final

Mahmoud Alhujayri

Professor Wesemann

AV 4720

03/17/2017

Article Analysis 3

The article titled Safety Regulation: Crackdown on Fatigue authored and published by Flight Safety Foundation on its website on 7th April 2011 describes one of the flight safety rules established by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently. As explained in the article, the FAA established the rule in response to recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) after the Aloha airline flight 243 incident. The incident, which occurred on April 28, 1988, involved Boeing 737-200 that was operated and owned by Aloha Airlines Inc. The aircraft was heading to Honolulu from Hilo in Hawaii when it experienced structural failure and explosive decompression. Consequently, the aircraft made an emergency landing on the ground. On board were six crew members and 89 passengers (Flight Safety Foundation, 2011). Although the aircraft was damaged, only one crew member died. Seven passengers and one crew member sustained serious injuries. After investigations, it was noted that accident was caused by the failure by the aircraft's maintenance program to detect fatigue. Eventually, the fatigue led to widespread fatigue damage (WFD). As explained in the article authored by the flight safety foundation, the NTSB made a recommendation to the FAA to ensure that aircraft have effective maintenance programs and to make continuous surveillance of those programs. In response, the FAA made a rule that requiring the establishment of an inspection program for airplanes of transport category (Flight Safety Foundation, 2011). The program was meant to determine the probability of WFD occurring before “limit of validity” (LOV). The article also contains brief information about other aircrafts that have been damaged by WFD and an explanation of how LOV would be determined.

The content of the article is related to the topic of flight safety since it concentrates on the step that was taken by FAA to enhance aviation safety through conducting a thorough inspection of aircrafts to determine whether they are at the risk of getting damaged by WFD before the end of their LOV. Applying the rule would help to reduce accidents that are caused by WFD. Despite the fact that the article is very relevant, it does not cover many things related to flight safety. For instance, the issue of flight safety when landing is very paramount. Another important issue relates likelihood of carrying passengers with communicable diseases, such as avian influenza. Safety from attack by terrorists is still a major issue that affects the aviation industry today. Other important issues that influence flight safety include weather situation awareness, airspace infringement, fuel management and cabin crew fatigue. Questions related to the topics mentioned above ought to be covered. Despite not covering those issues, the article will be very useful. The content of the article will be used as an example of the regulations that have been developed to enhance flight safety. Also, the Aloha airline flight 243 incident will be used as an example of the accidents that have occurred in the aviation industry in the past and to show how the incident has influenced flight safety afterward. In my view, the topic of flight safety has been improving as the regulatory agencies and other agencies involved in the aviation industry learn and respond to the past incidents. However, there is a need to be more proactive than reactive to reduce chances of accidents in the aviation industry in the future. Also, other players in the aviation industry, such as airlines, should cooperate with the regulatory agencies instead of criticizing the established rules as noted in the article.

References

Flight Safety Foundation (2011). Safety Regulation: Crackdown on Fatigue. Retrieved from

https://flightsafety.org/asw-article/crackdown-on-fatigue/