David Learmount/CAPE TOWN
Accidents involving large jet airliners in controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) have dramatically increased, reversing a trend which had been heading downwards, it was revealed at the Flight Safety Foundation international air safety seminar in Cape Town, South Africa. Concern over CFIT has already seen the world's two largest aviation authorities give the issue priority for action to improve flight safety.
European Joint Aviation Authorities certification director Koos van der Spek forecast tighter oversight measures to reduce CFIT risks. A similar agenda was confirmed by the US Federal Aviation Administration. The agency's deputy director for aircraft certification, Elizabeth Erickson, speaking at the 16-19 November conference, said operational measures are the only option for safety advance between now and 2015 because "-the potential for totally new aircraft design to affect safety is very small". The US and European agencies identified anti-CFIT measures as being the action which would produce the greatest potential safety benefit.
Boeing chief engineer for aircraft safety engineering Paul Russell, reviewing airline safety in 1998, pointed out that CFIT accidents to large jet aircraft have already reached five before the year is over, compared with three in each of 1996 and 1997.
The worst of the year's CFIT accidents was the Cebu Pacific McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crash in the Philippines, which killed all 104 on board. Boeing figures also show that, despite a four year campaign to research and heighten airline awareness of all forms of approach and landing (ALA) accidents - including CFIT - the rate remains stubbornly static.
The JAA's Safety Strategy Initiative and the FAA's Commercial Aviation Safety Team, both bodies in which industry and regulators work together, rate CFIT as the top priority in their lists of safety improvement objectives.
Source: Flight International
