Assessment on "Air Safety What Are the Air Carriers"

Assessment 8 pages (2643 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Air Safety

What are the air carriers' responsibilities for safety? And how does FAA judge if an air carrier unable to carry its duties?

According to the FA act 601 (b) the FAA is responsible for enforcing and overseeing the implementation and adherence to strict safety standards before issuing certificates to any airline carrier. However, The FA act fully recognizes the duty of the airline carriers, 'the duty resting upon the air carriers to perform their services with the highest possible degree of safety in the public interest'. Section 601 (b) of the FA act clearly specifies that irrespective of the FAA supervision or lack thereof the air carrier is totally responsible for providing the greatest degree of safety for all its passengers. Thus the air carriers' are directly responsible for performing routine inspections and reviews and ensuring the total safety of the passengers. The FAA for its part is responsible for overseeing if the certified air carrier is fulfilling the minimum safety standards. Regular maintenance programs Section 609 (b) of the FA act empowers the FAA to amend, suspend or revoke the license of any air carrier that fails to fulfill the minimum stipulated safety standards during a routine inspection. The flight standard district offices (FSDOs) across the country conduct routine inspections of the airlines' maintenance programs including airworthiness, avionics and engine overhaul shops. Additionally pre-announced 'Base inspections' by the FDSO also checks into the duty hours and the rest periods between trips. 'En route inspections' which involve a FAA inspector traveling in the cockpit is also carried out to monitor the actual in flight operations. Thus the FAA conducts periodic evaluations of the air carriers' adherence to minimum safety standards to judge if an air carrier is able to carry on its duties with the stipulated standards. [Alexander T. wells, pg. 32]

2. What was the purpose of the Commuter Safety Initiative of 1995, and what were some of the operational requirements imposed on commuter air carriers operating aircraft with 10 or more passenger seats?

The Commuter safety initiative was set to standardize airline safety measures for small commuter airlines in par with the large airlines that operate under the FAR 121. Thus post December 14, 1995, all commuter operations with 9 to 30 seats had to comply with the FAR 121 regulations. This also implied that the pilots retirement age of 60, which was the norm for major airlines under the FAR 121 norms, had to be adopted to the minor commuter airlines as well. The four more years of additional flying ability which the pilots operating under FAR 135 were eligible for was struck off for the commuter airlines under the Commuter safety initiative. Under the Commuter safety initiative, commuter planes with 10 seats or more had to comply with the stringent operational requirements of the jumbo jet. This includes 'Certificated Dispatchers', established manuals and procedures for in-flight and ground personnel, flight attendant requirements, and new training requirements for pilots and other crewmembers that are comparable to those of big commercial airlines. Also, the commuter Safety initiative required compliance with equipment standards which included 'exterior emergency exit markings', 'Wing ice lights', 'First Aid Kits including portable oxygen', 'non flammable passenger seat cushions' 'Lavatory fire protection' 'Pilot heat indication System', 'Landing gear aural warning system', etc. A 15-month period was given to air carriers to remodify their flights to get recertified under the FAR 121. Very old flights that could not meet with the stringent flight safety requirements under the 'Commuter Safety initiative' were scheduled to be phased out gradually. Overall, the purpose of the Commuter safety initiative was to standardize safety requirements in all flights (10 seats or above) in par with the major commercial airlines. [Alexander T. wells, pg. 10]

3. Explain why the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) is most useful in dealing with human factors issues. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the system?

Two thirds of all aviation accidents care caused by human errors. [NASA] The Aviation Safety Reporting System implemented way back in 1976, is a medium for pilots, ground staff, air traffic controllers, flight attendants and others to share information pertaining to safety issues that they have encountered during their job. For instance, the ASRS provides a safe platform for pilots to report any inadvertent errors they committed in the form of a report. Since the ASRS reports are stored in confidence it allows all aviation personnel to freely report errors and omissions and discrepancies that could pose a potential threat to air safety. The ASRS gives impetus to all aviation personnel to work towards identifying the defects and deficiencies and helps in quicker remedy of the same before it could have any adverse impact on the safety of the passengers.

The main strength of the system is that since the reports are kept in strict confidence it encourages aviation personnel to actively participate in the continued efforts to improving the overall security of the airline operation. Additionally, the ASRS also allows pilots to have impunity from FAA action for inadvertent violations provided they reported the incident within 10 days of the event. [NBAA] The ASRS, as a forum for security information exchange, helps improve the identification, analysis and correction of human errors that pose a security thereat. However, the downside of the ASRS is that it is not a foolproof system and it is subjected to the fears and bias of the person reporting to the system. Being an anonymous reporting system reduces the effectiveness of the ASRS in that only the data provided in the initial report could be used and any further clarifications on that data is not possible.

4. How does NTSB structure its teams to investigate an aircraft accident? How do they accomplish their work?

The core of the NTSB structure is the 'Go Team', a team of investigators from different specialties who are the first to arrive at an accident spot. The NTSB headquarters in Washington disperses the investigators swiftly once the accident information is received. The Go Team is headed by the Investigator-in-Charge (IIC), an investigator with years of experience with the NTSB. 'Cockpit voice recorder' and 'flight data recorder' teams assemble at the NTSB headquarters to discern all information from these devices, which are critical for the investigation. Typically an aircraft accident site contains biohazards and a designated NTSB safety officer will oversee the environmental risk hazard for the NTSB officers at the accident site. The NTSB safety officer works with the local Incident commander to remove any material at the crash site that is potentially risky for the investigation team. Further personal protective equipment is made available for all investigating officials who are at risk for infection from biohazards at the site.

The IIC decides on the parties to the investigation and this would usually involve the airline carrier, manufacturer, pilot, traffic controllers, etc. Thus, the overall investigation group under the IIC is divided into several subcommittees headed by experts in the respective technical field. These individual NTSB teams are known as the "working groups" and each group has a designated chairman. Since members from different parties are part a group they may not be aware of the NTSB procedures. The group chairman is responsible for familiarizing the members with the NTSB protocol. Each group compiles 'field notes' every day based on the investigations on that day. Once the on site investigation is over all the working groups submit their field notes to the IIC for review. Once the field notes are reviewed and distributed, the group chairman will reassign the team members for further investigations such as witness interviews, crew interviews, records review, system components testing, flight simulation, etc. [NTSB

5. What limits the productive life of a damage-tolerant-designed airplane, and describe the roles of the major player in the structural safety process?

The age of an aircraft is usually measured in terms of the number of cycles and the number of hours it has flied so far. The stress due to landing and takeoff, cabin compression and decompression, etc. cause significant wear and tear on the structure of the plane. Safe operation of a carrier requires adequate strength and structural integrity even in the case of a mishap. The productive life of damage tolerant designed airplanes can be literally infinite as per the industry- 'there is no limit to the service life of a Boeing damage tolerant designed airplane structure, provided necessary inspections are carried out along with timely repair and/or replacement of damaged structure or with preventive modification'. [Eldad Ben, 2005, pg 68] However, since aging and old aircrafts require frequent maintenance and upgradation issues there would be a point when the economic costs of undertaking these regular upgradations outweigh the costs of deploying a new plane. Economic costs play an important role in deciding the productive life of an airplane. [Eldad Ben, 2005, pg 70]

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