Causes Of Airplane Accidents

According to usatoday “The odds of dying in a motor vehicle accident to be 1 in 98 for a lifetime. For air and space transport (including air taxis and private flights), the odds were 1 in 7,178 for a lifetime, according to the table.” But who’s job is it to keep passengers safe.

On Saturday, August twenty-second, a stunt plane at an air show in England crashed and killed seven people. It was said that the pilot of the stunt plane was attempting to do a loop, but lost control and crashed onto a highway. The seven people that were killed in this accident were people just driving on highway and were caught in the accident. The plane model that crashed was called a “Hawker Hunter”, and it was a plane model from the Cold War. Along with the seven people that were killed in the accident, there are around fourteen people that were injured.

September 11, 2001, was a horrific event that rocked the world and the way people viewed the safety of airline travel. The airline industry was hit the hardest after that day and it was uncertain if they could regain their customer’s

Everyday millions of people fly on airplanes. It is an easy and fast way of traveling for work, vacations or to see family members. Statically air travel is safer than traveling by car, airplanes have higher fatality accidents. The reasons airplanes crash vary and can happen during takeoff, landing or during flight. “August 1985 witnessed more passenger and crew deaths on commercial airlines than any other month.” [http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33931693.]

Airport safety is one of the Federal Aviation Administration's biggest concerns. They are tasked with tracking over 10,400,000 commercial flights every year, not including military and non-commercial flights (Canavan). Collisions and crashes are the two major causes of injuries and death. Air travel accidents date all of the way back to 1908 (Old). Orville Wright, one of the original inventors of the airplane, was flying a demonstration for the military when a propeller suddenly was ripped off of the airplane. The passenger, Lieutenant Selfridge was killed when the plane hit the ground (Old). The Federal Aviation Administration has come a long way since the 1960’s to improve safety (Mission). They have implemented various systems such as the United States program, NextGen Program, and the Air Transportation

Understand the risk:We have to understand what if we allow David Rieger to fly and suddenly he get sick and can’t able to fly. There are more than 500 passengers, we can’t take the risk of 500 passengers just for one person. Utilitarianism theory implement on this case study that act in a way that produces greatest good for the greatest number of people which are the passengers, in any organization or business we things customers safety first, we can’t compromise on it.

The movement of millions of passengers over distances thought impossible decades ago is symbolic of the modern air transportation era that is characterized by speed, comfort and personal convenience. The commerce of aviation, both the operation of commercial aircraft for profit and the development of aeronautical systems, is also an important symbol of national prestige and a powerful economic force. Safety in air transportation is therefore a matter of significant national importance.

Nearly 3000 people were killed during the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 and the coming months the media were filled with interviews, profiles and terrible stories of loss. Fear of more terrorist attacks spread the nation. As a reaction, the American population massively abandoned airports and chose to travel by car instead, which had a great impact on the airline business. But what no one mentioned –nor the media or politicians- is that air travel is dramatically safer than driving. The safety gap is so large, that planes would still be safer than cars even if the threat of terrorism were unimaginably worse than it actually is. According to research, 1595 people lost their lives because of the major shift from air travel to a much less safe way of traveling: by car. That is six times as many as the people who where on board of the doomed flights on September 11.

Six months ago, a plane that carried a group of schoolboys had been shot down over an isolated tropical forest located in the Pacific Ocean. A ship of Naval Officers had seen a smoke signal and sailed toward the island; to their surprise they had found a community of young boys living without any adults. One Naval Officer commented, “The pilot must have been a victim of the plane crash, as there were no signs of adults. We believe this aircraft was used to transport the boys out of the warzone.” The reason why the plane crashed remains unknown but we are glad that the boys were safe.

“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.” This quotes date back to the 15th century which informs us that aviation was thought off back to the middle ages. To this day, many aviators contributed to aviation in many different aspects. Throughout the past century, aviation has progressed significantly. “airplanes were starting to fly higher and faster thanks to new streamlined fuselages and powerful jet and rocket engines.” (Teitel, 2015). Unfortunately, there was not any adequate safety measures provided for pilots and passengers which were prone to dangerous crashes. It was not till Colonel John Stapp, a decorated Air Force flight surgeon,

Approximately eighty-two percent of the world’s population have used airplanes as a means of travel (Negroni). Without the Wright brothers and their invention of the airplane this would not be possible.

Accidents within the aviation industry also greatly impact society and every day aspects of human quality of life. Hearing the media blast news of an airplane that went down would stop anyone in their tracks, but knowing that one must travel soon would make that traveler second guess their decisions of choosing air transportation as their primary source of passage. Although crashes are very rare, when they occur there is an extreme amount of media coverage of the horrific event. Media’s coverage of an airplane crash can be the greatest cause of why people fear flying on airplanes. Studies have shown that many develop a short-term fear of flying in response to a crashes they experienced or seen on the news or unexpected events such as

Summary: On July 6, 2013 a Asiana flight 214 crash at the San Francisco airport. In the plane, it was carrying more that 300 hundred people and out of the 300 plus, only three people were killed in the incident and 200 people were injured (The Guardian, 2014). Within the past five years this event would make it first fatal passenger airline incident in the US. In addition, the crash was concluded as a pilot error due to crew member fail to maintain equipment system and identifying hazard.

Airline industry is a growing and a challenging industry across the globe and it is becoming more competitive on quality, pricing and most prominently safety in the contemporary world.

According to Rodrigues and Cusick (2012) humans are accountable for approximately 70-80% of aviation accidents (p.156). A majority of these are caused by the different variables associated with human performance. Psychological factors have a key role in a pilot’s everyday responsibility. Some of these traits include: perception, memory, attitude, judgment and decision making, as well as ego (Rodrigues & Cusick, 2012, p. 158-160). These qualities can have drastic effects in commercial aviation if they are not recognized and adjusted accordingly. In this paper I will respond to some questions that are raised in aviation safety: