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Alfredo Jaime

ENC1101

Professor Michael Ditusa

26th April 2022

Automation in Airplanes

Automation is a system that is now very common in large jet airplanes. It was

invented several years ago to make flights safer and more precise. However, the continued

development of these modern systems has become a controversial issue for every airline

and every pilot. As we can see in the

picture (Nast), when pilots start their

initial training, they must learn to have

situational awareness, teamwork, and

comprehend automation. Today’s highly

automated airplanes create surprises

pilots are not familiar with. The humans in the cockpit need to be better prepared for

machine quirks. For this reason, when they start their initial ground and operational systems

course, they need to continue with their Operating Experience Training (OET). Then, they

learn to enhance their situational awareness on a Full Flight Simulator (FFS) which is a

replica of a real airplane. This near-real replica of an airplane can simulate features like

turbulent scenarios, normal approaches, and the movement of the flight controls.

Nevertheless, pilot training today tends to be scripted and based on known and likely

scenarios. Once they are qualified and rated to fly as first officers, they accomplish their

dream to fly an actual airplane. So, it is not easy to become an airline pilot, looks like is an

amazing career but pilots are subjected to difficult and very extreme training to accomplish
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their dream to fly. We are not taking into count their personal life and relationships. The

reason why aviation experts study how these qualified pilots react to automation is when

these pilots learn from their mistakes. Unfortunately, in many recent crashes experienced

pilots had zero systems or simulator training for the unexpected challenges they

encountered. If these new pilots cannot recognize and react to errors, incidents and even

mishaps are more likely to occur. Despite this useful role, revolutionary airplane cockpit

automation does not relieve the pilot from their duties.

Even though automated aircraft were designed to have advanced modern technology

to increase safety, this can be a good help for pilots through busy terminals, where there is

an increase in their workload. Pilots are a key element in every flight because a pilot can

use human judgment to take control of the airplane if any strange situation or emergency

arises. They should have excellent situational awareness during all the phases of flight

without being reliant on automation. Conversely, when a pilot believes that advanced

automation enables operations closer to personal or environmental limits, the risk is

increased. Automated systems may be able to compensate for certain problems that arise,

but only to free the pilot’s attention. In other cases, however, it can result in near disasters.

Casner presents the case of a China Airlines flight, a Boeing 747 heading towards Los

Angeles International Airport. While they were cruising at a flight level of 41,000 feet, the

pilots did not notice that the 747 experienced gradual power loss in one of its 4 engines.

The autopilot corrected the deviation tendency of the airplane by adding and forcing a

correction. Eventually, the aircraft turned to the right and entered an upset that almost

started a vertical dive. The crew was fortunate to regain control of the aircraft at 9,500 feet

and avoided disaster. While one can argue that the engine power was reflected on the

engine indicators and that the crew had not been monitoring them, automation facilitated
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this error. Then in the emergency, it was the crew’s quick actions on board that saved the

day (Casner 83-84). The reality of this incident is that probably if there was not a human

being on board, the consequences could have led to a global disaster. That is why pilots are

an important key in nowadays flights, making them safe and trustworthy.

Additionally, pilots must perform calculations of speeds limits and accomplish all

the requirements for weight and balance data changes, in different airports and scenarios.

The powerful capabilities of cockpit automation can naturally provide pilots with a sense of

trust in these calculations. However, automation calculations are questionable in almost

35% of cases, errors are related to different units of measure used between The United

States of America and Europe. Some pilots believe that pounds are kilos and kilos are

pounds, silly enough for a person responsible for thousands of souls on board. One example

is the case of a Texas International DC-9, departing Denver in January 1976. The alarm of

the control joke stick went off as the aircraft reached a critical speed on takeoff (The

National Transportation Safety Board). The crew calculated the take-off speed correctly,

but the alarm sounded, and they aborted the takeoff. They could not stop the aircraft and

they overran the runway. Unfortunately, the control joke stick was a false alarm. The crew

trusted the errant warning system, and the takeoff resulted in a mishap. In this case, the

crew used their judgment to avoid a potentially catastrophic situation, but they were led

astray by automation.

Hence, every flight must have proficient pilots who understand, speak, and listen to

the English language. Moreover, they need to be able to communicate with the Air Traffic

Controller (ATC). They must request important clearances such as taxi, take-off, climb,

descent, and land. Sometimes they must deviate the airplane due to severe weather

conditions or request a change of altitudes. The International Civil Aviation Organization

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(ICAO) has attributed many different mishaps between pilots and controllers to cockpit

automation. One example is when a link is out of order or out of sequence. Similarly,

sometimes the messages that pilots send are not received by ATC or they are unreliable.

No modern communication system can be a substitute for live voice messages, and this is

yet another reason why every airplane should have a pilot as part of a crew.

