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Captain Ray
,
OH
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Cirrus SR22 Crash Ruling Overturned
from Captain Ray
wrote 2 years 3 weeks ago
Unfortunately, yet another accident of someone flying into situations they are not prepared. John F. Kennedy Jr. did the same thing. No horizon to a VFR pilot is deadly and limitations need to be always at the forefront of a decision to fly an aircraft in marginal weather. Very sad two people got killed when they should have decided to drive rather than fly.
The Human Factor: A Perfect Storm of Fatigue
from Captain Ray
wrote 2 years 3 weeks ago
This was a tragic and unfortunate accident in so many ways. Airport design contributed to the confusion in the cockpit. However, the smart pilot always looks ahead at the chances of confusion and double and triple checks everything. One traditional place for rushing is Moysant airport in New Orleans. With a short taxi to the north/south and shorter runway I always prefered to stay put after pushing back (A-320), do all the required checklists and preparations and announcements before moving towards the runway. This allowed both pilots to have a heads out capability to minimize taxi/runway errors. This procedure would have saved this crew, passengers and plane.
Head-Up Displays Prevent Crashes
from Captain Ray
wrote 2 years 4 weeks ago
And yet, recent studie have confirmed that glass cockpits in general aviation planes HAVE NOT resulted in a decrease of accidents. My take is like the old saying states, "It is not the equipment but the operator that makes a difference." Training, discipline and application will determine if this yet another expensive piece of technology can result in an advantage for safety and economical operation of aircraft in the USA. The wave of new cars with more technology have lots of disavantages in terms of complexity and distraction from the driving chores. HUDs and glass cockpits can do very little to affect the decision making of pilots without a decent level of discipline. Too many push the envelope of their planes due to human factors. After all, the number one cause of assistance on the road, according to AAA, is running out gas. Running out of gas? Even with an icon and a warning tone informing people on the need to refuel, apparently many ignore this advanced technology warning. It is all about the people and not the technology.
Flight Crews Say Cell Phones Cause Interference
from Captain Ray
wrote 1 year 48 weeks ago
I personally experienced electronic inteference during ground operations prior to flight. One of the hydraulic system indicators was giving a reading that just did not made any sense. The copilot and myself double checked and concluded that it had to be interference. I made an announcement of the problem to the cabin and asked everyone to double check all electronic devices were indeed turned off. The senior flight attendant reported one person even got up and checked a bag in the overhead compartment. Within seconds of that activity the problem went away. We monitored the situation. Checked with our maintenance center and after a few minutes without the fault we proceded to continue with the flight. All indications were normal during the flight. I know of another case with faulty indicators and the problem was eventually traced to the hearing aid of a person. After that person was reseated somewhere else in the cabin the problem dissapeared. Signals are amplified thru the aircraft structure and are picked up by wire bundles. SocalFlyer may chose not to believe these events do happen but aviation professionals like myself know they do happen. The equipment and circumstance are difficult to trace because there are so many devices and so many different aircraft around. In the meantime please do make sure your devices are OFF when asked to do so. Why temp fate? Thanks for your help. Captain Ray (Ret.)
Air France 447: Was it a Deep Stall?
from Captain Ray
wrote 1 year 50 weeks ago
Unfortunately, this is not the first commercial plane to crash under stall conditions with mutiple crew positions. Two Boeing 757s lost airspeed indications and indicated confusing information to the crew. One with the static ports taped and one with a bug in one of the pitot tubes. One B-727 in the USA crashed as its pitot tube iced up due to lack of pitot heat as the crew did not perform the checklist correctly. Once indications start that are not normal or indicate multiple failures the crews were easily overwhelmed with all the information presented. What is there to indicate correctly? I would dare say that in my entire 36 year career flying military and commercial jets I encountered a similar situation in a T-38 as the pitot tube iced up in the clouds. In this plane it was rather easy to analyze as we practice approach to stalls continuously as part of student training. But all other functions were working! I cannot remember practicing, talking, covering accidents, etc. in commercial jet training that covered pitot failure and the ensuing number of electronic inputs/indications to follow. Add the weather and you have a terrible combination of factors and a decision as to which one to believe would be extremely difficult. The pitot on this plane and others similar had been judged defective because they had suffered multiple problems in months prior to the accident. Why were they not replaced before with some sense of urgency is part of aviation's slow history to respond to systemic or equipment issues. Had this happened in clear weather, as it had done in prior airframes, this crew could have recovered as others in this model plane had done before. Codehead mentions the Buffalo, NY crash that was a stall accident. It is my impression that in this crash the crew had a total disconnect as to the situation at hand and were not flying the plane as the airspeed was allowed to decay without response. Once the plane stalled the response was the wrong one. The conclusion is that the captain did not know what was going on and this indicates just plain lack of being with the plane.
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