Pilot Error

All bets are off, however, if there is an error in the design, certification, manufacture or maintenance of a transport airplane. The procedures pilots fly only assure a successful outcome to foreseeable events. For example, certification authorities do their best to make sure that the rotating components of a jet engine stay inside the engine if they fail. As another layer of protection against an uncontained engine failure, critical aircraft components that are located in the so-called "engine rotor burst zone" are spaced as far apart as possible and shielded as much as possible to try to prevent a single piece of flying shrapnel from a failed engine from damaging all components of a redundant system.

But if something went wrong in the design, certification, manufacture or maintenance of a jet engine and the parts come flying out, no absolute pilot procedure can apply to the potential damage, and the pilots are on their own. Let's now compare the world of transport flying to personal aviation. In the typical light airplane there is only one of each critical system, including propulsion in the case of a single-engine airplane. There is also usually only one pilot. And the operational rules allow that pilot enormous latitude to decide when and where to fly. That's the best thing about our system.

We have enormous freedom to fly our personal airplanes, but in turn we individually shoulder the responsibility.

Pilot error

When the pilot of a personal airplane fails to complete a flight successfully the cause is often labeled pilot error. But where is the error? If the pilot ran out of fuel or forgot to lower the landing gear, there was an error, but I maintain that crews of two or more simply don't forget the gear, so the decision to fly as a single pilot removes the backup to a potentially damaging event.

By not requiring a licensed dispatcher to plan the flight and back up the pilot's fuel decisions, the running out of gas was a foreseeable event that was not prevented.

Aviation Accidents: Pilot Errors

What is usually called pilot error in personal flying is actually the result of a pilot decision. In perfect hindsight, the decision to fly without all of the support we insist on for transport flying was an error, but that is like saying that every stock price that goes down represents investor error. An investor never makes money unless he takes the chance of losing it by investing.

The pilot of a personal airplane never fulfills his passion for flying unless he takes the risk of crashing. The reason that I object to the wholesale application of the pilot error epithet to personal airplane pilots is that the only method offered for avoiding the alleged error is not to fly.

For example, when the pilot of a personal airplane crashes in bad weather many call it a pilot error, saying the mistake was in attempting the flight. Since even highly trained and experienced pilots occasionally crash in personal airplanes, the only solution to the alleged "error" of flying in poor weather is not to do it.

If we replace the pilot error label with the term "pilot decision," we have a more accurate picture of the situation and can apply the information more directly to our own flying. When the pilot of a personal airplane decides to fly in poor weather, land or take off at a short runway, stretch the range of his airplane or make any other crucial pilot decision, he doesn't believe the flight will end in a crash, and he has a reason for taking on some extra risk.

By studying the accident history of personal flying we can determine where the greatest risks lie, and we can try to include that information in our own decision-making process.

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In the end, we balance the risks with the rewards. For example, I will make flights by myself that I wouldn't make with anyone else onboard. That makes no sense in terms of absolute safety, but I am unwilling to pass on the same level of risk to others that I am willing to accept for myself. If I come to grief on such a flight, was it a pilot error or one of the foreseeable potential outcomes of a pilot decision?

The biggest reason that I believe we must stay focused on pilot decisions instead of pilot errors is that the term error implies a mistake that can be avoided through superior skill, experience or training. In the case of transport flying, that is true. In personal airplanes we don't have the redundancy and margins at all levels to prevent every crash even with the perfect error-free pilot at the controls. By making informed and conservative decisions about our flying in personal airplanes we greatly improve the odds, but there could be a day when the risk-reward ratio breaks the wrong way.

If that ever happens to me I hope nobody says it was pilot error, but that old Mac knew the chance he was taking and drew the short straw on that day. Decisions, decisions So if I'm not making errors but decisions, how does the process work? Not with absolutes, that's for sure.

I was flying to Wichita on a Sunday in late April knowing that a big line of strong and severe thunderstorms stretched from Texas to Canada. The solid line of storms was on the radar, and the FSS briefer couldn't add any information except that the line, which was west of Wichita at the time, was forecast to hold together or intensify into the night. The first part of the decision was easy: The weather was bumpy but benign at Indy, and thunderstorms were forecast to be scattered until reaching Kansas.

United Airlines Flight 173 (1978)

The Indy and Kansas City Center controllers regularly read sigmets for lines of severe thunderstorms to the west, but I bounced along between, and occasionally through, scattered clouds with nothing on my weather radar and only distant lightning detected by the Stormscope. As I flew south of Kansas City a new sigmet described a line of severe thunderstorms between my position and Wichita.

I started to encounter some light rain and layered clouds, and my weather radar started to detect heavier rain ahead. I asked the controller if he saw any breaks in the line of storms, and he said no.

I then called Flight Watch and the specialist described the same line and, with my prodding, said there was a "thin" spot, but not clear, to the south of Emporia, which is about midway to Wichita. Three strikes and I was out. The controller, the Flight Watch specialist and my own weather radar agreed. I told the controller I wanted to divert to Kansas City Downtown because of the weather ahead. After they got a look at the cells on their radar they talked about turning around.

The controller told them some guy in a Baron had just pulled the plug and was turning back, and it made their decision a little easier. We pilots all hate to be first into the weather but may be even more hesitant to be first to call it off. That's probably one of many reasons crews have better safety records than single pilots: While I pause in congratulating myself on making such a prudent decision you must know that I really didn't need to be in Wichita until 9: It was easy to abort knowing that a leisurely departure time with a minute flight in the sunshine awaited the next morning.

What would I have done if I really had to be in Wichita Sunday night? Well, those are the hard decisions. The simulator is a brand-new Level D that can replace the actual airplane in every way in terms of training and checking requirements.

Pilot error - Wikipedia

The visual display represents daylight, night and dusk conditions and has plenty of texture and detail that make it easy to fly the airplane-I mean simulator-visually. There are many forms of pilot error and negligence in the cockpit. In some cases, it can involve inexperience coupled with poor judgment. Inaction and miscalculations can also be types of pilot error that lead to catastrophic and fatal plane crashes.

Listed below are some common types of pilot error that can cause aviation accidents.

Subcategories

Inexperience, lack of appropriate training and other issues can all contribute to pilot error in the cockpit. Commercial pilots should be fully trained, educated and current on all standards. They should be up-to-date on necessary simulator flights and any other currencies that need to be fulfilled in order to safely transport passengers to and from their destinations.

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Aviation corporations have a duty to ensure all of their pilots are properly trained, experienced and current on all necessary safety procedures and flight plans. Unfortunately, negligence in the cockpit does occasionally happen, and when it does, lives at put at great risk of injury or death. Passengers are counting on their pilots to maintain the highest level of professionalism, safety and integrity in the cockpit. Each case is different, but the employers of these pilots can be held accountable for damages associated with crashes caused by pilot error.

If pilot error was involved, it may be possible to bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the airline.

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No matter what the cause, aviation accidents can be devastating for family members, brutally catastrophic for survivors and in most cases, fatal for passengers aboard. The expenses associated with an aviation accident can be astronomical for families. Pilot Errors Human error and preventable errors by pilots are a top cause for plane crashes in the private and commercial aviation industries. A Top Cause for Plane Crashes In the private sector, pilots are held to lower safety standards, so pilot error accounts for a much higher number of crashes.