Presentation
Why Would an Experienced Aviator Fly a Perfectly Good Aircraft into the Ground?
Ninth International Symposium on Aviation Psychology
(1997)
Abstract
An analysis of U.S. Naval controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents was conducted using the Taxonomy of Unsafe Operations, a human error accident investigation/classification scheme. From the analysis, three fundamental questions regarding CFIT were answered: 1) what causal factors characterize CFIT accidents; 2) how does the pattern of causal factors associated with CFIT differ from all other Class A accidents; and 3) given the propensity for day, as well as night, CFIT accidents, are there any differences in the causal patterns between the two? The implication of these results for the development of intervention strategies is discussed.
Keywords
- controlled flight into terrain,
- CFIT,
- aircraft accidents,
- pilot error,
- human error,
- human factors,
- military aviation
Disciplines
Publication Date
April, 1997
Location
Columbus, OH
Comments
This paper was published on pages 26-32 in volume 1 of the two-volume set.
Citation Information
Scott A. Shappell. "Why Would an Experienced Aviator Fly a Perfectly Good Aircraft into the Ground?" Ninth International Symposium on Aviation Psychology (1997) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/scott-shappell/51/