More than a third of nearly 1,000 recent transport category airplane accidents might have been prevented by head-up guidance system technology (HGST), according to a special report released in November 2009 by Flight Safety Foundation (FSF).1 Moreover, the accident-prevention potential of HGST — largely due to the flight path and airspeed control guidance it provides — is significantly higher in occurrences in which the flight crew is directly involved, such as in takeoff and landing accidents, and loss-of-control accidents, the report said.
The report is based on a study conducted by Foundation Fellows Robert Vandel, retired FSF executive vice president, and Earl F. Weener, retired Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief engineer and now a presidential nominee as a member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The study was a follow-up to an initial study conducted by the Foundation in 1990. That study focused on civil jet transport accidents that occu…
