The Real Reason Planes Crash

Similar variations in altitude caused the Boeing 737 max eight aircraft to crash on two recent flights, killing every passenger. We frequently hear that flying is quite safe. However, why do some aircraft crash, and when is the safest time of day to fly, or is there a safest seat available? The safety of commercial flying is quite high. One fatal accident occurred for every 16 million flights in 2017. But just like vehicles, tiny private aircraft crash frequently.

Most accidents happen because the pilot lost control or flew into terrain without sufficient visual cues, thus the pilot didn't see a mountain or other obstruction until it was too late. Amateur pilots often follow less strict regulations and have substantially less training than commercial pilots. The Bureau of Aircraft Accidents records show that from 2010 to 2018, there were 1,182 incidents involving commercial aircraft. There are four primary explanations for these mishaps: sabotage, weather, technical failure, and human mistake.

Most crashes are the result of human mistake. Based on information gathered from 1,020 commercial aviation mishaps, the majority of these mistakes were related to competence and judgment. Errors based on skill include flipping switches on or off by accident, performing improper visual scans, and failing to follow checklists. A pre-flight checklist, which is a list of things the pilot and crew need to do before taking off, can cut down on risk considerably. If they had finished the pre-flight checklist and removed the gust lock before departure, a 2014 tragedy that claimed seven lives may have been avoided.

Conscious mistakes are choices that don't work out well. For instance, rather of aborting the trip when the pilots of that particular aircraft discovered there was an issue with the gust locks, they attempted in vain to release the apparatus. Enough sleep can reduce the likelihood of human mistake. For instance, a research involving 435 pilots discovered that 90% of them felt fatigued, while another study discovered that the likelihood of accidents rose with increased duty time.

A other research that looked at US airline accidents from 1982 to 2013 discovered that 25% of them had weather-related causes. Precipitation, low cloud cover, and fog are the most deadly weather conditions because they all affect visibility. The worst months to travel are January and December. During a dense fog period in 1977, two Boeing 747s collided on the runway, resulting in one of the worst catastrophes ever—583 people perished. According to other studies, these weather conditions frequently result in pilots pushing their aircraft and themselves to the absolute limit. A couple of examples of this behavior include get-home-itis, when a pilot's desire to get home quickly takes precedence over making wise decisions, and scud running, when a pilot lowers altitude to avoid flying in clouds.

23% of fatal accidents include mechanical mistakes. The primary issue is engine failure. Nevertheless, compared to smaller propeller aircraft, big jet aircraft have a significantly lower likelihood of experiencing this. For instance, a frozen pitot tube caused an Air France Airbus to crash, killing all 228 passengers including the crew. Pitot tubes are sensors on the side of the aircraft that are used to determine airspeed; however, their readings were erratic when they iced over. Not understanding your plane's speed can have fatal consequences. You might overspeed and cause the aircraft to start to disintegrate since its construction isn't designed for such high speeds, or you could underspeed and cause the aircraft to stall.

Finally, sabotage, which accounts for 7% of aviation deaths, is the most improbable reason of a crash. The attacks of September 11th are among them. These kinds of instances, however, were most common in China. If you were in an accident, is there anything you could do to improve your chances of surviving? According to a 2007 Popular Mechanics article, passengers in the back of the aircraft had a 69% probability of surviving a commercial aircraft accident in the United States since 1971, while those in the front had a 49% chance.

Similar outcomes were obtained in 2012 using an unmanned Boeing 727 loaded with crash test dummies. It wasn't a good idea to sit at the front. This is the reason for the black box, a highly secure, fire- and explosion-resistant box that collects data and audio from the cockpit and is housed in the back of the aircraft. The link between the disastrous Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 and the Indonesian Lion Air flight 610—where altitude changed drastically in both cases—has been made possible thanks in large part to this data. Air travel is still the safest mode of transportation, so even while these horrific incidents are upsetting, it's vital to realize that we can lessen their impact by learning from these "black boxes."