Why do planes crash? Why did American planes start crashing? Why planes crash: main reasons
Almost every two months there is a crash on our planet. passenger airliners, resulting in the death of people, hundreds of passengers who trusted the airlines and simply wanted to fly from one corner of the globe to another. Of course, from a statistical point of view major plane crashes occur extremely rarely, because thousands of flights take place around the world every day, but despite this, it is necessary to minimize the threat to passengers, and for this it is important to take into account various circumstances that periodically remind themselves...
Germanwings plane crash. 150 innocent victims.
It is impossible not to pay attention to the last major plane crash that took the lives of 150 people. According to experts, the main reason for the plane crash was the human factor, in particular, this means the unintentional killing of passengers and crew members. As experts note, the fault was the actions of the co-pilot, who, according to some sources, locked himself in the cockpit, turned off the automatic piloting system and purposefully waited for the plane to crash.
They were quick to accuse the pilot of insanity, deliberate murder of one and a half hundred people, and other sins, however, no one paid attention to the fact that the pilot had been undergoing treatment from a psychiatrist for about a year and a half. It remains unclear for what exact reasons a person convicted of insanity was allowed to fly an aircraft, and now they are trying in every possible way to place the blame on him. In addition, there is no real evidence that the co-pilot locked himself in the cockpit, since there is no evidence that he was the one who turned off the automatic pilot system.
Previously, information also appeared that the plane was in poor technical condition, but the air carrier's management denies this in every possible way, citing the fact that they are very competent in this issue. However, it is necessary to take into account the fact that immediately after the plane crash, several Germanwings crews refused to fly for the same reasons, and the air carrier’s management did not interfere with them, apparently fearing publicity.
Be that as it may, the official conclusion will be given by experts in the near future, but it is unlikely that the final report will take into account the actions of the air carrier in the tragedy that occurred. All the incompetence and recklessness demonstrated by the German airline is unlikely to bring back the lives of the 150 people lost due to simple negligence, which is present in every case reviewed.
TransAsia plane crash. 43 lives lost.
A crash involving a TransAsia airliner occurred on February 4, 2015, while attempting to fly from Taipei to the Kinmen archipelago. There were 53 passengers and 5 crew members on board the aircraft, however, some time after takeoff, one of the plane’s engines failed, and when trying to turn the plane around to return to the airport of its departure, the second engine unexpectedly failed, depriving most of the people chances of salvation.
The reasons for the failure of two aircraft engines at once remain unknown, however, it was found out that literally a week before the plane crash, the plane underwent maintenance, which could be a key point in clarifying all the circumstances. Of course, the reason for everything could also be an accident, but given the fact that the real chance of an airplane getting into a plane crash is 1 in 100,000, the TransAsia plane completely exhausted them.
In this case, it is important to pay attention to the fact that, again, the predominant factor is human intervention, regardless of whether it was done by the pilot or the technicians servicing the aircraft. We often blame everything on airplanes that are designed by the best specialists, but we do not operate them properly, which is unacceptable and leads to avoidable human deaths.
43 people died in the fatal plane crash, 13 survived, however, despite the fact that about 2 months have passed since it happened, real reasons It was not possible to install it.
Air Asia plane crash. 162 victims of bad weather.
As you know, the end of last year was marked by another very terrible plane crash. An Air Asia plane with 162 people on board was flying from Surabaya to Singapore, however, while flying over the Java Sea, it unexpectedly disappeared from air traffic controllers' radars.
Two days later, the fuselage of the plane was discovered by a search team at the bottom of the Java Sea and all the people on board were killed. It subsequently turned out that the aircraft commander, a few moments before the disappearance, notified the air traffic controller of his intention to change course and flight level due to thunderclouds approaching from the front. For an unknown reason, the air traffic controller refused to allow the flight to climb, and after another four minutes, the plane disappeared from the radar without sending a distress signal.
According to some information, the plane could have encountered severe turbulence or even been struck by lightning, as a result of which all its systems were turned off. From that moment on, all sorts of versions began to appear that the cause could have been unqualified actions of the crew or even a technical malfunction of the aircraft, however, very little attention was paid to the air traffic controller’s refusal to allow the aircraft to gain altitude. It is likely that if the plane had risen above the thunderclouds, the effects of bad weather could have been eliminated, and this applies to two reasons: lightning strike and turbulence.
If we analyze this disaster from the point of view of a special aircraft accident analyzer, we can see that when the plane attempted to pass through thunderclouds, the probability of an incident was 0.000922%, however, in the case of a climb, it could drop to 0.000375%, which is 2.5 times less, and quite possibly it could save lives.
Again, very characteristic of all this are the actions of the human factor, and in the person of the air traffic controller. Of course, he could use the prescribed instructions, but this does not mean that he was aware of the situation much better than the pilot.
From all of the above we can conclude that if in currently Since much attention is paid to improving aircraft, it is also necessary to improve the safety of air travel among people. It is likely that in total this will help, if not completely eliminate plane crashes, then minimize them as much as possible.
I recently attended a friend's birthday party. In the midst of the fun, the birthday girl took plane tickets out of her purse and proudly announced that her husband had given her a ticket to United Arab Emirates. Congratulations poured in. Then one of the men asked: “Aren’t you flying to Dubai?” - "And what?" - “Do you know that our pilots there are so stupid from the heat that they forget to lower the landing gear?” The birthday girl turned pale and fell silent. Meanwhile, the guests began to remember the New York shopping mall and the recent well-aimed shot by Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners. In general, the plane flew to the Emirates without my friends. “It’s not about terrorists,” the birthday girl’s husband later explained to me. “I just figured it out myself - Lately There are so many of them!"People and hardware
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“Airplanes have been flying for about a hundred years,” says Vsevolod Ovcharov, deputy head of the MAK department and chief specialist in “human factors”, Doctor of Technical Sciences, test pilot 1st class. “During all this time, aviation technology has been constantly improved and updated, including "including in Russia. We can say with confidence that we fly in fairly modern, reliable, fast and comfortable machines. But we took up the problems of the person who sits at the helm forty years later."
