Aviation Commons^™

Emerging Tools For Evaluating Safety Management Systems Effectiveness, T. Brady, A. Stolzer

Publications

Safety Management Systems (SMS) have become prevalent in a host of industries, including aviation, for managing safety, but little research has been performed to-date on measuring the effectiveness of SMS. This research examined the independent application of two related concepts to assess effective- ness: IO/SMS, an Input-Output economics concept applied to SMS, and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Input-Output (IO) is a method for systematically determining the inter-relationships among ele- ments in a system. To determine if IO could be applied to SMS, it was necessary to calculate the relative importance to the system of the four components of SMS. Five …

What Are The Predictors Of System-Wide Trust Loss In Transportation Automation?, Stephen Rice, Scott R. Winter, John E. Deaton, Ismael Cremer

Publications

Prior research has examined how individuals place trust in single (e.g., Meyer, 2001, 2004) and multiple (e.g., Geels-Blair, Rice, & Schwark, 2013) automated devices when one fails. This has shown that participants are influenced by system-wide trust (SWT). What has been missing is an investigation into what types of people succumb to SWT effects. The current study attempts to replicate SWT findings and identify possible predictors of individuals likely to be influenced by SWT. The findings did demonstrate a replication of SWT. The study found that ‘‘feelings of negativity when automated devices fail’’ was a significant predictor of SWT theory.

Wide-Scale Small Unmanned Aircraft System Access To The National Airspace System, John Robbins, Brent Terwilliger, David Ison, Dennis Vincenzi

Publications

Expected revisions of federal policies and regulations for the operation and certification of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) are anticipated to significantly increase the volume of traffic in the National Airspace System (NAS). By investigating critical needs of regulatory compliance and safety, as well as new advancements, it may be possible to identify strategies to address the most pressing concerns of sUAS integration. Findings and recommendations from this research are presented to highlight implications and possible solutions to urgent needs of UAS stakehold-ers, including industry, government, and academia.

Improving The Integration Of Launch And Reentry Operations Into The National Airspace System, Gwendolyn Mazzotta, Daniel P. Murray

Space Traffic Management Conference

With increasing commercial space activities occurring in the National Airspace System, the FAA has identified a need for more efficient management of the NAS with respect to commercial space operations. Current methods for integration of aviation and space activities employ a segregation approach, in which hazard areas are constructed around launch and reentry operations and sections of airspace are closed to other users. Mission objectives and vehicle characteristics dictate the extent of the closure in terms of location, duration, and volume of airspace affected. Launches, reentries, and other operations have an effect on other NAS stakeholders, causing delays, changes to …

Safe Operations Above Fl600, Lt. Col. Stephen Hunter

Space Traffic Management Conference

Safe Operations Above FL600

Abstract

With the increase in likelihood of near-term development of revenue-generating point-to-point suborbital flights and the increase in high-altitude-long-endurance commercial operations above FL600, the criticality of addressing operations above class A airspace has never been more pressing. While the Federal Aviation Administration describes the National Airspace System, it doesn’t offer a description that includes a top. Technological, physiological, physical and administrative limitations have relegated most air operations to FL600 and below. As that changes, previous work on Space Traffic Management (STM) concepts begin to take on new life and add to sincere considerations for adaptation or …

Evaluating Launch Vehicle / Reentry Vehicle (Lv/Rv) Separation Concepts, Zheng Tao, Ganghuai Wang, Tudor Masek, Thomas J. St. Clair

Space Traffic Management Conference

Launch Vehicle/Reentry Vehicle (LV/RV) operations are expected to increase across the National Airspace System (NAS) as their reliability and availability improve. LV/RV designs and the industry landscape have vastly changed since the 1960’s, and the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) methods for handling these operations need to evolve to support the expected growth. Currently, large amounts of airspace are segregated for every LV/RV operation. This increases costs for NAS users and may limit LV/RV opportunities. The FAA’s NextGen office recently proposed two more efficient separation concepts for LV/RV operations called Space Transition Corridors, and Four-Dimensional Trajectory Deconfliction. Prior safety research for …