Now, that it is evident that a pilot is needed on every airplane to supervise and

manage the critical phases of flight, it is important to acknowledge the benefits of

automation. Automation has been found to improve crew situational awareness skills. In

fact, reliance on automation can translate to a lack of manual handling skills. One

controversial but useful feature is Autoland. As the name states, this allows the airplane to

land without any input from the pilot, so the crew does not need to take any action during

this maneuver. Due to advances like these, it is now well known that the new generation of

airplanes does not need a flight engineer on board as part of the crew. Flight engineers

disappeared about 5 years ago, which motivated the airlines to invest in other studies to

reduce the need for extra crewmembers. In one study by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots

Association (AOPA), they concluded that human pilots cannot fly precisely or maintain an

altitude or heading during moderate to extreme turbulence or if bad weather conditions

arise. Based on conclusions like these, jet companies developed a robot airplane which was

launched in 2015, which is currently being tested while they seek approval from the Federal

Aviation Administration (FAA). Indeed, it is not a close solution to it, but in the future,

studies are whispering that it would probably be an interaction between automatic robot

machines that can replace human pilots in the cockpit.

It is demonstrated according to a survey made by Statista in 2019, that 55 percent of

respondents stated that they are not excessively dependent on flight deck automation.
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During this survey, 41 percent of pilots surveyed revealed that the management or

employer is the major cause of stress in the cockpit during their flight (Flight Global).

Pilots nowadays are proficient and reliable with automation, nevertheless, according to this

statistic, they feel hard pressure from their airline’s bosses to accomplish, schedules, delays,

and other peers that are related to the operational procedures. Every day, they have the

stress to overcome all the improvised problems that arise, for example, weather hazards,

crewmembers’ pitfalls, problematic passengers, and relationship breakdowns. We can relate

this to the extremely sad case of the Germanwings accident that shudders the entire world.

The co-pilot crashed an airplane over the Swiss Alps, and from that day our aviation was

facing another new threat: pilot suicide. We have witnessed a public outcry as to how this

tragedy could have occurred in what arguably is one of the world’s safest aviation systems

(Kolatsis). The Germanwings pilot was on a real threshold in his life, lost a future marriage,

was unstable physiologically, and through drug and alcohol abuse. So, it is not a surprise

that pilots can make mistakes in their interaction with automation. In this situation, every

pilot is obligated to have one month's holiday vacation, every calendar year. Moreover,

they need to rest and have a good holiday to relieve all the stress that they tolerate during

their duty times.

From sleeping and living in fancy hotels, watching the sun rising in New York,

eating dinner in Las Vegas, and probably in their next weekend, they are getting stuck in

Southeast Florida because of a terrible thunderstorm. Missing important dates, like

Christmas and relatives’ marriages or son’s plays. Their lives rely on the airline and the

airline sucks their life’s like a lollipop. Also, like every other professional in the aviation

environment and out of the field. Pilots are vulnerable and have bank debts, making alcohol

abuse, love breakdowns, and marriage pitfalls. All these factors disturb a pilot's mind and
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can make them vulnerable to making mistakes or even committing suicide, as an illustration

of the Germanwings case.

For what is worth, we have identified several ways in which a pilot is important to

every flight. There is sufficient evidence that cockpit automation can lead to undesirable

circumstances, and that without pilots, these undesirable circumstances could result in

serious consequences. The negative aspects of cockpit automation come from humans

sharing responsibilities with machines to perform critical tasks. Many pilots today feel they

know less about their highly automated airplanes than they did about any of the arguably

much simpler airplanes they flew in the past. This needs to change. Rather than attempt to

eliminate these problems, human factors experts believe that the best way to confront

automation problems is to raise pilots’ level of situational awareness. It is proven that

machines can fail or have pitfalls, and that is why a pilot is always necessary on an

airplane. An old joke says that the cockpit of the future will contain two members: a pilot

and a dog. The pilot is there to feed the dog. The dog is there to bite the pilot in case he or

she tries to touch anything (Casner 81).

Thanks to the fact that thousands of pilots remain furloughed, the industry now has

a unique opportunity to take the first step toward preventing accidents with better pilot

training. In the process, they can create a new worldwide model that will prevent more

accidents triggered by surprises no airline training department or built-in automation

system can anticipate. Until automation can account for its own sudden and unexpected

surprises, we need to make sure humans can.

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Works Cited

Carr, Simon. "Ergo, flying is safer." T+D, vol. 56, no. 7, July 2002, p. 88. Gale Academic

OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A90032181/AONE?

u=lincclin_bwcc&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=1a2c3aac. Accessed 1 Dec. 2021.

Casner, Stephen M. The Pilot's Guide to The Airline Cockpit, Aviation Supplies &

Academics, Inc., 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/browardcebooks/detail.action?

docID=3029050. Pages (81-84)

Flightglobal. "Do You Believe You Are Becoming Overly Dependent on Flight Deck

Automation?" Statista, Statista Inc., 15 May 2020,

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1129479/flight-automation-pilots-worldwide/

Kolatsis, Joanna. "Aviation security and the question of liability in air accidents." Air and

Space Lawyer, vol. 28, no. 4, Oct. 2015, pp. NA+. Gale Academic

OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A457108071/AONE?

u=lincclin_bwcc&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=0533cee5. Accessed 5 Apr. 2022.

Nast, C. (2021, April 24). The plane paradox: More automation should mean more

training. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-plane-paradox-more-

automation-should-mean-more-training/

The United States. National Transportation Safety Board. (1976). Aircraft accident report:

Texas International DC-9, American Airlines, Inc., McDonnell Douglas-9, N538DS,

Denver, Colorado, January 15, 1976. Washington: Springfield, Va.: National

Transportation Safety Board; for sale by the National Technical Information Service.