Questions tagged [safety]
Safety includes all aspects of protecting aircraft, passengers and crew from accidents, mistakes and other potentially dangerous situations.
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Basic question about changing track at flight level
I'm a beginner private pilot flying VFR in Europe. I think I've heard that in the US it's not so common to fly at flight levels on small aircraft, but in Europe the transition altitude can be quite ...
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McDonnell Douglas DC10 - scale model
I am building a scale model of a DC10. I need precise details of the external lighting arrangements. The red and green wingtip nav lights are obvious but I need the details of other beacons and their ...
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Do visual docking systems improve safety?
Are there any studies that shows A-VDGS (Advanced Visual Docking Guidance System) is improving the safety of aircraft movements on airports?
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What is the best procedure if the rudder falls off?
I've recently looked up American Airlines Flight 587, the second worst aircraft accident in U.S history. The main cause of the accident is the separation of the vertical stabilizer and rudder from the ...
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Are pilots allowed to take laptops into the cockpit?
In response to one of my other question, a comment mentioned Northwest Airlines Flight 188, an incident where both pilots became extremely distracted after taking out their laptops. Although Flight ...
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Is there such a thing as icing in the propeller?
It is well known of the fatal effects that can have ice build up on the wings, causing loss of lift and the multiple fatalities that have occurred due to this trough the years.
I was thinking though, ...
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Has there ever been an accident caused by a laser pointer strike?
As seen in the FAA's Laser Incidents by Year data, the number of laser strike incidents has increased over the years.
I wonder if there has been a strike serious enough to have caused an accident* in ...
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What is the difference between "Crew weight" and "Occupant Limit"?
On page 11 of the Eurofox POH it states:
Max crew weight per seat......................................................83 kg (Note: occupant limit is 100kgs per seat)
What does this mean? What is ...
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Were flight crew allowed to carry firearms before 9/11?
After the devastating terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, many aspects of aviation safety and security were improved and/or enforced.
These security measures and enhancements include:
More ...
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Terrain rising, controller not giving climb clearance... what to do?
Over the weekend, I asked for a zone transit for some class D airspace surrounding two large airports.
This is because the Minimum Safe Altitude for the area is 3,200ft and the airspace started ...
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Are planes allowed to fly in circles, and is there a minimum legal altitude for takeoff and landing?
I live near a small, possibly private, airport. Every day there are small planes flying low over the neighborhood in circles for over half an hour. They appear to just be flying for recreational ...
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Had there ever been a self-ejecting FDR/CDR?
Ever since the invention of Flight Data Recorders (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR), they played a crucial role in helping investigators determine the cause of accidents. Since they are so ...
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Airshow pilots not making radio calls - best course of action
I recently flew into an air show, where some very large, fast and expensive historical aircraft were being flown. It is important to note that although this was within an ATZ, it was uncontrolled ...
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Why don't commercial jet aircraft have a break-apart, parachute escape system?
Imagine that the pilots on a jet aircraft determine that it will crash. Consider what would happen if the design of the craft allowed it to:
Break into four pieces
Each piece is pressurized ...
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In the last year, did Airbus make any changes to existing or newly built A220s control panels or AT/AP software?
As reported in various places (e.g. by simplyflying.com), there were two near-catastrophes in the A220, not because of the widely-discussed engine topic¹, but because of how autopilot & ...
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Why aircraft don't have integrated scale? [duplicate]
There have been some accidents due to wrong weight calculations that ended in fatalities, both in comercial and private aviation.
Besides this, though it is a simple task on the pilot's flight check ...
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Safest place to seat oversize and/or limited mobility passengers on a passenger jet?
From the simple perspective of how to save the maximum number of lives, where is the best place to seat oversize passengers and those with limited mobility?
I was in the over-wing exit row on a recent ...
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B777-300 secure cockpit door flaps
B777-300 secure cockpit door has two flaps for rapid decompression pressure going from cockpit to cabin.
What system is used internally to release the flaps? Subsidiary question: can the system be ...
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Is the "deaths per passenger mile" metric more useful for evaluating air travel safety than "deaths per flight"?
Commercial airtravel is often called the safest mode of transportation, based on comparing deaths per passenger mile. However, I'm wondering if, among all possible metrics, passenger miles are the ...
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What is a "rapid changes in gravitational force"
I've been reading an article on the BBC Website about the 21/May/2024 incident on Singapore Airlines. According to this article:
"The rapid changes in G over the 4.6 seconds duration resulted in ...
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Missing position (lat/lon) in ADSB data
I would like to ask if anyone has encountered latitude longitude (Data Item 021/130) missing in ADSB data, specifically in asterix cat 21. In addition to the mandador entries, there is also geometric ...
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Is the yaw damper on modern airliners safety critical? [duplicate]
Question is inspired by the recent Southwest 737 MAX Dutch Roll incident. The news articles said the crew "regained control", which implies that the aircraft was out of control prior. I did ...
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Has a commercial airliner ever ditched in an ocean resulting in a successful water landing?
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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Twin engine or single engine with parachute, which is safer?
Statistically speaking, if we compare two airplanes: a twin engine (like the Beechcraft Baron) VS a single engine with a parachute (like the Cirrus SR22), if we add up all posible emergency events(...
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Do airline pilots prepare and are aware of possible emergency landing sites around airports they are taking off in case of complete engine failure?
Do airline pilots prepare and are aware of possible emergency landing sites (like farm fields, wide highways, lakes etc.) around airports they are taking off in case of complete engine failure at a ...
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How are cockpit warning sounds recorded/chosen?
