Chapter TWO

Aircraft safety
The objective of this chapter
At the end of this chapter, the learner will be able to understand;
 Safety in aviation profession
 Safety briefing
 Aircraft safety hazards like FOD, misleading and lack of information,
lightening, ice and snow, wind shear and microburst, engine failure,
stalling, spinning, fire, bird strike, human factors, ground damage,
volcanic ash, runway incursions, terrorism, military action…etc. and the
ways to handle safety hazards.
Aviation is an environment of many risks. ICAO defines safety as “the
state in which the possibility of harm to persons or of property damage is
reduced to and maintained at or below an acceptable level, through a
continuous process of hazard identification and safety risk management.”
 Aviation safety is a step towards the prevention of accidents and
incidents in the aviation industry.
 It refers to the efforts that are taken to ensure airplanes are free from
factors that may lead to injury or loss. To keep passengers and flight
crew safe while flying, Safety always comes first.
Aviation safety is important because there are lives involved in every
operation of aircraft. Due to poor safety management in aviation, not
only damages associated with a single airplane crash but the loss of much
valuable human life.
Aviation safety is the study and practice of managing risks in
aviation. This includes
 preventing aviation accidents and incidents through research,
educating air travel personnel, passengers and the general
public, as well as the design of aircraft and aviation
infrastructure.
The aviation industry is subject to significant regulation and
oversight.
An “incident” is any unexpected event that does not result in
serious losses or injury; an “accident” is an unexpected event
that causes damage, injury, or harm.
What does incident mean in aviation?
Incident – means any occurrence, other than an
accident, that is associated with the operation of an
aircraft and affects, or could affect, the safety of
operation.
The definition of an incident is something that
happens, possibly because of something else.
ACCIDENT: 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 until such time as all such
persons have disembarked, in which person is fatally or seriously
injured as a result of:
a) being in the aircraft, or
direct contact with any part of the aircraft, including parts
which have become detached from the aircraft, or
direct exposure to jet blast, except when the injuries are from
natural causes, self-inflicted or inflicted by other persons, or
when the injuries are to stowaways hiding outside the areas
b) The aircraft sustains damage or structural failure which:
 adversely affects the structural strength, performance or flight
characteristics of the aircraft, and
would normally require major repair or replacement of the
affected component, except for engine failure or damage, when
the damage is limited to the engine, its cowlings or
accessories; or
for damage limited to propellers, wing tips, antennas, tires,
brakes, fairings, small dents or puncture holes in the aircraft
skin; or
c) The aircraft is missing or is completely inaccessible.
Note: 1. for statistical uniformity only, an injury resulting in
death within thirty days of the date of the accident is classified as
a fatal injury by ICAO.
Note: 2. An aircraft is considered to be missing when the
official search has been terminated and the wreckage has
not been located.
INCIDENT: An occurrence, other than an accident, associated
with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect
the safety of operation.
SERIOUS INCIDENT: An incident involving circumstances
indicating that an accident nearly occurred.

Note 1. The difference between an accident and a serious

incident lies only in the result.

LIST OF EXAMPLES OF SERIOUS INCIDENTS

1. The term “serious incident” an incident involving
circumstances indicating that an accident nearly occurred.
2. The incidents listed are typical examples of incidents that are likely
to be serious incidents.
The list is not exhaustive and only serves as guidance to the
definition of serious incident.
 Near collisions requiring an avoidance manoeuvre to avoid a
collision or an unsafe situation or when an avoidance action would
have been appropriate.
 Controlled flight into terrain only marginally avoided.
 Aborted take-offs on a closed or engaged runway.
 Take-offs from a closed or engaged runway with marginal
separation from obstacle(s).
 Landings or attempted landings on a closed or engaged
runway.
 Gross failures to achieve predicted performance during
take-off or initial climb.
 Fires and smoke in the passenger compartment, in cargo
compartments or engine fires, even though such fires were
extinguished by the use of extinguishing agents.
 Events requiring the emergency use of oxygen by the flight
crew.
 Aircraft structural failures or engine disintegrations not
classified as an accident.
 Multiple malfunctions of one or more aircraft systems
seriously affecting the operation of the aircraft.
 Flight crew incapacitation in flight.
 Fuel quantity requiring the declaration of an emergency by
the pilot.
 Take-off or landing incidents. Incidents such as under-
shooting, overrunning or running off the side of runways.

