Questions tagged [accidents]
For questions relating to aviation accidents, or the avoidance thereof.
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How dangerous is flying in a single-engine plane?
Some people consider flying small planes very dangerous. Just how dangerous is it to fly in a light single-engine plane? For example, how does the fatality rate compare to driving a car, riding a ...
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Can ATC handle a flight as emergency although the pilots have not declared an emergency?
The preliminary report for the LNI610 crash shows how much distractive conversation there was between ATC and LIN610 at a time when the pilots clearly didn't have the aircraft under control – as ...
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MH370 blackbox - is it still possible to retrieve data from it?
If the blackbox of MH370 were to be found today, would it actually still provide any information, assuming that it was in 5km deep water or so for some 5 years now?
If not, why would you still be ...
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How can a computer model yield two possible flight paths of MH370 in South Indian Ocean?
I am reading this article on the NY Times, where they show two possible flight paths of the missing flight MH370 in the South Indian Ocean:
I am wondering how they can come up with such specific ...
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How, exactly, did US1549 land on the Hudson?
A comment by @AsheeshR says:
The Hudson River Landing was due to a combination of piloting skill and an autopilot system that was engaged right till impact and kept the plane in a controlled ...
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Is it even remotely feasible to turnback a single engine aircraft with an engine failure?
Note before reading further that I'm asking this question purely on theoretical grounds, though you are more than welcome to talk about practical aspects as well.
Now, my question. It's common ...
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Could someone really die in the way that Goose did in the movie "Top Gun"?
Looking at this question I remembered a question I always wanted to ask:
In the movie "Top Gun" one of the main characters dies when trying to eject from the F-14. Here is the scene where this ...
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Could the CVR and FDR record to the cloud?
Another enthusiast question. I watch a lot of the National Geographic Channel's "Air Crash Investigation", for better or worse, and it seems accident investigators make tremendous use of the Cockpit ...
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If your plane is out-of-control, why does military training instruct releasing the joystick to neutralize controls?
I quote from Sunday Night's June 3 2019 episode with Capt Kevin Sullivan. I ask about Capt Sullivan's remark with quotation marks below.
Releasing the joystick is undoubtedly counter-intuitive to me, ...
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Has a life raft ever been successfully deployed on a modern commercial flight?
Has a life rift ever been successfully deployed in the event of an air accident involving a commercial aircraft?
For the purposes of this question a "life raft" is an inflatable device designed ...
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Are grass strips more dangerous than tarmac?
There are a couple of flight schools near me. One is at a large airport, they use Piper Tomahawks primarily to teach. Naturally, they use well maintained, tarmac runways to takeoff and land. This ...
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Can a civilian aircraft pilot see a missile coming?
Can a civilian aircraft pilot see a missile coming?
By "civilian aircraft," I mean planes that were not equipped with flares that fire when rockets approach or any similar anti-missile systems. If ...
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Why do airlines retire the flight number after a crash?
Perhaps it seems obvious, but I couldn't find a plausible reason why they do so other than that it evokes negative emotions among passengers and crew. Could there be other reasons to do so?
For ...
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Can a mistake of a single air-traffic controller cause a collision between planes?
I am watching season 2 episode 13 of Breaking Bad and in the episode it shows that:
an air traffic controller, distraught from his daughter's death,
causes a mid-air collision, resulting in ...
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Should I hold my breath in case of a decompression?
If I'm, for example, in the lavatory where there are no oxygen masks, would it be advisable to hold your breath until you can reach an oxygen mask, or until the pilot brings the aircraft down to an ...
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How exactly can an airship lose lift?
On this wiki page (under 'Comparison with heavier-than-air aircraft'), the altitude record of the L-55 Airship states:
The ultimate altitude record for a rigid airship was set in 1917 by the L-55 ...
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Are there any real life instances of aircraft aborting a takeoff or landing to avoid a vehicle?
I came across a fake video of an A380 closely avoiding a fuel truck. More details at Snopes including a link to the YouTube video.
While this video is not real, I'm interested in finding out if it's ...
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What level of damage to an aircraft is acceptable to let it depart?
Yesterday (28 June 2016), a Bombardier Q400 from EPGD to EPWA made an emergency landing because of a blown tire, spotted by a passenger. Everything went smoothly and the plane landed successfully ...
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Who owns wrecked airplanes in international waters?
Reading about a Spanish treasure ship, I found that it eventually created a dispute between the company that found it (Odyssey) and the Spanish government, so the following questions came to my mind (...
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Does the ditching switch allow an A320 to float indefinitely?
I watched a documentary yesterday about the Hudson River ditching of US Airways Flight 1549. In the documentary, one of the investigators explained that the reason the water was entering so quickly ...
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Can this aircraft wreckage be identified?
I live in Salinas (central coast California) and there’s an old plane wreck (located within the boundaries of Toro Park County Park in a remote section). On a hike yesterday, we located and took some ...
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When a large commercial jet touches down, is it committed to stopping?
I was reading about flight RWAF9268 earlier today when a questions popped into mind. When a large commercial jet touches down, is it required to try and come to a complete stop? Or is it allowed to ...
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Where is the safest seat in the plane?
If I'm going on holiday with my family on an airliner such as one of the ones listed on this page, then where is the safest place to sit?
The answers to this question seem to imply that the seats at ...
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Why are FDRs and CVRs still two separate physical devices?
Given the histories of flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders, I somewhat understand their origins as two separate physical devices. Given their separate tracks of development, regulatory ...
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What are the accident rates for kit built aircraft vs. normal aircraft of the same model?
