NASA survey reveals that 70% of US airline pilots had fallen asleep in the cockpit at least once. Also, the sleepiness leading to unconsciousness can be due to lack of oxygen caused by cockpit air escaping through, for instance, an open valve in the fuselage. Also at least one of the pilots has to be always awake in the cockpit.
6. Maintenance
Modern passenger airplanes have around 80 built-in independent computer systems which can act as back-up for any system failure. A single poorly maintained screw can become fatal to airplane. An elevator jackscrew can get stuck and this will leave no chance to the pilots.
Aircraft composite materials consist of layers of fibers embedded in a resin matrix. This material delaminates from inside and nothing is shown on the surface. Usually ultrasound-based tools are used to detect such a material failure.
A small amount of icing or coarse frost can result in the inability of a wing to make adequate lift. For this reason, wings or tail have to be free from ice, snow or frost prior to takeoff.
Various ground support equipment may scratch the paint or small dents in the skin of aircraft. For instance, in Alaska Airlines Flight 536 case in 2005, during ground services a baggage handler hit the side of the aircraft with a train of baggage carts, damaging the metal skin of the aircraft. When the airplane got 7,900 metres high, the damaged section of the skin was the cause of air escape to the outside. The airplane had to descend to a denser (breathable) air and an emergency landing. Post landing examination revealed 30 cm hole on the right side of the airplane fuselage.
The aviation management is like an endurance race, with potential for improvement remains indefinitely large.
7. Fuel
Unlike cars, putting fuel in the airplane is trickier. Putting too little fuel makes the destination unreachable, and putting too much fuel makes the flight performance inefficient. An Airbus A380 is said to double its dead weight by filling up on fuel. Moreover, weight and weather (strong headwinds for instance) affect fuel consumption.
8. Hijacking
Airplanes cockpits have become bullet proof, monitored by CCTV, and allow entry via a password. Pilots make no negotiations with hijackers. The loophole for hijackers to get on-board lies in the airport, where dozens of different professionals deliver services to airplanes, such as cleaning, food delivery, baggage handling etc. Every hijacker has ‘one bullet’. So an apparently a future hijacker with clean history can get a job at an airport or an airline. The total number of take-offs in the world is around 31 million. Therefore, the risk for hijacking seems to increase in correspondence to the increase of take-offs.
In the United States, the Federal Flight Deck Officer program is run by the Federal Air Marshal Service, to train active and licensed airline pilots to carry weapons in order to defend their aircraft against criminal activity and hijacking.
9. Missiles
A passenger airplane could get hit by an ainti-aircraft missile from ground or sea. Passenger airplanes are not capable of dodging or counterattacking missiles, because of their heaviness and volume. If missile hits in the wings, the airplane is likely to explode mid-air because fuel is locate inside wings. Commercial airplanes do not have a system to track missiles, so pilots’ only chance is to see the missiles coming from ground. A radar-guided surface to air missile (SAM) system, such as SA-11, is considered to be dangerous to civilian aircrafts, because they [the aircraft] fly at steady speeds and altitude.
Moreover, the fact that civilian aircraft flies at higher altitude means it can be picked by SAM’s radar easily. On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777-200ER, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was hit by a Soviet made Buk surface-to-air missile near Donetsk, Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed, among which were 80 children.
10. Suicidal action by a pilot
Pilots are the main people onboard who must be in control of everything. However, some pilots take suicidal action even if most air crews are screened for mental fitness. For instance, in 1999 EgyptAir Flight 990 case, the first officer consciously crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while the captain wasn’t present. In 1982 Japan Airlines Flight 350 case, the mentally unfit captain had attempted suicide by placing the inboard engines into reverse thrust, while the aircraft was close to the runway, killing 24 of the 174 onboard. In 2015 Germanwings Flight 9525 (an Airbus A320-200) case, co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, locked the pilot out of cabin and crashed the airplane deliberately. Consequently, many airlines adopted new regulations requiring at least two authorized personnel to be present in the cockpit at all times.
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