| Major Categories |
Human error |
46% |
|
|
| Weather |
20% |
| Sabotage |
10% |
| Pilot incapacitation |
1% |
| Bird strike |
1% |
| Summary of
Mechanical Failure |
|
|
| Equipment failure |
38% |
| Structural failure |
9% |
| Design flaw |
5% |
| Summary of Weather |
| Turbulence/TStorms |
22% |
| Not specified |
22% |
|
|
|
|
| Windshear |
8% |
| Lightning |
6% |
| Heavy rain |
5% |
| Snow |
5% |
Copywrite ©1997 Richard Kebabjian. |
| All Categories Combined |
| Pilot/crew procedural error |
21.9% |
|
|
| Equipment failure |
8.4% |
| Midair collision |
5.6% |
| Shot down |
4.9% |
| Turbulence/TStorm |
4.4% |
| Unspecified weather |
4.3% |
| Controlled flight into terrain |
4.0% |
| Explosive device |
3.8% |
| Fog |
3.8% |
| Navigation error |
3.8% |
| Maintenance error |
2.8% |
| Crew error + weather |
2.8% |
| Icing |
2.7% |
| Structural failure |
2.0% |
| Hijacked |
1.6% |
| Windshear/Microburst |
1.6% |
| Fuel starvation |
1.4% |
| Air Traffic Control error |
1.2% |
| Fire caused by human error |
1.2% |
| Design flaw |
1.1% |
| Lightning |
1.1% |
| Heavy rain |
1.0% |
| Snow |
0.9% |
| Pilot incapacitation |
0.9% |
| Aircraft overloaded |
0.8% |
| Bird strike |
0.6% |
| Ground collision |
0.5% |
| Pilot's shot |
0.3% |
|
| Even if the latest generation of ETOPS
aircrafts are sufficiently reliable to fly during 3 hours with a single engine, an
extended flight time increases risks. And, there are no guarantees that nothing else
can go wrong ...
"[...] To be sure, these
are anecdotal reports, reflecting perhaps the few times out of thousands of ETOPS flights
where problems occurred, but the issues the reports raise seem worth noting, if nothing
else as indicators of the rich variety of things that potentially can go wrong. Among the
items in these reports: the allegation that pilots are under pressure not to shut down
their engines in order to retain ETOPS certification (and possibly biasing the comforting
low in-flight shutdown rates), the utility of satellite telephones to solve problems
(although the phones are not required for ETOPS flights), aircraft departing without the
required ETOPS inspection because of a last-minute aircraft switch and, above all, the
capacity of aircrews for intelligent improvisation in the face of surprising circumstances
not part of the usual discussions about ETOPS.[...]
Air Safety Week, Jul.5, 1999
[More about this]
|
