ACCIDENTS THAT AFFECT

MODERN AVIATION
_____________________________
_

A thesis submitted to Major Martha de la Paz of

Asian School of Aviation Professional
Instructor, Aviation Research

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN FLYING

By :
Angelo De Lemos
John Recto
Chelsie Gonzalo
Esteban Benavidez III

November 2016

1
 Approval Sheet

This thesis presented to you entitled Accidents that

affect modern aviation by the opponents has been
approved by the committee on Oral Examination by the
grade of: _________

Asian School of Aviation Professional, College of

Aviation accepts this undergraduate Thesis in Partial
Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Science Major in Flying.

______________________
Major Martha dela Paz
Instructor, Aviation Research

Table of Contents

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 Title Page --------------------------------------------- 1
Approval Sheet-------------------------------------- 2
Table of Contents----------------------------------- 3
Introduction------------------------------------------ 4
Background of the study--------------------------- 4
Theoretical Framework----------------------------4
Conceptual Framework---------------------------5-6
Statement of the Problem------------------------7-17
Significance of the Study--------------------------18
Scope--------------------------------------------------18
Limitation--------------------------------------------18
Definition of Terms--------------------------------19
Research Design------------------------------------20
Conclusion-------------------------------------------20
Sources of Data-------------------------------------20
List Of Charts
Chart. 1 -- pg. 5-6
Chart. 2 -- pg. 6
List of Figures
Fig. I -- pg. 8
Fig. II -- pg. 9
Fig. III -- pg. 10
Fig. IV -- pg. 11
Fig. V -- pg. 12
Fig.VI -- pg. 13
Fig. VII -- pg. 13
Fig. VIII -- pg. 14
Fig. IX -- pg. 15
Fig. X -- pg. 16
Fig. XI -- pg. 17

I. Introduction
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 Aviation has had a lot of accidents since it was born. Even with these
accidents occurring Airmen never failed to learn from their mistakes. This study
will go through accidents and how it affected modern aviation. Each crash in
this study will be thoroughly analyzed and dissected to properly know how it
affected modern aviation.

II. Background of the study

Crashes in aviation while tragic is used to further improve flying. Crashes

are used to make aviation safer. as all airmen know never compromise safety.
Each and every crash in the history of aviation has a reason. Crashes in aviation
have changed through the years. The most common reason is Pilot Error.

Airmen learn from every crash in history. crashes in aviation can be

avoidable with proper pre-cautions and preparations. Modern aviation is a result
of improvements that was required in past crashes.

III. Theoretical framework

The main question for this study is How did past accidents affect
aviation today?. Aviation has been an ever changing tapestry. It has been
changing ever since it has been born. Aviation is a masterpiece derived from
numerous ingenious inventions of brilliant individuals. Aviation has its dark
past of mistakes that caused fatal casualties. While tragic, these crashes was a
wakeup call to aviators to move and learn from their mistakes and prevent it
from ever happening again. Through endless hours of work and brainstorming,
aviation is now the safer than driving an land vehicles.

IV. Conceptual framework

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 There are different kinds of crashes in aviation. Each and every category
has its own study and its own investigation. We wont dive into each category
since its not the main purpose. This study will only distinguish the categories
and statistics But here is some examples of the types of crashes. The sources
has been provided for further study.

Some examples of cause categories:

PILOT ERROR MECHANICIAL WEATHER SABOTAGE OTHER

Improper Severe
Engine failure Hijacking ATC error
procedure turbulence

Flying VFR
Equipment Ground crew
into IFR Wind shear Shot down
failure error
conditions

Controlled Explosive
Structural
flight into Mountain wave device Overloaded
failure
terrain aboard

Descending
Improperly
below Design flaw Poor visibility
loaded cargo
minimals

Spatial Maintenance
Heavy rain Bird strike
disorientation error

Premature Fuel
Severe winds
descent contamination

Excessive Pilot
Icing
landing speed incapacitation

Obstruction
Missed runway Thunderstorms
on runway

Midair
Lightning collision
Fuel starvation
strike caused by
other plane

Navigation Fire/smoke in
error flight

Wrong runway
takeoff/landing

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Midair
collision
caused by
both pilots

Chart 1. Source : www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.html

In these accidents, theres bound to be a type of accident that will be most

common. This issue has been strongly debated up to date. With proper analysis
of data of past accidents. We can say what is the most common type accident of
aviation.

