Incidents in Aviation

Helping orphans the way you would do it

Flying is not inherently dangerous, but to an even greater extent than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of carelessness, incapacity, or neglect

Since the birth of flight, aircraft have crashed, often with fatal or serious consequences. This is due to the unforgiving nature of flight, where a relatively insubstantial medium, air, supports a significant mass due to the crafty arrangement of the machine. Should this fail, there is generally only a small opportunity for a good outcome. Because of this, much of aviation is concerned with the design of craft such that the chances of failure are minimised, and pilot training with safety a primary consideration. Despite this, accidents still occur, though statistically flying is nowadays an extremely safe form of transportation, possibly the safest. In fact the relative rarity of incidents, coupled with the often dramatic outcome, is one reason why they still make headline news.

Many early attempts at flight ended in failure when a design raised to a height for a launching would fail generate enough lift and crash to the ground. Some the earliest aviation pioneers lost their lives testing aircraft they built, many who were working on potentially viable flying machines. (see Early flying machines)

Otto Lilienthal who died after a failure of one his gliders. On his 2500th flight (August 10, 1896), a gust of wind broke the wing of his glider, causing him to fall from a height of roughly 56 ft \\ 17 m, fracturing his spine. He died the next day, with his last words being reported as Opfer mÃÂÃÂ¼ssen gebracht werden! ("sacrifices must be made"). Percy Pilcher was another promising aviation pioneer. Pilcher died testing the The Hawk (September 20, 1899), a design based of his mentor, Otto. Just as with Lilienthal, promising designs and idead for a motorized planes were lost with his death. Some other early attempts experienced rough landings, such as Richard Pearse who is generally accepted to have crash landed (survived) a motorized aircraft in some bushes, unable to gain altitude after launching from it from some height.

The Wright Flyer nearly crashed as well on the same of day of its historic flight while being piloted, sustained some damage when landed. It was totally destroyed when it was being taken in after it landed when the wind caught it. Thomas Selfridge became the first person killed in a powered airplane on September 17, 1908 when Wilbur crashed his two-passenger plane during military tests at Fort Myer in Virginia. Many of the often under-powered and weakly constructed aircraft of early aviation would claim many more lives and and aircraft.

Many of the Atlantic Ocean pioneers had to deal with the point of no return, after which they would not be able to return back to where they started, but had to continue to their destinations. Many have lost their lives crossing this point.

The Tenerife disaster which killed almost 600 people is often regarded as the worst-ever incident in Aviation history. If the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in New York and Washington which are accounted are regarded as aviation disasters, rather than as acts of terrorism or warfare, then between them they accounted for about 2800 lives, significantly more than the Tenerife disaster. Several equally aviation-related events during World War II, however, resulted in the deaths of tens or even hundreds of thousands of people. The "worst ever aviation incident", in other words, is a matter of definition.

Two incidents of note have happened in Puerto Rico: On December 31,1972, baseball player Roberto Clemente, his helpers and crew died when the DC-3 they rented for a relief flight to Nicaragua crashed off the Atlantic coast, shortly after take-off from Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, then known as Isla Verde International Airport. Neither their bodies or the wreckage of the plane have been recovered so far. In 1985, an American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 ran off the runway at the same airport, ending up in a lake. No one, however, was injured in the 1985 incident.

Legend has it also, that many planes (as well as ships) have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle. The Mythical triangle covers everything in between San Juan, Puerto Rico, Miami and Bermuda. Public speculation as to what happened to those planes is wide: Some say that the planes were taken hostage, others say they were taken away by aliens, and so on. What ultimately happened to most of the planes, and ships, that lost contact while navigating this area, remains a mystery.

World boxing champion Rocky Marciano was killed in 1969, when a plane he piloted himself crashed. In 1979, New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson also died in the crash of a plane he was flying. In 1993, two top NASCAR drivers were killed in separate aviation accidents. First, defending series champion Alan Kulwicki was killed when the plane in which he was a passenger crashed while he was on his way to a race. Later, Davey Allison died from injuries suffered in a helicopter crash during a race weekend. In 1999, a private jet that was carrying golf star Payne Stewart crashed in South Dakota with no survivors; it is believed that all on board died when the plane suddenly lost cabin pressure early in the flight, while the plane was on autopilot.

Incidents in Aviation

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