Airplane Accident Problem Set

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If so instructed by your teacher, print out a worksheet page for these problems.

Once you have accessed the Major Airplane Disasters site, find the following accidents and read the "report" entry for each of them. For each of these six accidents, you are to identify the factors given in the report as the cause(s) of the accident. (Please note that the format lists the date followed by the month and then the year.)

Date: 13/01/82 in Washington, D.C.

Factors:

 

Date: 23/01/82 in Boston, Massachusetts

Factors:

 

Date: 17/02/91 in Cleveland, Ohio

Factors:

 

Date: 22/03/92 in Flushing, New York

Factors:

 

Date: 11/05/96 in Miami, Florida

Factors:

 

Date: 17/07/96 in New York City, New York

Factors:

 

1. What measures would you suggest to prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future?

    

2. Create a chart showing the total number of fatalities for each of the following decades: 1920's,1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, 1990's.

   Decade	Total Number of Fatalities
   1920-29
   1930-39
   1940-49
   1950-59
   1960-69
   1970-79
   1980-89
   1990-present

3. Next plot a graph of the total number of fatalities in each of the decades.

    

4. What trends do you observe from your graph?

    

5. What do you think are the reasons for the trends?

    

6. Now visit the Aviation Safety Program site and access the NASA programs/initiatives that are currently being discussed. Read the selections for Software Technology, Human/Automation Integration Research, Maintenance Operations and Training Research, and Aviation Weather Information. Provide a brief summary of NASA's aviation safety program.

    

7. Software Technology Summary:

    

8. Human/Automation Integration Research Summary:

    

9. Maintenance Operations and Training Research Summary:

    

10. Aviation Weather Information Summary:

     

11. Evaluate the measures that NASA and the FAA are implementing to improve aviation safety.   

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