Pilot Monitoring

To assume that an aircraft automation system has a will of its own and will try to kill us would be anthropomorphic. Autopilots and other automation systems have not reached that stage of sophistication. Not yet. What can-and too often does-happen, however, is that flight crews turn the flying duties over to the autopilot and relax. With frightening repetition, this ends in disaster.

Editorial Staff

Wednesday, November 16, 2016 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A primary cause of aviation accidents is pilot complacency and the failure to actively monitor aircraft systems and performance, especially when automation like autopilots are engaged.
Effective flight safety requires "active monitoring"—constantly looking for expected results from inputs or automation—which should be practiced whether monitoring oneself, another pilot, or treating the autopilot as a student.
When an autopilot behaves unexpectedly, pilots should typically "downgrade" its functions to a simpler mode (e.g., heading or vertical speed) rather than immediately disconnecting, to maintain some automation and manage workload during critical phases.

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In the 1968 classic science fiction movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” a computer named HAL operated and monitored a spaceship bound for Jupiter. Everything was fine until the autopilot (HAL) went berserk and killed all but one of the crew. That crewmember survived by killing HAL.