Before the development of powered flight at the beginning of the 20th century there were innumerable attempts at flying and an innumerable amount failures and accidents some of which led to injury and even loss of life. However, with the introduction of powered flight, Man could fly faster and higher than ever before, the stage was set for some spectacular crashes, with unfortunately lives being lost. When in 1908 Orville Wright crashed his plane they were flying no more than a few feet from the ground, and yet the passenger, a military observer, died from the injuries he received. As aviation technology relentlessly marched on, the aeroplane was able to fly faster and higher and despite continuous improvements in air safety, planes continued to fall from the sky and crash often with tragic results. The plane that Orville Wright crashed was only a two-seater, today's modern passenger jets can seat up to 600, fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and at speeds, in some cases, faster than that of sound, so when one of these fall to the ground the chances of fatalities are greatly multiplied.
Air crashes though are relatively rare in comparison to the percentage of flights, and air travel still remains the safest form of travel. It is because of this that when there is an air accident it becomes headline news. When the Hindenburg burst into flames in 1937, both ciné and radio news was there to capture the horror of the incident in which 36 people died, and yet more people were getting killed daily in road accidents and, like today, they hardly get a mention.
The main causes of aeroplane accidents can be grouped under four headings (listed alphabetically)
Act of God This refers to the natural phenomena and occurrences out side of any human control, i.e., the weather, volcanic activity, etc.Act of God Collision Equipment Failure Pilot Error
Collision This encompasses everything from bird strikes to contact with another aircraft, although many collisions could usually be classified in one of the other categories.
Equipment Failure This area covers anything from the failure of a warning lamp to part of the aircraft falling off, although many reasons for equipment failure can be traced to human error at some point.
Human Error Any one in the long chain with responsibility for an aircraft could be the weak link in the chain, and the chain includes everyone from designers to pilots and air traffic control to maintenance, the list is endless. And in times when there is uncertainty about what went wrong the blame is often put down to human error.
In reality most aviation accidents are the result of two or even more of the headings, and although it often appears that the reason and/or events can be pinned down to one particular occurrence or incidence, this is rarely the whole story as other happenings leading up to the incident have influenced the scenario.
For those who have an interest in this subject and would like to find out more, a linked document entitled "Safety Critical Systems in the Cockpit Environment" is available, just click on the Safety Critical Document button. This document is rather long and it may be better save it to your system for viewing off line.
I have deliberately avoided looking at specific air incidents as there
are far to many, and there are many web sites dedicated to the subject
already. However for those who wish for more details of specific
accidents or just have a general interest in this area of aviation, I have
provided links to some of the better sites on the Links
and Resources page.
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