Page 9 Physicists have designed a device for automobiles to make it possible with a high degree of reliability to determine what occurs in a traffic accident and thus facilitate judicial proceedings. A black box, but for automobiles. The Black Box: from Aircraft to Automobiles Found in the Department of Nariño, near the Ecuadorian border, captivating because of its bright colors, but above all ...

Air Medical Journal 34:2 Since helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) took to the skies of America in the early 1970s, the accident rate has remained disproportionately high when compared with other segments of helicopter aviation. According to the Air Medical Memorial website, to date 374 people have lost their lives in air medical accidents, leaving more than 600 crash survivors who mus...

American Airlines Flight 587 (AA587) was an Airbus A300-600 which encountered some wake turbulence from a preceding aircraft on climb out of JFK New York airport in 2001. During the second wake turbulence encounter, the rudder experienced 5 full deflections in opposite senses in about 7 seconds, and the vertical stabiliser (the fin at the back of the aircraft) broke off at its root due to overl...

The accident rate for UAVs is higher than for conventional aircraft. A significant proportion of these accidents are associated with human error. If UAVs are to be permitted to operate in the National Airspace System, it will be necessary to understand the human factors associated with these vehicles. Unlike conventional aircraft maintenance, UAV operators must ensure the reliability of an enti...

(1) REDUCTION OF RISK: A FLIGHT CREW GUIDE TO THE AVOIDANCE AND MITIGATION OF WILDLIFE STRIKES TO AIRCRAFT Capt. Paul Eschenfelder, Avion Corporation, 16326 Cranwood, Spring, TX 77379 USA; Steve Hull, Senior Accident Investigator, British Airways, P.O. Box 10, Heathrow Airport, Hounslow, England TW6 2JA Each year the world’s airlines lose between $1 billion to $2 billion due to wildlife strikes...

As aircraft structures begin to age (that is, as flight hours accumulate), existing subcritical cracks or new cracks can grow in some high-stress points of the structural components. The usual approach is to inspect the structures periodically at certain intervals. Thus, a catastrophic accident during flight can be avoided. The problem then arises of choosing a sequence of inspection times whic...

Over the last several decades, humans have played a progressively more important causal role in aviation accidents as aircraft have become more. Consequently, a growing number of aviation organizations are tasking their safety personnel with developing safety programs to address the highly complex and often nebulous issue of human error. However, there is generally no “off-the-shelf” or standar...