TRANSPORTATION SAFETY AIR TRANSPORTATION  It includes commercial airlines, airfreight carriers and general aviation (private aircraft).

Aviation Aviation 1. (Engineering / Aeronautics) - The art or science of flying aircraft 2. the design, production, and maintenance of aircraft It is considered to be a very safe mode of transportation, experiences approximately 10 to 15 crashes per 10 million flights worldwide. Air safety is excellent, although occasionally a crash will occur with a heavy death toll. ELEMENTS OF AIR TRANSPORTATION SAFETY  Reliability of the aircraft - Regular inspection to assure detection, or an indication to crew of the malfunction. - Failure modes of aircraft structures can be cracks, corrosion, fastener/bonding failure or deformation beyond the plastic limit. - Inspection systems are designed to detect all of these in a timely manner, i.e. before the failure has a catastrophic effect as structural integrity  Weather - It is significantly affected by weather, and most travellers can recall a trip by air that was delayed or cancelled because of stormy, foggy, windy, or snowy weather at either origin or destination airport or en route.  Aircrafts crew  The air and ground traffic control system An aviation accident is defined as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, in which a person is fatally or seriously injured, the aircraft sustains damage or structural failure or the aircraft is missing or is completely inaccessible. An aviation incident is also defined there as an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations. An accident in which the damage to the aircraft is such that it must be written off, or in which the plane is destroyed is called a hull loss accident. Air safety hazards 1. Foreign object debris - Includes items left in the aircraft structure during manufacture/repairs, debris on the runway and solids encountered in flight (e.g. hail and dust). Such items can damage engines and other parts of the aircraft. Air France Flight 4590 crashed after hitting a part that had fallen from another aircraft. 2. Misleading information and lack of information A pilot might fly the plane in an accident-prone manner when misinformed by a printed document (manual, map etc.), by reacting to a faulty instrument or indicator (either in cockpit or on ground) or by following inaccurate instructions or information from flight or ground control. Lack of information by the control tower, or delayed instructions, are major factors contributing to accidents.

3. Lightning The effects of normal lightning on traditional metal-covered aircraft are well understood and serious damage from a lightning strike on an airplane is rare. However, as more and more aircraft, like the upcoming Boeing 787, whose whole exterior is made of nonconducting composite materials take to the skies, additional design effort and testing must be made before certification authorities will permit these aircraft in commercial service.

4. Ice and snow Ice and snow can be factors in airline accidents. Airline flight plans require airline dispatch offices to monitor the progress of weather along the routes of their flights, helping the pilots to avoid the worst of in flight icing conditions. Aircraft can also be equipped with an ice detector in order to warn pilots to leave unexpected ice accumulation areas, before the situation becomes critical Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 - slid off the end of a runway after landing in heavy snow conditions, killing one child. Air Florida Flight 90 - crashed on takeoff in 1982, as a result of ice/snow on its wings. 5. Engine failure An engine may fail to function because of starvation, fuel , foreign object damage ,mechanical failure due to metal fatigue, mechanical failure due to improper maintenance, mechanical failure caused by an original manufacturing defect in the engine, and pilot error. In a multi-engine aircraft, failure of a single engine usually results in a precautionary landing being performed, for example landing at a diversion airport instead of continuing to the intended destination. Failure of a second engine (e.g. Dominicana DC-9 air disaster) or damage to other aircraft systems caused by an uncontained engine failure (e.g. United Airlines Flight 232) may, if an emergency landing is not possible, result in the aircraft crashing. A turbine engine failure refers to an incident wherein a turbine engine in an aircraft unexpectedly stops producing power because of a part malfunction, in the absence of circumstances such as fuel exhaustion. British Airways Flight 38 Fuel starvation caused by ice, Landed short of runway

6. Structural failure of the aircraft - Composite materials consist of layers of fibers embedded in a resin matrix. In some cases, especially when subjected to cyclic stress, the layers of the material separate from each other (delaminate) and lose strength. As the failure develops inside the material, nothing is shown on the surface; instrument methods (often ultrasound-based) have to be used to detect such a material failure 7. Fire Safety regulations control aircraft materials and the requirements for automated fire safety systems. Usually these requirements take the form of required tests. The tests measure flammability and the toxicity of smoke. When the tests fail, they fail on a prototype in an engineering laboratory, rather than in an aircraft.

One possible cause of fires in airplanes are wiring problems that involve intermittent faults, such as wires with breached insulation touching each other, having water dripping on them, or short circuits. These are

difficult to detect once the plane is on the ground. However, there are methods, such as spread-spectrum [16] time-domain reflectometry, that can feasibly test live wires on aircraft during flight.

8. Volcanic ash - Plumes of volcanic ash near active volcanoes can damage propellers, engines and cockpit windows. Plumes of volcanic ash near active volcanoes are an aviation safety hazard, especially for night flights. The ash is hard and abrasive and can quickly cause significant wear onpropellers and turbocompressor blades, and scratch the cockpit windows, impairing visibility. It contaminates fuel and water systems, can jam gears, and can cause a flameout of theengines. Its particles have low melting point, so they melt in the combustion chamber and theceramic mass then sticks on the turbine blades, fuel nozzles, and the combustors, which [1] [2] can lead to a total engine failure. It can also contaminate the cabin and damage avionics. 9. Human factors - Human factors including pilot error are another potential danger, and currently the most common factor of aviation crashes. Pilot error and improper communication are often factors in the collision of aircraft. This can take place in the air (or on the ground). The ability of the flight crew to maintain situational awareness is a critical human factor in air safety. Human factors training is available to general aviation pilots and called single pilot resource management training.

Runway safety Types of runway safety incidents include:     Runway excursion - an incident involving only a single aircraft, where it makes an inappropriate exit from the runway. Runway overrun - a type of excursion where the aircraft is unable to stop before the end of the runway Runway incursion - an incident involving incorrect presence of a vehicle, person or another aircraft on the runway Runway confusion - an aircraft makes uses the wrong runway for landing or take-off

Runway event is another term for a runway accident Several terms fall under the flight safety topic of runway safety, including incursion, excursion, and confusion. 1. Runway confusion involves a single aircraft, and is used to describe the error when the aircraft makes "the unintentional use of the wrong runway, or a taxiway, for landing or takeoff". An example of a runway confusion incident is Comair Flight 191.

A taxiway is a path on an airport connecting runways with ramps, hangars, terminalsand other facilities. They mostly have hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller airports sometimes use gravel or grass. The aircraft was assigned the airport's Runway 22 for the takeoff, but used Runway 26 instead. Runway 26 was too short for a safe takeoff, causing the aircraft to overrun the end of the runway before it could become airborne. It crashed just past the end of the runway, killing all 47 passengers and two of the three crew. The flight's first officer was the only survivor. 2. Runway excursion is an incident involving only a single aircraft, where it makes an inappropriate exit from the runway. This can happen because of pilot error, poor weather, or a fault with the aircraft.[citation needed] Overrun is a type of excursion where the aircraft is unable to stop before the end of the runway. A recent example of such an event is Air France Flight 358 in 2005. Further examples can be found in the overruns category. 3. Runway incursion involves a first aircraft, as well as a second aircraft, vehicle, or person. It is defined by both the U.S. FAA and ICAO as "Any occurrence at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and take off of aircraft." Runway condition describes a runway's current status in relation to current meteorological conditions and air safety. * Dry: the surface of the runway is clear of water, snow or ice. * Damp: change of color on the surface due to moisture. * Wet: the surface of the runway is soaked but there is no significant patches of standing water. * Water patches: patches of standing water are visible. * Flooded: there is extensive standing water.