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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 0038.PDF
AIR SAFETY Views of the ground are good close up, but poor when the aircraft is high-up, especially in hazy conditions to real-time ones. The CAA notes, however, that many prob lems might be overcome by die use of specifi cally designed equipment, warning that"...die problems of night viewing are still a major prob lem to the realisation of a practical system". The human-factors (HF) side of the external- surveillance test was carried out by the UK Defence Research Agency (DRA) at Farn- borough. The DRNs first concern was where to put a display which would be useful to the pilots. There is not much room in flightdecks, it con cludes, and the display's tendency to distract as well as to inform has to be taken into account. The CAA's report summarises the DRAs views: "It is likely that some events which the crew may find useful to view using external cam eras may be transitory in nature. It is unlikely, therefore, that the crew will be looking at the appropriate part of the airframe at the exact time at which the event occurs. It would be very use ful to have the ability to play back recordings of the views from all cameras at a later time. However, there are difficulties associated with finding the appropriate piece of recording in a useful time-frame using conventional videotape recording techniques. "Adequate labelling of the view being shown, time of recording and the facility for inserting event-markers would be needed. The use of such a replay system needs to be given an oper ational status. The search for the relevant inci dent could become as absorbing as die pictures themselves, to the detriment of the operation." Ultimately, the DRA says, the system needed extensive evaluation in a simulator to assess the many HF pitfalls it could anticipate. The CAAs safety-benefit study looked at a wide range of fatal accidents, and finally nar rowed them down into categories where exter nal viewing might have helped if the equipment could have shown enough detail, at the time it was required, to be of use. These were: I ground operations; • ice/snow accretion on aircraft; • incorrectly configured landing gear or flaps/ slats; I engine fire/failure; • during emergency evacuation. The CAA says that in all the cases where internal fire was the killer, the situation would have been "catastrophic" before any informa tion would have been apparent externally. The CAA also says that ground-operations ramp accidents were more effectively dealt with by the implementation of stricter ramp-safety procedures, which the airlines are addressing. For the ice/snow situation, it concludes that video cameras are of little help in detecting ice even in good lighting, but might help for snow. In the case of incorrect- ^^MMM FLIGHT FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 1 - 7 January 1997
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