Of course, a lot has been done in 60 years, but even today science cannot boast that the professional, psychological and physiological capabilities of a pilot have been sufficiently studied. The fact is that a pilot, unlike, for example, a taxi driver, does not just control a moving vehicle, but is an operator of a high-tech multi-component system. In addition to the pilot himself and the most complex modern aircraft equipped with an automatic piloting device, it includes a co-pilot, a navigator, a flight engineer, ground technicians, dispatchers, hydrometeorologists, and radio operators. External factors can also lead to the failure of this system - unexpectedly difficult weather conditions, terrorists, unscrupulous managers who forced the pilot to take extra cargo. As the past year has shown, a civilian aircraft is not immune even from missile fire, but the main cause of accidents, according to experts, is still not external influences, but problems arising within the system itself.
People and people
Often an accident occurs due to a violation of the interaction between the commander and the crew. It is clear that pilots rarely conflict with flight attendants. Therefore, when speaking “commander-crew,” experts, first of all, mean the relationship between the first and second pilots. After all, they actually control the plane together: their two steering wheels are mechanically connected to each other, like the pedals for the trainee and instructor, which are equipped in training cars. And the engine control levers are most often shared between two people: they are located between the pilot’s seats. Therefore, the safety of passengers ultimately depends on how harmoniously this or that couple behaves in a critical situation. The same applies to the “pilot-navigator” and “pilot-flight engineer” pairs.
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Aviation psychologists can make a forecast about the psychological compatibility of pilots. But the trouble is that the system of special psychological tests, developed even before the time of the first space flights and today quite advanced, has still not been able to be introduced into civil aviation. This is opposed, first of all, by the pilots themselves and their leaders (“How can I, a pilot with twenty years of experience, answer the stupid questions of a twenty-year-old idiot psychologist!”). Meanwhile, it is not so rare for pilots who have passed a psychological examination with low results to become involved in aircraft accidents. A timely conclusion about the personal incompatibility of pilots would help to “seat” one or another pair of pilots and prevent trouble.
Here is a typical story. At the end of the 80s, the civilian An-12 took off from the runway of the Sverdlovsk airport. The commander, as expected, began to release the gas after takeoff. It turned out that the right engines did not obey and continued to operate in takeoff mode - the control system had failed. The commander, having discussed the problem with the crew, decided to turn off the right engines altogether and return to the airport: the An-12 could land on the two remaining engines. The co-pilot did not take part in the discussion, and already during landing, without informing the commander, he decided to take the car for a second circle: he added thrust to the running engines. As a result, the plane, which at that time was a few centimeters from the ground, could neither rise nor land - it fell onto the runway. Everyone survived, but the liner burned down. Aviation psychologists from the Academy civil aviation We found out that in this crew the second pilot, being an informal leader, demonstratively did not monitor the controls when the first was at the helm, considering it beneath his dignity.
Psychological incompatibility between the pilot and the flight mechanic was the cause of the accident of the Mi-8 helicopter in Dagestan in 1990. The first pilot, experienced but without strong leadership qualities, wanted to land at a site in the mountains. The attempt was unsuccessful: the helicopter slid along the wet grass into the gorge. It was possible to make a second approach - only precise actions were required. But, when the pilot was about to start the turn, the flight mechanic, inclined to lead, suddenly shouted to the pilot: “Turn around faster, ... your mother!” The pilot hesitated, missed a few seconds and lost the opportunity to turn: the gorge narrowed. The helicopter crashed. People escaped with bruises, but since then this flight mechanic and commander were categorically forbidden to fly together.
An example of another kind of incompatibility can be considered the crash of the Russian An-124-100 supertruck that occurred at Turin airport in 1996. During the landing approach, the airliner was controlled by two pilots of the highest qualifications, but with different flying specialties. The ship's commander had extensive experience in flying heavy aircraft, and his partner, a former cosmonaut, had flown supersonic fighters all his life. The commander entrusted him with planting the “heavyweight”. The landing proceeded normally, but at the very last moment it seemed to the commander that they did not fit the length of the runway and that they should switch to takeoff mode and make a go-around. While he was trying to convince the co-pilot of this, there was a time crunch. As a result, the plane, having lost speed, landed not on the runway, but on a village located behind the airfield. Four, including the crew commander, were killed. As the results of the examinations showed, any of the pilots’ decisions in this situation would have been correct: they could have landed safely, or they could have risen unhindered. If only they didn't interfere with each other.
People and devices
MAK experts consider failures along the “man-machine” line to be the second group of problems. Even the most modern device can bring harm rather than benefit if its developers did not take into account the peculiarities of human perception. The most striking example of an unsuccessful design, according to MAK, is a device that shows the pilot the position of the aircraft relative to the horizon (the pilot cannot see the ground most of the time).
There are two fundamentally different types of attitude indicators - the American one, invented in 1929, and the Soviet one, created thirty years later. On our planes, naturally, the “native” one was initially installed. Its difference from the American one is that the pilot sees in front of him on the instrument always a motionless horizontal line of the earth's surface and the silhouette of an airplane swinging above it: the car has gone into a left bank - and the silhouette on the attitude indicator rolls to the left. The plane fell to the right - the same thing happens with its silhouette. “Soviet” attitude indicators were used in our country until the American Collins fell into the hands of a high aviation official in the mid-70s. It is designed differently - the fixed element on the screen is the silhouette of the aircraft, and the moving element is the surface of the earth (see figure). Collins was very beautiful and the official liked it - the American attitude indicator was set in motion. Since then, it was a model similar to the Collins that began to be equipped with Soviet, and then “Esengesh” civil aircraft, although this device is extremely inconvenient. If at small roll angles the pilot easily navigates using any of the instruments, then in a situation where the roll is high, the pilot quickly navigates using the Soviet attitude indicator.
