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An occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes
place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the
intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in
which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the
aircraft receives substantial damage.
An aviation incident is an occurrence other than an accident,
associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could
affect the safety of operations.
Well known aviation
accidents
Other countries adopt a similar approach, although there are minor
variations, such as to the extent of aviation-related operations on
the ground, covered, as well as with respect to the thresholds beyond
which an injury is considered serious or the damage is considered
substantial.
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Aviation Accident History
The first known aviation fatality, deaths of balloonists Pilatre de Rozier
and Romain (June 15, 1785)."Flying is not inherently dangerous, but to an
even greater extent than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of
carelessness, incapacity, or neglect" Anon.
Auto Crash Lawyer
Since the birth of flight, aircraft have crashed, often with serious
consequences. This is due to the unforgiving nature of flight, where a
relatively insubstantial medium, air, supports a significant mass. Should
this support fail, there is limited opportunity for a good outcome.
Because of this, aircraft design is concerned with minimizing the chance
of failure, and pilots are trained with safety a primary consideration.
Despite this, accidents still occur, though statistically flying is
nowadays an extremely safe form of transportation. In fact, the relative
rarity of incidents, coupled with the often dramatic outcome, is one
reason why they still make headline news.
Many early attempts at flight ended in failure when a design raised to a
height for a launch would fail to generate enough lift and crash to the
ground. Some of the earliest aviation pioneers lost their lives testing
aircraft they built.
Otto Lilienthal died after a failure of one of his gliders. On his 2500th
flight (August 10, 1896), a gust of wind broke the wing of his glider,
causing him to fall from a height of roughly 56 ft (17 m), fracturing his
spine. He died the next day, with his last words being reported as Opfer
mussen gebracht werden! ("sacrifices must be made"). Percy Pilcher was
another promising aviation pioneer. Pilcher died testing The Hawk
(September 20, 1899). Just as with Lilienthal, promising designs and ideas
for motorized planes were lost with his death. Some other early attempts
experienced rough landings, such as Richard Pearse who is generally
accepted to have crash landed (survived) a motorized aircraft in some
bushes, unable to gain altitude after launching from it from some height.
The Wright Flyer nearly crashed on the day of its historic flight,
sustaining some damage when landing. Thomas Selfridge became the first
person killed in a powered airplane on September 17, 1908 when Wilbur
crashed his two-passenger plane during military tests at Fort Myer in
Virginia.
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