Given the charred and mangled state of the Asiana 777 after its July 6 crash
landing in San Francisco, it’s hard to believe that the accident, which killed
two passengers, didn’t result in more fatalities. Enormous advances in
materials and crew training—and the lessons of past tragedies—have dramatically
increased the odds of survival in airline disasters.
“We took a very safe industry
and we made it even safer,” says Robert Mann, an aviation consultant in Port
Washington, N.Y. Here are some of the industry changes that likely helped so
many passengers on Asiana Flight 214 walk away from the scene.
Airplane Seats
All seats on modern airplanes such as the 777 are designed to withstand extreme forces up to 16 times the pull of gravity. The connections between the floor and seats have also been strengthened so that seats do not come loose in a crash. In the Asiana crash, the NTSB plans to inspect each of the more than 300 passenger seats to see how they performed. That data will be used for future engineering to make seats and other aircraft equipment even safer.
All seats on modern airplanes such as the 777 are designed to withstand extreme forces up to 16 times the pull of gravity. The connections between the floor and seats have also been strengthened so that seats do not come loose in a crash. In the Asiana crash, the NTSB plans to inspect each of the more than 300 passenger seats to see how they performed. That data will be used for future engineering to make seats and other aircraft equipment even safer.
Fire Resistance
The plastics and fabrics aboard airplanes not only are engineered to retard flames; they also don’t produce toxic fumes when they do encounter fire. That wasn’t always the case—smoke can be even more deadly than flames in an airplane crash. Airplanes built after 1990 also must meet standards on how much heat materials release in a fire and the density of smoke the fire produces.
The plastics and fabrics aboard airplanes not only are engineered to retard flames; they also don’t produce toxic fumes when they do encounter fire. That wasn’t always the case—smoke can be even more deadly than flames in an airplane crash. Airplanes built after 1990 also must meet standards on how much heat materials release in a fire and the density of smoke the fire produces.
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