An Investigation of Automation Induced Active Failures in Flight Operations

The objective of this study is to examine the effects of active failures involving cockpit automation in the descent phase of flight.Since NASA′s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS)database provides a broad insight into the type of factors reported by flight crews,a piece of content analysis software is used to hone the search parameters to the prominently feature event components in the ASRS reports.It is determined that the study should focus on automa-tion/autopilot issues occurring in the descent phase of flights.Study results provide an insight into the effects of automa-tion related issues on flight crew.The key findings are that automation related events occurred more often on Airbus than Boeing aircrafts,while mechanical related events occurred more often on Boeing.Further,Boeing aircrafts are more likely to be involved in events where violations and decision errors occur.Crew Resource Management (interactions amongst the flight crew)is significantly unlikely to act as a precursor to skill-based and decision errors.Of the two manufacturers-Air-bus and Boeing-the results suggest that active failures are more likely to occur on Boeing aircrafts.The evidence,howev-er,indicates that automation is least likely to act as a precursor fault which results in active failures.