Introduction
Often airlines fail to introduce proper safety measures until after the irreversible damage. They do not intend to adopt safety measures from the very beginning. They fail to realize by doing this they can avoid a large number of serious accidents. This is partially because of the human psychology that does not let him to make decision unless he experiences something very serious. Moreover, this is due to lack of awareness but also due to the corporate lack of willingness of most airlines. When it comes to the implementation of these standards, they aim at profit maximization or so. Like all other companies and businesspersons, airlines also attend to maximize their revenue because of which all their decisions depend upon this factor. There are certain types of mechanical failures and incapability is the process of talking about safety measure. They are not only limited to seat belts and landing gears but also to structural issues, fuel starvation and fuel leakages. Other issues related to airline safety measures include foreign object damages, metal failures, and emergency landing procedures.
Discussion
When it comes to talking about aircrafts, we need to understand that it is metal containers with hundreds of people it in, running on flammable fuel and hurtling through the air at thousands of miles per hour. A loose screw it a safety hazard. Furthermore, safety measures include manufacturing defects, crack in the glass, as they can create vacuums, stalling, fire control devices, and course correction measures. Several planes crashed due to stalling including Turkish airline flight 1951 in 2009, the United Airlines flight 553 in 1972, British European Airways Flight 548 in 1972, and many others. There are several cases here engine failure was the cause of the plane crashing, like the Qantas Flight 32 and the Delta Airlines flight 1288. There were several crashes due to fuel issues as if the British airways flight 38. Meanwhile, there were other crashes due to foreign object damage. An example of this incident is the US airway flight 38. These are examples of how multiple issues can cause major problems, and when we consider airplanes, we cannot just pullover and tighten the screw so all of the insignificant minor issues become giants once the plane takes off.
There are also issues like visibility in rain, snow, and fog that can cause turbulence. In addition, when it comes to this, the lighting system and the visibility devices and the radars all become safety measures and thus this paper aim to shed light on them. There are several incidents where better landing gear, one more adapted to snow, could have saved the day like the Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 in 2005. Then there have been crashes due to lightening issues like the Pan Am flight 214 in 1963.
These issues fall well within the scope of safety issues, and when it comes to expenditure, airlines need to spend on them to make sure that the security is at 100%. However, this is not the case, most airlines do not consider this, and this lack of spending also means that there was a failure of safety standards that resulted in an accident.
The human factor is off the highest importance. No matter how perfect a plane we build at the end of the day it is under the control of a man. In addition, if that man is intoxicated, inexperienced, or sick then that is a health hazard. Most of the airline crashes have been due to human error and human error is something that we cannot eliminate while considering safety. Whether that human under consideration is the pilot, or the luggage loader who closes the hatch or the fuel supplier who is supposed to ensure zero leakages. A mistake at the hands of any of them could be detrimental to the flight; this means that all of these factors are important this also means that all these people need proper and effective training. Mostly we do not do this. We have a tendency to train lower level employees without much effort and often on the job and we often do not spend a lot of money or attention on them. This is also a delayed measure by the airline, whereby the airline is failing to employ proper measure in time for safety.
Then there are climatic issues like volcanic ash that impairs visibility and such and we fail to have presented a proper system to deal with this. In addition, this failure shows that we are not ready to deal with this problem if it comes up, and that in turn supports the fact that airlines do delay the implementation of proper safety measures.
There are several instances where governments have banned airlines from operating in their respective jurisdictions, for example, PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) in the UK (United Kingdom) and the Lebanese airline in the European Union . This has happened in certain situations where the governments felt that the airlines were not doing all that they could. Furthermore, although these airlines were banned in the specific areas, we need to understand that they were still operational in various other regions, and that presents them as a health hazard even after it had come to their knowledge that their standards were lacking.
There are certain studies that suggest that it is highly improbable that a person dies on the flight, that does not present a justification for lax safety standards , that is a justification for many airline accidents that have taken place. In several other incidents, that fact that there are airlines that is more hazardous: as an excuse and this shows the attitude of the entire industry as to the issue.
There is also sufficient data to suggest that airline firm follow these strategies deliberately. They often choose to employ strategies that are a health hard but are helpful to their bottom line, this often happens when the safety technology in questions is an innovation or one that need wide implementation . Here these corporations tend to wait for an actual need to arise for the measure instead of implementing it in a proactive manner.
Although most firms understand the importance of the safety impression in the consumer market and the role it plays in selling their ticket, they are still inclined to take the path that uses delayed safety measure implementation as that delays the cost .
The FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) is trying to have better security standards implemented across the board so that these accidents diminish even more . Standards that will not only assure the flight standards, but also every aspect of the safety of aircrafts The fact there is such legislation in the tunnel represents the fact that that is a must. Meaning, airlines do have a tendency to delay the implementation of safety standards as much as they can to save a few dollars, this also shows that this issue has been under scrutiny for some time and yet there has been little or no action on it. Especially if the United States of America is acting upon it, it shows that many others also need to follow them in this regard; this also shows the relaxation that many governments have shown in this regard.
There is also the fat that airlines have an incentive to not have these safety measures. Often the cost of implementing the measures is more than the cost of a plane, and then there is insurance. So many airlines see a minimal loss when it comes to an accident, there are lawsuits and deaths, but death does not show up on a; profit and loss statement and there is little chance that a lawsuit will succeed and present a real cost to the corporation. Death is a cost to the society and a cost to the families of the deceased, but not a cost to the mechanic corporation that runs the airline. This evolution of the airline industry has left it more like the tobacco or the pharmaceutical industry, whereby the bottom line is the most important thing to the corporations as compared to consumer safety or so.
On the other hand, it is not possible to know how many accidents prevented by the implementation of proper safety standards. There is no way to know how many planes were supposed to crash, but did not due to the new aerial design; there is no way to know how many doors should have flown open had it not been for the new hatch lock. The study on these is very little. The thing is that study becomes biased and a researcher looking at previous literature will only see what happened when the system as not implemented or failed to be used. Therefore, the most common conclusion that is almost inevitably drawn is that airlines do delay the implementation of safety standards.
There are over a hundred airlines banned in the European Union, but they are still running everywhere else. This shows that even though it brought to the attention of the airlines that their standards were lax they have failed to take action in this regard; this shows the carelessness exerted by them in these matters. There were several reasons as to why thee airlines were banned, ranging from, health hazards, consumer protection, and other technicalities. The authority was responsible for drawing this treaty went to the lengths to make sure that every friendly state employs this, to show how important this is .
Even when the latest example, taken into consideration, i.e. the Malaysian airplane incident, there exists certain tracking devices that could have been installed to avoid the occurrence of an incident. However, since it is economically inefficient it is not installed and due to that, many people lost their lives. Even now, no airline has shown plans to upgrade their systems to cater to this problem, this shows that airlines not only wait until accidents but often also go beyond that in delaying the implementation of these safety standards.
Although this paper makes airline corporations look like mechanical beasts, their work towards improving safety standards needs consideration. Most airlines have spent billions of dollars on implementing proper safety standards, and this has led to a monumental increase in the safety of most aircrafts. There are accidents and crashes, but these are on a minute scale that means that the technology currently utilized is doing its job. An airplane is a miracle within itself, and to keep a 40,000-ton of hurling metal in the air is not a small feat. The technology currently utilized assures that thousands of people get to their destination daily and that thousands of activities that happen daily. This shows that something is being done right.
Then there is also the fact that often planes crash not because of mechanical or safety issues but due to human error, and since the aircraft, crashes cannot always be fully evaluated. Most have a tendency to blame it on safety issues. So that the human element can be exonerated this makes most studies prone to errors.
Latest statistics concludes that in 2012 there were 496 deaths due to aircraft accidents around the world . These were due to various reasons, ranging from poor visibility, and landing issues and that shows the lax standard that airlines have.
Furthermore, it is no recent discovery that airplanes have issues with visibility, landing in snow, turbulence, and thunderclouds, but still there are no solutions to this problem within the airline industry. This failure to invest in the research and development of proper safety measures is also a failure at the safety measure and if these airlines implement these measure after a few accidents, which precedent shows have occurred, then airlines do delay the proper implementation of safety standards.
Conclusion
There are certain cases where the causes of accidents ranged from a loss screw to engine failure to faulty locks. All of these are lapses in the security and safety systems of the airplanes, and since these have happened more than once, it shows either the incapability of the airlines to deal with them or the lack of willingness of these airlines to deal with the problem. We need to understand that when we talk about airlines, it is essential to take all these issues because, in a matter complex as air travel, they are all intricately connected and these issues linked with the safety of the plane.
Lastly, we also need to consider the fact that we do not have any statistics as to how many accidents are avoided, that impairs our ability to present a proper comparative analysis as to whether airlines have implemented some measures in time. However, keeping in view the literature available and the details available, one has to conclude that airlines do indeed fail to properly implement safety measure until after the damage. Especially keeping in mind that in the context of flight, almost everything is a potential health/safety hazard and it needs consideration when we talk about airplanes. Because even the tiniest mistake could blow up while in the air, and because almost everything need to be considered when in this context, this does complicate the matter, but it gives an ease with which we reach our conclusion.
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