What to do to prevent aviation disasters?

(Baonghean) - While people around the world were still in shock after the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, in Taiwan, a TransAsia Airways passenger plane crashed while trying to land at Magong Airport (Penghu Island District), killing 48 people. Shortly after, on July 24, an Air Algerie plane crashed after only 50 minutes of takeoff. Three accidents within a week involving passenger planes have made the public extremely skeptical about the safety of what is considered the safest means of transport in the world today.

Scene of the plane crash in Taiwan on July 23. Photo: AP

Remember, on September 11, 2001, a series of suicide terrorist attacks by airplanes when a group of hijackers almost simultaneously hijacked four Boeing passenger planes on domestic flights in the United States. The hijackers flew two planes straight into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan (New York City), each crashing into one of the two tallest towers, about 18 minutes apart. Within two hours, both towers collapsed. Another group of hijackers flew a third plane into the headquarters of the US Department of Defense at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, 129 km east of Pittsburgh, after passengers on board resisted the hijackers. According to statistics, the total number of people killed in the above attacks reached nearly 2,999 people (including those on the ground and 19 hijackers) and injured more than 6,200 others. The economic damage amounted to tens of billions of dollars, and if the cost of the US war on terrorism was included, the figure was about 4,000 billion USD. After this terrorist attack, flight safety has always been the top priority of all airlines around the world. Any information, even the least likely, related to suspected terrorism was canceled and thoroughly investigated. And in fact, since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, statisticians have not recorded any terrorist attacks by air, until the Boeing 777-200ER flight MH 370 of Malaysia Airlines mysteriously disappeared while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 passengers and 12 crew members on board. Up to now, after search efforts by many countries, including Vietnam, no sign of the ill-fated plane has been found and the search is still ongoing. The mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 once again raises doubts about aviation safety. Because on the flight, the weather conditions were good, it did not fly over any war zones and was considered one of the safest routes in the world. Immediately after this incident, investigations showed that immigration management at airports was still lax, specifically, that two passengers used fake passports. However, to date, the investigations have not been able to reach any conclusions.

Unlike MH 370, Malaysia Airlines flight MH 17 was also hit by a missile and crashed on July 17 in Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members. This was the second plane crash in just 131 days for Malaysia Airlines. However, the story of MH17 is completely different. Immediately after the crash, the warring parties in Ukraine continuously blamed each other. Not only that, it was used to cause a media war to internationalize the issue, deepening the long-standing tension not only in Ukraine but also between Russia and the West. The question is why, despite knowing this is a war zone and having been warned, many airlines still allow planes to fly over? Is it possible that profits (because this is the shortest flight from Europe to Southeast Asia) can be exchanged for the lives of innocent people? When an accident happens, it's already done. Blaming or assigning responsibility to someone cannot change the fate of the civilians who died.

While the shock of the tragic plane crash was still fresh, in the past two days (July 23 and 24), there were two consecutive civilian plane crashes. On July 23, in Taiwan, an Airbus ATR72 with flight number GE222 of TransAsia (Taiwan) from Kaohsiung to Penghu crashed. There were 54 passengers and 4 crew members on board, however, only 10 of them were lucky enough to survive, the remaining 48 never had the chance to return to their families. According to initial information, it could have been due to the weather, but the Civil Aviation Administration of Taiwan said that air traffic control reported that the weather conditions at that time did not exceed the limits for landing according to international regulations. As for the case of Boeing MD83 flight number AH5017 of Algerian airline - Air Algerie crashed just one day after the plane crash in Taiwan. This flight departed from Burkina Faso at 1:17 a.m. local time (8:17 a.m. Vietnam time) and was scheduled to land in Algiers 4 hours later. After taking off for 50 minutes, the crash occurred. There were 116 people on board but no one survived. The cause was determined to be bad weather conditions (possibly a sandstorm).

According to statistics, aviation is still the safest means of transport, but in just the past week, there have been 3 serious accidents that killed hundreds of people. The causes of the above accidents are still being investigated and clarified. However, it is inevitable that people around the world are concerned about air travel. Because although the statistics are few, once an accident occurs, the consequences are extremely serious. It is known that airlines are very careful before taking off, but to ensure the safety of each flight, it is necessary to carefully survey weather conditions as well as stay away from military hotspots to minimize risks, and for air transport to always maintain the "title" of the safest means of transport in the world.

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