History of Aviation Safety Aviation Term Paper

All of the transportation agencies were consolidated into one big agency -- the new Department of Transportation in 1966, establishing the National Transportation Safety Board as an agency that was independent inside of the department. This new board was also given the responsibility of determining the "probable cause" of: 1) highway accidents selected in cooperation with the states; 2) every passenger train accident, fatal railway accidents, and any railroad accident that caused significant damage; 3) big marine accidents, including any marine accident that involved a public vessel and a nonpublic vessel; 4) pipeline accidents involving a fatality or significant property damage; and lastly, 5) fatalities or major injuries that were caused by the release of hazardous materials (2004).

The creation of the NTSB showed that Congress was thinking that a single agency could come up with a higher level of safety than the individual model agencies that were all working separately even though for the same purposes. In a nutshell, the NTSB has the duty of making recommendations for safety and doing so in a public fashion. It also has the duty of finding the "probable cause" or accidents and formulating safety recommendations to improve transportation safety (Wells & Rodrigues 2004).

Shortcomings:

In recent years, it has come to light -- especially with the occurrence of 9/11 -- that there are many shortcomings when it comes to aviation safety. While airplanes may be one of the safest modes of transportation, there is reason to believe that new safety measures need to be taken in order to stop terrorists from using airplanes as a means to carry out their violence. Post 9/11, we have learned that terrorists target airliners as terrorists see them as a good way to target hundreds of people at once. Steven Simon, the former senior director for counterterrorism for the National Security Council stated that, "there is a particular horror attached to transportation attacks because passengers are in effect helpless in a situation like that" (Kaplan 2006). It was shortly after 9/11 that Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (Kaplan 2006), which created the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and ordered that federal employees be in charge of airport security screening (2006). Thankfully, this has raised the standards of security in airports all across the U.S. (2006).

Ensuring compliance and/or consistency in safety reporting is challenging, in general, but voluntary systems have added shortcomings because they are much less reliable, according to Wells and Rodrigues (2004). Accident reports offer quite a bit of information, but still more data comes from incident reports and other reports and files made up by airlines, manufacturers, and government agencies (2004).

Other shortcomings when it comes to aviation safety may have to do with decision making on the part of persons working as pilots and as air traffic controllers. Good judgment is a priority for safe operations. Wells and Rodrigues (2004) note that good judgment comes from years of training, experience and "correct perceptions" (2004). While we can hope that this experience can always lead to good judgment, unfortunately, in times of crisis it is hard to determine just how a person will act. Today, there are many stressors that airline pilots (as well as air traffic controllers) face. One of the biggest issues has to do with terrorism (as mentioned above regarding 9/11). As we saw with the crash of United 93 on 9/11, even passengers these days are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to their safety as well as the safety of their nation.

Aviation and aviation safety has changed tremendously since the age of the barnstormers. While legislation and the emergence of the FAA has created a very safe mode of transportation, there are, unfortunately, new safety concerns that plague aviation. It is up to time to tell whether or not our safety agencies will be able to keep air travel safe in years to come.

References:

Boeing. (2010). Making flying safer…