. The most random accidents seem to be inevitable. —— Einstein
With the rapid development of social economy and science and technology, people have more and more choices of transportation when traveling. Based on their own safety considerations, many people will subconsciously compare the mortality rates of various modes of transportation in order to make better choices in the future.
Among them, the generally accepted formula for comparing mortality rates is "mortality rate/person-time per unit distance". If calculated according to this formula, the US Department of Transportation has given official data.
Data show that during regular journeys, the death rate for civil aviation is 0.003 people/100 million miles, for commercial buses it is 0.05 people/100 million miles, for railways it is 0.06 people/100 million miles, and for cars including taxis it is 0.61 people/100 million miles. It can be intuitively seen that the fatality rate of civil aviation is the lowest among all modes of transportation. The reason why
came to the conclusion that "airplanes are the safest" in this calculation method is because it compares the number of deaths caused by various means of transportation when they reach 100 million kilometers.
Aircraft obviously have inherent advantages in this regard. Because in unit time, the mileage reached by the aircraft is obviously the highest.
In addition, variables such as the driver, rule formulation, enforcement of regulations, completely uncontrollable factors, probability of damage to the body hardware, probability of environmental degradation, etc. will obviously have a great impact on the safety of the journey.
All inspections, inspections and maintenance done before and after the aircraft takes off, as well as the most rigorously trained and experienced pilots, can undoubtedly reduce the probability of aircraft risks to a certain extent. However, when the pilot is unreliable, all risk indicators will skyrocket simultaneously.
The crash of Flight 593 on March 22, 1994 is a typical case. The 15-year-old boy who was illegally brought into the cab by the co-pilot made a mistake and caused the plane to crash into the mountainous area, with no one surviving among the 75 passengers.
Plane crash
Air crash is undoubtedly a low-probability event for the entire human world. But "the lightness of probability cannot bear the weight of life." It remains 100% a catastrophe for every family and friends of the victims.
According to statistics on the causes of air crashes from 1950 to 2000, the main cause of air crashes is pilot error.
This includes completely due to pilot operation errors, pilot operation errors due to climate effects, and pilot operation errors due to mechanical effects. Then comes human error, weather, mechanical failure, vandalism and other causes. This shows how important it is to have a reliable driver.
Unfortunately, Aeroflot Flight 593, which took off from Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport on March 22, 1994 and was bound for Hong Kong, China, was not equipped with enough reliable crew members.
When Aeroflot Flight 593 stalled and fell in the early morning of the next day, and crashed directly into the mountainous area after struggling for 2 minutes and 6 seconds, the air traffic control department quickly received the unfortunate news.
They immediately dispatched a search and rescue team to the scene of the accident, but unfortunately found that none of the 63 passengers and 12 crew members on the flight survived.
Aeroflot Flight 593 was an Airbus A310-304. It had been flying for less than five years. All parts and equipment on the aircraft could even be described as "brand new." Considering all the circumstances at the time, such a tragic accident should not have happened.
In addition, before the plane crashed, not even a single crew member sent a distress signal to ground air traffic control, and there were strange messages everywhere. The air traffic control department was even more confused after ruling out the cause of the fuselage failure.
But soon the search and rescue personnel made new discoveries while clearing the wreckage of the plane. They actually found the bodies of two children in the cockpit of the crashed plane.
Illegal operation
The time can be traced back to the early morning of March 23, 1994. Aeroflot Flight 593 was on its way from Moscow to Hong Kong.
There were 12 crew members and 63 passengers on the plane at the time, a total of 75 people. Its crew includes three pilots with more than 900 hours of driving experience each, and the passengers are composed of 40 Russian passengers, 17 Chinese passengers, 4 British passengers, 1 Indian passenger and 1 American passenger. Flight
593 has been mainly controlled by the captain since it took off from Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport on March 22. There were no accidents throughout the entire journey, and it flew smoothly to the skies of Siberia in the early morning of the next day.
When Flight 593 arrived at 33,000 feet above Siberia, according to operating specifications, the pilot turned on the eastbound autopilot mode.
According to regulations, when the aircraft enters autopilot mode, the captain can temporarily leave the cockpit, go to the lounge to take a rest, and leave all matters in the cockpit to the first and second officers. And the captain of Flight 593 did exactly that. But what he didn't expect was that the first officer Kudelins would soon reveal the truth.
Among the 40 Russian passengers on Flight 593 at that time, Kudrins’ 15-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter were included. The two children have always been proud of their father's profession, and are full of strong curiosity and interest in airplane driving and their father's working environment.
So when the cockpit was handed over to their father, they came up with the idea of going to the cockpit to find out. First Officer Kudelins was hesitant at first, but he was quickly defeated by the pleas of his son and daughter.
After the captain left, he brought his son and daughter into the cab, fully satisfying their curiosity. Even at his son's request, he took his son to the captain's seat and allowed him to briefly experience the feeling of flying a plane in the captain's seat.
Kudelins thought that the aircraft itself was already in autopilot mode, and the control lever would not affect the normal flight of the aircraft in autopilot mode. So he "generally" gave his son the opportunity to experience it.
However, what he did not expect or did not understand at all was that the model of Flight 593, Airbus A310-304, even if it was in autopilot mode, could not conduct operations inconsistent with the autopilot mode instructions for more than 30 seconds. If it exceeds 30 seconds, this operation will directly cancel the aircraft's autopilot mode .
So, just like this, the 15-year-old boy's random operation caused the plane to suddenly release the autopilot mode, and automatically increased the engine power and raised the fuselage, causing the plane to lose its balance.
The four people in the cab at that time, including the first officer and his son and daughter, as well as the second officer, were all pressed into their seats due to overweight. Only the second officer could pull the control column and stretched out his hands as much as possible to control the out-of-control aircraft.
However, in the chaos, the second officer pulled the nose of the plane too high, and the plane entered a second stall and began to spiral downward.
At this time, the first officer Kudelins finally replaced his son from the captain's position, and worked together with the second officer to try to stop the plane from falling.
But at this time, the plane had fallen a long distance. Even if they tried their best to save the situation, the tragedy had already happened. The plane quickly crashed into the Siberian mountains not far ahead, and a huge fireball erupted due to the violent collision.
Whether it was the captain who returned to the lounge or all the unknowing ordinary passengers on the flight, they were all involved in this disaster, and no one could escape.
The truth
The truth of the matter came to light after the search and rescue team found the black box and checked it with the list of flight attendants at the time.
In fact, the A310 aircraft itself is not a Russian-made aircraft, but is manufactured in France. Therefore, before flying this aircraft, the crew must undergo a period of training before they can actually get started.
The subsequent investigation found that although the crew on this plane received certain training, they did not have a thorough understanding of the various skills of A310.
That’s why Kudelins blindly asked his 15-year-old son to perform a series of illegal operations on the aircraft in the autopilot mode, without even predicting that such operations would have tragic consequences.
At the same time, investigators also found that when the aircraft stalled for the second time, the aircraft's autopilot mode had been completely released. At this time, the aircraft's system would automatically and urgently prevent the stall from spiraling down. Therefore, as long as the first and second officers did not perform any operations at that time, the aircraft would quickly return to level flight.
However, neither of the two co-pilots knew about this at the time. Therefore, their operation delayed the time and caused a tragedy.
Summary:
The air crash that occurred in 1994 was undoubtedly avoidable. The first officer illegally brought his son and daughter into the cockpit, amplifying all potential risks to the extreme. And their inadequate training also cuts off any possibility of remediation. This is a very harsh lesson.
