Comments on: Scandalous http://www.squarecirclez.com/blog/scandalous/56 Mathematics, learning, computing, travel - and whatever... Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:48:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Tang Kim Seng http://www.squarecirclez.com/blog/scandalous/56/comment-page-1#comment-278 Tang Kim Seng Thu, 17 Feb 2005 16:38:00 +0000 http://squarecirclez.com/blog/?p=56#comment-278 I did a check at AirSafe.com which showed the Fatal Event Rates Per Million Flights for some selected airliner models, i.e. Airbus, Boeing, BAe 146/RJ100, Concorde, Fokker and Lockheed. The Fatal Event Rate is calculated by dividing the Full Loss Equivalent(FLE) by the Number of Flights in Millions. FLE is the proportion of passengers killed for each fatal event. For example, 50 out of 100 passengers killed on a flight is an FLE of 0.50, 1 of 100 would be a FLE of 0.01. Guess which airliner came up top in the list ? Concorde ! It has a rate of 11.36. Surprisingly, Boeing didn't fair too badly despite their many models and the high frequency of flying. The rate for all the Boeing models was less than 1. Airbus didn't fair too badly either. For example, Airbus 310 has a rate of 1.29. So, can we trust these figures ? I'm not sure. Interestingly, when I attended the Air Safety Course in the Air Force, we were told that there are many factors which could result in flight incidents ('cos accidents sound bad), i.e. pilots' misjudgment, flight operations, foreign object damage or F.O.D., bad weather, poor vision, etc. Would you believe if I say that the aircraft logo (or insignia) could be a cause for flight incidents ? Yes, at least some of us believed so. When AirForce decided to change to a new insignia for its whole fleet, a spate of incidents followed. Some say they forgot to bring in the priests to bless the new logo. Sounds far-fetched ? How about no flying on Friday the 13th ? Yes, I'm not joking. So what price safety ? For some organizations, it's 200% and counting. For others, well, if it ain't broken, why fix it ? Or don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles the passengers. I did a check at AirSafe.com which showed the Fatal Event Rates Per Million Flights for some selected airliner models, i.e. Airbus, Boeing, BAe 146/RJ100, Concorde, Fokker and Lockheed. The Fatal Event Rate is calculated by dividing the Full Loss Equivalent(FLE) by the Number of Flights in Millions. FLE is the proportion of passengers killed for each fatal event. For example, 50 out of 100 passengers killed on a flight is an FLE of 0.50, 1 of 100 would be a FLE of 0.01. Guess which airliner came up top in the list ? Concorde ! It has a rate of 11.36. Surprisingly, Boeing didn’t fair too badly despite their many models and the high frequency of flying. The rate for all the Boeing models was less than 1. Airbus didn’t fair too badly either. For example, Airbus 310 has a rate of 1.29. So, can we trust these figures ? I’m not sure.

Interestingly, when I attended the Air Safety Course in the Air Force, we were told that there are many factors which could result in flight incidents (‘cos accidents sound bad), i.e. pilots’ misjudgment, flight operations, foreign object damage or F.O.D., bad weather, poor vision, etc.

Would you believe if I say that the aircraft logo (or insignia) could be a cause for flight incidents ? Yes, at least some of us believed so. When AirForce decided to change to a new insignia for its whole fleet, a spate of incidents followed. Some say they forgot to bring in the priests to bless the new logo. Sounds far-fetched ? How about no flying on Friday the 13th ? Yes, I’m not joking.

So what price safety ? For some organizations, it’s 200% and counting. For others, well, if it ain’t broken, why fix it ? Or don’t trouble trouble until trouble troubles the passengers.

]]>