Installing eye-tracking devices inside aircraft cockpits could be useful in aviation safety investigations, an Aviation Safety Council (ASC) official said yesterday.
Aviation investigators rely on information recorded on “black boxes” — flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders — to investigate plane crashes, council executive director Thomas Wang (王興中) said.
“However, what we are missing is why pilots did or said something. What information led them to make an erroneous judgement? Eye-tracking devices would help us see what pilots see and know, and for how long,” Wang said.
Wang in April proposed the devices at the European Network of Civil Aviation Safety Authorities Seminar in Slovakia and in August at the International Accident Investigation and Prevention Conference in San Diego.
In his presentation, which he coauthored with Cranfield University senior lecturer Li Wen-chin (李文清), Wang gave as an example the TransAsia Airways GE235 crash investigation in 2015.
One of the key findings of the TransAsia probe was that the aircraft’s No. 2 engine automatically switched to feathered mode soon after takeoff to reduce drag, because it was not producing enough power, the council said.
Investigators also found that rather than shutting down the engine, the pilot shut down the No. 1 engine — which was functioning normally — and switched off the fuel circuit.
The error caused both engines to shut down and led to the crash.
“All we know is the conversation between the two pilots and that the engine was shut down. If we knew what the pilot saw before he shut down the wrong engine, we might determine what caused him to make the error,” Wang said.
Companies are developing image recorders that could be installed in the cockpit in the near future, Wang said.
However, pilots have only agreed to be filmed from behind for privacy reasons, he said.
The device could help with crash investigations or other aviation accidents, and could also be used to train pilots, Wang said.
Installation of such devices depends on whether international organizations can reach a consensus on their necessity and address pilots’ privacy concerns, Wang said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai