Modern aircraft are increasingly reliant on automation, but flight crews need more guidance to determine exactly how much automation they should use for various tasks, Michel Masson, safety action coordinator for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), says.
Masson told Flight Safety Foundation’s 24th European Aviation Safety Seminar — held Feb. 29–March 1 in Dublin, Ireland (see “Simple Clues”) — that EASA’s automation policy is being developed as part of the European Aviation Safety Plan, a coordinated multi-year plan addressing major aviation safety concerns throughout Europe. The automation policy is based on “mapping crew-automation interaction issues, design-and-certification and training principles, and respective regulatory provisions to identify top issues and paths for improvement,” said Masson, who, along with Charles Denis of EASA, authored the policy on behalf of the EASA Inte…
