Flight Accidents and check what really pillots scared off
Malaysia Airlines fl ight MH370 vanishes without a trace – and with it, 239 people. Then, in Philadelphia, the nose gear on an Airbus A320 collapses during take-off. Two incidents in March alone – how can such things still happen in 2014? Now worried pilots break their silence…
Until recently, the very idea would have seemed ludicrous: a 64-metre-long Boeing 777 simply vanishes on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. And yet that’s exactly what occurred on 8th March 2014. But how is this possible? One thing has been made clear by the international search for the aircraft: it’s shockingly easy. The plane’s communications system can be manually switched off, and more than 100 kilometres out over the ocean, on-land radar surveillance can no longer track the plane. There are clearly far larger gaps in global flight surveillance than the public were aware of. But the disturbing facts of the case don’t end there. World of Knowledge has undertaken in-depth research into modern air travel, and it’s revealed that the safety flaws above are just the tip of the iceberg. Here, pilots speak anonymously about their true, day-to-day fears. Those with a serious fear of flying should stop reading now…
RISK FACTOR: WIND:-
WIND CAUSES THE AIRCRAFT TO FLIP OVER
An aeroplane can only fl y as long as enough air is fl owing around its wings. “If the momentum is broken, the aircraft plummets like a stone,” says pilot Thomas O. “A landing is a kind of planned curbing of this momentum. The plane uses braking to achieve this. When it’s a few metres above the ground, the plane is very vulnerable, as it’s being manoeuvred right on the knife-edge of crashing. A sudden squall of wind from above – known as a microburst – or a gust of wind from behind or the side could overturn the aircraft or cause it to crash. And there’d be barely any time for the pilot to react. “I know cases in which planes fell 800 metres without warning. At high altitudes this only poses a risk of injury for people not wearing seatbelts, or from loose objects fl ying about the cabin. But close to the ground, it could result in a fatal crash-landing.” For this reason, this critical juncture in a fl ight must be executed as quickly as possible. “Textbook landings are those that a passenger would describe as ‘hard’,” states Thomas O. “The plane won’t bounce upwards again after hitting the ground, although some passengers may feel like it does due to the long spring defl ection of the landing
gear, which can measure up to a metre on a jumbo jet. A ‘hard’ landing such as this, in which the plane touches down as quickly as possible, also has the advantage that it makes use of the entire runway. That said, there is always the possibility of a problem with the aeroplane’s braking
RISK FACTOR: NATURE:-
EVERY ENGINE GIVES OUT
The risk levels presented by ice are extremely diffi cult to calculate during fl ight. “Storm clouds transport huge quantities of water at high altitude,” says Martin A. “At 10 kilometres above the ground, the outside temperature is minus 50°C, but the fi ne water-drops can cool down to far below zero without freezing – it’s a process known as ‘supercooling’. And if these droplets encounter a solid object, they immediately turn to ice. An aeroplane can then completely freeze over in an instant. Thankfully, critical areas, such as the wings, are heated.” However, this instant sky-ice can prove a problem for the turbines. “Their air intake is heated, but the rotor blades themselves are not,” says Martin A. “If ice sets in on the blade wheels, rotating at 10,000 cycles per second, then individual blades can actually snap, which can lead to total power failure.” In fact, there are 14 recorded cases of this problem causing two engines to fail simultaneously. As recently as November 2013, aircraft manufacturer Boeing issued a warning relating to some of its models, stating that pilots should give storm clouds a very wide berth. “Many pilots still try to take on storms,” says Martin A. “But while we can fl y around patches of rough weather in Europe relatively easily, at the equator or in the American Midwest, storm systems block fl ight paths for days, over distances of thousands of kilometres. In those cases you can’t fl y around, you have to go through.” Other dangers facing the engines can be completely invisible. “Volcanic ash consists of microscopically small, sharp-edge stones,” says Thomas O. “No radar equipment is able to detect this ash, even when we fi nd ourselves right in the middle of it. The particles smooth down the engines from within, or melt in the combustion chamber at 1,400°C, which clogs the valves.” Every year there are around three cases of aeroplanes being damaged as a result of ash. In 2011 limits were put in place in Europe to prevent planes from fl ying once ash levels reach a certain point – however, these limits have never been tested in practice. Similarly unpredictable are birds, and not just large ones such as geese. Huge swarms of starlings are also capable of killing a plane’s engines. In fact, birds and bats have been responsible for more than 200 aviation fatalities since 1988, and according to estimates from US aviation authorities, cause in excess of $1 billion worth of damage annually. “Such collisions usually come off okay,” says Gary M. “The failure of an engine during take-off and landing is one of the most frequently practised manoeuvres in the simulator. It only becomes nasty when all engines fail within seconds. That always ends in a crash landing.”
