What the profile screens for
A recorded cabin-altitude warning or high cabin-altitude condition occurs during pressurised flight.
Why it matters
Pressurisation loss can produce hypoxia, emergency descent, diversion, and high workload and requires systems context.
Build the event around relationships—not one number.
Define the operating context
Identify the climb / cruise / descent state, aircraft configuration, location, and any required external data before applying logic.
Screen the signal relationship
Use validated combinations of cabin altitude, cabin rate, differential pressure; avoid treating one isolated value as the whole event.
Confirm it is a genuine event
Check polarity, units, source, recording rate, dropouts, air/ground logic, persistence, and false-positive mechanisms.
Connect data to the safety question
Review procedures, reports, weather, airport and traffic context, exposure, recurrence, and the strength of the related barriers.
Recorded signals that may help explain the event.
Questions before conclusions
- Q1
Are cabin altitude, cabin rate, differential pressure valid, correctly decoded, time-aligned, and sampled well enough for this event?
- Q2
What changed immediately before, during, and after the cabin altitude warning indication?
- Q3
How do aircraft configuration, weather, airport geometry, automation state, and crew reports change the interpretation?
- Q4
Which current flight manual, SOP, maintenance, or operator event definition controls the final conclusion?
Safety topics that broaden the event review.
Manual flying proficiency
The knowledge, practice, sensory cues, monitoring, and aircraft-handling skills needed when automation is reduced, inappropriate, or unavailable.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-035 · Aircraft control & automationAutothrottle management
Awareness and control of automatic thrust state, mode, limits, disconnection, wake-up behavior, and relationship to speed and energy.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-036 · Aircraft control & automationTrim system events
Normal, abnormal, runaway, mistrim, or unexpected trim behavior and its effect on control forces, attitude, speed, and system response.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-044 · Aircraft systems & airworthinessPressurization events
Abnormal cabin altitude, rate, differential pressure, controller, valve, leakage, or warning behavior during flight.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-051 · Powerplant & fuelEngine failure in flight
Loss or severe degradation of propulsion after liftoff, including aircraft control, diagnosis, restart, shutdown, diversion, and landing considerations.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-054 · Powerplant & fuelBird ingestion
Engine or propulsive-system effects following bird or wildlife ingestion, from transient parameter change to damage, failure, or rejected takeoff.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-058 · Powerplant & fuelFuel contamination
Water, microbes, particulates, incorrect fuel, chemicals, or other contaminants that can affect engines, tanks, filters, sensors, and fuel delivery.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-059 · Powerplant & fuelEDTO fuel planning
Fuel strategy for extended diversion operations, including critical fuel scenarios, alternates, weather, system status, and diversion time.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-089 · Cabin, cargo & dangerous goodsCabin decompression
Occupant, oxygen, communication, cabin, descent, diversion, and medical considerations during rapid or gradual loss of cabin pressure.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-101 · ATM, navigation & airspaceLoss of separation
Reduction below applicable aircraft separation minima, including detection, communication, maneuvering, recovery, and systemic contributors.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-108 · ATM, navigation & airspaceRadio communication loss
Partial or complete loss of air-ground voice communication, including detection, troubleshooting, expected routing, surveillance, and restoration.
Open topic profile ↗Flight-Deck Automation
Use mode awareness, active monitoring, and aircraft-response verification to keep automation aligned with crew intent.
Open topic brief ↗Safety ManagementSafety Management Systems
Connect policy, risk management, assurance, and promotion so hazards are controlled and performance is reviewed over time.
Open topic brief ↗Human FactorsHuman Factors and Fatigue
Study how workload, fatigue, expectation, communication, interface design, and organizational conditions shape performance.
Open topic brief ↗12 useful starting points
Terminology and topic relationships select these links; the publisher source remains authoritative.
Annual Safety Review 2025
EASA's review uses occurrence and accident information to describe performance across aviation domains and to support the European safety-risk-management process.
Open official sourceSafety Management Manual (Doc 9859), Fourth Edition
ICAO's fourth-edition manual explains how safety data, risk management, assurance, culture, and governance work together in State and service-provider safety management.
Open official sourceSAFO 08016 — Boeing 737 (B-737) Cabin Altitude Warning Horn Confusion
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for cabin and cargo. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceAnnex 19 — Safety Management, Third Edition
Annex 19 consolidates ICAO safety-management provisions, including State safety responsibilities, SMS, safety-data collection and processing, and the protection and sharing of safety information.
Open official sourceStatistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents, 1959–2024
Boeing's 56th annual statistical summary organizes commercial-jet accident data using stated definitions and the CAST/ICAO occurrence taxonomy.
Open official sourceIATA Annual Safety Report — 2024
IATA's 61st annual report provides an interactive, method-defined view of commercial aviation accident performance and contributing-factor classifications.
Open official sourceAC 120-92D — Safety Management Systems for Aviation Service Providers
FAA guidance explains performance-based, scalable approaches to integrating safety policy, risk management, assurance, and promotion into aviation organizations.
Open official sourceGo-Around Decision-Making and Execution Project — Final Report
The Flight Safety Foundation project examines go-around policy compliance, decision biases, operational pressures, and the risks that also need to be managed during go-around execution.
Open official sourceCAP 739 — Flight Data Monitoring, Second Edition
CAP 739 presents FDM as the systematic, proactive use of routine digital flight data within a non-punitive, just safety culture.
Open official sourceAC 120-82 — Flight Operational Quality Assurance
Active FAA guidance describes one acceptable way to establish a voluntary FOQA programme using de-identified aggregate flight data to identify and reduce operational risk.
Open official sourceSAFO 14002 — SAFO 14002, Global Positioning System ( GPS )/Global Navigation Satellite System ( GNSS ) Navigator/Autopilot Compatibility
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and navigation and surveillance. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 09014 — Concepts for Fatigue Countermeasures in Part 121 and 135 Short-Haul Operations
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for human factors. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official source