Page 8 - Forum-2021-JanToMarch

Video-Based Flight Data

Reconstruction

By Dr. Marcus Bauer, Managing Director, iwiation

(Adapted with permission from the author’s technical paper Video-Based Flight Data
Reconstruction of the Amazon Prime Air B-767 Accident, Trinity Bay, U.S.A., 2019, submtted for
ISASI 2020 in Montréal, Qué., Canada. ISASI 2020 was postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19 re- Dr. Marcus Bauer
strictions. The full technical paper can be found on the ISASI website at www.isasi.org in the Library
tab under Technical Presentations.—Editor)

Introduction recalculate a flight path and thus the flight
The sole objective of an investigation into history without flight data recorder (FDR)
an aircraft accident or incident conducted data or radar information. The physiology
under the provisions of Annex 13 shall be and psychology of an eyewitness have
the prevention of accidents and incidents. been evaluated; however, the method can
The purpose of this paper is to encour- also process video information to approxi- “Flight
age an additional investigation means to mate flight data.
the existing procedures, practices, and The methodology has been applied al- data that is
techniques that can be used in aircraft ready and successfully in several investiga-
accident investigations. tions, using video information in examples reconstructed
The investigation of air accidents is such as
based on available data and information • AS350 Mid-Air Accident, La Rioja, based
to determine the root cause. Flight record- Argentina, BEA, 2015,
er data, radar data, and wreckage anal- • EC145 Accident, Hautes-Pyrénées, on video
ysis can provide important information. France, BEA-É, 2016, and
However, in some air accidents, some if • Gazelle Mid-Air Accident, Carcès, information is
not all of these sources of information France, BEA-É, 2018.
may not be available to investigators. In applicable!”
recent years, more and more video footage The iwi method allows to approximate
is available, either from witnesses who flight path as well as aircraft attitude and
recorded the accident with their mobile ground speed. The accuracy of the recon-
phones or videos recorded by security structed data is influenced by multiple
cameras. This information can be used to technical factors.
reconstruct flight data, aircraft attitude, In order to reconstruct the elevation,
descent rate, and ground speed. the following factors must be considered
and computed for the error calculation as
the observed value versus the true value of
Thesis a measurement:
This paper represents the potential and
the implementation of using video infor- Figure 1. Angular deviation in elevation depending on reference object, eyepoint (left), position of
mation to reconstruct the flight history reference object (middle), and observed object location (right).
and the flight path in detail. The consist-
ency of the reconstructed information will
be explained as well as how it has been
validated.

The Methodology
In the frame of my doctoral thesis, the
reconstruction methodology iwi® was
developed in 2009, based on eyewitness
reports in the field of aircraft accident
investigation. The development has been
based on the overview of existing appli-
cations and the existing problematic to
8 • January-March 2021 ISASI Forum