Charlie Victor Romeo | |
---|---|
Date premiered | Fall 1999 |
Place premiered | United States |
Original language | English |
Subject | Crew Resource Management |
Genre | Documentary theatre |
Setting | Airplane cockpits |
Official site |
Charlie Victor Romeo is a 1999 play, and later a 2013 film based on the play, [1] whose script consists of almost-verbatim transcripts from six real aviation accidents and incidents. "Charlie Victor Romeo," or CVR, derived from the aviation phonetic alphabet, is aviation jargon for cockpit voice recorder. The play is a case study in crew resource management; [2] a PBS special described several parallels between the behavior seen in these disasters and in emergency room situations. [3]
The play opens with a flight attendant demonstrating the safety equipment and reminding the audience to fasten their seat belts and turn off cell phones. Before each scene, a display screen shows the name of the flight and reason for the disaster (e.g. "Icing" or "Multiple bird strikes"). Sound effects such as cockpit alarms, aircraft interior ambiances and mechanical sounds are included. At the end of each flight, the screen shows the number of casualties. A few of the transcripts were edited for time. At the end of the play, the cast and creators answer questions from the audience.
The play was created by Bob Berger, Patrick Daniels and Irving Gregory of Collective:Unconscious in 1999. [4] It was taped and used by the Pentagon for pilot training. [5] US Air Force Major General Walter E. Buchanan III awarded the group a letter of gratitude. [6] After February 2002 performances in Perth, Australia, [7] the play performed in dozens of venues across the United States, including Washington, DC's Studio Theatre. [8]
In 2004, Time put Charlie Victor Romeo on their Best Plays of the Year list. The play has been performed in Japanese by the Rinkogun Theater Company under the direction of Yoji Sakate. [9] In 2012, Charlie Victor Romeo was made into a motion picture, [1] which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film festival.
The FAA distinguishes between aviation accidents and incidents: an accident is an occurrence aboard an aircraft that injures or kills one or more passengers or crew members, while an incident is “an occurrence involving one or more aircraft in which a hazard or a potential hazard to safety is involved but not classified as an accident due to the degree of injury and/or extent of damage." [10] The accidents and incidents depicted are:
Created by: Bob Berger, Patrick Daniels, Irving Gregory, of Collective:Unconscious.
Directed by: Bob Berger, Patrick Daniels, Irving Gregory.
Developed in collaboration with: Bob Berger, Michael Bruno, Audrey Crabtree, Patrick Daniels, Justin Dávila, Jim Grady, Irving Gregory, Dan Krumm, Peter O'Clair, Julia Randall, Stuart Rudin, Darby Thompson, Oliver Wyman.
Sound design: Jamie Mereness
Original set design and technical director: Patrick Daniels
Motion picture sound mixing: Joel Hamilton
Official Selection DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival 2014 [12]
Official Selection American Film Institute AFI Fest 2013 [13]
Official Selection Copenhagen International Documentary Festival 2013 [14]
Official Selection Hamptons International Film Festival 2013 [15]
Official Selection New York Film Festival 2013 [16]
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2013 [17]
Drama Desk Awards 2000
5th Annual Backstage West Garland Awards 2002
United States Department of Defense Visual Information Production Award
New York International Fringe Festival 2000
Absolut Angel Arts and Technology Award 2000
An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight until all such persons have disembarked, and in which (a) a person is fatally or seriously injured, (b) the aircraft sustains significant damage or structural failure, or (c) the aircraft goes missing or becomes completely inaccessible. Annex 13 defines an aviation incident as an occurrence, other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft that affects or could affect the safety of operation.
United Airlines Flight 232 was a regularly scheduled United Airlines flight from Stapleton International Airport in Denver to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, continuing to Philadelphia International Airport. On July 19, 1989, the DC-10 serving the flight crash-landed at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, after suffering a catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine due to an unnoticed manufacturing defect in the engine's fan disk, which resulted in the loss of many flight controls. Of the 296 passengers and crew on board, 112 died during the accident, while 184 people survived. At the time it was the deadliest single-aircraft accident in the history of United Airlines.
The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. A derivative of the DC-6, it was the last major piston engine-powered transport made by Douglas, being developed shortly after the earliest jet airliner—the de Havilland Comet—entered service and only a few years before the jet-powered Douglas DC-8 first flew in 1958. Unlike other aircraft in Douglas's line of propeller-driven aircraft, no examples remain in service in the present day, as compared to the far more successful DC-3 and DC-6.
Aviation safety is the study and practice of managing risks in aviation. This includes preventing aviation accidents and incidents through research, educating air travel personnel, passengers and the general public, as well as the design of aircraft and aviation infrastructure. The aviation industry is subject to significant regulation and oversight.
Bouraq Indonesia Airlines, often shortened to Bouraq Airlines or just Bouraq, was an airline headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia, which operated mostly domestic passenger flights out of its bases at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Airport.
Pilot error generally refers to an accident in which an action or decision made by the pilot was the cause or a contributing factor that led to the accident, but also includes the pilot's failure to make a correct decision or take proper action. Errors are intentional actions that fail to achieve their intended outcomes. The Chicago Convention defines the term "accident" as "an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft [...] in which [...] a person is fatally or seriously injured [...] except when the injuries are [...] inflicted by other persons." Hence the definition of "pilot error" does not include deliberate crashing.
American Eagle Flight 4184, officially operating as Simmons Airlines Flight 4184, was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Indianapolis, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois, United States. On October 31, 1994, the ATR 72 performing this route flew into severe icing conditions, lost control and crashed into a field. All 68 people aboard were killed in the high-speed impact.
Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 was a scheduled commercial flight from Tehran, Iran, to Yerevan, Armenia, that crashed near the village of Jannatabad, outside the city of Qazvin in north-western Iran, on 15 July 2009. All 153 passengers and 15 crew on board died.
The British Aerospace Jetstream is a small twin turboprop airliner, with a pressurised fuselage, developed as the Jetstream 31 from the earlier Handley Page Jetstream. A larger version of the Jetstream was also manufactured, the British Aerospace Jetstream 41.
Several aviation incidents and accidents have occurred in which the control surfaces of an aircraft became disabled, often due to failure of hydraulic systems or the flight control system. Other incidents have occurred where controls were not functioning correctly prior to take-off, either due to maintenance or pilot error, and controls can become inoperative from extreme weather conditions. Aircraft are not designed to be flown in such circumstances; however, a small number of pilots have had some success in flying and landing aircraft with disabled controls.
On 13 October 2011, Airlines PNG Flight 1600, a Dash 8 regional aircraft on a domestic flight from Lae to Madang, Papua New Guinea, crash-landed in a forested area near the mouth of the Guabe River, after losing all engine power. Only four of the 32 people on board survived. It was the deadliest plane crash in the history of Papua New Guinea.
In aeronautics, loss of control (LOC) is the unintended departure of an aircraft from controlled flight, and is a significant factor in several aviation accidents worldwide. In 2015 was the leading cause of general aviation accidents. Loss of control may be the result of mechanical failure, external disturbances, aircraft upset conditions, or inappropriate crew actions or responses.
LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Maputo, Mozambique, to Luanda, Angola. On 29 November 2013, the Embraer E190 twinjet operating the service crashed into the Bwabwata National Park in Namibia, halfway through its flight, killing all 27 passengers and 6 crew on board.