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Training of police pilots is not currently carried out periodically and continuously, resulting in a lack of knowledge of the pilots, which has an impact on competence, professionalism and flight safety. This research aimed to understand the condition of the current training of the Indonesian National Police pilots, to understand obstacles and the forms of innovation needed to improve competence, professionalism and aviation safety. This was qualitative research with a case study approach. The key informants in this research were the Indonesian National Police Commander, flight instructors, active pilots, student pilots, the Director of the Indonesian Aviation Academy, Banyuwangi, and the Head of Garuda Indonesia Training Center. This study was conducted in the Professional Improvement Division, of the Marine and Air Police Corps, Security Maintenance Agency, Indonesian National Police. Data were collected through interviews conducted online. Further information and verification were obtained from key informants. We also used observations and document review. It was found that there were still some drawbacks in the implementation of education for the Indonesian National Police, according to a review of the eight education standards of the Indonesian National Police. These eight standards related to: graduates' competence, content, process, educators and education staff, infrastructure, management, financing, and evaluation. The researchers also identified obstacles to implementing training innovations. Based on the results, it is recommended that the Professional Improvement Division should find breakthroughs or innovations in education and training for Indonesian National Police pilots to improve their competence, professionalism and aviation safety, especially to meet the needs of updated knowledge on aviation with easy access that can be learned anywhere and anytime. This corresponds to the sixteen priority programs of the Chief of Indonesian National Police, Pol. Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo, with two important points of emphasis: to have excellent Indonesian National Police human resources and modern police technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its high population and growing middle class, Indonesia is a locale for a promising expansion of commercial aviation businesses. Furthermore, being a large archipelago, mobility of people and goods via air travel appears to be the most convenient option available. Nevertheless, aviation safety has remained an issue of concern in Indonesia since 2007, after the EU banned Indonesian aircraft flights in the European airspace. This was done as a response to the multiple accidents that earned Indonesian aviation a global reputation for being unsafe. We conducted the investigation based on a reputable report produced by KNKT, known as the National Transportation Safety Board, to establish a more comprehensive context of this situation. Since 1988, all accident data reports have been gathered and archived in the KNKT database, which was then utilized to further investigate the issues confronting Indonesian airlines by evaluating the data using the EDA approach. According to the results, Papua Island is the least safe region for aviation, with 140 accidents (21.9 percent of the total accidents) in Indonesia over the past 33 years. Moreover, the noteworthy results reveal that 45.71 percent of the accidents or incidents occur during the landing phase. This finding informed us regarding the overall geography of Papua, which lacks transportation roads, prompting the government to open the airport for mobilization. Papua has 217 airports, accounting for 42.3 percent of all Indonesian airports, with 196 being small airports at an average altitude of 452.15 meters. Human factors account for 63 percent of accidents in Papua, while technological factors account for 19 percent. The government may use the study's findings to pressure operators to enhance safety in addition to revitalizing aviation safety supporting technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a general framework for aviation safety occurrence forecasting. This is a major component of a methodology for aviation safety risk management at national level. It covers novel models as well as novel combinations of earlier models. Having good quality occurrence and severity forecasting models is paramount to properly manage risks, maintain the confidence of its users and preserve the status of aviation as a safe transportation mode. The problem is involved due to the presence of complex effects like seasonality, trends, or stress that impact the rates of various occurrences and the uncertainty about future number of operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate wind shear detection is crucial for aviation safety, especially in landing and departure. A new approach for windshear alerting is proposed and demonstrated. This approach monitors orthogonal wind components in multiple runways using single coherent Doppler