A classic example of Collins’ “cunning” is a plane crash that occurred in December 1995 in the Khabarovsk Territory. Shortly before landing, the airliner began to list to the left side and, in order to balance it, the flight engineer began to perform a procedure sometimes used in such cases - pumping fuel from the tank located in the left wing to the right. Before starting the descent for the approach, the flight engineer was distracted by the standard procedures in such cases. As a result, he and the pilot forgot that fuel was still being pumped. They only realized it when the airliner, unbalanced by overfilled fuel, was already in a deep right bank. “The plane could still be pulled out of the roll,” they say at MAK, “but the commander, who had never seen such a “picture” on the attitude indicator in his life, did not understand the instrument and turned the steering wheel further to the right. As a result, the plane entered a deep spiral, from which he was never destined to come out." Eight crew members and 90 passengers of the liner were killed.
A similar situation arose in Irkutsk on July 3, 2001 with a Tu-154M aircraft of Vladivostokavia airlines, on board which were nine crew members and 136 passengers. The plane was performing its third turn and was in a left bank. The situation was complicated by the fact that at a speed less than recommended, the high angle of attack alarm went off, which occupied the pilots’ attention for some time. When the commander finally paid attention to the instruments, it seemed to him that the car, on the contrary, was tilting to the right. The problem of psychological compatibility also played a role here: the co-pilot, as follows from the printout of the conversations of the deceased crew, understood that he needed to “move out” to the right, but did not show persistence.
The western attitude indicator also bears its share of blame for the famous disaster near Mezhdurechensk, which occurred in March 1994. It is believed that the passenger Airbus A310 was then destroyed by a teenager, whom his father, the commander of the ship, “gave to steer.” In fact, when 13-year-old Eldar took the helm of the airliner running under autopilot, nothing catastrophic actually happened. The situation did not become critical even after the boy, having “overpowered” the autopilot, switched the car to manual control. The danger began to increase along with the roll to the right, into which the plane gradually went. And here we should think not about the boy, but about why the three pilots in the cockpit noticed what was happening only when the right bank was 95° and the second pilot from the cockpit saw the ground. To the commander, the right bank seemed to be to the left, and he sharply turned the helm to the right. Only a test pilot could have brought it out of the flat spin into which the plane fell.
People and professionals
According to experts, in almost all of the situations described above, a professional test pilot could have avoided the disaster. “Even on a heavy civil aircraft you can get out of both a spiral and a flat spin,” says Honored Test Pilot of the USSR Viktor Aleksandrov. “But this needs to be specially studied. A private driver has been driving his Zhiguli car around the world every day for thirty years.” on the same road from home to the dacha. Yes, he has a huge amount of experience. Yes, the mileage has exceeded a million. But if you asked this driver to take a snowy turn at a speed of 80 km/h, what result would he show? The same goes for pilots: at least ten “sleep” for thousands of hours under autopilot, this will not add professionalism.”
MAK experts also agree with Viktor Alexandrov on some points. “Test pilots are the flying elite,” says Ovcharov. “But they also “cost” accordingly. They joke that a 1st class test pilot costs as much as his life-size statue, cast from pure gold, costs. Periodic training of civilians In practice, pilots are reduced to training on simulators with a very small number of training flights. Of course, they are offered a certain set of so-called special situations or flights in “extreme" modes (and even then only when retraining for a new type), but the simulator is always poorer than reality - everything that can be encountered in real life cannot be taken into account on it.”
As a result, pilots are forced to educate themselves. For example, in the late 70s, a passenger Tu-134 came in to land at Samara airport. The weather was simply ideal, and the pilot decided to practice an instrument approach, for which he closed the cockpit windows with special curtains. About a kilometer from the runway we had to open the curtains, but they were stuck. The pilot, instead of landing, began fiddling with the jammed mechanism. The airliner landed at too high a speed, overturned, and several passengers died.
International flights require special skills. For example, just three months ago, an Aeroflot Il-86 landed on its belly at Dubai Airport (UAE). The pilots were let down by the difference in landing patterns adopted at Russian and foreign airports. Our plane first extends the landing gear, and then the flaps, but with them it’s the other way around. Accordingly, when our planes land abroad, the pilots are constantly disturbed by a blaring siren, which the pilots rudely call “bitch.” It signals that the flaps have already been set to the landing position, but the landing gear has not yet been extended. When landing in Dubai, the pilots turned off the siren in advance, which is strictly prohibited by the instructions, but is done all the time. But that wasn’t even fatal. While the second pilot was landing the car, the first, instead of controlling the actions of the crew, was teaching his partner how to land at foreign airports. As a result, the flight mechanic asked himself the mandatory questions before landing and answered them himself. “Airport frequency? Such and such, set. Airfield pressure? Such and such, set... Landing gear? Released,” he said, forgetting to actually perform the operation. There were no casualties, but the damage caused by the airfield downtime - the crashed Il-86 was removed from the runway for many hours - amounted (according to MAK estimates) to about $10 million.
People and money
Finally, when trying to understand what is happening to the pilots, there is no need to discount the social aspects - our aviation is not rich.
For example, about a year ago, during a training flight near Anadyr, the flight mechanic of the Mi-8, instead of one engine, as stipulated by the assignment, turned off both at once. The pilots, fortunately, were able to land the helicopter softly enough, so the damage was limited to a broken landing gear. When they began to deal with the flight mechanic, it turned out that he had been living in a hostel for many years, his family was hundreds of kilometers away.
This also includes overload, haste—in general, various attempts to save money. Of course, the management of a large, well-known airline will not force the pilot to take extra or even worse cargo, but in remote areas of the country, where the main carriers are small private airlines with only two or three airplanes or helicopters, this is common everywhere.
