Causes and Remedies of Controlled Flight into Terrain in Military and Civil Aviation

Abstract

Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents continue to be a primary cause of fatalities and airframe losses in aviation. Alerting and automation technologies such as Ground Proximity Warning Systems (GPWS), Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning Systems (EGPWS), and Ground Collision Avoidance Systems (GCAS) are offered as partial solutions to this problem. This article reviews current accident data for CFIT accidents in both US Air Force and commercial aviation over the last 10 to 15 years. The magnitude of the CFIT problem, circumstances in which it occurs, and its causes are detailed based on these data. The differences and similarities between CFIT in the Air Force and CFIT in civil aviation are discussed. Finally, current and future remedies of CFIT accidents in both the civil and military aviation communities are described, compared, and contrasted. It is concluded that, in addition to warning and automatic collision avoidance systems, systems are needed to improve flight crew situation awareness, especially terrain awareness.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA430280

Entities

People

  • Michael L. Moroze
  • Michael P. Snow

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accidents
  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Airframes
  • Altitude
  • Civil Aviation
  • Collision Avoidance
  • Collision Avoidance Systems
  • Commercial Aircraft
  • Commercial Aviation
  • Flight Crews
  • Flight Paths
  • Ground Proximity Warning Systems
  • Human Factors Engineering
  • Military Aircraft
  • Military Aviation
  • Situational Awareness
  • Warning Systems

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Aviation Safety and Air Traffic Management
  • Systems Analysis and Design