The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) designed this controlled-flight-into-terrain (CFIT) risk-assessment safety tool as part of its international program to reduce CFIT accidents, which present the greatest risks to aircraft, crews, and passengers. The checklist is designed to evaluate specific flight operations and enhance pilot awareness of CFIT risk. It is divided into three parts, with numerical values assigned to a variety of factors that pilots and operators use to score their own situation and calculate numerical totals.
Part I, CFIT Risk Assessment, calculates the risk level for each flight, sector, or leg. Section 1 assigns negative values to destination risk factors such as limited ATC radar coverage, mountainous terrain, nonprecision approaches, poor runway lighting, language skill deficiencies, and unpublished departure procedures, with the most severe factors (such as no radar coverage, NDB or visual black-hole approaches) valued at minus 30 points. Section 2 applies multipliers based on type of operation, geographic region, weather and night conditions, and crew factors, with values ranging from 1.0 to as high as 8.0 for Africa. The destination risk factors total is multiplied by the multiplier total to produce the negative CFIT Risk Factors Total.
Part II measures positive risk-reduction factors in four sections: Company Culture, Flight Standards, Hazard Awareness and Training, and Aircraft Equipment. Each section is scored against benchmarks, with ratings such as “tops in company culture” or “high CFIT risk” for lower scores. Aircraft equipment factors include radio altimeters, GPWS generations, terrain displays, and automated callouts, with penalties for vertical-speed-mode autoflight without GPWS.
In Part III, the positive Part II total is combined with the negative Part I total to produce the CFIT Risk Score. A negative score indicates a significant threat, prompting a review of Part II sections to identify changes and improvements that can reduce CFIT risk.
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