wind lidar (CDWL). First, the two orthogonal components of the wind field are retrieved from radial speed by an updated variational method. Then, the heading wind and cross wind on different runways are calculated simultaneously, without the location restriction of the single lidar. Finally, a windshear alerting message is generated through quantitatively evaluating the distribution of shear ramps over the monitoring area. The new CDWL-based approach for windshear alerting is implemented at the Beijing Daxing International Airport. The retrieved horizontal wind from the lidar is consistent with that from anemometers. Thanks to its high spatial/temporal resolution, some meteorological phenomena of aviation hazards, including microburst, windshear, gust front, and vortex are well captured. Particularly, all 10 windshear cases reported by crews are successfully identified during the windshear verification experiment, demonstrating the effectiveness and robustness of the new approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spin training has not been required for students working towards their private or commercial certificates for the past 70 years. Switching to a stall-prevention mindset within training aimed to make spin recovery unnecessary; however, stall-type accidents, consisting of stalls, spins, and spirals, still occur and are highly fatal. Although past studies have analyzed accidents, interviewed pilots at different levels, and made recommendations for changes in the industry, stall-type accidents are no less fatal now, at a fatality ratio of approximately 40–50% yearly. The research discussed in this paper aims to summarize and present accident stall-type statistics in aggregate over the past five decades and motivate future pilot- and training-centered research to address the high presence of stall-type accidents in aviation. Specifically, this article uses NTSB accident reports to answer the research question of whether there have been changes in the prevalence of spins among both fatal and non-datal fixed-wing accidents in the United States over the past sixty years. The methodology breaks down the accident analysis in three groups, based on the time period in which they occurred, due to differences in the reporting methods used. This paper finds that the prevalence and fatality ratio of stall-type accidents has remained high over the past six decades and that stall-type accidents are more than twice as fatal as an average accident. To remedy the high accident count, we recommend experimental ground and simulator-based training to improve pilot knowledge, skill, and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Laser Technology is the property of Gai Kan Bian Wei Hui and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in serious games (SGs), i.e., digital games for education and training. However, although the potential scalability of SGs to large player populations is often praised in the literature, available SG evaluations did not provide evidence of it because they did not study learning on large, varied, international samples in naturalistic conditions. This article considers a SG that educates players about aircraft cabin safety. It presents the first study of learning in a SG intervention conducted in naturalistic conditions with a very large, worldwide sample, which includes 45,000 players who accepted to answer a knowledge questionnaire before and after playing the game, and more than 400,000 players whose in-game behavior was analyzed. Results show that the SG led to improvement in players’ knowledge, assessed with different metrics. Moreover, analysis of repeated play shows that participants improved their in-game safety behavior over time. We also focus on the role of making errors in the game, showing how they led to improvement in knowledge. Finally, we highlight the theoretical models, such as error-based learning and Protection Motivation Theory, that oriented the game design, and can be reused to create SGs for other domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring aircraft are technically safe to operate is the realm of airworthiness, literally worthy of being in the air. This is achieved not only with technological tools and techniques, or with just personnel and manpower, it is guided and supervised by managers and leaders. As such, the objective of this paper is to understand the role leadership plays in maintaining aviation safety and aircraft airworthiness. To this end, a case study of the Hawker Sidley Nimrod XV230 accident that occurred on September 2, 2006 near Kandahar in Afghanistan, was utilized. The study concluded that leadership is a key aspect, specifically finding that leaders are responsible for articulating the organizations vision, strategic objective setting, and monitoring the achievement of those objectives. It was concluded that operational airworthiness is directly dependent on the leadership ability to provide direction, workplace culture, continued learning, and establish risk management systems for safe and airworthy operations.

