Asiana Flight 214: Factors Contributing to the Aircraft Accident

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Asiana Flight 214 crash, focusing on the human factors that contributed to the accident. It explores the SHELL model, examining the interaction between pilots and aircraft systems, crew dynamics, and the operational environment. The report delve...Read More

Running head: ASIANA FLIGHT 214
Asiana Flight 214
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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SHELL model
The liveware that is present within the model is the connection between the human beings
and the controls that are present within the flight. It consists of the crews that are present in the
flight along with the engineers and the maintenance personnel. It also includes the administrative
and management people who help the operations of the flight in a controlled manner (Henriksen,
& Ponte 2017).
Liveware is used for the interaction of the people with the others within the aviation
industry, which helps in the development of leadership, teamwork and cooperation. It helps in
the management of the resources that are present within the crew personnel along with the
management of the resources that are present in the teams. It helps in the operation of the
software so that the things can be done in an organized manner and the operation can be effective
in nature. It helps in the development of the areas, which needs to be designed and the
equipments can be protected (Davies & Delaney 2017).
Situational awareness
It can be defined as the perception of the factors that are present in the environment
within a particular space and time, which helps in projecting the status in the foreseeable future.
It is therefore, the critical factors in the environment, which can be perceived in a better manner
along with understanding the factors when they are integrated with the goals of the aviation
crew. It helps the pilots to function in an effective and timely manner. The pilots need to use the
sensory organs so that it can help them in building a better environment, which will help in the
process of taking care of the flight, which will help in preventing any kind of dangerous

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situations (Jensen, 2017). The pilots of the Asiana Flight 214 had to comprehend the elements
that would be of some help during the flight of the plane, which could have saved the plane from
crashing. The pilots had to have a fair understanding of the surroundings of the controls by
communicating in an effective manner with the control room so that the panic that led to the
crash could have been avoided on a priority basis.
The requirements of situational awareness within the aviation industry are based on three
factors such as identification of the things that the aircrew needs to have a perception,
understanding those perceptions and projecting it in the real-world environment. The situational
awareness needs to be determined with the different classes of aircrafts and the missions that
those aircrafts have. The Asiana Flight 214 was a commercial flight plane, which used to ferry
the passengers between Seoul in Korea to California in the United States of America. The pilots
had enough experience in number of flight hours and knowledge about flying the aircraft, which
should have helped them in creating a better environment. The pilots has to communicate in a
proper manner with the control rooms so that it would have guided them in flying the airplane in
an appropriate manner by combining and interpreting the information that were being sent to
them through the control rooms (Flin & Maran, 2015). They had to analyze the situation in a
better manner by availing the options that were present to them instead of losing out the
communication between them and the control room. With the help of proper communication
between the two pilots and the control centres, the risk of crashing the plane could have been
averted. The pilots had to pay attention to the minute details that were being communicated to
them by the air traffic control rooms so that the wide range of information that were being passed
during the flight could have helped them in avoiding the risky situation (Archer, 2015).

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The factors that will influence the situational awareness among the aviation crew
members are factor of attention of the aircrew that is new in the organization. The Asiana flight
crew members had lot of experience in the flight hours but they lacked the method of perceiving
and processing the external environment, which led to slow responses when the flight was on air,
which led to the accident (Hughes et al., 2014). The third level of situational awareness would
have helped the pilots play an important role during the process of decision making, which
would have been based on their understanding about the present situation by gathering the
information in a better manner so that the decision could have been taken in an accurate manner
(Schwartz & Hobbs, 2014).
Information processing
The information that comes from different sources to the aviation crew members needs to
be assessed in a proper manner so that the decision that is made after processing the information
can be effective in nature (Prince, Price & Salas, 2017). The capability to process the information
differs among various persons, which are based on health, age, stress along with the level of
experience that the pilots have in working in various culture. The capabilities of processing the
information help in delegating and designing the tasks so that the requirements can be assigned
to the employees in accordance to their capabilities. The case for the pilots who were in charge
of the Asiana flight failed to understand the information that was being sent to them. They even
mishandled the information, which resulted in the loss of lives of the normal passengers. The
pilots did not react in an appropriate manner, which led to the crash of the plane (Schwartz &
Hobbs, 2014).

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Situational awareness is linked with processing of the information, as the pilots need to
be on all their senses when they receive the information. The information that is available to the
pilots is inclusive of the engine and the navigation instruments along with the communication
that takes place between the pilots and the air traffic control room. The accuracy with respect to
situational awareness depends on the perception of the pilots when compared to the reality of the
surrounding environment. If the awareness is less accurate it may lead to complexities within the
perception, which may cause hindrances in the processing of the information (Rowley & Bryant,
2017).
Decision making
Most of the accidents that take place in the aviation industry is dependent on the
decisions that are taken by the pilots at the particular time of emergency. The approaches that
help in making of the decision in an analytic manner needs to be based on the range of options
that are provided to the pilots, which helps them in comparing and evaluating the evidences
based on the course of action that is of optimal manner (Wagner et al., 2015). The analytical
strategies that are taken up the pilots lack the flexibilities, which is required for the work to be
done in an appropriate manner. The intuitive strategies that are taken up by the pilots creates
degradation when they are under stress, as the long term memory of the pilots may be hampered
due to the factors of stress (Stokes & Kite, 2017). The pilots of the Asiana flight 214 were not
able to make better decisions due to the factor of stress that was in their minds when the flight
went off the path. Eight seconds before the flight was going to cause an accident, it was revealed
that the pilots had increased the speed to 112 knots when it was just 125 feet above the ground.
When the flight was three seconds before it was going to take the impact, the power of the
engine was at 50 percent and kept on increasing. This showed that the pilots, despite being

