Airplane Crashes 2014

Andrea Kostic 9E
26/03/2015/
Mr. Youell

Being compared to the previous years, 2014 had the lowest number of airplane crashes. If we consider the missing of Malaysian plane as a crash, there were 111 crashes in total. The las time world had this many crashes was in 1927 (fig 1). As Kane Ray, an analyst form the International Bureau of Aviation said ''if you consider sheer numbers of aircraft cashes, flying today is safer.'' However though, deaths in 2014 have been far higher compared to the previous years. Aviation disasters this year claimed 1,158 lives. In addition, if all of the people on the Air Asia flight had died, that would add on to 1320 lives in total, which can be seen in fig.2.

Fig.1- number of crashes recorded  in the last 10 years

Fig.2- number of deaths recorded in the last 10 years

Missing Malaysia plane MH370 is far more recognized aircraft incident in 2014 than any other, and even after 9 months, it remains as a mystery. It disappeared on its journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The plane departed in exactly 00:41 on the 8^th of March directly from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The last communication between the plane and Malaysian air traffic control occurred at 01:19. After only a couple of minutes, plane’s transponder (communicates with ground radar) was shut down when it flew into Vietnamese airspace over the South China Sea. Later on that night, around 2:28, the radar was lost. A satellite above the Indian Ocean successfully picked up data from the plane in the form of seven ‘’automatic handshakes’’, as shown in figure 3. 

Fig. 3- satellite ''handshakes'' 

As bbc.com suggests, the first one was right around this time, and the last one at 18:19. At 09:15 the aircraft was supposed to land, but there was no response. The plane was supposed to go north-eastwards over Cambodia and Vietnam. However, evidence has shown that the plane changed its route, from northerly course to head west. Before the search knew this, they focused on South China Sea south of Vietnam’s peninsula, but after they gathered more information, the search was more focused on the sea west of Malaysia. One theory is that the plane was diverted on purpose by someone who was working on board an hour after the plane took off. When it crashed, the plane was flying on autopilot, Australian officials believe. The next theory which Australian transportation Safety Bureau  (ATS) suggests is that the aircraft simply ran out of fuel. However, Sir Tim Clark thinks quite the opposite. He claims that the airplane wasn’t on autopilot until it ran out of fuel where he says: ‘’MH370 was, in my opinion, under control, probably until the very end.’’ He as well questions previously mentioned ‘’automatic handshakes’’ and doesn’t fully rely on them. People’s theories on the missing of Malaysian plane differ from one another, which includes my personal one. Agreeing with Sir Tim Clark, I suggest that the search should be expanded. For one thing we know, the ocean currents may have moved floating objects, and the aircraft is not in the same place where it crashed.

Next airplane catastrophe had occurred only a couple months after, when Flight AH5017 (Air Algeria) took off from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso crashing in the Mali desert on July 24^th, killing all 116 people on board. ‘’We think that this plane crashed for reasons pertaining to meteorological conditions’’, said Bernard Cazeneuve on RTL radio, adding it was the ‘’most probable hypothesis’’ even though the authorities were not excluding other potential causes for the airplane crash, which also had 51 French nationals on board. The plane flew directly into bad weather near the equator, which is known as a zone of possible storms. Most scientists, as well as the previously mentioned Bernard Cazeneuve, claim that weather was most likely the cause or contributing factor of the crash. The plane departed at exactly 1:17 on its way to Algeria’s capital. To get there, it had to cross International Convergence Zone, located on the equator, which is a zone where terrible weather is most likely to develop. The storm eventually developed, and at 1:38, it asked if it could change routes. The plane then made its way east, then north again. The last contact was seventeen minutes later, near Gao, Mali. A witness reported seeing ‘’a ball of flame’’ in the crash area in 1:50.I think that the weather was partly the cause of the AH5017 crash, as well as the speed at which the plane was the moment it hit the ground. An article on The Telegraph supports my theory, where it states that the victims had no time to suffer. That was by my opinion the main cause of the crash and the experts claim how the plane crashed to Earth so fast that all the victims instantly died. If somehow the plane was controlled better, perhaps the damage would not be as intimidating as it originally was. 

            Slightly less severe being compared to the previous two airplane disasters is the crash of Flight GE222. Departing from the Southern Taiwan, Taiwan’s TransAsia Airways was carrying 58 people, from which 48 died. It crashed while landing in the Penghu island chain in the Taiwan Strait right between Taiwan and China (fig. 4).

Fig.4- Rescue workers survey the wreckage of the TransAsia flight, which crashed while attempting to land 

 Earlier that day, many flights were canceled due to the weather, yet this one took off. However, as snh.com suggests , they were clear to take off by the authorities and the region they flew through was the region this airline had a lot of experience operating. The plane was 14 years old, and it is said that it lost a contact with the tower after saying it would make a second attempt to land, according to the Civil Aeronautics, Jean Shen. Even though the visibility as the plane was approaching was 1,600 meters, it appeared heavy rain reduced the visibility. The pilot had to pull up an attempt the second landing. I think what makes this aircraft different than other two is that in this one there were a couple survivors; ten in total. They claim it was ‘’a terrible scene’’ and if something would have happened on the plane which caused the crash, we would have witnesses to confirm it. Although the pilot had 22 years of flying experience, I think that the hard weather conditions stopped him from landing the plane successfully.  

            Industry experts all over the world are working to comprehend the cluster of tragedies, but some believe that there is no evidence of a systemic problem, as each crash appears to have had a different cause. John Beatty, the president of the Flight Safety Foundation confirmed this by saying, ‘’one of the things that makes me feel better when we look at these events is that, if they all were the same type of event, or the same root cause, then you would say there is a systemic problem here, but each event is unique in its own way.’’ As Australian-based aviation claim as well, it is still possible to prove that aviation was and still is the safest form of transport. I believe that the aviation industry will not stop moving forward, but having these three strong examples, this year’s aviation catastrophes will lead to certain changes.