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cause would never be addressed. This would lead to the world potentially the entire flight.
of aviation being a more dangerous place.”
2. When deciding whether to fly manually,
Leahy et, al. says that fixing MCAS was only a band-aid, albeit a crews should apply basic TEM7 principles
necessary one, on a much larger, more costly and more intrac- and take into account the various factors
table malaise – poor training. “If the Lionair and Ethiopian affecting operational workload.
pilots might just possibly have been poorly trained along with
the twenty or so crews identified in our report, then they are 3. Allow and encourage pilots to conduct
not outliers,” warns Capt. Leahy. The purpose of all air-accident manual flight with different combinations
investigations is to find the true cause(s) to avoid repetition and of automated systems and modes based
Leahy et. al. warns that in too many cases true cause had not on aircraft equipment and operational
been identified and even when it had, often nothing tangible situations.
was suggested or recommended. It adds that since accident 4. A clear statement that the pilot in com-
reports have no powers of enforcement, often, even those formal mand (PIC) should use good judgment to
recommendations that are included are not always carried out consider the factors described above and
even at the airline involved, nor universally across the industry. to decide, on a case-by-case basis, when
“So, our group continued work on this area, but without any real it is appropriate to conduct manual flying.
hope that any other “Higher Authority” was taking much interest.

“We know this because we made high-level approaches including
IATA. We did however have some encouragement; the FAA had The FAA Aviation Circular is comprehensive
been working on a project paper called Flight Path Management but these three areas are at the forefront:
for some time,” says Capt. Leahy.
- that manual flying skills are paramount for
flight safety
FAA Steps Up
The authors of Leahy et. al. are delighted with the recent FAA’s - that automation requires more training –
not less
Aviation Circular [AC120/123] which is based on several years
of work, which clearly states among a raft of recommendations - that it is not a binary choice between
the following; manual and automated flight – both are
essential components with different but
An operator’s line operations policy should permit and encourage complementary skill sets needed.
Manual Flight and should incorporate the following:
Capt. Leahy says that “those of us who cut our
1. Encouragement to manually fly the aircraft including, at teeth in the 70s-90s period would not find this
least periodically, the entire departure and arrival phases and [manual flying for the entire flight] astonishing

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