Practical, low-cost technologies are within reach to reduce
the risk of loss of control.
By Don Bateman
Loss of control (LOC) and lack of aircraft control (LAC) accidents continue to mar commercial aviation’s great safety record, but there are cost-effective technologies that could help reduce the risk of these accidents years before more elegant and sophisticated systems can be created and fitted to new aircraft designs.1
LOC and LAC currently are the leading causes of fatalities in commercial aviation. There were 34 accidents in the last 10 years that cost more than 3,100 lives and $4 billion in financial losses. Spatial disorientation and suspected reversion or confusion between Western and Eastern (Soviet-era) attitude indicator formats accounted for nearly half of the losses. Undetected airspeed decreases leading to stalls were involved in about 20 percent of t…
