Table of Contents

1.

Introduction...................................................................................................... 3

2.

Human factors................................................................................................. 4
2.1.

Pilot fatigue................................................................................................ 4

2.2.

Controlled flight into terrain.......................................................................5

2.3.

Electromagnetic interference.....................................................................5

3.

Navigation aids................................................................................................ 6

4.

Air traffic control.............................................................................................. 7

4.1.

Airport control............................................................................................ 7

5.

Conclusion........................................................................................................ 8

6.

Key words......................................................................................................... 9

1. Introduction
There is a legend of the pilot who bid passengers farewell after landing with these words:
The safest part of your trip is now over. That isnt just one pilots boast, its a truth most air
travelers take for granted. Next time you climb into a taxi to make the trip from the airport to
your final destination, consider this: What do you know about the cabbie in whose hands you
have placed your life? How well has that car been maintained? Look out the windoware all
the signal lights working? Is the road in good shape? What about the other motorists? Where
did they learn to drive? How conscientious have they been about getting enough sleep and
avoiding alcohol?
Safety is an accumulation of knowledge about risk converted into practice, and no other mode
of transportation has been as expansive as flying in incorporating what we know about the
fallibility of humans and machines. As a result, the act of hurtling through the air at 500 mph
six miles above the ground is less likely to result in your demise than almost any other type of
travel. From the plane seats to the cabin air to the course and altitude of the flight, every
decision in commercial aviation comes after careful consideration of its impact on safety.
Aviation safety is a term encompassing the theory, investigation, and categorization of flight
failures, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education, and training. It can
also be applied in the context of campaigns that inform the public as to the safety of air travel.
There are three important things in aviation safety that will be discussed in this paper: human
factors, navigation instruments and air traffic and airport control.

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2. Human factors
Human factors, including pilot error, are potential set of factors, and currently the factor most
commonly found in aviation accidents. Much progress in applying human factors analysis to
improving aviation safety was made around the time of World War II. However, there has
been progress in safety throughout the history of aviation, such as the development of the
pilot's checklist in 1937. CRM, or Crew Resource Management, is a technique that makes use
of the experience and knowledge of the complete flight crew to avoid dependence on just one
crew member. Pilot error and improper communication are often factors in the collision of
aircraft. This can take place in the air (1978 Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182) (TCAS) or
on the ground (1977 Tenerife disaster) (RAAS). The barriers to have an effective
communication have internal and external factors. The ability of the flight crew to maintain
situation awareness is a critical human factor in air safety. Human factors training is available
to general aviation pilots and called single pilot resource management training.

2.1. Pilot fatigue

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines fatigue as "A physiological
state of reduced mental or physical performance capability resulting from sleep loss or
extended wakefulness, circadian phase, or workload." Fatigue is particularly prevalent among
pilots because of "unpredictable work hours, long duty periods, circadian disruption, and
insufficient sleep". These factors can occur together to produce a combination of sleep
deprivation, circadian rhythm effects, and 'time-on task' fatigue. Regulators attempt to
mitigate fatigue by limiting the amount of hours pilots are allowed to fly over varying periods
of time. Experts in aviation fatigue often find that these methods fall short on their goals.
Human factors incidents are not limited to errors by pilots. Failure to close a cargo door
properly on Turkish Airlines Flight 981 in 1974 caused the loss of the aircraft however,
design of the cargo door latch was also a major factor in the accident. In the case of Japan
Airlines Flight 123, improper repair of previous damage led to explosive decompression of
the cabin, which in turn destroyed the vertical stabilizer and damaged all four hydraulic
systems which powered all the flight controls.

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2.2. Controlled flight into terrain

Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) is a class of accidents in which an aircraft is flown under
control into terrain or man-made structures. CFIT accidents typically result from pilot error or
of navigational system error. Failure to protect ILS critical areas can also cause CFIT
accidents. Another anti-CFIT tool is the Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW) system
which monitors the altitudes transmitted by aircraft transponders and compares that with the
system's defined minimum safe altitudes for a given area. When the system determines the
aircraft is lower, or might soon be lower, than the minimum safe altitude, the air traffic
controller receives an acoustic and visual warning and then alerts the pilot that the aircraft is
too low.

2.3. Electromagnetic interference

The use of certain electronic equipment is partially or entirely prohibited as it might interfere
with aircraft operation, such as causing compass deviations. Use of some types of personal
electronic devices is prohibited when an aircraft is below 10,000', taking off, or landing. Use
of a mobile phone is prohibited on most flights because in-flight usage creates problems with
ground-based cells.

