Article Analysis Essay on Automation in the Air Dulls Pilot Skill

Abstract

Automation in the Air Dulls Pilot Skill is an article written by Lowy (2015). The article focuses on whether pilots can keep pace with the rapid changes in aviation automation and technological advances. The article posits aircraft continue to depend on automated systems to navigate the skies. It forecast that there will be more fatal accidents as a result of a lack of situational awareness by the pilots. Many people have died in accidents whereby aircraft have stalled during the flight due to loss of control by the pilot. In some accidents, pilots made wrong decisions whose results were catastrophic. In the US, commercial aviation is regulated by the FAA which requires more reliance on automated flying. Thus, automation has come with new kinds of accidents. Pilots manually fly aircraft only during flight takeoff and landing. The rest of the time they are relying on the automated systems to fly the airliners. Thus, they have limited chances to maintain or enhance their manual flying capabilities. As such, when automation does not perform as intended, pilots face difficulties in how to instantly respond or do so in an inefficient manner, which leads to a series of other failures. A study by the FAA found that pilots rely too much on automation.

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The study established that in 60% of accidents and 30% of fatal ones, pilots committed errors with automated flight controls or experienced problems flying the airplane manually. A common mistake was that failing to recognize either the auto-throttle or autopilot had disconnected. Some failed to monitor and maintain airspeed or to respond appropriately to recover from the flight stall. For instance, according to the National Transportation Safety Board report Colgan-Buffalo crash, New York, in 2009, killed 49 people. Federal investigators found that errors were done even before takeoff; the co-pilot of the airliner fed the wrong data into the computers making the plane slow down to unsafe speed. The system responded with a stall warning and the captain repeatedly pulled back the control yoke instead of pushing forward thereby overriding two safety systems. It was later established that the plane had no structural or mechanical problems.

The study posits that even in the circumstances that automation fails to work correctly the pilots can be able to correct these issues. For instance, an investigation established that airspeed sensors provided incorrect data to the Airbus A330's computers which made the autopilot disconnect abruptly and a stall warning was activated. As such, the co-pilot's response made it to stall instead of preventing it. Therefore, the study concludes that with continuous reliance on automation pilots are forgetting how to fly manually. Besides, the opportunity to fly commuter airliners manually is limited. As such, the article recommends that pilots need to be provided the opportunity to experience manual training which comes in handy in case of recovering from a stall. FAA also recommends training pilots how to recover from a stall.

The main article by Lowy (2014) argues that overreliance in automation is making pilots' manual flying skills dull is effective and convincing. The study ideas are clear and well organized. Further, the article has utilized enough support materials and examples to argue its case. As such, the thesis statement of this article is important as it illustrates how human factors are contributing to 70% of all aviation accidents. The study singles out pilots' skills degradation and lack of situational awareness as the accident causal factors. The study claims and posits that automation is presenting new types of accidents that are fatal. And how these new forms of accidents are tracked to the pilot (Human factor). However, I refute Lowy's claims and posits that automation, system engineers, poor pilot training, and overreliance in automation are the contributing factors to causal accident factors. The review will show how technological innovation has progressively outpaced pilot training and the ability to understand how the automated system works.

Introduction

In the US commercial aviation industry, modern aircraft are continuously becoming reliant on automation for effective and safe operation. Automation has an enormous range of benefits such as enhanced flight path control, reduced weather minima, and improves passenger wellbeing (Inagaki & Itoh, 2014, p.4). As such, automation replaces pilots from non-rewarding or monotonous jobs and reduces the amount of work that free attentional resources to focus on managing an automated flight deck. However, in the past few years, there have been horrible incidents as a result of mishandled or misunderstood automation. As such, this has led to scholars questioning the adaptability of automation in aviation and its role in causing fatal accidents. This study will seek to review the article, Automation in the Air Dulls Pilot Skill Lowy, (2015).

Response

Poor Training

In response to the article, I refute the articles claim that pilots are forgetting how to fly. A study by the FAA discovered critical faults in pilot training for handling computerized flying. The study suggested that there has been no proper and sufficient training provided to the flight crew for controlling highly automated aircraft. Thus, most of the issues experienced by pilots are new and they have to deal with them without checklists leaving them to handle them using airmanship and ingenuity. A study found that over 30 percent of serious incidents and 40 percent of accidents from 2001 to 2009 were caused by insufficient knowledge of computerized systems by the flight crew (Koeppen, 2012, p.6). As such, there exist a disharmony between flight crews and their highly computerized airplanes. Therefore, it becomes difficult for pilots to access failure of the system, to recover from the stall and to anticipate mode switching which was not taken into consideration by the system designers.

