Word: crashing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Just a day before the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 crash-landed in light fog, killing at least nine of the 134 passengers on board, a congressional committee in Washington heard testimony from industry experts on the ways in which various regulatory steps and changes to aircraft have greatly improved passenger survivability in airplane crashes. In testimony to members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Candace Kolander, air-safety coordinator for the Association of Flight Attendants, a flight-attendant union that has long pushed for improvements to onboard safety, listed three main successes that are proving to save lives...
Sturdier Seats Congress's Airport and Airway Safety Act of 1987 called for regulators to improve what is called the "crash-worthiness standard" of seats - in effect, the likelihood that they will crumple and crush passengers at impact. It took 17 years to accomplish the task, as the Federal Aviation Administration tussled with aircraft manufacturers and airlines that balked at paying for the upgraded seats. The FAA produced evidence that sturdier seats could have prevented 45 fatalities between 1984 and 1998. A deal was reached. In 2005, the FAA mandated that all U.S. aircraft built after October 2009 meet...
Fire Retardant On Feb. 1, 1991, USAir Flight 1493 crashed into another aircraft while landing at Los Angeles International Airport. After surviving the impact, 20 passengers and two crew members died as a result of smoke inhalation as they waited to leave at the overwing exit. During the 1980s, the FAA instituted various measures that demanded aircrafts upgrade the flammability standards of materials on board. The USAir aircraft was built before the effective date of those requirements and had not yet been modernized. All aircraft in the U.S. are now compliant. The requirements were strengthened in 1991, when...
Emergency Exits Getting to an emergency exit as quickly and safely as possible is a key factor in surviving an airplane crash. Passengers tend to take the glowing pellets that line cabin floors for granted, but until 1984, emergency lighting systems typically employed overhead lights - not much help in smoke or in a frenzied panic, during which passengers tend to keep their heads down. In 1990, the FAA took another step by requiring passengers sitting in emergency-exit seats to be willing and able to perform safety functions...
These three fixes have saved lives. In her testimony to a congressional subcommittee, Kolander said airlines and aircraft manufacturers have traditionally had a safety culture more attuned to preventing airplane crashes. But just as important, she said, airlines should prepare to mitigate the dangers when the worst happens. A step like improving the sturdiness of seats, she concluded, "is an essential element of preparation for the crash that can result when accident prevention fails...