Flight Deck Human-Machine Interface

What are the issues and concerns (pros and cons) of the Flight Deck Human-Machine Interface?

There has been significant growth and development of the technology available to pilots in the modern cockpit. From improved information systems such as the Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), to increased control of the aircraft (automated collision avoidance maneuvering), pilots now have a range of high-tech systems at their fingertips. This technology is designed to support pilots in maintaining situation awareness, making decisions, communicating, and assisting in flying the aircraft. However, each technological advancement comes with human-computer interaction considerations that should be explored.

Automation makes the aircraft much smoother than when a human is at the controls. Some advantages of the human-machine interface are that the interface can enhance pilots’ understanding of aircraft systems, which can go a long way in supporting the diagnosis of problems and improving flight safety. Second, this interaction enables pilots to engage in more rewarding tasks that are related to monitoring flights. Third, the interface reduces the workload for the flight crew, implying that pilots and their colleagues can focus on other tasks to manage the automation, such as data entry or retrieval.

Some disadvantages of the human-machine interface are that computerized systems are designed to achieve a particular level of uniformity, and if human beings disrupt the seamless language without adequate knowledge, then erroneous results are given out by aircraft. Another hazard associated with the machine-human interface on aircraft is the decline of both manuals as well as cognitive skills that are necessary for flights. It can lead to complacency.

Overall, automation has enhanced aviation safety and made flying easier, but it does not come without its challenges. Automation is designed to eliminate human error in aviation; however, one must know to consider the human in development (Cusick et.al., 2017). A big issue is that these systems are designed to be “fail-safe,” meaning that even if they fail, the aircraft is still able to be flown. However, when these systems fail, it is usually without warning and thrusts the crew into immediate action, where simple situations can be compounded. An example of this is Air France 447. On an overnight flight across the Atlantic, the aircraft’s pitot tubes froze, and the aircraft immediately switched off the autopilot and gave numerous faults to the inexperienced pilots. This overwhelmed the pilots, who flew their plane into a stall and failed to recover. The next issue with automation is that pilots can begin to lose basic manual and cognitive flying skills. This can be compounded by carriers that discourage manual flying or limit flying to flying with auto-throttle (Cockpit Automation – Advantages and safety challenges, n.d.).

In another example, a Turkish Airlines flight was on approach to Amsterdam when during the approach, a fault in the radar altimeter caused the auto-throttle to believe that the aircraft was in a landing flare. The auto-throttle retarded the throttles to idle and neither the pilot nor co-pilot noticed a decrease in airspeed or increasing pitch. The ground proximity warning system sounded, and the aircraft crashed short of the runway. Luckily, only 9 of the 135 souls on board died (B738, vicinity Amsterdam Netherlands, 2009, n.d.). It is without a doubt, that the human-machine interface has greatly increased safety in the aviation world today. However, it does not happen without a speed bump or two.

References

B738, vicininty Amsterdam Netherlands, 2009. (n.d.). SKYbrary, https://www.skybrary.aero/accidents-and-incidents/b738-vicinity-amsterdam-netherlands-2009

Cockpit Automation – Advantages and Safety Challenges. (n.d.). SKYbrary. https://www.skybrary.aero/articles/cockpit-automation-advantages-and-safety-challengesLinks to an external site.

Cusick, S. K., Cortes, A. I., & Rodrigues, C. C. (2017). Commercial Aviation Safety (6th ed.). Mcgraw-Hill Education.

SKYBrary. (2023). Human machine interface (HMI). SKYbrary Aviation Safety. https://www.skybrary.aero/articles/human-machine-interface-hmi