Federal Aviation Regulators have issued strict safety warnings for airline pilots: think carefully before turning off autopilots and other computerized flight controls at the country’s busiest airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration warning warned pilots about the risk of overreliance on their own manual flights and visual approaches in busy airspace.
The bulletin issued in response to the dangers revealed by the recent “notable and highly visible” commercial aviation accident in the United States, is expressed in technical terms and was largely overlooked when it was released in early April.
The most devastating of these accidents was a January air collision between a US helicopter and an area jet that killed 67 people near Ronald Reagan National Airport. The alert warned of the risks of pilots relying on their own visual references and manual flights rather than automated cockpit commands. The helicopter crew was to maintain visual separation from the landing jet it slammed into.
The FAA also declared that, without identifying specific events, the commonly used landing visual approach could be potentially dangerous, especially in busy airspaces.
The warning reflects preliminary lessons from a crash in a Delta regional jet that landed in a massive situation at Toronto Pearson International Airport three weeks later.
The jet’s landing gear hit the tarmac with extreme force before the plane flipped its back on the runway. All passengers and crew survived. However, aviation experts say investigators are focusing on the seemingly inadequate response of a relatively inexperienced co-pilot, suddenly, just before a touchdown, especially to a strong gust of wind.
Some of these experts believe the alert could be an inflection point for a long, aggressive debate over pilots who practice manual flight skills at the expense of cockpit automation.
From the perspective of a former Wall Street Journal aerospace reporter who has covered all major global commercial jet liner accidents in the 1990s, the document reflects unusually elevated concerns by regulators. The notable message is that it combines satisfying pilots, coupled with a trend of lower reliance on the highest levels of automation, coupled with the trend of causing the risk of flying.
It comes amid growing concern for air travelers. A flight at Newar Liberty Airport was cancelled and delayed after an air traffic controller lost contact with the jet for 90 seconds on April 28th when the system failed. The FAA says the shortage of air traffic controllers is exacerbating the ongoing problem.
A three-page FAA alert entitled “Risks Related to Visual Approach” encourages crews and airline managers to reassess the safety of certain widely accepted landing and takeoff procedures in an orderly manner.
After highlighting the FAA concerns about “notable and high visibility” crashes and serious incidents, in serious cases “the last few months,” the alert specifically recommends pilots reject specific air traffic control instructions with automation switching or overriding.
These technologies aim to increase airport capacity by enabling a more direct and time-consuming landing approach. Additionally, if the pilot is responsible for visually piloting the runway, the workload of the pneumatic controller, which can avoid detailed radar tracking of some aircraft in the weather.
However, the trade-off is that commonly used visual approaches (usually lacking equipment procedures and automation backups) can also compromise safety.
One section of alerts emphasizes the importance of pilots proactively communicating “cannot” controllers in a specific direction that needs to be turned off “reduce safety margins” automation.
This alert instructs pilots to pay special attention to disruptions or potential runway collisions caused by one of the most widely used takeoff procedures adopted by pilots and controllers equally. At the largest and busiest airport in the United States (in fact, the world), the controllers are constantly instructing cockpit crews to “wait side by side” for takeoff clearance.
This means that the departing aircraft will stop along the centerline at one end of the active runway, with the engine idling, and the second aircraft before it will accelerate and lift the other end of the same strip. Takeoff instructions for waiting aircraft are issued when the lead surface reaches the required distance from the second jet.
In many respects, it is surprising to see this standard practice that the FAA has mentioned at all. It has been safely implemented all over the world for decades. Officials from prominent airlines and unions have not publicly criticised the operation recently. And most importantly, if you adjust the procedure, monkey wrenches will be thrown into many airport operations. Eliminating practice will significantly reduce airport capacity, rapidly reduce large flight delays, and lead to dramatic taxiway congestion.
More broadly, the latest moves correspond to the reversal of previous FAA efforts to warn of the pitfalls of overreliance on automation. Today, Jetliners have computers that can handle everything from takeoff to landing to near zero visibility. On average, pilots leading US and European airlines will turn off automation for a few minutes on every flight. Some Asian and African airlines turn it off for just a few seconds.
Automatic flight control includes advanced autopilots that maintain target headings, altitude and turns. Automatic throttle to control speed. In some cases, there are automatic collision avoidance systems that perform evasive operations without aviator input.
However, in the fall of 2023, the FAA surprised the industry by urging pilots to hand over “all the departure routes” or “potentially the entire flight” over the next few years as a way to maintain pilot proficiency.
Currently, agents are concerned that they are relying too much on manual flight skills amidst the systematic technical and staffing shortcomings that plague the air traffic control network.
Safety bulletins do not require operational changes in their own right. Rather, it recommends enhanced safety analysis on the part of pilots and step-by-step situational awareness. However, the FAA has acknowledged that “the severity of these events is of concern” with accidents and close calls that occur in increasingly busy and complex airspaces.
