I am sure, that like me, whilst you may have a love of flying, you don’t want to put your life at risk doing it.
The more you get to know about flying and to understand the aeroplane the more confidence you gain. Australian National Airline College has been training pilots for over 20 years and remains accident free. Most of our graduates then go on to work in the Airlines which then take safety to another level again.
With all the knowledge and learning over the past 60+ years of airline flying, the industry is now safer than ever.
Safety is an accumulation of knowledge about risk converted into practice, and no other mode of transportation has been as expansive as flying in incorporating what we know about the fallibility of humans and machines. As a result, the act of hurtling through the air at 850kmh, 10km above the ground is less likely to result in your demise than almost any other type of travel. From the plane seats to the cabin air to the course and altitude of the flight, every decision in commercial aviation comes after careful consideration of its impact on safety.
In the past 50 years, the world’s airliners have flown nearly one billion flight hours, providing an industry that is meticulous about recordkeeping with a steady stream of information that is used to constantly improve the design of airplanes and engines.
On average every day approximately 8 million people fly worldwide and its estimated that on average you would need to fly every day for 123,000 years before being involved in a fatal crash.
Cockpit Technology
Many contemporary jetliners have seen their traditional mechanical controls replaced by electronic ones. These planes, called fly-by-wire, include the Boeing 777 and the 787, as well as the Airbus A330, A340 and A380.
Satellite global positioning, advanced displays and telecommunication have enabled a level of flight precision impossible in earlier eras of air travel. “During the 1950s and 1960s, fatal accidents occurred about once every two hundred thousand flights,” says Julie O’Donnell, a spokeswoman for Boeing. “Today, the worldwide safety record is more than ten times better, with fatal accidents occurring less than once in every two million flights.” The devices in the cockpit considered to have had the most impact on those improved statistics are ones that warn pilots of approaching terrain or potential conflict with other aeroplanes. But you’ll find more than instruments behind the improvements in piloting.
The Pilots
Airlines know the importance of good pilots and comprehensive training, which is why so much effort goes into selection and schooling. At the Lufthansa Airline Training Center Arizona, where many of the German carrier’s five thousand pilots made their first flights,students learn how to manage multiple streams of information, how to follow established routines and how to work with others.
According to the training Manager “We are looking for a personality that ensures good communication skills, that ensures leadership potential, the ability to work as part of a team and low risk-taking”
Air Traffic Control
Behind the scenes, a new, almost Star Wars–like air traffic system has being built where aeroplanes guided by GPS will fly self-programmed routes, communicating with each other and with the ground. This is very different from the days when maps, blackboards and pencil and paper calculations were used to direct airplanes. With more than 28 million flight departures last year, it takes a pretty sophisticated process to safely and efficiently manage a huge—and still growing—number of aircraft.
The commercial aviation industry’s global economic impact is in the trillions of dollars. This reflects companies directly involved in commercial aviation and those working to apply the latest advances in science and engineering to help the industry achieve ever higher levels of safety. Clearly, a lot is riding on doing it right.
With all this in mind, the next time the captain welcomes you aboard, you really can sit back, relax and enjoy your flight, knowing that the safest part of your trip has just begun.