Single pilot IFR accident data analysis

The aircraft accident data recorded and maintained by the National Transportation Safety Board for 1964 to 1979 were analyzed to determine what problems exist in the general aviation single pilot instrument flight rules environment. A previous study conducted in 1978 for the years 1964 to 1975 provided a basis for comparison. The purpose was to determine what changes, if any, have occurred in trends and cause-effect relationships reported in the earlier study. The increasing numbers have been tied to measures of activity to produce accident rates which in turn were analyzed in terms of change. Where anomalies or unusually high accident rates were encountered, further analysis was conducted to isolate pertinent patterns of cause factors and/or experience levels of involved pilots. The bulk of the effort addresses accidents in the landing phase of operations. A detailed analysis was performed on controlled/uncontrolled collisions and their unique attributes delineated. Estimates of day vs. night general aviation activity and accident rates were obtained

Home accidents amongst elderly people: A locality study in Scotland

Aim The aim of this locality study was to collect information on reported and unreported accidents amongst elderly people living in one locality in Scotland. Method Postal Survey- A postal questionnaire was sent to 3,757 men and women aged 65+ years living in one locality. The questionnaire asked respondents to indicate how many accidents they had experienced in the past twelve months, plus to indicate type and location. Information was gathered on living arrangements, ethnicity, gender, age and deprivation. Respondents were asked if they would be willing to take part in an interview study. Interview Study - One hundred elders who had had at least one accident in the previous twelve months were interviewed. Results Postal Survey - Over a third of the respondents in the postal survey reported having had an accident in the previous twelve months. Bumps and drops and falls were the most common type of accident. Most accidents happened in the kitchen. Women reported more falls than men and those living alone reported more accidents than those living with others. Age was associated with the prevalence of accidents, but the association was somewhat curvilinear, with accidents decreasing with age and then increasing again. Interview Study – Interviewees found it hard to differentiate one accident from another. Considerable reluctance to visit the GP after an accident was noted, with many not attending even for serious accidents. Almost forty percent were ‘very’ distressed after their accident, and a quarter reported a loss of confidence. However, most did not worry about accidents. Few thought that their age, health or medications were a cause of their accidents

How secure is ERTMS?

This paper reports on the results of a security analysis of the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) specifications. ERTMS is designed to be fail-safe and the general philosophy of ‘if in doubt, stop the train’ makes it difficult to engineer a train accident. However, it is possible to exploit the fail-safe behaviour of ERTMS and create a situation that causes a train to halt. Thus, denial of service attacks are possible, and could be launched at a time and place of the attacker’s choosing, perhaps designed to cause maximum disruption or passenger discomfort. Causing an accident is more difficult but not impossible

Primary Seat Belt Laws and Offsetting Behavior: Empirical Evidence from Individual Accident Data.

According to the offsetting effect theory, since drivers wearing seat belts feel more secure, they tend to drive less carefully and may cause more accidents, including those involving pedestrians. Most previous studies have used only state-level accident data, which cannot control for individual characteristics of drivers, vehicles, and the environmental factors surrounding the accidents. This paper uses individual-level accident data to analyze how drivers respond to the laws exploiting changes in the seat belt laws in a number of US states in the last decade. I find that the laws do not cause less careful behavior by drivers. In fact, they drive more carefully when more stringent seat belt laws are in effect, and this leads to less involvement of pedestrians in accidents. These results show that the offsetting effects do not exist when all accidents, including fatal accidents, are considered.Offsetting Effects, Safety Regulation, Seat Belt Laws, Vehicle Accidents

Emergency egress requirements for Space Station Freedom

An objective was to determine if the pressurized elements and hatchways of the Space Station Freedom support the emergency egress of crewmembers during operation of the station at the stage of Permanently Manned Capacity. Emergency egress was defined as the exit from a pressurized element when an event occurs which makes that element uninhabitable. The possible egress paths for four emergency scenarios considered were: (1) accident occurs in a module and crewmembers translate to the attached node; (2) accident occurs at a node and crewmembers translate through it to the safe node; (3) accident occurs at a module close to a node and crewmembers are not able to translate through the affected area; and (4) accident occurs at a node and crewmembers cannot translate through it. The structural design of the pressurized elements and the hatches studied is adequate for the emergence egress translation requirement. The current location of a few racks may cause some obstruction for egress to the orbiter. The egress time required in the worst situation is estimated to be about 3 mins. There is a chance of getting crewmembers trapped in a module in case of a severe accident. Aids are needed for emergency egress translation

Basic of Fault Tree (FT) method

A fault tree described the logical relationship between events and causes. This method shows significant success in analyzing the root cause of an accident. This paper will review the basics of the Fault Tree (FT) method including the structure, factors that contribute and FT application