Ask Captain Lim ~ All about Aviation

The chances of an aircraft crashing due to mechanical problems is statistically very low but given the wide publicity generated by the media, it appears that statistics can appear to be quite misleading. In reality, human error is the primary contributor to more than 70 percent of all commercial airplane accidents.. Pilot error is a far more likely cause of an airplane crash than mechanical failure or bad weather conditions.

Causes of an air crashes are sometimes quite difficult to predict. You can have people hijacking an aircraft and deliberately crashing it into high-rise building like the September 11th tragedy at the Twin Towers. Then there are others like the Airbus 300 that crashed after about two and a half minutes after take off from JFK Airport in New York. To precisely analyze the actual cause of the crash, the 'black box' that contains a voice recorder and a flight data recorder, would assist the investigators to determine what actually transpired during the last 30 minutes of the flight.

Half of all air crashes occurred during approach and landing. It is pertinent to note that commuter airlines and air taxis have almost double the accident rates of large air carriers.  Why?  Well, before 1997, commuter planes in the US with ten to 30 passenger seats were not subjected to the same safety regulations as the large carriers. Furthermore, as a general observation, the cream of the pilots’ community is attracted to the more established airlines where training standards are better and pay is even more attractive.  There were quite a number of accidents where a perfectly normal airplane suddenly crashed into a mountain without the pilot and crew realizing they were about to crash. Pilot errors were often cited here as the cause of such crashes.  Hence, good pilot training and a good airline corporate philosophy makes a great difference in the accident rates. So, fly in established carrier if it makes you feel better!