Flight Path Management

Concerted action is needed to address vulnerabilities in average pilots’ capabilities to safely monitor their flight path, conduct a missed approach, avoid stalls and maintain control of highly automated commercial jets, aviation specialists say. Several of 33 speakers at the Flight Safety Foundation International Air Safety Seminar, Nov. 2–5 in Milan, Italy, spoke with uncharacteristic urgency about these re-emerging risks — long thought to have been mitigated.

“Major improvements have been made in the design, training and operational use of onboard systems for flight path management … and their associated flight crew interfaces,” said Kathy Abbott, chief scientific and technical adviser for flight deck human factors at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). “Incident and accident reports suggest that flight crews continue to have problems interfacing with these systems and have difficulty using these flight path management systems.”