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| Flight recorder of a crashed plane. In fact, this is not a “black box” at all, but rather an “orange box”. There are two of them on an airplane: speech and parametric. The first one records conversations between pilots. The second one automatically reads and saves technical flight parameters. The “boxes” in which the devices are packaged are not afraid of water and can withstand the impact of falling from high altitude. Only a very strong fire can destroy flight recorders. The device shown in the photo was also caught in the fire. How high the temperature was is evidenced by the molten aluminum stuck to its wall. But the film removed from this “box” turned out to be of quite acceptable quality |
Helicopter pilots have such a concept as “clinging to the ground,” that is, flying as low as possible. The fact is that at low altitude the pilot can control the flight visually without using the services of dispatchers, and therefore his company will not have to pay an air navigation fee for control air traffic. The amount saved is quite significant - about 20% of the total cost of the flight, but the risk of getting into an accident is several times higher.
Similar reasons led to the Yak-40 crash at Sheremetyevo-1, in which the head of the Top Secret holding Artem Borovik, the head of the Alliance group Ziya Bazhaev and seven other people died. The point is not only that, in order to save money, the plane was not treated with anti-icing fluid. VIP passengers boarded the plane literally two minutes before the estimated departure time, and the pilots had to hurry so as not to fall behind schedule. Taking off in a hurry, they made a number of mistakes that became fatal: they calculated the take-off parameters for a car weighing two tons less than the actual one, they tore the front landing gear off the ground too early, deflected the flaps by 11° instead of the required 20°, took the helm too sharply yourself, bringing the aircraft to supercritical angles of attack.
The ways to solve all these problems are, in general, obvious. The training system for flight personnel needs to be improved, the training base expanded, the professional and psychological selection of pilots needs to be tightened, the results of accident investigations must be listened to, etc., etc. IAC experts conscientiously recommend all this every year. And the planes are fighting.
SERGEY DUPIN
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06.03.2019 , 17:50 9190
According to recent studies, the chance of getting into a plane crash is negligible. In 2018, according to the International Association air transport(IATA), problems occurred on only one aircraft out of 750 thousand flights. And even those were eliminated immediately, and the passengers were delivered to their destination on another board. There are only 11 deaths per million flights, and those are from medical causes. Aircraft crashes are very rare. However, such incidents still happen. What are the reasons for this?
Human factor
This concept refers to the totality of mistakes made by people. This can be not only the pilots themselves, but also dispatchers and other employees. According to statistics, 50% of plane crashes are associated precisely with human actions or inaction. This factor includes not only the errors themselves, but also health problems. For example, in September 2018, the pilot of a Syrian airliner suffered a heart attack in the skies over Moscow. However, then everything ended well: the second pilot landed the plane. But in November of the same year, in a similar situation in the United States, a light plane crashed, resulting in the death of 4 people. There was also a co-pilot on board, but he was never able to land the ship.
technical issues
This factor makes itself felt in almost a quarter of cases - at least 22% of accidents in the sky occur due to a technical failure. Before takeoff, each aircraft is thoroughly inspected, which minimizes the risk of equipment failure. However, the likelihood of damage to engines and other mechanisms still exists, although it remains extremely small. Usually, in such cases, malfunctions are detected during takeoff, and the pilots land the plane without any problems. Passengers are picked up by another plane.This group of reasons also includes an airliner colliding with birds and getting them into the engines. For example, in 1953, an IL-12 plane flying from Moscow to Novosibirsk collided with a flock of ducks, causing the engines to lose design power. The commander decided to land immediately, but there was no airport nearby. I had to put the car directly into the Volga (near the Kazan river port). After splashdown, the plane began to sink. However, all passengers managed to leave the board and were picked up local residents. But when did that happen! 
Adverse weather conditions
This reason explains 12% of aircraft accidents. Most often, precipitation, strong wind and fog have a negative impact. Modern technology can cope with gusts and turbulences of air almost always. Entering a zone of turbulence, the plane begins to shake and sway. However, even skillful actions of the pilot do not guarantee 100% safety - in extremely rare cases, a crash occurs. For example, in 2001, an American airliner taking off from New York crashed within a minute and a half after takeoff, killing 265 people. The cause of the crash was turbulent air flows caused by another aircraft flying nearby. Therefore, this accident can be classified as a human factor. But the plane of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, which crashed in March 2010, crashed precisely because of poor visibility that arose for natural reasons. That day there was heavy fog in the area of the airfield near Smolensk, so when landing, the ship collided with birch trees.
Deliberate actions
In the history of aviation, unfortunately, terrorist attacks also occur. Aircraft hijacking, explosions on board and other similar events cause aircraft crashes in 9% of cases. The most famous example is the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 in New York, which killed almost 3,000 people - including several hundred passengers and crew members of hijacked planes.
Other reasons
Other factors account for 7% of all plane crashes. In fact, these are complex reasons associated simultaneously with dispatcher errors, navigation failures, insufficient quality fuel, etc. For example, the 2002 disaster over Lake Constance (Germany) is known, when, due to incorrect actions of the dispatcher, a Russian passenger and a German one collided. cargo planes. As a result, all passengers and pilots died - a total of 71 people, including 52 children.
Airplane accidents have happened and, unfortunately, continue to happen. Although their frequency is noticeably decreasing - for example, 2018 was recognized as the safest in the history of aviation. It is obvious that the modernization of equipment and the development of technology lead to the fact that the aircraft is becoming even safer than it was even a few years ago. And knowing some rules
Today, air travel has become so popular that airplanes in terms of frequency of use for tourists are equal to cars and trains. However, air travel seems very dangerous and not entirely reliable to many. Is this really true, how do our ideas about the dangers of air travel compare with statistics and how often do planes crash?
Choosing transport for travel
During the period of long-awaited vacations and long holidays, many are faced with the problem of choosing to travel abroad to hot beaches or snow-covered ski resorts. And it is complex, because many factors need to be correlated, such as ease of movement, the price tag for the trip itself and, most importantly, safety. Let's look at statistical studies and find out how often planes crash and whether the scale of this is really as fatal as people think.
Are trains safer - misconception or not?
According to statistical studies, the most in a safe way People's mode of transportation is the train. The train has a slightly higher rating. Airplanes do not inspire confidence among the world's population at all. Only sixteen percent of respondents believe in their complete reliability. If we take cars into account, their safety rating is generally low, because they are initially considered very dangerous for driving over long distances.
