Visual flight into instrument meteorological condition: A post accident analysis

The phenomenon of encountering instrument meteorological conditions (IMCs) while operating an aircraft under visual flight rules (VFRs) remains a primary area of concern. Studies have established that pilots operating under VFRs that continue to operate under IMCs remains a significant cause of accidents in general aviation (GA), resulting in hundreds of fatalities. This research used the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) database, which contained a total of 196 VFR to IMC occurrences, from 2003 to 2019, with 26 having formal reports. An explanatory design was adopted, commencing with a qualitative study of the 26 occurrences with reports followed by a quantitative study of all 196 occurrences. Factors investigated included the locations and date of the occurrences, involved aircraft (manufacturer, model, type), pilot details (licenses, ratings, h, and medical), number of fatalities, and causal factors. Fisher\u27s exact tests were used to highlight significant relationships. Results showed occurrences were more likely to end fatally if (1) they involved private operations, (2) pilots only had a night VFR rating, (3) the pilot chose to push on into IMCs, (4) the pilot did not undertake proper preflight planning consulting aviation weather services, and (5) the pilot had more than 500 h of flight experience. Further results showed occurrences were less likely to end fatally if the meteorological condition was clouds without precipitation, if the pilot held a full instrument rating, or the pilot was assisted via radio. Analysis of the data using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) framework revealed that errors and violations occur with slightly greater frequency for fatal occurrences than non-fatal occurrences. Quantitative analyses demonstrated that the number of VFR to IMC occurrences have not decreased even though initiatives have been implemented in an attempt to address the issue. © 2020 by the authors

A preliminary investigation of maintenance contributions to commercial air transport accidents

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Aircraft maintenance includes all the tasks needed to ensure an aircraft’s continuing airworthiness. Accidents that result from these maintenance activities can be used to assess safety. This research seeks to undertake a preliminary investigation of accidents that have maintenance contributions. An exploratory design was utilized, which commenced with a content analysis of the accidents with maintenance contributions (n = 35) in the official ICAO accident data set (N = 1277), followed by a quantitative ex-post facto study. Results showed that maintenance contributions are involved in 2.8 ± 0.9% of ICAO official accidents. Maintenance accidents were also found to be more likely to have one or more fatalities (20%), compared to all ICAO official accidents (14.7%). The number of accidents with maintenance contributions per year was also found to have reduced over the period of the study; this rate was statistically significantly greater than for all accidents (5%/year, relative to 2%/year). Results showed that aircraft between 10 and 20 years old were most commonly involved in accidents with maintenance contributions, while aircraft older than 18 years were more likely to result in a hull loss, and aircraft older than 34 years were more likely to result in a fatality

Public perception of drones… or should that be remotely piloted aircraft systems?

The media coverage of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) has highlighted some issues, particularly in terms of security and privacy concerns. As such, it is essential to understand the public\u27s perception towards these systems. The purpose of this study was to assess the public\u27s perception towards 1) The terminology used to define RPAS, which varies across the industry; 2) The applications, current and future, of RPAS; 3) The future of passenger transport involving RPAS, and 4) RPAS in general. It was found that there was little difference between the terms used to describe RPAS; however, there was a significant difference at the 90% confidence level for remotely piloted aircraft systems over drones . In terms of RPAS applications, community based applications had a positive perception, while personal applications were neutral. The implementation of RPAS into passenger transport aircraft was strongly negative. Finally, there was an overall positive perception towards RPAS

The role of leadership in aviation safety and aircraft airworthiness

Ensuring aircraft are technically safe to operate is the realm of airworthiness, literally worthy of being in the air. This is achieved not only with technological tools and techniques, or with just personnel and manpower, it is guided and supervised by managers and leaders. As such, the objective of this paper is to understand the role leadership plays in maintaining aviation safety and aircraft airworthiness. To this end, a case study of the Hawker Sidley Nimrod XV230 accident that occured on September 2, 2006 near Kandahar in Afghanistan, was utilized. The study concluded that leadership is a key aspect, specifically finding that leaders are responsible for articulating the organizations vision, strategic objective setting, and monitoring the achievement of those objectives. It was concluded that operational airworthiness is direct dependent on the leadership ability to provide direction, workplace culture, continued learning, and established risk management systems for safe and airworthy operations

Return of the Lost Boys To South Sudan : a strategy to building a stronger South Sudan

This thesis investigates why the Lost Boys, a group of young South Sudanese refugees who have long expressed a desire to return home, are not returning in numbers. It finds that variables generally cited in the existing literature (family ties, securing, occupational opportunities and patriotism) have similar values for those who have resettled permanently in the US, those who have returned to South Sudan, and those who have expressed interest in returning but not done so. Personal factors such as age, marital status, income and education levels are found to contribute to overall risk averseness, which is highest among the resettled and lowest among the returned.http://archive.org/details/returnoflostboys1094510730Sudan People's Liberation Army, South Sudan autho