Airline Accident Causes

Causes of a Plane Crash

Airplanes are extremely safe, considering the amazing number of flights traveling through the skies at any given time. But aviation accidents do happen. Here are some of the most common accident causes and examples of crashes resulting from those causes. We also let you know what improvements have come because of these incidents. We have also included information on improvements that have been made after investigations have been completed and recommendations made to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Birds

Yes, birds have been known to cause several small plane crashes and have been thought to be the cause of two major crashes prior to 2009. Birds can often get sucked into engines on takeoff, disabling the planes and forcing pilots to make emergency landings or crash. The most recent incident involving birds came in 2009 when US Airways Flight 1549 hit migrating Canada geese, causing the plane to crash land in New York’s Hudson River. The finding adds to calls for greater use of bird-detecting radar to warn pilots of migrating flocks.

Equipment Failure/Malfunction

In one of the more remarkable airline stories, Aloha Flight 243 in 1988 lost a large section of its fuselage at 24,000 feet, leaving dozens of passengers exposed to open air. The plane was able to land safely, although one flight attendant was swept out of the plane and killed. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) blamed a combination of corrosion and widespread fatigue damage in the 19-year-old plane. The FAA began the National Aging Aircraft Research Program in 1991, which tightened inspection and maintenance requirements for high-use and high-cycle aircraft. Post-Aloha, there has been only one American fatigue-related jet accident—the Sioux City DC-10.

When US Airways Flight 427 began its approach to land at Pittsburgh, the Boeing 737 suddenly rolled to the left and plunged 5,000 feet to the ground, killing all 132 on board. The plane’s black box revealed that the rudder had abruptly moved to the full-left position, triggering the roll. Boeing spent $500 million to retrofit all 737s to alleviate the problem of a jammed valve in the rudder-control system, which had caused the rudder to reverse.

TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 that had just taken off from JFK bound for Paris, killed all 230 people aboard after it apparently exploded. The NTSB concluded that fumes in the plane’s nearly empty center-wing fuel tank had ignited, most likely after a short circuit in a wire bundle led to a spark in the fuel gauge sensor. The FAA has since mandated changes to reduce sparks from faulty wiring and other sources. Boeing also developed a fuel-inerting system that injects nitrogen gas into fuel tanks to reduce the chance of explosions.

Midair Collisions

In 1956, a TWA Super Constellation and United DC-7 took off from Los Angeles only three minutes apart. About 90 minutes later, the two aircraft were apparently maneuvering to give their passengers views of the Grand Canyon when the DC-7’s left wing and propellers ripped into the Constellations tail. Both aircraft crashed into the canyon, killing all 128 people aboard. The accident spurred a major upgrade of the air traffic control (ATC) system. And there hasn’t been a collision between two airliners in the United States in 47 years.

The upgrades after the 1956 crash, however, failed to account for small private planes. In 1986, a four-seat Piper Archer moved into the path of an Aeromexico DC-9 approaching to land at LAX. After the planes collided, they crashed into a residential neighborhood killing 82 people, including 15 on the ground. The FAA subsequently required small aircraft entering control areas to use transponders—electronic devices that broadcast position and altitude to controllers. Additionally, airliners were required to have TCAS II collision-avoidance systems, which detect potential collisions with other transponder-equipped aircraft and advise pilots to climb or dive in response. Since then, no small plane has collided with an airliner in flight in the United States.

Pilot Error

Pilot error is one of the more difficult crash causes to monitor. Recently a flight overshot its Minneapolis destination primarily because the pilots were simply not paying attention. That incident, however, did not result in a crash, just a lot of angry passengers wondering why they were arriving so late.

In 1978, United Flight 173 approaching Portland, Oregon, circled near the airport for an hour as the crew tried to sort out a landing gear problem. Although warned of the diminishing fuel supply by the flight engineer, the captain waited too long to begin his final approach. The DC-8 ran out of fuel and crashed, killing 10. United revamped its cockpit training procedures around the then-new concept of Cockpit Resource Management. CRM emphasized teamwork and communication among the crew and has since become the industry standard.

While taking off from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2006, Comair Flight 5191 crashed, killing 49 of the 50 people on board. The flight crew of the Bombardier CL-600-2B19 was instructed to take off from runway 22 but instead lined up on runway 26. The airplane ran off the end of the runway and impacted the airport perimeter fence, trees, and terrain. As a result of the crash, the NTSB made numerous recommendations, including crewmembers on the flight deck to positively confirm and cross-check the airplane’s location at the assigned departure runway, the installation of aircraft cockpit moving map displays that alert pilots when a takeoff is attempted on a runway other than what is intended, better markings on runways and taxiways, and that controllers not perform administrative tasks when moving aircraft are in the controller’s area of responsibility.

Though weather certainly played a role, it seems the crash of Continental Flight 3407 near Buffalo, New York, was caused in large part by pilot error. The Bombardier Q400 turboprop was operated by commuter carrier Colgan Air Inc. The pilot had never been properly trained by the airline company to respond to a warning system designed to prevent the plane from going into a stall. As the speed slowed to a dangerous level, setting off the stall-prevention system, he did the opposite of the proper procedure, which led to the crash, killing all 49 on board, plus one person on the ground. The circumstances surrounding the flight have prompted investigators and regulators to examine Colgan's hiring and training practices. NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman also announced at the public hearing February 2, 2010, that the agency will also continue to investigate how large commercial and smaller carriers work together in code-sharing arrangements. Family members who lost loved ones have demanded more pilot training to be required. A House bill is in the works that would require 1,500 hours of cockpit training for all pilots, but the FAA disagrees with the proposal.

Weather

Weather has often played a role in the crashes of smaller airplanes, but it occasionally affects commercial airliners, too. In 1985 as Delta Flight 191 approached for landing at Dallas/Fort Worth airport, the jetliner encountered a microburst wind shear—a strong downdraft and abrupt shift in the wind. The L-1011 hit the ground about a mile short of the runway and bounced across a highway, crushed a vehicle, and crashed into two airport water tanks. On board, 134 of 163 people were killed. The crash triggered a seven-year NASA/FAA research effort, which led directly to the on-board forward-looking radar wind-shear detectors that became standard equipment on airliners in the mid-1990s. Only one wind-shear-related accident has occurred since.

Aviation Attorneys

The aviation attorneys at Nurenberg Paris will thoroughly investigate your claim when you’ve been injured in an aviation accident. We take the time to research important aviation expert witnesses and plane crash statistics to ensure we are well-versed and fully prepared for your case. We’ve been helping crash victims since 1928, and you can count us to help you, too.