ACCIDENTS BY CAUSE

Cause 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s All

Pilot Error 60% 55% 54% 60% 60% 58%

Mechanical 21% 16% 18% 15% 18% 17%

Weather 6% 5% 6% 6% 7% 6%

Sabotage 5% 11% 11% 8% 9% 9%

Other 8% 13% 11% 11% 6% 10%

Chart II Source :www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.html

Alternative Hypothesis

Aircraft Accidents causes a lot of change in our modern aviation today. It

is one of the main reason why aircrafts, airports and facilities were upgraded.
Pilots and crews become more knowledgeable and sharp. Massive upgrades
were done to become more safe in the sky. Accidents, based on our study has
significant relationship within our modern aviation.

Within the history of aviation accidents, theres quite a few accidents that
created certain organizations and departments that has affected aviation the
most. Here are 10 accidents that affected aviation the most.
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1. GRAND CANYON | TWA FLIGHT 2 AND UNITED AIRLINES
FLIGHT 718
2. PORTLAND | UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 173
3. CINCINNATI | AIR CANDA FLIGHT 797
4. DALLAS | DELTA AIRLINES FLIGHT 191
5. LOS ANGELES | AEROMEXICO FLIGHT 498
6. MAUI | ALOHA AIRLINES FLIGHT 243
7. PITTSBURGH | US AIR FLIGHT 427
8. MIAMI | VALUJET FLIGHT 592
9. LONG ISLAND | TWA FLIGHT 800
10. NOVA SCOTIA | SWISSAIR FLIGHT 111

V. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

How did the said accidents change aviation to what it is today? That is
the main question to this whole study. With proper analysis of data, here are
evidence of how crashes affected modern aviation.

THE 1956 GRAND CANYON MID-AIR COLLISION

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 Fig. I

The crash in grand canyon was between two airliners. On June 30, 1956,
a United Air Lines DC-7 and a TWA L-1049 Constellation collided in midair
over the Grand Canyon. Based on their destinations and routes, both aircraft
would be flying converging courses to their destination. Within the flight, a
request for altitude change by TWA Flight 2 due to weather brought both
aircraft to fly at a cruising altitude of 21,000 feet and brought both aircrafts in a
collision course above the grand canyon. This was the reason for the FAA. It
also gave the ATC a 250 million dollar upgrade. After that massive upgrade.
There wasnt a single accident involving two airliners for 47 years.

UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 173

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 Fig. II

While the accident in grand canyon focused on improving

communication and organizing the flying circus. The accident of United Airline
Flight 173 in Portland brought a whole new scheme involving the crew behind
the controls. On December 28, 1978, United Airlines Flight 173 was a
scheduled flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City,
New York to Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon. 181 passengers
was aboard when United 173 circled near the Portland airport for an hour as the
crew tried to sort out a landing gear problem. Although warned of the rapidly
diminishing fuel supply by the flight engineer on board. Two problems was
being dealt with at the time. Unable to synchronize workflow in the cockpit.
The aircraft ran out of fuel and crash landed in a Portland neighborhood. The
crash had 10 casualties and gave birth to cockpit resource management (CRM)
and killed the saying captain is GOD.

THE FIRE OF AIR CANADA FLIGHT 797

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 Fig. III

Theres a saying Greatness from small beginnings. The saying may be a

saying for greatness but it can also be applied in disastrous events. Thats where
Air Canada Flight 797 comes in. A regularly scheduled international passenger
flight from Dallas, Texas, to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with an on-route stop at
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The flight left Dallas with 5 crewmembers and 41
passengers on board. On 33,000 ft., a cabin crew member noticed in the
lavatory. After trying to extinguish the fire. The crew declared emergency to the
ATC of Greater Cincinnati International Airport. The crew successfully landed
and proceeded with emergency procedure. After Around 60 to 90 seconds of
evacuating the aircraft, a flash fire overwhelmed the whole aircraft interior and
ultimately engulfed the aircraft with raging fires. 23 passengers were unable to
evacuate and was burned to death. After this incident, The FAA mandated that
aircraft lavatories be equipped with smoke detectors and automatic fire
extinguishers. Within five years, all jetliners were retrofitted with fire-blocking
layers on seat cushions and floor lighting to lead passengers to exits in dense
smoke.

