C5LOAD From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 917 posts, RR: 0 Posted (3 years 3 months 4 weeks 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 2765 times:
I honestly didn't know how to word the title any better for the things I need to know. I am doing a research paper on flight deck technologies that have come about and need to know if there have been any crashes/mishaps directly attributed (as in not working or failed to signal the pilot) to any of the following:
1. Autopilot (General)
2. Ice Protection Systems
3. WX Radar
4. Windshear
5. GPWS
6. TCAS
Any info would really help me in writing my paper. Thanks.
Jared
"But this airplane has 4 engines, it's an entirely different kind of flying! Altogether"
luv2cattlecall From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 1648 posts, RR: 2 Reply 1, posted (3 years 3 months 4 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 2673 times:
The one A/C systems accident that still irks me is AeroPeru 603, which was a result of faulty readings caused by blocked static ports. Why were they blocked? Because someone used masking tape to cover them on the ground, instead of the brightly colored tape that was supposed to be used.
While this one isn't a fault of Autopilot, per se, it did have a role to play.. on Aeroflot 593, one of the pilots thought that it would be a good idea to let his 15 year old sit in the front seat of an A310 full of pax. Unbeknownst to the cabin crew, when the kid pushed the yoke, autopilot, by design, disengaged. By the time anyone realized what had occurred, it was too late.
Again, this one wasn't the fault of TCAS, but it played a role. A DHL aircraft and a Russian aircraft were about to mid-air collide, and TCAS instructed one to dive and the other to pull up. The ATController, however, instructed the Russian jet to pull up as well (could have been vice versa), which contradicted what the aircraft's TCAS told the crew to do. Naturally, when both aircraft partake in the save evasive maneuver, you can guess the ending.
There was also the Gol 737 & Legacy collision that was, last I heard, a result of the Legacy's transponder not working properly Amazingly, the Legacy landed safely, with only a winglet missing. The 737 wasn't so lucky.
1. Autopilot (general)
- See #7 on Adam 574.
- Eastern Tristar Everglades? (A/P disconnect with no warning due to force on yoke).
- There are a few more cases I know which are unreported to date, but as a result of Autopilot failure caused by another error somewhere else (one was a take off with no engine GENs connected to the main buses, with APU on the buses, crew missed the checklist, A/P engaged, then crew realized APU was on and switched it off without checking the Main Gens status... Battery drained and aircraft went >90degs at 5000ft, recovered at around 1000ft. Miraculously escaped).
- Turkish Amsterdam... failure of one of the radio altimeters resulted in the autothrottle entering flare mode.
3. WX Radar
Radar attenuation/limitations:
- Southern Air DC-9 Georgia
- Speedbird 009 (WX Radar vs Volcanic Ash)
- Lots of problems attributed to wrong WX Radar tilt settings... but that's human caused.
5. GPWS
Hmm... which crash was it that had the crew saying "What does Pull Up mean?" It's not a GPWS failure, but a lack of understanding of it.
I'll add this:
7. IRS
Adam Air 574 is a classic case of a lack in training on the IRS and how problems interact with the rest of the aircraft systems.
When losing situational awareness, pray Cumulus Granitus isn't nearby !
Kit777 From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2009, 93 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (3 years 3 months 4 weeks 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 2662 times:
Whilst not a problem caused by the autopilot malfunctioning as such, in Eastern Airlines 401 one of the factors was the pilot putting gentle pressure on the control yoke (possibly while communicating with his crew) on approach causing the L-1011 to enter a slow descent controlled by the AP. The pilots did not notice this until too late as they were dealing with what looked like a broken light bulb in the landing gear position system.
There are also examples of incidents caused by lack of familiarity with new aircraft systems, but I assume that isn't what you're looking for.
There was an incident caused by an autopilot fault on a BA 747-100. The aircraft didn't capture the localiser properly and drifted off to the right of the runway. The Captain initiated an auto go-around when he didn't see the runway at 200 ft but the aircraft heading took it over an airport hotel close to the runway, clearing it by just 12 ft.
The American Eagle ATR-72 which crashed at Roselawn in 1994 suffered from very heavy icing which the de-ice boots could not clear. The system didn't fail but was limited in its capability.
