Flight Safety Information May 7, 2014 - No. 093 In This Issue Air-Safety Regulators Want Better Plane-Tracking Kit Installed Sooner Cockpit Automation Is Wrecking Pilot Focus NTSB Recommends FAA, NWS Improve Pilot Weather Forecasts ICAO launches safety, air navigation tools India orders real time aircraft tracking after MH370 mystery Airplane diverts after windshield cracks FBI Agent Held in Pakistan After Carrying Ammo Into Airport PRISM SMS Graduate Research Survey Upcoming Events Air-Safety Regulators Want Better Plane-Tracking Kit Installed Sooner European Agency Calls For Longer-Life, Longer-Range Beacons By 2018, 2019 By ROBERT WALL European aviation safety regulators want to hasten the introduction of improved "black boxes" on commercial airliners after the fruitless search so far for Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU +2.27% Flight 370 has highlighted shortcomings with the existing technology. The mandatory operational life of beacons attached to flight-data recorders should be extended to 90 days from 30 days two years earlier than initially planned, the Cologne-based European Aviation Safety Agency said today. Airplanes traversing oceans should also carry beacons with greater range, EASA said. "The proposed changes are expected to increase safety by facilitating the recovery of information by safety investigation authorities," EASA Executive Director Patrick Ky said. "The tragic flight of Malaysia Airlines MH370 demonstrates that safety can never be taken for granted." Authorities have been searching without success for the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing BA - 0.86% 777-200ER that vanished en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8 with 239 people on board. Lapses in coordination among countries and companies trying to find the plane have repeatedly hobbled the two-month-old search. The flight-data recorders that store information vital to crash investigations come with beacons designed to aid search teams trying to locate the devices. In its latest opinion, which is not yet a binding requirement for the industry, EASA said it wants aircraft to feature beacons with a 90-day minimum transmission to give search teams more time to recover the devices. The technology should be introduced by 2018 rather than by 2020 as previously planned. The beacons on the Malaysia Airlines flight had a 30-day transmission life so search teams had only a few days to locate the short-range signal after delays in narrowing the area where the plane is suspected to have crashed. EASA also wants airliners flying more than 180 nautical miles over water to have an additional beacon transmitting at a different frequency with greater detection range from 2019. An alternative is to equip the aircraft with other technology to pinpoint the location of a crash site to within 6 nautical miles, the agency said. The regulator also is requiring that cockpit voice recorders be upgraded to store 20 hours of conversation, rather than just two hours as is currently the case. EASA had already proposed an increase to 15 hours, but has extended the storage requirement to capture the entire duration of long-range flights. It is giving industry an extra year to comply with the stricter standard that should now lead to the installation of such recorders on planes from 2020. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303417104579545430644359044 Back to Top Cockpit Automation Is Wrecking Pilot Focus I'm probably not alone in finding the modern commercial jetliner "glass cockpit" a bit ominous. It's not that I don't trust computers to perform the tasks needed to get an aircraft loaded with 300 humans from one place to another without throwing a general protection fault, blue screening, and sending that aircraft into a flat spin-let's assume the web of redundancies in a cockpit can handle whatever faults could possibly be encountered in a computer engineer's wildest imagination-but there's something more subtle, having to do with how human pilots interact with that system. It's something to do with virtualizing reality and what that might entail for pilots navigating an especially real environment. That's about as far as I can explain it: detachment from an environment at a time when that environment is absolutely everything. A study out today in the journal Human Factors (prepublished in 2013) provides some definition to the above ominousness. The researchers, a team drawn from NASA's Ames Research Center and the University of California, looked at the relative levels of attention reported by pilots placed in cockpits with differing degrees of automation during a simulated descent into the hectic JFK airport in New York. Specifically, as the automation levels changed, the pilots were asked whether they thinking about, "the 'task at hand,' if they were thinking higher-order thoughts about the flight, such as planning ahead, or were thinking about something entirely unrelated to the flight," in the study's words. What would we expect? Proponents of aircraft super-automation argue that such systems free up pilot attention for higher-level thoughts about the flight, like planning for unexpected events and maintaining a more holistic situational awareness. Planes crashing because of pilots focusing on some less-critical detail at the expense of overall awareness have historically been more common than