Human Factor In The Crash Of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 - Research Paper Example

Later, looking at he records, it was realized that the flight had landed at an approximate rate of 200 feet as per every minute taken. As the flight was going on, everything seemed alright so the crew was just relaxed. It was then that they discovered that that the nose gear was missing and was not fully locked down to the position it normally is. The light indicator for the nose gear was also meaning that that particular warning could not be detected in case of any. This is the landing gear which is normally at the front of the plane.

The air traffic control was informed of a missed approach by a captain who had operated for a period of 30,000 hours worth of flights. They had missed the first landing and he was asking for grounds to try yet another landing. This was to buy him more time to confirm whether or not he had a landing problem with his gears. He was a man who had served in this field for long therefore, panicking was not any part of his schedule. All he asked for was more time to detect the problem that he was encountering before he could land at any given time.

This was because, he was aware of the danger based on such a situation. Because of the missed approach, he climbed 200 feet above the ground heading to the westerly sides. The emergency crew was not focused on the facts of the dangers that they were facing during the landing process. They were only focused on the fact that they were flying a new TriStar that they were flying for the first time. They were not even aware of the fact that they were housing 163 passengers whose lives were in danger.

Such events have happened in the past but there was a safe landing always. They are totally aware of the risk that the situation posed to the passengers therefore, they should have taken action. To that effect, they should have been ready with the emergency team on the move o that they are in a position to save life as in other instances before. This was a simple situation that could not lead to the death of all those people if the crew members were alert after noticing the situation. There is always a risk of fire in such landings but they are some things that can be avoided.

An engineer was sent to look at the problem that the plane was facing the flight and the landing. It was believed to be an engineering rather an electronic problem that caused the crash. Looking at the situation, we realize that the crew on board was not keen enough to realize the problem before time. They were also not ready to perform a rescue mission on the passengers. If they were keen enough to get ready for the disaster, less damage would have occurred. It so happens that due to their ignorance, three of them also died in the crash.

All this was a matter that would have been taken care of within the time that the pilot was still buying time to budget for a second trial on landing. According to the management, that was a small issue that could not have caused a situation like that. This cannot be based on possibilities but on facts of all that happened in the situation. A maintenance specialist in the plane talked to the crew about the situation so that they would get ready for any situation. (Driskell E, Salas E p,130) He later went back to the electronic bay, but no action was taken.

Two warnings were sounded to the crew but they did do anything about it. The whole situation was a technical problem that could have been avoided had the crew been keener when they were told about the situation. This means that the arrogance within the crew has to be taken