The impact of Smart Icing Systems on commuter aircraft

Abstract

As part of a study of Smart Icing Systems (SIS) by the Aircraft Icing Research Center at the University of Illinois, a systems strudy has been performed to evaluate the effects of SIS on the safety of the U.S. regional air transportation system. U.S. commercial aircraft icing accident data, for the period from 1983 through 1996, were collected and studied in terms of fatalities per year and accident frequency by engine type, flight phase, and principal cause. These data show that over this 14-year period, fatalities in icing accidents have occurred at an average rate of about 12 per year. They also show that reciprocating engine powered aircraft account for about 60% of the accidents, 60% occur in either the cruise or approach flight phases, and 85% can be attributed to either the flight crew or the weather. In a second phase of the study, a proposed SIS configuration was applied to the detailed time history of the 1994 American Eagle ATR-72 accident to evaluate the potential of SIS in preventing icing accidents. This showed that an autonomous SIS could have sensed the developing icing problem and intervened to assist the flight crew in avoiding this accident.