Flight 1420, A Preventable Disaster
Flight 1420 11
Flight 1420,
A Preventable Disaster
Commercial Aviation Safety
November 15, 2011
ABSTRACT
Flight 1420 was a disaster that taught the aviation community several important lessons. All the Seven Major Elements of Aviation safety can be seen as contributing factors but the greatest factor was human error and the impact of pilot fatigue. With proper preventative measures, the pilots probably would have had the time to arm the MD-82’s spoiler system and the flight would have touched down safely. On June 1st, 1999 American Airlines flight 1420 experienced a tragic accident that claimed many lives and made an impact on aviation worldwide. The event and it subsequent investigation shed light on issues and pressures airline pilots face and resulted in new technologies and new regulation that have made aviation safer for all pilots and passengers. Any aviation accident that results in the death of pilots or passengers is a tragedy but these accidents present lessons to be learned through investigation of the human factors, industry efforts and regulation and other factors of aviation safety.
American Airlines Flight 1420 is an excellent example of James Reason’s Swiss Cheese Model of accident causation, whereby causal factors in an accident slowly slip by preventative measures until they compound into a preventable accident. A variety of contributable actions and conditions ultimately lined up to create the opportunity for a major accident to occur. The first action in the chain can be found in the flight plan from Dallas-Ft Worth International Airport to fly to Little Rock National Airport in between two converging storms, called a “bowling alley” by the flight dispatcher. The aircraft was on its final leg, on a multi-leg flight that started at Chicago O’Hare and the conclusion of a 3-day sequence for the flight crew. The plan to race the storm was not in violation of any company policy or Federal Aviation
Flight 1420,
A Preventable Disaster
Commercial Aviation Safety
November 15, 2011
ABSTRACT
Flight 1420 was a disaster that taught the aviation community several important lessons. All the Seven Major Elements of Aviation safety can be seen as contributing factors but the greatest factor was human error and the impact of pilot fatigue. With proper preventative measures, the pilots probably would have had the time to arm the MD-82’s spoiler system and the flight would have touched down safely. On June 1st, 1999 American Airlines flight 1420 experienced a tragic accident that claimed many lives and made an impact on aviation worldwide. The event and it subsequent investigation shed light on issues and pressures airline pilots face and resulted in new technologies and new regulation that have made aviation safer for all pilots and passengers. Any aviation accident that results in the death of pilots or passengers is a tragedy but these accidents present lessons to be learned through investigation of the human factors, industry efforts and regulation and other factors of aviation safety.
American Airlines Flight 1420 is an excellent example of James Reason’s Swiss Cheese Model of accident causation, whereby causal factors in an accident slowly slip by preventative measures until they compound into a preventable accident. A variety of contributable actions and conditions ultimately lined up to create the opportunity for a major accident to occur. The first action in the chain can be found in the flight plan from Dallas-Ft Worth International Airport to fly to Little Rock National Airport in between two converging storms, called a “bowling alley” by the flight dispatcher. The aircraft was on its final leg, on a multi-leg flight that started at Chicago O’Hare and the conclusion of a 3-day sequence for the flight crew. The plan to race the storm was not in violation of any company policy or Federal Aviation