NTSB Crash Investigations: Thunder, Fatigue, Icing & More - Essay Sample

Introduction

National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) is the body responsible for investigating probable causes of accidents, documenting the accidents, and providing recommendations to prevent reoccurrence of a similar accident. This paper details accidents documented by NTSB under the categories of thunderstorms, fatigue, icing weather conditions, runaway issues, and poor management by the crew. The paper also provides on how these accidents could have been prevented.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The first category is poor crew resource management. NTSB cited poor crew action as the major contributing factor for a twin-turboprop airplane crash in Texas in the year 2009. The accident involved aa aircraft that crashed in the process of landing at Lubbock. The flight squad failed to sustain safe landing airspeed, which resulted in the cargo flight getting into an aerodynamic stall at a very low altitude, such that the plane could not recover the landing speed. The captain also made a wrong decision by continuing with a stabilized approach despite receiving aural pull-up warning as well as extra stick shaker activations. Had a leadership style asserting the voice of the first officer been developed, the accident might have been prevented. The first officers emphasize on informed decision making and immediate communication of operation emergencies. Installation of flap asymmetry signals would have played a role and might have prevented this accident from occurring.

The second category is thunderstorm related accidents. The board investigated the crash of an aircraft - Mooney M20J, registered as N577RS, which landed on a cotton plantation following control loss attributed to flight encounter with thunderstorms. On observing lightning from a distance, the captain had inquired from flight weather station of any weather radar information in his route. The specialist informed the pilot that there were scattered storms, and the pilot decided to continue the flight. The storms worsened, and the plane crashed. This accident could have been prevented had the pilot adhered to the regulations that require them to locate the nearest safe ground and land if any weather radar information is relayed to them. If the flight weather station specialist had accurately signaled the captain about the prevailing thunderstorms, dark night, and air traffic, the accident could have been prevented.

Fatigue-related accidents consist of the third category. In the year 2005, a motorcoach- semitrailer accident happed in Osseo, Wisconsin, claiming the lives of five people. Owing to fatigue, the semitrailer driver had left the right lane and driven on the earthen roadside where the truck overturned. Minutes later, a 55-sitter motor coach driver who was driving at a highway speed crashed on the overturned truck. Thirty-five passengers were injured, five died, and the truck's driver seriously injured. This could have been prevented if only the tired semitrailer driver had taken rest and continued the journey when sober and fresh.

The fourth category relates to accidents caused by icing conditions. NTSB has a report on a plane that crashed on the ground at Montrose airport, as a result of wing icing during take-off. The lineman reported the presence of ice on the muzzle landing gear as well as on the wheels of the plane. He stated that it was miserably cold and wet, fluffy and snow flurries were falling, and visibility was very minimal, but nobody considered checking wings before take-off. The accident could have been prevented had the crew ensured that the plane wings had no ice and that they were free of snow contamination.

The board has also documented runway accidents. One of such kind is aircraft crash airplane while landing at Jackson Hole airport. The plane ran off the end of runway 19 as a result of snowy weather, but no human injuries were reported among the 181 passengers on board. Witnesses and crew members described the accident as uneventful and one that could not be prevented.