I know that during an emergency, sounds in a cockpit such as "TERRAIN PULL UP" are played or in some planes the stick shaker takes place during a stall. But how are such warning sounds and ...
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What if the onboard airspeed sensors fail? [closed]
I've a simple question regarding the rare case of the failure of all airspeed indicators (ASI) including the co-pilots's indicator. Say the airspeed indicators were to fail during rotation, what would ...
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How will future NOTAM exchange world wide work with DigitalNOTAM?
As by my knowledge the world wide exchange of NOTAMs is based on the ICAO format within the AFTN - between all the ANSP, including as biggest the FAA(USA) and Eurocontrol(Europe). This is as well by ...
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Safety of unpressurized 9000 foot elevation 6 months after mild heart attack? [closed]
For clarity and context this is not a health or medical question, nor am I asking for permission or medical advice. Rather I would like context and information and to draw upon the experience of this ...
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What can happen if everyone congregates at the back of a parked plane? [duplicate]
On a recent flight on an A320, after landing, when parked up at the gate, the cabin crew announced something along the lines of "Stairs will be at the front, please do not congregate at the back ...
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Do other countries aside from Israel have some special requirements on wearing seatbelt upon approaching destination but before the aircraft descent?
I read (mirror) that Israel has enhanced security procedures resulting in airplane passengers having to wear seatbelt up to 180 nautical miles before the destination:
ISRAEL - TEL AVIV FIR
— ...
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What's the minimum survivable mid-air collision altitude in a glider?
This weekend I had my first gliding experience in an ASK21. My first surprise was being given a parachute. The briefing was simple, if we have a mid air collision, unbuckle the belt harness, remove ...
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Illegal flying - does anyone ever ask to see your license?
This video tells the story of a pilot who, according to government records:
[Committed] four counts of identity theft related to his use of the victim pilot’s passport and personally identifying ...
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Is it plausible that helicopters are safer than cars?
For some reason there is a lot of talk on helicopter safety online at the moment, and one fact that keeps coming up is "helicopters are safer than cars", supported by this article "Are ...
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Can a piece of duct tape bring down a plane today (Flight 603, 1996, Perú)?
According to Wikipedia, the reason for the crash was that:
adhesive tape had been accidentally left over some or all of the static ports (on the underside of the fuselage) after the aircraft was ...
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Does Boeing and Airbus perform extensive safety inspections and/or stress tests on each other's aircrafts? [duplicate]
I have been wondering if it has been a common practice within the commercial airline industry for an aircraft manufacturer to purchase a brand new aircraft model built by their competitor and to then ...
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Who determines the minimum area needed for a sky diving dropzone?
Who or what determines the minimum area required for a sky diving dropzone at an airport?
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Will the C42 or other Ultralights break up on aerobatic manoeuvres?
There is a video here of an Ikarus C42 performing aerobatic maneuverers.
Now, I know the aircraft is not certified officially, but one of the commenters posted:
The reason these planes aren't rated ...
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Why might a flight in turbulence turn off cabin lights and heating?
I was on a flight from Sofia to Bologna in mid-September of 2017. It was an early evening flight (can't remember what time we took off but it was already dark), and soon after takeoff, around the time ...
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Why are emergency parachutes for pilots so heavy?
Parachute technology doesn't seem to have got much lighter in the past few decades. It seems that most emergency parachutes designed for pilots still weigh about 15 lb. And yet a Cirrus BRS designed ...
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Why don't flight attendants wear pants instead of skirts?
After watching this video and noticing these Super Jet Airline flight attendants are wearing pants, I asked myself why not all airlines have their flight attendants wear pants instead of dress/skirts ...
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Jet Fuel Flammability
Presently a fueled passenger jet is a flying bomb. Is there any hope in the near future of chemically reducing the flammability of jet fuel on impact?
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Is there a valid case to do the imposible turn(180)?
It has been said many times not to do the imposible turn(180) after takeoff since almost always it ends in a fatal crash.
My question is, if you are flying a Cesnna 172, or any single for that matter,...
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Which of the major airliners are bleedless?
Bleed air is compressed air taken from a jet engine, and is mainly used to provide pressure for the aircraft cabin.
Fume and smoke events, due to contaminated bleed air, are regularly reported on ...
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Why do pilots have control of so many functions that seem like they should be always-on? [duplicate]
I was watching this video about MH370, and I couldn't help but notice the pilot seemed to have options that could only ever be useful for nefarious purposes.
For instance, the pilot turned off the ...
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Statistics: is being a crew on airliners overall roughly as dangerous as driving daily?
The question says it all. It's a commonplace that "airliner travel" for passengers is far and away the safest travel, on almost any metric (per mile, hour, per human-year, etc).
However, I'...
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Should approach over water have higher glide path than over ground?
On this video the pilot says he is above the glide path intentionally because the approach to the runway is over water so that he has more altitude in case of engine failure.
However, we know that ...
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Does the B52 stratofortress nose wheel lock during takeoff and landing?
I wonder if the B52 nose wheel is still moving while takeoff
and landing. Does it?
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The evolution of airline safety videos - is it going in the wrong direction? [closed]
When the very first airline safety videos were introduced, they were very straight-forward, explaining the features of the aircraft without any extra drama / cultural element infused in them.
Over the ...
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Thoughts on Idea - AP Disengage, Land Flap Selection
When AP disengages the aircraft goes into a slight roll or the possibility exists for the aircraft to go into a degree of roll.
Do you think it would be prudent for airlines to include as an SOP for ...
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