However, in the struggle between different modes of transport in terms of reliability, everything is not so simple. Airplanes, according to many years of research by air crash experts and statistical studies, are rightfully recognized. However, people, even despite official scientific confirmation, still do not trust them. Why is this happening? Maybe the news that a plane has crashed somewhere really frightens tourists? Let's understand the situation.
The plane is not safe?!
Although statistics is an exact science, the final result depends very much on the calculation method. When determining the level of aircraft safety, the number of tragic events per total number of flight kilometers is taken. It is this type of calculation that is mainly used by statisticians, and it is its results that are published in official sources.
The whole secret lies in the fact that most disasters occur during takeoffs and landings. On the way, plane crashes are much less common. But this method of calculation is very beneficial for transport companies, and they use it very often so as not to discourage tourists from choosing air travel for travel. Nevertheless, such an indicator as those killed in a plane crash (their number) during accidents during takeoff and landing is acquiring very large proportions.
If we take into account the calculation of tragic cases per total mileage of movement, then the most dangerous types of movement will be two types of movement - motorcycle and walking. One has only to look at the summary of tragic moments in any city and you can see that a lot of pedestrians die, even more than motorcyclists.
If you study other methods of statistical research, then the plane will give way to the train in terms of safety. For example, in terms of the number of passenger deaths per number of trips and speed of travel, air travel is the most unfavorable.
When considering other research methods, it turns out that trains are the best choice for travel. So it’s not without reason that tourists are in a fever from the mere news that a plane has crashed, and the trip railway rightfully has a safety advantage in people's minds.
Rating of the safest airlines
Be that as it may, you will still have to fly, since there are resorts that simply cannot be reached by any other type of transport, but you really want to. Despite the bad forecasts, negative reviews and gloomy opinions, our country is still not the weakest in terms of air travel safety. But the United States has been a leader in plane crashes for quite a long period of time. If we build a ranking by countries that own aircraft, we can say that the first five include Finland, New Zealand, Hong Kong and UAE. It is the companies of these five that are worth flying, and then no plane crash will be terrible. Russia, in this ranking, is in sixteenth place with the company Transaero.
Causes of plane crashes
Why do planes crash? Before choosing an airline, tourists first of all give preference to companies with the “youngest” modes of transport in terms of service life. However, this is not at all supported by statistical data. According to them, in Russia the company with the most unworn transport fleet is Aeroflot. Its aircraft are less than five years old. However, Finland, which occupies a leading position in flight safety and a small number of plane crashes, has had its aircraft in operation for more than nine years.
This fact indicates that an aircraft crash due to wear and tear and service life is unlikely. By choosing an airline based on the criterion of its small transport, the likelihood of a crash does not decrease at all. If we look at the statistics, we can see that large quantity Aircraft accidents occur due to the human factor, and there is no escape from this.
How to overcome your fear of flying, because there are situations when traveling by plane simply cannot be avoided. Psychologists give good advice on this matter. If fear is caused by any mental disorders, be it panic attacks or fear of a small enclosed space, then these are the problems that need to be solved.
However, in many cases, fear is caused by a lack of complete personal control over the situation and the safety of the flight. This must be accepted as inevitable, because any movement by transport depends little on us. Therefore, when traveling by air, it is recommended to simply relax and take your mind off bad thoughts by watching a movie on your tablet or listening to pleasant music. Never use alcohol to relieve stress. In fact, if it dulls the nervous state, it will only be for a short time, and then the problem will only get worse. The fear of flying needs to be addressed first of all with yourself. There is no need to simply get on your nerves, taking into account the information from news channels about how often planes crash, but you just need to calm down and try to take control of your emotions.
Which planes have the most accidents?
If we look at global statistics, Boeing can be considered the most unreliable, the second in the number of crashes is An, and the IL is in third place. If we turn to Russian research, we can see that the most “falling” in our country will be “An”. Why do planes crash? In 2005 alone, as many as nine cars of this brand crashed in Russia. In the world, they account for nineteen percent of all disasters.
The causes of plane crashes in Russia are explained by journalists in one key - the outdated transport fleet of domestic companies. Is this really true and how often do planes crash for this reason?
Causes of Russian plane crashes
In general, the aging of aircraft is expressed not in the number of years that have passed since its production, but in the amount of hours flown and the general technical condition. According to statistics, Russia has aircraft dating back to Soviet times, and their percentage is much higher than foreign-made units. However, you should not look at age. Compared to foreign ships, domestic ones flew much fewer hours, and Soviet production quality was one of the best in the world.
For what reason then does Russia purchase foreign aircraft for a lot of money when it has its own quite reliable aircraft? An example is aircraft"That". They have excellent flight safety statistics, and pilots consider them to be the most convenient in terms of technical design.
One of the reasons is the fact that Tu aircraft are very expensive in terms of the amount of fuel they consume. And since air travel has long become a separate type of business, company directors, in pursuit of reducing the cost of servicing their fleet of aircraft, give preference to foreign airliners, which are much more economical than their Russian counterparts.
Another reason is the decline of aircraft. The technologies for their production are significantly outdated, investments in aircraft factories are not being carried out. Therefore, our country cannot compete with more advanced foreign units.
How to save the situation?
In Russia, in order to stabilize the situation with the aircraft production market, the President signed a Decree on the creation of the United Aircraft Corporation. Moreover, investments in aircraft factories amounting to ten billion dollars were planned. This happened back in 2006. Currently the situation has not improved at all. The process of forming the corporation was greatly slowed down and, according to journalists, the purpose of its creation was not to study the competitor market, but to unite all the assets of Russian airlines in one place.
Nevertheless, there are positive developments. The Ilyushin Finance company purchased Il and Tu aircraft from Russia. The Tashkent production association concluded an agreement with the St. Petersburg airline for the supply of Il aircraft to Russia, most of of which will be of Russian configuration.
What you need to know about a plane crash?
