Danger in the cockpit: Inexperienced pilot, crew expose aviation’s soft underbelly
Recent reports by accident investigative body on Air Peace and crashed Nigeria Police helicopter show that inexperience and pilots error are commonest route to air disaster. WOLE SHADARE examines the implications aviation sector
Disclosure
It was a shocking revelation, further accentuating widely held fact that over 85 per cent of accidents in aviation are caused by human factor or human error. Inexperienced pilots/engineers are even doing more damage to a sector that is life dependent.
Ever wonder just who’s behind that cockpit door, flying you between Lagos and Abuja, Abuja and Accra or New York and Los Angeles or from Washington Dulles to Amsterdam? If you knew, you might think twice before you get on that flight.
The number of newer, less-experienced pilots in the cockpit is growing, and that increases the risks for an accident. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Every time an airline loses a captain they need to train two pilots; a first officer needs to be upgraded, and a new pilot needs to be hired and trained.
A new captain, while experienced as a first officer, is still new to his job and there’s a steep learning curve — and increased risk — while he gains experience in the left seat.
The new first officer is significantly less experienced. Most worked as flight instructors in slow single-engine planes and have only limited multi-engine experience.
AIB’s verdict
But it is saddening that while accidents occasioned by pilot/crew error can still be accepted as one of the few mistakes, what is unacceptable and one that can be categorised as huge crime or even manslaughter is for unlicensed/unqualified and inexperienced crew to be saddled with operation of an airplane.
That was what happened in the case of accident involving Nigeria Police Force (NPF) Bell 427 helicopter with registration 5N-POL which sad event occurred at Kabong, Jos South LGA, Plateau State, Nigeria on March 14, 2012.
The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) had last week Wednesday released three accident reports. The reports are those involving a helicopter belonging to the Nigeria Police, and ground Collision incident involving two aircraft belonging to Air Peace Airlines Limited: Boeing 737-500 with registration 5N-BQR and Boeing 737-300 with registration 5N-BQP, which occurred close to Bay 4 of the Domestic Terminal 1 of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria on the April 20, 2017 and another involving a light training aircraft belonging to the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria.
The reports, especially those of the Police and Air Peace were damning. The report indicted crew of the ill-fated helicopter conveying the late Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mr, John Haruna and three others which occurred in Plateau State.
The findings indicated that the pilot’s medical had expired as at the time of accident, just as the pilot’s simulator re-currency had expired as at the time of accident.
The co-pilot of the Police helicopter was not type rated on the Bell 427 helicopter with the engineer that released the airplane prior to the flight had no type training and type rating on the aircraft type.
Commissioner, AIB, Akin Olateru attributed the cause of the police helicopter crash to unlicensed pilots and an engineer.
Flying with expired documents
According to AIB, the pilot’s medical had expired as at the time of the accident, adding that his simulator re-currency had also expired as at the time the helicopter crashed in the state.The helicopter was operated by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and was registered under the private category with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
His words, “Technically, the pilot didn’t have the license to fly as at the time the helicopter crashed in Plateau. Also, the co-pilot too had no business being in the cabin. Besides, the engineer was not authorised to release the aircraft for any flight operations as he was not type-rated on it.
For Air Peace, AIB disclosed that the decision of the Captain to reposition the aircraft without requesting for a push-back, maneuvering the aircraft without the aid of Marshallers by relying on the company’s engineers who are inexperienced wing walkers were some of the factors responsible for the crash.
Other factors according to AIB are the decision of the crew to taxi the aircraft without properly assessing the maneuverability of the aircraft at the parking bay; the non-availability of proper apron markings and Marshallers; the presence of cautionary cones at strategic areas where repair work on the apron was awaiting cure.
Errors
According to the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), investigations performed into air accidents, over 88 percent of all chartered plane crashes are attributed, at least in part, to pilot error. In private or general aviation, loss of aircraft control by the pilot is the number one cause of plane and helicopter crashes.
Even commercial airline flights are not immune from these issues, with recent statistics calculating that at least 50 percent of major airline crashes are related to human factors.
The flight crew is the first and last line of defence against an aviation accident, putting aside catastrophic mechanical malfunction.
In these situations, their lives are on the line as well. Unfortunately, many airlines place pressures on their pilots and crew that increase the likelihood of human error. Airline corporate negligence often leads to improperly trained or fatigued pilots flying planes, thus putting passengers’ lives at risk.
Cost advantage
While it is not out of place to bring into the fold and allow them to gain more flight hours through diligent training before handing them delicate opportunity of manning the cockpit, almost all major international airlines, especially in Nigeria and Africa are eager to exploit the cost advantage of employing younger, less experienced – and therefore cheaper – pilots.
In the past, a fledgling pilot had years to accumulate the requisite flight experience as he moved up from small propeller-driven planes to larger multi-engine aircraft before occupying the right seat of a jetliner.
To stay safe, the system increasingly relies on the experience and professionalism of airline employees who are already stressed fatigued and working more while earning less. As one co-pilot the reporter interviewed reported, employees are so distracted that, “it’s almost a miracle that there wasn’t bent metal and dead people” at the airlines.
Although opinions like this are pervasive, employees’ issues do not concern the right people – namely airline executives, aviation industry regulators, politicians, watchdog groups, or even the flying public – in the right way often enough.
Conclusion
Aviation industry risk-management processes have not kept pace with a rapidly changing environment. While the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) claims that this is the “Golden Age of Safety”, and other aviation researchers assure us the chance of dying in an airline accident is infinitesimal, 70 per cent of commercial pilots believed a major airline accident would happen soon.
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