Aviation accidents and incidents

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Capt. Christopher Stricklin ejected from his USAF Thunderbird aircraft at an airshow at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, on September 14, 2003. While performing a Reverse Half Cuban Eight, Stricklin realized he could not pull up in time and ejected. He was not injured.
Capt. Christopher Stricklin ejected from his USAF Thunderbird aircraft at an airshow at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, on September 14, 2003. While performing a Reverse Half Cuban Eight, Stricklin realized he could not pull up in time and ejected. He was not injured.

An aviation accident is defined in the International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 13. It is roughly defined as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, in which a person is fatally or seriously injured, the aircraft sustains damage or structural failure and/or the aircraft is missing or is completely inaccessible.

An aviation incident is also defined as an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations.

An accident in which the damage to the plane is such that it must be written off, or in which the plane is totally destroyed is often referred to as a hull loss.

Contents

[edit] History

The first known aviation fatalities — the deaths of balloonists Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre Romain on 15 June 1785.
The first known aviation fatalities — the deaths of balloonists Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre Romain on 15 June 1785.

Since the birth of flight, aircraft have crashed, often with serious consequences. This is because of the unforgiving nature of flight, where a relatively insubstantial medium, air, supports a significant mass. Should this support fail, there is limited opportunity for a positive outcome. Because of this, aircraft design is concerned with minimizing the chance of failure, and pilots are trained with safety a primary consideration. Despite this, accidents still occur, though statistically flying is the safest form of transportation. In fact, the relative rarity of incidents, coupled with the often dramatic outcome, is one reason why they still make headline news. Nevertheless, while the odds of actually getting caught in a plane crash are nowadays distinctly low compared to other means of transportation, the chances of dying in such a disaster are notably higher.

Many early attempts at flight ended in failure when a design raised to a height for a launch would fail to generate enough lift and crash to the ground. Some of the earliest aviation pioneers lost their lives testing aircraft they built.

The first powered fixed-wing aircraft fatality in history occurred in 1908 when Lt. Thomas Selfridge was killed in this plane piloted by Orville Wright. (17 September 1908)
The first powered fixed-wing aircraft fatality in history occurred in 1908 when Lt. Thomas Selfridge was killed in this plane piloted by Orville Wright. (17 September 1908)


Otto Lilienthal died after a failure of one of his gliders. On his roughly 2,500th flight (August 9, 1896), he stalled in a gust of wind, causing him to fall from a height of roughly 56 ft (17 m), fracturing his spine. He died the next day, with his last words being reported as Opfer müssen gebracht werden! ("sacrifices must be made.")

Percy Pilcher was another promising aviation pioneer who died testing The Hawk (September 20, 1899). Just as with Lilienthal, promising designs and ideas for motorized planes were scrapped after his death. Some other early attempts experienced rough landings, such as Richard Pearse who is generally accepted to have crash landed (survived) a motorized aircraft in some bushes, unable to gain altitude after launching it from some height.

The Wright Flyer nearly crashed on the day of its historic flight, sustaining some damage when landing. Three days before, on a previous flight attempt, Wilbur Wright overcontrolled the aircraft in pitch and crashed it on takeoff, causing minor damage in the first known case of pilot-induced oscillation.

US Army Lt. Thomas Selfridge became the first person killed in a powered fixed-wing aircraft on September 17, 1908 when his aircraft, piloted by Orville Wright, crashed after propeller separation failure during military tests at Fort Myer in Virginia. Selfridge died of a fractured skull. Wright suffered broken ribs, pelvis and a leg.

Plane crashes with large numbers of casualties set in with the early passenger flights of the 1920s. The yearly death toll of plane crashes exceeded 100 for the first time in 1928, and 1,000 for the first time in 1943. Since 1945, the number of deaths has remained below 1,000 only twice, in 2004 and 2007.

[edit] Causes

The 1984 Controlled Impact Demonstration of a Boeing 720 aircraft using standard fuel with an additive designed to suppress fire. The aircraft caught fire. Results show less fire damage than would have been expected without the additive.
The 1984 Controlled Impact Demonstration of a Boeing 720 aircraft using standard fuel with an additive designed to suppress fire. The aircraft caught fire. Results show less fire damage than would have been expected without the additive.

Approximately 80 percent of all aviation accidents occur shortly before, after, or during takeoff or landing, and are often described as resulting from 'human error'; mid-flight disasters are rare but not entirely unheard of. Among other things, the latter have been caused by bombs, as in the 1988 Lockerbie incident, mid-air collisions such as in the 2002 Überlingen crash and structural failure, as in the 1954 Comet disasters and 1988 Aloha Airlines incident.

An accident survey [1] of 1,843 aircraft accidents from 1950 through 2006 determined the causes to be as follows:

  • 53%: Pilot error
  • 21%: Mechanical failure
  • 11%: Weather
  • 6%: Sabotage (bombs, hijackings, shoot-downs)
  • 8%: Other human error (air traffic controller error, improper loading of aircraft, improper maintenance, fuel contamination, language miscommunication etc.)
  • 1%: Other cause

The survey excluded military, private, and charter aircraft.

A study by Boeing [2] (page 19) determined the primary cause of Airline hull loss accidents (worldwide commercial jet fleet), from 1996 through 2005, to be:

  • 55%: Flight crew error
  • 17%: Airplane
  • 13%: Weather
  • 7%: Misc./Other
  • 5%: Air traffic control
  • 3%: Maintenance

That study included 183 accidents, with known causes for 134 of them. The remaining 49 were unknown, or awaiting final reports.

