Since the advent of the Jet Age in the 1950s, airlines in the United States have been providing safer air travel. Between July, 1994 and January, 1997, an airliner crash occurred at least once every 3 months, taking the lives of 805 people altogether. It has been about a decade since passengers have been killed in the crash of a commercial airplane carrying over 100 people. This shows that airline safety has indeed improved tremendously.
One of the reasons for this dramatic improvement in airline safety is government intervention. After 230 people were killed in the explosion of TWA Flight 800 in 1996, President Bill Clinton established a commission to call on the airline industry to lower the airline accident rate by 80% in the next 10 years. This resulted in the formation of the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, or CAST. The responsibility of this team is to analyze airline accident data and propose improvements.
Some of the improvements that airlines made after the establishment of CAST included more extensive discussion on landing between pilot and co-pilot, training of crew members on how to spot ice on the wings of airplanes, installation of “terrain avoidance” systems and bad weather warning devices, and others. Due to these improvements, all airlines in the United States were able to make air travel a lot safer. Presently, the odds of an airplane belonging to a U.S. airline going down and causing fatalities is 1 in 49 million, which is 93% lower than the rate recorded from 1994 to 1998.
Airplane accidents can occur both in the air and on the ground. To minimize accidents on the ground, airlines, airports, and FBOs have to use ground support equipment that can promote safety. One of the devices that they should use is aircraft tug. A powered aircraft tug can lower the chances of an aircraft being damaged and ground workers getting injured, and it can help reduce operational costs as well. Lindbergh Aircraft Tug Company produces high quality airplane tow tugs that can help airports, airlines, and FBOs provide safer and more efficient ground support.
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