| Re: BBC News - This Always Happens |
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Group: uk.transport · Group Profile
Author: allan tracyallan tracy Date: Aug 23, 2008 12:10
>
> It's also curious how so many air crashes happen over land (I
> think?....willing to be proved wrong on that..)
> Perhaps it's due to the number that seem to fail either very shortly after
> take of...or very shortly before landing the bloody thing!
> Again...I'm willing to be proved wrong....but it seems to me, the flying bit
> is easy....getting it up there and back down again....that's the tricky bit!
>
Yes, statistically most aircraft accidents happen during take-off or
landing.
Once you’re up there at 30,000 feet you’re flying mostly above the
weather and if anything does go wrong, say all engines fail, being so
high there’s around 120 miles of glide time for the pilot to play
with.
As for aircraft structures, I believe they are designed to a Factor of
Safety of 5. That is they’re designed to withstand stresses five times
stronger than the greatest stress that could ever be experienced in
normal flight.
Engine reliability is nowadays so good that your average newly
qualified pilot can expect to go through their whole career without
ever once experiencing an engine failure.
Probably, the most dangerous thing on an aircraft nowadays is some
drunk chav.
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