Article Summary and Reflection
Article Summary
Andy Pazstor of the Wall Street Journal reports in his article "Pilots Rely Too Much on Automation, Panel Says" that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) commissioned a study which determined two hazards to airline passengers. The first is that commercial airline pilots have become too dependent on automation, or the so-called autopilot. As a consequence, pilots are said to have "poor manual flying skills" or poor decision-making and are unable to adjust to changes in cockpit technology. The second hazard is "inadequate training" by commercial airliners that the FAA believes impede the pilot's capacity to fully master advanced automated systems (Pasztor, 2013).
The article also reports that in recent years, the primary cause of a number of crashes globally can be attributed to pilots losing control of the aircraft due to "poor situational awareness" or the inability to grasp what the automated systems are "telling them." This was also said to be implicated in the high-profile crashes of the 2009 Air France Airbus A330, which went down into the Atlantic Ocean and killed all 228 people onboard, and the July 2013 crash of an Asiana Airlines Inc. Boeing 777 during a failed landing in San Francisco (Pasztor, 2013).
The 277-page report of the FAA included a number of recommendations to address the automation dependence problem of pilots. The committee unanimously agreed that pilots must be given more training to improve their manual flying skills and have additional guidance in the increasing complexities of automation systems. The FAA also recommended training for rare malfunctions that could potentially be catastrophic. They also called on manufacturers to develop cockpit designs that can be grasped more easily by the flight crew but still has the ability to guard against technological failures of onboard systems (Pasztor, 2013).
Reflection
The article mentioned that air travel was made safer by the automation system. From a layman’s perspective it seems understandable that pilots might become too reliant on such a system and might be unprepared for unexpected snags during flight. However, flying a plane does not seem to be such a simple process so I find it quite hard to believe that commercial airliners would not devote to training their pilots. After all, pilots are responsible for thousands of lives.
In order to look at this issue from an experienced pilot’s perspective, I searched for another article and I found one written by Eric Auxier, who is a pilot for a major U.S. airline. He states that the automation system actually helps pilots in “situational awareness” by freeing the attention of the pilots to other matters such as troubleshooting. Moreover, under normal flight conditions, the automated system reduces pilot fatigue and in most cases it is less likely to cause an error than the exhausted pilot. He also states that on occasion, if the situation calls for it, he turns off the autopilot and actually manually flies the plane. He also believes that airlines do a good job in training their pilots (Auxier, 2013).
While the issue might seem sensationalized or over-hyped, it does not hurt to be on the safe side. After all, pilots are still humans and are prone to error, regardless of automation. However, the importance of the automation system should not be overlooked or demonized, because it has improved air safety greatly. Thus, the FAA must ensure that pilots do not become complacent with the automated system and that they also receive sufficient training.
References
Auxier, E. (2013). Do Commercial Pilots Really “Suck” at Manual Flying? NYC Aviation. Retrieved November 13, 2014, from http://www.nycaviation.com/2013/11/commercial-pilots-really-suck-manual-flying
Pasztor, A. (2013). Pilots Rely Too Much on Automation, Panel Says. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 13, 2014, from http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB1 0001 424052702304439804579204202526288042
