Ahmedabad air crash: Why accidents are common during take-offs, landings

NEW DELHI: In one of India’s worst aviation disasters, a London-bound Air India flight crashed within minutes of take-off from Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon.

There were 242 people on board, including 230 passengers and 12 Air India staff (two pilots and 10 cabin crew).

According to Boeing’s 2024 airplane accident report, which recorded 47 accidents, as many as 22 occurred during the landing phase, while four were during the take-off phase.

Similarly, of the 1,468 accidents recorded by the International Air Transport Association last year, 770 occurred while the flights were landing, and 124 were while these were taking off.

So why are air crashes during take-off and landing so common?
One reason is that during these two phases, aircraft are closest to the ground, which means that pilots have very little time to react if something goes wrong.

Also, planes are in close proximity to one another when taking off from or landing at an airport.

Top causes of take-off/landing crashes

Pilot error: Human error continues to be the leading reason for such accidents, experts say. As per International Civil Aviation Organization, around 65% of such accidents are due to human error, mostly on part of the pilot(s).

Engine failure: As aircraft engines are under maximum stress during take-off, pilots have little time to maneuver in case of a technical defect (such as bird strike, fuel pressure drop).

Technical failure: Defects in critical systems (such as landing gear or hydraulics) could lead to a crash as detection or correction may not be enough as a result of the compressed timeframe.

Weather: Due to bad weather, a plane could fail to properly take-off, or land appropriately, resulting in it overshooting the runway.

Runway obstruction: Sudden appearance of an intruder on the runway would make it difficult for the pilot to direct the plane away from the intruder.