anyone would like to think. There are different kinds of awareness then: misallocated (and dangerous) awareness, such as focusing on an uncritical indicator light instead of fuel levels, and there's the sort of awareness promised by glass cockpits, where a pilot's task becomes limited to overseeing the flight and being ready to intervene if necessary. But it's not that easy. Pilots are simply humans and have the same vulnerabilities as the rest of us. One of those is boredom. Watching a plane fly itself isn't going to be a stimulating activity, in part because it was designed with the above philosophy in mind: freeing the pilot. It also isn't going to be stimulating because, if you're a pilot, some vast portion of your life is going to consist of just doing that, watching the plane fly, day after day. What today's study found shouldn't be surprising. With more cockpit automation, pilots' attentions declined in some situations. They daydreamed (thought about something unrelated to the flight), which is almost a tautological finding: as flight tasks to pay attention to declined, attention declined. It's not quite that simple, however. The data collected in the study tests a few different automation-related variables. The most general situation of "some automation" vs. "more automation" actually found attention shifting as intended, from specific tasks to higher-level planning and observation, rather than shifting from specific tasks and/or higher-level observation to the third daydreaming option. This general finding, however, is aggregated from several more specific subsets. One of those is whether or not everything is going correctly as the flight approached JFK. If the automated aircraft was not on- target, pilots became very focused on specific tasks, but if it was and everything was going according to plan, attention dropped off severely. The results are subdivided again according to whether or not the automation required "hands off" or "hands on" attention, with the even more unsurprising finding that daydreaming increased by an even more severe degree while in "hands off" mode. The study notes that the percentage of cockpit time spent unfocused is roughly on par with the average amount of time across the entire (pilots and just regular goofballs) population that people spend with their mind wandering (not including sleep): 30 percent. The authors also note the emerging body of research suggesting that daydreaming has positive effects on cognition, from problem solving to psychological vigilance-though another body finds effects to the contrary. Maybe then your pilots tuning out at 40,000 feet is to everyone's benefit, but only if it's the "right" kind of tuning out. Finally, the study asks, "since pilots receive little procedural guidance about how to actively monitor automated systems, we may have effectively left them with the question: 'What else is there to think about?'" What other ways out are there aside from completely redesigning cockpits? Automation may not be as doomed as it seems. Previous studies have imagined systems that bring pilots into the automated process, forcing them to "check in" with different monitoring tasks, and even just pilots checking in with each other has been shown to break them out of the daydream loop and back into cockpit focus. These things are easy enough to implement and wouldn't take much hardware modification, just new procedures and new layers of pilot education. At the very least, it's something to think about. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/cockpit-automation-is-killing-pilots-attention-spans Back to Top NTSB Recommends FAA, NWS Improve Pilot Weather Forecasts ANCHORAGE -The National Transportation Safety Board has issued a recommendation to both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Weather Service Tuesday, urging both agencies to work toward placing more weather information in pilots' hands. The NTSB wants those agencies to do a better job in sharing more real-time weather information with pilots, and do a better job of teaching them about dangerous weather conditions they may face. "We find about 40 percent of the accidents, pilots did not get a weather briefing so we certainly encourage and try and get people to get weather briefings before they go flying," said Earl Weener, one of the NTSB's five members. NTSB members, who are appointed by the president, investigate about 15,000 general-aviation accidents a year. About 20 percent of those involve weather conditions such as wind, fog, icing and turbulence. Currently information on these potentially dangerous conditions exists, but it's not always provided to pilots during pre-flight weather forecasts. "We're trying to make sure that we get the most up-to-date, accurate weather information into the hand of the end user -- which is obviously the pilot or (flying) operation in this case," said Clint Johnson, chief of the NTSB's Alaska office. In 2012, a Learjet had icing on the wind screens and ended up going off a runway at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport while trying to land. Investigators later found out that pilot hadn't been told about a pilot report at nearby Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson that warned of severe icing. "Unfortunately that information wasn't transmitted to the crew, and ultimately they continued to approach and went off