This article is missing citations and/or footnotes. To meet Wikipedia's style guidelines and conform to our policies regarding NPOV, original research, and verifiability, please provide appropriate citations and/or footnotes. For guidance in this area, see Wikipedia:Footnotes#How to use. Image File history File links Information_icon. ...

Capt. Christopher Stricklin ejected from his USAF Thunderbird aircraft at an airshow at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, on September 14, 2003. While making a dive, Strickilin realized he could not pull up in time and ejected after aiming it at a safe place. Stricklin was not injured.

An aviation accident is an occurrence on board an aircraft resulting in injury or death to one or more persons. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board definition of an aviation accident is as follows: Download high resolution version (1180x1368, 857 KB)Capt. ... Download high resolution version (1180x1368, 857 KB)Capt. ... EJECT is a promising Belgian Metal band, that mixes classic Thrash influences (Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer, ...) with influences from modern Metal bands in all genres (Dissection, Nevermore, Iced Earth, ...). This way they created what they themselves call Modern Dynamic Thrash Metal. Their songs are characterized by the many riffs they contain... Seal of the Air Force. ... The Thunderbirds are the Air Demonstration Squadron of the United States Air Force. ... The UK Utterly Butterly wing-walking display team flying Boeing Stearman PT-17 biplanes An airshow is an event at which aviators display their flying skills and the capabilities of their flying machines to the crowd. ... Mountain Home Air Force Base (Mountain Home AFB) is a base of the United States Air Force located near Mountain Home, Idaho in Elmore County, about 60 miles (100 km) southeast of Boise. ... Official language(s) None Capital Boise Largest city Boise Area  Ranked 14th  - Total 83,642 sq. ... September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Airbus A380 An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. ... United States is the current Good Article Collaboration of the week! Please help to improve this article to the highest of standards. ... The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a U.S. government independent organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. ...

An occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage.

An aviation incident is an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations. Flight is the process of flying: either movement through the air by aerodynamically generating lift or aerostatically using buoyancy, or movement beyond earths atmosphere by spacecraft. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Injury is damage or harm caused to the structure or function of the body caused by an outside agent or force, which may be physical or chemical. ...

Other countries adopt a similar approach, although there are minor variations, such as to the extent of aviation-related operations on the ground, covered, as well as with respect to the thresholds beyond which an injury is considered serious or the damage is considered substantial. A hull-loss accident is one where the damage to the plane is such that it must be written off, or in which the plane is totally destroyed.

History

The first known aviation fatalities — the deaths of balloonists Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre Romain on 15 June 1785.

Since the birth of flight, aircraft have crashed, often with serious consequences. This is because of the unforgiving nature of flight, where a relatively insubstantial medium, air, supports a significant mass. Should this support fail, there is limited opportunity for a good outcome. Because of this, aircraft design is concerned with minimizing the chance of failure, and pilots are trained with safety a primary consideration. Despite this, accidents still occur, though statistically flying is nowadays an extremely safe form of transportation. In fact, the relative rarity of incidents, coupled with the often dramatic outcome, is one reason why they still make headline news. Nevertheless, while the odds of actually getting caught in a plane crash are nowadays distinctly low compared to other means of transportation, the chances of not surviving such a disaster are notably higher. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (5000x3878, 3166 KB) Summary Deaths of balloonists Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre Romain. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (5000x3878, 3166 KB) Summary Deaths of balloonists Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre Romain. ... Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier. ... June 15 is the 166th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (167th in leap years), with 199 days remaining. ... 1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Many early attempts at flight ended in failure when a design raised to a height for a launch would fail to generate enough lift and crash to the ground. Some of the earliest aviation pioneers lost their lives testing aircraft they built. This is a listing of early flying machines. ...