The specificity of personal rescue and reserve parachutes is the fact that they are practically never used for jumping during their service life as they are intended for use only in emergency situations. Therefore, these parachutes throughout the entire period of use are only periodically aired and repacked every 6-12 months. Airing and repacking is necessary even if the parachute is only stored. Rescue and reserve parachutes’ components wear unevenly because the canopy with the suspension lines is inside the container and the cover, while the external components of the harness and the container undergo typical operational wear. Therefore, the service life of rescue parachutes can even reach 20 years (this refers to the canopy with the suspension lines alone). During normal exploitation, parachutes are subjected to non-destructive visual and tactile inspection in preparation for packing. When a parachute reaches its maximum service life, extension of its service life can be calculated based on its technical condition. The procedure for extending parachute’s service life involves non-destructive tests at a fabric air permeability test stand and partially destructive tests at the strength test stand. In the paper, both methods are described and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Also, observations some regarding the packers’ work and the desired new properties of raw materials that could be introduced to the parachute industry are presented.

INTRODUCTION. Within the context of the theory of ‘the concordance of the wills of States’ developed in the Russian doctrine of international law and on the basis of the contemporary practice of States and international aviation organizations (in particular, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)) the author examines the process of rule-making and the sources of international air law.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The present research has been conducted on the basis of international air law treaties, the ICAO documents, as well as the works of Russian and foreign international law experts. The methodology of the research is based upon general scientific and special methods, including dialectical method, methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, comparative legal method.RESEARCH RESULTS. On the basis of his research the author has been able to identify and systematize the present-day sources of international air law, i.e. the forms, in which the norms of this branch of interna- tional law exist. Theoretical and practical problems relating to the development and implementation of these sources of international air law have been examined.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. On the basis of the theory of ‘the concordance of the wills of States’ developed in the Russian doctrine of international law and the contemporary practice of States and international aviation organizations the following sources of international air law have been identified: (i) international treaties; (ii) international customs; (iii) ICAO international standards; (iv) Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air. Each of these sources of international air law has been examined in detail both from the point of view of the rulemaking process and within the context of its role played in regulation of cooperation between States in the area of international civil aviation. In particular, the author shows the specific role in international air law of such traditional sources as international treaties and international customs. As for the international standards and the Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air, they are described as special complex forms of creation of norms of international air law emerged as a result of rapid development of civil aviation in the second half of the 20th century and its transformation into the global passengers and cargo transportation network. Overall examination of the currently existing rule-making processes and sources of the international air law demonstrates that they are rather dynamic and well take into account the contemporary development of global aviation and the interests of different States.

INTRODUCTION. Within the context of the theory of ‘the concordance of the wills of States’ developed in the Russian doctrine of international law and on the basis of the contemporary practice of States and international aviation organizations (in particular, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)) the author examines the subsidiary rule-making processes in international air law as the integral part of the whole rule-making process of this branch of international law.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The present research has been conducted on the basis of international air law treaties, the resolutions and documents of ICAO, as well as the works of Russian and foreign international law experts. The methodology of the research is based upon general scientific and special methods, including dialectical method, methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, comparative legal method.RESEARCH RESULTS. On the basis of his research the author has been able to achieve the following results: (1) detailed and precise classification of all acts, decisions and documents (including, in particular, numerous ICAO documents) concerning the activities of international civil aviation and adopted or approved within the framework of the subsidiary rule-making processes in international air law; (2) defining the practical importance of these subsidiary rule-making processes within the context of the whole rule-making process of international air law; (3) discovering current problems of the rule-making process in international air law and proposing possible ways of its improvements in view of the interests of the Russian Federation and international aviation community as a whole.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. After examination of the subsidiary rule-making processes currently existing in the international air law it can be concluded that these processes are rather dynamic and well take into account the contemporary development of global aviation and the interests of different States. At the same time, the recent trends within ICAO and other international aviation organizations towards simplification and acceleration of such rule-making processes by way of shifting many substantial provisions from mandatory into non-mandatory acts and documents or through limitation of the States’ participation in these processes can negatively affect the States’ interests, impede the achievement of universal uniformity in regulations, standards and procedures and, eventually, even jeopardize the global aviation safety.

Objectives The study aimed to establish the current incidence and severity of spatial disorientation (SD) in Polish military pilots when flying different aircraft types over their entire careers, and to determine how SD training and pilots’ flight experience might benefit their recognition of situations that may cause SD. Material and Methods Overall, 176 military Polish pilots (aged 33.8±7.72 years, the number of flying hours: 1194±941) flying different aircraft types, who attended the aviation medicine course, were surveyed and asked to report their episodes of SD. To collect anonymous data, a postal SD questionnaire (INFO PUB 61/117/5) was used. Results In the overall incidence rate of SD (96%), the most commonly experienced SD illusion was “loss of horizon due to atmospheric conditions” (81%). More SD incidents were reported by pilots who had received SD training. Some differences in the categories of the most commonly experienced SD illusion episodes between aircraft types were found. A severe episode adversely affecting flight safety was categorized by 10% of the respondents. Conclusions In Polish military aviation, episodes of SD are a significant threat to aviation safety. There is evidence for the beneficial effects of SD training in the improvement of pilots’ ability to recognize those factors that lead to SD. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2020;33(6):791–810

