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CHRIS WOODYARD | USA TODAY | 16 hours ago
The crew on the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed in March performed all procedures recommended by manufacturer Boeing.BUZZ60
Automation has made planes safer and more efficient, but the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets is leading some to wonder if there is a dangerous flip side.
While advanced autopilots and computers are now considered an integral part of any modern jetliner, many pilots worry that the systems are detracting from developing and maintaining their own abilities.
“We’ve been talking about this in the industry for years. Pilots are losing their basic flying skills and there’s an overreliance on automation,” said Les Westbrooks, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, after the latest 737 Max crash, an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March.
That crash followed the crash of a Lion Air flight into the Java Sea five months earlier. The two accidents together killed a total of 346 passengers and crew. Boeing is redesigning a key computerized system in the plane, but questions are being raised about pilot actions as well.
Officials inspect the inside of the cockpit of a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft at Soekarno Hatta airport, Jakarta, Indonesia.AP
Appearing before a House subcommittee earlier this month, FAA acting administrator Daniel Elwell expressed concern that pilots in both jets appeared to have made mistakes in trying to deal with the emergencies.
More: FAA chief defends grounding Boeing 737 Max later than other nations
He said he was disturbed that, based on the flight data recorder, it appeared that pilots in both planes didn’t properly deal with a stabilizer trim problem early despite the issues with Boeing’s faulty onboard computer system.
“You don’t pull out a checklist. You memorize it and you are tested on it all the time,” said Elwell, formerly an American Airlines pilot for 16 years.
In the case of the Boeing 737 Max, a computerized system was installed to compensate for the jet’s tendency to point its nose upward because of heavier engines that were placed farther forward on the wings. It was called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). But in the case of the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes, pilots found themselves wrestling to keep the jetliner aloft as MCAS repeatedly switched on and pointed the nose toward the ground.
The link to one of the 737 Max’s automated systems raises “concerns about pilots’ abilities to recognize and react to unexpected events,” Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel wrote in prepared remarks for the subcommittee hearing.
As for MCAS, training in it may become more common as more 737 Max simulators are rolled out. There are currently only 17 simulators for the 737 variant globally, said spokesman Paul Bergman. “We expect the number of Max simulators to more than double by year’s end,” he said in an email.
View | 23 PhotosBoeing’s new 737 MAX makes its maiden flight
It wasn’t just the two Boeing 737 Max crashes in which trouble with automation played a role. An Asiana Airlines airliner crashed short of the runway at San Francisco International Airport in 2013 because, an investigation found, the pilots didn’t thoroughly understand how the plane’s automated systems worked.
90% of your flight: Automated
Experts say automation has helped to make aviation one of the safest means of transportation. Because of advanced autopilot systems, for instance, aircraft save fuel by being able to fly in an optimal way. They can be landed in fog, a boon to travelers who no longer are diverted to other airports. The systems are so advanced that they can counteract bad judgments by pilots. Automated systems are switched on for about 90 percent of a typical airline trip, according to government estimates.
But those same experts say pilots must not be simply monitors of a plane’s automated systems but have the ability to step in with hands-on flying. Though every pilot must pass qualification exams for every type of plane they fly, the fear is they’ll forget key skills at times when they need them the most.
“Airlines don’t teach pilots to fly. They teach procedures. Your basic core skills should be there before you get to the airline,” said Bo Corby, director of standards and training for Future & Active Pilot Advisors, or FAPA, a career and financial advisory service.
He said the focus for training many pilots these days is to teach them how to use the automated systems, deemphasizing basic flying skills. He said the time has come to revert to a system in which knowledge of core techniques becomes critical again.
Another expert, veteran airline pilot John Cox, said it’s clear that automation overall has made flying safer. The key is not to have an overdependency on it — “to be comfortable and capital of being able to fly the plane manually. That has been an industry challenge,” he said.
But Cox says there’s more to the Ethiopian Airlines crash than just an automation issue. The pilots were confronted with a load of warnings in the cockpit, more than anyone could be reasonably expected handle, he said.
“You hit a point called task saturation. You are taking in more information than you can process,” Cox said. And with all those distractions, a person’s cognitive ability to deal with them can drop by half.
Thus, he said “automation dependence is not a cause, but it is a contributor” to the disaster.
As a result, Cox said he, too, believes pilots need to strike balance between knowing the nuances of planes’ automated systems while also maintaining their basic flying abilities.
Trainers, Cox said, should “emphasize manual flying skills and not have a dependence on the computer, but use them as aids.”
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