On August 6, 1997, Korean Air flight 801, a Boeing 747, crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam, with 237 passengers on board. The airplane had been cleared to land at Guam International Airport and crashed into high terrain about 3 miles southwest of the airport. 228 people were killed, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces. Post-crash analysis revealed no mechanical defects with the aircraft (NTSB, 1997).

The National Transportation Safety Board calls this type of accident Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), in which a functioning airplane is essentially flown into the ground due simply to the pilots’ lack of a clear picture of where they are (Arthur, 2003). According to a study from the Flight Safety Foundation, nearly 80 percent of all fatal airline accidents can be attributed to CFIT or approach-and-landing accidents (North, 1999). Clearly something needs to be done to address this situation and reduce these preventable pilot-error accidents.

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