Identifying Secondary Crashes By Using Geographic Information System (Gis) And Determining The Secondary Crashes Characteristics, Yuan Tian

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As the nation’s transportation infrastructure expands, traffic incidents led to more than 25% of traffic congestion in the United States (FHWA, 2014). The risk of the occurrence of secondary crashes can be six times higher in the presence of a primary crash than that at a normal traffic condition (Yang et al., 2013 and Tedesco, 1994). The purpose of this study is 1) to develop a method to identify the secondary crashes with the primary incidents in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) under different spatial-temporal criteria, and 2) to determine the impacts of spatial-temporal criteria on the secondary crash characteristics in …

How Trust In Commercial Airline Pilots Is Affected By Their Perceived Sociability: A Mediation Analysis, Stephen Rice, Scott R. Winter, Russell Tokarski

Publications

Sociability relates to one’s preference to interact with others or remain alone. The current study sought to determine how a pilot’s perceived sociability would relate to consumers’ trust ratings in their pilot using participants from India and the United States. Consumers were presented with one of two scenarios. In the control condition, the pilot was described as sociable, while in the other, the pilot was presented as unsociable. Participants were then asked to rate their trust in the pilot based off of these cues. In general, participants indicated that the pilot who was perceived as unsociable was less trusting compared …

Amelia Earhart - A Study In Courage, Daring And Foolhardiness, Gene Tissot

ERAU Prescott Aviation History Program

Amelia Earhart, disappeared while almost completing an around-the-world flight. This was just one of her many daring adventures. Hear the story of her relatively short, but dynamic aviation career from Gene Tissot, whose father was Amelia’s mechanic during her Hawaii to California flight in 1935. Admiral Tissot knows the pacific well as a decorated combat pilot in Korea & Vietnam. He became the third naval aviator to achieve 1000 arrested carrier landings, without an accident over 20 years, flying 11 different aircraft types.

Causes And Trends In Maintenance-Related Accidents In Faa-Certified Single Engine Piston Aircraft, Douglas Boyd, Alan Stolzer

Publications

The accident rate for general aviation remains high. While most general aviation accident studies have been pilot-focused, there is little research on the involvement of aircraft maintenance errors. We undertook a study to answer this question.

The Microsoft Access database was queried for accidents occurring between 1989 and 2013 involving single engine piston airplanes operating under 14CFR Part 91. Pearson Chi-Square, Fisher’s Exact Test, and Poisson probability were used in statistical analyses.

The rate of maintenance-related general aviation accidents was 4.3 per million flight hours for the 1989–1993 period and remained unchanged for the most recent period (2009–2013). Maintenance errors …

Aviation Bird Hazard In Nexrad Dual Polarization Weather Radar Confirmed By Visual Observations, Bradley M. Muller, Frederick R. Mosher, Christopher G. Herbster, Anthony T. Brickhouse

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Birds represent a significant hazard to flying aircraft as illustrated by the “Miracle on the Hudson” encounter in 2009 between U.S. Airways Flight 1549 and a flock of Canada Geese, forcing the flight to ditch in the river. Birds are common in the skies over Florida during the spring migration season, and often appear in the National Weather Service’s (NWS) NEXRAD weather radar imagery as an easily recognizable signature known as a “roost ring.” This paper presents a NEXRAD roost ring case in central Florida in a rare instance where the signatures were confirmed by visual observations of the birds. …

Global Optimized Isothermal And Nonlinear Models Of Earth’S Standard Atmosphere, Nihad E. Daidzic, Ph.D.,

