How past loss of control accidents may inform safety cases for Advanced Control Systems on commercial aircraft

This paper describes five loss of control accidents involving The remainder of this paper follows a simple structure. In commercial aircraft, and derives from those accidents three section 2, we describe the five accidents. In section 3, we principles to consider when developing a potential safety case posit that these five accidents suggest three principles that for an advanced flight control system for commercial aircraft. should be considered in developing a safety case for any One, among the foundational evidence needed to support a advanced flight control system. We give brief concluding safety case is the availability to the control system of accurate remarks and suggestions for future work in section 4. and timely information about the status and health of relevant systems and components. Two, an essential argument to be 2 The Accidents sustained in the safety case is that pilots are provided with adequate information about the control system to enable them In this section, we describe each of the following accidents: to understand the capabilities that it provides. Three, another (1) The in-flight loss of hydraulics and subsequent crash on essential argument is that the advanced control system will landing of United Flight 232 on July 19, 1989; (2) The not perform less safely than a good pilot