Aviation Safety And Investigation Of Flight Failure (Research Paper Sample)

AVIATION SAFETY
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AVIATION SAFETY
Abstract
Aviation safety looks generally on investigation of flight failure with the sole aim to preventing such events from ever happening again in future. Thus aviation safety tries to look at a number of factors that cause error in aviation and on the ways in which these errors can be solved. In general there are a number of reasons that can cause errors in aviation. Some of these may be due to human or professional issues with the workers. When this occurs there is need to ensure that the person is well examined to ensure that they will not cause the same mistake again or even be recommended for training. There have also been caused by negligence in doing of duties and this has led to prosecution of some of the individual that are believed to be responsible for example span air flight 5022.
Criminal prosecutions also has been one of the major recommendations to ensure that the people that are involved in causing these error are brought in for justice with the aim of warning the rest that action shall be taken if they also do the same. The aspect of culture also has been one of the few reasons that aviation and this brought out the issue just culture. Just culture thus can be the atmosphere of trust among people which encourages, rewards them for safety related information’s but are clear on the extent for a behavior to be acceptable and unacceptable. The view that it should be recommended for use in aviation also is in right order.
Introduction
Aviation safety is a term that is composed of the theory of investigation and looking into flight failure with the aim of preventing such from happening in future. It’s done through education and training of aviation professionals. In the research thus we shall be looking on some of the basic aviation accidents that have occurred and how human error as played part in them. The report will look at how these mistakes have impacted this whole aviation industry and the economies. It shall also focus on some examples of the accidents and whether the professionals we given the due sentencing for the errors made.
Main body
In aviation there have been a number of reporting errors from the aviation industry that have ended up being very dangerous both for the industry itself and the people. Some of the accidents that have occurred are very disastrous in that there is loss of life and assets. We shall look at some of the mistakes and errors that have been made in the aviation industry and the impacts it has had on the aviation safety. One of the errors that may occur in the aviation industry is the most common on the professional dilemma. The professional dilemma can occur in very many different ways including pilot fatigue, inability for the pilot to responds to emergency calls and assumptions of information. For instance there is the crashing of flight colgan air flight 3407 which crashed in Clarence center in New York into a house (United States,2011).
After the investigations were done by the national transportation safety board they concluded that the accident that killed 50 people was caused by pilot fatigue. It was noted that very many pilots get fatigued while flying for long hours and thus errors can occur in that time (Hagen, 2013). The error thus caused loss of innocent life of the people on board. The other error or mistake can be caused by the health condition of the pilot and they decide to keep the same as a secret and not open up. For instance the crash of German wings flight 9525 which crashed into French Alps was a result of the copilot having depression and he did crash the plane diligently. If the company had look at his history on flight time and record they could have seen that he had depression issues in that past but they insisted that he was 100% fit to fly. Shift in responsibility in the aviation industry could also cause reporting mistakes.
Aviation systems are made to be able to run with minimal error margins and thus lack of reliance from the employees can be attributed to doubts of the person’s ethical aspects or even their position in the company structure. An incident like the Applegate memo is among the common failures in reporting due to workers motivation or pressure from the top levels of administration. Final error can be made on the bases of organizational factors like culture and hierarchy. These play a very large part in reporting, lot aviation recommend the just culture that encourages accountability to all the workers. Mistrust among the workers thus can be very dangerous since there will discourage cohesion among the workers and the flow of information in the firm.
Aviation industry has not been all a clean way over the years thus there are a number of accidents that have occurred. Some of the accidents that have happened have been life changers to both the families of the victims and also the aviation industry in general. Planes have crashed and some have been very bad that all the people on board have lost their lives. In this respect it’s viewed that aviation accidents are the most dangerous accidents since when they happen they are fatal. In this respect thus the aviation industry has tried their best to ensure that there is a marginal room for errors that can cause an accident in aviation. Despite all these measures in place some errors have occurred and accidents have happened some that are not that fatal leaving the pilot and the copilot with criminal cases against them. We shall look at some of the accidents that have happened and leaving the pilots to face criminal charges.
Criminal investigation in aviation industry in the past years has not been as effectives as it has turned to be in recent years with around 28 criminal prosecution from the year 2000-2009 compared to that of just 27 criminal prosecution from the 1956-1999. It shows that they have increased in investigations and also in the prosecution of the pilots. The criminal authorities have also increased there prosecution not alone to the pilots but have gone as far as airlines, manufacturers and also the engineers that made the plane including other employees. The airline maintainers’ teams, air traffic controllers and regulatory officials also have been included in these criminal investigations. Most of these criminal proceeding have been engineered by the families of the victims who lost their lives in the crash.
Criminal investigations in aviation in United States are not very much strong as they are in other countries since some of these investigations don’t lead to criminal charges. For instance in 1996 valu jet flight 562 went into flames just few minutes after takeoff from and crashed in Florida. The criminal investigators that dealt with the case only charged the aircraft maintenance company sabre tech and its employees. They falsified the maintenance record of the plane, reckless and failing to comply with hazardous- material regulation. The people charged were the company vice president of maintenance and two mechanics. In 1999 all the individual were freed but sabre Tech Company was found guilty with nine counts of willfully and recklessly transporting oxygen generators which was against regulations. They were also charged with 110 counts of manslaughter and 110 counts of murder. They were later dropped but paid $500000 to aviation safety.
Criminal investigation cases I aviation are more common around Europe Asia and South America. Most counties in these counties have witnessed criminal prosecution taking place after incidents of plane crash. For example in Spain there is a case that is still going on after the crash of span air flight 5022 in 2008. The plane cashed in Madrid in Spain where the head of span air maintenance and span air mechanics have been charged with 154 counts of manslaughter and 18 counts of negligence injuries. The families of the victims have been request to submit evidence of the damages done after the crash. Another example is that of French judge who found the continental airlines and one worker in the maintenance guilty for manslaughter and causing damages Charles de Gaulle international airport in the year 2000.
Considering the two different approaches used by both United States and that in Europe, there a number of concerns that emerge from both side and they have different aviation safety. It also affects the aspect of reporting error in very many ways. In the case of united state the pilots are willing to come out and report an error or any other worker regardless of the department. They are made to feel a bet secured since they might not get criminal charges when they report. It encourages thus for the teams to be able to avoid occurrence of accidents since they can be reported. Unlike the case in Europe where they fear for criminal prosecutions they may decide to remain silent on the matter. The move for Europe also presents a positive aspect in that it makes all the people in aviation to be more careful and ensure that all issues are addressed. The same may not be the case in United States thus we see the both moves can either be helpful and also bad for aviation.
Just culture is the environment that surrounds the aviation sector which basically involves; organization, investigation and regulatory authorities. For effective reporting culture thus it depends on all the aspects of aviation system to handle blame and punishment effectively (Dekker, 2014). In this respect thus it’s safe to say that only a small number of human behavior or action are unsafe and they deserve to be dealt with properly. With this in mind thus the pardoning of all unsafe actions like criminal activity, reckless, substance abuse and sabotage thus cannot be completely given amnesty since they would los...