{"id":8473,"date":"2019-12-11T01:00:34","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T06:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=8473"},"modified":"2019-12-11T08:35:09","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T13:35:09","slug":"no-room-for-error-gnes-and-the-north-atlantic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/no-room-for-error-gnes-and-the-north-atlantic\/","title":{"rendered":"No Room for Error – GNE’s and the North Atlantic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Advances in technology mean that aircraft in the North Atlantic High Level Airspace (NAT HLA) are flying laterally, longitudinally, and vertically closer than ever before. But North Atlantic gross navigational errors (GNE’s), which are lateral off-track deviations of 10nm or more, still occur regularly, and jeopardise the safety of you and the traffic around you. So don’t leave it up to Air Traffic Control (ATC) to discover your GNE! In this article, let’s look at some common human slip up\u2019s that lead to GNE’s, and what we can do to prevent them.<\/p>\n[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][heading]Pre-Flight[\/heading][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]Operating to the highest standards of navigational performance demands the tedious and careful monitoring<\/strong> of aircraft systems. Unfortunately, humans are by nature not the best monitors. During the long quiet of an oceanic\u00a0crossing, we can fall victim to cognitive traps<\/strong> such as change blindness, expectation bias, and complacency.<\/p>\n

But the potential for error on Atlantic crossings begins well before the first coast-out waypoint. In fact, it begins before take off. The following four areas are where strategies in mitigating a GNE begin.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]\n

1) Data Entry<\/h3>\n

Via ACARS<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Many pilots now use ACARS to automatically downlink the entire flight plan and winds aloft directly to the FMS.\u00a0But\u00a0<\/span>an over-reliance on automation can lead to complacency, and so the<\/strong> more reliable the system, the more complacent we become<\/strong> as monitors. In one incident, a\u00a0<\/span>Boeing 747 suffered a GNE of 120nm<\/em><\/strong>. The flight plan downlink from ACARS unfortunately contained one bad coordinate that went unnoticed. Once lured into complacency by such reliable technologies, there can be a temptation to omit cross-checking.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this? Always verify the full<\/u><\/strong> coordinates in an ACARS downlinked flight plan. Similarly, if several different flight plans were run, ensure that you request your downlink using the most current and filed flight plan number<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Manually:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A manual entry means a pilot inserts the flight plan’s waypoints directly into the aircraft’s flight management system (FMS). But no matter how meticulously one may be, manual data entry can still produce errors. Then how do we guard ourselves against these errors?<\/p>\n

Firstly,\u00a0avoid using ARINC 424<\/strong> shorthand for programming oceanic points. This has been a factor in many GNE\u2019s, given how easy it is to misplace the letter as a prefix or suffix.\u00a0For instance, consider how simply misplacing the “N” could cause a drastic lateral deviation:<\/p>\n