National Transportation Safety Board

Legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart most likely died on an uninhabited tropical island in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati, according to researchers at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR). Tall, slender, blonde and brave, Earhart disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937 in a record attempt to fly around the world at the equator. Her final resting place has long been a mystery. For years, Richard Gillespie, TIGHAR's executive…

Search and Rescue in the Florida Everglades Search and Rescue (SAR) in the Florida Everglades provides a unique challenge due to the remote location and operations can often only be attempted by boat or aircraft. A suitable replacement for manned aircraft in these search and rescue operations could be a quad rotor unmanned aerial system (UAS). Manned aircraft, whether fixed wing or helicopters, are expensive to fly and maintain. A fleet of small quad rotor UAS equipped with a SAR specific…

The following disaster summary includes information from The NTSB’s Official Aircraft Accident Report (1973). On June 12, 1972 Flight 96 departed from Detroit at 18:36 and began ascending to cruising altitude. Meteorological information was reported to be very good with light winds and cool temperatures. A post-incident interview with a ramp service agent who loaded baggage on the plane was conducted, and the agent described mild difficulties in closing the aft cargo door. The interview revealed…

The Strange Case of Mole Airlines At 6:02 am, our team was called on-site to the crash of Mole Airlines, Flight 1023, in a remote location. The plane was showing evidence of a pre-crash explosion, determined to be caused by trinitrotoluene explosive, also known as TNT dynamite. We were able to conclude the cause due to an elemental analysis of the residue found: 37.01% carbon, 2.22% hydrogen, 18.5% nitrogen, and 42.27% oxygen. Eight victims were found at the scene, and one was determined to be…

Recalling the statistics from Boeing, civil aviation has a success rate of about 99% (Statistical Summary, 2014). For this reason, it is easy to fall into the trap of being unprepared in the event that the unthinkable happens, and there is a major accident involving the organization’s aircraft. If the accident takes place in the United States, the NTSB will deploy a “Go Team” to begin investigating the accident. If the accident takes place in another country, the NTSB will most likely be…

The aviation accident investigations concentrate on improving safety. The reviews of the scientific and technical developments that have remained the driving force for the enhancing safety have gone beyond the scale of the present undertaking. Earlier legislations concentrated on aircraft impact on the ground and not safety on board. The first air regulation took place on 23 April 1784 (Bibel 23). The regulation prohibited balloons frying without a special license. The regulation gave the…

Routine Maintenance Gone Wrong “It was very, very hard for me. I saw my hand come off - I could see my hand on the ground and other parts all over the place.” German aircraft engineer, Hendrik Donkers Tire charging is a routine task in aircraft maintenance. However, if proper precaution is not observed, it can cause severe injury and even death. We will review two case studies where this routine task had gone wrong. We will discuss the possible causes of the errors and how we can prevent a…

The weather and setting of Roger Rosenblatt’s essay, “The Man in the Water,” had a prodigious effect on one particular man as well as everyone else who was involved in the catastrophic January 13, 1982 crash of Air Florida Flight 90. Due to the winter season and the weather conditions, the water in the Potomac River where passengers landed was frigid. One courageous man stepped forward and began to save as many of the horrified and dying people as he could. Since the water was so cold, it…

The interest of the FAA is to satisfy those who contacted it saying that something needed to be changed and to ensure the safety of the people aboard the planes. As a result, the FAA changed its rules to compliment those requests and in the end, it made them a better organization and it made their material and planes safer for travel to the public and the private citizens of…

In the cockpit, all of the instruments were destroyed and all of the levers were pushed into the cockpit panel even though the throttle quadrant was damaged in the crash. However, rescue and recovery personnel were unsure if they disturbed controls and levers, and between the fire and impact damage it was inconclusive the positions of the actuators. Tracing the flight controls cables showed that the cable had the proper integrity, but burning made actuator positions indistinguishable. In the…