I know that some manufacturers both sell kit and finished version of their aircraft. For a fair comparison of accident rates, i was wondering:
What are the accident rates for kit built aircraft vs. ...
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What is the difference between aviation "accident" and "incident"?
When I hear speaking about aviation crashes, sometimes I hear about "accidents" and other times about "incidents".
What distinguishes them? Is there an international standard that determines how ...
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How is fuel vapor dealt with at large airports?
When I fill my tank at a gas station, I can see fuel vapor coming out of the tank.
I imagine the space above the aircraft tank has fuel vapor mixing with air (at lower oxygen than normal thanks to ...
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How could the Helios 522 passengers have survived so long without oxygen?
I've noticed some strange inconsistencies regarding the documentation of Helios Airways Flight 522.
So first:
Autopsies on the crash victims showed that all were alive at the time of impact
But ...
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Has a commercial airliner ever crash-landed in an ocean?
They have rafts and life jackets on board and before takeoff, passengers are explained how to use that equipment, but have any evacuations ever happened successfully?
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Why must the throttle be moved slowly?
User 'Calphool' writes:
For example, in a real plane, if you jam the throttle forward too quickly, you can kill the engine or make it backfire. This may sound like a trivial detail, but people have ...
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Do planes return to service after non-fiery crashes?
A Turkish Airlines flight recently ran off the runway and ended up on its belly in a field. The landing gear were damaged, but the plane didn't burn and the fuselage remained intact.
Are planes ...
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How do helicopters avoid colliding?
When helicopters fly over a city, how do they avoid colliding with each other? For example, after a shooting or accident, both police and news helicopters could head to the same spot.
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Is a light aircraft still usable after a successful airframe parachute deployment?
Some light aircraft now have airframe parachutes. If a pilot does have to pull the chute on a Cirrus (for example), is the aircraft flyable or at least repairable after landing or is it a write-off? ...
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Would a slower speed and lower altitude reduce fatal incidents?
If it became plausible to fly commercial aircraft much lower in the future (due to developments in technology and airway regulations permitting it), say at a standard height of 5,000ft, but with a ...
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Why would a jet engine that runs at temps excess of 2000°C burn when it crashes?
Airline engines are designed to work at very high temperatures. Yet, when a plane crashes they're burnt (see below). Is it something in their design?
(bostonherald.com)
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Has any prior accident been caused by a psychologically unstable and/or suicidal crew member?
I am aware a lot of psychological tests are given to pilots to prevent such a scenario, but those can hardly be perfect, so has any aviation accident been caused (or attempted) by the conscious ...
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How did the AAIB assist in locating MH370?
I saw on news that the AAIB helped to locate the missing MH370 flight, saying that it ended up in Indian Ocean, with the help of a whole new technology.
I was wondering what kind of "new technology" ...
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On Air France 447, what would have been the lowest altitude to initiate recovery after the stall developed?
What could the lowest altitude of Air France 447 have been to recover the (stalled) flight, where the co-pilot informed the captain that he was pulling up the whole time?
The co-pilot didn't inform ...
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If an airplane touches down short of the runway, and doesn't reach it, is it still a runway excursion?
In light of the two recent incidents where aircraft landed roughly 1000 ft short of their intended runways, Air Canada AC-624 at Halifax and Asiana OZ-162 at Hiroshima, I started thinking the ...
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Who said "A little of all of us goes with every pilot we lose"?
The only attribution I’ve ever seen for the quotation below is “Anonymous FAA Inspector.”
Whenever we talk about a pilot who has been killed in a flying accident, we should all keep one thing in ...
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Which commuter flight was forced to land in a cornfield in '96 or '97?
Last night a friend's wife was describing her experience as a child being on a flight that encountered a flock of Canadian geese, where at least one engine was lost to a bird strike. I suspect both ...
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Is there an abnormal condition that could have caused this fatal accident involving a stall?
In 2009, a Grob 103 glider stalled and crashed at Richmond Field, Michigan, killing the passenger but not the pilot. (NTSB accident report: CEN09LA353)
The accident occurred after a failed winch ...
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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 would a plane descend rapidly in uncontrolled manner after a steep turn?
Here's some footage from 2010 Red Bull Air Race. At 0:17 the plane is passing through a gate and then makes a steep turn to the left and that requires the plane to have left wing pointing almost ...
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Do Boeing and Airbus learn from each other?
Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009. It was later revealed that the FO was unwittingly pulling the sidestick back, stalling the aircraft. The aircraft was an Airbus 330.
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How dangerous can it be if something falls from a flying aircraft?
How dangerous can it be if something falls from a flying aircraft?
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Have any passengers crashed planes?
The question Are pilots allowed to let passengers fly the plane? is interesting to read, noting that pilots are permitted to allow passengers to fly.
I recall an Air Crash Investigation episode (...
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Did Airbus add an audible alert when the autopilot partially disengage after the crash of Aeroflot Flight 593?
The major reason that lead Aeroflot Flight 593 to crash was the partial disengagement of the of autopilot (by the pilot's kid who was in the cockpit) which could have been avoided if the pilots were ...
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Is there any disadvantage to having the de-icing system on?
I was watching Mayday S11E02 about West Caribbean airways flight 708 and the pilots turned off the de-icing system partway through the flight. It's not why it crashed, but I was curious as to if there ...
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How would a tricycle-geared aircraft be recovered from a tip-up?
If improper loading leads to a tip up on a tricycle-geared aircraft:
Image source
what methods are used to right level the aircraft?
I can imagine inflating airbags under the tail, or lifting it with ...
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