Causes of Airline Accidents in Omaha

Air traffic controllers are human and they make mistakes. When they do make mistakes, those mistakes can be quite costly. Air traffic controllers make over 1,000 mistakes each year while handling millions of flights.

All traffic air controllers are now monitored by electronic devices that can record their errors. These devices have been useful in altering how air traffic controllers are trained and disciplined to avert future mistakes.

Bird strikes occur when a bird connects with airplanes. Despite advancements in technology, bird strikes still pose a serious threat to aircrafts.

Bird strikes are more likely to occur while the plane is descending or ascending and is flying at low altitudes. Bird strikes are also more likely to occur during seasonal migrations.

During the 1980s and the 1990s many airplane accident fatalities could be attributed to cabin fires. In fact, during the decade from 1981-1990 20 percent of all airplane fatalities were caused by fires on the plane.

A plane may catch on fire while taking off, flying or landing. Many smaller fires can be contained, however, fires that are related to electrical shortages, equipment failures or improper cargo can cause uncontrollable fires.

Updates in the materials used to construct airplane cabins have decreased the number of cabin fires, but they do still occur.

Poorly designed aircraft can cause accidents. For instance, an airplane design flaw that allowed carbon monoxide to leak into the cockpit incapacitated the entire crew and crashed a United Airlines plane.

Design flaws such as square windows or other designs that create stress points can cause entire planes to fall apart midair. Design flaws in runways can also contribute to airplane crashes.

The threat of terrorism is always present and the threat of sabotage in the form of explosives is at the heart of new transportation safety regulations.

Passengers are often the source of the sabotage attempts which lead to airplane accidents. About nine percent of airplane crashes every year are caused by sabotage.

Though sabotage attempts are rare, when they do succeed they have the potential to injure and kill everyone on board.

When a plane runs out of fuel, an accident may occur. However, this does not always occur because the fuel tank was not filled all the way to the top.

Sometimes, a leak in the fuel valve or other technical malfunction can cause the engines to draw fuel from the wrong tanks.

A plane may be hijacked for any number of reasons. For instance, a flight hijacked in 2014 in Ethiopia was hijacked by the copilot who diverted the plane from Rome to Geneva. He was seeking asylum.

The plane landed safely and no one was harmed. Not all hijacked planes are so fortunate. Many hijackings can end in catastrophe especially if the hijackers use weapons or explosives.

Modern airplanes are tested and built to withstand accidents caused by lightning. In airplanes that are poorly manufactured however, a lightning hit has the potential to disrupt the sensitive electronic components on board the plane.

These lightning components are vital to the plane’s operation and if they are compromised, the plane may crash.

Since 1938, at least 13 airplane crashes have been attributed to lightning interference.

A frequent cause of crashes is overloading a plane. Depending on how large the plane is and how much the extra weight is, a plane may have a difficult time remaining in the air.

Overloading also makes it more difficult for planes to takeoff. Under certain weather conditions, even a tiny amount of extra weight can compromise the safety of a plane.

Pilots may become incapacitated due to drugs, alcohol or sudden illness. In any of these scenarios, the goal is to ensure that the co-pilot will be able to take up the slack.

In the event that a co-pilot is not available or is incapacitated, the airplane may be able to rely on autopilot or other emergency maneuvers.

Though rare, pilot incapacitation has occurred at least once a decade since the 1950s.

When pilots are shot by passengers the entire plane may be placed at risk. Depending on whether the pilot can still fly and whether the bullet has damaged the plane, the risk of discharging a firearm while the plane is in the air can be catastrophic. There are at least three recorded instances where pilots have been shot by passengers.