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A pilot preparing to pull a passenger plane out of an airport gate forgot to release the handbrake, damaging a part of a tow vehicle attempting to bring the plane to the runway.
Another pilot had so much trouble landing an airliner on a windy day that it took three attempts before the plane landed successfully.
In another incident, the first officer forgot to turn on the antifreeze mechanism that ensures that the altitude and airspeed sensors on the outside of the plane are not blocked by ice. Luckily for the passengers, the plane completed its flight without a hitch.
These incidents are among at least a dozen flight errors and mishaps since May that pilots and first officers have attributed, at least in part, to being out of practice due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which drove demand for travel. air to the lowest levels in decades. – had kept them away from flying for a while.
Since planes carry lighter loads these days, pilots can misjudge the speed and thrust required for a landing. – The Pixelman / Pixabay
“Since it hadn’t flown in a few months, it was rusty,” said the first officer who forgot to activate the antifreeze mechanism in an anonymous report to a security reporting system run by NASA.
“I felt like my memory was strong enough, but it really should have taken me a while to review” standard operating procedures, he added.
Aviation experts and airline representatives acknowledge that when pilots are inactive for several months, their skills and competence deteriorate. Common mistakes include going too fast or too high during a landing or forgetting to obtain clearance from the air traffic control tower before descending to a lower altitude.
“The key to flying safely is frequency,” said Richard G. McSpadden Jr, senior vice president of the Aviation Safety Institute of the American Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. “You’re not that sharp if you haven’t flown in a while.”
Not enough flights
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, airlines have drastically reduced the number of daily flights on some routes and, in some cases, have eliminated service to low-demand destinations.
In April and May of last year, the number of daily takeoffs in the US dropped to about 75% below pre-pandemic levels. In recent months, the number of takeoffs has risen 43% below pre-pandemic times, according to industry data.
As a result, some pilots have returned to work after being absent for up to four months. Delta Air Lines recently announced that it planned to bring back about 400 pilots for the summer in the hopes that the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines would boost travel demand.
So far, no incidents of out-of-practice pilots have been reported causing accidents that have injured passengers. Aviation experts say there are enough backup systems in modern airliners to prevent minor oversights from turning into serious accidents.
Since March last year, many airlines around the world have had to ground their planes due to border closures and lack of flight demands. – JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
However, an Airbus 330 passenger jet attempting to land at Indonesia’s Kualanamu International Airport on September 15 last year ran off the runway and headed towards the adjacent land and weeds. None of the passengers were injured.
Indonesia’s transport safety agency, known as KNKT, concluded that “during the Covid-19 pandemic, the operations department had difficulties (trying) to maintain the competence of the pilot.”
The agency also said that the plane’s second-in-command had not flown in the previous 90 days and that the pilot had flown in no more than three hours in the previous 90 days.
To ensure that pilots in the U.S. remain proficient even when they are not scheduled to work for long periods of time, the Federal Aviation Administration prohibits pilots from flying a commercial aircraft unless they have completed at least three take-offs and three landings, either in a plane. airplane or in a simulator – in the last 90 days.
But the FAA modified that requirement twice last year, giving pilots more leeway.
For pilots who missed three takeoffs and three landings in the 90 days before the end of September 2020, the FAA granted a 60-day grace period. For pilots who did not meet the requirement by December 31, the FAA amended the rules again, adding a 30-day grace period.
In federal documents, the FAA defended grace periods, saying that putting pilots in cockpits or simulators to practice flight increases the risk of spreading Covid-19. The FAA noted that grace periods were requested by various aviation industry groups, including Airlines For America, the trade group of the nation’s largest airlines, and the Regional Airline Association, a trade group for regional airlines in The USA.
No public hearings were held on the changes because the FAA concluded that that pandemic emergency required the new rules to go into effect immediately.
James Belton, captain of Boeing 767 aircraft and spokesman for the union representing United Airlines pilots, said United pilots have complied with the FAA’s 90-day competition policy before returning to work and have not used the grace periods.
