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: Failure to use
engine anti-ice during ground operation and takeoff; decision to
take off with snow/ice on airfoils; captain's failure to reject
takeoff when instruments gave warning.
Date: 23/01/82 in Boston, Massachusetts
Factors: Pilot landed
airplane without sufficient information on runway conditions;
slippery, ice-covered runway exceeded the airplane's stopping
capability.
Date: 17/02/91 in Cleveland, Ohio
Factors: Failure of flight
crew to detect and remove ice on airplane's
wings.
Date: 22/03/92 in Flushing, New York
Factors: Departure delay
after de-icing (35 minutes) without checking to see that the wings
were still free of ice.
Date: 11/05/96 in Miami, Florida
Factors: Fire erupted in
forward cargo compartment; oxygen generators classified as
"HAZMAT" were found in cargo compartment.
Date: 17/07/96 in New York City, New York
Factors: Explosion; no
reports of problems by crew.
- What measures would you suggest to prevent similar accidents
from occurring in the future? Answers
will vary. Might discuss better information system, checking for
ice on wings as a mandatory procedure, more safety inspections,
etc.
- 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
|
39
|
1930-39
|
127
|
1940-49
|
613
|
1950-59
|
1977
|
1960-69
|
7487
|
1970-79
|
12,239
|
1980-89
|
10,572
|
1990-present
|
9,366
|
- Next plot a graph of the total number of fatalities in each of
the decades.
- What trends do you observe from your graph?
Answers will vary. Possible responses
could be: an increase in fatalities with a peak in the 1970's and
a slight decrease in the 80's and 90's; few fatalities in the
decades of the 1920's through the 1950's in comparison to the
decades after the 50's.
- What do you think are the reasons for the trends?
Answers will vary. Possible
explanations might include an increase in air travel after the
1950's; the decrease in accidents after the 70's could be the
result of increased safety and regulations.
- Provide a brief summary of NASA's aviation safety program.
Answers given below in 7-10.
- Integrated Intelligent Flight Deck Summary:
The overarching goal of IIFDT is to advance knowledge by producing tools, methods, principles,
procedures, guidelines, and technologies, for revolutionary flight deck systems that enable
transformations toward safer operations. Inter-disciplinary research pursues a greater understanding of
behavioral relationships and context dependencies among and within flight deck system elements. The
research process systematically explores methods for identifying requirements by exposing them and
then testing the validity of both the methods and the requirements themselves (i.e. are suggested
functions or capabilities really required?)
- Integrated Vehicle Health Management Summary:
The goal of this project is to develop tools and techniques to detect,
diagnose, predict, and solve aircraft safety problems as they happen in flight.
- Integrated Resillient Aircraft Control Summary:
This program seeks to develop
procedures and techniques to insure stability, maneuverability and
safe landing in the presence of adverse conditions.
- Aircraft Aging and Durability Summary:
The goal of this program is to
develop technology to detect damage or degradation of materials caused by aging, to predict
the life and strength of materials subjected to long term thermal and mechanical loads, and
to contain or manage the damage associated with aging aircraft.
- Evaluate the measures that NASA and the FAA are attempting to
implement to improve aviation safety.
Answers will vary. Students should
note the breadth of the areas of concern and that technology is a
key factor in improving overall safety.