Human Factors Analysis The Colgan Air 3407 accident, was a commercial flight that crashed in Clarence Center, New York on the way to Buffalo, New York. The flight crash was due to poor piloting and background conditions that have changed regulations in the aviation industry. In this essay we will cover this accident using the PEAR model to evaluate the accident. The first aspect we will evaluate of the accident is the people element of PEAR. The people element covers anyone involved or responsible for the accident as well as the factors affecting them. In the accident it was deemed that the captain was responsible for the accident, as the captain didn’t respond properly to the stick shaker which is an indicator that the plane could stall, his failure to monitor the plane's airspeed, as well I think it was the fault of the airline company and how they managed everything. Some of the other factors of the people part of pear is how they treated their pilots, overworking them, making them travel long distances from home which made adequate rest difficult, and just and overall difficult work environment. The next aspect of PEAR is environment, which deals with environmental considerations such as weather, lighting, other personnel and many other factors. In the
Colgan air accident environment played the role with the weather conditions primarily. Before the crash the weather caused icing on the plane, and when this was combined with fatigued pilots, one being sick, as well as this all taking place during the critical stage of the flight. The environment that the company created made the pilots feel pressured, exhausted, and overall not fit to work. Another factor that made the situation worse was the fact that it was at night which caused the temperature to drop and increase the chance of ice being an issue, as well as it making it more difficult to judge the airspeed of the plane. The next aspect of PEAR is actions, which deals with specific actions that took place and lead to the accident, as well as the number of people involved, the knowledge required, and many other factors. With this accident it was dreams to be the actions of the captain, that in part, lead to the accident. The actions that the captain took were an inappropriate response to the stick shaker, failure to monitor the plane’s airspeed, poor flight management, the airline company creating an environment that fatigues and pressures pilots, a worker coming in while sick, the pilot unable to detect the decreasing airspeed and ice build up, as well as many other factors. The last aspect of PEAR are the resources available during the accident, whether they were or were not used. In this situation the tools were the de-icing system, radio contact with air traffic control, the stick shaker indication, and the other flight instruments and indicators. In this accident the pilot failed to effectively utilize these indicators and had poor and improper reactions to situation. In summary all of these factors combined to cause the accident, with the official cause being the captain’s actioned mentioned before. These actions lead to a stall, a failure to monitor airspeed, and overall poor monitoring. Poor monitoring and workload management in the cockpit led to the pilot being unable to detect the decreasing airspeed and ice buildup. Even more important is the factor that the company’s scheduling system created an environment of fatigued pilots due to them having to commute to work then start their shift. All of these factors combined to create an unsafe environment and ultimately the crash.