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Categories: Accidents and incidents in the aviation sector | Aviation history | Engineering failures
Accidents and incidents in aviation
Citing the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, an aviation accident is defined as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage. An aviation incident is defined as an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations. Other countries adopt a similar approach, although there are minor variations, such as to the extent of aviation-related operations on the ground covered, as well as with respect to the thresholds beyond which an injury is considered serious or the damage — substantial.
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History
- "Flying is not inherently dangerous, but to an even greater extent than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of carelessness, incapacity, or neglect" - anon. quotation familiar to all aviators.
Since the birth of flight, aircraft have crashed, often with serious consequences. This is due to the unforgiving nature of flight, where a relatively insubstantial medium, air, supports a significant mass. Should this support fail, there is limited opportunity for a good outcome. Because of this, aircraft design is concerned to minimise the chance of failure, and pilots are trained with safety a primary consideration. Despite this, accidents still occur, though statistically flying is nowadays an extremely safe form of transportation. In fact, the relative rarity of incidents, coupled with the often dramatic outcome, is one reason why they still make headline news.
Many early attempts at flight ended in failure when a design raised to a height for a launching would fail to generate enough lift and crash to the ground. Some of the earliest aviation pioneers lost their lives testing aircraft they built. See Early flying machines.
Otto Lilienthal died after a failure of one of his gliders. On his 2500th flight (August 10, 1896), a gust of wind broke the wing of his glider, causing him to fall from a height of roughly 56 ft (17 m), fracturing his spine. He died the next day, with his last words being reported as Opfer müssen gebracht werden! ("sacrifices must be made"). Percy Pilcher was another promising aviation pioneer. Pilcher died testing The Hawk (September 20, 1899). Just as with Lilienthal, promising designs and ideas for a motorized planes were lost with his death. Some other early attempts experienced rough landings, such as Richard Pearse who is generally accepted to have crash landed (survived) a motorized aircraft in some bushes, unable to gain altitude after launching from it from some height.
The Wright Flyer nearly crashed on the day of its historic flight, sustaining some damage when landing. Thomas Selfridge became the first person killed in a powered airplane on September 17, 1908 when Wilbur crashed his two-passenger plane during military tests at Fort Myer in Virginia.
Some well-known aviation accidents
- The Tenerife disaster which killed almost 600 people is often regarded as the worst-ever accident in Aviation history. (If the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in New York and Washington are regarded as aviation disasters, rather than as acts of terrorism or warfare, then they account for about 3000 lives, significantly more than the Tenerife disaster).
- World boxing champion Rocky Marciano was killed in 1969, when a plane he was piloting crashed.
- On New Year's eve, 1972, a chartered DC-6 carrying baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente crashed a few minutes after taking off from Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Clemente was flying as part of a relief effort for Nicaraguan earthquake victims. Neither the bodies of Clemente or the others in the plane, nor the plane's wreckage were ever found. An overload of supplies was blamed for the old airplane's crash.
- In 1979, New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson also died in the crash of a plane he was flying.
- In 1993, two top NASCAR drivers were killed in separate aviation accidents. First, defending series champion Alan Kulwicki was killed when the plane in which he was a passenger crashed while he was on his way to a race. Later, Davey Allison died from injuries suffered in a helicopter crash during a race weekend.
- In 1999, a private jet that was carrying golf star Payne Stewart crashed in South Dakota with no survivors; it is believed that all on board died from lack of oxygen (hypoxia) when the plane gradually lost cabin pressure early in the flight, while the plane was on autopilot.
- In 2004, a Gulfstream II that was about to pick up former United States President George Bush crashed before landing in Houston, Texas. All three people on board died.
Commercial airliner accidents
Lists of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners are available sorted:
- By Airline
- By Location
- By Year
- By Cause
- Alphabetically
See also:
- Aircraft hijacking
- List of deaths by aircraft misadventure
- List of people who died in aviation-related incidents
- List of space disasters
- Kegworth air disaster (Boeing 737 G-OBME crashed after an engine failure)
- Lockerbie disaster (Boeing 747 exploded in mid-air, caused by sabotage)
- Manchester air disaster (Boeing 737 caught fire on the ground after an engine failure)
- Munich air disaster (Airspeed Ambassador crashed attempting take-off during a blizzard)
- Staines air disaster (Trident stalled and crashed shortly after takeoff)
- Cavalese cable-car disaster (Marines jet cut off ski-lift cable)
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Air safety
- National Transportation Safety Board (US investigation authority)
- Air Accidents Investigation Branch (UK investigation authority)
- Transportation Safety Board of Canada (Canada investigation authority)
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Categories: Accidents and incidents in the aviation sector | Aviation history | Engineering failures