Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) is a very large organization compared to Thai standards. It generates huge incomes to a number of families, directly and indirectly. Like many airlines, the main concern with THAI and the regulatory authorities is safety because THAI is in a mass transportation business. THAI have had two accidents within a span of some six years, killing a total of 214 people. The accidents affected THAI in four key areas, namely political, economical, social and technological. This phenomenon prompted the study of aviation safety in THAI. The question that requires an answer is: “How should THAI build its protocols to enhance aviation safety?” This then became the research question. The objective of the study is to build a model suitable for THAI to enhance aviation safety, thus answering the question. Through a review of the literature within the parent disciplines, the product, process, and customers of flying activities were identified. The four processes, the MP, the HRD, the PM and the RS are recognized through rigorous search of the literature. The developments of the required seven elements of skills needed for pilot performance measurement were made.A review of study within the immediate discipline concerning Aviation Safety in THAI was carried out and the current status in THAI was defined. All of these led to the identification of research question, research objective, and research propositions. The research propositions were:• Research Proposition 1: that the management practice (MP) process receives inputs from the reporting system (RS) process. Outputs from the management practice (MP) process form inputs for the human resource development (HRD) process.• Research Proposition 2: that the human resource development (HRD) process receives inputs from the management practice (MP) process. Outputs from the human resource development (HRD) process form inputs for the performance measurement (PM) process.• Research Proposition 3: that the performance measurement (PM) process receives inputs from the human resource development (HRD) process. Outputs from the human resource development (HRD) process form inputs for the reporting system (RS) process.• Research Proposition 4: that the reporting system (RS) process receives inputs from the performance measurement (PM) process. Outputs from the reporting system (RS) process form inputs for the management practice (MP) process. • Research Proposition 5: that the individual process components identified in Research Propositions 1, 2, 3 and 4, can be consolidated into an overall, comprehensive Continual Improvement (CI) loop.Once the research propositions were established, the research design was conceived. Due to the fact that THAI is a unique airline influenced by its history of inception and by particular sets of cultures, an embedded, single case-study research method was used. Many techniques within the case-study method were employed starting from a secondary data search, direct observations, focus group interviews, elite interviews, pilot study, participant observations and in-depth interviews. Issues such as validity, reliability, sensitivity, generalizability and ethics were referred to. Issues on data processing, coding, editing, and interpreting were made and discussed.As a result of the various methods of study and the fieldwork previously mentioned, findings were derived. These were then edited, categorized, coded, tabulated and interpreted into meaningful information. Findings from the study and fieldwork supported all the propositions derived from secondary data search and literature review. Consequently the gap identified in the literature was now filled and the principal model was drawn. A slight modification was introduced in keeping with the interpretation of the findings. A recommendation was made that THAI implement policy measures and professional practices derived from the implication of the study to minimize risks in flight operations system and thus maximize safety.Based on the findings of this research, it is recommended that future studies be conducted employing a deductive, quantitative, statistical method to evaluate the model and test its theoretical implications.

