Aviation Accidents

Being a professional pilot may not be as safe as you think. According to TIME magazine, airplane pilots are almost ten times as likely to be killed on the job as policemen or firefighters.

white ballNTSB Reports Complete NTSB reports in Acrobat format.
white ball48 NTSB Abstracts from 1972 to 1989 ASCII text. Includes a list with date, place, type, registration. You can then search the text for the abstract.
NTSB Synopses Final NTSB reports. Search by month or use the query form.
NTSB Aviation Safety Statistics Eleven tables, part of press release SB-97-03 dated February 21, 1997. Breaks down accidents by general aviation, non-scheduled carriers, and scheduled carriers.
FAA Aviation Safety Data This site is one response to Acting Administrator Linda Daschle's new FAA "openness" policy on accidents. It includes near-misses, incidents, accidents, NTSB recommendations, and useful links. Includes a search engine.
ASY 100 Office of System Safety Safety statistics from the FAA Office of System Safety. Similar content to the FAA database above. Has cross-system search.
Accident Reports at the FlightSafety Foundation see "publications"
Accident Reports at Aviation Week
Aviation Safety Web Page H. Ranter, NL: very complete; many links to details, 1970-1997. Includes late-breaking stories, a user-friendly interface (makes it easier to locate accidents), and links to many other sources.
Aviation Disasters Andrew Ayers: Detailed descriptions of significant fatal airline accidents from the 1960s on.
Airline Disasters Database of major commercial airline disasters from 1920-1996. Brief details of dates, location, plane type etc. Some links to reports.
Significant Aviation Accidents Brief ASCII Descriptions of many accidents from 1908 to the present.
Accidents Related to Automation A lengthy and well researched report on cockpit design, the man-machine interface, and new errors introduced by automation. Links to other reports; full report requires Acrobat.
Accidents by Airliner Type A statistical compilation of fatal accident rates for several modern aircraft types.
Human Error An extensive site featuring many articles and links about human error; emphasis is on aviation, but also includes medicine, nuclear power, and other industries.
BEA G-ARPI The accident report on the BEA Trident on June 18, 1972. Captain Stanley Key suffered a heart attack. Labor problems and a lack of CRM are implicated in the failure of the copilot to save the aircraft.
Accidents Related to Fatigue An ALPA report on the Guantanamo Bay Connie Kalitta DC-8 accident . The NTSB report on the Guantanamo Bay accident criticizes inadequate duty time regulations.
Arrow Air at Gander An Arrow Air DC-8 carrying US troops flying from Cairo via Cologne crashed on takeoff at Gander. The offical report has caused considerable controversy.
AAIB United Kingdom Air Accidents Investigation Branch (the UK version of NTSB)

