One of the most significant factors in the formulation of safe flying habits and good airmanship is the quality of ab-initio flying training. It is therefore important for anyone involved in ab-initio training to receive adequate guidance on the required syllabus and the methods of teaching. In recent years, the Australian flying training industry has been through a large number of changes, with some arising from the Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) implementation of a new 'Day-VFR syllabus, and others arising from major changes in the Australian aviation industry. While change has become a…

Between January 1979 and May 1993, 35 aircraft accidents occurred in Australia during the take-off phase of flight at night. A primary factor in 15 of these accidents was considered to be some form of visual or sensory illusion, or spatial disorientation. Investigation files from the 15 accidents were reviewed in an attempt to identify common elements in which spatial disorientation, or a visual or sensory illusion, was thought to be a contributing factor. Data were gathered on pilot characteristics, such as experience and age, as well as on operational information, such as aerodrome type and…

Maintenance constitutes a significant and rising cost to the airline industry. In the USA, maintenance costs are increasing as a proportion of airline operating costs. In 1989 maintenance constituted 11-8% of US airline operating costs or greater than US$8 billion per year (Shepherd 1991). The annual cost to the Australian airline industry is likely to be in the order of A$500 million per year.

Aviation Safety Indicators (ASI) was first published in December 1996 as a response to the recommendation to '...prepare and publish safety indicators' contained in the 'Plane Safe' report issued by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport, Communications and Infrastructure. AS1 is produced jointly by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation and the Department of Transport and Regional Development. The first report brought together a wide range of data, primarily for the decade from 1986 to 1995, which set benchmarks for on-going…

In December 1995, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport, Communications and Infrastructure (HORSCOTCI) published its "Plane Safe" report, an inquiry into safety in the general aviation and commuter sectors of the aviation industry. Recommendation (e) of the report was that: "the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation prepare and publish safety indicators;" In response to that recommendation this report has been produced jointly by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI) and the…

The introduction of new technology to aviation has generally resulted in benefits to safety and efficiency but has also resulted in a range of new human factors and operational difficulties. BASl's Advanced Aircraft Research Project began in response to a number of perceived problems, which included data entry errors, monitoring failures, mode selection errors and the inappropriate manipulation of automated systems. For the purpose of this study, advanced technology aircraft, or automated aircraft, are defined as aircraft equipped with cathode ray tubes/liquid crystal displays and flight…

This report documents a six-month study to develop a framework of societal costs of aircraft accidents in Australia for the purpose of assisting the Department of Aviation in relating costs and benefits in resource management decisions and for assisting the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation in the management of aviation safety promotion programs. A detailed set of unit and total cost estimates for Australian 1980 is presented together with a literature review and recent work on approaches to valuing human life. Two cost components, fatalities and aircraft hull damage/loss, account for about…

The Australian Air Traffic Service (ATS) system provided by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is responsible for the provision of a safe, efficient, and cost-effective air traffic control and advisory service to the aviation industry within domestic and international (oceanic) airspace. This BASI study conducted during 1992 was aimed at understanding the organisational factors and system characteristics, and the underlying failures which lead to certain ATS occurrences. BASI's endeavour was to provide the CAA with a method which would allow the cause of a particular problem to be tracked to…

Changes to the airspace management system which were introduced on the 12th of December 1991, firmly established the responsibility with the pilot for aircraft collision avoidance outside controlled airspace, and for avoiding penetration of controlled airspace. In doing so it was a radical modification to the Australian Air Traffic Services (AS) system. In view of significance of the changes, the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI) undertook an evaluation. This evaluation took the form of the investigation of all occurrences which were deemed to be related to the AMATS changes in a four…

Accident, incident and anecdotal evidence indicate that the introduction of new technology to aviation has generally resulted in benefits to safety and efficiency (Norman and Abbott 1988). Information published by Boeing Commercial Airplanes indicates that in general, accident rates have been declining with each successive technological advance over the last thirty years (Boeing 1988). However, new technology has also resulted in a range of new human factors and operational difficulties. New tools invariably change the way a job is done, and new aircraft are no exception. The work of pilots…