Aircraft Mishaps

Investigating Aircraft Mishaps

Abstract

Every since people wanted to take to the skies there has always been a risk associated with it. When the first aviators were learning to fly they had accidents. If it was pilot error or mechanical failure mishaps occurred and needed to be investigated to see what cause it. The first crashes were never really investigated due to the fact that aircraft manufactures and business owners didn’t want the negative press from mishaps. After a well known coach was in an aircraft accident, the world wanted answers to know what happen. This accident laid down the groundwork of the beginning of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). These organizations establish what training is needed and how to conduct an accident investigation. After the investigations are completed, reports are written and released to the public. Once these findings are released to the public, the FAA, puts them into directives to prevent the same accident happening again in the future.

Investigating Aircraft Mishaps

Flying is considered to be the safest form of travel, every so often an accident will occasionally happen. When this makes people would like to know how it happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. The accident could have happened from human error, mechanical failure, weather, criminal activity, or technology not keeping up with other advancements. According to the NTSB (2010) there were 66 US air carriers’ aircraft that had mishaps with seven mishaps having fatalities in 2010. These statics do not cover civil and private aircraft. Just one fatality is one too many. Making aircraft accident investigation a critical part of aviation development. Many do not know what is involved in conducting a mishap investigation and don’t know where to start to do one. Here are some questions that come up when researching to do one:

1. Who conducts them and how did they...