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) is a very large organization compared to Thai standards. It generates huge incomes to a number of families, directly and indirectly. Like many airlines, the main concern with THAI and the regulatory authorities is safety because THAI is in a mass transportation business. THAI have had two accidents within a span of some six years, killing a total of 214 people. The accidents affected THAI in four key areas, namely political, economical, social and technological. This phenomenon prompted the study of aviation safety in THAI. The question that requires an answer is: “How should THAI build its protocols to enhance aviation safety?” This then became the research question. The objective of the study is to build a model suitable for THAI to enhance aviation safety, thus answering the question. Through a review of the literature within the parent disciplines, the product, process, and customers of flying activities were identified. The four processes, the MP, the HRD, the PM and the RS are recognized through rigorous search of the literature. The developments of the required seven elements of skills needed for pilot performance measurement were made.A review of study within the immediate discipline concerning Aviation Safety in THAI was carried out and the current status in THAI was defined. All of these led to the identification of research question, research objective, and research propositions. The research propositions were:• Research Proposition 1: that the management practice (MP) process receives inputs from the reporting system (RS) process. Outputs from the management practice (MP) process form inputs for the human resource development (HRD) process.• Research Proposition 2: that the human resource development (HRD) process receives inputs from the management practice (MP) process. Outputs from the human resource development (HRD) process form inputs for the performance measurement (PM) process.• Research Proposition 3: that the performance measurement (PM) process receives inputs from the human resource development (HRD) process. Outputs from the human resource development (HRD) process form inputs for the reporting system (RS) process.• Research Proposition 4: that the reporting system (RS) process receives inputs from the performance measurement (PM) process. Outputs from the reporting system (RS) process form inputs for the management practice (MP) process. • Research Proposition 5: that the individual process components identified in Research Propositions 1, 2, 3 and 4, can be consolidated into an overall, comprehensive Continual Improvement (CI) loop.Once the research propositions were established, the research design was conceived. Due to the fact that THAI is a unique airline influenced by its history of inception and by particular sets of cultures, an embedded, single case-study research method was used. Many techniques within the case-study method were employed starting from a secondary data search, direct observations, focus group interviews, elite interviews, pilot study, participant observations and in-depth interviews. Issues such as validity, reliability, sensitivity, generalizability and ethics were referred to. Issues on data processing, coding, editing, and interpreting were made and discussed.As a result of the various methods of study and the fieldwork previously mentioned, findings were derived. These were then edited, categorized, coded, tabulated and interpreted into meaningful information. Findings from the study and fieldwork supported all the propositions derived from secondary data search and literature review. Consequently the gap identified in the literature was now filled and the principal model was drawn. A slight modification was introduced in keeping with the interpretation of the findings. A recommendation was made that THAI implement policy measures and professional practices derived from the implication of the study to minimize risks in flight operations system and thus maximize safety.Based on the findings of this research, it is recommended that future studies be conducted employing a deductive, quantitative, statistical method to evaluate the model and test its theoretical implications.

abstract: Over the years, aviation safety has been influenced by continuous implementations of both proactive and reactive policies by both regulatory boards and also, aviation service providers. This achievement has been possible mainly because of the safety management tools like the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) which derives its roots from the much earlier Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides guidelines and procedures for installation and development of an ASAP, for every airline in the United States. In this study, how different United States air carriers apply ASAP in their organizations is investigated. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Technology 2016

abstract: To ensure safety is not precluded in the event of an engine failure, the FAA has established climb gradient minimums enforced through Federal Regulations. Furthermore, to ensure aircraft do not accidentally impact an obstacle on takeoff due to insufficient climb performance, standard instrument departure procedures have their own set of climb gradient minimums which are typically more than those set by Federal Regulation. This inconsistency between climb gradient expectations creates an obstacle clearance problem: while the aircraft has enough climb gradient in the engine inoperative condition so that basic flight safety is not precluded, this climb gradient is often not strong enough to overfly real obstacles; this implies that the pilot must abort the takeoff flight path and reverse course back to the departure airport to perform an emergency landing. One solution to this is to reduce the dispatch weight to ensure that the aircraft retains enough climb performance in the engine inoperative condition, but this comes at the cost of reduced per-flight profits. An alternative solution to this problem is the extended second segment (E2S) climb. Proposed by Bays & Halpin, they found that a C-130H gained additional obstacle clearance performance through this simple operational change. A thorough investigation into this technique was performed to see if this technique can be applied to commercial aviation by using a model A320 and simulating multiple takeoff flight paths in either a calm or constant wind condition. A comparison of takeoff flight profiles against real world departure procedures shows that the E2S climb technique offers a clear obstacle clearance advantage which a scheduled four-segment flight profile cannot provide. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Aerospace Engineering 2017

Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) is a versatile and essential tool for law enforcement, first responders, utility providers, and the general public. Integrating the UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS) poses a significant challenge to policymakers and manufacturers. A UAS Integration Safety and Security Technology Ontology (ISSTO) has been developed in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) to aid in this integration. ISSTO is a domain ontology covering aviation topics corresponding to flights, aircraft types, manufacturers, temporal/spatial, waivers and authorizations, track data, NAS facilities, air traffic control advisories, weather phenomena, surveillance and security equipment, and events, sensor types, radio frequency ranges, actions, and outcomes. As ISSTO is a domain ontology, it models the current state of UAS integration into the NAS and provides a comprehensive view of every aspect of UAS.

