Airline's Role in Aviation Safety
The role of an airline, either domestic or international, is to safely transport passengers from one destination to another. Airlines are continuously working with aircraft manufacturers, governing agencies and their maintenance and flight crews to improve safety and performance.
Commercial airlines have the ultimate responsibility for safety, although the FAA is charged with setting and enforcing standards. The ongoing safety efforts of the airlines fall into two major categories:
Aircraft maintenance inspections
U.S. airlines spend more than $10 billion a year to keep their fleets safe and in top operating condition. An airline's maintenance program specifies the intervals at which certain aircraft and engine parts will be inspected. The maintenance centers that perform inspections and repair work, either the airline's own shops or those of a subcontractor, must be certified by the FAA and open to inspection at all times. Records of maintenance work on an aircraft are carefully maintained and subject to FAA review.
Airlines have maintenance programs for each type of aircraft they operate. The programs are developed jointly with the manufacturers of the equipment, such as Boeing or Airbus, and approved by the FAA and other regulatory agencies in countries where the airline operates.
For every hour that a plane is in flight, maintenance crews spend roughly three-and-a-half hours working to maintain it. Each maintenance program involves a series of increasingly complex inspection and maintenance steps, depending on an aircraft's flying time, calendar time, or number of landings and takeoffs. With each step, maintenance personnel probe deeper and deeper into the aircraft, taking apart more and more components for closer inspection. A typical program involves various types of inspections:
- A visual "walk-around" inspection of an aircraft's exterior several times each day to look for fuel leaks, worn tires, cracks, dents and other surface damage; important systems inside the airplane are also checked.
- An inspection every three to five days of the aircraft's landing gear, control surfaces such as flaps and rudders, fluid levels, oxygen systems, lighting and auxiliary power systems.
- An inspection every eight months of all of the above, plus internal control systems, hydraulic systems, and cockpit and cabin emergency equipment.
- A check every 12 to 17 months during which the aircraft is opened up extensively so inspectors can use sophisticated devices to look for wear, corrosion and cracks invisible to the human eye.
- A major check every three-and-a-half to five years in which aircraft are essentially taken apart and put back together again, with landing gear and many other components replaced.
Between the scheduled maintenance checks, computers on board the airplane monitor the performance of its systems and record such things as abnormal temperatures and fuel and oil consumption. In newer aircraft, this data is transmitted to ground stations while the plane is in flight.
Aircraft Operations
The people who work on, fly or manage commercial airplanes must be personally licensed by the FAA and have minimum levels of specified training and experience. These requirements apply to aircraft mechanics, pilots, flight engineers, flight navigators, aircraft dispatchers and flight attendants.
Pilots
An airline pilot applying for a job with an airline must have a minimum of 1,500 hours of flight time, including at least 250 hours flying as a pilot in command of an aircraft. The average new hire has nearly 4,000 flight-hours. Pilots must demonstrate their flying skills to an FAA examiner by performing various types of takeoffs and landings, in-flight maneuvers, and emergency procedures, either in an airplane or a simulator. They must pass a written exam testing their knowledge of aircraft operations, meteorology, navigation, radio communication and other subjects important to flying aircraft in commercial service. Pilots also must pass a medical exam, which includes psychological and aptitude tests.
Between 10 and 15 percent of applicants applying for a pilot's job with an airline are accepted into the training program.
The airlines use various training methods, depending on the subject matter. Methods include classroom instruction, training in simulators, hands-on equipment training and the use of self-pacing, self-testing, computerized video presentations. In all cases, the training exercises conclude with exams, drills or flight checks to ensure understanding and competence.
Airline pilots and flight engineers are required to complete certain recurring training each year. Normally, this is done in an advanced simulator and takes from two to four days, depending on the type of airplane the pilot flies. Airline captains must complete some elements of recurring training every six months.
Although a typical duty schedule may include spending 250 hours away from home base each month, a pilot is only permitted 75 to 85 hours of flying time.
Duty Schedule
Mandated rest requirements for pilots vary according to a particular flight, but a minimum of 8 hours rest between assignments is required. A longer flight, such as an international trip, requires longer rest periods. These longer flights require additional crew members. In fact, aircraft used on international flights are equipped with sleeping quarters so that crews can rotate shifts during extended flights.
Simulators
Airlines, aircraft manufacturers and training schools use commercial flight simulators to train flight crews.
Simulator flight decks look and function just like those of a specific airplane model because realism and accuracy are necessary. Every normal and abnormal situation, including all of the environmental conditions encountered in actual flight, are precisely simulated to ensure that aircrews gain the full experience and proficiency needed to handle all potential operating conditions.
Computer-generated, three-dimensional images simulate what pilots see out the flight deck windows, such as weather, specific lighting conditions, cities, mountains and airport runways.
Hydraulic legs drive the simulator to pitch (up and down), yaw (back and forth), roll (side-to-side) and even briefly accelerate and decelerate.
Flight simulators allow pilots to experience and learn emergency procedures that cannot be practiced safely aboard the actual airplane, such as wind shear and engine fire.
Today's commercial flight simulators are so sophisticated that pilots proficient on one airplane type can be completely trained on the simulator for a new type before ever flying it.
Full-flight simulators are very expensive to purchase and operate -- up to $20 million to buy and $800 an hour to "fly." However, this investment pays enormous dividends in terms of flight crew training and improved flight safety.
Flight attendants
Flight attendants are responsible for the in-flight safety of passengers, in addition to ensuring passengers have a comfortable flight. New flight attendants must attend initial training, usually a six-week program covering aircraft familiarization, emergency procedures and in-flight service. To maintain proficiency they are required to receive annual training.
Flight attendants also are called upon to assist passengers with medical problems and emergencies. FAA requirements for first aid training call for instruction in the handling of emergency situations, including "illness, injury or other abnormal situations." Crew members who work on flights traveling above 25,000 feet must receive instruction in respiration, hypoxia and other altitude-related situations.