Aviation Accidents Overview
While many believe flying is much safer than driving, it still carries inherent risks. When traveling at high speeds and altitudes, there’s little room for error. A minor mechanical issue, a moment of misjudgment, or an incorrect response can quickly escalate into a disaster, endangering passengers and even people on the ground.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has conducted extensive investigations into aviation crashes and found that most of them are preventable. These crashes can involve helicopters, small private planes, or large passenger jets. Common causes include mechanical failures, pilot errors, poor maintenance, and inadequate training. By addressing these issues, many accidents could be avoided, making air travel significantly safer.
Attorney Mike Andrews from Beasley Allen specializes in aviation litigation and has earned recognition as one of the Top 10 Aviation Attorneys by the National Trial Lawyers Association. He is currently representing the families of victims in the Ethiopian Airlines crash investigations.
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Cole Portis Personal Injury Section Head Montgomery, AL -
Mike Andrews Principal Montgomery, AL
Boeing 737 Max 8 Crashes
In less than five months, two Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes involving Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines resulted in 346 fatalities. Both crashes, occurring in October 2018 and March 2019 respectively, were linked to the malfunctioning Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Despite efforts to develop a fix after the Lion Air crash, it was not implemented before the Ethiopian A Boeing’s irlines crash. Consequently, the 737 MAX was grounded worldwide.
Investigations revealed that Boeing’s retrofitting of the 737 design to compete with Airbus led to significant design flaws, including the problematic MCAS. The crashes prompted scrutiny of Boeing’s practices and the FAA’s certification process, uncovering issues with safety feature omissions and inadequate pilot training.
Passenger Airplane Accidents
Commercial airline safety has significantly improved over the years, but accidents still occur, sometimes with tragic consequences. The leading cause of these crashes is human error, often involving pilots and flight crews.
Mistakes can range from fatigue and poor training to misjudgments and mishandling of the aircraft. Simple errors, such as misreading instruments or failing to follow air traffic control instructions, can lead to serious accidents. Mechanical issues, including faulty equipment and design flaws, also play a significant role. These problems can stem from manufacturing defects or inadequate maintenance, and even the best-trained pilots might not always be able to prevent a crash if the plane experiences critical failures.
Additionally, air traffic controllers are crucial for ensuring flight safety, and their mistakes or negligence can contribute to accidents or near-misses. While flying remains generally safe, these factors underscore the need for ongoing improvements in training, maintenance, and air traffic management to enhance passenger safety.
Helicopter Crashes
Helicopters are incredibly versatile, often called the workhorses of aviation due to their ability to fly vertically, hover, and navigate low altitudes. They’re essential for emergency medical services, commercial transport, law enforcement, recreation, news reporting, offshore operations, logging, firefighting, utility work, and more.
However, helicopters are statistically the least safe form of air transport. Most accidents are due to pilot error, such as inadequate training, poor weather conditions, improper flight planning, and incorrect responses to mechanical issues. Other errors can include faulty air traffic control communications and poor maintenance.
Some crashes are caused by mechanical and electrical failures, which can stem from design flaws or manufacturing errors. Liability for these accidents is often shared among various parties, including the helicopter’s manufacturer, owner, pilot, flight school, dealer, air traffic control operators, maintenance workers, and even owners of obstructive structures like towers and buildings.
Small Private Airplane Accidents
General aviation includes all flights except for military, scheduled airlines, and most cargo jets. This category covers private and charter jets used for flight training, business, recreation, police and firefighting operations, crop dusting, and more.
These aircraft make up over 75% of all air traffic in the U.S., so it’s not surprising that most airplane accidents involve general aviation. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), many crashes occur in smaller aircraft like airplanes and gliders used for personal flying. Other crashes involve aircraft used for flight training, agricultural applications, ferrying, and business.
About half of these crashes are due to pilot error, such as flying in poor weather, navigational mistakes, misreading cockpit instruments, ignoring air traffic control, and fatigue. Poor maintenance is another major cause, especially in older aircraft where flaws might not be easily detected. Neglecting thorough pre-flight checks can also lead to accidents.
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