Human Error in Value Jet Flight 592

Human Error in Value Jet Flight 592

Introduction

Aviation industry is one of the safest and fastest modes of transportation, but still it is prone to accidents. Although the risk of travelling by air has significantly reduced since Silas Christofferson carried passengers for the first time in the year 1913 from San Francisco to Oakland harbors.

The question raised by the administrating authorities of the aviation industry is whether the safety of air flights carrying passenger and cargo can further be reduced or not? The reasons of accidents in the aviation industry are mostly situational but can be accounted into the categories of human error, system malfunctioning and environmental issues.

Environmental accidents are unavoidable as the sudden climatic change or lighting can be monitored but not controlled. The only prevention in these cases is to delay flights in cases of hostile weather conditions.

System malfunctioning can be sub - categorized from human error but there are some cases where sudden failure of engine or leakage in fuel tank are not recognized by human monitoring systems.

60 - 80% of the aviation accidents are accounted because of human error which can be performed by anyone related to the aviation industry. Accidents are caused due to lack of concentration of the pilot, if the cargo receiver doesn't makes full checks of the handling of cargo or some time the air plane mechanics fail to identify serious malfunctions in the plane.

Whichever reason is associated with the accidents of airplane it is one of the most deadly accidents as it is very rare to have a single survivor as well. The low rate of survivors of airplane accidents is due to the high altitude and very fast speed with which air planes travel.

The case which will be discussed in the following paper is of ValuJet flight 592. In this incident we will be identifying human error which caused the accident and will be discussing the steps taken by the authorities to prevent further mishaps due to this reason (Shapell, 2006).

Discussion

The Accident

On May 11th, 1996 the DC - 9 airbuses departed from the Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida. The flight took off after a delay of 1 hour and 4 minutes because of some mechanical work from gate G2 of the airport. The flight had a total strength of 110 attendants with 105 passengers, 3 flight attendants and two pilots. The flight was lead by Captain Candi Kubeck a female pilot, aged 35 years and having a flying experience of almost 9000 hours. The co - pilot was less experienced having a total experience of almost 6,500 hours.

Six minutes after the flight took off the pilot heard strange sounds in her headphones and relished that the electrical power of the air plane was losing. Seconds later of the electrical failure an attendant entered the cock pit and informed the pilot about fire in the passenger's cabin. Captain Kubeck immediately informed the airport authorities about the situation and requested emergency ...