Discovering and mitigating potential risks in advance is essential for preventing aviation accidents on routine flights. Although anomaly detection-based explanation techniques have successfully uncovered potential risks for proactive flight safety management, explaining group-scale precursors using these methods is challenging due to the assumption that risky flights are significantly fewer in number than normal flights, as well as the reliance on non-domain knowledge for hyperparameter adjustment. To characterize the group-scale precursors more accurately, we propose a novel technique called Catalyst Mass-Based Clustering Analysis (CMCA), which employs a composite entropy-energy dissipation index during approach to evaluate the energy management performance. On this basis, an optimization objective is constructed to identify clusters exhibiting significant energy management differences during the approach phase. We successfully identify group-scale precursors with energy management issues by applying CMCA to a combination of minority-labeled and majority-unlabeled flights. Comparative experiments show that these precursors have energy levels that deviate from normal flights by 5.83% and 10.93%, respectively, 1000 ft above touchdown, demonstrating the effectiveness of our method. The analysis suggests that poor energy management awareness on the part of pilots could be responsible for these group-scale precursors. Notably, the results obtained using CMCA are comprehensible for Subject Matter Experts, making the method a valuable tool for proactive flight safety management.

This paper proposes a model capable of predicting fatal occurrences in aviation events such as accidents and incidents, using as inputs the human factors that contributed to each incident, together with information about the flight. This is important because aviation demands have increased over the years; while safety standards are very rigorous, managing risk and preventing failures due to human factors, thereby further increasing safety, requires models capable of predicting potential failures or risky situations. The database for this paper’s model was provided by the Aviation Safety Network (ASN). Correlations between leading causes of incident and the human element are proposed, using the Human Factors Analysis Classification System (HFACS). A classification model system is proposed, with the database preprocessed for the use of machine learning techniques. For modeling, two supervised learning algorithms, Random Forest (RF) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), and the semi-supervised Active Learning (AL) are considered. Their respective structures are optimized applying hyperparameter analysis to improve the model. The best predictive model, obtained with RF, was able to achieve an accuracy of 90%, macro F1 of 87%, and a recall of 86%, outperforming ANN models, with a lower ability to predict fatal accidents. These performances are expected to assist decision makers in planning actions to avoid human factors that may cause aviation incidents, and to direct efforts to the more important areas.

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Introduction: General aviation largely comprises fixed-wing piston-engine light aircraft (<12,500 lbs). Unfortunately, this civil aviation sector suffers a vastly inferior safety record when compared with air carriers (60- to 80-fold higher accident rate). Additionally, such mishaps pose a considerable financial burden to both the affected family and the United States: US$1.64-4.64 billion annually. We hypothesize that this safety disparity partly reflects more stringent operational regulations for air carriers. Herein, we determined whether compliance with six selected air carrier regulations could potentially reduce general aviation accidents in degraded visibility (IMC) the majority of which are fatal. Methods: Accidents (2005-2019) were identified from the National Transportation Safety Board Access database. Fleet data for rate calculations were per the general aviation survey and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Statistics used Poisson distributions. Results: Of 219 general aviation accidents in IMC, 43 (20%) could potentially have been averted had one, or more, of the selected air carrier regulations been complied with. The largest percentage (62%) of the 43 mishaps were due to pilots operating contrary to the air carrier regulation specifying takeoff or landing weather minimums. The second largest group related to more conservative weather minimums required for an inexperienced airline pilot-in-command, eschewed in 19% of preventable general aviation IMC mishaps. Conclusions: Alignment with the aforementioned air carrier operational rules could potentially blunt the IMC accident rate (by 20%) for general aviation. Practical Applications: Adherence to the aforementioned air carrier regulations should be advocated to general aviation pilots operating in IMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In practice, a very important task is to monitor the field reliability of aircraft systems, especially the ones related to aviation safety, and to take relevant actions to prevent from potential consequences. Zooming in that task, one can state that a very important step in that analysis is to identify batch problems where the failure mode only affects a subset of the fleet. The Weibull distribution typically provides the best fit of life data obtained either from test or from field. This is due in part to the broad range of distribution shapes that are included in the Weibull family. As well as, there are many other distributions which are included in the Weibull distribution's family either exactly or approximately- for example, the normal, the exponential, the Rayleigh, and sometimes the Poisson and the Binomial. This paper presents a practical approach for those aviation professionals dealing with monitoring and analyzing the aircraft field reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of the global aviation industry, the number of aircraft flying in the airspace has continuously increased. Although aviation safety has been improved in the last several decades, many general aviation and a few commercial aviation accidents occur every year, resulting in fatalities and significant economic loss. Aircraft crash accidents not only cause fatalities of crew members and passengers onboard, but also seriously affect people and property on the ground, especially if the crashed aircraft falls into dense urban areas. However, unlike emergencies caused by natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, or a terrorist attack, very little research looked into the potential consequences of aviation accidents to people and property on the ground from the view of urban planning and emergency management. The object of this study is to propose a model for identifying potential ground risk areas of aviation crash accidents. Different from studies in existing literature, actual flight trajectories obtained from automatic dependent surveillance—broadcast (ADS-B) data was introduced in this study and incorporated in modeling development. With the trajectory information, a GIS density analysis method was applied to obtain a regional aircraft flight-path line density distribution map and to model crash trajectories of aircraft falling to the ground if a crash occurred or aircraft malfunctioned in the air. Combining relevant socio-economic factors that are sensitive to disasters, a ground potential risk mapping model for aircraft crashes was built. Risk areas were divided into five categories indicating the crash severities of potential aviation crash-caused impacts. To demonstrate the research approach, the State of Florida is used as an example. The outcomes of the proposed model can be used by emergency management departments to develop management plans for better responding to potential risks and provide decision support for city managers on zoning and land use planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: aviation safety; laser hazard distance; laser hazard distances in navigable airspace; laser illumination; laser safety EN aviation safety laser hazard distance laser hazard distances in navigable airspace laser illumination laser safety 33 46 14 07/05/22 20220101 NES 220101 1 Introduction Scientific and technological progress is becoming more and more noticed by every person. Aviation safety, laser hazard distance, laser hazard distances in navigable airspace, laser illumination, laser safety The influence of ellipticity HT ht on the distances was also analyzed. [Extracted from the article]

