Posts

Florida Air Flight 90

Image
  On January 13 th , 1982 at then Washington National Airport (now Ronald Reagan International Airport), Air Florida Flight 90 came in for a landing just before a snowstorm approached the D.C. area. The flight was the last to land before the airport shut down for a few hours due to the weather. When the airport reopened, de-icing was needed on the aircraft. De-icing is an absolutely crucial part of maintaining the safety of the aircraft during winter. The pilot stopped the de-icing procedure on the 737 before it was completed because the airport was closing.   When notification was received that the airport would be opening, the pilots decided to have the de-icing done again closer to the expected departure. After the second de-icing was done, a backlog of flights arriving and departing into National Airport caused a major traffic problem. The aircraft sat on the tarmac for an extended period of time resulting in the control surfaces of the aircraft get covered with snow again...
Post a Comment
Read more

NextGen and Recent FAA Outages

  It seems that this blog assignment was perfectly timed due to the problems within the National Airspace System the past couple of weeks. There were two incidents this month that caused airports in Florida and across the country to ground flights due to computer glitches. The issue that occurred in Orlando on January 2 nd was caused by an En-route Automation Modernization System (ERAM) issue.   ERAM is a system at the air traffic centers that handles incoming traffic. Then on January 9 th , the most important system in the National Airspace System crashed. The Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) provides pilots with time critical data so they can plan accordingly for their flight.   I’m confident that anyone interested in or involved in aviation understands that there are larger issues at play here.   Is the FAA broken and what is needed to get it back on track?   It’s a complex problem to unpack for sure. NextGen is the FAAs effort to modernize the National Airs...
Post a Comment
Read more

Aviation Noise Pollution

  Noise pollution is a big issue when talking about airport operations. The noise generated from an airport can disturb the peace of surrounding suburbs and areas. Noise can also be the source of certain health problems.  According to a study conducted by the World Health Organization, airport noise can cause lack of sleep which leads to negative changes with how the body functions. Aircraft noise has been complained about for many years, however, it reportedly worsened in 2015 when “ the FAA implemented its Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) to modernize how it manages U.S. airspace. As a result of this shift, new approach and departure paths have concentrated flights over neighborhoods not previously impacted” (Cardin, 2022). Since this happened, Congress has been allocating a lot of money that is distributed through the DOT’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP). As I think about the noise pollution issue, while it might seem to make sense to institute a c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Federal Aviation Act of 1958

Image
  The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 created the Federal Aviation Agency, later the name changed to the Federal Aviation Administration in April of 1967.   This piece of legislation created an government office that had the responsibility to regulate safety in the airline industry and oversee the airspace for both commercial and military use to prevent accidents.   The Civil Aeronautics Board previously had this responsibility.   The need for this legislation was due to the quickly increasing technology advances in aviation and the uptick in commercial airline traffic that was crowding the airspace.   Over the next decade or so, this legislation changed form a few times but ultimately the goal was accident prevention that included punishments for violating the law. Doing my research for this blog, I actually learned that the act required the identification of aircraft and gave the government the right to examine aircraft design to ensure for proper airworthiness. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Human Factors and Aviation Accidents

Image
  Teamwork and communication are key human factors in aviation.  If you think about the process involved just to fly an airplane, it requires so many different touchpoints and trust. Every time you talk with the tower, there is an opportunity for misinterpretation of a directive that can cause an unintentional accident or loss of life. Or, worse, a lack of reaction causing a bad situation that could have been prevented. There was an incident that occurred in late 2021 involving two T38C-Talon aircraft that unfortunately resulted in a student pilot dying and two injured Air Force flight instructors. This collision accident involved two planes and happened because of poor communication and failure of the flight instructor to have situational awareness of the problem in the air.  Many aviation related accidents like this occur due to crew miscommunication or between the pilot and the ATC.  The importance of clear communication cannot be overstated. Johnson, K. (2022, Ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cyber Security Threats to Aviation

In recent years, it seems that the threats to the aviation industry have shifted to be more focused on cybersecurity and new technologies from physical threats like suicide bombers.   In the time immediately following 9/11, changes were made domestically at the airports to help reduce the opportunities for physical threats.   However, it seems like the source of the threats probably haven’t changed just how they are planning to attack.   In an attempt to deliver enhanced convenience to their customers, the airlines are offering online reservation and check in systems, in-flight entertainment and WIFI which actually creates a vulnerability to hackers.   The ability to “hack the plane from the ground” has become a real possibility (Sayegh 2022), There are several layers of security the apply to this issue but Intelligence and Joint Terrorism Task Force are likely the key components needed to create change in the industry.   According to the FBI, the National Cyber...
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
  Aircraft and the Importance of Maintenance Recently, we took take our Cessna 172SP for its annual inspection.  Our Cessna was made in 2001 and it is in perfect condition.  I’m very proud to fly a plane in such good condition.  Service bulletins are provided when the manufacturer feels there is an unsafe condition that needs attention.  We learned that we never received a pretty important bulletin at this year’s annual.  Cessna/Textron came out with a Service Bulletin in November 2021 that notified Cessna 172SP pilots of the oil pressure switch/plug on the top of the engine that had to be relocated to a safer part of the engine as per SEV/79/10.  We never received the bulletin.  Cessna/Textron determined that if the oil pressure switch/plug came loose during flight it would create a significant loss in oil and require the pilot to declare an emergency landing because of the of this malfunction.  We were notified at our annual inspection in...
Post a Comment
Read more