The first aircraft fatality in history occurred in 1908 when Lt. Thomas Selfridge was killed in this plane piloted by Orville Wright. The accident was caused by propeller separation. Orville Wright suffered broken ribs, pelvis and a leg. (17 September 1908)

Otto Lilienthal died after a failure of one of his gliders. On his 2,500th flight (August 10, 1896), a gust of wind broke the wing of his glider, causing him to fall from a height of roughly 56 ft (17 m), fracturing his spine. He died the next day, with his last words being reported as Opfer müssen gebracht werden! ("sacrifices must be made"). Image File history File links First_powered_aviation_crash. ... Image File history File links First_powered_aviation_crash. ... An Air France Boeing 777, a modern passenger jet. ... Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge (1882-1908) Thomas Etholen Selfridge (February 8, 1882 – September 17, 1908) was a First Lieutenant in the US Army and the first person to die in a powered aircraft crash. ... Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 - January 30, 1948), the younger of the Wright brothers, seen as one of the fathers of heavier-than-air flight. ... September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Otto Lilienthal Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896), the German Glider King, was a pioneer of human aviation. ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

Percy Pilcher was another promising aviation pioneer. Pilcher died testing The Hawk (September 20, 1899). Just as with Lilienthal, promising designs and ideas for motorized planes were lost with his death. Some other early attempts experienced rough landings, such as Richard Pearse who is generally accepted to have crash landed (survived) a motorized aircraft in some bushes, unable to gain altitude after launching it from some height. Percy Sinclair Pilcher (1866-1899) was an English inventor and pioneer aviator who, in one of the big what if events of history, could well have become the first person to achieve controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight well before the Wright brothers had he not been tragically killed in... September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). ... 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Richard Pearse For the film director, see Richard Pearce. ...

The Wright Flyer nearly crashed on the day of its historic flight, sustaining some damage when landing. Thomas Selfridge became the first person killed in a powered aircraft on September 17, 1908 when his pilot Orville Wright crashed after propeller failure of his one-passenger plane during military tests at Fort Myer in Virginia. The Wright Flyer (often retrospectively referred to as Flyer I and occasionally Kitty Hawk) was the first powered aircraft designed and built by the Wright Brothers. ... First Lieutenant Thomas Etholen Selfridge (February 8, 1882 – September 17, 1908) was the first person to die in a powered aircraft crash. ... September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 - January 30, 1948), the younger of the Wright brothers, seen as one of the fathers of heavier-than-air flight. ... Orville Wright flying at Fort Myer, September 17, 1908. ...

Causes

The 1984 Controlled Impact Demonstration of a Boeing 720 aircraft using standard fuel with an additive designed to suppress fire. The demonstration gave the misleading impression that the additive didn't work as expected.

Approximately 80 percent of all aviation accidents occur shortly before, after, or during takeoff or landing, and are typically the result of human error and/or unregarded technical problems within an aircraft; mid-air disasters are rare but not entirely uncommon. Among other things, the latter have been caused by bombs as in the 1988 Lockerbie incident, mid-air collisions such as in the 2002 Überlingen crash or in cases of (purportedly) mistaken identity where civilian aircraft were shot down by military (compare Korean Air Flight 007). Practice approach Pre-impact Post-impact 1 Post-impact 2 The Controlled Impact Demonstration (or jokingly Crash In the Desert) was a joint project between NASAs Dryden Flight Research Center and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to test the impact of a Boeing 720 aircraft using standard fuel with... Pan Am 707 The Boeing 707 is a four engined commercial passenger jet aircraft developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. ... The Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, also known as Mother Of All Bombs, produced in the United States. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from Londons Heathrow International Airport to New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 was a Russian aircraft which collided with a DHL-owned cargo plane, on July 1, 2002 at 21:35 (UTC), near the German town of Ãœberlingen, near Lake Constance. ... Korean Air Lines Flight 007, also known as KAL 007 or KE007, was a Korean Air Lines civilian airliner shot down by Soviet jet interceptors on September 1, 1983 just west of Sakhalin island. ...

An accident survey [1] of 2,147 aircraft accidents from 1950 through 2004 determined the causes to be as follows:

• 45%: Pilot error
• 33%: Undetermined or missing in the record
• 13%: Mechanical failure
• 7%: Weather
• 5%: Sabotage (bombs, hijackings, shoot-downs)
• 4%: Other human error (air traffic controller error, improper loading of aircraft, improper maintenance, fuel contamination, language miscommunication etc.)
• 1%: Other cause

The survey excluded military, private, and charter aircraft.

