From The Logbook:

Another Airplane Crash . . . Another Needless Death   ã Jim Trusty 2006

Like most of us in aviation, I absolutely hate it when something negative happens in my little world. Most of the time we concentrate on how to keep it from ever happening again.  Sometimes it wakes us up at night demanding that we say something - demanding that we do something. This is one of those times. 

We just had an accident in my general area that took the life of the pilot and the really difficult thing for me was that I knew him. The safety statistics that I am always reciting go right out the window when it happens close to home and you can still see that pilot on the tarmac smiling and joking before a flight and the airplane he was killed in. 

What could possibly have happened that would have caused him to not put his years of training into play and still be living today? We all have 20/20 hindsight and know what we would have done in the exact same circumstance. The big problem with that 20/20 stuff is that we can never duplicate exactly what happened, so in truth we really don’t know what we would have done. All we know is what we are supposed to do and also what we hope we would do. Actuality is a different story.  The accident is still under investigation by the FAA and the NTSB, and when it is all over we will find out exactly what happened on the part of the pilot and the airplane. Seldom is it only one cause - usually the pilot and the aircraft are both involved. Aviation in general will learn a lot from the accident and some changes will be put into effect that may save lives and equipment in the future, but it is one heavy price to pay for information. And I for one wish there was an easier way to get the message across. 

No record can be kept on how many potential accidents we avoid on a daily basis by quick thinking and proper use of the training we have received because pilots aren't stupid enough to tell on themselves. But if that figure were available, it would no doubt be high. However, when we as pilots fail to bring our past training into play in a timely fashion and an accident takes place, those numbers are most assuredly published at the drop of a hat. 

Aviation is a much-needed industry that employs over 1,000,000 people with a yearly payroll exceeding $16,000,000,000.00 and contributes over $50,000,000,000.00 to the U.S. economy annually. I brag continuously about the safety record we have established flying airplanes, and as you read these numbers you will have to agree that we are the safest, fastest, and certainly the #1 method of choice for most travelers.  Each year we use 18,000 airports and 260,000 airplanes flown by 600,000 pilots to transport 650,000,000 people. We fly 25,000,000 hours covering 9,000,000,000 miles on over 58,000,000 flights and still our safety record says we are the safest way to get from point A to point B. 

We lose, on average, about 600 people each year. We transport, on average, about 650,000,000 people each year. Quick math says that you have one chance in a million of dying in an airplane accident. These figures have improved steadily over the last 20 years to where they are today and have made us the safest form of transportation known to man. But when we do have a crash, we manage to get great press, or I should say great coverage. No one bothers to mention at the crash site that aviation is responsible for less than 2% of all transportation deaths in a given year. No one ever prints exactly how hard the Federal Aviation Administration, the other government agencies involved in aviation, and the General Aviation Industry try as a unit to teach, practice, and encourage safety and recurrency on a daily basis. Yet it still happens. Why?

Approximately 75% of all our accidents are “Pilot Error.” What does that mean in simple terms? If the cause of an accident is something that the pilot has received training for or that is common knowledge and something the pilot should have been aware of and wasn’t, that is pilot error. We train from day one to deal with whatever goes wrong with the airplane. We practice engine-out procedures, emergency landings, no radio, failed gear, and anything else that has ever caused an accident anywhere in the world and several procedures that will never even happen. But it seems in some cases that the training never seems to kick in quick enough when the real thing occurs. 

Pilot error will always be number one because man and machine have problems cooperating or with cohabitation in the same general area. Pilot error includes complacency, lack of recurrency, lack of experience in present conditions, or poor performance. Most of us in aviation agree that pilot performance plays a big role in the outcome of each maneuver and the ending of the flight, but we are always looking for that special something that contributed to the pilot getting behind the power curve and doing something dangerous or deadly. Weather is the most talked about problem in aviation and the one thing we have the least control over. I remember as a young instructor flying out of Nashville, Tennessee, before we had a FAA Flight Service Station. We had an office of the National Weather Service on the field and a well-known meteorologist (P.J. New) that staffed the office. I would always take my students by and introduce them, and he would give them an elaborate report that covered everything he knew and believed about weather. His closing statement as we started for the door was always the same, “And that report is guaranteed for about 30 minutes.” If no other truth was told at that meeting, the parting statement was definitely true. I miss him and his honesty.  

Another cause of accidents is mechanical failure. If nothing else in aviation has a chance at reaching perfection and promoting aviation safety, the standards used to certify and put aircraft in service are certainly ranked the highest. This area covers engine and propeller failure and does not exclude some pilot error for fuel mismanagement or contaminated fuel.  Mechanical failure is responsible for a large number of accidents because of handling by so many - pilots, line personnel, and mechanics, just to name a few. 

Metal fatigue or airframe failures, examples of structural failure, are usually caused by a couple or three reasons. Weather again, design flaws, or improper operation by the pilot. Over-stressing a design, good or bad, will cause it to fail. When I think of the thousands of hours that little Cessna 150 has given aviation in service, I wonder why they couldn’t have copied some of the features to make airframes and wings and sheet metal and landing gear last longer and be safer. 

And then there’s the least desirable way to end a flight . . . having a collision�with the ground, a fuel station, a hangar, or even worse, another airplane on the ground or in the air.  We tend to blame this on whomever we can, but the FAA and the NTSB favor the pilot in command.  I’ve found over the years that Air Traffic Control really has very little to do with the way that I fly my flight.  I’ve already made the decision myself when I call them. 

So whatever we do and wherever we end up, generally, the pilot has the most influence on the outcome and safety of each flight.  Although I’m not always 100% in agreement with the FAA and the NTSB, as a pilot I know from daily experiences who is in charge and how a lot of accidents come about. Although this article is full of facts, it is very sincere, certainly from the heart, and written to let everyone know how those of us in aviation are always striving to improve on an already enviable record. We keep volumes of statistics that show why, when, where, what and how, and then learn all we can from each occurrence. Each crash yields evidence that might prevent another crash or save a life in the future. The training we all go through will then be broadened to cover anything that the pilot could have done differently. 

The sad truth of the whole matter is that most of us in aviation, including instructors, mechanics, Air Traffic Controllers, Flight Service Stations, and even the Federal Aviation Administration, are doing just about all we can. This doesn’t mean we will level off where we are today, but as long as we fly, drive, walk, run, and move people from point to point, we will have a few accidents. Humans operating machines can only hope for a safety record that is perfect. In this business we say what happened was an “aviation loss,” but in truth it has a devastating effect on many. And as I said at the beginning of this article, for what we will learn from what happened, it is a terribly high price to pay for information. That’s my belief and I’m sticking with it. 

And now, the two greatest words ever spoken by a speaker or a writer, “in closing . . .”  After writing at length about aviation safety, if one person was reached and helped to better understand the causes and reasons behind aviation crashes, this article was a success. If I have reached just one pilot and helped them think about making some changes in the way they do business, I have certainly succeeded. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this story. It was written with the hope that I never again have to see a friend or fellow pilot go down. The following statement has been on my business card for many years. I thought it up a long time ago when I helped set up meetings for the FAA as an Aviation Safety Counselor - “Accidents are caused and therefore preventable.” 

We have an accident (not necessarily fatal) in aviation about every 15,000 hours of flight time, and I sincerely believe that we can improve on those numbers. Will you help? Thanks!

SAFETY AND RECURRENCY TRAINING GO HAND IN HAND!