 System failures, weather phenomena, operations outside the

approved flight envelope or other occurrences which could
have caused difficulties controlling the aircraft.
 Failures of more than one system in a redundancy system
mandatory for flight guidance and navigation.
Aviation security is focused on protecting air travelers, aircraft
and infrastructure from intentional harm or disruption, rather
than unintentional mishaps.
It can also be applied in the context of campaigns that inform the
public as to the safety of air travel.
Aircraft maintenance technicians devote a portion of their
aviation career to ground handling and operating aircraft.
Technicians also need to be proficient in operating ground
support equipment.
 Safety briefing
Safety briefings are short talks that detail health and safety
hazards that workers will face and should be attended by
everyone who will work on the particular site.

Safety briefings are a useful way to keep health and safety

forefront in the minds of your workers and make them aware of
current risks and hazards.
Daily safety briefings by supervisors to all workers help
to foster a good health and safety culture.

A pre-flight safety briefing (also known as a pre-flight

demonstration, in-flight safety briefing, in-flight safety
demonstration, safety instructions, or simply the safety
video) is a detailed explanation given before take-off
about the safety features of the aircraft.
Briefings should help both the pilot flying (PF) and the
pilot not flying (PNF) understand the desired sequence of
events and actions, as well as the condition of the aircraft
and any special hazards or circumstances involved in the
planned flight sequence.
On transportation aircraft, make sure that all passengers
know how to open the door(s) in the event of an
emergency evacuation, but it is also important for them to
know how to properly secure the door(s).
 Be sure to explain any equipment, such as supplemental
oxygen, that passengers are expected to use during the
flight

Prior to each day's operation a briefing shall be mandatory.

This briefing shall set forth the plan of operation for the
pilot and ground personnel.
 Air safety hazard
Aviation safety hazards are FOD, misleading and lack of
information, lightening, ice and snow, wind shear and
microburst, engine failure, stalling, spinning, fire, bird
strike, human factors, ground damage, volcanic ash,
runway incursions, terrorism, military action,… etc.
Let us see one by one.
 Ice and snow

Snowy and icy conditions are frequent contributors to

airline accidents.
The icing of wings is another problem and measures have
been developed to combat it.
 Even a small amount of ice or coarse frost can greatly
decrease the ability of a wing to develop lift.
 This could prevent an aircraft from taking off.
 If ice builds up during flight the result can be
catastrophic.
Airlines and airports ensure that aircraft are properly de-
iced before takeoff whenever the weather threatens to
create icing conditions.
Modern airliners are designed to prevent ice buildup on
wings, engines, and tails (empennage) by either:
1. Routing heated air from jet engines through the leading
edges of the wing, tail, and inlets, or

2.On slower aircraft, by use of inflatable rubber "boots"