“Our pilots only leave our training center when they are fully trained, comfortable and ready to fly,” he said.
Representatives from the Airline Pilots Association complained in July that several Delta pilots were denied access to simulators so they could practice before flying again and were penalized for making such requests, according to an article in Forbes. Delta denied the allegations and a representative from the Airline Pilots Association recently said the concern over access to the simulators has been resolved.
There is other evidence that out-of-practice pilots have been a problem.
The International Air Transport Association, a trade group of the world’s airlines, reported last spring of a sharp increase in the rate of aircraft making “unstable approaches,” which often occur when pilots attempt to land at too high or too high a speed. not enough oomph and have to make last minute adjustments.
The airline group reported that the unstable approach rate jumped from about 13 or 14 per 1,000 flights before the pandemic to more than 35 per 1,000 in May last year. The problem of unstable approaches increased at airports around the world in the spring and summer of 2020, the group said, but the rate returned to pre-pandemic levels in recent months.
“The prolonged absence of a significant number of flight attendants from the flight deck can lead to decreased skills, less effective situational awareness and can lead to a deviation” from standard operating procedures, the group said in a memorandum to its members. members in August.
Aviation experts say they are not overly concerned.
Commercial passenger jets always fly with one pilot and one copilot to reduce the chances of pilot error, said Kenneth P. Byrnes, chair of the Flight Training Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“I am comfortable with the security requirements,” Byrnes said. “I don’t think there is an imminent danger.” A serious problem
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association recently offered a series of videos on its website to help inexperienced pilots improve their flying skills. The series includes tutorials on using the radio to communicate with an air traffic control tower and tips for making a smoother landing.
American Airlines, one of the world’s largest airlines, was also concerned about a lack of pilot practice, so it began conducting more frequent reviews of its pilot performance data.
The 2020 pilot data showed no loss of proficiency, said Kimball Stone, senior vice president of flight operations for American Airlines. “There has been no degradation of skills,” he said.
It’s not just a lack of practice that can lead drivers to make mistakes.
During the pandemic, planes have carried fewer passengers: An average of 10% of seats on US flights were filled in April, up from 80% before the pandemic, which means a much lighter load, said Mark Searle, global security director. at the International Air Transport Association.
If pilots mistakenly assume that the plane they are flying is as heavy as it was before the pandemic, they may misjudge the speed and thrust required for a landing, he said.
Additionally, Searle said the drop in demand for air travel has led to less crowded skies, so there is less need for planes to take winding roads to stay clear of each other. Shorter, direct routes could confuse a pilot arriving at a destination earlier than expected, he said.
But Searle said he has faith that drivers are aware of such changes.
“If they adhere to the standard operating procedures that we practice, I don’t think there will be much of a problem,” he said.
Still, there have been bugs, as shown in NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System. The system was developed so that pilots and other airline crew members could anonymously report mechanical failures and human errors without fear of retaliation from aircraft manufacturers or airline management.
In one report, a pilot misaligned himself to land on the wrong runway. Another pilot accidentally pressed the button to deactivate the autopilot. The first officer of another flight made an unusually steep turn after misreading the cockpit instruments.
In each case, the pilots and first officers blamed lack of practice for the mistakes.
In September, a commercial airliner’s first officer reported miscalculating the runway distance during a landing and causing the plane to descend too low. Rather than abort the landing and circle the airport for another attempt, the safest option, the first officer made last-minute adjustments to land.
“Contributing factors included light turbulence requiring constant power adjustments,” said the first officer. “Also, the lack of recent flight time due to the license: this was my first approach / landing in several weeks in addition to the very limited flight time in the last six months.”
During the October incident in which an airliner tried to pull away from a door with the parking brake still on, the pilot and first officer said in a NASA report that they had even discussed the risks of not practicing before the flight. . .
“In my case, 40 calendar days had passed since my last flight,” said the first officer.
The captain added: “We fly less, so we must be even more vigilant. Better attention to detail. “- Los Angeles Times / dpa
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