M1
UAS Current Event Analysis
According to research that had been
conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates that 70-80% of
aviation accidents have a direct casual factor from the human element (Williams, 2004). The United States Army had conducted a study
involving a total of 56 unmanned aerial vehicles, at the conclusion of this
study it was determined that 32% of incidents were caused due to human error (Williams, 2004). Human error was broken down into a variety of
causal factors, the separated error causal factors were: Pilot-in-command, alerts and alarms, display
design, external pilot landing error, external pilot takeoff error and
procedural errors. Out of all the areas
of human errors, the highest casual facture was external pilot landing error at
47% of the human element. Followed by
external pilot takeoff error and procedural errors sitting around 20% of the
human error total (Williams, 2004).
Similarly as unmanned aerospace
systems are becoming more abundant so have UAV involved accidents. UAV involved incidents have been
significantly higher than that of manned aircraft (Alan Hobbs, 2006).
Unmanned military surveillance aircraft losses has been more than 10
times than that of manned aircraft (Alan Hobbs, 2006).
A study conducted in 2004 on UAVs reported that maintenance factors
involved anywhere from 2-17% of the reported accidents varying only by the type
of UAVs involved (Williams, 2004).
(Williams, 2004) Also determined that 32% of UAV
accidents involved human error, while 45% involved material failure.
While UAVs will undoubtedly be the
preferred choice of tomorrow’s operation, there are many factors to work
out. New rules and regulations must be
implemented and new safety requirements and procedures must be created. It is much more difficult piloting an
unmanned aircraft from a remote control center than it is to fly a manned
aircraft. Therefore standards and
regulations for unmanned flight within U.S. Airspace must focus particularly on
the human factors within UAV operations (Jason S.
McCarley).
References
Alan Hobbs, P. S. (2006). Human Challenges in the
Maintenance of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Moffett Field: NASA Research
Park.
Jason S. McCarley, C. D. (n.d.). Human Factors
Concerns in UAV Flight. Illinois: University of Illinois.
Williams, K. W. (2004). A Summary of Unmanned
Aircraft Accident/Incident Data: Human Factors Implications. Washington
D.C.: ADOT/FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine.
