An Analysis of Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT) Accidents of Commercial Operators 1988 through 1994

This investigation focused on the identification and analyses of factors that are potentially associated with fatal Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) accidents involving commercial operators. Central to the objectives was an attempt to highlight differences between CFIT accidents of air taxi, regional and major carriers. The research focused on the evaluation of 156 CFIT accidents that occured in the 1988-1994 time frame. Details of the data sources, accident inclusion criteria, development of an appropiate accident causal factor taxonomy consists of the following groups, namely flight crew, environment, airport and approach, ATC, aircraft equipment, air carrier (organisational) and regulatory issues. Results indicate that Africa and South America are the ICAO regions with the highest CFIT risk for major operators. Descent and approach phase accidents accounted for around 70% of the total sample. Procedural, situational awareness and tactical decision errors were the dominant crew error types. The data further shows that one fifth of the accidents involved inadvertent flight from VFR into IMC. One disturbing finding is that 75% of the accident aircraft were not equipped with a Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS). Based on the findings presented herein, a number of recommendations have been proposed. The results of this investigation are being contributed to the activities of the Flight Safety Foundation/ICAO International CFIT Task Force.