French Court Jails Airbus Pilot A news article about a French court's exoneration of Airbus Industrie, blaming the pilot for the A320 crash at Habsheim/Mulhouse in 1988. This report should be considered in light of the fact that according to the Discovery Channel, Aerospatiale refused to accept the NTSB finding that the ATR that crashed at Roselawn was improperly designed, and issued a separate report blaming the pilots, instead. Here's a site that disputes the official version.
American Eagle pilot fired for refusing to fly wins $10 million.
Anaheim Robinson LAX92FA206 05/08/92. Improper autorotation by physician.
Chino Hills Accident LAX92FA242 6/10/92. CFIT (scud-running).
Catalina Accident LAX93FA118 02/15/93. Despondent and alcohol impaired pilot.
Martin Westwind at SNA LAX94FA073 12/15/93. B757 wake turbulence.
Fullerton Apartment LAX96FA050 11/20/95. CFIT (descent below minimums on localizer approach).
The Cali Crash Cali, Colombia 757 Crash on Approach. NTSB press release, with links to approach charts. Another report at the Flight Safety Foundation.
ValuJet 592 Five part Miami Herald series on the Everglades crash of a "bargain" airline. Here's the NTSB report in pdf format.
ValuJet 592 links Exhaustive list of hundreds of news articles about the ValuJet (now AirTran) crash. Valujet had had problems (inadvertent spoiler activation) before the crash.
ValuJet 592 Aviation Week & Space Technology blames ValuJet's "corporate culture".
AeroPeru 603 CVR Voice recorder transcript of the B-757 that crashed because its static ports had been taped over.
China Eastern 583 MD-11 inadvertent slat extension over Shemya.
FedEx 14 MD-11 flipped over on landing at Newark. And a FedEx DC-10 caught fire in flight, landing at Newburgh.
FedEx 705 A disgruntled FedEx flight engineer attempts to crash the airplane he's jumpseating on into the FesEx SuperHub. Here's the record of that employee's appeal to the 6th Circuit.
Martinair 631 loss of EIS and IRUs over Boston. Here's the final NTSB report.
B737 rudder hardovers A series of article from the Seattle Times. Part 1: Eastwind at Richmond, Part 2: Colorado Springs, Copa, Sahara India, and Honduras Part 3: Pittsburgh, Part 4: Boeing response, Part 5: The investigation.
The NTSB investigation USAir 427.
A sometimes unreachable USAir 427 site in Norway.
The NTSB report on TWA 800.
The Halifax Daily News on Swissair 111. More at CNEWS
The Scandinavian ((SHK) / Board of Accident Investigation) report on SAS SK751 Clear ice on MD-81.
A Boeing 727 does a spin over Saginaw Hoot Hibson.
A Boeing 767 runs out of gas over Canada. The Gimli Glider.
A Delta Airlines audit of Korean Airlines.

Miscellaneous

ASRS Reports A place for aviation professionals including pilots, mechanics, dispatchers, and flight attendants to report actual or potential safety hazards. Provides confidentiality and publishes reports.   Here's an alternate URL.
Replacement Certificates, Airmen File Requests This is the FAA agency that processes airmen files.
Pilot Examiner BBS The Pilot Examiner Standardization Section. Currently contains primarily .PDF images of the newsletter, but it dhe Orlando FSDO containing quite a few Advisory Circulars.
Advisory Circulars The official FAA site for Advisory Circulars.
FAA Public Affairs Official Announcements and Press Releases.
Legal Interpretations Duty Time ASCII; scanned as a service by a private party. Check original sources if you need a legal opinion
Aviation Week & Space Technology limited excerpts from the magazine. Graphics intensive and slow.

The following news articles are referenced for information without comment as to their accuracy; form your own judgment.

Report of the Vice President's Commission includes the originally unpublished dissent.
FAA breaks its own standards an inspection of the FAA Academy; with cartoon.
Safety Last FAA inspectors claim.
Grounded by Politics at the FAA.
Budget SNAFU hobbles FAA.
FAA inspector breaks the rules The FARs apply to FAA inspectors, as well.
Bogus Parts The FAA calls these "suspected unapproved parts".
Flying Into Trouble: Mary Schiavo, the former DOT Inspector General, in TIME Magazine.
Comments on the Schiavo book A Boeing engineer refutes some of Mary Schiavo's book, Flying Blind, Flying Safe
Bargain Airline safety Does the FAA tolerate high risk for low-cost carriers? A TIME magazine article.
Airport Security How effective is airport screening? A TIME magazine article.
The Air Safety Home Page A private site publishing (controversial) airline safety statistics.
FAA and NTSB question validity of Airline Safety Report Card A discussion of the difficulties in quantizing airline safety.
NBC on FAA Databases Responding to calls from Congress and the public, the FAA recently put extensive information about accidents and crashes on the Internet. But experts question the way it is being presented, saying it may be difficult for most people to interpret.
Spectacular Approaches Some unbelievably bad airliner landings. Asiana at Anchorage. A series of pictures (more) of a B-52 crash at Fairchild AFB in 1994.

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