MECHANIC DECIDES BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH
Every critical system on an aeroplane has at least one back-up in place; in some cases, there are two back-ups. A modern passenger aircraft will have around 80 in-built, independent computer systems in all. In an emergency these can compensate for almost any failure. One thing, however, can never go wrong, reveals Martin A. “If the pitch elevator becomes jammed into a position that leaves the plane fl ying directly downwards, the pilot has no chance. During Alaska Airlines fl ight 261 on 31st January 2000, a single poorly-maintained screw led to disaster. None of the 88 people on board survived.” Although few and far between, such dramatic incidents can result in new standards being implemented across the globe. “Dealing with the world’s air traffi c is like running in an endurance race,” says Thomas O. “The potential for improvement is always infi nitely large.”
RISK FACTOR: LACK OF SLEEP
// MISTAKES OCCUR DUE TO EXHAUSTION
The three-minute periods at the start and end of a fl ight – the take-off and landing – are the only times during which the pilot is steering by hand, and the autopilot is not on. But tasks such as following a route are performed by computer. “During take-off and landing, all pilots must concentrate fully,” says Thomas O, “because this is when 80% of accidents occur. But who can totally concentrate at 3am, in the middle of the night, during the body’s physiological low point? If bad weather is accompanied by little or no sleep, the risk of an accident increases.” As little as four hours sleep deprivation has the same effect as drinking six glasses of beer: being awake for 17 hours straight is equivalent to having a blood-alcohol level of 0.5%. And pilots are awake even longer than truck drivers, with shifts lasting up to 20 hours. In a NASA survey, 70% of US airline pilots said they’d fallen asleep in the cockpit at least once, while more than half of their European counterparts admit to nodding off. Between 71 and 90 per cent of pilots from other countries said they’d made a mistake due to exhaustion at least once – failing to notice an alarm, for example. “A nap in the cockpit can be necessary,” says Thomas O,
“and pilots should actually take them, otherwise they’ll be unable to manage their workload. However, the crew should arrange it so that at least one person remains awake.” Napping can get out of hand. In February 2011, a plane fl ew without a pilot for several minutes between Stockholm and Copenhagen when the co-pilot exited the cockpit for a short time and the captain nodded off at the controls
CONTROL TOWER GIVES FLAWED INFORMATION
“English is the default language spoken throughout the aviation industry,” says pilot Gary M. “But accents can be hard to understand, certain words can be used incorrectly. And sometimes, simple
RISK FACTOR: FUEL
MISCALCULATION ENDS FATALLY
A fl ight captain is responsible for everything on board, and often has to make some very tricky decisions. “Take an apparently simple question such as, ‘How much fuel should I put in the plane?’,” says Thomas O. “Too little and you won’t reach the destination; too much, the fl ight becomes ineffi cient, as every extra kilogram on board cranks up the fuel consumption.” An Airbus A380 can almost double its dead weight through fi lling up on fuel. So how much fuel is the perfect amount? Weight and weather will affect fuel consumption, “but there’s no scale that tells me the exact weight of my aeroplane, only the empirical and recommended values,” says Thomas O. “Plus, strong headwinds increase consumption, as a plane must fl y for a longer time, as if swimming in a river against the current. More often than you’d think, aircraft reach their destination on the very last drops of fuel.”
RISK FACTOR: BOMB
TERRORIST HIDES BEHIND A UNIFORM
Since 9/11, aeroplane cockpits have become fortresses: they’re bullet-proof, monitored by CCTV, and only allow entry via a password. “During an on-board crisis, the pilots’ stance is always the same: no negotiations with hijackers,” says Martin A. “But that doesn’t mean that all aircraft are now safe. Not all bombs are spotted in time.” The biggest threat lurks at the airport. “When a plane is parked, dozens of people have access to it: cleaning crew, food-delivery people, baggage handlers… And how much do airports know about their staff, really?” Every second, an aeroplane takes off somewhere in the world, which means there are around 31 million chances for an attack to occur every year. “Today, terrorists would get themselves a job at an airport or on an airline,” says Martin A. “Even if the preparation took three years, it’s perfectly possible that 9/11 could be repeated. Perhaps such an attack is already being planned.”