Previous Boeing studies showed higher rates for Flight Crew Error:

  • 70%: 1988 - 1997
  • 67%: 1990 - 1999
  • 66%: 1992 - 2001
  • 62%: 1994 - 2003
  • 56%: 1995 - 2004

Aircraft manufacturers are often slow to accept that aspects of design might play a role in accident causation, finding it more convenient to state that human crew members were responsible. In fact, the complex interaction between the human crew and the aircraft often creates a fertile ground in which human error may flourish. This is examined by Simon Bennett in his book Human Error - by Design.[neutrality disputed]

[edit] Major disasters

The March 27, 1977, Tenerife disaster remains the deadliest accident in aviation history with the highest number of airliner passenger fatalities. In this disaster, 583 people died when a KLM Boeing 747 attempted take-off and collided with a taxiing Pan Am 747 at Los Rodeos Airport. Pilot error, communications problems, fog, and airfield congestion (due to a bomb threat at another airport) all contributed to this catastrophe.

The crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 in 1985 is the single-aircraft disaster with the highest number of fatalities. In this crash, 520 died on board a Boeing 747. The aircraft suffered an explosive decompression which destroyed its vertical stabilizer and severed hydraulic lines, making the 747 virtually uncontrollable.

The world's deadliest mid-air collision with the highest number of fatalities is the 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision involving Saudia Flight 763 and Air Kazakhstan Flight 1907 over Haryana, India, in 1996. The crash was mainly the result of the Kazakh pilot flying lower than the altitude for which his aircraft was given clearance. 349 passengers and crew died from both aircraft. The Ramesh Chandra Lahoti Commission, empowered to study the causes, also recommended the creation of "air corridors" to prevent planes from flying in opposite directions at the same altitude.

The deadliest aviation-related disaster of any kind with the highest number of total fatalities, including fatalities on both the aircraft and the ground, was the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001, which occurred along with the intentional crashing of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. 2,974 people were killed, mostly rescue workers and the occupants of the destroyed buildings.

[edit] Safety

Main article: Air safety

Aviation safety has come a long way in over one hundred years of implementation. In modern times, two major manufacturers still produce heavy passenger aircraft for the civilian market: Boeing of the United States of America and the European Airbus. Both have placed huge emphasis on the use of aviation safety equipment, now a billion-dollar industry in its own right, and made safety a major selling point -- realizing that a poor safety record in the aviation industry is a threat to corporate survival. Some major safety devices now required in commercial aircraft involve:

  • Evacuation slides - aid rapid passenger exit from an aircraft in an emergency situation.
  • Advanced avionics - Computerized auto-recovery and alert systems.
  • Turbine Engine durability improvements
  • Landing gear that can be lowered even after loss of power and hydraulics.

Air travel is the safest form of transportation available. Trains have .04 deaths for every 100 million miles while air travel has .01 deaths for every 100 million miles traveled. Compared to the automobile, with .94 deaths per 100 million miles, both figures are low.[citation needed] According to the BBC: "UK airline operations are among the safest anywhere. When compared against all other modes of transport on a fatality per mile basis air transport is the safest - six times safer than traveling by car and twice as safe as rail." [3]

A 2007 study by Popular Mechanics found that passengers sitting at the back of a plane are 40% more likely to survive a crash than those sitting in the front. [4]

[edit] Statistics

The Geneva-based Aircraft Crashes Record Office (ACRO) compiles statistics on aviation accidents of aircraft capable of carrying more than six passengers, not including helicopters, balloons, or fighter airplanes. The ACRO announced that the year 2007 was the safest year in aviation since 1963 in terms of number of accidents.[1] There had been 136 accidents registered (compared to 164 in 2006), resulting in a total of 965 deaths (compared to 1,293 in 2006). 2004 was the year with the lowest number of fatalities since the end of World War II, with 766 deaths. The year with most fatalities was 1972, with 3,214 deaths.

year deaths[2] nr. of accidents[3]
2007 965 136
2006 1,293 164
2005 1,454 184
2004 766 165
2003 1,224 198
2002 1,399 173
2001 1,535 187
2000 1,567 179
1999 1,130 198

51% of accidents recorded occurred during landing, 27% during flight and 20% during takeoff. 37% of accidents concern scheduled passenger flight, 12% military flights, 11% cargo flights, 8% private flights.[4]

[edit] Investigation

NTSB seal

[edit] United States

In the United States, many civil aviation incidents have been investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). When investigating an aviation disaster, NTSB investigators piece together evidence from the crash and determine the likely cause or causes.

[edit] United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the agency responsible for investigation of civilian air crashes is the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) of the Department for Transport. Its purpose is to establish the circumstances and causes of the accident and to make recommendations for their future avoidance.

[edit] Canada

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (BST/TSB), an independent agency which reports directly to Parliament, is the Canadian agency responsible for the advancement of transportation safety through the investigation and reporting upon accident and incident occurrences in all prevalent Canadian modes of transportation - marine, air, rail and pipeline.

[edit] Retirement of flight numbers

It is common for an airline to cease using the flight number after a fatal crash.[5] This is not always the case; see, for example, Japan air 123, American Airlines Flight 587, Aeroflot Flight 593, Aero Flight 311, and Iran Air Flight 655; and the United Airlines Flights numbered 608, 624, and 823.

[edit] See also

[edit] Lists of airliner accidents

[edit] Lists of military aircraft accidents

[edit] Air safety

[edit] Other

[edit] References

  1. ^ 2007 : excellent year for civil aviation Geneva, 1st January 2008
  2. ^ Death number by year (ACRO)
  3. ^ Accident number by year (ACRO)
  4. ^ various statistics (ACRO)
  5. ^ Grossman, David. "Check your travel superstitions, or carry them on?," USA Today

[edit] External links

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