DELTA AIRLINES FLIGHT 191

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 Fig. IV

Delta 191, a Lockheed L-1011, was en route from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
and approached D/FW Airport for a landing about 6 p.m. All was going
smoothly until the jet flew into a rain cloud two miles north of the airport. A
violent down-flow of air, known as a microburst, forced the jet into a sudden
drop. The aircraft struck a car on State Highway 114, killing the driver. It hit the
ground short of the runway, plowed into a water tank, broke apart and caught
fire. Only 29 of the 163 passengers and crew survived, and two of them later
died of their injuries. There had been previous crashes attributed to so-called
wind shear, but this one finally made aviation officials confront the necessity for
microburst warning systems. Most large airports, including D/FW, also now
have low-level wind-shear alert systems, which notify flight controllers of
dangerous air currents. And in the wake of Delta 191, D/FW Airport
implemented improvements in emergency notification to hospitals and first-
responder communications. The crash also helped change the way flight crews
are trained. The pilot and co-pilot of the Delta jet, both of whom were killed in
the crash, took some of the blame in subsequent investigations for not going
around the storm.

LOS ANGELES | AEROMEXICO FLIGHT 498

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 Fig. V

Although the post-Grand Canyon ATC system did a good job of

separating airliners, it failed to account for small private planes like the four-
seat Piper Archer that wandered into the Los Angeles terminal control area on
Aug. 31, 1986. Undetected by ground controllers, the Piper blundered into the
path of an Aeromexico DC-9 approaching to land at LAX, knocking off the DC-
9's left horizontal stabilizer. Both planes plummeted into a residential
neighborhood 20 miles east of the airport, 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.

ALOHA AIRLINES FLIGHT 243

Fig. VI
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 As Aloha Flight 243, a weary, 19-year-old Boeing 737 on a short hop
from Hilo, Hawaii, to Honolulu, leveled off at 24,000 ft., a large section of its
fuselage blew off, leaving dozens of passengers riding in the open-air breeze.
Miraculously, the rest of the plane held together long enough for the pilots to
land safely. Only one person, a flight attendant who was swept out of the plane,
was killed.

Fig. VII

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) blamed a combination

of corrosion and widespread fatigue damage, the result of repeated
pressurization cycles during the plane's 89,000-plus flights. In response, 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.

USAIR FLIGHT 427 AT PITTSBURG

Fig VIII

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 When USAir Flight 427 began its approach to land at Pittsburgh, the
Boeing 737 suddenly rolled to the left and plunged 5000 ft. 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. But why? USAir
blamed the plane. Boeing blamed the crew. It took nearly five years for the
NTSB to conclude that a jammed valve in the rudder-control system had caused
the rudder to reverse: As the pilots frantically pressed on the right rudder pedal,
the rudder went left.

As a result, Boeing spent $500 million to retrofit all 2800 of the world's
most popular jetliner. And, in response to conflicts between the airline and the
victims' families,

VALUJET FLIGHT 592 AT MIAMI

Fig. IX

Although the FAA took anti-cabin-fire measures after the 1983 Air
Canada accident, it did nothing to protect passenger jet cargo compartments--
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despite NTSB warnings after a 1988 cargo fire in which the plane managed to
land safely. It took the horrific crash of ValuJet 592 into the Everglades near
Miami to finally spur the agency to action.

The fire in the DC-9 was caused by chemical oxygen generators that had
been illegally packaged by the airline's maintenance contractor. A bump
apparently set one off, and the resulting heat started a fire, which was fed by the
oxygen being given off. The pilots were unable to land the burning plane in
time, and 110 people died. The FAA responded by mandating smoke detectors
and automatic fire extinguishers in the cargo holds of all commercial airliners. It
also bolstered rules against carrying hazardous cargo on aircraft.

TWA FLIGHT 800 CRASH IN LONG ISLAND

Fig. X

A plane that blew up in midair for no apparent reason. The explosion of

TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 that had just taken off from JFK bound for Paris,
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killed all 230 people aboard and stirred great controversy. After painstakingly
reassembling the wreckage, the NTSB dismissed the possibility of a terrorist
bomb or missile attack and 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, meanwhile, has developed a fuel-inerting system that
injects nitrogen gas into fuel tanks to reduce the chance of explosions. Retrofit
kits for in-service Boeings will also be available.

