How Safe Is Your Plane?

This is a question you want answered before booking a trip. We look at the rigorous tests that planes undergo to ensure that flying remains one of the safest modes of transport.

- Neil Ashton

NEIL ASHTON IS AN AEROSPACE ENGINEER AND SENIOR RESEARCHER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD’S E-RESEARCH CENTRE.

Air travel is more popular than ever – last year saw more than 1.5 million flights pass through the UK alone. Although aeroplanes have made it easier for us to explore the world, nearly one in three of us claims to be anxious or fearful of flying. Is this fear justified? 

US statistics taken from between 2000 and 2009 show that car drivers or passengers suffer 7.3 deaths per billion miles. In contrast, air travel comes in at just 0.07 deaths per billion passenger miles. Of course, statistics can’t cure someone’s fear of flying, but they do prove that it’s one of the safest ways to get from A to B. This safety is thanks to the testing that every single part of the aircraft has to go through before it’s allowed to undertake its first flight.

In the freezer

While passengers get to enjoy the comfort of air conditioning, the engines have to be able to cope with temperatures as low as -55°C during cruise conditions. Here, one of the latest engines is being pushed to its limits at a General Electric testing facility in Winnipeg, Canada. It’s being blasted with icy water from hundreds of nozzles at sub-zero temperatures to check that it will maintain power in cold environments. Temperature tests are important to the airlines because they want to make sure that their planes can operate in as many environments as possible. Each time they have to ground an aircraft because of bad weather, they lose money.

Turbulent times