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Both, a global isothermal temperature model and a nonlinear quadratic temperature model of the ISA was developed and presented here. Constrained optimization techniques in conjunction with the least-square-root approximations were used to design best-fit isothermal models for ISA pressure and density changes up to 47 geopotential km for NLPAM, and 86 orthometric km for ISOAM respectively. The mass of the dry atmosphere and the relevant fractional-mass scale heights have been computed utilizing the very accurate eight-point Gauss-Legendre numerical quadrature for both ISOAM and NLPAM. Both, the ISOAM and the NLPAM represent viable alternatives to ISA in many practical applications and …

Examining How Breakdowns In Pilot Monitoring Of The Aircraft Flight Path, Robert Sumwalt, David Cross, Dennis Lessard

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Aircraft accident and incident data reveal that serious safety consequences can arise when flight crewmembers fail to properly monitor the aircraft flight path. This research study reviewed human factors literature to better understand why pilots fail to properly monitor, and analyzed accident and incident data. Recommendations for improving monitoring performance were formulated, which may be useful to air carriers in implementing a new Federal Aviation Administration requirement that calls for specific training in monitoring.

How Do Depression Medications Taken By Pilots Affect Passengers' Willingness To Fly? A Mediation Analysis, Stephen Rice, Scott R. Winter, Keegan Kraemer, Rian Mehta, Korhan Oyman

Publications

The mental health of airline pilots has been a concern for decades. In 2010, the United States Federal Aviation Administration began allowing four types of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to be used by pilots suffering from depression. After a procedural wait period, pilots may be awarded a special issuance of their medical certificates to maintain flight currency. Missing from the literature was any research on consumer’s perceptions of pilots taking antidepressants, along with some other approved medications. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine consumer’s willingness to fly once told that the pilot of their hypothetical …

Bio-Fuel Alternatives In South African Airways (Saa) Operations - Is It An Effective Response To Vulnerability Over Carbon Taxes And Penalty?, Daniel Kwasi Adjekum

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The paper did a comparative analysis of the carbon emission and European Union Emission Trading Surcharges (EU ETS) of South African Airways (SAA) current fleet that used aviation jet A1 fuel and the same fleet if it had used a 25% bio-fuel ‘drop in’ for the European routes within the first quarter of the 2014 flying year (FY 14). Operational data in terms of the flight scheduled, aircraft type, total time enroute, route stage length, passenger estimates were obtained through SAA’s flight operations website. An independent t–test was conducted to compare means of the emissions. The mean carbon dioxide …

Should Charity Air Medical Organizations Require Commercial Certification Of Their Pilots?, Douglas Boyd, Charles Peters

Publications

Fixed-wing medical transportation crashes operating under 14CFRPart 91 show higher fatal outcomes than non-medical Part 91 flights. Advanced certification may translate into increased safety; yet we know of no charity aeromedical transportation requiring such certification. Herein, in a retrospective study, we determined (a) whether commercial certification is associated with a reduced fatality rate compared with the less stringent private pilot certificate and (b) accident causes.

Influencing Factors For Use Of Unmanned Aerial Systems In Support Of Aviation Accident And Emergency Response, Brent Terwilliger, Dennis Vincenzi, David Ison, Kenneth Witcher, David Thirtyacre, Adeel Khalid

Applied Aerospace Science

"The purpose of this research paper was to examine the influencing factors associated with the use of unmanned aerial system (UAS) technology to support aviation accident and emergency response. The ability of first responders to react to an emergency is dependent on the quality, accuracy, timeliness, and usability of information. With aviation accidents such as the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash at San Francisco International Airport, the ability to sense and communicate the location of victims may reduce the potential for accidental passenger death. Furthermore, the ability to obtain information en-route to an accident may also to assist to reduce …

Tracking Criminals On Facebook: A Case Study From A Digital Forensics Reu Program, Daniel Weiss, Gary Warner

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The 2014 Digital Forensics Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) focused its summer efforts on tracking criminal forums and Facebook groups. The UAB-REU Facebook team was provided with a list of about 60 known criminal groups on Facebook, with a goal to track illegal information posted in these groups and ultimately store the information in a searchable database for use by digital forensic analysts. Over the course of about eight weeks, the UAB-REU Facebook team created a database with over 400 Facebook groups conducting criminal activity along with over 100,000 unique users …