that expand and break off any accumulated ice.
 FOD (foreign object damage) or debris damage
Foreign object damage (FOD) or debris damage includes
items left in the aircraft structure during manufacture/repairs,
debris on the runway and solids encountered in flight (e.g.
hail and dust). Such items can damage engines and other
parts of the aircraft.
 FOD is any damage caused by any loose object to aircraft,
personnel, or equipment.
 These loose objects can be anything from broken runway
concrete to shop towels to safety wire.
To control FOD
 keep ramp and operation areas clean
 Clean internal parts of the engine before
attempting to start the engine
 have a tool control program
 provide convenient receptacles for used
hardware
 Engine failure
An engine may fail to function because of fuel starvation, fuel
exhaustion, foreign object damage, mechanical failure due to metal
fatigue, mechanical failure due to improper maintenance,
mechanical failure caused by an original manufacturing defect in the
engine, and pilot error.
 In a multi-engine aircraft, failure of a single engine usually results
in a precautionary landing being performed, for example landing
at a diversion airport instead of continuing to the intended
destination.
 Failure of a second engine or damage to other aircraft systems
caused by an uncontained engine failure may, if an emergency
landing is not possible, result in the aircraft crashing.
 Bird strike
Bird strike is an aviation term for a collision between a bird
and an aircraft. Fatal accidents have been caused by both
engine failure following bird ingestion and bird strikes
breaking cockpit windshields.
Jet engines have to be designed to withstand the ingestion of
birds of a specified weight and number and to not lose more
than a specified amount of thrust.
The weight and numbers of birds that can be ingested
without hazarding the safe flight of the aircraft are related to
the engine intake area.
The outcome of an ingestion event and whether it causes an
accident. Core damage usually results with impacts near the
blade root or on the nose cone.
The highest risk of a bird strike occurs during takeoff
and landing near airports, and during low-level flying, for
example by military aircraft, crop dusters and helicopters.
Fatal accidents have been caused by both engine failure
following bird ingestion & bird strikes breaking cock pit wind
shields.
The highest risk of bird strike is during takeoff & landing, in low
altitudes which is the vicinity of the air ports.
 Fire
Safety regulations control aircraft materials and the
requirements for automated fire safety systems. Usually these
requirements take the form of required tests.

The tests measure flammability of materials

and toxicity of smoke. When the tests fail, it is on a prototype
in an engineering laboratory rather than in an aircraft.
Fire and its toxic smoke have been the cause of accidents.
Fire on board the a/c and more especially the toxic
smoke generated, have been the cause of accidents.
One possible cause of fires in airplanes are wiring
problems that involve intermittent fouls , such as wires
with breached insulation toughing each other , having
water dripped on them , short cuts.
These are difficult to detect once the plane is on the
ground.
 Ground damage
Various ground support equipment operate in close
proximity to the fuselage and wings to service the aircraft
and occasionally cause accidental damage in the form of
scratches in the paint or small dents in the skin.

However, because aircraft structures (including the outer

skin) play such a critical role in the safe operation of a
flight, all damage is inspected, measured, and possibly
tested to ensure that any damage is within safe tolerances.
Aircraft are occasionally damaged by ground equipment at
the airport in the act of servicing the aircraft between
flights.

Damaged may be in the form of simple scratches in the

paint or small dents in the skin.

However, b/c a/c structures (including in the outer skin)

play such a critical role in the safe operation of a flight.
 Misleading information and lack of information

A pilot misinformed by a printed document (manual,

map, etc.), reacting to a faulty instrument or indicator
(in the cockpit or on the ground), or following
inaccurate instructions or information from flight or
ground control can lose spatial orientation, or make
another mistake, and consequently lead to accidents or
near misses.
Therefore, a pilot should have right information.
 Lightning
Boeing studies showed that airliners are struck
by lightning twice per year on average; aircraft withstand
typical lightning strikes without damage.

The effects of typical lightning on traditional metal-covered

aircraft are well understood and serious damage from a
lightning strike on an airplane is rare.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner of which the exterior is carbon-
fiber-reinforced polymer received no damage from a lightning
strike during testing.
Wind shear or microburst

