Controlled flight into Terrain

H4. A controUed airborne aircraft gets too close to a fixed obstacle other than a safe point of touchdown on assigned runway (known as controlled flight into terrain or CFIT). 

TCAS causes or contributes to a controiied maneuver into the ground TCAS must not cause or contribute to controlled flight into terrain... 

Flight crews are the last defence against accidents such as controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), approach-and-landing accidents (ALA) and loss of control (LOG) incidents. Unfortunately skill, vigilance and conscientiousness - while essential for safety - are insufficient to prevent error -specially when crew are interrupted, when preoccupied with one of several concurrent tasks, or when forced to defer an action out of its normal sequence. 

A case-study approach is appropriate for exploratory studies such as this (Yin, 1994). For the subject of the study, an acdderrt was needed where detailed information was available to form a Current Reahty Tree - the situation at the time of the accident. From this, it should be possible to generate safety recommendations to form a Future Reality Tree - the situation we would like to bring about The accident used for the study was the Ansett (New Zealand) Dash 8 controlled flight into terrain, near Palmerston North in New Zealand, because litigation had made the necessary information available. 

Three of the four controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) incidents related to pilots electing to fly at low level on the lee side of hills or trees while transiting to or from the area of operations and being unable to remain airborne in the downward moving air on the lee of the obstacle (see Table 11.5). Preconditions for these events seem to... 

The flight had lasted 31 min. All 70 people on board were killed immediately and the plane sank into deep water. The crash, in air accident terminology, was categorized as Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT), since the plane remained more-or-less in the control of the pilots until impact. 

Aircraft controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)... 

Confliet between aireraft and terrain or obstacle (air-eraft in eontrollable state) Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)... 

Shappell, S. A., and D. A. Wiegmann. A Human Error Analysis of General Aviation Controlled Flight into Terrain Accidents Occurring between 1990-1998. Rep>ort No. DOT/FAA/AM-03/4, Office of Aerospace Medicine, Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, D.C., March 2003. 

Example Consider an assessment where a company is contracted to upgrade the attitude display in an aircraft. Loss of athtude display could cause crew disorientation, which could lead to controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). However, the attitude display is not the only contributor to the hazard, and the contractor may not be responsible for doing a probabilistic assessment on the whole aircraft. 

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