Analyze that! The MFOQA process

Flying Safety, July, 2003 by Lt Col Kay Armstrong

Welcome back! In the May issue of Flying Safety, I talked about the Military Flight Operations Quality Assurance (MFOQA) program, which is designed to make flying safer by constantly reviewing flight data recorder information. Now I want to tell you a bit about how the MFOQA analysis program works.

This won't be an in-depth discussion on computers and recorders and software, so if you're not really a technical person, relax. This program is just a simple flow of data bits. It goes something like this...

Over the years, the great minds that produce and maintain our flying machines realized we can collect data from the aircraft and put it to good use. For example, by collecting information on the stresses a fighter experiences, designers can create new airframes able to sustain even greater stresses.

Maintenance found that by tracking the performance and breakage rates of certain parts, they could predict failures and take precautionary actions. The civilian airlines found they could review the flight data, trend inflight events (i.e., over-rotation on takeoff), apply corrective action (i.e., training), and reduce the number of mishaps with the event as a cause.

Recently, the Air Force incorporated this concept of data collection in the Aircraft Information Program (AIP) (reference AFPD 63-14). The AIP directs us to take an information-centric look at all the data generated by the aircraft, and to use that data for design, system/subsystem integrity programs, maintenance and mishap prevention and investigation.

Many of our USAF aircraft currently have flight data recorders collecting information on the status of the airplane and what it's doing during all phases of flight. The recorder is partitioned to perform. many functions.

The crash-survivable recorder should do just that, survive, so investigators can review the data and piece together the sequence of events leading up to a mishap. Other divisions within the recorder track airframe, stresses, engine performance. and certain other parameters; this data is used to support the Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP), the Engine Structural Integrity Program (ENSIP), and Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM). MFOQA, as another element of the AIP, reviews flight data to detect deviations from standard procedures and parameters.

The MFOQA analysis process works like this: Flight data recorders are downloaded from the aircraft on a regular basis. This data is then distributed to various users--structures data to the ASP program, engine data to the ENSIP program and crash data to the MFOQA program.

The MFOQA analyst processes the data through a secure, high-speed computer software program. First, the data is de-identified, to deter associating a particular crew with a particular flight. The flight data is then compared to an aircraft "event set." This event set is built on the knowledge and experience of subject matter experts--a.k.a. pilots--and is a collection of rules for analyzing the data. The events are based on standard procedures and parameters.

The analyst reviews the results from each batch of data, weeding out events triggered by bad data. Then the output is displayed in graphic format, which can be filtered in a variety of ways--by severity, month, location, etc. This gives an accurate picture of what is happening where. Long-term trending of specific events gives insight to flying program strengths and weaknesses. The analyst also spends time determining the common factors in specific events; squadron and MAJCOM instructors use this information for training and safety program decisions.

Though various vendors are capable of supplying the analysis software, they all offer the same results. These programs give the analyst the ability to identify and track events that are of special interest to the flying unit. They offer tools to uncover the root causes of specific events. The software also allows the analyst to animate the event. We all know a picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes that picture helps the analyst determine just what happened. Also, it gives the capability to animate specific sequences; for example, squadron instructors might like an animation of a particularly tricky approach to use in pre-flight briefings.

So now you know how the MFOQA process works. That wasn't too bad, was it?