From the smallest single-engine plane to the biggest of the jumbo jets, all airplanes are designed, built, operated, and maintained by humans. Pilot errors are one of the most commonly known causes of aviation accidents, but it is not just pilots that have influence and control over an airplane. The design and maintenance of airplanes and their engines are just as crucial as their operation, and how air traffic is managed has also been the cause of aviation accidents.
Most aviation accidents are fatal, but not all. People have suffered life-changing injuries from accidents that did not cause any loss of life. Here is a closer look at the role all human factors can play in aviation accidents, and how pilot error can combine with other factors to cause both fatal and non-fatal incidents.
In the Air and on the Ground
Human factors that influence aviation accidents can refer to both the way pilots and engineers interact with airplanes and also the design of the machine and its software. How a human pilot(s) controls and interacts with the plane involves a range of cognitive, physical, and social factors that can influence their performance and the safety of passengers and cargo. Engineers who design and maintain the airplane, its engines, and its software can also influence the performance of the plane, sometimes beyond the pilot’s control.
Understanding all these factors and the dynamics between them when investigating an aviation accident is crucial to identifying causes, and responsibility. The Boeing 737 Max became famous around the world, but for all the wrong reasons. Investigations after two fatal crashes revealed that software was to blame, and the pilots flying both planes were powerless to prevent the accidents. Though pilot error plays a part in the majority of aviation accidents, the human factors that influence accidents can come from the ground as well as while in the air.
Not All Aviation Accidents Are Fatal
The aviation accidents that grab the headlines and are covered nearly constantly by cable news are often ones that involve the loss of human life, often all those on board. Accidents that cause passenger injuries happen more frequently and rarely make the news or even social media. Burbank Airport experienced an accident when a plane was landing there in 2000 that did not get much coverage at the time.
Nearly a third of the 142 passengers suffered personal injuries, with two of them very seriously injured, but this was just a blip in the media. For the survivors, the effects of the accident have been long lasting, with many still experiencing physical and psychological problems to this day. The airplane was damaged beyond repair after it overran the runway, barely missing a gas station.
The investigation determined that not only were the pilots responsible for approaching the landing with an excessive amount of speed, but that their air traffic controller was also a human factor in the accident. Poor management of air traffic put the pilots in a position that made a successful landing almost impossible, and they should have been instructed to go around for a better approach, or the pilots should have opted to themselves.
Maintaining Safety for All In the Air
Poor and careless maintenance caused one of the most famous aviation accidents in history. The ripple effects from the accident are still felt by the families of those lost as well as those that loved the airplane involved, the Concorde. The entire fleet of supersonic passenger airplanes was grounded permanently not long after a fatal failed take-off in Paris caused by poor maintenance — not of the Concorde, but of another plane.
The airplane that took to the skies directly before Concorde was a Continental Airlines DC-10. A titanium strip had become loose during take-off and was left in the path of the supersonic Air France flight to New York. When the Concorde took its take-off run, the titanium strip burst one of its tires and the debris from the tire punctured the fuel tanks in the wing above.
Fuel leaked from the tank ignited when it reached the plume of the Concorde’s wing-mounted engines, causing a massive fire. This all happened in the blink of an eye while the airplane was at its maximum ground speed and beginning its ascent into the air. Though the pilots fought bravely to return the plane quickly to the airport, they lacked the power and height to make it back. The Concorde crashed into a hotel less than two minutes after taking off. All passengers, crew, and six people in the hotel lost their lives.
The investigation into the crash was long and arduous, with a huge number of people affected by the events of the accident. Investigators discovered the strip and identified it as coming from a hatch on the engine of a DC-10 airplane. Poor quality and negligent maintenance had been performed on the Continental flight’s engines in New York before the plane’s flight to Paris. The small piece of metal had worked loose as the plane barreled down the runway before Concorde.
The supersonic plane’s design also played a part in the accident. Its fuel tanks had less protection than a typical airplane to save weight, and its tires were a unique rubber compound for the airplane. Refitting the planes in light of the accident to increase safety made Concorde uneconomical to operate for both Air France and British Airways. Flights were canceled permanently just over three years after the accident and attempts to run occasional trips on the airplane have all failed.
Flying in a plane is one of the safest ways to travel, but there are still aviation accidents every year that leave passengers injured and families without loved ones. Human factors cause nearly every aviation accident, even if the cause is not pilot error.
If you have been affected by an aviation accident, pay a visit to the legal offices of Scarlett Law Group at 536 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133, or call now for a free consultation on (415) 352-6264. Get the representation and recognition you deserve and get in contact today.