In recent years, the rapid advancement of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has led to an increasingly complex National Airspace System (NAS), necessitating a comprehensive understanding of factors that impact pilot visual acquisition and detection of other aircraft (including manned fixed-wing, rotorcraft, and UAS). The objective of this study is to investigate factors that affect pilot performance in visually acquiring and detecting other manned-fixed wing aircraft and manned rotorcraft using a multi-method approach, incorporating qualitative and quantitative data analysis. A diverse sample of pilots with varying flight experience participated in the study. Participants were exposed to a series of flight test scenarios in a high-fidelity flight test campaign using different flight paths and detecting different types of aircraft, designed to replicate real-world airspace encounters with other aircraft. Post-flight interviews were conducted, and situational awareness questionnaires and NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) were administered to capture insights on the pilots’ experiences. The goal was to determine the level at which aircraft characteristics, test subjects’ situational awareness and workload, flight conditions, and environmental conditions influenced visual acquisition and detection. All interviews were subjected to several cycles of meticulous coding and subcoding processes to discern both individual and co-occurring factors affecting visual detection capabilities. Additionally, a rigorous statistical analysis was executed on the data derived from the situational awareness questionnaires and NASA-TLX to extract quantitative insights into pilot-centric metrics influencing visual detection. The amalgamated results from both the qualitative and quantitative analyses were synthesized to construct a comprehensive representation of all variables influencing visual detection, in addition to delineating the parallels between factors that affect visual acquisition in both manned fixed-wing and rotorcraft detection scenarios.

This project examines the safety management of civil aircraft accident investigation authorities in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Member States, with particular emphasis on the independence of the investigations. The research aims to establish the current level of resources and methodology adopted by Member States’ accident investigation authorities. The output of this work not only identifies the current situation but informs initiatives for some of the States in the process of establishing their investigation capability. ICAO Annex 13 was analysed and found to be based on the principle of independent accident investigations. Also, a four dimensional measuring index (4DMI) has been developed to measure the independence of accident investigations in ICAO Member States. Data were collected from 45 States and are presented in the thesis. As a result of applying the 4DMI to the collected data, the States were ranked according to their scores, and divided into four categories of independence. Analysis of the four categories and the scores from the four dimensions revealed that States approach the concept of investigation independence in different ways; however, there are several practices that are common within the highest independence category and several other practices that are common within the lowest independence category. The research recommends that States should work towards improving their overall investigation independence by implementing the seven identified practices in the High-Independence category and distance themselves from the five practices identified as common in the Low-Independence category.

This study deals with the international civil aviation safety purely in the sense of,,security" which means protection against acts of unlawful interference against civil aviation. The thesis is composed of ten chapters. Chapter two is introductory and defines basic notions as aircraft piracy or aviation terrorism. Chapter three characterises main forms of acts of unlawful interference against civil aviation as they were regarded in the past as well as in nowadays. Chapter four is concerned with legal sources of the International Aviation Law. Chapter five describes origins of the international repressive system and provides interpretation of the most important international antiterrorism conventions. Chapter six focuses on the exercise of juridiction and extradition under the Tokyo Convention from 1963, the Hague Convention from 1970 and the Montreal Convention from 1971. The classification of unlawful acts against the civil aviation based on the responsibility for such acts is the object of the chapter seven.Chapter eight is the overview of safety standards and recommendations which have been made by international organizations. Chapter nine is talking about the preventive system of the aviation and contains two parts. First part speaks about its general principles and second part is dealing with the...