A study by Boeing [2] (page 19) determined the primary cause of Airline hull loss accidents (worldwide commercial jet fleet), from 1996 through 2005, to be:

• 55%: Flight Crew error
• 17%: Airplane
• 13%: Weather
• 7%: Misc./Other
• 5%: ATC
• 3%: Maintenance

That study included 183 accidents, with known causes for 134 of them. The remaining 49 were unknown, or awaiting final reports.

Previous Boeing studies showed higher rates for Flight Crew Error:

• 70%: 1988 - 1997
• 67%: 1990 - 1999
• 66%: 1992 - 2001
• 62%: 1994 - 2003
• 56%: 1995 - 2004

Safety

Aviation safety has come a long way in over one hundred years of implementation. In modern times, two major aircraft manufacturers still co-exist: Boeing of the United States of America and the European Airbus. Both have placed huge emphasis on the use of aviation safety equipment, now a billion-dollar industry in its own right, and made safety a major selling point -- realizing that a poor safety record in the aviation industry is a threat to corporate survival. Some major safety devices now required in commercial aircraft involve: The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA, TYO: 7661 ) is an aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ... This article is about the continent. ... Airbus S.A.S. is a leading aircraft manufacturer based in Toulouse, France. ...

• Evacuation slides - aid rapid passenger exit from an aircraft in an emergency situation.
• Advanced avionics - Computerized auto-recovery and alert systems.
• Turbine Engine durability improvements
• Landing gear that can be lowered even after loss of power and hydraulics.

In comparison with other forms of transport, air has a far lower risk of death per passenger mile than road. It however remains significantly less safe than rail.[3] The onboard electronics used for piloting an aircraft are called avionics (AVI-ation electr-ONICS). ... This machine has a single-stage radial compressor and turbine, a recuperator, and foil bearings. ... Main and nosewheel undercarriage of a Qatar Airways Airbus A330 The undercarriage or landing gear is equipment which supports an aircraft when it is not flying. ...

The NTSB

In the United States, many civil aviation incidents have been investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. When investigating an aviation disaster, NTSB investigators piece together evidence from the crash and determine the likely cause(s). Image File history File links NTSB Seal (Bigger image would be great) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a U.S. government independent organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. ...

The AAIB

In the United Kingdom, the agency responsible for investigation of civilian air crashes is the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) of the Department for Transport. Its purpose is to establish the circumstances and causes of the accident and to make recommendations for their future avoidance. Image File history File links AAIB Logo File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigates air accidents in the United Kingdom. ... In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the transport network. ...

See also

Lists of commercial airliner accidents

• Grouped by airline
• Grouped by location
• Grouped by year
• Grouped by cause (see subcategories)
• Grouped alphabetically

JetBlue Airways Flight 292 making an emergency landing with the nose landing gear turned sideways The following is a list of accidents and incidents on commercial airlines grouped by airline. ... Accidents and incidents on commercial airliners grouped by location of the incident. ... // Accidents and incidents on commercial aircraft grouped by the year that the incident or accident occurred. ...

Lists of military aircraft accidents

• List of notable incidents and accidents on military aircraft
• List of Coalition aircraft crashes in Iraq

This is a list of notable incidents and accidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year that the incident or accident occurred. ... The UH-60 Black Hawk that crashed on September 21, 2004 Below is a list of Coalition aircraft that have crashed in Iraq. ...

Specific events

• Cavalese cable-car disaster (United States Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler jet cut off cable of a cable-car, killing 20 people)
• Kegworth air disaster (Boeing 737 G-OBME crashed on the embankment of Britain's M1 motorway after an engine failure)
• Manchester air disaster (Boeing 737 caught fire on the ground after an engine failure)
• Munich air disaster (Airspeed Ambassador crashed attempting take-off during a blizzard)
• Staines air disaster (Trident stalled and crashed shortly after takeoff)
• Superga air disaster, aircraft crashed into the Superga hills outside Turin
• 2002 Tampa plane crash, aircraft deliberately crashed into an office tower in Tampa, evoking acute fears of terrorism so soon after 9/11.

