Paper Example on Airline Flight 1420: NTSB Report, Causes & Recommendations

Air transport is one of the safest modes of transport as compared to water and land transport. Despite this, Aircraft accidents have been a challenge to air transport. This accident has led to the loss of lives as well as properties in terms of luggage. This paper will provide critical analysis of the American airline flight 1420 majoring on the cause of the accident according to NTSB reports, additional causes of the accident as well as recommendations for the prevention of future disasters.

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American Airlines flight 1420 was a flight from Dallas international airport to Little Rock National airport in the United States. The aircraft that was involved in the accident was McDonnell Douglas MD-80. The plane landed on the runway 4R at around 23:50. The aircraft continued and moved past the end of the runway a struck a security fence and the ILS localizer arrangement. This collision resulted in the crushing of the plane. Eleven people died on the spot, including the pilot.

The national transportation safety board (NTSB) investigated the plane crash. NTSB reported that first, the fatigue of the pilot could have been the cause of the plane crash; on that day, the captain had been awake for 16 hours. According to research being alert for 13 hours may lead pilots to make mistakes (Griffith, & Mahadevan, 2011). According to results from the CVR, the officer was yawning. Secondly, the use of reverse thrust greater than 1.3 engine pressure ration after arrival (Krause, 2003). Also, the cause of the accident was the failure of the flight crew to discontinue the approach when thunderstorms and similar hazards to flight operation had approached the airport region.

I tend to agree with the finding of NTSB concerning the causes of the American airline flight 1420 crush because of the extreme workload that the pilots experienced when they were attempting to land in an environment that had thunderstorms. The pilots struggled to see the runway through the clouds, which were shifting. The pilots had worked for 16 hours, they had worked in a stressful working environment full of thunderstorms and winds and were working in hours which they were supposed to be resting.

The other reasons that lead to the accident apart from those mentioned by NTSB could be the pilots failed to arm the spoilers, the pilots did not make use of thrust reversers as well brakes as they were opted to have done. Another reason for the accident could have resulted from a get-there-its condition that is the pilot wanted to arrive at their stipulated destiny within the allocated time. When they encountered thunderstorms, they opt to fly through it with the fear of running late (Rhoda, & Pawlak, 1999). The pilots of flight 1420 succumbed to this condition and begun making errors as the plane was still on the move. Through rushing to reach their destination, they did not finish the checklists, misheard reports on the weather, made use of non-standard terms as well as missed callouts.

Additionally, neglect is another cause of the accident. The pilot, according to the report that was given after the crush, pointed out he hesitantly informed the captain, Buschmann, they need to make a missed approach, but seeing that the plane is back to its course, he changes his mind. He does not make the missed approach, which resulted in the crush.

In the future, pilots need to be cautious while on the flight since crush results in a lot of damages, as well as the loss of life. Specific recommendations that can be put in place include. First, the structures which are in runway overrun zones be frangible. That is when struck by a plane, they can be easily broken. The airlines need to review their training technique as far as landing skills are concerned, mostly in circumstances where spoilers don't deploy and adverse conditions of the weather. The recommendations which were laid out by NTSB include pilots to affirm verbally whether spoilers have deployed after landing, the pilots of MD 80 to be directed to using lower reverse thrust power setting, which doesn't cause interference with control of the direction in slippery runways.

Controllers to be giving firefighters data about the location of the crash without being inquired is another recommendation for helping in timely fire extinguishing and minimize the damage caused after the crash (Proseus, 2000). Also, pilots need to be using automatic braking when touching down on wet runways since this strategy diminishes infiltrations of the thunderstorm. Lastly, pilots should work only on the allocated time and have enough rest as well as avoiding stressors to prevent fatigue while at work.

Conclusion

In conclusion, air transport is the safest means of transportation, but whenever a crash occurs, it results in severe effects. American airline fight crush happened in 1991. According to NTSB, it was caused by fatigue from pilots as well as using of reverse thrust higher than the pressure of the engine after touching down the plane. Other causes could include harsh weather condition, which provides for thunderstorms, neglect as well as failure to use automatic breaks when landing on slippery runways. Possible recommendations could be. First, pilots to be having enough time to rest, use automatic breaks when landing on wet runways, making of frangible structures in the runway, and using lower reverse power thrust, among others.

References

Griffith, C. D., & Mahadevan, S. (2011). Inclusion of fatigue effects in human reliability analysis. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 96(11), 1437-1447. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832011001244

Krause, S. S. (2003). Aircraft safety: accident investigations, analyses, & applications. McGraw Hill Professional.

Proseus, E. A. (2000, September). A Meteorological Analysis of The American Airlines Flight 1420 Accident. In Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology, 9 th, Orlando, FL (pp. 209-211). https://ams.confex.com/ams/Sept2000/techprogram/paper_16182.htm

Rhoda, D. A., & Pawlak, M. L. (1999). An assessment of thunderstorm penetrations and deviations by commercial aircraft in the terminal area. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory, Project Report NASA/A-2, 3. https://archive.ll.mit.edu/mission/aviation/publications/publication-files/nasa-reports/Rhoda_1999_NASA-A2_WW-10087.pdf