"After a series of mitigating measures implemented in August, Navy T-45 Goshawks are back on duty as fighter trainers officials said Friday. But a handful of physiological episodes in the cockpit since then — the very problem that forced the Navy to place stringent limits on T-45s in April —
have leaders taking a closer look at the role subjective human factors play in the in-flight incidents....
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New episodes
Since those measures were implemented in August, however, about four additional cockpit episodes have been documented. These episodes, Joyner said, share a telling commonality: in the two-seater aircraft, one of the aircrew experienced problems, and the other did not. In addition, she said, measurement devices reported that oxygen and air pressure remained at normal levels.
“When we went through, we were able to really review and find human factors and also physiological responses when people are under stress and how they breathe. And we’re working right now to make sure we’re incorporating that training as well for the aviators,” Joyner said. “So I would say more of what we’ve seen to date has been physiologically based response, but the aircraft overall has seemed to be well supporting the human in the loop.”
In addition, she said, new measurement devices have yet to find any evidence of cockpit air contaminants that would present a concern for aircrew. With recent incidents, Joyner said,
evidence points to the human rather than the machine as the source of the issue....
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‘No Fixing the Human’
For those on the Navy’s team to diagnose and fix physiological episodes, the determination that human factors are sometimes the source presents its own levels of complexity....
...Efforts continue to pinpoint the cause of the surge in cockpit episodes affecting the T-45, as well as causes of hypoxia-like episodes in the F/A-18 Hornet. But as officials probe both human and mechanical factors contributing to problems in the air, it appears one outcome of the Navy’s assessment may be a more cautious approach to entering the cockpit in the first place.
“Maybe there are times when they shouldn’t go in a jet and they can self-recognize before they take off the ground that this is not the day for them to go airborne,” Joyner said. “It’s sort of a dual approach.”
https://www.defensetech.org/2017/09/...ining-flights/