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experienced of more than 9000 hours in flying were not able to communicate the decisions with
the control room in an efficient manner. This led to the crashing of the plane (Archer, 2015).
Stress
It is the reaction that is initiated within the humans whenever a situation arises, which can
pose a threat to the intensity level of the operations. The psychological factor is that the stimulus
affects the human on a negative manner based on the incident that is taking place in front of the
individual. The stresses in the aviation industry can be caused due to various factors such as the
environment stress factor, which causes stress to the pilot due to the physical exhaustion of their
bodies (Stokes & Kite, 2017). The pilots are exposed to constant physical stresses within the
cockpit such as the noise from the communication with the radio and the different alarms that
may start to warn the pilots about the dangers that may be ahead. Apart from these, the noise of
the engines and the lighting conditions may be the cause for the stress among the pilots.
The pilots of the Asiana Flight 214 were constantly communicating with the personnel of
the air traffic control room, which caused problems for them. The pilots were disturbed with the
constant noise that was coming from the radio, which raised their stress level that resulted in the
accident (Wagner et al., 2015). When only 1.5 seconds were left for the flight to have an impact
on the ground, the pilots did not make any distress calls to the air traffic control room so that the
landing could be aborted. Instead, it was heard that the pilots out of fear and stress took their own
decision of going around, which proved to be a costly mistake by the pilot, as they did not have
much time.

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Communication
The communication has to be effective in nature within the environment of aviation, as it
is concerned with the safety of the plane and its passengers. The errors in the communication
may lead to the risk of the pilots along with the passengers, as it may cause to the accident of the
plane. One of the most risky situations is when there is a gap in the communication between the
pilots and the air traffic control room (Archer, 2015).
The mismanagement and the confusion among the pilots had led to the crash of the
Asiana flight 214 over the factor of maintenance of speed by the pilots of the airliner. There was
a gap in the communication network between the pilots, which led to the overall accident of the
airline. The performance of the pilots was based on lousy communication within the control
systems that were automatic within the airplane, which led to the opportunity for the errors. The
pilots of the plane had one of the best experiences in flying hours and had a good record
concerning the safety of the flights. The miscommunication between them led to the creation of
confusion, which resulted in the breakdown of the plane (Moller & Vakilzadian, 2014).
Teamwork
Teamwork has to be present between the pilots and the controllers so that it can help the
airline to be guided in an effective manner when it is in air. The team in an aviation sector is
inclusive of the functions that are present in controlling the traffic of the air along with the
cooperation among the pilots so that the flight can be guided safely. The functions of the team in
controlling the air traffic are of two kinds. The first one is known as transitory, which is inclusive
of the pattern of interaction between the aircraft and its controller and the second one is relative
that is the functions of the controller are in the same sector and within the same shift timings.

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The team has to be of different compositions so that it can help in influence the processes of the
group along with the outcomes that are based on the performances of the group (Lee, 2013).
The Asiana flight 214 lacked the teamwork between the pilots, which led to the
disastrous result for the airplane. The pilots did not work as a team, which resulted in a
miscommunication with the air traffic control as well. This was seen when the plane was just 1.5
seconds from being impacted on the ground, when the pilots had a conversation about turning the
plane around. This could have been avoided if the pilots in the flight could have communicated
in a proper manner (Brown, Tompson & Zipperer, 2016).
Crew resource management
The Crew Resource Management (CRM) uses the resources that are available in an
effective manner, which helps the personnel of the flight crew to have a safe and efficient
experience in flying the airplane. The development of the CRM has been done, as it will help in
providing better views to the accidents that have been caused by the airplanes by keeping a
record of the cockpit voice and the data of the flight. The information that is gathered from this
recordings helps the analysts in investigating the nature and the cause of the accident, which can
vary from malfunctioning of the technical parts to the level of mishandling the knowledge that
the crews had in the airplane. The Asiana flight also had the same thing where the analysts found
from the recorders that the flight was in an unstable condition before landing the San Francisco
airport in the US.

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Swiss cheese model
This model is based on the unsafe acts that are committed by the members of the aircrew
and are generally of two kinds such as errors and violations. The errors are defined as the
physical or the mental activities that fails the individuals in achieving the desired outcomes.
These errors are basically of three types, which are based on skills, decisions and perpetual in
nature respectively (Stein & Heiss, 2015). It can be seen that the errors that are caused by the
aircrew members are mostly common during the period when the mishap takes place. The other
type is known as violations, which is the ignorance of the rules, which does not occur frequently.
The violations are also of two types, which are known as exceptional and routine (Tong, Chau &
Wong, 2015).
The Asiana flight 214, which crashed was due to the result of the physical and mental
error of the pilots. The pilots did not communicate in a proper manner between them and with
the air traffic control as well in an efficient manner, which led to the fatal crash. Additionally, it
can also be said that the knowledge and skills of the pilots regarding the features of the airplane
were not known in a proper manner, which led to the mishandling of the control systems.
Recommendations
Thus, it can be recommended that the pilots of the aircraft had to be given a better
training program so that it could have helped them in increasing their knowledge, which would
have helped them in avoiding the crash. The pilots needed to have a proper knowledge of the
control system s that was present in the aircraft, which could have helped in avoiding the crash.
The communication network with the air traffic control room had to be improved in a proper
manner so that it could have helped them in flying the aircraft in a safely manner.

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