An evaluation of worldwide transport aircraft fire experiences

This further study of turbine engined transport aircraft accidents has concentrated on 269 survivable accidents where there was either a post impact fire, major fuel spillage or an inflight fire involving the fuel. An evaluation has been made of the effects on the final fatality rate of such parameters as fuel type, aircraft type and size, load factor, initial impact severity, phase of flight and type of flight. The advantage of kerosine over wide cut gasoline is again confirmed and it is shown that the majority of people who die by the effects of fire do so in approach accidents but nevertheless in those involving comparatively few or no deaths directly due to the actual impact. Turboprops and jets exhibit a different pattern of cause of death and although a higher proportion of turboprop accidents occur during the approach this does not account for the difference. When considering fire along the effects of aircraft age and type are small compared to the effects of fuel volatility. Paper prepared for The International Seminar on 'Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting', Geneva, Switzerland, September 13-17, 1976. Starting in 1946 as the College of Aeronautics, the Cranfield Institute of Technology was granted university status in 1969. In 1993 it changed its name to Cranfield University.