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Federal Aviation 

Administration 

Presented At: REDAC SAS 

Presented By: Kathy Abbott, Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor, 

Flight Deck Human Factors, FAA 

Date: February 23, 2021 

FAA Human Factors and 

Systems Safety Activities 

Related to the Aircraft 

Certification, Safety, and 

Accountability (ACSA) 

Act 
 

Federal Aviation 

Administration 

Boeing 737 MAX Recommendations and the Aircraft Certification Bill 

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Introduction 

• Several common themes 

–Approach certification holistically 

–Integrate human factors considerations more effectively 

–Improve the agency’s oversight process 

–Focus on the workforce of the future 

–Continue to improve and refine our certification process 

• Existing strategic safety initiatives are sound, but we have 

opportunities to improve 

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Boeing 737 MAX Recommendation Status 

• The FAA is fully committed to addressing all of the recommendations received from 

expert reviews related to the Boeing 737 MAX and Aircraft Certification processes. 

• The FAA laid out a path forward in its Response to the Official Report of the Special 

Committee on the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft Certification Process.* 

The plan documented the agency’s efforts in ten focus areas: 

‒ Safety Management Systems ‒ Personnel 

‒ System Safety (& Human Factors) ‒ Delegation 

‒ Globalization ‒ Amended Type Certificates 

‒ Data ‒ Innovation 

‒ Coordination Between the FAA’s Aircraft ‒ Existing Recommendations 

Certification Service & Flight Standards 

Service Functions 

• All 737 MAX recommendations will be implemented in conjunction with provisions laid 

out in the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act. 

*The FAA’s Special Committee response can be found at https://www.faa.gov/foia/electronic_reading_room/boeing_reading_room/media/FAAActionPlanResponseToSpecialCommitteeReport.pdf 

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ACSA Act Provisions related to Human Factors (HF) 

Section Title Requirements Summary 

Prohibition on Issuing Prohibits issuing a new or amended TC unless the applicant has 

New TCs/ATCs without demonstrated to the Administrator that the applicant has accounted for 119(b) addressing Pilot Response realistic assumptions regarding the time for pilot responses to non-normal 

Time conditions in designing the systems and instrumentation of such airplane 

Develop a HF education program that addresses the effects of modern 

flight deck systems on human performance for transport airplanes and the 124(a) HF Education Program approaches for better integration of human factors in airplane design and 

certification. 

Transport Airplane Requires each "transport airplane" manufacturer to provide the 

124(b) Manufacturers Consider Administrator with information or findings necessary for flight crew to be 

HF trained on flight deck systems 

Requires FAA, in consultation with manufacturers, operators, and pilots, 

126 Human Factors Research and in coordination with NASA, to develop research requirements to 

address integration of HF into design and certification of aircraft 

Center for Excellence: Develop or expand a Center of Excellence focused on automated systems 127 Automated Sys. & HF and human factors in transport category aircraft 

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ACSA Act Provisions related to HF-Sec 119(b) 

Beginning the day after regulations required under this Act are issued, the 

Administrator is prohibited from issuing a new or amended type certificate for an 

airplane unless the applicant for such certificate has demonstrated to the 

Administrator that the applicant has accounted for realistic assumptions regarding 

the time for pilot responses to non-normal conditions in designing the systems and 

instrumentation of such airplane. 

Starting a project to do a literature review on pilot response time to alerts. 

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Research Requirements Responsive to ACSA Act -

Sec 126 (and 124(b)) 

Improved Transport Operational Safety through Pilot Training, Qualification, 

Procedures and Flight Operations (A11G.HF.11) 

Objective: Potential training and procedural mitigations for incorrect pilot 

response & response time 

Advances and Innovation in Equipment, Technology, Systems, and 

Operations (A11G.HF.2) 

Objective: Human factors aspects of pilot interactions with new flight deck 

technologies 

Improved Integration of Human Factors into Aviation Safety Regulatory Policy 

and Processes for Aircraft Certification and Flight Standards (A11G.HF.15) 

Objective: Provide human factors data to support human factors regulatory and 

guidance materials used by aircraft certification and flight standards personnel 

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ACSA Act Provisions related to HF-Sec 127 

Develop or expand a Center of Excellence focused 

on automated systems and human factors in 

transport category aircraft 

Current plan is to use the existing CoE on Technical Training and Human 

Performance 

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ACSA Act Sec. 136. INDEPENDENT STUDY ON TYPE 

CERTIFICATION REFORM. 

Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this 

title, the Administrator shall enter into an agreement with an 

appropriate Federally-funded research and development 

center to review, develop, and submit a report to the 

Administrator in accordance with the requirements and 

elements set forth in this section. 

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Related Recommendations - HF 

• Department of Transportation Special Committee 

– Rec 2 System Safety: Includes Human Factors 

• Joint Authorities Technical Review 

– Rec 2.2: Update AC 25.1302-1 

– Rec 2.8: Establish appropriate pilot recognition and reaction times 

– Rec 2.10: Appropriate timing for flight test pilot recovery actions 

– Rec 3.6: Review use of non-standard flight test techniques 

– Rec 3.8: Review use of three seconds for mis-trim conditions 

– Rec 7: Emphasize HF throughout the certification processes 

– Rec 11.2: Consider and mitigate errors by maintenance and ground handling personnel 

• House Transportation Committee Report 

– Concern over assumptions and scope of Systems Safety and HF approach 

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Questions? 

Kathy.Abbott@faa.gov 

202-369-2155 

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