Effect of wind shear on aircraft trajectory. Note how merely

correcting for the initial gust front can have dire
consequences.
A wind shear is a change in wind speed and/or direction over
a relatively short distance in the atmosphere.
A microburst is a localized column of sinking air that drops
down in a thunderstorm. Both of these are potential weather
threats that may cause an aviation accident.
Strong outflow from thunderstorms causes rapid changes in the
three-dimensional wind velocity just above ground level.
 Initially, this outflow causes a headwind that increases airspeed,
which normally causes a pilot to reduce engine power if they are
unaware of the wind shear.
 As the aircraft passes into the region of the downdraft, the
localized headwind diminishes, reducing the aircraft's airspeed
and increasing its sink rate.
 Then, when the aircraft passes through the other side of the
downdraft, the headwind becomes a tailwind, reducing lift
generated by the wings, and leaving the aircraft in a low-power,
low-speed descent. This can lead to an accident if the aircraft is
too low to effect a recovery before ground contact.
 Structural failure of the aircraft
Structural failure of aircraft structures caused by metal fatigue
 Improper repair procedures can also cause structural failures
 Now that the subject is better understood, rigorous inspection
and nondestructive testing procedures are in place.
 Composite materials consist of layers of fibers embedded in
a resin matrix.
 In some cases, especially when subjected to cyclic stress, the
layers of the material separate from each other (delaminate) and
lose strength.
 As the failure develops inside the material, nothing is shown on
the surface; instrument methods (often ultrasound-based) have to
be used to detect such a material failure.
 Stalling
Stalling an aircraft (increasing the angle of attack to a point at which the
wings fail to produce enough lift) is dangerous and can result in a crash if
the pilot fails to make a timely correction.
Devices to warn the pilot when the aircraft's speed is decreasing close to
the stall speed include stall warning horns (now standard on virtually all
powered aircraft), stick shakers, and voice warnings.
 Most stalls are a result of the pilot allowing the airspeed to be too slow
for the particular weight and configuration at the time.
 Stall speed is higher when ice or frost has attached to the wings and/or
tail stabilizer.
 The more severe the icing, the higher the stall speed, not only because
smooth airflow over the wings becomes increasingly more difficult,
 Spinning
A spin is a yaw aggravated stall which results in rotation about the
spin axis. The drag is greater on the more deeply stalled wing
causing the aircraft to autorotate (yaw) toward that wing. Spins are
characterized by high angle of attack, low airspeed and high rate of
descent.
Why is my plane spinning?
Image result for what is spinning of aircraft?
Since your high wing generates more lift than the low wing, it rolls
your aircraft into the spin. And at the same time, your low wing
produces more drag, because it's at a higher angle-of-attack. And that
drag causes your plane to yaw into the spin. When you combine both
forces, you wind up in a fully-developed spin.
 Human factor
Human factors, including pilot error, are another potential set of factors,
and currently the factor most commonly found in aviation accidents.
 CRM, or Crew Resource Management, is a technique that makes use of
the experience and knowledge of the complete flight crew to avoid
dependence on just one crew member.
 Pilot error and improper communication are often factors in
the collision of aircraft. This can take place in the air or on the ground.
 he barriers to effective communication have internal and external
factors.
 The ability of the flight crew to maintain situation awareness is a critical
human factor in air safety.
 Human factors training is available to general aviation pilots and
called single pilot resource management training.
 Pilot fatigue
ICAO defines fatigue as "A physiological state of reduced mental or
physical performance capability resulting from sleep loss or extended
wakefulness, circadian phase, or workload."
 The phenomenon places great risk on the crew and passengers of an
airplane because it significantly increases the chance of pilot error.
 Fatigue is particularly prevalent among pilots because of
"unpredictable work hours, long duty periods, circadian disruption,
and insufficient sleep".
 These factors can occur together to produce a combination of sleep
deprivation, circadian rhythm effects, and 'time-on task' fatigue.
 Regulators attempt to mitigate fatigue by limiting the number of
hours pilots are allowed to fly over varying periods of time.
 Piloting while intoxicated
Rarely, flight crew members are arrested or subject to disciplinary action
for being intoxicated on the job.
In 1990, three Northwest Airlines crew members were sentenced to jail
for flying while drunk.
In 2001, Northwest fired a pilot who failed a breathalyzer test after a
flight. In July 2002, both pilots of America West Airlines Flight 556 were
arrested just before they were scheduled to fly because they had been
drinking alcohol.
The pilots were fired and the FAA revoked their pilot licenses.
At least one fatal airliner accident involving drunk pilots occurred
when Aero Flight 311 crashed at Koivulahti, Finland, killing all 25 on
board in 1961.
 Pilot suicide and murder
There have been rare instances of suicide by pilots. Although
most air crew are screened for psychological fitness, a very few
authorized pilots have flown acts of suicide and even mass
murder.
 European Aviation Safety Agency issued a temporary
recommendation for airlines to ensure that at least two crew
members, including at least one pilot, are in the cockpit at all
times of the flight.
 Several airlines announced they had already adopted similar
policies voluntarily.
 Deliberate aircrew inaction
Inaction, omission, failure to act as required, willful
disregard of safety procedures, disdain for rules,
unjustifiable risk-taking by pilots have also led
to accidents and incidents.
 Human factors of third parties

Unsafe human factors are not limited to pilot errors.