JohnM From United States of America, joined Feb 2001, 310 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (3 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 2487 times:
To turn your question around, I believe GPWS (and EGPWS), TCAS, have saved countless lives. I do maintain GPWS, and for all it does, it is a VERY reliable system.To the guy who designed that system.....my hat is off to them!
flybaurLAX From United States of America, joined Oct 2008, 634 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (3 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 2481 times:
There was an airliner that was shot down because they violated that country's airspace. They didn't know they were lost, because they had the wrong setting selected from the INS, and the autopilot was on the heading select with the INS. In essence, it veered off course without the crew knowing, and was shot down by the Soviets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007
Starlionblue From Hong Kong, joined Feb 2004, 15904 posts, RR: 66 Reply 7, posted (3 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 16 hours ago) and read 2469 times:
Quoting luv2cattlecall (Reply 1): The one A/C systems accident that still irks me is AeroPeru 603, which was a result of faulty readings caused by blocked static ports. Why were they blocked? Because someone used masking tape to cover them on the ground, instead of the brightly colored tape that was supposed to be used.
It is true that they didn't have accurate data. However the pilots are not entirely without fault. They should have set thrust to given known values that correspond to given airspeeds. Why they did not I don't know. Was it missing from their training? Once stable in altitude they could have contacted ATC and another aircraft could have been sent to guide them in, or they could have been vectored in.
Note also that this was not a system fault. Sadly, there was nothing mechanically wrong with the aircraft. Pure human error on the part of the (not fully trained) mechanic. Also his supervisor (who IIRC did have the proper training) was not present.
"There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots." - from Citadel by John Ringo
tdscanuck From Canada, joined Jan 2006, 12709 posts, RR: 80 Reply 8, posted (3 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 14 hours ago) and read 2458 times:
Quoting Starlionblue (Reply 7): They should have set thrust to given known values that correspond to given airspeeds. Why they did not I don't know.
A contributing factor there was that ATC was giving them bad altitude data (because ATC was using transponder altitude, which was being fed by the bad air data system)...they thought they were a lot higher than they actually were, so didn't have a sense or urgency concurrent with their actual risk.
Starlionblue From Hong Kong, joined Feb 2004, 15904 posts, RR: 66 Reply 9, posted (3 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 1 hour ago) and read 2414 times:
Oh great.
So if that happened today in an up-to-date location like NYC or London (sorry Peru) what would have happened and how has the Aeroperu 757 accident have affected procedures?
"There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots." - from Citadel by John Ringo
Flight without unreliable airspeed is in the QRH of the airplane (and every airplane)... it contains the checklist and also links with the pitch vs power table required for conducting flight with unreliable airspeed in climb, cruise, descent and approach phases.
With hindsight, it's easy to say, "ah, go to Unreliable Airspeed QRH/checklist"... but in the heat of the moment, sad simple explanation on how the crew performed is task saturation due to the conflicting information...
Mandala499
When losing situational awareness, pray Cumulus Granitus isn't nearby !
tdscanuck From Canada, joined Jan 2006, 12709 posts, RR: 80 Reply 12, posted (3 years 3 months 3 weeks 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 2309 times:
Quoting Starlionblue (Reply 9): So if that happened today in an up-to-date location like NYC or London (sorry Peru) what would have happened and how has the Aeroperu 757 accident have affect
Same thing, in all likelihood. ATC radar in NYC or London works the same way. If the crew had understood what their true problem was, any ATC could have helped them out, but without that information from the crew all ATC could do was answer the questions they were asked.
Quoting mandala499 (Reply 10): With hindsight, it's easy to say, "ah, go to Unreliable Airspeed QRH/checklist"... but in the heat of the moment, sad simple explanation on how the crew performed is task saturation due to the conflicting information...
It's not even clear that they realized that they had an unreliable airspeed problem...they may well have thought the airspeed was working just fine and that the warning computer was acting up, or that the airspeed was giving real data for a very erratic flight path.
mandala499 From Indonesia, joined Aug 2001, 6209 posts, RR: 74 Reply 14, posted (3 years 3 months 2 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 2018 times:
Quoting tdscanuck (Reply 12): It's not even clear that they realized that they had an unreliable airspeed problem...they may well have thought the airspeed was working just fine and that the warning computer was acting up, or that the airspeed was giving real data for a very erratic flight path.
Indeed... icing to the extent of blocking both the main tube AND the drain holes on the pitot would give a frozen airspeed... hence, it would paint a strange mental picture when the unrealiable airspeed signs came up... just one of those situations one would rather not be in...
mandala499
When losing situational awareness, pray Cumulus Granitus isn't nearby !
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