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Aviation Disasters And Why They Can Happen
Aeroplanes crash for a myriad of reasons, from mechanical issues to human error to more sinister reasons such as sabotage. Since there has been flight, there have been aviation disasters, from the Hindenburg tragedy to the generation-defining moments of 9/11; many of us have vivid memories of at least one air crash.
The main cause of aviation disasters is mechanical in nature - sometimes machines just break down and when this happens several miles above the ground with hundreds of people on board, it can well lead to a disaster. Mechanical failure is one of the most common reasons of an aeroplane crash but there are also many cases where a particularly skilled pilot can avert a crash in the case of mechanical failure - the recent Hudson River incident, for example in which pilot Captain Chesley Sullenberger landed an AirBus in the New York waterway after the engines failed when birds were caught up in them.
While a large number of aviation disasters can be attributed to mechanical failure, there are also a number of environmental factors which can sometimes lead to crashes. Though not confirmed, it's suspected that the recent Air France incident was caused by violent weather conditions in a possible electrical storm, though there are still other options which could have caused the crash.
Bad weather - particularly electrical storms over large oceans - can cause havoc with instruments and can cause numerous electrical failures, especially if the plane is struck by lightning, which can cause anything from a small scale electrical issue through to fully nullifying all of the plane's electronics or even destroying the plane mid-flight.
Human error is also sometimes credited as a cause of aviation accidents; there are a lot of stages to keeping an aeroplane in the air, and several of these sections are ran by humans and not automated. Air traffic controllers for example, provide one of the most vital services in keeping aeroplanes safe in the air and are often responsible for numerous planes at any one time. Though these people are highly trained, they can also be very stressed due to the nature of their work and mistakes can sometimes happen; the 2006 Gol Transportes Aereos Flight 1907 / ExcelAire midair collision for example in which the two planes collided above the Amazon Rainforest and the investigation led to the incident being blamed on a combination of both pilot and air traffic control error.
Air crashes can happen for a variety of reasons and in their wake, there are a great deal of procedures to go through, be they the investigation to ascertain the cause, legal in nature to claim compensation for the families of the victims, or safety recommendations being made to manufacturers to prevent future accidents.
As headline-grabbing as air disasters often are, and as tragic as they are for the families of the victims and the airline who provided the plane and pilots, it should still be noted that air travel is one of the safest ways to travel, particularly for long distances.
About the Author Thomas Pretty is an aviation expert with many years of experience in researching air disasters and their fallout. Find out more about aviation incidents at http://www.stewartslaw.com/
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