{"id":488,"date":"2018-04-15T06:44:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-15T06:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chrisbart.com\/?p=488"},"modified":"2018-04-17T19:07:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T19:07:06","slug":"nine-facets-of-af447","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrisbart.com\/reviews\/2018\/04\/15\/nine-facets-of-af447\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine facets of AF447"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because we think they had a material bearing on the AF447 disaster, in Air Crashes and Miracle Landings<\/a> we alluded to private matters one would not normally divulge. Firstly, the ones leading to the captain\u2019s sleep deficit, and even his very likely euphoric and soporific frame of mind when early in the flight he just might have bothered to adjust course to avoid the storms, as did the captains of other airliners that night.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, we give details of nine facets of the disaster which in combination resulted in tragedy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unlikely to Recur<\/strong>
\n Lessons learnt should mean that never again will there be such a stall following a high-altitude autopilot disengagement due a loss of credible airspeed data. Pilots will be reminded that all they need do\u2014apart from keeping the wings level (not easy without the computer) and continuing to fly level at the already proven power setting\u2014is nothing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are also being taught how to recover from a high-altitude stall. Besides reducing power to prevent the nose being pushed up in a stall it might also be necessary to remove the resulting upward trim on the horizontal stabilizer in the most unlikely event of someone Bonin-like having been continuously \u201cpulling back\u201d on his stick. Unfortunately, when copilot Bonin, the PF,\u00a0 announced that was what he had been doing all along, they were dropping at ten thousand feet a minute, with only half that height remaining. It was quite hopeless, for even after putting the nose down and having regained airspeed, considerable time, or rather height, would be still needed to break that vertiginous fall.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Future\u2014Artificial Intelligence (AI)<\/strong>
\n Research is being done on an autopilot featuring artificial intelligence that can, for instance, guesstimate airspeed from more data sources, such as GPS and inertial guidance systems, before \u201cgiving up\u201d and disengaging. The team developing it found it could even learn from experience gained on different models of aircraft. That would apply to cases where pilots had flown on manually with no problems after the autopilot disengaged due to lack of airspeed data.<\/strong>
\n Such an autopilot could continue, as the lawyers say, \u201cunder advisement\u201d and avoid the pilots being thrown in at the deep end, where the startle effect and lack of manual flying dexterity are liable to make them do something untoward, as tragically happened here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frequently cited as the ultimate example of how automation has made pilots lose their flying skills and crash, this disaster was also due to other incidental human and technical factors. As Sullenberger so wisely says, \u201cBad outcomes are almost never the result of a single fault, a single error, a single failure\u2014instead they are the end result of a causal chain of events.\u201d <\/strong>
\n Rather than an example of pilots losing their flying skills this could also be a prime example of how complex underlying situations can be.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See the book to understand the interplay of nine facets of the disaster in detail, and how the delay in the\u00a0 captain returning to the cockpit meant the more experienced non-flying copilot was distracted calling him, and he arrived too late to grasp the situation. Investigators are wary of speculating over matters of personality, though the NTSB did delve into private life of the copilot who swished off the tail of the Airbus as it encountered wake turbulence on taking off from New York’s JFK. However, the French investigators are particularly wary as the pilots’ union opposes publication of any details including the transcription of the CVR.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because we think they had a material bearing on the AF447 disaster, in Air Crashes and Miracle Landings we alluded to private matters one would not normally divulge. Firstly, the ones leading to the captain\u2019s sleep deficit, and even his very likely euphoric and soporific frame of mind when early in the flight he just … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-perform-wonders"],"yoast_head":"\nThe interplay the human factors was critical in the AF447 disastr.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Though cited as the prime example of how computers have led pilots to lose their flying skills an interplay of human factors was also responsible.for the AF447 disaster.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chrisbart.com\/reviews\/2018\/04\/15\/nine-facets-of-af447\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The interplay the human factors was critical in the AF447 disastr.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Though cited as the prime example of how computers have led pilots to lose their flying skills an interplay of human factors was also responsible.for the AF447 disaster.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/chrisbart.com\/reviews\/2018\/04\/15\/nine-facets-of-af447\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christopher Bartlett's blog for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-15T06:44:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-04-17T19:07:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chrisbart.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Copy-of-God-bless-our-great-country-3-300x150.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kantoku\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Nine facets of the AF447 crash into the South Atlantic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"This gratuitous disaster is much easier to understand if you look at them in combination. 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