Pilots, dependent on computers, are forgetting how to fly

Airline pilots have become so dependent on aviation computers they are forgetting the basics of the job.

Travel Insurance News - 01/09/2011

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A study has found that pilots are growing so reliant on their cockpit computers that are losing the ability to maintain their basic flying skills. The study says pilots are abdicating too much of their responsibility in favour of their automated flying systems.

The problem appears to be worsened by the fact that both airlines and aviation regulators typically advise pilots not to turn off their plane’s autopilots. In some cases, such a move is prohibited entirely.

As a result, pilots are losing their ultimate flying ability, leaving them with drastically reduced ability to pilot their planes manually. Aviation experts are warning of the dangers of the trend, which has been identified in a draft study.

Rory Kay, an commercial airline captain who co-chairs the USA’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s advisory committee on the training of pilots, said the airline industry was suffering from what he termed ‘automation addiction’. Mr Kay said the new state-of-the-art aircraft had introduced a new type of accident in which pilots forget how to fly.

The study by the FAA looked at 46 major incidents and accidents, 734 reports voluntarily submitted by pilots and data gathered from at least 9,000 flights where a safety official flew in the cockpit to monitor pilots at work.

The study found that pilots struggled with manual flight or committed errors with automated flight controls in nearly two-thirds of accidents and just under a third of major incidents. An increasing number of pilot errors concerned the failure to spot that the auto-throttle or autopilot had disconnected.

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