ABU DHABI // Aviation experts have expressed concern this week over pilots’ knowledge of hand-flying a plane in emergency situations.
They said at the Global Aerospace Summit that many relied too heavily on technology, which could pose a problem when they lost control of the aircraft.
“Loss of control is one of the high risk areas the industry is looking at,” said Capt Majed Al Marzouqi, vice president of corporate safety and quality at Etihad Airways.
“It’s not one of the highest in frequency but when it happens, the consequences are quite high. There are a lot of studies to manage and mitigate this issue and a series of activities to address it and find a solution to it.”
Although the commercial aviation industry is said to be in one of its safest periods in history, loss of control is a remaining challenge.
“Loss of control could happen,” Capt Al Marzouqi said. “What’s important is for pilots to recognise it and get out of it. That happens when you go back to basic flying.”
But basic flying is no longer a given among many pilots.
“One of the things we do because we’re so concerned about our pilots remembering how to hand-fly the airplane is that they go through a six-month programme and we’ve added an hour of training which is hand flying the airplane,” said Patrick Gordon, chief executive officer of Royal Jet, which owns 11 aeroplanes.
“What I find concerning is that we’re getting so high-tech, are we leaving the pilot behind with this advancement in technology? I see a new generation of pilots coming in that are more systems operators and monitors than they are pilots and I think we have lost the ability to hand-fly the airplane, especially when it enters an emergency or unusual situation.”
Etihad introduced a programme six months ago to move away from the regular training mechanism into a new scheme of training.
“It takes data from the industry and day-to-day operations from our safety management team and feeds it into our training organisation where they develop training programmes to enhance the pilots’ knowledge and deal with unforeseen circumstances,” Capt Al Marzouqi said. “That’s the way forward and the way of complimenting the loss of skills because of the machines they’re dealing with so we’re pushing the skills back into the pilots. What’s important is using human sensing when piloting.”
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the aviation industry carried more than three and a half billion passengers last year with 136 fatalities caused by mechanical or mismanagement reasons.
“So this is really still 136 more than what we should have but in reality, it’s a safe transportation and everyone’s working hard to make sure it is,” said Hussein Dabbas, IATA’s regional vice president Africa and the Middle East.
“We have over 400 airlines who are IATA members, so it’s something that is becoming part of the day-in day-out process of airlines and safety remains the main concern of operators.”
cmalek@thenational.ae
