In the 21st century, civil aviation airline transportation has grown in popularity as the fastest way to get from one part of the world to another. Taking airplane is the most common choice for long distance travel, but ever since the beginning of aviation, airplane accidents continue to plague the industry. Airplane crashes are the most devastating type of accident in the transportation system. According to Gary Stoller from USA Today, only 15% of people have survived a fatal accident in the most recent decade. Now, the focus on airline safety is an ongoing process for the airline industry.
Investigations into what causes airplane accidents are the key to uncover the riddle of airplane accidents. In order to find the root cause, scholars, experts, and government agencies' research and analyze a lot of database information of previous incidences. Among the various reasons that cause airplane accidents I would like to talk about three reasons: pilot error, weather, and terrorist attacks.
Pilot error and weather are the common causes of airplane accidents. Pilot error can occur as simple mistakes to more serious mistakes which can cause death by making the wrong judgments. Weather is an outside factor that can cause an airplane accident by affecting its ability to maintain level flight. Hijacking is not a common cause of airplane accidents, but because of media exposure it has become a concern in the public's mind today. The first recorded hijacking occurred in 1931; after that, terrorist attacks became a new and specific factor that leads to airplane accidents. Since the 9.11 attacks happened, which shocked the world and attracted the public's attention on terrorist attacks, there has been a renewed focus on terror as a cause of...
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...N, 29 July 2011. Web. 11 June 2014.
CNN is a well-known channel in the world, and the news reports from CNN have a large public following. The CNN's report talks about the crash of air flight 447, in which was caused by pilots' error, and analyzed the reason for the cause. There are some detail fromthe black box that makes conjecture closer to the facts.
"The Lockerbie bombing or the Lockerbie air disaster – An Orthodox View: Pan Am Flight
103." martinfrost.ws. Martin Frost's Former Website. Web. 21 June 2014.
The article provides a detailed report of the investigation of Pan Am Flight 103 with a near blow by blow account of the tragedy.
Wise, Jeff. "What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447." popularmechanics.com. Popular
Machine, 6 Dec. 2011. Web. 21 June 2014.
Wise's article is talking about the process of the France crash; it used the recorded voice
Whether we would like to admit it or not there was a time, prior to September 11, 2001 when airline terrorism was a very real danger and it seemed as thought we averaged a hijacking or terrorist event every thirty days somewhere in the world. Gladly this wasn’t the case, in an online article I read there was a interview held with a person who spoke to my thoughts, he said “One example was a study I conducted on media coverage by the New York Times during a 17 -year, pre-9/11 period of 1978 to 1994. Among other things, I found that fatal airline events that involved jet aircraft that were hijacked, sabotaged, or destroyed by military action, which represented about 8% of the fatal airline accidents reported by the Times during that period, accounted for about 48% of all the airline accident articles in that period“ (T. Curtis, personal interview, September 11, 2009). Back then, it was easy to visualize a small suitcase being carried aboard an aircraft with a explosive inside, capable of ending the lives of everyone onboard men, women, and children; with no regard to age, sex, and religion.
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
According to “A Human Error Approach to Aviation Accident Analysis…”, both authors stated that HFACS was developed based off from the Swiss Cheese model to provide a tool to assist in the investigation process to identify the probable human cause (Wiegmann and Shappell, 2003). Moreover, the HFACS is broken down into four categories to identify the failure occur. In other words, leading up to adverse events the HFACS will identify the type error occur.
September 11, a turning point in the United States history. This event caused various negative impacts on the aviation industry. It changed the way airports and airlines organized themselves completely. The effect was so strong that it caused bankruptcies, people to lose their jobs, changes in how flights were made and flew, and security checking’s. This day also created fear and psychological issues on individuals concerning anything to do with flying on an airplane. In other words, this day was a catastrophe in the aviation industry in the US.
