Can we do away with pilots? - Curt Lewis

Air Travel Lessons from 2015: Humans Still Cause Most Plane Crashes

by ALASTAIR JAMIESON

One plane was slammed into a mountain by an employee with a history of depression, another was found to have been brought down by pilots who didn't perform as they were trained.

While 2015 is on course to be one of the safest on record in the skies, the year has offered grim reminders that technology is only as safe as the humans who use it.

The Germanwings crash on March 24, in which the co-pilot of an Airbus A320 intentionally triggered a deadly descent into the French Alps, and the AirAsia crash report which revealed confusion and miscommunication in the cockpit, have sent aviation-safety experts back to the drawing board.

They face questions over how an industry requiring regular medical checks missed signs that a pilot was mentally ill, and how a team with years of training managed to lose control of a modern jet.

In doing so, the experts are revisiting an age-old problem of man vs. machine.

Barmy European Union bid to ditch co-pilots on airliners 'could put planes at risk'

PILOTS have slammed a Europe Union-backed scheme to cut co-pilots on airliners, saying it could increase risk of accidents.



Airliners could be working towards a single-pilot operations on commercial jets

The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) have warned an increase in automation would put planes at increased risk of hackers and computer failures.

The stark warming comes after it was revealed that the EU plans to improve onboard safety by reducing reliance on crew members in the flight deck.

In addition, the Advanced Cockpit for Reduction of Stress and Workload (ACROSS) project also hopes to cut the cost of flying.

Stephen Landels from Balpa said: "Pilots welcome the introduction of technology designed to make flights safer, but we have concerns that the Across project could lead to too heavy a reliance on automation."

Co-funded by the European Commission, ACROSS is developing new technologies to help improve pilots' "situational awareness".

At current 35 companies and research groups across Europe, including Boeing, Airbus and BAE Systems are working on the EU-funded project.

If ACROSS is successful, airliners could be working towards a single-pilot operations on commercial jets within years.

The EU plans to improve onboard safety by reducing reliance on crew members in the flight deck

The ACROSS scheme is co-funded by the European Commission

We have concerns that the Across project could lead to too heavy a reliance on automation
Stephen Landells

According to the project leaders, the research is needed to reduce the accident rate in aviation as on average there is one accident every ten days worldwide.

They said the reduction "seems to have reached a plateau, stabilising at a rate of approximately two accidents for every million departures".

While pilots had prevented large numbers of accidents, "issues involving the flight crew" were contributory factors in 60 per cent of fatal accidents between 1990 and 2010, its website said.

Slamming the new scheme, Balpa highlighted a number of cases in which the quick thinking of pilots had prevented potentially catastrophic accidents.

This display of quick thinking was demonstrated in 2008 when a pilot landed a British Airways airliner after a loss of power just short of Heathrow.

Mr Landells added: "A reduction in the number of pilots in the cockpit could have serious detrimental consequences for fight safety due to lack of cross checking of safety-critical switches and operational decision-making."