Are Takeoffs Dangerous?
Takeoffs (and landings) are reported as being the phase of flight with the most likely chance of crashing. But the first thing you have to remember is that 32 per cent (the approximate percentage of takeoff accidents) of a very small number is an even smaller number!
The reason for the higher incidence of accidents on takeoff is because the airplane is more vulnerable. Vulnerable to what? To changes in performance and/or environment that could negatively adverse its acceleration to a speed above the minimum speed required to get airborne.
The laws of physics come into play big time during takeoff. You have this big hunk of metal that needs to accelerate from stopped on the runway to a speed above the minimum safe speed in a very short time to add to the margin of safety. For pilots, the biggest consideration would be a partial or complete loss of thrust on takeoff.
Takeoffs Are Carefully Planned
The first obvious compensation for this contingency is any airplane on which you can buy a commercial ticket will have at least two engines. It’s the law. A second way we compensate is planning that during every takeoff, the airplane will have a complete loss of thrust on one engine—a highly unlikely event. The third way of compensating is limiting the weight of the airplane to a restricted amount. That weight is the maximum that would allow the airplane to accelerate a pre-determined speed with all engines operating, lose the thrust from one engine, and then either accelerate down the runway to a safe flying speed OR stop safely on the remaining runway.
That pre-determined speed is called our decision speed and is the point at which we determine whether we are “go” or “no-go.” From a pilot’s perspective, this is the single most reassuring fact about takeoff. It takes any guesswork out of wondering whether I should stop or take off if some malfunction should occur during takeoff roll.
This means that all I have to do in the cockpit is focus on two things. 1. Looking outside the airplane to keep the airplane aligned perfectly with the centerline of the runway. 2. Alternating that with looking inside cross-checking the engine performance instruments with the airspeed indicator to make sure we are accelerating normally.
Fearful Flyers’ Imagine Crashing on Takeoff
The secondary fear of fearful flyers that the airplane will “settle” back to the runway and crash pales in comparison to the task of getting airborne. This is because that same limiting weight that we pre-planned before leaving the gate allows us to not only continue climbing in the event one engine failed, but also allows us to continue to accelerate such that each second we fly, we accumulate a higher margin of safety due to our increasing airspeed. And if the extremely unlikely event that we should experience engine failure, we simply turn around and return to the airport and exchange our airplane for another one!
What many fearful flyers find so remarkable is that landing with an inoperative engine is considered a “non-normal” landing as opposed to an emergency. Now, we will declare an emergency to the air traffic controllers because this alerts them that we want “landing priority” so that we don’t have any unnecessary delays going back to the airport. In fact, unless the engine made any strange noises when it failed, you would likely not even realize that we were flying without it unltil we made the announcement explaining why we were returning.
So, when you sense the nose of the airplane rising on takeoff, you now know that you are “go” for takeoff just like the astronauts. And, every additional second you accelerate you become less and less vulnerable to mechanical problems.
Now hopefully you’ll have lots of new information so you can feel better about takeoffs. Takeoffs are one of the most often-cited concerns of fearful flyers. With this new information, now you can cross this part of the flight off your “danger zone” list of things to fear about flying.
