Ethics in Aviaton

  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. ...

  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...

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...

  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...