This article seeks to answer the question of how international criminal law (ICL), the 1971 Montreal Convention, and international humanitarian law (IHL) influenced the proceedings in the MH-17 case, with particular emphasis on the Dutch Prosecutors’ line of reasoning in proceedings before the District Court in The Hague (DCiTH), as well as on the judgments that the DCiTH delivered on 17 November 2022. Notably, the analysis below aims to establish whether, by refusing to grant combatant status to the defendants, the District Court acted within the limits permissible under international law, even though this Court admitted that at the moment of the MH-17’s downing, the nature of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine was an international, not a non-international, one. In conclusion, the article argues that, firstly, even though the DCiTH’s interpretation of the IHL is not free of certain flaws, the Court’s line of reasoning and the sentences it delivered are a pragmatic attempt to bridge the gap between the proper administration of justice and the efficiency of criminal proceedings in a case where an airplane downing takes place during an international armed conflict. Secondly, although most recently the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) took note of the MH-17 judgments, for the reasons explained in this article the scope of their potential impact on the further development of international and domestic jurisprudence is uncertain, and remains to be seen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to help develop aviation safety policies for the general aviation industry, especially for flight training schools. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP), fuzzy AHP, and fuzzy integral methods were used to find variables that impact aviation safety for training pilots in Korea and the United States using survey participants' experience and perceptions. The results represent the circumstances of aviation safety in the real world where single pilot resource management, especially situational awareness, is crucial. The authors find that integral fuzzy AHP provides more explicit considerations, making up for the ambiguity of the linguistic responses caused by the AHP and fuzzy AHP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to discuss whether a state has a right to divert or intercept a foreign civil aircraft flying above its territory, when the aircraft is under a bomb threat. The analysis stems from the recent incident where a Ryanair passenger jet was diverted to Minsk while flying in Belarusian airspace; however, the article approaches the topic from a general perspective, analyzing the key applicable rules of international aviation safety and security law. The article argues that air sovereignty and national rules on aviation (the latter wherever such exist) provide states acting in good faith the right to divert or intercept foreign aircraft for security reasons. Meanwhile, Article 3 bis of the Chicago Convention does not recognize such a right. The right is also limited by international rules that oblige every state to assist aircraft in distress, as well as rules that emphasize the authority and responsibility of the pilot-in-command. Since mid-air interventions are so rare, the legality of states' actions must be analyzed case-by-case. Regardless, the legal regime of international aviation does not allow states to respond to security threats in whatever way they please, especially if the threat is a mere pretext for politically motivated action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose of reviewNear-miss investigations in high reliability organizations (HROs) aim to mitigate risk and improve system safety. Healthcare settings have a higher rate of near-misses and subsequent adverse events than most high-risk industries, but near-misses are not systematically reported or analyzed. In this review, we will describe the strategies for near-miss analysis that have facilitated a culture of safety and continuous quality improvement in HROs.Recent findingsNear-miss analysis is routine and systematic in HROs such as aviation. Strategies implemented in aviation include the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, which undertakes systematic analyses of near-misses, so that findings can be incorporated into Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Other strategies resulting from incident analyses include Crew Resource Management (CRM) for enhanced communication, situational awareness training, adoption of checklists during operations, and built-in redundancy within systems.SummaryHealth care organizations should consider near-misses as opportunities for quality improvement. The systematic reporting and analysis of near-misses, commonplace in HROs, can be adapted to health care settings to prevent adverse events and improve clinical outcomes.