Third party factors include ground crew mishaps, ground
vehicle to aircraft collisions and engineering maintenance
related problems.
 Controlled flight into terrain
Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) is a class of accidents in which an aircraft
is flown under control into terrain or man-made structures.

 CFIT accidents typically result from pilot error or of navigational system

error. Crew position awareness and monitoring of navigational systems are
essential to the prevention of CFIT accidents.
 Another anti-CFIT tool is the Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW)
system which monitors the altitudes transmitted by aircraft transponders and
compares that with the system's defined minimum safe altitudes for a given
area.
 When the system determines the aircraft is lower, or might soon be lower,
than the minimum safe altitude, the air traffic controller receives an acoustic
and visual warning and then alerts the pilot that the aircraft is too low.
 Electromagnetic interference
 The use of certain electronic equipment is partially or entirely
prohibited as it might interfere with aircraft operation, such as
causing compass deviations.
 Use of some types of personal electronic devices is prohibited when
an aircraft is below 10,000 feet (3,000 m), taking off, or landing.
 Use of a mobile phone is prohibited on most flights because in-flight
usage creates problems with ground-based cells.
Volcanic ash
Plumes of volcanic ash near active volcanoes can
damage propellers, engines and cockpit windows.
Terrorism
Aircrew are normally trained to handle hijack situations.
 Military action
Passenger planes have rarely been attacked in both peacetime
and war.
Accident survivability
Earlier tragedies investigations and improved engineering has
allowed many safety improvements that have allowed an
increasing safer aviation.

Airport design
Airport design and location can have a large impact on aviation
safety.
This is intended to cover ninety percent of the cases of an aircraft leaving
the runway by providing a buffer space free of obstacles. Many older
airports do not meet this standard.

One method of substituting for the 1,000 feet (300 m) at the end of a
runway for airports in congested areas is to install an engineered
materials arrestor system (EMAS).

These systems are usually made of a lightweight, crushable concrete that

absorbs the energy of the aircraft to bring it to a rapid stop.
 Emergency airplane evacuations
While some situations are extremely dire, such as when the plane is
on fire, in many cases the greatest challenge for passengers can be
the use of the evacuation slide.
Another improvement to airplane evacuations is the requirement by
the Federal Aviation Administration for planes to demonstrate an
evacuation time of 90 seconds with half the emergency exits blocked
for each type of airplane in their fleet.
According to studies, 90 seconds is the time needed to evacuate
before the plane starts burning, before there can be a very large fire
or explosions, or before fumes fill the cabin.
 Aircraft materials and design
Changes such as using new materials for seat fabric and
insulation has given between 40 and 60 additional seconds
to people on board to evacuate before the cabin gets filled
with fire and potential deadly fumes.
Other improvements through the years include the use of
properly rated seatbelts, impact resistant seat frames, and
airplane wings and engines designed to shear off to absorb
impact forces.
 Radar and wind shear detection systems
As the result of the accidents due to wind shear and other
weather disturbances, most notably the 1985 crash
of Delta Air Lines Flight 191, the U.S.

Federal Aviation Administration mandated that all

commercial aircraft have on-board wind shear detection
systems by 1993.
Since 1995, the number of major civil aircraft accidents caused
by wind shear has dropped to approximately one every ten years,
due to the mandated on-board detection as well as the addition of
Doppler weather radar units on the ground. The installation of
high-resolution Terminal Doppler Weather Radar stations at
many U.S. airports that are commonly affected by wind shear has
further aided the ability of pilots and ground controllers to avoid
wind shear conditions.

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