Aviation accidents and incidents

An aviation accident is an event during aircraft operation that results in serious injury, death, or significant destruction. An aviation incident is any operating event that compromises safety but does not escalate into an aviation accident. Preventing both accidents and incidents is the primary goal of aviation safety. These events help us learn how to make flying even safer for everyone.

Adverse weather conditions, including turbulence, thunderstorms, icing, and low visibility, have historically been major contributing factors in aviation accidents and incidents worldwide. Understanding these challenges helps pilots, engineers, and safety experts design better planes and procedures to keep skies safe.

Studying past accidents and incidents allows experts to improve training, technology, and rules. This careful learning process has made air travel much safer over time, even though it remains a complex and amazing feat.

Definitions

According to rules for international civil aviation, an aviation accident is when something bad happens during a flight that hurts people badly, damages the plane a lot, or makes the plane disappear. An aviation incident is when something close to dangerous happens but does not turn into an accident.

A hull loss happens when a plane is damaged so badly it cannot be fixed, or it is lost and cannot be reached.

History

One of the earliest recorded aviation accidents happened on May 10, 1785, when a hot air balloon crashed in Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland, starting a fire that damaged the town. The first accident with a powered aircraft occurred on September 17, 1908, when a Wright Model A crashed at Fort Myer, Virginia, USA. The pilot, Orville Wright, was injured, and the passenger, Signal Corps Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, was killed.

The period from 1958 to 1968 saw rapid growth in aviation, with big steps forward in safety and how accidents are investigated. In 1963, a school for investigating aircraft accidents was opened in Oklahoma City. In January 1965, a meeting in Montreal, Canada, helped set rules for accident investigations worldwide.

The deadliest aviation accident in history in terms of total fatalities occurred on September 11, 2001, when four airplanes were hijacked and crashed in coordinated attacks. The crashes destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City, damaged the Pentagon in Virginia, and included a crash in a field in Pennsylvania. Altogether, almost 3,000 people died.

The Tenerife airport disaster on March 27, 1977, remains the accident with the highest number of airliner passenger fatalities. 583 people died when a KLM Boeing 747 crashed into a taxiing Pan Am 747 at Los Rodeos Airport on the Canary Island of Tenerife, Spain. This accident led to big changes in how pilots and air traffic controllers communicate.

The crash of Japan Air Lines Flight 123 on August 12, 1985, has the highest number of fatalities for any single-aircraft accident: 520 people were killed aboard a Boeing 747. The plane lost much of its control after a repair mistake, and the pilots fought to keep it flying for 32 minutes before it crashed into a mountain.

September 11 attacks

Main article: September 11 attacks

Tenerife disaster

Main article: Tenerife airport disaster

Japan Air Lines Flight 123

Main article: Japan Airlines Flight 123

Other crashes with death tolls of 200 or more

See also: List of deadliest aircraft accidents and incidents and List of aircraft accidents and incidents by number of ground fatalities

Safety

Main article: Aviation safety

Aviation safety has improved a lot over the past hundred years. Today, two big companies make passenger airplanes: Boeing in the United States and Airbus in Europe. Both companies focus a lot on safety because it is very important for their success.

Some key safety tools in modern airplanes include evacuation slides for quick exits, advanced avionics with computer alerts, strong turbine engines, and special landing gear that works even without power. When looking at how many accidents happen for every distance traveled, flying is one of the safest ways to travel. It is much safer than driving a car or taking the train. However, when looking at how many accidents happen for every person carried, buses are actually the safest, followed by trains, then airplanes.

Statistics

The Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives (B3A) in Geneva, Switzerland, collects data about aviation accidents for planes that can carry more than six passengers. They do not count helicopters, balloons, or combat planes. Since 1970, there have been 83,772 fatalities from these accidents. Recent years have been safer, with fewer than 170 incidents each year from 2009 to 2017.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) reviews aviation safety each year. They look at statistics for different types of flights and planes, using information from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other sources. Most of their data focuses on larger planes, but they also collect information about smaller planes from member states.

Investigation

See also: Category:Organizations investigating aviation accidents and incidents

Annex 13 of the Chicago Convention sets international rules for how countries investigate aviation accidents and incidents. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) focuses on preventing these events rather than deciding who is responsible.

Different countries have their own agencies to investigate aviation accidents. For example, in Australia, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau handles these investigations. In Canada, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) does this work. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is in charge in China. Each of these agencies works to find out what caused an accident so that similar accidents can be prevented in the future. Other countries, like France, Germany, and Japan, also have their own specialized agencies for investigating aviation accidents and incidents.

Retirement of flight numbers

When an airplane crash causes serious harm or loss of life, airlines often stop using the flight number to honor those affected. For example, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Air India Flight 171, and the flights from the September 11 attacks all had their numbers retired by the airlines. However, this does not always happen; some airlines continue to use the same flight numbers even after accidents.