Weather Accidents

Again we follow in the footsteps of the late crash investigator Macarthur Job and focus on aviation accidents. This time, instead of taking a look at forecast ingredients, well look at cases of where the pilots simply made the wrong decisions for the weather.

Tim Vasquez

Wednesday, November 15, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Aviation accidents frequently stem from pilots' overconfidence or an incomplete understanding of weather conditions, leading to poor in-flight decisions.
Small-scale, localized weather phenomena like outflow boundaries, though difficult to forecast, can be identified by pilots using modern tools for thorough pre-flight self-briefings.
Flying into known hazardous conditions, especially in mountainous terrain with obscured visibility, turbulence, and icing, significantly increases the risk of controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) if pilots lack proper ratings, preparation, and situational awareness.

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Again we follow in the footsteps of the late crash investigator Macarthur Job and focus on aviation accidents. This time, instead of taking a look at forecast ingredients, we’ll look at cases of where the pilots simply made the wrong decisions for the weather.

Of course, no one climbs into the cockpit expecting things to go wrong, and I would venture to say every pilot takes off confident they can handle the weather. However, NTSB files of weather-related accidents are filled with stories of overconfidence and incomplete understandings of the real situation that’s taking place. Our analyses will hopefully let you improve the record by adding your knowledge distilled from the forecasts.