Automação em jatos comerciais: um estudo sobre habilidades manuais de pilotos e acidentes

Abstract

Considering the growing economic development (except for the most critical period of Covid-19 pandemic) and technological development in airline industry, the study’s problematic is the relationship between high automation degree of commercial jets, the low skill of pilots in manual flight and accidents occurred mainly as a result of those two factors. The main objective is to discuss how this relationship can be improved in the name of safety and economy in aviation. As secondary objectives, it aims to understand the airline industry development scenario and its future prospects, considering the high automation of commercial jets. The study used descriptive research as a method, with documentary and bibliographic procedures. From the data collected and the accidents reported, it was evidenced that, concomitantly with the high investment in cabin automation technology of large commercial jets, it is necessary also to train pilots and crew, so that, in emergency situations, they can recognize aircraft and systems failures, so that they can take quick and assertive decisions to correct any problem or take aircraft’s manual control in order to carry passengers and crew safely and efficiently until landing. So that pilots do not become just operators and controllers of these automated systems, they need constant training in flight simulators and manual’s flying practice in their daily operations, so that they can be agents of their flights, commanding aircraft and teams successfully and, consequently, minimizing air accidents rate. From the recommendations extracted from the accidents studied in this research, it is evident the need for airlines and pilots to incorporate manual flight skills, in order to increase operations' security levels, considering that pilots, and their cognitive skills, will be responsible for controlling the flights and preserving lives and investments in airline sector.