Draft 1

Safety in Aviation Transportation

Facts

• The Wright Brothers (1903), were the first to complete the first ever assisted take off, pioneering the age of powered and controlled air travel. The first extensive use of heavier than air engine powered planes was seen a decade later in the First World War.

• During the 1920s and 1930s, advancements in air transport saw the first commercial airliner, the Douglas DC-3, transport passengers safely.

When the Second World War was taking place, most cities were building airports, and the popularity of air transport increased after the war

• Air transport over the years has come to be referred to as the safest way to travel. During the Second World War, fatalities by aircraft crash increased sharply. After the war, approximately 300 crashes were reported per year until 1980. That is equivalent to about 2000 deaths per year.

• The years from 1970 saw a steady decline in aircraft accidents due to enhancements in technology and safety procedures. For example, in 1973, the FAA in the USA introduced the screening of passengers and their luggage. Since the year 2000, there have been averagely 164 aircraft crashes per year resulting in 1061 deaths (Kirk). According to the IATA, more than 3.5 billion people flew safely on 37.6 million flights in 2015. According to B3A, in the same year, 122 aircraft crashes occurred worldwide leading to 898 deaths.

• 2016 was the safest year to travel by air. Only five fatal aircraft incidences were reported. These include the Egyptian flight that crashed into the Mediterranean in May leading to 66 deaths and the Brazilian LaMia jet carrying a popular football team in November killing 71 people. to70, an international air transport consultancy firm based in the Hague reported that only 271 deaths by plane crash occurred in 2016 (Calder)

• Data collected by professor Ian Savage of the department of economics at Northwestern University shows that regarding deaths per billion passenger miles traveled, air travel accounts for 0.07 deaths. This is a small value as compared to other modes of transport. Motorcycles are the most unsafe with 212.57 deaths followed by cars at 7.28 deaths per one billion passenger miles traveled.(Morris)

• Aircraft accidents are rare as compared to other forms of transport but on occurrence seem relatively fatal. This fatality is then exaggerated by the media creating an assumption that air transport is more dangerous than it is(Hope)

Definitions

• Aircraft accident- according to B3A is an event involving an aircraft carrying at least six people including the crew that was damaged enough to be removed from service.

• Passenger miles- a unit of transportation measurement determined by multiplying the number of unlinked passenger trips by the average length of their trips.

• Turbulence- the state of being violently disturbed or agitated.

• Radar- a system that detects distant objects and determines their velocity and position by analyzing radio waves, usually microwaves sent from their surface.

• IATA- International Air Transport Association

• B3A- Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives

• FAA- Federal Aviation Administration

Cause/Effect

What technological advancements have made air transport safer and what are their effects on air transport safety?

• Use of Radar systems developed during World War II by Air traffic control helps pilots to steer the planes by tracking their positions, giving instructions, and providing clearance for landing and takeoff. Airborne Radar and Weather Radar systems based on the ground can detect areas of extreme turbulence, a leading cause of non-fatal accidents, so as to avoid them.

• Development of fully automated and built-in redundancies for important control functions so that if a control fails, a backup intervenes.

• Installation of satellite technology including Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and devices like Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs). An EFB is a laptop-sized device that contains digital maps of airports and their surroundings. They are easier to edit and include new obstacles as compared to physical maps.

• After the 9/11 incident where terrorist took control of four commercial planes and crashed into the twin towers, the regulation requires cockpits to have armored doors. These can help avoid such attacks or keep unruly passengers or crew from interfering with the flight deck

• Runway status lights are installed on runway edges to guide pilots when landing, taking off or crossing especially at night and during bad weather. Red indicates a runway in use while green indicates that its clear.

Values

Is technology good or bad for air transport safety and who does it benefit?

• In as much as technology has helped to make air travel safer and more reliable, it also creates a lot of vulnerability for air crafts. High technology aircraft that requires complex programs and software for operation are becoming common in the air transport industry. Such planes become prone to cyber security risks. For example, many airplanes use Automatic Dependent Surveillance- Broadcast. This program sends unencrypted information indicating a plane’s position. What is to stop a terrorist group from intercepting such a message to set coordinates for a missile attack?

• In 2015, the hacker Chris Roberts claimed that he used the entertainment system of a plane to access important controls like the engine. Computer programs were introduced in the aviation industry to curb performance challenges rather than security risks hence they overlooked these vulnerabilities (Lemieux).

• In this IT age, terrorists and other criminals benefit from aviation vulnerabilities. Technology might have helped secure safety in air travel, but in the future, if not addressed, it could be the cause of more accidents.

Policy Proposal

• The aviation industry should come up with ways to close the gaps that are opened by computer systems leading to security risks.

• One reason for this is that airline management firms are sharing more information than ever before leaving many loopholes for hackers to act upon (Bryan).

• Creating firewalls and encryption programs to protect the data and having a ready anti-cyber attack team to detect and deal with possible threats would help to prevent tragedies before they happen.

REFERENCES

REFERENCES

1. Calder, S. “Despite High-Profile Tragedies, 2016 was one of the Safest Years Ever for Air Travel.” The Independent, Dec, 2016. www.independent.co.uk/ .Accessed 9 Feb.2017.

2. Hope, A. “5 Changes That Have Made Flying Safer- Conde Nast Traveler.” CNT, 7 July 2016. www.cntraveller.com/ .Accessed 9 Feb. 2017.

3. Kirk, A. “Just How Safe Is Flying?” The Telegraph, 29 Nov 2016. www.telegraph.co.uk/ .Accessed 9Feb. 2017.

4. Morris, J. “What Is the Safest Way to Travel? One Chart Which Reveals That Flying Is Less Dangerous Than You May Think.” City A.M, 15 May 2015. www.cityam.com/ . Accessed 9 Feb. 2017.