Accidents and incidents in aviation

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An aviation accident is an incident on board an aircraft causing injury or death to one or more persons. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board definition of an aviation accident is as follows:

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 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 is considered substantial.

Capt. Christopher Stricklin ejected from his USAF Thunderbirds aircraft at an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, on September 14, 2003. Stricklin was not injured.

1 History
2 Causes
3 Some well-known aviation disasters
4 Commercial airliner accidents
5 See also
6 External links

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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"—Rob 'Smokey' Ray

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 with minimizing 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 launch would fail to generate enough lift and crash to the ground. Some of the earliest aviation pioneers lost their lives testing aircraft they built.

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 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.

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Causes

The 1984 Controlled Impact Demonstration of a Boeing 720 aircraft using standard fuel with an additive designed to suppress fire. The experiment showed that the additive didn't work as expected.

An accident survey [1] of 2,147 airplane accidents from 1950 through 2004 determined the causes to be as follows:

37%: Pilot error
33%: Undetermined or missing in the record
13%: Mechanical failure
7%: Weather
5%: Sabotage (bombs, hijackings, shoot-downs)
4%: Other human error (air traffic controller error, improper loading of aircraft, improper maintenance, fuel contamination, language miscommunication etc.)
1%: Other cause

The survey excluded military, private, and charter aircraft.

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Some well-known aviation disasters

The zeppelin LZ129 Hindenburg on landing at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey on May 6, 1937 — the crash of the largest airship ever built, effectively ending the era of commercial lighter-than-air travel.
A De Havilland Comet crashed in Jalalogori, India soon after take-off from Calcutta (now Kolkata) on May 2, 1953 — the first of a series of crashes that led to Comet 1 fleet being grounded and eventually scrapped.
The Grand Canyon Midair Collision, on June 30, 1956, in which a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation and a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 collided while flying over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, killing all 128 passengers and crew members aboard both aircraft.
The Day The Music Died - February 3, 1959, plane crash that killed Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper
The 1960 New York air disaster, on December 16, 1960, in which a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 jet collided with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation propliner over Staten Island, New York. The Constellation crashed onto a military airfield; the United jet careened into the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, where it crashed and exploded. All 128 occupants of both planes and six persons on the ground died.
Aer Lingus Flight 712 in 1968. 61 passengers and crew were lost aboard a Vickers Viscount 803 EI-AOM from Cork to London when it crashed in mysterious circumstances into the sea off Tuskar Rock, County Wexford. No definite cause has been found. Some have speculated that the aircraft may have suffered a missile strike
The LANSA Lockheed Electra OB-R-941 on a flight from Lima to Pucallpa, Peru, breaks apart in mid-air after being set aflame by lightning on December 24, 1971. It crashes in the Amazonian Rainforest. 91 people die; the sole survivor is Juliane Koepcke, a 17-year old girl who survives a fall from 2 miles and 10-day walk through the jungle before being found by hunters. Her mother, famous ornithologist Maria Koepcke, dies; director Werner Herzog had narrowly missed being on the same flight.
The Andes flight disaster of 1972, in which the passengers who survived the crash had to resort to cannibalism to stay alive.
The Tenerife disaster: on March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747 airliners, from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and PanAm collided on the runway of Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, Islas Canarias, killing 583 people. It is the worst accidental disaster in the history of aviation.
The crash of Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182, in San Diego, California on September 25, 1978, following the PSA Boeing 727-214 jetliner's midair collision with a Cessna. California's worst aviation disaster to date, with a death toll of 144.
The Mount Erebus disaster, in 1979, in which an Air New Zealand DC-10 flew into Mount Erebus, Antarctica.
The Air Canada Flight 143 (the "Gimli Glider") crash-landed in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada on July 23, 1983 after the airplane ran out of fuel because of a metric conversion error during refueling. Only a few passengers were slightly injured, and none were killed.
Korean Air Flight 007 — Shot down by Soviet Union fighter planes. All 269 passengers and crew on board died.
The Air India Bombing of June 23, 1985 was the largest mass-murder in Canadian history, caused by a bomb placed in checked luggage.
Japan Airlines Flight 123 — the worst single-aircraft disaster in history, killing 520 people.
The USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, claiming to have mistaken it for an F-14 fighter. All 290 passengers on board were killed.
Lockerbie disaster — On December 21, 1988 Boeing 747 was destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, killing all 278 on board and another 11 on the ground
Chinook crash on Mull of Kintyre in 1994
China Airlines Flight 140 crashed at Nagoya Airport on April 26, 1994, killing 264 people.
TWA Flight 800 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people onboard.
Korean Air Flight 801 crashed near Guam Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport on August 6, 1997, killing 228 people.
Air France Flight 4590 was a Concorde flight from Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris, France to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, New York, which crashed on July 25, 2000, in Gonesse, France shortly after takeoff, killing all on board and four on the ground. The crash led to the end of Concorde flights.
American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were intentionally crashed into the World Trade Center buildings in Manhattan, New York on September 11, 2001, killing all on board and 2595 on the ground. Concurrently, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93 were crashed in related terrorist attacks, into The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, respectively. As with the World Trade Center attacks, all on board these two flights were killed, as well as 125 in the Pentagon.
China Airlines Flight 611 broke up near Penghu Islands mid-air on May 25, 2002, killing all 225 people on board.
Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashed shortly after take-off from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on January 3, 2004. All 135 passengers and 13 crew were killed.
Helios Airways Flight 522, Boeing 737-31S, crashed into a mountain between Marathon and Varnavas on August 14, 2005 killing 121.
West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashed in a mountainous region in northwest Venezuela on the morning of Tuesday, August 16, 2005, killing all 152 passengers and eight crew. It was the worst crash to date in Venezuelan history.
TANS Peru Flight 204 crashed near Pucallpa, Peru on August 23, 2005. At least 41 people died and about 50 survived.
Air France Flight 358 overshoots the runway while landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport on August 2, 2005. All passengers and crew aboard survived.
Mandala Airlines Flight 091 crashed into a heavily-populated residential area seconds after taking off from Polonia International Airport in Medan, Indonesia on September 5, 2005.