the runway," Johnson said. What does this recommendation mean for Alaska, with its harsh climates and sometimes unpredictable weather? "What it means for Alaska is working together with the FAA and National Weather Service to get that information to the pilots in a more expeditious manner," Johnson said. FAA officials declined immediate comment Tuesday but wrote in an email that "the FAA takes NTSB recommendations very seriously. The agency has 90 days to respond to NTSB recommendations and will do so within that time frame." In a separate recommendation last week, the NTSB specifically urged the FAA to examine its oversight of rural Alaska air carrier owner HoTH Inc., due to six incidents ranging from forced landings to fatal crashes under HoTH's umbrella since 2012. Like the FAA, the National Weather Service also said Tuesday that it needs to review the recommendations before making any comment. http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/ntsb-recommends-faa-nws-improve-pilot-weather-forecasts/25848664 Back to Top ICAO launches safety, air navigation tools The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has launched its inaugural Air Navigation Report, a development which will be supported by a series of new 'online dashboards' the UN aviation agency has developed to improve transparency and accountability on aviation safety and air navigation performance and implementation in all ICAO Regions. The new ICAO Air Navigation Report is a sister publication to the ICAO Safety Report, both of which are published annually. It features global and regional results on the implementation of Performance-based Navigation (PBN) procedures, Continuous Climb and Continuous Descent Operations (CCO/CDO), Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) and Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) progress, and examples of global best practices in all areas. In a related move, ICAO also announced the launch of its new 'online dashboards', which will be available on the websites of its seven regional offices. These will make use of dynamic data displays to provide real- time updates on local safety and efficiency performance indicators, assisting both states and industry with any tactical adjustments needed to strategic work programmes. "Effective monitoring and reporting efforts of this nature greatly assist us in determining practical priorities, eventually helping to set in motion targeted collaborative initiatives like the highly-successful ICAO Runway Safety Programme," said ICAO's Air Navigation Bureau Director, Nancy Graham. "Our goal here is to leverage ICAO's data in these areas, make it available to our community as immediately as possible, and then to support the data with analysis and trends identification that will be published in our reports." Both the new reports and the online dashboards will further assist ICAO in managing its work toward the priorities and objectives established in its Global Plans for Aviation Safety and Air Navigation which were endorsed by ICAO's last Assembly. ICAO's 2014 Safety Report, and inaugural annual Air Navigation Report are available free of charge on the ICAO website. http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2014/05/icao-launches-safety-air-navigation-reporting-tools/ Back to Top India orders real time aircraft tracking after MH370 mystery A passenger aircraft is silhouetted against the rising moon in New Delhi May 7, 2009. (Reuters) - India's civil aviation regulator has instructed airlines to track all aircraft in real time, a decision the regulator said was prompted by the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. The directives will apply to both passenger and cargo planes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement on Wednesday. Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared almost two months ago. Authorities believe the flight ended in the ocean west of Australia but have not found any trace of the plane, including the black box flight recorders which could reveal reasons why the plane diverted so far off course. "While commercial air transport aircraft spend a considerable amount of time operating over remote areas, there is currently no international requirement for real time tracking of the aircraft," the DGCA said. The regulator has ordered Indian carriers to track aircraft in real time using onboard Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) or Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B). DGCA also said airlines should devise a procedure to track aircraft flying over areas not covered by ACARS or ADS-B. It ordered flight crews report aircraft coordinates, speed and altitude every 15 minutes while flying over such areas. The regulator said airlines should monitor faults and warning messages of ACARS and that flight crews must immediately report any issue with ACARS or ADS-B to ground stations using a voice or data link. DGCA said it would review implementation of the directives during surveillance inspections. http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/05/07/uk-india-aviation-tracking-idINKBN0DN0FM20140507 Back to Top Airplane diverts after windshield cracks A CNN iReporter caught this picture of her airplane's damaged windshield after landing. (CNN) -- A cracked windshield was not part of traveler Jennifer Squires' flight plan when she boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles on Saturday, May 3. The Boeing 767-300 aircraft was flying at 38,000 feet when the pilot told passengers over the intercom that they would be making an emergency landing in Albuquerque, wrote Squires, via e-mail. "I immediately thought someone was ill," she wrote. "A few minutes later he (the pilot) told us that because of pressure, the windshield in the cockpit arched, bubbled, and then shattered." Not the entire windshield, clarified a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. "Our initial information was that the outside part of the windshield shattered but the interior part remained intact," wrote FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford, via email. "All windows and windshields are at least double paned," said Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said via e- mail. "This is a rare occurrence but the established procedure is to divert." Share your travel photos with CNNireport There was no loss of cabin pressure, and the airplane landed in about 15 minutes, Squires said. The aircraft had taken off at 8:58 a.m. Eastern Time and landed in Albuquerque at 9:49 a.m. local time (11: 49 a.m. Eastern Time), according to FlightAware.com. "As I exited the plane, I asked if I could see the damage," wrote Squires, who took her picture at that time. "The pilot and co-pilot were in the cockpit, and I thanked them for getting us down safely." Squires, who shared the story with CNN iReport, credited the crew's skill and demeanor. "They were very calm. The whole crew was in fact very professional and quite calm. I really didn't fear for my life, and I don't think anyone else was overly reactive or worried." The airline told passengers it was flying another aircraft from Los Angeles and also offered to re-book passengers on other flights to Los Angeles, Squires said. http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/06/travel/cracked-delta-windshield/ Back to Top FBI Agent Held in Pakistan After Carrying Ammo Into Airport An FBI agent on assignment in Pakistan was detained by authorities in Karachi after he was caught carrying ammunition onto a plane in violation of the law, U.S. and Pakistani officials tell NBC News. A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the agent as Joel Cox and said he was arrested as he was checking in for a flight from Karachi to Islamabad after security agents found 15 bullets and a magazine for a 9mm weapon in his bag. The official said Cox did not resist when he was arrested and was handed over to airport police for further investigation. The agent could be held until Saturday as the review continues, he said. Meghan Gregonis, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, declined to confirm any details of the incident, but told NBC News, "We are aware of the situation that has been reported and we are coordinating with Pakistani authorities to resolve this matter." In Washington, U.S. sources confirmed the arrest of an FBI agent and said the detainee had been in and out of the country on assignment recently. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/fbi-agent-held-pakistan-after-carrying-ammo-airport-n98891 Back to Top Back to Top Graduate Research Survey I am doing a MSc course at Cranfield University (England) in "Human Factors & Safety Assessment in Aeronautics." As part of my Thesis I am doing a survey related to the degradation of manual flying skills and looking at pilot attitudes towards manual flight. I am trying to get as large and varied background of airline/biz jet pilots from all over the world to take part in it. The main aim of my research is to get data from current line pilots about the issues they face regarding manual flying. Issues such as airline policies, fatigue, workload, training and display design. I am looking to gather data from pilots in many countries. The survey should only take about 10-15 minutes hopefully and it is totally anonymous. Here is the link to the survey https://cranfielduniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_1Tf2GY6mkpyR8Il Many thanks Pete Wilson MSc Student and Airline Training Captain Back to Top Upcoming Events: Airport Show Dubai May 11-13, 2014 Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) www.theairportshow.com/portal/home.aspx International Humanitarian Aviation Summit 12-14MAY Toledo, Spain www.wfp.org National Safety Council Aviation Safety Committee Annual Conference Savanah, GA - May 14-15, 2014 Contact: tammy.washington@nsc.org http://cwp.marriott.com/savdt/artexmeeting/ Embry-Riddle to offer Aviation SMS Workshop Daytona Beach, FL May 20-22, 2014 www.erau.edu/case ICAO Loss of Control In-Flight Symposium 20-22 May 2014 - Montreal www.icao.int/meetings/loci Asia Pacific Aviation Safety Seminar 21-22 May 2014, Bangkok, Thailand http://bit.ly/APASS2014 SMS & Risk Management Training Tampa, FL June 4-5, 2014 http://atcvantage.com 6th Annual Aviation Human Factors & SMS Seminar June 24th & 25th 2014 Dallas, TX www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1384474 21st Century Pilot Reliability Certification Workshop June 30th and July 1st, 2014 Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07605 Please contact Kacy Schwartz kacy@convergentperformance.com 719-481-0530 International System Safety Society Annual Symposium 04-08AUG2014 - St. Louis, MO http://issc2014.system-safety.org Curt Lewis