Description

The Final Report of the Flight Deck Automation Working Group was published by the FAA in the autumn of 2013. It is an extremely thorough evidence-based assessment of the problems which have accompanied the rapid advance in the level of automation. It is also the first comprehensive review of the subject since a 1996 FAA Report on “Interfaces between flightcrews and modern flight deck systems”.

Underlying themes identified by the Working Group include:

• complexity (in systems and in operations);
• concerns about degradation of pilot knowledge and skills
• integration and interdependence of the components of the aviation system.

The Report also notes that since the Working Group completed its data collection and analysis “several accidents have occurred where the investigative reports identified vulnerabilities in the events that are similar to those vulnerabilities identified in this report".