Bad weather and aircraft accidents – global vis-à-vis Indian scenario

It is of great significance to identify and clarify the circumstances and causes of any aircraft accident which will help avoid similar accidents in the future. Besides attribution of various aircraft accidents to avionic causes, bad weather is another prime cause for accidents of many aircraft and helicopters in India. But hardly any study is available in this regard in India using their longperiod data. Organizations like USA-based National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Geneva-based Aircraft Crashes Record Office (ACRO) and some other researchers have analysed factor-wise causes of aircraft accidents in percentage using their long-period data, including percentage of aircraft accidents due to various weather types, e.g. low visibility/ceiling, wind shear, squalls, etc. It is high time that similar attempts are made in India for their cumulative assessment and recommending better mitigation measures and regulations. In the present article, available data from NTSB, ACRO, etc. have been reviewed from the context of bad weather as the major factor of aircraft accidents. We have made similar study using data from Annual Aircraft Accident reports of 1992–2008 published by Director General Civil Aviation of India for the Indian region. We have also discussed how efficient use of newly available technology in meteorological services may help mitigate accidents to some extent.