IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reensy/v113y2013icp131-142.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Software contributions to aircraft adverse events: Case studies and analyses of recurrent accident patterns and failure mechanisms

Author

Listed:
  • Favarò, Francesca M.
  • Jackson, David W.
  • Saleh, Joseph H.
  • Mavris, Dimitri N.

Abstract

Software is central to aircraft flight operation, and by the same token it is playing an increasing role in aircraft incidents and accidents. Software related errors have distinctive failure mechanisms, and their contributions to aircraft accident sequences are not properly understood or captured by traditional risk analysis techniques. To better understand these mechanisms, we analyze in this work five recent aircraft accidents and incidents involving software. For each case, we identify the role of software and analyze its contributions to the sequence of events leading to the accident. We adopt a visualization tool based on the Sequential Timed Event Plotting (STEP) methodology to highlight the software's interaction with sensors and other aircraft subsystems, and its contributions to the incident/accident. The case studies enable an in-depth analysis of recurrent failure mechanisms and provide insight into the causal chain and patterns through which software contributes to adverse events. For example, the case studies illustrate how software related failures can be context- or situation-dependent, situations that may have been overlooked during software verification and validation or testing. The case studies also identify the critical role of flawed sensor inputs as a key determinant or trigger of “dormant†software defects. In some cases, we find that software features put in place to address certain risks under nominal operating conditions are the ones that lead or contribute to accidents under off-nominal or unconsidered conditions. The case studies also demonstrate that the software may be complying with its requirements but still place the aircraft in a hazardous state or contribute to an adverse event. This result challenges the traditional notion, articulated in most standards, of software failure as non-compliance with requirements, and it invites a careful re-thinking of this and related concepts. We provide a careful review of these terms (software error, fault, failure), propose a synthesis of recurrent patterns of software contributions to adverse events and their triggering mechanisms, and conclude with some preliminary recommendations for tackling them.