Towards A Digital Forensics Competency-Based Program: Making Assessment Count, Rose Shumba

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper describes an approach that UMUC has initiated to revise its graduate programs to a Competency-Based Education (CBE) curriculum. The approach, which is Learning Demonstration (LD) centric, includes the identification of learning goals and competences, identification and description of the LDs, mapping of the LDs to the competences, scripting the LDs, placing the LDs into the respective courses, validating the developed materials, and the development of the open learning resources. Programs in the Cybersecurity and Information Assurance Department, including the Digital Forensics and Cyber Investigations program, are being revised. An LD centric approach to curriculum development helps align programs …

Phishing Intelligence Using The Simple Set Comparison Tool, Jason Britt, Alan Sprague, Gary Warner

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Phishing websites, phish, attempt to deceive users into exposing their passwords, user IDs, and other sensitive information by imitating legitimate websites, such as banks, product vendors, and service providers. Phishing investigators need fast automated tools to analyze the volume of phishing attacks seen today. In this paper, we present the Simple Set Comparison tool. The Simple Set Comparison tool is a fast automated tool that groups phish by imitated brand allowing phishing investigators to quickly identify and focus on phish targeting a particular brand. The Simple Set Comparison tool is evaluated against a traditional clustering algorithm over a month's worth …

Identifying Common Characteristics Of Malicious Insiders, Nan Liang, David Biros

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Malicious insiders account for large proportion of security breaches or other kinds of loss for organizations and have drawn attention of both academics and practitioners. Although methods and mechanism have been developed to monitor potential insider via electronic data monitoring, few studies focus on predicting potential malicious insiders. Based on the theory of planned behavior, certain cues should be observed or expressed when an individual performs as a malicious insider. Using text mining to analyze various media content of existing insider cases, we strive to develop a method to identify crucial and common indicators that an individual might be a …

Continuous Monitoring System Based On Systems' Environment, Eli Weintraub, Yuval Cohen

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

We present a new framework (and its mechanisms) of a Continuous Monitoring System (CMS) having new improved capabilities, and discuss its requirements and implications. The CMS is based on the real-time actual configuration of the system and the environment rather than a theoretic or assumed configuration. Moreover, the CMS predicts organizational damages taking into account chains of impacts among systems' components generated by messaging among software components. In addition, the CMS takes into account all organizational effects of an attack. Its risk measurement takes into account the consequences of a threat, as defines in risk analysis standards. Loss prediction is …

Html5 Zero Configuration Covert Channels: Security Risks And Challenges, Jason Farina, Mark Scanlon, Stephen Kohlmann, Nhien-An Le-Khac, Tahar Kechadi

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In recent months there has been an increase in the popularity and public awareness of secure, cloudless file transfer systems. The aim of these services is to facilitate the secure transfer of files in a peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion over the Internet without the need for centralized authentication or storage. These services can take the form of client installed applications or entirely web browser based interfaces. Due to the P2P nature, there is generally no limit to the file sizes involved or to the volume of data transmitted - and where these limitations do exist they will be purely reliant on …

Measuring Hacking Ability Using A Conceptual Expertise Task, Justin S. Giboney, Jeffrey G. Proudfoot, Sanjay Goel, Joseph S. Valacich

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Hackers pose a continuous and unrelenting threat to organizations. Industry and academic researchers alike can benefit from a greater understanding of how hackers engage in criminal behavior. A limiting factor of hacker research is the inability to verify that self-proclaimed hackers participating in research actually possess their purported knowledge and skills. This paper presents current work in developing and validating a conceptual-expertise based tool that can be used to discriminate between novice and expert hackers. The implications of this work are promising since behavioral information systems researchers operating in the information security space will directly benefit from the validation of …

Invited Paper - A Profile Of Prolonged, Persistent Ssh Attack On A Kippo Based Honeynet, Craig Valli, Priya Rabadia, Andrew Woodard

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper is an investigation focusing on activities detected by SSH honeypots that utilised kippo honeypot software. The honeypots were located across a variety of geographical locations and operational platforms. The honeynet has suffered prolonged, persistent and attack from a /24 network which appears to be of Chinese geographical origin. In addition to these attacks, other attackers have been successful in compromising real hosts in a wide range of other countries that were subsequently involved in attacking the honeypot machines in the honeynet.

