Karlene Petitt
Published: 2020-02
Total Pages: 210
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The things that airlines, aircraft manufacturers, and the FAA are not sharing with the public. This book is the result of the author's doctoral research-Safety Culture, Training, Understanding, Aviation Passion: The Impact on Manual Flight and Operational Performance. The study began with the question as to why pilots were not manually flying their aircraft. Regulatory officials identified this to be a problem, not only with manual flight and skill loss, but lack of understanding of their equipment and associated displays. This Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) then recommended all airlines to encourage manual flight. While the intent of this research was to learn what predicted manual flight, what was learned may have predicted and, if heeded, prevented the Lion Air Flight 602, 2018 crash, Ethiopian Flight 302, 2019 crash, and Atlas Air Flight 3591, 2019 crash. What was learned, if heeded, could also have prevented the Air France Flight 447 crash. There is never one reason an accident occurs, but a chain of events. At the core of all four of these accidents were failures in safety culture, reporting culture, pilot training, lack of understanding and, as a result, performance. The research identified the significant predictors of manual flight to be pilot understanding, pilot training, aviation passion, and safety culture. In the sequence of events from corporate processes to the flight line, the research identified that safety culture is the core of operational performance. Safety culture influences training, training influences pilots' level of understanding, and that level of understanding influences the pilot's decision to manually fly. Therefore the answer as to why pilots are not flying their aircraft begins with safety culture. if you travel, fly, or touch aviation in any aspect, you have every reason to read this book. If you wish to read the actual dissertation, it may be found at https://petittaviationresearch.com.