No one is safe from an aircraft crash. However, if you have the necessary information about what happens when a plane crashes, you have a chance of surviving the crash. In the nineties, there was an accident with the B-707 airliner. The death toll in the plane crash numbered in the hundreds. However, five passengers used the information from the flight attendant's instructions and survived.
In some cases, there is a chance to be saved if you have the necessary knowledge. They are not as useless as they seem at first glance. Knowing what happens when a plane crashes, you can apply many effective methods for your own safety.
The main ways to protect yourself, as the statistics of plane crashes show us, is to follow safety precautions. First of all, it is necessary, if possible, to remain in shoes and clothing. This will provide protection in case of fire. Remove all foreign objects from your clothing pockets and fasten your seat belt tightly. It is allowed to be removed only after a special command from the flight attendant.
Immediately before an accident, if possible, you need to take a protective position - you need to bend as low as possible and clasp your hands very tightly under your knees. The head should be placed on them, and if this cannot be done, then lower it as far as possible. Your feet should rest as firmly as possible on the floor. This technique, and it is fully proven by the statistics of plane crashes, often saves the lives of passengers in a plane crash.
Finally
As you can see, flying is not such a scary thing. The main thing is to use tickets for flights only from time-tested airlines that have had a small number of accidents, and also to comply with the safety requirements for aircraft passengers, so that later experts do not have to study the crashing plane on which you flew to rest in a warm country. Safe flights and successful landings and takeoffs!
Why does Russia, which until recently was the world leader in aircraft manufacturing, buy second-hand aircraft all over the world? Who should be held responsible for the deaths of people transported on imported rubbish? Why is KAI graduate, certified aviation engineer Andrei Petrov forced to work as a realtor and how can this be related to the plane crash in Kazan? Why, if we are so poor, did the Universiade in Kazan become the most expensive in the world?
November 18 was declared a day of mourning in Tatarstan by presidential decree. On Sunday evening while landing at international airport Kazan A Boeing 737-500 plane of Tatarstan Airlines, operating flight 363 Moscow-Domodedovo - Kazan, exploded. 50 people were killed, including the head of the FSB department for Tatarstan, Alexander Antonov, son of the President of Tatarstan, Irek Minnikhanov. Both flight recorders have already been found, everyone is waiting for the causes of this plane crash to be made public. Malfunction of worn-out used equipment? Weather? Human factor? A fatal confluence of circumstances?
Who knows... A fatal confluence of circumstances happened earlier, much earlier, namely, when Judas Gorbachev betrayed and sold the USSR, including the entire population living in it. My relative Andrei Petrov was then studying at the Kazan Aviation Institute at the faculty aircraft. Since childhood, he dreamed of building airplanes. At first, he, just like all the other naive good citizens Soviet Union, even rejoiced that now he would finally live “like people.” That is, in accordance with the picture that was so diligently sold to the people for several years in a row under the sweet sauce of liberalism, democracy and an abundance of foreign rags and Snickers...
In general, when adults, many of whom had higher education received at the expense of the state (note, excellent in international standards qualities), realized that they, like children, had been fooled, it was already too late. As is customary in such cases of murder for organs, the country was dismembered, thoroughly gutted, then... What happened then - we all know very well, as they say, we have the opportunity to experience the whole gamut of sensations from what was happening.
But all patience, of course, has its limits. It’s one thing to be a citizen of a great state, another to realize that your Motherland is no longer as powerful as it used to be, but still wow, and a third to understand that you no longer even live in a second world country. Even impoverished Africa and gypsy Romania refused this plane, and we select everything that even third world countries do not need. Stubborn facts They state that Russia has fallen below African countries.
For the first 5 years (1990-1995), as expected, the Boeing that crashed in Kazan was flown by Europeans, after which it went into the hands of third world countries. First, the aircraft was sold to Uganda, where it was flown for another 5 years. In 2000, Uganda sold the plane to Brazil, where it was already experiencing breakdowns.
Moreover, already during the Brazilian operation, a tragedy almost occurred with this aircraft. On December 17, 2001, while landing at the airport of the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, a plane with 102 passengers and six crew members on board touched the ground before the start. runway. After this, the Boeing jumped and hit the runway with force, as a result of which its left landing gear broke. The plane stopped after 1800 meters, moving along the runway relying on the left engine. Then, as a result of the rescue operation, it was possible to evacuate all passengers and crew members. Thus, there were no casualties in the serious accident, but the aircraft received significant damage and required significant repairs to return it to service.
After this, Brazil sold the aircraft to Romania, where the aircraft operated economy class flights for another 3 years. In the 18th year of operation, the aircraft was sold to Bulgaria, and, apparently, was already in such a condition that Bulgaria sold it six months later... that's right, to Russia. Where in 2012 he already committed emergency landing, but continued to be used. And it crashed in the 23rd (!) year of use, taking with it the lives of fifty Russians.
the deceased Boeing, on which I also had the opportunity to fly to Moscow several times
Two years ago, three emergency situations occurred on Boeing aircraft and emergency situation Airbus A-320 in Novosibirsk due to a failure of the navigation system. All of Russia waited with bated breath for President Medvedev's menacing decree banning the operation of aircraft of these brands. However, no decree was issued. Medvedev’s bans when he was president affected only air and river boats Russian-made aircraft, foreign aircraft were untouchable in this regard. He turned out to be a worthy successor of the Gorbachev-Yeltsin anti-people traditions.
Consider only one Medvedev statement made at a meeting of the operational headquarters to eliminate the consequences of the Yak-42 plane crash (RA-42434, release date October 1, 1993) near Yaroslavl in 2011 before the completion of the official investigation: “Of course, you need to think about your own , but if they are not able to “promote themselves,” they need to buy equipment abroad.” What does it mean to “unwind”? And what kind of “promotion” can we talk about here when there is total destruction? By the way, as a result of the investigation, it turned out that the cause of the plane crash was a crew error. Moreover, while destroying our aircraft industry, Medvedev cynically stated: “that the value of human life should be higher than special considerations, including support for domestic manufacturers.”