Keywords: Cyber Security, SSH, Secure Shell, Honeypots, Kippo

Inivited Paper - Potential Changes To Ediscovery Rules In Federal Court: A Discussion Of The Process, Substantive Changes And Their Applicability And Impact On Virginia Practice, Joseph J. Schwerha, Susan L. Mitchell, John W. Bagby

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) are subject to a unique process also once used in revising the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE). Today, this process is followed in revisions of the FRCP, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Federal Bankruptcy Rules. This unique rulemaking process differs significantly from traditional notice and comment rulemaking required for a majority of federal regulatory agencies under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).1 Most notably, rule-making for the federal courts’ procedural matters remain unaffected by the invalidation of legislative veto. It is still widely, but wrongly believed, that the legislative veto was …

On The Network Performance Of Digital Evidence Acquisition Of Small Scale Devices Over Public Networks, Irvin Homem, Spyridon Dosis

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

While cybercrime proliferates – becoming more complex and surreptitious on the Internet – the tools and techniques used in performing digital investigations are still largely lagging behind, effectively slowing down law enforcement agencies at large. Real-time remote acquisition of digital evidence over the Internet is still an elusive ideal in the combat against cybercrime. In this paper we briefly describe the architecture of a comprehensive proactive digital investigation system that is termed as the Live Evidence Information Aggregator (LEIA). This system aims at collecting digital evidence from potentially any device in real time over the Internet. Particular focus is made …

A Review Of Recent Case Law Related To Digital Forensics: The Current Issues, Kelly A. Cole, Shruti Gupta, Dheeraj Gurugubelli, Marcus K. Rogers

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital forensics is a new field without established models of investigation. This study uses thematic analysis to explore the different issues seen in the prosecution of digital forensic investigations. The study looks at 100 cases from different federal appellate courts to analyze the cause of the appeal. The issues are categorized into one of four categories, ‘search and seizure’, ‘data analysis’, ‘presentation’ and ‘legal issues’. The majority of the cases reviewed related to the search and seizure activity.

Keywords: Computer Investigation, Case Law, Digital Forensics, Legal Issues, and Courts

A New Cyber Forensic Philosophy For Digital Watermarks In The Context Of Copyright Laws, Vinod P. Bhattathiripad, Sneha Sudhakaran, Roshna K. Thalayaniyil

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The objective of this paper is to propose a new cyber forensic philosophy for watermark in the context of copyright laws for the benefit of the forensic community and the judiciary worldwide. The paper first briefly introduces various types of watermarks, and then situates watermarks in the context of the ideaexpression dichotomy and the copyright laws. It then explains the forensic importance of watermarks and proposes a forensic philosophy for them in the context of copyright laws. Finally, the paper stresses the vital need to incorporate watermarks in the forensic tests to establish software copyright infringement and also urges the …

A Survey Of Software-Based String Matching Algorithms For Forensic Analysis, Yi-Ching Liao

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Employing a fast string matching algorithm is essential for minimizing the overhead of extracting structured files from a raw disk image. In this paper, we summarize the concept, implementation, and main features of ten software-based string matching algorithms, and evaluate their applicability for forensic analysis. We provide comparisons between the selected software-based string matching algorithms from the perspective of forensic analysis by conducting their performance evaluation for file carving. According to the experimental results, the Shift-Or algorithm (R. Baeza-Yates & Gonnet, 1992) and the Karp-Rabin algorithm (Karp & Rabin, 1987) have the minimized search time for identifying the locations of …