The other day I met one of the ground transportation directors for a major US airport. In fact this airport is the number one location for foreign airlines coming into our country. You can imagine the issues that occur with all these different people speaking different languages showing up in one place. We got to talking about airport safety and how many times problems happen on the ground and how many accidents there are. Very similar to driving most accidents happen in parking lots for pulling out of a parking lot. With aircraft is similar as most aircraft accidents happen on the ground. We got to talking about all the aircraft accidents which happen on the ground and then we laughed because all aircraft accidents happen on the ground unless they are a midair collision. It is not an in-flight failure or pilot error that kills the occupants of an airplane, as it is this sudden strike with the ground and therefore most aircraft accidents do happen on the ground. So that was a pretty silly conversation in hindsight. Of course most aircraft accidents happen on the ground, as it is that sudden stop that kills you. So indeed, we concluded that most aircraft accidents do happen on the ground and had a chuckle. You see, with aircraft if something goes wrong you cannot just pull off to the side of the road get out and say let's call AAA. In an airplane you have to put that aircraft back on the ground safely and carefully and if not the accident will occur on the ground. Please consider all this in 2006. |
