAA regulation scheme, FAA maintenance personnel have been required to be certificated in order to perform various tasks in keeping aircrafts under repair and airworthy. Moreover, there are other mechanics that are granted inspection authorization by FAA to perform required inspections on all aircrafts operating in the national airspace (Eichenberger, 1996). Furthermore, federal aviation regulations have been put in place to regulate maintenance and inspections and define operating limitations for aircrafts having different kinds of certifications (FAA, 2008). The federal aviation regulations provide five regulation options that should be adapted by all the aircrafts operating in US airspace. These are the continuous airworthiness inspection program, inspection program used by air taxi operator, inspection program used by air travel club, a manufacturer’s inspection program and any other inspection program developed by the owner and approved by the administrator (King, 1986). According to Patankar and Taylor (2004), to reduce the aviation risks, aviation maintenance strategy should optimize the contribution of people and information through technical support. However, Garland et al. (1999) indicate that human factors such as the individual differences of aviation inspectors have a very great influence on the process of inspection and maintenance of aviation facilities and equipment. Several factors resulted in occurrence of this accident. One of the key factors is the failure of an air traffic control system to facilitate the dissemination of key, available wind information to the air traffic controllers and the pilots due to poor maintenance. In this case, both the pilot and the traffic controllers were not aware of the presence and effect of the gusting wind that was being experienced at the airport. It is clear that if the two were aware they could have chosen to delay the flight or could have chosen another runway and the accident would have been avoided. Another factor which caused the accident to happen is the inadequate crosswind training among the people working in the airline industry, which comes as a result of deficient simulator wind gust modeling. It is believed that if the captain had adequate crosswind training, he could have initiated a rejected take-off instead of remaining occupied with the nose wheel steering tiller and right control wheel input which were ineffective and inappropriate for steering the airplane in this particular condition. Moreover, if the air traffic controllers had adequate crosswind training, they could have advised the captain and the pilot how to handle that particular situation. The presence of localized, intermittent wind gusts also contributed to the accident. This wind gust crossed the airplanes path during take-off, thus making the controlling of the plane maintain it in the runway rather more difficult. The factor succeeded in contributing to occurrence of this accident because both air traffic controllers and pilots lacked sufficient airport specific information regarding the localized and transient nature of strong and gusty winds associated with mountain wave and down slope conditions in making their flight decisions. These kinds of winds are characteristic of this particular location where the airport is located; thus there is a big need for air traffic personnel to be equipped with sufficient information about them. Policy issues are great contributors to major accidents similar to the one in discussion. The policy that is currently used by the air control tower of this airport in runway selection contributed to the accident. This policy does not clearly account for crosswind components when selecting a runway configuration. This actually made the air traffic controller to neglect the crosswind component while selecting the runway for this airplane although it was clearly displayed on his ribbon display terminal. Moreover, he felt that it was not necessary to inform the pilot about it, hence making the pilot unaware of the situation. Since wind is one of the major factors that affects take-off and landing of a plane, this plane found itself in a condition in which the pilots found it very difficult to control. Another factor that could have contributed to occurrence of this accident is lack of information among pilots about sensor locations, operation capabilities and the limitations of the low-level wind shear alert systems. It is suspected that if the pilot in the accident was adequately informed about this system, then he could have had sufficient knowledge to handle the situation at a proper time before it reached a critical stage. Moreover, the continental’s simulator training did not replicate the ground level disturbances and the gusting crosswinds that often occur, thus the pilot could have handled a situation closer to this without being aware, and hence he could not have been able to use that experience. Several steps, if they could have been taken, could have helped in avoiding the accident. Of the steps is the conducting of a research about the effect of mountain wave and down slope conditions at airports. This research could have been able to identify potential mountain wave related hazards to ground operations of airports. Moreover, they could have revealed very important information that could be disseminated to pilots and air traffic controllers to allow more informed runway selection decisions. It is believed that such information could have made the pilots and air traffic controllers to either postpone the flight or change the runway chosen, and thus the accident could have been avoided. Modification of the policy used to select runway for airplanes to include the crosswind effect could be the other step that could have avoided the accident. If this policy could have been adjusted as suggested, then the air traffic controllers could have considered the wind gust in selecting the runway for this particular plane and thus the plane could not have used this particular runway. As a result, the plane could have taken off smoothly and hence the accident could not have occurred. Proper location analysis of the place where the airport was located before it was established is another step to consider. If a proper analysis of the place had been done, it could have been discovered that this place is frequently affected by gusty winds that could affect flight. As a result, it could have been known how to avoid the effects of such winds or an alternative location could have been chosen for the airport. Moreover, the analysis could have shown the seasons in which such winds could be expected and hence the pilot could have been sensitized to be more cautious during those seasons. Another step that, if it could have been taken, could have prevented the occurrence of this accident is the proper training of air traffic controllers and pilots on how to deal with such situations. If the pilots and controllers had proper knowledge on how to handle this kind of situations, they could have gone for options which could have prevented the effect of those gusty wind or those which could have resolved the matter. In particular, if the pilot was fully informed about how to deal with such situation, then he could have initiated a rejected take-off which could have prevented the accident from happening. Moreover, if the controller was the one aware of this, then he could have advised the pilot to do so and thus the accident could not have occurred. Several cultural environments