SWISS AIR FLIGHT 111 AT THE COAST OF NOVA

SCOTIA

Fig. XI

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 About an hour after takeoff, the pilots of Swissair's Flight 111 from New
York to Geneva--a McDonnell Douglas MD-11--smelled smoke in the cockpit.
Four minutes later, they began an immediate descent toward Halifax, Nova
Scotia, about 65 miles away. But with the fire spreading and cockpit lights and
instruments failing, the plane crashed into the Atlantic about 5 miles off the
Nova Scotia coast. All 229 people aboard were killed.

Investigators traced the fire to the plane's in-flight entertainment network,

whose installation led to arcing in vulnerable Kapton wires above the cockpit.
The resulting fire spread rapidly along flammable Mylar fuselage insulation.
The FAA ordered the Mylar insulation replaced with fire-resistant materials in
about 700 McDonnell Douglas jets.

VI. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Airmen need to study these topics so that they have knowledge of the
history of what came to be the field of aviation. Airmen study the history to be
able to learn from the mistakes airmen did in the past in order for them to
prevent it from ever happening again. In knowing the lessons past airmen gave
to their predecessors, we as a unit of airmen will function more efficiently and
professionally. The crashes discussed above was the reason for innovation in the
equipment that evolved the technical and mechanical factors in aviation. Not
only did the planes and technology improved but also the airmen themselves
improve alongside the technology. Crashes made airmen more efficient and
more knowledgeable. Airmen improved greatly as a unit. Flight crew and
ground crew operations has improved drastically over the years of aviation.
This study are not only for airmen but its for civilians also. Some of the crashes
was caused by civilians on board the aircraft. This study also proves that in
order to make safety stable and away from any compromises, passenger
boarding the plane must also follow procedures to create a safe flight.
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VII. SCOPE

The scope of the study of Aviation related crashes that affected aviation
today focus only on crashes that has factual information and investigations.
Crashes stated above has already been fully investigated and all evidence are
accounted for.

VIII. LIMITATIONS

The limitations to this study is limited to crashes that proved to have

affected modern aviation. The causes of the crashes above has proof that its the
reason for certain technologies and protocols exists today. No other crashes has
been studied. Data gathered from the sources will be thoroughly analyzed and
studied.

IX. DEFINITION OF TERMS

Airmen - an individual in the field of aviation

Aviation - is the practical aspect or art of aeronautics, being the design,
development, production, operation and use of aircraft, especially heavier
than air aircraft.
VFR Visual Flying Rules
IFR Instrument flying rules
Mountain Wave - is defined as oscillations to the downwind of high
ground resulting from the disturbance in the horizontal air flow caused by
the high ground.
Wind shear - is defined as a sudden change of wind velocity and
direction.
ATC Air Traffic Control
Spatial disorientation - is the inability of a person to correctly determine
his bodys position in space.
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 FAA - Federal Aviation Administration
Flying Circus A term used to determine a organized airspace due to
proper handling of in-flight aircrafts.
Cockpit resource management (CRM) - is a set of training procedures for
use in environments where human error can have devastating effects.
Used primarily for improving air safety, CRM focuses on interpersonal
communication, leadership, and decision making in the cockpit.
Microburst - a sudden, powerful, localized air current, especially a
downdraft.
Horizontal/Vertical stabilizer - is an aerodynamic surface, typically
including one or more movable control surfaces that provides
longitudinal (pitch) and directional (yaw) stability and control.
Fuselage the main body of an aircraft
Widespread fatigue damage - is characterised by the simultaneous
presence of cracks at multiple points, that are of sufficient size and
density such that, the structure will no longer meet its damage tolerance
requirement and could fail.
NTSB National Transportation Safety Board

X. RESEARCH DESIGN

The research design that was used for this study is called Research
Design. The design of a study defines the study type. The study was conducted
through research and analysis of the NTSB and videos of Air crash
Investigation. Thorough analysis of actual aviation accident reports of each
crash.

XI. CONCLUSION

After analyzing and studying the research about the topic I therefore
conclude that accidents or air crash affects the aviation industry it can develop
everything including pilots and crews by learning from it to have safer flights
and minimize the accidents.

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XII. SOURCES OF DATA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ECrC0-LImc
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/pages/AAR9006.aspx
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/pages/AAR8602.aspx
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/AAR8605.asp
x
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/pages/AAR8707.aspx
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/pages/aar8903.aspx
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/pages/AAR9901.aspx
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/pages/AAR9706.aspx
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/AAR0003.asp
x
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt49r4LueK0
http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/g73/10-airplane-crashes-that-
changed-avia
http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm

related literature

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