L'analyse des accidents aériens fait ressortir ces dernières années le rôle crucial desopérateurs humains, et leurs erreurs qui peuvent avoir des conséquences dramatiques. Uncas particulier d’erreur humaine reste cependant peu abordé : la surdité inattentionnelle,c’est-à-dire l’incapacité temporaire à entendre, à prendre conscience d’une informationauditive. Dans le domaine de l’aéronautique, cette défaillance cognitive est évidementcritique, car elle signifie l’omission d’alarmes auditives. Le premier enjeu de ce projet derecherche est de définir des métriques comportementales et physiologiquescaractéristiques de la surdité inattentionnelle. Pour cela, nous nous sommes intéressés enparticulier à deux postes de travail fondamentaux de la sécurité aérienne et soumis à desalarmes auditives : le pilotage et le contrôle aérien. Nous avons cherché à mettre enévidence les conditions contextuelles favorisant l’apparition de la surdité inattentionnelle,notamment la charge de travail des opérateurs. Un second enjeu était d’identifier despistes d’adaptation des interfaces avec les pilotes et les contrôleurs aériens, permettant deprévenir ou limiter la surdité inattentionnelle à ces postes spécifiques. Pour répondre àcette problématique, 3 expériences ont été menées. La première a étudié l’impact de lacharge de travail sur le traitement des alarmes auditives lors d’une tâche d’atterrissage.Elle a permis de déterminer que la P300 était un indicateur de la surdité. La secondeexpérimentation a porté sur l’impact du design des alarmes visuelles sur les capacités detraitement cognitif des alarmes auditives, dans le cadre du contrôle aérien. Les résultatsnous ont montré une restauration de la P3b auditive avec le design visuel amélioré. Enfinla dernière expérience a testé la pertinence de mesures oculaires pour détecter lescontextes favorisant la surdité inattentionnelle. Ces résultats ouvrent des pistesprometteuses de prévention et de détection de la surdité inattentionnelle aux postescritiques de la sécurité aérienne. / The analysis of airplane accidents has recently highlighted the crucial role of humanoperators, their mistakes having potential dramatic consequences. A specific type ofhuman error remains little discussed: inattentional deafness, which is defined as thetemporary inability to hear or to become aware of auditory information. In aeronautics,this cognitive failure is obviously critical because it can lead to the omission of auditoryalarms. The first challenge of this research project is to define behavioral and physiologicalcharacteristics of inattentional deafness. For this purpose, we focused on the twofundamental jobs in aviation safety and subjected to auditory alarms: piloting and airtraffic control. We planned to highlight the contextual conditions favoring the appearanceof inattentional deafness, in particular the operators' workload. A second challenge was toidentify potential adaptation in the interfaces with pilots and air traffic controllers toprevent or limit the apparition inattentional deafness. To address these issues, threeexperiments were conducted. The first experiment studied the impact of workload on thetreatment of auditory alarms during a landing task. It was determined that P3b was anindicator of deafness. The second experiment focused on the impact of design visualalarms on cognitive processing abilities auditory alarms, as part of air traffic control. Theresults showed a restoration of auditory P300 with the enhanced visual design us. Finally,the last experiment tested the relevance of eye measurements to detect contexts favoringinattentional deafness. These results open promising possibilities for prevention anddetection of inattentional deafness in critical positions of aviation safety.

There are many pieces of flight deck research on general use of written English language technical information and problem solving using technical documentation. Contributory causes of aircraft accidents have been due to misunderstandings of crew alerts and procedural divergence by English as-a-second language flight crewmembers (ESL). Research was conducted to understand impact of written English language technical information on ESL flight crewmembers’ performance. Two types of systems were evaluated, technical documentation and crew alerting systems that contain technical information, with respect to their impact on ESL flight crewmember performance. Preliminary analysis results indicated written English language technical information can be confusing, difficult to read and interpret, and leads to misunderstandings by ESL flight crewmembers during aircraft nonnormal conditions. English as-a-second language flight crewmembers indicated they often experience problems executing written English language technical procedures after outset of crew alerts. Conversely, experimental trials revealed ESL flight crewmembers did not experience many cognitive performance issues with use of crew alerting systems and technical information designed with an English language emphasis. English as-a second language flight crewmembers’ English language proficiency, background knowledge, and use of use of metacognitive strategies to read and comprehend written English language on crew alerting and information systems, indicated they utilized written English technical information with ease. Particularly, ESL flight crewmembers’ workload was low, they had fast response times to system faults, and they experienced minimal procedural deviations. On the contrary, when ESL flight crewmembers utilized written English language technical procedures translated into their native language during non-normal conditions, they experienced several cognitive performance challenges. English as-a second language flight crewmembers’ background knowledge of written English language technical information translated into their native language, use of metacognitive strategies to read and comprehend written English language translated into their native language, indicated they experienced difficulties with reading and comprehending translated technical information on information systems. Particularly, ESL flight crewmembers were challenged cognitively when they responded to crew alerts through execution of decision-making processes. They indicated translation of written English language technical information into their native language was a pre-cursor to procedural deviation, long response times to system issues, as well as high workload during experimental trials. It is recommended that further research focus on design and use of written English language technical documentation by ESL flight crewmembers during non-normal conditions. It is also recommended that if deemed practical by the aviation industry, further research should focus on design, integration, and utilization of technical documentation in a language(s) other than English, and measurement of ESL flight crewmembers performance on the flight deck.