Questions tagged [accidents]
For questions relating to aviation accidents, or the avoidance thereof.
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What is the best way to deal with a stuck throttle?
Recently I watched a fascinating video of Cathay flight 780.
What interested me about the end of this incident is that the pilots opted to land the aircraft with the engine 1 still at 80%, over ...
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What was the penultimate flight of the TCA plane that crashed near Vancouver in 1947?
In his 1975 book An Almanac of Words at Play, Willard R. Espy recounts the following:
En route from Montreal to Vancouver in 1947, we sat down in Calgary, where a wire from my boss changed my ...
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How should you deal with passenger throttle interference just after take-off?
I took a passenger on a flight recently in a C42, in which the throttle is placed between the legs. Shortly after take-off (I'm talking 100ft in the air at full throttle), the passenger tucked his ...
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The 2 person cockpit rule - what happened? [duplicate]
I was recently on an EasyJet flight and was chatting with the FO during the cruise about flying Microlights and other aviation fun. When he went back to the flight deck, I noticed that the Captain had ...
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When was the last collision in IMC outside controlled airspace?
Following on from this question and the answer mentioning Big Sky Theory: When was the last collision in IMC outside controlled airspace? I'm interested in finding empirical evidence for Big Sky ...
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What control inputs to make if a wing falls off?
If a wing is severed due to structural damage or from a mid-air collision, what is the best control input to make?
I would think opposite aileron and rudder, i.e. if right wing falls off, input full ...
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How to escape from a pressurized airplane?
Saudia Flight 163 was an airplane where all passengers and crew onboard died following a cargo fire. The plane managed to land safely, and the passengers had moved to the front of the cabin. However, ...
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How did the CVR of Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 keep recording after the collision?
Black boxes are in the back of the plane.
The CVR microphone is obviously in the front.
When the tailfin of DHL 611 split Bashkirian 2937 into two just ahead of the wing, I would expect the recording ...
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What are some categories of accidents other than takeoff and landing?
From the FAA Remote Pilot study guide, but apparently referring to manned aircraft accidents: "...the vast majority of these accidents occur during landing (24.1 percent) and takeoff (23.4 ...
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How can citizens assist at an aircraft crash site?
In the event of an accident like that of Yeti Airlines flight 691 in Pokhara, Nepal (where the crash happened outside of the airport), what and how can those who arrive at the crash site first help?
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What happens after crashing in a commercial flight simulator?
If you crash in a commercial flight simulator (the type used to train airline pilots), what happens? Do you get a pop-up window in front of you saying "You have crashed"? Does it just show ...
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Why do paratroopers not get sucked out of their aircraft when the bay door opens?
A few instances of injury/death were reported when passengers/pilots got partially sucked out of the airplane due to cabin depressurisation in a commercial aircraft.
Paratroopers, on the other hand, ...
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Is there a way to access Flight Data Recorder information for major incidents? [duplicate]
I am working on a school project where I am hoping to use by-second data from flight 1549 (miracle on the hudson). Is there a way/place to acquire flight data recorder information for these major ...
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Shouldn't the crew of Helios 522 have felt in their ears that pressure is changing too rapidly?
Since Helios 522 was unpressurized all the time, shouldn't the faster-than-usual change of interior air pressure during the ascent have alarmed the pilots that something isn't alright because their ...
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Why couldn't the co-pilot reach the rudder on Alaska Airlines 261?
Alaska Airlines flight 261 was an MD-80 that suffered a catastrophic horizontal stabilizer failure. The CVR recorded the pilots some minutes after they first declared an emergency:
Completely ...
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What is the cause of possible crash in an accidental low RPM takeoff?
I've read from quite a few sources that during the World War II, it was not that uncommon a mishap for a fighter pilot to take off with a "coarse pitch" / "low RPM" prop setting. ...
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Has a pilot ever accidentally skipped an item in the before takeoff checklists and survived?
I would like to know if there are any documented events where a pilot has accidentally skipped an item from a before takeoff checklist, but managed to avoid an incident, reaching their destination ...
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What will happen if suddenly a window breaks during flight?
What will happen when a window of a flying aircraft breaks and is removed? Will we survive in that aircraft?
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When was the last commercial hot air balloon fatality in the UK?
When was the last commercial hot air balloon fatality in the UK?
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In which accident a helicopter and plane collided after a landing gear failure?
Many years ago (35+ years), my father told me a story regarding a VIP that was on a small plane that had landing gear failure. It was decided that instead of attempting a landing, a helicopter would ...
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How to find ATC recordings for a May 8th general aviation crash?
Unfortunately this Sunday I had a friend and her husband who crashed and didn't make it.
Would it be ridiculous to ask if anybody perhaps would know where to look for potential ATC recordings? I have ...
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Kinetic energy to perforate skin/fuselage of aircraft
I know that most aircraft have skins that are either aluminum or an aluminum alloy variant. I'm trying to figure out the minimal amount of kinetic energy that would be required for a projectile to ...
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Could the pilots really not trim manually to overcome MCAS, as shown in the Netflix Downfall documentary?
In the recent Netflix documentary, a claim is made that once MCAS activated, after several activations, the pilots physically could not trim the aircraft due to the speed and pitch.
Is this true? I ...
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Are more fatalities in commercial aircraft accidents caused by pilot error than by automated features?
This claim struck me:
Overall these automated features are an overall benefit to everybody. They are preventing some of the more classic aviation disasters that pilots can induce into these aircraft.
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Why did the NTSB issue a full report for this accident?
