There are more than , commercial flights every single day. This means airplanes are regularly placed within range of lighting strikes, pressure changes, moisture, environmental hazards, and even electromagnetic fields.
Despite the frequency of bad weather and other uncontrollable factors in the sky, air travel remains safe. How could this be? One answer is that flight-critical systems on commercial aircraft — such as electronic engine and flight controls — are protected against lightning strikes and extreme pressure. Over the past few decades, aircraft operators have relied on loop resistance tester LRT technology to test their shielding systems.
Even outside of the airplane, there are new technologies and mechanisms making air travel safer for pilots and passengers alike. Just ten years ago, air traffic controllers had to rely heavily on earth-based navigation systems.
These systems restricted aircraft to very specific routes and altitudes, which was somewhat inconvenient and not very efficient. Today, advances in GPS technology give controllers more accurate, real-time information on airplane locations. In addition to avoiding collisions, advanced air traffic control systems make it easier to identify and dodge inclement weather.
In addition to protecting the aircraft, this significantly shortens the delays that passengers would otherwise experience. In , a young pilot by the name of Hugh DeHaven had his plane collide with another plane during his final training flight for the Canadian Royal Flying Corps.
While he survived the foot free fall to the ground, the pilot of the other plane did not. He used specially designed crash dummies to advocate for better seat belts and safer cabins to protect passengers in the event of an accident.
The continuous link of on-the-ground and on-board systems produces sky highways where no planes veers out of its lane. Safety improvements that everybody can observe are those seen on the airport itself. Monitors for movement detection can show all vehicles on all runways, terminal gates and taxiways, and controllers automatically receive warnings in case of a possible collision.
Every year, the worldwide economic impact of commercial aviation is numbered in the trillions. This comes to reflect the various firms directly associated with commercial aviation, as well as those who are working to apply modern advancements in engineering and science in order to assist the airline industry to achieve elevated safety levels.
Obviously, much is invested in doing so properly. A lot of people have come to my office to conquer the fear of flying, and each one has their own uni …. For most people, turbulence is, undoubtedly, their number one concern when they take to the skies, e …. Turbulence- everything you need to know Read More ». When flying is considered to be the safest way to travel, why does your fear of flying continue to p …. Safety is a concern of everyone who flies or contemplates it.
I can provide you with volumes of information about the attention to safety given by the airline industry. No other form of transportation is as scrutinized, investigated and monitored as commercial aviation.
Yet if you decide to hold onto the belief that flying is dangerous, then these reassuring safety facts are lost to you. Statistics and figures that prove airline transportation to be the safest way to travel relate to our logical, reasoning, rational mind. Worry about safety is an intrusion that seems to bypass those faculties of logic and go directly to our emotions.
After all, your goal is to feel as comfortable as possible when you fly, and there are some very comforting numbers here. Most passengers who have knowledge of the commercial airline industry believe that flying is safe. If you become startled or frightened at that time, the statistics that I am about to present may come in handy. Now, you may notice something a little morbid about this section: most of these statistics have to do with DEATH!
But many people who are worried about flying concentrate on the fear that something will go wrong during the flight, and that the outcome of that error would be their own death. Arnold Barnett, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has done extensive research in the field of commercial flight safety. He found that over the fifteen years between and , the death risk per flight was one in seven million. That means that any time you board a flight on a major carrier in this country, your chance of being in a fatal accident is one in seven million.
How about on your side of the cockpit door? Capacious or cramped, first-class or economy, all airplane seats meet tough standards for durability and head-impact protection. The modern airliner seat can withstand 16 times the force of gravity. The fabrics and cushions are fire retardant and self-extinguishing, and they will not emit toxic smoke. The insulation in the cabin walls is fire retardant, and, in the case of a fire, emergency lighting is close to the floor.
Most important to remember: Most commercial aviation accidents are not fatal. Of the accidents worldwide in the past 10 years, less than a quarter involved fatalities. Very few people will die in those events. The pilots and the airplanes may be the stars of the show in commercial aviation, but behind the scenes, a new, almost Star Wars—like air traffic system is being built where airplanes guided by GPS will fly self-programmed routes, communicating with each other and with the ground.
This is very different from the days when maps, blackboards and pencil and paper calculations were used to direct airplanes. With more than 28 million flight departures last year, it takes a pretty sophisticated process to safely and efficiently manage a huge—and still growing—number of aircraft. The linking of onboard and on-the-ground systems creates highways in the sky where nobody veers out of their lanes.
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