For instance, a study by Casner et al. (2014, 8), found that pilots who have used automation for a prolonged period retained stick-and-rudder and instrument-scanning skills. But, the study also found that pilots experienced difficulties with awareness maintenance of the position of the aircraft when the map display and GPS were disabled. As such, the outcomes of this study suggest that cockpit automation designers need to be a little less worried about the pilot manual skill in the cockpit, rather they should focus on their critical thinking. Therefore, the pilot's capability of remaining engaged and alert while monitoring the automated systems is the main problem in maintaining their cognitive abilities.

Overreliance in Automation

Further, the article notion that pilots delegate more responsibility to the computerized systems which are integrated into modern aircraft. And that one incorrect instruction or malfunction can abruptly cause a chain of other failures, unsettling crews who have been taught to rely on the system. This shows the irony of aviation automation. On one hand, smart flight control systems, smart avionics, and smart aerodynamics have made flight safer and easier. On the other hand, the decline in workload to the level that pilots are out of the loop, pose danger to situational awareness and manual flying skills degradation. Overreliance in automation can lead to a reduction in vigilance, disregard for system parameters, and errors of omission (Ancel & Shih, 2014, p.8). As such, the pilots need to attain formal experience and instructions for attaining proficiency at operating, monitoring, and supervising both automation and manual flight.

For instance, in the case of AirIndia Charters Ltd aircraft, B737-800NG, May 26, 2010, whereby the use of automation by the operator of a Boeing 737 for a long time made him unprepared for manual override of the airplane when automation failed. The airplane was on a routine flight from Dubai to Pune when it suddenly started an uncontrolled dive toward the ocean. The captain had gone to the restroom, and the first pilot was flying the aircraft. The first pilot lacked manual flying skills and tried to understand the problem, but it is the pilot who rushed back to the cockpit and recovered the aircraft (Archer 2012, p.21). The captain's proficiency in manual flying skills and comprehension of the automated systems helped recover the aircraft promptly. Thus, the aircraft crew needs to be competent in interacting, monitoring and supervising the automated system.

Automation

It is also worth noting that, automated system designers aim to remove pilot error issues out of flight deck; since 72 percent of accidents are traced to the human factor. As such, the study failed to determine whether automation error is going to be a new human factor to the statistics of flight accidents. In truth, there is an increased focus on the pilot while ignoring technology yet they are failing together. Without a doubt, technological advancement and automation have enhanced aviation safety and efficiency, but how pilots are trained to handle this technological benefit is an issue to the US commercial aviation industry (Satchell, 2016, p.17). FAA has exercised its responsibility of directing safety conventions following their existing technological experience and knowledge. However, they are still lagging behind technological advancement in aviation.

I think that automated system designers have led the world to trust in automation and technology; in the process crushing the belief in the training and capability of the pilots to recover from aviation failures or incidents (Darr et al., 2008, p.3). Likewise, pilots agree with this position. Therefore, automation comfort is gradually making pilots a knowledgeable passenger with sufficient information to address emergencies in some cases. Further, the study did not point the fact that automation engineers so far have not developed a system that is zero defective or autonomous rather, they aim to reduce failure to less than 10%. As such, automation also poses malfunction problems to the pilots who are undertrained on how to respond when the system does not operate as intended.

Technological Advancement

Furthermore, the study did not consider whether regulators and manufactures comprehend the fact that training of aircrew has not kept up with advancement in technology. According to Denny (2014), current training pilots and test pilots have been outpaced by the improvement in automation and innovations in engineering (p.4). Manufacturers and regulators have not examined the influence and effects of computerized systems on the pilot's capacity to deal with complex automation permutation features. It is doubtful that line pilots reflect the effects of automated systems on their situational awareness or control skills. Therefore, the aviation industry has adopted computerized flying as the piecemeal method to solve human errors in dealing with psychomotor and cognitive issues.

However, many current aviation accidents investigations have established that computerized flying and pilot overreliance on it has been categorized as a contributing factor to accidents (Archer, 2012, p.7). Some airline training captain globally has started raising their concerns on the absence of fundamental situational awareness and substandard handling abilities in the flight deck. In some accident cases, causes are traced back to the pilot loss of situational awareness and insufficient manual flying skills controlling the modern aircraft. Hence, the negative impacts of automation on the pilot's psychomotor and cognitive skil...