Some Lessons learned from Aircraft Accidents—The Engineering Aspects

A survey of both public transport and general aviation accidents which occurred in the United Kingdom over the past 20 years will show that material failure in various forms has accounted for, or contributed to, approximately 25 per cent of the major accidents. The effects of these failures often become closely interwoven with human reaction during stressful situations and the subsequent operation of the aircraft, but a smaller proportion of catastrophic failures were primary causes of accidents in their own right. The failures in these cases were mainly due to errors of omission or lack of foresight in the design and manufacture stages, the results of which could not have been influenced nor ameliorated by the efforts of the operating crew or the vigilance of those responsible for day to day line maintenance.