AVIATION

Aircraft accidents due to structural failures and HFACS

Aircraft accidents due to structural failures and HFACS

Introduction

Most of the airplanes keep on flying until unless they are getting a good business from the passengers and generating good revenue. The airplanes seem to be operational until unless they are operated with particular parameters, inspected and maintained properly. Whenever there is a structural failure in the plane it attracts the attention of the company, manufacturer, investigators and regulators. The structural failure can be very dangerous and can take lives of many people. Mostly the structural failures lead to aviation accidents if they are not treated and handled properly. The research shows that if the plane consists of any structural failure than there are 70 percent chances for the plane to crash.

Case Studies

Japan Airline Boeing 747 SR

JA 8119 was plane of Japan Airline Boeing 747SR. This was a short range variant plane of Boeing 747 Series 100. The aircraft was fully operational and given permission for domestic use. The aircraft had dense seating arrangement. The airplane faced two accidents one was a minor one which took place in 1978. The other accident took place in 1985 this one was a major one that completely destroyed the plane. The first accident took place when the plane was flying to Osaka on June 2, 1978. While landing the aircraft bounced back when the pilot tried to land the plane second time the tail of the plane hit the runway due to high altitude. As a result of this, this rear underside of the airplane faced damage. The rear pressure bulkhead was cracked, and this was the main part that was damaged. Pressure bulkhead is used to maintain the pressure of the cabin. The aircraft was repaired by the Boeing engineers. However, the repairing of the bulkhead was not done according to the standards of Boeing. The second major accident faced by JA8119 took place when it was on its route to Osaka. When the plane reached at a higher altitude the rear pressure bulkhead was damaged due to which explosive decompression took place. This explosion the vertical tail was also affected due to which the leakage the hydraulic fluid started to leak. After the leakage of hydraulic fluid, the pilot was unable to maintain control of the aircraft that later lead to crash of an airplane. The root causes that lead to the destruction of the plane was the structural failure which was not overcome by the technicians of the Boeing Air lines. This could not have happened if the work was done properly by the technicians (Fujiwara, 1998, p.441).

EL AL Flight 1862

EL AL Flight 1862 was cargo plane of Boeing 747 series. The plane was owned by Israeli airlines EL AL. On October 4, 1992 the plane crashed into the Klein-Kruitberg flats near Amsterdam. The accident took the life of 43 people that included 3 people from cabin crew, one non-revenue passenger sitting on the jump seat and 39 were on the ...