Lack of pilot competence is the biggest single category of flightcrew error in airline accidents, says the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Figures in an IATA working paper on airline safety in 1996 show that "proficiency failure" has grown massively in recent years.
Data from the paper, presented at the recent Asia Pacific Regional Technical Conference in Singapore, confirms growing concerns about pilot competence. IATA, using safety data supplied by UK-based loss adjuster Airclaims, shows that, in 1967, pilot "proficiency failures" caused only 1% of the hull loss accidents attributed to flightcrew human factors. By 1996, however, that figure had grown to 58% of all pilot error crashes. The average for the 30 year period was 34%.
Proficiency failure is defined by IATA as "-inappropriate handling of aircraft or its systems. This can include misjudgement by making an important decision. It can be exacerbated by lack of experience, lack of training or simple incompetence." The other pilot failure or error categories are incapacitation, which did not cause any human factors accidents in 1996; active failures, responsible for 37%; and passive failures, which caused 29%. An active failure involves disregard of standard operational procedures or the law, failure to manage cockpit resources effectively, a gross lack of vigilance or laziness. Passive failures are defined as misunderstanding, communication failures and lack of co-ordination.
Source: Flight International