Meanwhile, Medvedev could not help but know (this is where the cynicism lies) what exactly Russian planes provide the greatest passenger safety in the world and, by refusing to support the domestic manufacturer, they deliberately endanger people's lives.
Our country has created the safest aircraft in the world, such as the Il-96 and Tu-204/214, which have not claimed a single human life. Moreover, the Tu-204/214 is the only aircraft of this class that can be landed without engines at all. Thus, the RA-64011 board is known for the fact that on January 14, 2002 it made a successful landing at the Omsk airport after turning off the engines in flight due to complete exhaustion of fuel. This famous incident occurred during the flight Frankfurt - Novosibirsk. During the approach to Novosibirsk airport according to the procedure, the crew received information about going to a reserve due to weather conditions. They chose Barnaul. However, at Barnaul airport the weather conditions also did not meet the minimum, and it was decided to land in Omsk. As a result, at a distance of 17 km from the airfield, the fuel ran out. The crew was able to perform a successful landing. And even subsequently, when on March 22, 2010, the same aircraft, performing a technical flight (without passengers on board) from Hurghada to Moscow, when approaching runway 14R of Domodedovo Airport in difficult weather conditions (heavy fog, limited visibility) collided with the ground at approximately 1 km from the end of the strip and collapsed in a collision with trees; there was no fire at the scene. The main thing is that none of the crew members (although they received injuries of varying severity) none (!) died. The cause of this plane crash was again the error of the crew, who decided to land instead of leaving for an alternate airfield, which does not indicate the technical imperfection of our aircraft, but the poor training of the pilots.
But 174 Boeing 737 planes crashed, killing almost 4 thousand people. The largest disaster in Russia with a Boeing 737-500 aircraft occurred in 2008 in Perm. 88 people died then. Now also Kazan... Yes, I must add that Boeing 737-900 are already flying somewhere, but for some reason these modern aircraft do not belong to Russian airlines...
Medvedev did everything to finish off the Russian aviation industry
For some reason, Medvedev’s presidential zeal that “the value of human life is higher than all other considerations, including support for the national manufacturer...” began to manifest itself in the following: do not support the national manufacturer, but buy Boeings for “other considerations”, regardless of their technical imperfection. Back in the mid-90s, the Boeing 737 model was officially recognized as the most dangerous in the world. In addition, this model is 4 years older than our TU-154. And all the myths about the old age of our aircraft remain myths. In terms of their design features, our aircraft still remain the most reliable in the world, and a ban on their production is just lobbying for the interests of foreign companies. Isn’t that why, having declared the development of the domestic aviation industry a national priority, the Russian Government increased the production of civil aircraft to 7 units per year, and the purchase of Boeings to 50 units? Abroad, they do not hide the fact that they have found a large sales market in Russia. Airbus management reported that in the next 20 years Russian airlines will acquire 1006 passenger aircraft worth about $95 billion, half of which will be Boeing. When priorities at the government level are given to foreign technology, then, naturally, the domestic aviation industry will not rise. There is no money allocated for science and development. Government support is being denied. Is this called a priority national project?
President Medvedev hammered the final nail into the coffin of the Russian aviation industry by speaking out not only against the operation of domestic aircraft, but also against their production. And this is called a priority national project for the development of the aviation industry! Which one? American?
These and many other questions can be answered if you understand the orientation of the activities of Russia's top leadership. Stalin wanted the USSR to have the best aviation in the world, and it did.
V.V. During his previous presidency, Putin actively fought for the restoration of the domestic aviation industry (agreements with Russian airlines on the purchase of 145 Tu-204/214 and Tu-334 aircraft, plus the supply of 130 aircraft to Iran) and, in particular, engine building (production of PS-90 and NK-93 engines), which, by the way, he continues to do now.
Medvedev terminated all contracts concluded by Putin and set a personal example in his disdain for Russian aircraft - instead of the presidential Il-96, he decided to fly the French Dassault Falcon X7 business class aircraft. In order to fly this plane, Medvedev sacrificed Russia’s international status, because the choice of the plane by the first person of the state means a concrete sign of whose aviation industry he supports. Medvedev showed everyone that he will support non-Russian industry. And he proved this in action by concluding a contract with the United States for the supply of Boeings, which is really killing the Russian aircraft industry. In continuation of his chosen line, the ex-president agreed with the United States to purchase 50 narrow-body Boeing aircraft and signed an option for another 15 wide-body Boeing aircraft with an estimated cost of $4.2 billion. In his response, Obama thanked the Russian president for the fact that the contract “will provide America with 44 thousand jobs.” For Russia, this is a direct loss of benefits in the form of 400 regional aircraft of its own production: deprivation of the workload of enterprises, jobs, and, in general, an end to the restoration of the domestic aviation industry.
In his response, Obama thanked the Russian president for the purchase contracts American aircraft, for which the latter had to break his constitutional oath, betraying the interests of the people of Russia
So, Medvedev did everything to ensure that there was no Russian civil aviation at all. But the problem is somewhat deeper than it might seem at first glance. The fact is that aircraft manufacturing is only a derivative of engine building. My relative Andrei Petrov, who since childhood dreamed of building airplanes, told me about this. You can design and create beautiful aircraft, but if there are no engines for them, then aircraft without engines will be nothing more than metal boxes. As long as Russia has its own engine industry, Russia can have its own aircraft. Best in the world. Because our aircraft engines are the best, and some of them, such as the NK-93, have no analogues in the world. Experts say that in ten years everyone will be flying on engines of this type: the Germans, the Americans, and the French.
The NK-93 engine, invented by Russian designer Nikolai Kuznetsov, is the aircraft engine of the future
NK-93 is the first Russian fifth-generation engine with outstanding performance characteristics, outperforming all engines of comparable power in the world, including promising ones. NK-93 is intended for a whole line of existing and future trunk lines passenger airliners medium and long range - Tu-204, Tu-214, Il-96-400, military transport aircraft - Il-76, Tu-330.
