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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Why are First/Business Class seats at the front of aircraft where it is the least safe?
According to this image, taken from The Science of Survivability (Page 79) from NOAA, the statistically safest seats to sit in are at the rear of the plane (69% survival rate vs 49% at the front).
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What should you do when ATC gives you a number to call to discuss a violation?
Generally speaking, for those that either have experience calling the number, or, preferably, for those that were paid to answer the phone, what are the benefits or pitfalls of calling?
I had a ...
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How long to clear the 'suck zone' of a turbofan after start is initiated?
I recently found this (IMO funny) picture. All funny and all. But let's make this a real situation.
Let's suppose I see my crush and his BF doing this, and I come with this 'genius' idea (alright, it'...
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How hazardous is it if an engine cowl falls off?
There was recently an incident where the engine cowl of the starboard engine of a United Airline's Boeing 777 fell off during flight:
'Scariest Flight of My Life.' United Airlines Made an Emergency ...
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Why evacuate upwind?
Evacuation procedures after a forced landing recommend directing passengers upwind of the aircraft.
What is the reason why evacuating upwind is better than other directions?
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Why didn’t the Captain of Cathay Pacific flight 780 shut down engine 1 and land with a more reasonable speed?
In the approach phase, engine 1 of Cathay Pacific flight 780 got stuck at about 70% N1 and it forced the crew to do an overspeed landing (230knots).
Why didn't they shut it off by turning the fuel ...
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I just saw a plane drop off online radar; should I do anything about it?
I was watching Flight Radar 24, positioned near my house, to see what planes I could spot, and noticed a Cessna 550's transponder just dropped off @ 5,325 ft in a high-speed descent!
Is there ...
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Do pilots of airliners and jumbos do a walk around preflight check for every flight?
Do pilots of airliners and jumbos do a walk around preflight check for every flight? How do pilots of large airliners and jumbos do sumping. If its not a requirement because of aircraft design, why ...
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What safety features prevent jets sucking in ground staff or equipment?
There have been some gruesome deaths involving ground staff being sucked into jet engines, presumably because the engine thrust was set well above idle. Are there safety features (besides prudence on ...
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How is it safe for helicopters and Ospreys to refuel in mid-air?
How do military helicopters like the Blackhawk and CH-53, as well as the V-22 Osprey, perform mid-air refueling without their rotor blades (periodically and accidentally) contacting the drogue or fuel ...
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What is the rescue arrow decal on a military jet pointing to?
I've noticed that a lot of military jets often have an arrow decal with the wording "RESCUE" pointing to a rectangle of some sort. I tried looking around for information about it but I could not find ...
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What to do when you accidentally land on a runway thats borderline long enough to land on?
I was reading another question earlier when I noticed a story about a 737-700 that landed at M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport in downtown Branson Missouri. The runway is only 3738 ft, long, which is ...
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Why is the seat belt mechanism on airplanes so different from the the one on cars?
You pull a flap on airplane seatbelts, you push a button on car seatbelts. Why?
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Is it recommended to get a life raft for short overwater operations?
I'd like to fly to Santa Catalina Island (AVX) from the mainland around Los Angeles. There is a portion of this overwater flight where my Cessna 172 will be beyond gliding distance from land. I know ...
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How do pilots see at night if airplanes don't have front lights?
How can pilots identify threats ahead of them if they don't have front lights like cars?
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What must ATC do, following a reported laser sighting by a plane?
Supposing a pilot reports having a laser beam shone on them to ATC, what action should they take?
Is the pilot allowed to take evasive action?
Can other planes request clearance to avoid the area?
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How are go-arounds safe with close parallel runways?
Some airports operate simultaneous take off and landing on parallel but close runways. By close, I mean like the pairs of runways at LAX.
What if a landing aircraft makes a go-around at the same time ...
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Why don't commercial aircraft adopt a slightly more seaplane-like design to allow safer ditching in case of emergency?
For example :
Why don't they have a more hydrodynamically shaped fuselage underside ?
Specifically for the aircraft that have their engines mounted under the wings, isn't this too dangerous for ...
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What information does a pilot have about aircraft operating on an intersecting runway?
This incident at O'Hare from July 2006 made me wonder what information is available to a pilot (specifically, in an airliner) regarding aircraft that are using an intersecting runway.
In this ...
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Are controllers aware of TCAS RA taking place?
When the TCAS issues a Resolution Advisory (RA) which contradicts an ATC instruction, the RA takes priority.
Are controllers aware (notified on their screen) that a RA has been issued between two ...
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How to land the aircraft when the flight deck is full of smoke?
If a fire occurs in flight, the crew will likely try to land on a diversion airport. However landing presupposes seeing the primary instruments, switches and controls.
Source
In case the fire is not ...
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How are Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo's windows so large?
From Virgin Galactic on SpaceShipTwo:
Windows in the passenger compartment will be 13 inches (33 centimeters) wide by 17 inches (43 centimeters) tall.
IMO that's enormous for an airplane, ...
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Is it technically viable to reintroduce sleeping berths?
The airlines are always trying to jam more passengers into each plane. I'm smaller than today's average, and I'm still often uncomfortable in a standard Economy seat.
It occurred to me that in the ...
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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 much oxygen do commercial airliners carry?
How much oxygen do commercial airliners carry? Is is enough for every seat to have a 20-30 minute supply, is it a percentage of total flight time (ie 10% of total flight time), or is there a ...
