What the profile screens for
Bank angle exceeds a validated terminal-descent or low-altitude monitoring band.
Why it matters
High bank can reduce vertical lift, increase stall speed, complicate path capture, and reduce terrain margin.
Build the event around relationships—not one number.
Define the operating context
Identify the descent / approach state, aircraft configuration, location, and any required external data before applying logic.
Screen the signal relationship
Use validated combinations of roll angle, roll rate, airspeed; 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 roll angle, roll rate, airspeed valid, correctly decoded, time-aligned, and sampled well enough for this event?
- Q2
What changed immediately before, during, and after the excessive bank during descent 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.
Circling approach
Low-altitude maneuvering from an instrument procedure to another runway, with attention to protected area, visibility, bank, descent, and stabilization.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-015 · Approach & landingNon-precision approach
Approach risk where continuous vertical guidance is unavailable or not used, emphasizing descent planning, step-down constraints, minima, and path monitoring.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-040 · Aircraft control & automationUpset prevention and recovery
Prevention, recognition, and recovery from unintended pitch, bank, speed, or flight-path states approaching or exceeding normal operations.
Open topic profile ↗Unstable Approach
Recognize when path, speed, configuration, power, or crew readiness has moved outside applicable stabilized-approach criteria.
Open topic brief ↗Aircraft SystemsFlight-Deck Automation
Use mode awareness, active monitoring, and aircraft-response verification to keep automation aligned with crew intent.
Open topic brief ↗Flight OperationsControlled Flight Into Terrain
Understand how a controllable aircraft can be flown into terrain or an obstacle through path, altitude, navigation, monitoring, or situational-awareness breakdowns.
Open topic brief ↗12 useful starting points
Terminology and topic relationships select these links; the publisher source remains authoritative.
Further Preventing Loss of Control In-flight
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for aviation safety. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceNear CFIT event during Non Precision Approach
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for approach and landing. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceNTSB Safety Alert SA-060 — Stay Centered: Preventing loss of control during landing
Official U.S. National Transportation Safety Board material indexed for approach and landing. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
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 91-79B — Aircraft Landing Performance and Runway Excursion Mitigation
This FAA circular brings together landing-performance planning, time-of-arrival assessment, RCAM information, and operational practices for reducing runway-excursion risk.
Open official sourceSafety Alert SA-077 — Stabilized Approaches Lead to Safe Landings
The NTSB alert highlights the need to establish and maintain a stabilized approach and to go around when an approach falls outside applicable criteria.
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 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 08005 — Preflight of helicopter hydraulic systems to include validation of control movement smoothness and identification of adverse flight control “stick-jump.”
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and airworthiness and systems. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 08015 — Preflight check of helicopter hydraulic systems to include validation of control movement smoothness and identification of adverse flight control “stick-jump”
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and airworthiness and systems. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 06017 — Equipment Training and Checking for Helicopter Operators on the SPZ-7000 or SPZ-7600 Dual Digital Automatic Flight Control Systems
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and human factors. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official source