Authors:
Burcu Söğüt , Gizem Koz , Hilal Sergili , Büşra Kayhan
In
this post, we will introduce a few well-known airlines’ historical safety
records which are belonged to Lufthansa, Emirates, Ryanair and Delta Airlines.
First,
Lufthansa’s safety record will be examined. There are 5 accidents of Lufthansa
in its history. If it is required to list them :
·
20November 1974 Nairobi, The aircraft was not properly configured for takeoff
and stalled shortly after becoming airborne, crashing about 3600 feet beyond
the end of the runway. 55/140 passengers 4/17 of the crewmember were died.
·
2 January 1988; Condor
737-200; Izmir: The Condor flight (at the
time, a subsidiary of Lufthansa), was on a non-scheduled international flight
from Stuttgart, when it crashed during approach to ADB airport. The probable
cause of the accident was the use of incorrect navigational aids during
approach. 5 crewmembers and 11 passengers were died.
·
14 September 1993; A320-200;
Warsaw Airport: Aircraft landed
with a tail wind. Landing performance and aircraft design led to a late
deployment of braking devices. Aircraft overran the runway. One of the 1/6
crewmember and 1/64 passenger were died.
·
27 July 2010; MD-11F; flight
8460; Riyadh: The aircraft was
on a cargo flight from Frankfurt too Riyadh had a landing accident that
fractured the fuselage. The 2 crew members survived. This plane crash was a
cargo flight without passengers. It was not a fatal event but is included
because of the seriousness of the event.
·
24 March 2015; Germanwings
A320-200; D-AIPX; flight 4U9525; near Barcelonnette: The aircraft was on a scheduled international
flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf. About a half hour after takeoff, while at
a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet, the aircraft began losing altitude, and
crashed about ten minutes later. All 6 crewmembers and 144 passengers were
died.
Secondly, Emirates’ safety record will take
place. Emirates started the operation in 1985 and it has never had any accident
yet. However, it has reported approximately 51 incidents such as; bird strike,
engine shut down in flight and could not fully retract landing gear. As an
illustration, while an Emirates Airlines Airbus A380-800 was performing flight from
Dubai to Frankfurt, they had faced some challenge. The crew stopped climbing
and reported that the landing gear could not retract. Then, they returned to
Dubai in order to make a safe landing 100 minutes after the departure.
According to airline safety ranking (2015), Emirates is the second reliable
airline after Cathay Pacific in a world basis. Their safety rating is 7 out of
7 and also product rating is 7 out of 7.
Let’s
move on with the Ryanair. There is no accident in Ryanair history; however
there are incidents such as Emirates. 10.11.2008, Ryanair Flight 4102,
experienced bird strike during the flight from Frankfurt Hahn (Germany) to Rome
Ciampino (Italy) 6 crew members and 166 passengers. Therewith, 2 cabin crew and
8 passengers needed medical attention after landing. Even Ryanair does not have
accident, according to airline safety ranking (2015), Ryanair is the
thirty-second reliable airline.
Lastly, Delta Airline’s record will mentioned in terms
of its accidents. There were lots of surveys evaluating the
quality of airline such as ground handling, catering, safety and so on.
According to passengers, Delta Airlines is one
of the most quality and safest airlines. When Delta Airlines is examined in
terms of accidents and incidents, there are few crashes since 1970. These
crashes include at least one passenger death.
·
31 July
1973; Delta Air Lines DC9-31; Boston, MA: The aircraft landed short of the runway in
poor visibility, striking a sea wall right of the runway centerline. All 6 crew
members and 83 passengers were killed.
·
2 August
1985; Delta Air Lines L1011-1; Dallas, TX: The aircraft crashed shortly before landing
after encountering a wind shear from a passing thunderstorm. 8 of the 11 crew
members and 128 of the 152 passengers were killed.
·
31 August
1988; Delta Air Lines 727-200; Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, TX: The aircraft stalled and crashed on takeoff
due to the flaps not being properly set by the flight crew. 2 of the 7 crew
members and 12 of the 101 passengers were killed.
·
21 August
1995; Delta Connection (Atlantic Southeast Airlines) Embraer Brasilia; near
Carrolton, GA:
As the aircraft was climbing through 18,000 feet, the left propeller shed a
blade and the propeller would not feather. The aircraft diverted to a nearby
airport, hit trees and was destroyed by fire. 1 of the 3 crew members and 7 of
the 26 passengers were killed.
·
6 July
1996; Delta MD-88; Pensacola, FL: During the takeoff, the left engine sustained
an uncontained failure, causing pieces of the engine to penetrate the cabin,
killing 2 of the 137 passengers.
·
9 January
1997; Delta Connection (Comair) Embraer Brasilia; near Monroe, MI: The aircraft was en route to Detroit Metro
Airport from Cincinnati when it crashed shortly before dusk in a field about 20
miles (32 km) south of the airport. All 3 crew members and 26 passengers were
killed.
·
27 August
2006; Delta Connection (Comair) CRJ-100; Lexington, KY: The aircraft was on a scheduled domestic
flight from Lexington, KY to Atlanta, GA. The aircraft crashed shortly after
takeoff, about one half mile (800 m) from the end of the departure runway. 2 of
the 3 crew members and all 47 passengers were killed.
In the light of this information, 7 accidents
in 45 years in acceptable; especially if it is considered there were no crash
last 18 years except 1 in 2006.
SOURCES:
