Review and analysis of fire and explosion accidents in maritime transportation

The globally expanding shipping industry has several hazards such as collision, capsizing, foundering, grounding, stranding, fire, and explosion. Accidents are often caused by more than one contributing factor through complex interaction. It is crucial to identify root causes and their interactions to prevent and understand such accidents. This study presents a detailed review and analysis of fire and explosion accidents that occurred in the maritimetransportation industry during 1990–2015. The underlying causes of fire and explosion accidents are identified and analysed. This study also reviewed potential preventative measures to prevent such accidents. Additionally, this study compares properties of alternative fuels and analyses their effectiveness in mitigating fire and explosionhazards. It is observed that Cryogenic Natural Gas (CrNG), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and methanol have properties more suitable than traditional fuels in mitigating fire risk and appropriate management of their hazards could make them a safer option to traditional fuels. However, for commercial use at this stage, there exist several uncertainties due to inadequate studies, and technological immaturity. This study provides an insight into fire and explosion accident causation and prevention, including the prospect of using alternative fuels for mitigating fire and explosion risks in maritime transportation

A Particle Filter for Ground Obstacle Tracking in the Airfield

International audienceThis paper addresses pilot error due to distractions, lack of situational awareness and misjudgment of separation during taxi manoeuvers. A display is being developed to minimize these errors and assist pilots to determine safe passage while navigating during taxi. Part of the development consisted of the implementation of a tracking algorithm-based on the particle filter-which is being presented in this paper. The tracking algorithm tracks obstacles that have been detected and reconstructed using stereo vision techniques. Afterwards, the tracked obstacles are highlighted on a display. Experiments show that the algorithm successfully detects and tracks aircraft in an airfield

Weather-Related Decision Errors: Differences across Flight Types

Aviation incidents involving poor weather may be related to cognitive and contextual factors that lead pilots to continue with flights in the face of cues suggesting that doing so could be hazardous (i.e., commit plan continuation errors or PCE). To test this, 276 ASRS incident reports involving in-flight encounters with weather were analyzed. Part 91, 135 and 121 operations were found to differ significantly in their relative frequency of commission of PCEs. Factors such as hours of pilot experience, poor visibility, and crew conflict were related to the performance of a PCE. Different factors were related to PCEs committed within the three Part operations