What happens to the other 2%?

There is a new technology to combat CFIT aka Controlled Flight into Terrain.

Press Zoom reports that the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System is a software-based technology that has demonstrated a 98 percent effectiveness rate at eliminating aircraft crashes into the ground. The system is ready for operational integration on F-16 Fighting Flacons, F-22 Raptors and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

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“Manual or warning-only systems don't prevent many of our ( controlled flight into terrain ) mishaps," said Col. “Tex” Wilkins, senior Air Force readiness analyst with the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. "That's because situations like pilot spatial disorientation, target fixation, loss of situation awareness, or G-induced loss of consciousness may render a pilot unable to process the warning and/or perform the necessary maneuvers to prevent a collision with the ground. Current programs rely on a pilot’s ability to manually respond to its warnings. Auto-GCAS, however, is specifically designed to prevent a collision in situations where a pilot cannot.”

Defense Department experts estimate that without Auto-GCAS more than 130 fighter aircraft will inadvertantly fly into the ground over the next 25 years. Wilkins said the Auto G-CAS program could virtually eliminate “controlled flight into terrain” as a mishap category.

As long as humans are flying, CFIT will always be a problem with not just military planes but commercial and private as well. This article says the technology is 98% effective(therefore the title of my post), that would eliminate all but one or two of the predicted incidents with fighters over the next twenty-five years.

If the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System is as effective as stated, one would hope to see its use in commercial planes one day. CFIT occurred in major airline crashes both in Colombia, and Guam during the 1990's.

Note- Two days ago(August 6th) was the 10th anniversary of the Korea Air 801 disaster. Part of the setting for one of my web fiction stories was that flight and its crash into Nimitz hill, three miles short of the runway on Guam.

Hat tip- James Joyner at OTB
Linked to- Big Dog, Bullwinkle, Yankee Sailor,