For at least a decade, a steady rise in disengagements of automatic flight control systems on airliners — often minutes before accidents or incidents — has captured the attention of aviation safety scientists in Europe. Among research paths being taken against the backdrop of loss of control–in flight (LOC-I) are suspected causal factors such as pilots’ startle response, their automation overreliance, cognitive overload, and limited or inadequate manual flying skills to operate the current generation of commercial transport aircraft.
In April, one group reported its first insights and preliminary implications from a multidimensional project launched in 2012 and running through the end of 2015, called Manual Operations for 4th Generation Airliners (MAN4GEN), funded by the European Union. This international consortium — led by the Netherlands National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) — gathered subject matter specialists from Airbus, Boeing, G…