Meanwhile, this engine, which has not been launched into the sky for more than 15 years, neither in Samara nor in Moscow, although Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is among its ardent supporters. Apparently, the current anti-crisis managers from Rosoboronprom have put an end to the domestic aircraft engine industry: the company that developed the NK-93, OJSC Samara Scientific and Technical Complex named after Nikolai Kuznetsov, is essentially already bankrupt. But what about the engine, without which independent Russia is doomed to aviation slavery to the American and English Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce? Without which you can give up on the domestic aircraft industry: no engine, no plane.
There is also the issue of liability. At the instigation of Yeltsin’s son-in-law Okulov, the aviation business in Russia was handed over to private owners. Used planes crash, people die. Who is responsible in case of equipment malfunction? For some reason, for us, everything somehow comes down exclusively to the material side of the matter. For example, representatives of the manufacturer Boeing have already rushed to Kazan to find out the causes of the disaster. Can we really count on an objective assessment of what happened from the position of such an interested party? Of course, the manufacturer will try to conduct such an “investigation”, as a result of which the weather, human factor, improper maintenance and operation of the aircraft will be to blame (with possibly fair claims regarding the replacement of spare parts with, again, cheaper used or counterfeit ones). Airline owners, on the contrary, are more profitable when the manufacturer is to blame. Air carriers, of course. In addition, no matter how seditious this idea may sound, the crash of planes is beneficial for air carriers from an economic point of view - after all, the planes are insured, and insurance payments are many times higher than the cost of the planes...
One of my friends received a message from her friend - he turned out to be a passenger on the previous flight of this ill-fated plane: “And I flew on this particular plane. 4 hours ago. To Moscow... So happy birthday to me. And let these bitches not even open their mouths about the weather or the pilot’s mistake: the plane was already faulty upon landing in Moscow, we almost crashed during landing...” To confirm his words, Grigory attaches a photo of the boarding pass...
Screenshot of a phone screen with a message from a passenger of the crashed plane, Grigory Busarev, who was on the previous flight 4 hours before the tragedy
A separate thread in the general outline of the issues under study is the current process of training and preparing flight crews. What education - so are the pilots. As, in general, are doctors and builders. What did you think? So cautious people do not advise either getting sick or living in new buildings. And maybe it’s better not to show up at new large stadiums, or at other grandiose venues, you never know...
But last summer the World Student Universiade took place in Kazan... Yes, sport is good, it’s necessary, you can’t argue with that. We need to invest in sports facilities, we need to develop the city. This is in general. What if you take a closer look? Well, why do we, one might ask, need an open-air stadium with 45,000 seats, and even for 15.5 billion rubles, in cold Kazan, a city with the climate of central Russia, where it’s a breeze every year? But we won’t be able to fill this stadium in our life after the Universiade (unless it’s for the World Cup). In addition, they say that something was built incorrectly there, and our brand new, rather large and expensive stadium will be remodeled! Again, using budget funds, of course. What can I say, the stadium is just pennies in the overall budget of the Universiade. In total, 7.5 billion dollars (230 billion rubles) were spent on it, which is four times (!) more than the previous Universiade in China. Just give free rein to the managers of our people's money - they are always eager to show off. And it’s not so easy to calculate later how much money was actually burned in all these fireworks...
Why do we need a stadium in cold Kazan? open air for 45 thousand spectators?
We dance and sing, arrange a feast for the whole world - there are funds for this. Holidays and mass celebrations are held everywhere, with or without reason. There are endless concerts and comedy shows on TV - you'll laugh out loud. What are we happy about? Who and, most importantly, why gave us such a fun life? To make it more fun to slide into the abyss? Before slaughtering a pig, a smart owner also pleases it, scratching its belly to lull the pig’s vigilance. And then, when she starts grunting with pleasure - a knife in the heart. Here we have - continuous entertainment. For example, in Samara, a shopping center is being built on the site of a former aircraft factory...
In the light of all these bright fireworks for Tatarstan, how inappropriate it is to buy fairly used American coffins with armrests tied with tape. In the photographs of the crashed plane published today by the Kazan Internet portal “BUSINESS Online”, taken by photographer Andrei Steklov three years before the tragedy, all this shame is in full view. As Steklov said, then he received an order to photograph for a magazine that was distributed to domestic flights. Even then, the aircraft was not “new”: “I photographed the Boeing both from the outside and from the inside. Look at the photo, everything is not quite new: the armrests are tied with tape, stains on the carpet. Then the customer wanted to show the full scale of the action - ownership of Boeing... The photographs, by the way, were never included in the order,” Steklov said.
Armrests tied with tape are too much!
It’s especially offensive that this happens when we have Kazan KAPO named after. Gorbunov, an aircraft manufacturing enterprise that was the flagship of Soviet aviation. Now the enterprise produces from 1 to 3 Tu-214 aircraft per year, and when my relative Petrov, a graduate of KAI, came to this plant in 1992, 30 aircraft were produced there per year.
Then devastation began at the plant (as well as at other plants throughout the country), the certified aircraft engineer became of no use to anyone... Now he is forced to work as a realtor. He doesn’t like the job, so Andrey happily takes on any job, and during the Kazan Universiade he worked as a driver transporting athletes. From him I learned that for this purpose, as many as 1,000 brand new (unlike the vintage airplanes we purchase) cars, again not of the domestic Hyundai brand, were purchased. But at the Universiade in China, its participants calmly moved around the city on public transport, tea is not disabled people, but athletes. Where did this entire fleet of vehicles go after the Universiade? No one notified Petrov about this when he handed over his board after the end of the competition in order to return to the boring everyday life of a realtor. Now, in order to pay off the mortgage for another half of his life, he will again look and show other people’s apartments, bargain, persuade...
What can he do? He doesn’t want to go overseas, as many of his friends from the aviation institute did. Because he loves his homeland, unlike, unfortunately, high-ranking corrupt officials who destroyed his dream of building airplanes. And now this cherished dream of his has turned into a pile of fragments. Similar to the wreckage of an imported plane that crashed near his native Kazan...
