Analysis of Loss of Control Parameters for Aircraft Maneuvering in General Aviation

Abstract

A rapid increase in the occurrence of loss of control in general aviation has raised concern in recent years. Loss of control (LOC) pertains to unique characteristics in which external and internal events act in conjunction. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved an Integrated Safety Assessment Model (ISAM) for evaluating safety in the National Airspace System (NAS). ISAM consists of an event sequence diagram (ESD) with fault trees containing numerous parameters, which is recognized as casual risk model. In this paper, we outline an integrated risk assessment framework to model maneuvering through cross-examining external and internal events. The maneuvering is in the critical flight phase with a high number of LOC occurrences in general aviation, where highly trained and qualified pilots failed to maintain aircraft control irrespective of the preventive nature of the events. Various metrics have been presented for evaluating the significance of these parameters to identify the most important ones. The proposed sensitivity analysis considers the accident, fatality, and risk reduction frequencies that assist in the decision-making process and foresees future risks from a general aviation perspective.