Accidents - correlation and causation?

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 at 02:03:18 in message
, Jose
wrote:

If you want another one, there was an entire community wiped out in or
near San Diego when a jetliner crashed into a small plane, and then
plummeted straight down. I don't know if it was "thousands dead" but
certainly hundreds, and iirc it led to the TCA around San Diego.

I know that one . Collision between a Cessna 172 and a Boeing 727 over
San Diego. Sept 25 1978.

144 died of which 135 were in the Boeing, 2 in the Cessna and seven on
the ground. 22 Houses were destroyed or badly damaged and a number of
motor vehicles wrecked.

So a lot of damage but hundreds dead - NO.

There are other examples you could have chosen! Two airliners collided
over New York 16 Dec 1960 . A DC8 and a Super Constellation. 128 dead
from both aircraft and 6 dead on the ground in the Park Slope area of
Brooklyn where most of the DC8 fell.

31 August1986. A DC9 collided with a Piper Archer over Los Angeles.
58 in the DC9, 3 in the Piper Archer and 15 on the ground died.

Some of the worst incidents involving aircraft 'falling from the sky'
have occurred at Air Shows.

Two air show disasters stand out for killing and injuring spectators.

1. Ramstein AFB Germany in 1988. The Italian Airforce's aerobatic
team were the cause of 60 people killed and hundreds injured on
the ground.

2. Ukraine 27 July 2002. A Ukrainian Air Force SU-27 tumbled into
the spectator area killing 86 and injuring 156

Airshows are, to some extent, a chosen risk even though none of us
expect to die at an air display! Some people have been killed who were
outside the air show spectator perimeter but it seems to be a very small
number over the years. In particular the Russian TU- 144 (The Russian
Concorde) crashed at the Paris Airshow in 1973 killing 8 members of the
general public and injuring 60.


E&OE

--
David CL Francis