This term paper reviews the three most common catagories of aviation accident causes and factors. The causes and factors that will be discussed are human performance, environmental, and the aircraft itself. Although flying is one of the safest means of transportation, accidents do happen. It is the investigators job to determine why the accident happened, and who or what was at fault. In the event of an accident, either one or all of these factors will be determined as the cause of the accident. Also discussed will be one of the most tradgic plane crashes in aviation history and the human factors involved.
With any accident investigation one of the main focuses is to determine the cause and factors involved in the accident. Determining the cause of the accident would consist of finding out why the accident happened (NTSB, 2010). This can include any mechanical failures to environmental issue or even human error can be a serious cause to an aircraft accidents. All facts, conditions, and circumstances are taken into account when determining the probably cause in an investigation (NTSB, 2010).
Determining all the possible factors that are involved in an accident can help an investigator determine all the probable causes contributing to the accident. This can also help to determine weather or not the probable cause could have been prevented. All accidents usually have multiple contributing cause and factors which lead to a series of events causing the accident. Three of the most common cause and factors involved in a crash are the aircraft itself, the environment, or personnel (NTSB, 2010). Personnel factors are the leading cause of aircraft accidents.
According to the Nation Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in...
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...t realize that if they had not touched the control colum the autopilot system would have corrected itself.
Knowing the three most common cause and factors in an aircraft accident can help investigators in there investigation. Althought aircraft accidents will eventually happen, knowing this information can help to reduce the number of accidents, and the significance if one should happen.
Works Cited
National Transportation Safety Board. (2010, July 30). Annual Review of U.S. General
Aviation Accident Data 2006. Annual Review NTSB/ARG-10/01, pp. 38-50. Retrieved Feburary 6, 2011, from http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2010/ARG1001.pdf
Department of Transport and Regional Development. (1996, April). Human Factors in
Fatal Aircraft Accidents, pp. 2-6. Retrieved Feburary 15, 2011, from http://www.narcap.org/articles/HumanFactorsinFatalAircraftaccidents.pdf
The investigation was also one of the largest international law enforcement endeavors of its time (Birkland, 2004). This tragedy, like most devastating events, changed the course of history and is a directly affected aviation safety as we know it today. The forensic findings during the investigation also helped change aviation safety policy and procedures. The result was improvement in training for airport security personnel, examination of quality control issues and heightened aviation security regulations (Birkland,
This tragic accident was preventable by not only the flight crew, but maintenance and air traffic control personnel as well. On December 29, 1972, ninety-nine of the one hundred and seventy-six people onboard lost their lives needlessly. As is the case with most accidents, this one was certainly preventable. This accident is unique because of the different people that could have prevented it from happening. The NTSB determined that “the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the flightcrew.” This is true; the flight crew did fail, however, others share the responsibility for this accident. Equally responsible where maintenance personnel, an Air Traffic Controllers, the system, and a twenty cent light bulb. What continues is a discussion on, what happened, why it happened, what to do about it and what was done about it.
In all the National Transportation Safety Board concluded there were twenty-three findings that directly contributed to this airplane accident. I will address the ones I feel carried the most impact where if the instance was removed the accident would have be...
The Colgan Air Flight 3407 was a very interesting case to look at. On February 12, 2009, at 10:17 pm, flight 3407 crashed at a house in New York after the pilots experience a stall. Flight 3407 was scheduled to fly from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York. The NTSB reported the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) revealed some discrepancies both pilots were experience. The first officer did not have any experience with icing condition but icing was one of the reasons the plane went into a stall. On the other hand, the captain had some experience flying in icing condition. The captain was experiencing fatigue, which indeed, made him unfit to recover from a stall. With that in mind, the Human Factor Analysis Classification System (HFACS) will give insight of some errors both pilots made.
Though a rarity, every once in awhile, planes tend to crash and have serious issues due to problems that could have easily been avoided(183). In the novel the Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he explains why planes crash and how it can be prevented. He began this explanation by evaluating different plane crashes from airlines basing from Colombia and Korea. In both events, a series of miniature problems and lack of communication was a cause from the catastrophic events that follow. In the case of the Colombian airlines, the already 14 hours and 40-minute flight(Flight Time) was interrupted by a woman having a stroke causing them to land. Since they did not burn all their fuel, they had to “land heavy” or overweight making the landing much more
Travelling at a speed twice that of sound might seem to be something futuristic; however, this feat has already been achieved almost 40 years ago by the world’s only supersonic passenger aircraft-The Concorde. Concorde brought a revolution in the aviation industry by operating transatlantic flights in less than four hours. The slick and elegant aircraft with one of the most sophisticated engineering was one of the most coveted aircrafts of its time. However, this was all destined to end when Air France Flight 4590 was involved in a tragic disaster just outside the city of Paris on July 25, 2000. The crash killed 113 people, but more disastrous was its impact. The belief and confidence people had with Concorde gradually started to fade, and finally Concorde was grounded after two and a half years of the crash. Official reports state that the main cause of the crash was a piece of metal dropped by a Continental aircraft that flew moments before Concorde, but, over the last decade, the report has met a lot of criticism, and many alternative hypotheses have thus been proposed.
In conclusion, many contribution factors led to the Crossair flight 3597 crash but is mainly triggered by Crossair’s incapability of assessment, pilot error and lastly the air traffic controller. Analysis of a flight crash is important so that we will know the causes, thus being able tackle it, making sure that there are no other flight crashes like Crossair flight 3597.
According the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Aircraft Accident Report, determines that the probable cause of the Flight 811 was sudden opening of the forward lower lobe cargo door in flight and subsequent explosive decompression, (NTSB,1989). In figure 1, depicted the damage of Flight 811 when it landed.
Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report - The Planes - Popularmechanics.com. (n.d.). Automotive Care, Home Improvement, Tools, DIY Tips - Popularmechanics.com. Retrieved April 26, 2010, from http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/debunking-911-myths-planes
Plane crashes occur for a number of reasons. There seems to be a consensus with the general public that flying is dangerous, engines fail and planes crash. That is true some times, although the majority of plane crashes occur largely due to a combination of human error and mechanical failure. In much of aviations accidents mechanical failure has been a contributing factor. It is impossible however to blame plane crashes on one reason since events leading up to an accident are so varied. Reasoning for plane crashes can be placed in a broad number of categories.
Aviation industry deals with more than thousands of people and also spending millions of funds in order to meet the requirements, satisfy the necessities of people and to produce state-of-the-art aircraft. With its objective it is significant to consider the hazards involved and bring out an output with the least extent and under control risks to prevent any loss in terms of life and even profit.
Simmon, David A. (1998). Boeing 757 CFIT Accident at Cali, Columbia, Becomes Focus of Lessons Learned. Flight Safety Digest.
After studying the Aloha aircraft accident in 1933, our group is interested in the investigation in Human performances factors in maintenance and inspection. We have divided the investigation into 5 aspects:
...ff. There are a few accidents that are reported occur during flight at medium or high altitude. There are a host of reasons for a plane crash but the primary reasons of airplane incidents include; human error, mechanical fault, harsh weather and sabotage.
Incident/accident investigations that focus on identifying and correcting root causes, not on finding fault or blame, also to improve workplace morale and increase productivity, by demonstrating an employer’s commitment to a safe and healthful workplace. Incident/accident investigations are often conducted by a supervisor but to be most