can affect a flight. Some of the cultural environments that greatly influence how a flight is conducted are national, professional, and organizational attitudes and values within individuals involved in flight operations and also their masculinity and individualism (Harris, 2011). This can be included in one broad category of human factors that influence a flight. They either influence the flight positively or negatively, but in most cases the negative influence is more prevalent than the positive one. The aviation sector having a wide range of employees is greatly affected by the cultural differences of its employees. It is believed that some aviation errors that result in occurrence of aviation accidents are because of the cultural environments of either the pilots or the air traffic controller. Thus understanding this aspect of flight environment is very important as it can help us to avoid some of those accidents. Culture influences when, how and where communication is to be made or assistance requested. Some people, due to their cultural environment, regard seeking assistance from others as the last option in their undertaking. In case such a person is a pilot, he tends to try to exhaust all the possibilities he have in handling a critical situation before seeking assistance from an air traffic controller. This can actually make a problem to reach a worse stage where handling it becomes more difficult and thus results in fatal accidents. Cultural environments also influence how people relate to one another and the way they interact with each other. In our case, we can say that cultural environment plays a very big role in determining the way several personnel involved in air transport undertake their activities. The accident that we are discussing was greatly influence by the actions of both the pilots and the air traffic controllers that might have been influenced by their cultural environments For any flight to be effective and efficient a good interaction and coordination between flight pilots and the ground air traffic controllers is required. Air traffic controllers are supposed to use their equipment to assess flight and airport situations and then communicate the information they obtain as accurately as possible to pilots. Moreover, this information should reach the pilots in good time to help them in their decision-making. This interaction is paramount and where it fails as in our case where the air traffic controller failed to give the pilot some necessary information, an accident might result. When this interaction is enhanced, the pilot can ensure he has adequate information to assist him in the flight and thus accidents could be avoided. Several aircraft maintenance technicians are mandated to undertake different tasks in the aviation sector. According to Eichenberger (1996), all the technicians are certified by the Federal Aviation Authority to undertake either maintenance work or inspection work. Those mandated to undertake maintenance work are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that all the aircrafts assigned to them are in good operational conditions. On the other hand, the ones mandated to do the inspection are responsible for ensuring that aircrafts meet certain operation criteria before they are given a certification to operate within the national airspace (FAA, 2012). Moreover, the maintenance technicians are given the responsibilities of identifying the flight conditions that a particular type of plane can be able to operate in. Furthermore, there are other maintenance technicians whose mandate is to ensure proper functioning of the aviation equipment. These technicians also play a very big role in ensuring aviation safety and when they fail in their responsibilities, aviation safety is threatened. The aircraft which was involved in the above discussed accident was well maintained and thus the aircraft maintenance technicians involved had fulfilled their responsibilities well, but the other type of maintenance technicians had failed in their responsibilities (NTSB, 2012). With the responsibilities given to aircraft maintenance technicians, learning, practicing and adapting to ever changing procedures is paramount. These could facilitate professional growth of these technicians and to improve their proficiency. This could increase their ability to detect a problem in an aircraft, thus maintaining it before it can cause an accident. Moreover, as we know, technology in this sector has been very dynamic with new equipment and models of aircrafts being introduced. As a result, if the maintenance technicians mandated with installation and maintaining of these new aircrafts and equipment do not learn and improve their knowledge, then they might find themselves being unable to undertake their responsibilities effectively. If aircraft maintenance technicians deviate from their responsibilities, we might end up having planes that are not airworthy operating in our airspace, which might result in more accidents in the future. Moreover, if they deviate from their responsibilities of identifying the flight conditions of a particular type of an airplane, then in future we might find such planes flying in hazardous conditions that they cannot be able to overcome and thus more accidents could result. According to NTSB (2012), although this plane was involved in an accident, it was operating in its rightful conditions as defined by the maintenance technicians, so this was not the cause of the problem. The facts surrounding this aviation accident reveal that it could have been avoided through proper maintenance of not only of the aircrafts but also of other aviation equipment and through situation awareness. This research has also revealed that aircraft maintenance technicians are very important in ensuring aviation safety and that they should ensure that they continue improving themselves so that they could be able to handle more challenging situations that have been coming up. Moreover, it has revealed that coordination among the ground controllers and the pilots is very important in ensuring safety and has revealed that this is greatly influenced by the cultural environment of both of them. However, it has not indicated on how cultural environment can be dealt with to ensure that they do not increase the chances of making an accident to occur. I thus end my research paper recommending that a research be done to determine how we can improve the cultural environment of aviation workers to improve aviation safety. References Eichenberger, J. A. (1996). General aviation law. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional. FAA. (2008). Federal aviation regulations/aeronautical information manual. Washington, DC: Skyhorse Publishing Inc. FAA. (2012). Federal Aviation Administration. Retrieved on 9 May 2012 from http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/. Garland, D. J. et al. (1999). Handbook of aviation human factors. Mahwah, NJ: Routledge. Harris, D. (2011). Human performance on the flight deck. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. King, F. H. (1986). Aviation maintenance management. Carbondale, IL: SIU Press. NTSB. (2012). Aviation accident report. Retrieved on 9 May 2012 from http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2010/AAR1004.pdf Patankar, M. S., & Taylor, J. C. (2004). Applied human factors in aviation maintenance. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. 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