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3. Navigation aids
One of the first navigation aids to be introduced (in the USA in the late 1920s) was airfield
lighting to assist pilots to make landings in poor weather or after dark. The Precision
Approach Path Indicator was developed from this in the 1930s, indicating to the pilot the
angle of descent to the airfield. This later became adopted internationally through the
standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). In 1929 Jimmy Doolittle
developed instrument flight. With the spread of radio technology, several experimental radio
based navigation aids were developed from the late 1920s onwards. These were most
successfully used in conjunction with instruments in the cockpit in the form of Instrument
landing systems (ILS), first used by a scheduled flight to make a landing in a snowstorm at
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1938. A form of ILS was adopted by the ICAO for international
use in 1949. Following the development of radar in World War II, it was deployed as a
landing aid for civil aviation in the form of ground-controlled approach (GCA) systems,
joined in 1948 by distance measuring equipment (DME), and in the 1950s by airport
surveillance radar as an aid to air traffic control. VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) stations
became the predominant means of route navigation during the 1960s, superseding the low
frequency radio ranges and the non-directional beacon (NDB). The ground based VOR
stations were often co-located with DME transmitters. With the proper receiving equipment in
the aircraft, pilots could know their radials in degrees to/from the VOR station, as well as the
slant range distance.
Ground-based navigation aids are being supplanted by satellite-based aids like Global
Positioning System (GPS), which make it possible for pilots to know their position with great
precision anywhere in the world. With the arrival of Wide Area Augmentation System
(WAAS), Satellite navigation has become accurate enough for vertical (altitude) as well as
horizontal use, and is being used increasingly for instrument approaches as well as en-route
navigation. However, because the GPS constellation is a single point of failure, on-board
Inertial Navigation System (INS) or ground-based navigation aids are still required for
backup.

4. Air traffic control

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Finally,
The pilots and the airplanes may be the stars of the show in commercial aviation, but behind
the scenes, a new, almost Star Warslike air traffic system is being built where airplanes
guided by GPS will fly self-programmed routes, communicating with each other and with the
ground. This is very different from the days when maps, blackboards and pencil and paper
calculations were used to direct airplanes. With more than 28 million flight departures last
year, it takes a pretty sophisticated process to safely and efficiently manage a huge and still
growing number of aircraft. Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based
controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through controlled airspace, and can provide
advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airspace. The primary purpose of ATC
worldwide is to prevent collisions, organize and expedite the flow of air traffic, and provide
information and other support for pilots.

4.1. Airport control

More visibly, profound improvements in safety can be seen right on the airport property.
Movement-detection monitors show every vehicle on every runway, taxiway and terminal
gate, and controllers receive warnings of potential collisions. It is safer now than it ever has
been.

5. Conclusion

To conclude,
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There are a bunch of good reasons many of us remain wary of air travel. For one, it is not so
long ago that air travel was indeed pretty dangerous. For many decades air travel really wasn't
so safe.
Second, studies of various types of fear have largely concluded that the fear of any activity or
possibility is rarely overcome by reading statistics and lots of rational thought. Rather, our
deep inclination toward self-preservation takes over, and it can be nearly impossible to turn
that off. Even if we know that flying is safer than taking a bath, and even if we're aware of
some of the stats and the effect of media amplification, it is still hard not to wonder if it's
really safe to fly. Cabin crew choose to do this every day, as their job. They get up early, put
on work clothes, have a quick breakfast, commute to work -- and then, as routinely as many
of us go to the office and boot up the computer, get on a long-haul plane. Look at their faces.
They are not scared or nervous -- it's just another day on the job. If they're not worried that
their 19,000 years are up, why should we be?
Now there is thousands of people working on aviation safety with modern technology and
with greatest navigation instruments. And as I mentioned before, it is safer now than it ever
has been.

6. Key words

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Safety- the condition of being safe from undergoing or causing hurt, injury, or loss.
Human factors- human factors refer to environmental, organizational and job factors, and
human and individual characteristics which influence behavior at work in a way which can
affect health and safety
Fatigue- weariness or exhaustion from labor, exertion, or stress
Interference- the mutual effect on meeting of two wave trains (as of light or sound) that
constitutes alternating areas of increased and decreased amplitude (as light and dark lines or
louder and softer sound)
Aid- to provide with what is useful or necessary in achieving an end
Airfield- an area of land from which aircraft operate
Aviation- airplane manufacture, development, and design
Radar- a device or system consisting usually of a synchronized radio transmitter and receiver
that emits radio waves and processes their reflections for display and is used especially for
detecting and locating objects (as aircraft) or surface features (as of a planet)

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