NTSB Most Wanted

One of the national transportation safety board’s (NTSB) most wanted items that involve aviation is the ability to identify and communicate hazardous weather. General aviation (GA) has an extremely high crash rate, approximately 6.51 crashes per every 100,000 flight hours. And two thirds of GA accidents are fatal and are in Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). The NTSB has determined that the solutions to weather issues are pilot training and operations, the creation of weather information and advisories, and the collection and dissemination of weather information particularly by the NWS and the FAA. Pilots need to accurately be able to determine a go or no go decision. Another way to prevent accidents due to weather is to have ATC controllers provide weather data to pilot’s prior and during flight. The NTSB is continuing its research into GA accidents dealing with weather and exploring new options to help reduce those accidents. One of the ways the NTSB is helping is examining the utility of using LIDAR, which is a method of sensing atmospheric wind information by laser technology.

I feel that both of the two aviation related items on the NTSB’s most wanted list adequate enough to make the list. I would have like to seen an issue raised about aircraft landing at wrong airports but I do believe that GA accidents and Helicopter accidents are more important and have a higher volume of accidents.

As the NTSB raises these two subjects as safety issues I feel they will create new jobs to help come up with new and better ways of preventing these incidents. I potentially see training becoming stricter on pilots on aspects of identifying hazardous weather and understand the possible risks of that weather. I also see that weather being available to pilots in the aircraft to become more popular. Another way to help prevent accidents is to create or update the current service of more accurate weather reports that are available to pilots.

Aircraft Landing at the Wrong Airport

I found an incident that happened on July 20^th, 2012. A C-17 globe master was headed to MacDill air force base (KMCF) ended up 4.6 miles to the southwest at Peter O. Knight airport (KTPF) a small flight center in Tampa.  Both airports have a runway going in the same direction “22.” But unfortunately KTPF has a runway length of 3580ft and KMCF the intended airport has a runway length of 11421ft.

            One of the major hazards and complications in landing at the wrong airport is runway length. If the landing runway could be too short and the aircraft could go off the end of the runway. Another hazard could be taking back off after landing at the wrong airport. The runway could be too short to take off and the aircraft would be stuck there. Also there is possibility for a runway incursion. The pilot could be communicating with the intended airport and landing at the wrong one and not knowing if the runway is actually clear.

            The main cause for this particular incident was fatigue because of the long flight from Italy to Tampa and the lack of sleep from the days previous. But I believe that this incidence shouldn’t occur as often as they have been. Mainly because of the advancements in technology and GPS to help pilots navigate.

            I agree with Southwest, these pilots should be suspended until after the investigation. Mainly because there could have been extenuating circumstances that southwest was unaware of. Obviously if drugs or alcohol were involved then I believe the pilots should be fired but there are other reasons that could have contributed to this incident in which I would just suspend the pilots.  

Why I Got Into Aviation

My fascination with aviation started at a young age due to the fact that I grew up so close to one of the nations major airports, Detroit metropolitan airport. This fascination quickly drew me into the field of aviation. After graduating high school is when I started to act on my dream of becoming a pilot. I first went to western for 2 years and got my private and instrument license and decided to come back closer to home so I can commute to eastern to finish up my other licenses.

My plan is to become a CFI and instruct until I have accumulated enough hours to go into a regional. Then after getting experience and hours I would like to go into corporate but if the direction doesn’t work out I would be willing to go anywhere that pays me to fly.  I love flying and as long as I am able to do what I love for a living I will be happy.

         Besides school and flying I really enjoy snowboarding. I am going back to aspen, CO for a second time this year, I’m not one to go and hit massive jumps and go professional, I just really enjoy riding backcountry and powder now that I have finally encounter that by leaving Michigan. I also enjoy working on cars when I have the time. I can fix pretty much anything provided I have the tools and money. Another hobby of mine, which is relatively new, would probably be Netflix bingeing. I know its “super exciting” but there really are some great shows on there.