There were two cable car disasters in the Italian ski-resort Cavalese, one in 1976 and one in 1998. ... This article is becoming very long. ... The EA-6B Prowler is the United States Navys and the United States Marine Corpss primary electronic warfare aircraft. ... The Kegworth Air Disaster occurred on January 8, 1989 when a Boeing 737-400 crashed onto the embankment of the M1 motorway in England. ... The Boeing 737 is the worlds most popular medium range - narrow body commercial passenger jet aircraft. ... The M1 motorway heading south towards junction 37 at Barnsley. ... On August 22, 1985, Flight 28M, a Boeing 737-236 flying the colours of British Airtours, took off from Manchester International Airport in Manchester in England, on an international passenger flight to Kerkira Airport on the Greek island of Kerkira. ... A plaque at Old Trafford Football Ground commemorating the Munich air disaster The Munich air disaster occurred on February 6, 1958, when Flight BE609, a British European Airways Elizabethan class Airspeed Ambassador charter aircraft G-ALZU Lord Burghley, carrying players and backroom staff of Manchester United F.C., plus a... The Airspeed Ambassador was a twin piston engined airliner that first flew on July 10, 1947 and served in very small numbers through the 1950s. ... On June 18th, 1972, British European Flight 548, a Hawker-Siddeley Trident 1B, G-ARPI, of British European Airways (BEA) crashed two minutes after takeoff from Heathrow Airport, killing all 118 passengers and crew on board. ... Trident 1F The Trident, model DH121 or HS121, was a short/medium-range airliner designed by de Havilland in the 1950s, and built by the Hawker-Siddeley Group in the 1960s when de Havilland was merged, along with several other British aviation firms. ... The Superga air disaster happened on Wednesday, May 4, 1949, when a plane carrying almost the entire Grande Torino squad (18 players), plus management, journalists and crew, crashed into the Superga hills near Turin, killing everyone on board. ... Turin (Italian: ; Piedmontese: Turin) is a major industrial city in north-western Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the west bank of the Po River. ... The 2002 Tampa Plane Crash was an incident that occurred on January 5, 2002. ... Tampas skyline For alternate meanings, see Tampa (disambiguation) Tampa is a city located in Hillsborough County on the west coast of Florida. ... The date that commonly refers to the attacks on United States citizens on September 11, 2001 (see the September 11, 2001 Attacks). ...

Air safety

• Air safety
• National Transportation Safety Board (US investigation authority)
• Air Accidents Investigation Branch (UK investigation authority)
• Transportation Safety Board of Canada (Canada investigation authority)
• Aviation archaeology

Air safety is a broad term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorisation of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through appropriate regulation, as well as through education and training. ... The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a U.S. government independent organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. ... The Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigates air accidents in the United Kingdom. ... The Transportation Safety Board (Bureau de la Securite des Transports du Canada) is the Canadian agency responsible for maintaining transportation safety in Canada. ... Aviation archaeology, also known as aerospace archaeology or wreck chasing, is a hobby actively practiced throughout the world by both outdoor recreationists and academics in pursuit of finding, documenting, recovering, and preserving sites important in aviation history. ...

Other

• Disaster
• Aircraft hijacking
• List of deaths by aircraft misadventure
• List of people who died in aviation-related incidents
• List of space disasters

Aircraft hijacking (also known as skyjacking) is the take-over of an aircraft, by a person or group, usually armed. ... This is a list of famous people who have died by various forms of aircraft misadventure. ... This is a list of some well-known people who have died in aviation-related events. ... Test pilot Stuart Present ejects safely from the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle. ...

External links

• Aviation Safety Network Established in 1996. The ASN Safety Database contains descriptions of over 12200 airliner, military and corporate jet aircraft accidents/incidents since 1943.
• National Transportation Safety Board Accident Database & Synopses
• [4], editorial citing examples of most severe consequences of pilot error and other human error
• Check-Six.com Celebrities/Famous People Killed in Plane Crashes
• PlaneCrashInfo.com Data, photos and sounds.
• Computer-Related Incidents with Commercial Aircraft: A Compendium of Resources, Reports, Research, Discussion and Commentary, compiled by Peter B. Ladkin et al.
• AirDisaster.com An online aviation accident database.
• 1001 Crash - Aircraft accidents videos, analysis, database, statistics, blacklist, fearful flyers.