The NTSB issued a full aircraft accident report https://libraryonline.erau.edu/online-full-text/ntsb/aircraft-accident-reports/AAR73-10.pdf for what seems to me to be a small general aviation crash. ...
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Novel Research: Best way to sabotage a Hawker Hurricane in 1940/41?
Essentially, one of the central events in my work-in-progress novel is the sabotage of a Hawker Hurricane in Malta by a member of groundcrew. I originally had this as him loosening an aileron so that ...
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Did commercial air planes in 1972 really not have some sort of automatic distress call equipment?
I've recently watched the 1993 movie Alive, "based on" the real events of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571. I don't know how accurate it was, but the basic idea is that the pilots did a ...
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How much more dangerous is it to fly in Mexico than Europe?
Recently, Mexico's air safety rating was downgraded. How much more dangerous (in terms of statistical chances of fatal accident) is it to travel with a Mexican airline, than a European one?
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Have there been any fatal accidents involving a transatlantic flight since AF447?
I'm trying to confirm there has been no commercial airline transatlantic flight accident (with fatalities) since AF447 in 2009. This would include any flight that crossed the Atlantic ocean, even if ...
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Airplane accidents that happen during take off and landing [closed]
I have just seen some documentary about Munich Air Disaster in 1958. I found that the real reason behind this disaster is related to the aircraft performance with the thick snow runway during take off....
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Has there ever been a two engine Air Carrier where both engines failed during the takeoff run resulting in an accident?
Has there ever been a two engine Air Carrier anywhere that has had both engines fail at some point during the takeoff run that resulted in an accident?
user22445
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Why do Audio Engine Fail Alarms not state which engine has failed?
When an engine fails on e.g. a 737, an alarm sounds to indicate an engine fire (but not failure). Why however, is there no verbal alarm stating which engine has failed, in the same way that "...
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What does a pilot do if all the engine shut down in the middle of the Ocean?
In case of a commercial aircraft, what is the plan B for making an emergency landing in the middle of e.g. the North Atlantic Ocean?
I know it's very unlikely but still a possible situation. The plane ...
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How does an airline respond to the loss of one of its aircraft in a hostile country?
I was wondering if the steps are the same as an accident on home ground where there is a go team and how they set up the area around the crash site, with a team contacting passegner relatives.
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Have there been accidents involving flight simulators?
Have there been any accidents which have happened to/in flight simulators?
I understand that simulators are used to simulate general accidents for training purposes (engine failure, birdstrikes etc), ...
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Why not more Max 8 accidents?
Why did "only" two Max 8 accidents occur? Before the grounding, there must have been at least dozens but surely 100s if not 1000s of flights with this model. How come the vast majority of ...
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Why did TWA800 not stall?
I believe the NTSB account, but based on this graph, http://twa800.com/lahr/zoom-climb.htm, why did the flight not stall after the nose separated?
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Why can't we use bleed air instead of oxygen cylinders? [closed]
When cabin is depressurized due to some or the other reason then we usually have oxygen generators in airplane and they last for 12 minutes. It is very shot in usual terms but it is enough to descend ...
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What is MCAS' purpose? [duplicate]
In a recent question, one of the answers states:
MCAS has nothing whatsoever to do with stall recovery or stall behaviour.
It was implemented strictly to make the MAX's pitch stick force response in ...
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Why did the pilot in this EC135 crash change the throttle setting after encountering wake turbulence?
I’m confused in this accident why the Eurocopter EC135 pilot decided to manipulate the throttle after encountering wake turbulence - I can’t think of a reason for this. Could someone please explain ...
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Has any commercial airliner ever flown inverted? [duplicate]
Has any commercial airliner ever flown inverted, either intentionally (extremely unlikely) or during an upset?
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How safe are extreme aerobatic flights?
Statistically, how safe are extreme aerobatics flights like this one?
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Are modern airliner avionics spill-proof? [duplicate]
I thought about this today, and didn't find much other than a flight decades ago that made an emergency landing due to spillage causing the trim wheel to uncontrollably pitch the plane down into a ...
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Is it possible to increase available take-off distance for a seaplane by turning?
In the video below an A5 had an accident after takeoff. The final cause of the accident seems to be a sharp increase of AOA above stall.
Do sea planes have an ...
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If the VOR works and the TACAN works, why doesn’t the VORTAC work?
Here https://www.tailstrike.com/270680.htm is the transcript of the CVR of the Itavia Flight 870 (Ustica Massacre), but some communications have been omitted; I’ll use this site: http://www....
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Has a civil aviation accident ever involved more than two manned aircraft?
Has a civil aviation accident ever involved more than two manned aircraft? Meaning, in one accident: more than two manned aircraft had fatalities or serious injuries or significant damage; or one or ...
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What happened to Flight Sao Paulo TAM 402 flight?
I have watched a MAYDAY documentary (season 15 episode 10) and it appeared they had a reverse thrust problem.
Can someone please explain to me what really happened in simpler terms?
I have watch the ...
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Statistically, how safe are para-motor craft compared to other GA planes?
I know there are very well kept records for death and accident rates in GA aircraft, but I was wondering if there were numbers for para-motor aircaft that are easy to compare?
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What is the air crash featured in Queen's Innuendo official video?
There's a short cameo of a total destruction of a plane in Queen's Innuendo official video (2:11).
Here's the video itself:
And here is a screenshot of the most ...
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Has a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder ever failed in an accident?
Has there been a time either during an aviation accident or during normal flight where the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder devices failed or the data was significantly corrupted?
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