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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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Is flying during the day safer than flying at night?
Is there any correlation between night or day flight time and rate of accidents?
To me it seems that there should not be a difference. If an airplane needs to execute an emergency landing, it has to ...
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Why is not every airplane equipped with 3 angle-of-attack sensors?
For critical systems, redundancy is built into the system. It is common knowledge among designers/architects to have three different inputs so in case one is faulty, input from the remaining two can ...
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Why is there a plateau in helicopter H/V diagrams?
The "dead-man's curve" in a typical helicopter height/velocity (H/V) diagram is commonly referenced to indicate that "towering flight" is dangerous and avoided in general practice. (Simon explained, "...
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Is it an overkill to request to see airplane maintenance logs at a new flight school?
I'm getting a checkout at a new flight school, so I don't know anything about the maintenance records of their airplanes other than this school has been in operation for some time and so I assume ...
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Is there any limit on how narrow aisles can be?
Sometimes, when I'm flying on the airlines, I'll board an aircraft where the aisles seem incredibly cramped, where it's almost impossible to move past without bumping every seat. I can't imagine how ...
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What should a pilot do if they feel sleepy?
What should a pilot of any large commercial passenger airplane do if they feel sleepy?
What is the maximum time per day during which the pilot may control the airplane ?
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What would happen to a flying aeroplane if there's suddenly a brick-size hailstorm?
What would happen to a flying aeroplane if suddenly there is hail in the sky?
For example, ice the size of a brick.
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Why is a 0 kt, vertical climb in a helicopter not safe near the ground?
In the "Test Pilot" column in the July 2017 issue of AOPA Pilot, one of the questions was
From reader David Franklin: If a given helicopter has a best rate-of-climb airspeed of 60 knots, its ...
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Why aren't "fuel polishing" systems removing water & ice from fuel in aircraft, like in cruising yachts?
Should you sump fuel tanks when the fuel system is below freezing? the question
should one sump fuel-tanks before flying, if in freezing-conditions?
but this implies another question that boggles me:...
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Where does the 90 seconds limit for plane evacuation come from?
New airplanes have to confirm that all passengers have to be evacuated within 90 seconds or they wouldn't be certified by aviation authorities. But where does the 90 seconds limit come from? Why isn't ...
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What does it mean when a runway's safety area is not standard?
If an airport has a NOTAM that states that a runway safety area is not standard, what does that mean? Here's an example.
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Who decided that the Boeing 737 MAX planes that were airborne when the grounding was issued cannot enter and land in EU air space?
On March 12th, 2019, EASA grounded the Boeing 737 MAX series by publishing their Emergency Airworthiness Directive 2019-0051-E (AD):
Effective Date: 12 March 2019, 19:00 UTC
[...]
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Could an airliner exceed Mach 1 in a zero-G power dive and safely recover?
(I looked for duplicates. I really did.)
Being as it is that "safety" and this are mutually exclusive:
I am stupid. I take a cruising A320, apply TOGA power, and push zero Gs until I exceed ...
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How do you report reckless pilots?
I have never reported reckless behavior by other pilots to the FAA, but I have thought about it several times. The only problem is that usually I will only know the tail number, not the name of the ...
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Is a dancing crew dangerous?
Recently, the crew of an Indian airline performed a short choreographed dance sequence mid-flight on the occasion of Holi. This is, a not so rare practice amongst low-cost Indian carriers, who ...
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Do flight regulations prohibit sleeping on the floor of an airliner?
During a recent trip in a Finnair A350, a couple traveling together was occupying 1 row of three Economy Comfort seats. During the 12 hour flight, one of the couple stretched out on the seats, the ...
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What level of information does a PIC have about a missile crossing their aircraft route?
Recently North Korea launched a missile out of its national airspace on a trajectory which crossed the route of an aircraft from Air France. The aircraft wasn't in danger at any time, the minimal ...
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How to do a Rapid Descent in a jet with inoperative spoilers?
So, let us assume you are in a simulator for your favorite jet plane, and the instructor gives you a LOFT (Line-Oriented Flight Training) scenario that goes as follows:
A normal takeoff and climb to ...
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Is it legal to drop/shoot paintballs from an airplane?
My brother and I are big into paint balling and aviation, and we've often wondered if it would be legal/possible to use an aircraft in a large scale paintball match? Mainly to drop paintballs, or ...
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How does this test flight escape aparatus work?
I was watching this video about the test flight escape systems on a Bombardier flight. In the video, this machine is shown:
The yellow box moves up and down in the video. Does it move up and flip the ...
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What is the purpose exactly of a ‘Control Check’?
I recently watched an Air Crash Investigation episode where Qantas flight 32 lost an engine shortly after takeoff. It was revealed that a stud pipe in a Rolls-Royce engine was made incorrectly, ...
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Is it possible that meteor could strike a commercial airliner?
Is it possible? Are there some such accidents in human history? Is there any rules or systems design to protect airplanes?
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Why isn't the An-72 / Boeing YC-14 configuration used for airliners?
Why aren't there a lot of passenger airliners (short flights) using this configuration, since using Coanda effect by blowing wing's extrados is much safer in harsh weather, and would provide extra ...
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What about hours flown solo without a student pilot certificate?
My instructor has ruined my training. 2.5 months ago when I started private pilot training (FAR61) I had zero knowledge about aviation. After 1.5 months he signed me off for solo and I finished all ...
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