With every large successful materialistic object or figure in society comes its pros and cons. For the Fox News Channel, these pros and cons include its overall ratings and viewership. For over a number of years Fox News has remained atop of the rating scale in the number one spot, providing the public with the news. People claim it is biased and justly unfair, however, it is that very news that they produce which has made it famous and one of the most well respected news networks to this day.
Piers Robinson: The CNN Effect: The Myth of News, Foreign Policy, and Intervention, (London: Routledge, 2002), pp.7-24.
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.
It was the afternoon of July 25, 2000. One hundred passengers, most of them German, boarded the Concorde Air France Flight 4590. This was a trip of a lifetime for many people, as Concorde was restricted to the wealthy class of people. The excitement in people was cut short by the unfortunate delay in flight, because of maintenance in one of its engines. The passengers boarded the plane a couple of hours after the scheduled time. Finally, it was cleared for taxi on runway 26-Right. The pilots lined the aircraft parallel to the runway. A tragic accident, however, was about to befall.
Weather conditions- Sometimes the bad weather conditions become the huge problem for the aircrafts as they are not able to operate in bad conditions by which they get losses.
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.
The trials and tribulations of flight have had their ups and downs over the course of history. From the many who failed to the few that conquered; the thought of flight has always astonished us all. The Wright brothers were the first to sustain flight and therefore are credited with the invention of the airplane. John Allen who wrote Aerodynamics: The Science of Air in Motion says, “The Wright Brothers were the supreme example of their time of men gifted with practical skill, theoretical knowledge and insight” (6). As we all know, the airplane has had thousands of designs since then, but for the most part the physics of flight has remained the same. As you can see, the failures that occurred while trying to fly only prove that flight is truly remarkable.
Every morning, my parents would wake up and turn on the news so they could listen and watch current events while they got ready for the day. For some people, this could be a normal daily routine. News is an important part of our society. It helps people stay informed of what is going on locally, nationally, and internationally. The media coverage allows people to learn about other countries and what important events are going on in the world outside of our own. Without the news, we would never hear about differences in government, societies, and events going on all around the world. However, the news does not always portray the entire story and can mislead the audiences to understanding which event is more important compared to others. The Agenda Setting Theory addresses these faults in media coverage and its effects on the public. As shown in the media coverage of the missing Malaysian airplane, news coverage will alter in favor of its targeted audience due to cultural differences in other countries.
... problem are under constant development and analysis, in a hope to avoid these situations. The civilian industry continues to lead in development due to commercialization, with the military not far behind. The only real deficiency in CRM program development seems to be the area of general aviation as described earlier. Until this problem is addressed, there will still be a glaring weakness in the general area of aviation safety. However, with the rate of technology increase and cheaper methods of instruction, we should begin to see this problem addressed in the near future. Until then, aviation will rely on civil commercial aviation the military to continue research and program development for the years to come, hopefully resulting in an increasingly safe method of travel and recreation.
Prior to 1959, faulty equipment was the probable cause for many airplane accidents, but with the advent of jet engines, faulty equipment became less of a threat, while human factors gained prominence in accident investigations (Kanki, Helmreich & Anca, 2010). From 1959 to 1989, pilot error was the cause of 70% of accident resulting in the loss of hull worldwide (Kanki, Helmreich & Anca, 2010). Due to these alarming statistics, in 1979 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) implemented a workshop called “Resource Management on the Flightdeck” that led to what is now known as Crew Resource Management (CRM) or also known as Cockpit Resource Management (Rodrigues & Cusick, 2012). CRM is a concept that has been attributed to reducing human factors as a probable cause in aviation accidents. The concepts of CRM weren’t widely accepted by the aviation industry, but through its history, concepts, and eventual implementation, Crew Resource Management has become an invaluable resource for pilots as well as other unrelated industries around the world.
In order to further decrease the number of airplane accidents stricter measures of evaluating an aircrafts operability prior to take off need to be implemented. Additionally, better training of pilots can also lead to a more preferable outcome should a problem arise as the pilot will be better equipped to handle an emergency.