Journal of Accident Investigation

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ALICE PARK AND CHRISTY SPANGLER restriction resulting from incorrect rigging of the elevator control system caused the aircraft’s loss of pitch control. In the flight path animation, it was important to focus on the airplane motion. Therefore, the environment was simplified, showing only the runway and the hangar that was hit by the airplane. Similarly, only that part of the flight path that was significant to the probable cause was included. The time, altitude, speed, and selected cockpit communications were also shown to place the animation in perspective (figure 7). Because the elevator control system is quite complex, only certain components were needed to effectively communicate the functions and adjustments pertinent to this accident (figure 8). These animations of the cable mechanical system and the properly and improperly adjusted elevator control system effectively presented its correlation with the airplane’s loss of pitch control during takeoff. CONCLUSION To determine and analyze the motion of an aircraft and the physical forces that produce that motion, accident investigators gather a variety of data that may not be easy to visualize. These data define aircraft position and orientation through the flight and are used to determine aircraft response to control inputs, system failures, external disturbances, or other factors that could affect its flight. Although figures and still images can be used to replicate this physical evidence, a concise and simple but detailed animation can greatly enhance investigators’ ability to visualize and analyze the accident sequence of events. Animations also enable investigators to simultaneously depict individual data points in real time so that they can draw conclusions and identify probable cause based on that data. Similarly, animation can greatly simplify the explanation of those findings THE AUTHORS for a nontechnical audience, enabling them to understand the probable cause and any associated safety recommendations. For these reasons, the animations used to convey complex accident investigation data must incorporate simplicity, elegance, and scale of design. Engineers and animators work closely to achieve this result by carefully crafting a storyboard that lays out the data to tell a clear and coherent story. It is important to emphasize that such animations are worthwhile only if they are based on data that has been scrupulously measured, recorded, and calculated to ensure accuracy of results. REFERENCES AmericAn Airlines flight 587. Accident information: http://www.ntsb.gov/events/2001/AA 87/ default.htm AmericAn Airlines flight 587. Presentation with Static Graphs: http://www.ntsb.gov/events/2001/ AA 87/presentations/02_airplane_perf.pdf AmericAn Airlines flight 587. Animations and videos: http://www.ntsb.gov/events/2001/AA 87/ board_mtg_anim.htm Air midwest flight 5481. Accident information: http://www.ntsb.gov/events/2003/AM 481/default.htm Air midwest flight 5481. Animations: http://www. ntsb.gov/events/2003/AM 481/board_meeting_ presentations/presentations.htm ALICE PARK is an Electrical Engineer/Radar Specialist in the Vehicle Performance Division at the NTSB. Ms. Park provides technical analysis of FAA radar data in support of aircraft accident investigations and creates 3-D animations for use in public Board Meetings to illustrate complex vehicle and occupant motions that occur during an accident sequence. She also codes and debugs computer programs for processing radar data; performs 3-D computer simulations to reconstruct flight path of accident aircraft; performs radar data studies; and represents the Safety Board in updating and coordinating with the FAA Technical Center regarding the National Airspace System. CHRISTY L. SPANGLER is an Audio/Visual Information Specialist in the Information Products Division at the NTSB. Ms. Spangler’s projects have included the Charlotte takeoff accident 3-D animation, the Academy Virtual Tour, and other 3-D animation, graphic design, intranet, and website projects. Her other experience includes her work as a media specialist for the Biomedical Communications Department, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, in Johnson City, Tennessee. 30 NTSB JOURNAL OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION, SPRING 2006; VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 • • • • •
Aviation Recorder Overview Dennis R. Grossi, National Transportation Safety Board INTRODUCTION A wide variety of airborne and ground-based aviation recording devices are available that can provide vital information for accident prevention purposes. The primary information sources include the mandatory crash-protected flight recorders, airborne quick access data recorders, and ground-based recordings of air traffic control (ATC) radar returns and radio communications. Other sources of recorded information, such as aircraft system internal memory devices and recordings of airline operational communications, have also provided vital information to accident investigators. These devices can range from nonvolatile memory chips to state-of-the-art solid-state flight recorders. With the exception of the mandatory flight recorders, these devices were designed primarily to provide recorded information for maintenance troubleshooting or specific operational requirements. Regardless of their original purpose, they have all been used in one form or another to investigate aviation accidents. This paper will give an overview of the evolution of flight recorder technology and regulatory requirements, and will describe the capabilities and limitations of the various types of recorded information available to the aviation community for accident prevention and, in particular, accident/incident investigation. CRASH-PROTECTED FLIGHT RECORDERS Evolution of Regulatory Requirements First Flight Data Recorder The need for a crash-survivable recording device became apparent following a series of airline crashes in the early 1940s. This spurred the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to draft the first Civil Aviation Regulations calling for a flight recording device for accident investigation purposes. However, recorder development was delayed by shortages brought NTSB JOURNAL OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION, SPRING 2006; VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 31
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