Safety management systems (SMS) are widely accepted as a way of improving safety and are currently required by the aviation regulations. Safety training and education of all professionals in the aviation safety system is vital for the success of any safety management strategy. At the same time some of the terms in the field are not uniquely and consistently defined, e.g. hazard, threat, safety issue, risk, risk area to name a few. This could be confusing for the users of the SMS who are not required to be safety experts. In addition, the abstract nature of the safety concepts and system thinking combined with the formal language of the regulations makes catching and keeping the attention of the trainees a challenge.A methodology for aviation safety training was developed and studied. The first objective of the elaboration was to introduce the students gradually by building on tangible and actionable items as performance indicators and accident scenarios. The second objective was to connect the above material with the standard safety management framework as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The main emphasis was on understanding the fundamental concepts, notations and relationships through practice. The presented approach has demonstrated higher engagement and improved material mastery of the students.

Flight safety is a hot topic in the aviation industry. Statistics show that safety incidents during landing are closely related to the flare phase because this critical period requires extensive pilot operations. Many airlines require that pilots should avoid performing any forward stick inputs during the flare. However, our statistical results from about 86,504 flights show that this unsafe pilot operation occasionally happens. Although several case studies were conducted previously, systematic research, especially based on a large volume of flight data, is still missing. This paper aims to fill this gap and provide more insights into the issue of pilots’ unsafe stick operations during the flare phase. Specifically, our work is based on the Quick Access Recorder (QAR) data, which consist of multivariate time-series data from various flight parameters. The raw data were carefully preprocessed, then key features were extracted based on flight expert experience, and a K-means clustering algorithm was utilized to divide the unsafe pilot operations into four categories. Based on the clustering results, we conducted an in-depth analysis to uncover the reasons for different types of unsafe pilot stick operations. In addition, extensive experiments were conducted to further investigate how these unsafe operations are correlated with different factors, including airlines, airports, and pilots. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic study analyzing pilots’ unsafe forward stick operations based on a large volume of flight data. The findings can be used by airlines to design more targeted pilot training programs in the future.

Airports stimulate tourism and trade and are a vital link in any country’s tourism infrastructure and economy. Large airports such as South Africa’s busiest airport, the OR Tambo International Airport, in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, are usually located on the periphery of cities, usually on land that forms part of the peri-urban economy, reserved perhaps for farming or left undeveloped. As a result, such land often becomes a wildlife haven within the more “urbanized” or developed areas. Unfortunately, this places wildlife, especially birds on a collision course with aircraft. So much so that bird and other animal strikes cost the aviation industry millions of US dollars annually. Therefore, it is essential to reduce the number of wildlife strikes, not only lower the risk of damage to aircraft, increase passenger safety and reduce operational delays, but also prevent a decline in local wildlife populations. Thus, this paper argues that South Africa must improve its management of land-use close to airports to minimize the potential for wildlife strikes. In that regard, this study catalogs the different habitats and land-use types surrounding OR Tambo International Airport, identifying potential bird hazard zones using kernel density analysis. This identifies which areas pose the highest risk of bird strikes. Although land-use and land zoning by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recommends a 13 km buffer zone around airports, this study shows that land-use in the buffer zone must also take potential bird strikes into account. Thus, airport operators need to work with land-use planning authorities and neighboring stakeholders to do so.