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Old 5th Apr 2012, 09:40
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Old Carthusian
 
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I still remain to be convinced by the man/machine interface explanation. We are running the danger of over-generalising from one specific example. Nothing points to a problem with the interface - rather it consistently points to a failure of crew performance. There was and still is a procedure for UAS which if followed clears the incident up quite effectively. Other crews have successfully dealt with the issue so why didn't this one? What was the difference that caused this crew to stall and crash their aircraft?
This is the issue which all attempts to blame the machine fail to address. Why this crew? What was so different about them that they couldn't follow the SOPs, that CRM was non-existant and that there was no clear chain of command? The interface is not the issue because other crews handled it successfully. Training and culture can also be added to the mix but it also and significantly comes down to the individual members of the crew and does not go beyond them. Certainly the aircraft and the controls can probably be re-designed so that this sort of incident would never happen again and I would favour this but I can't help suspecting that without better training someone will find another way to crash one of these aircraft.
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