I have read NTSB reports on this problem, and most seem to be either poor intra-cockpit communication (junior crew members not speaking up, when a problem is recognized), not believing what the instruments are saying(God complex, "I know I'm right, dammit", garbled or mis-understood radio comm. How do modern commerical pilots train to avoid this tragic result, of what seems to me, to be sadly easily correctable problems within the cockpit. Opinions? comments?
2007-03-15 14:20:56 · 4 answers · asked by gregva2001 3 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Aircraft
CFIT has become less of a problem with TAWS being mandatory in all medium size and above aircrafts. This along with weather radars with predictive windshear detection capabilities makes CFIT a rarity.
The pilot may think he is god, but reliable technology cannot be argued with. When you hear the sound "Terrain, Pull up, pull up", you know what to do.
2007-03-16 14:33:20 · answer #1 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is a couple of cases of NEAR CFIT that also draw attention.
In the case of a failure of the ILS system a 747 nearly bought the farm but luckily the crew did recognize or basically just sensed an issue and did a go around just in time to avert the disaster. I would agree with your initial diagnosis that CRM is the key to avoiding it but I also see that in some cases trusting your equipment could actually lead to the ground. So, as a result, I wont agree with you that it is an "easily" correctable problem within the cockpit.
Until we all have "virtual sight" I think these things will continue. Even if you had an totally automated flight system if some critical portion failed CFIT could occur. (Like happened with the 767 and failed ILS unit.) I think this was in New Zealand a switch on the ILS transmitter was left in the test position. No way the crew could know that at all period.
2007-03-16 11:23:18 · answer #2 · answered by Tracy L 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You've partially answered your own question, and contradicted yourself in the process.
Bad CRM (Cockpit Resource Management) is at fault in many CFIT accidents, and has nothing to do with whether they're flying a DC-3 or a brand new jetliner with all bells & whistles. Newer aircraft have terrain warning radar, but that's about the only advantage they have. If the cockpit crew isn't doing the job, throwing technology at the problem is only a stopgap.
2007-03-16 00:49:40 · answer #3 · answered by Flyboy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The airplane isn't going to fly itself into the ground. It requires a pilot to either set it up wrong, be in the wrong place, or not pay attention to what is going on. If there are two pilots, then flying into the ground should be several orders of magnitude more unlikely.
But it isn't, and for all the reasons you listed.
2007-03-16 13:45:24 · answer #4 · answered by lowflyer1 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