Suggested Citation

  • Favarò, Francesca M. & Jackson, David W. & Saleh, Joseph H. & Mavris, Dimitri N., 2013. "Software contributions to aircraft adverse events: Case studies and analyses of recurrent accident patterns and failure mechanisms," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 131-142.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:113:y:2013:i:c:p:131-142
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2012.12.018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832013000070
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ress.2012.12.018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saleh, J.H. & Marais, K.B. & Bakolas, E. & Cowlagi, R.V., 2010. "Highlights from the literature on accident causation and system safety: Review of major ideas, recent contributions, and challenges," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1105-1116.
    2. Herrera, I.A. & Woltjer, R., 2010. "Comparing a multi-linear (STEP) and systemic (FRAM) method for accident analysis," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 95(12), pages 1269-1275.
    3. Saleh, Joseph H. & Pendley, Cynthia C., 2012. "From learning from accidents to teaching about accident causation and prevention: Multidisciplinary education and safety literacy for all engineering students," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 105-113.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Favarò, Francesca M. & Saleh, Joseph H., 2016. "Toward risk assessment 2.0: Safety supervisory control and model-based hazard monitoring for risk-informed safety interventions," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 316-330.
    2. Foreman, Veronica L. & Favaró, Francesca M. & Saleh, Joseph H. & Johnson, Christopher W., 2015. "Software in military aviation and drone mishaps: Analysis and recommendations for the investigation process," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 101-111.
    3. Favarò, Francesca M. & Saleh, Joseph H., 2018. "Application of temporal logic for safety supervisory control and model-based hazard monitoring," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 166-178.
    4. D'Anniballe, A. & Silva, J. & Marzocca, P. & Ceruti, A., 2020. "The role of augmented reality in air accident investigation and practitioner training," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    5. Mohammadnazar, Hojat & Pulkkinen, Mirja & Ghanbari, Hadi, 2019. "A root cause analysis method for preventing erratic behavior in software development: PEBA," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wu, Chao & Huang, Lang, 2019. "A new accident causation model based on information flow and its application in Tianjin Port fire and explosion accident," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 73-85.
    2. Foreman, Veronica L. & Favaró, Francesca M. & Saleh, Joseph H. & Johnson, Christopher W., 2015. "Software in military aviation and drone mishaps: Analysis and recommendations for the investigation process," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 101-111.
    3. Maria Iglesias-Mendoza & Akilu Yunusa-Kaltungo & Sara Hadleigh-Dunn & Ashraf Labib, 2021. "Learning How to Learn from Disasters through a Comparative Dichotomy Analysis: Grenfell Tower and Hurricane Katrina Case Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Patriarca, Riccardo & Bergström, Johan & Di Gravio, Giulio, 2017. "Defining the functional resonance analysis space: Combining Abstraction Hierarchy and FRAM," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 34-46.
    5. Zhou, Di & Zhuang, Xiao & Zuo, Hongfu & Cai, Jing & Zhao, Xufeng & Xiang, Jiawei, 2022. "A model fusion strategy for identifying aircraft risk using CNN and Att-BiLSTM," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    6. J. S. Busby & A. M. Collins, 2014. "Organizational Sensemaking About Risk Controls: The Case of Offshore Hydrocarbons Production," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(9), pages 1738-1752, September.
    7. Steen, Riana & Ferreira, Pedro, 2020. "Resilient flood-risk management at the municipal level through the lens of the Functional Resonance Analysis Model," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    8. Favarò, Francesca M. & Saleh, Joseph H., 2016. "Toward risk assessment 2.0: Safety supervisory control and model-based hazard monitoring for risk-informed safety interventions," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 316-330.
    9. Park, Jinkyun & Jung, Wondea, 2015. "A systematic framework to investigate the coverage of abnormal operating procedures in nuclear power plants," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 21-30.
    10. Tsagkas, Vassilis & Nathanael, Dimitris & Marmaras, Nicolas, 2014. "A pragmatic mapping of factors behind deviating acts in aircraft maintenance," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 106-114.
    11. Ferjencik, Milos, 2014. "IPICA_Lite—Improvements to root cause analysis," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 1-13.
    12. Kim, Yoo Chan & Yoon, Wan Chul, 2021. "Quantitative representation of the functional resonance analysis method for risk assessment," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    13. Saleh, Joseph H. & Pendley, Cynthia C., 2012. "From learning from accidents to teaching about accident causation and prevention: Multidisciplinary education and safety literacy for all engineering students," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 105-113.
    14. Misuri, Alessio & Landucci, Gabriele & Cozzani, Valerio, 2021. "Assessment of safety barrier performance in the mitigation of domino scenarios caused by Natech events," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    15. Qiao, Wanguan & Li, Xinchun & Liu, Quanlong, 2019. "Systemic approaches to incident analysis in coal mines: Comparison of the STAMP, FRAM and “2–4” models," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-1.
    16. Praetorius, Gesa & Hollnagel, Erik & Dahlman, Joakim, 2015. "Modelling Vessel Traffic Service to understand resilience in everyday operations," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 10-21.
    17. Li, Weijun & He, Min & Sun, Yibo & Cao, Qinggui, 2019. "A proactive operational risk identification and analysis framework based on the integration of ACAT and FRAM," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 101-109.
    18. Peng Wang & Peng Wu & Jun Wang & Hung-Lin Chi & Xiangyu Wang, 2018. "A Critical Review of the Use of Virtual Reality in Construction Engineering Education and Training," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, June.
    19. Churchwell, Jared S. & Zhang, Katherine S. & Saleh, Joseph H., 2018. "Epidemiology of helicopter accidents: Trends, rates, and covariates," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 373-384.
    20. Konstandinidou, Myrto & Nivolianitou, Zoe & Kefalogianni, Eirini & Caroni, Chrys, 2011. "In-depth analysis of the causal factors of incidents reported in the Greek petrochemical industry," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1448-1455.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:113:y:2013:i:c:p:131-142. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/reliability-engineering-and-system-safety .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.