Best Aviation Safety Quotes

"Never before in the history of doing this channel in accident investigations have I ever seen such an egregious lack of professionalism, lack of adherence to standard operating procedures, and lack of crew resource management by any professional airline aircrew."

"The company alerted pilots about handling a potential malfunction."

"Nothing in plane design or plane production is done without several layers of redundancy."

"One microscopic detail can have a catastrophic impact."

"This was a wake-up call to the aviation industry in terms of how do you cope with multiple failures on board the airplane."

"Teamwork was absolutely the key fact of bringing the airplane back to the ground."

"Can the fragile aircraft survive the stresses of turning, or, if they ever reach the airport, of landing?"

"The accident had a very profound effect on the aviation industry and the way we look at aging airplanes. Old aircraft, we changed the way we monitor how they age, the way we inspect them, and of course, now how we manufacture them. We use different processes. This was a very critical accident for aviation history."

"Dozens of people who have never met will be bound together forever in a tragedy that will affect everyone who flies."

"Since the full adoption of the TCAS system, there has not been another mid-air collision in the United States."

"The cause of both crashes was faulty software, which caused the airplane to nose dive uncontrollably."

"Emergency oxygen systems that were made for 787 Dreamliners had a failure rate of 25%. This means that a quarter of 787 Dreamliners had the potential to rapidly lose oxygen if the cabins were suddenly decompressed, suffocating passengers."

"Whenever a controller tells a pilot to do something now, the controller is handling the flight with their intermediate danger."

"These sort of incidents are increasing at an alarming rate. There's a huge turnover in the industry... we're just one radio call away from having the biggest aviation disaster in history."

"Even though this wasn't an accident, it was a close call and in aviation, a lot of times if you can learn something without anybody getting hurt, that's the best time to learn."

"These recommendations have all since been implemented, especially important is the fact that around the world, radio phraseology between pilots and controllers is now highly standardized."

"A missing screw can jeopardize the safety of flight. Constant checks keep planes flying and passengers safe."

"Despite the horror of airplane disasters, they're still extremely rare, especially given how often passenger planes take off and land."

"The crash of Flight 311 underscored the need for more advanced Air Traffic Control technology."

"What happened on flight 243 made flying safer."

"The industry's problems will not be solved until the major airlines take greater responsibility for the safe operations of their regional partners."

"If MCAS hadn't been on those planes, those planes wouldn't have crashed."

"The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Mission system."

"I want the controller who is controlling my flight to have nothing else distracting them but the ability to do their job."

"Aviate, navigate, then communicate. Keep the aircraft flying safely."

"Emergency procedures: if I do have an engine out and I've got to land, the beach is really soft sand, this thing does not do well so the book says to keep the gears up, keep the bottom flat, and land in the water."

"The skill of Commander Cedric Roberts and Flight Officer Lionel Soul saved the lives of their 16 passengers."

"When the dog wins, that is the most valuable feeling because when they legitimately win, they feel strong and they enjoy that."

"No matter what role disorientation played in the crash, investigators are about to learn that the crew wasn't properly trained to deal with it."

"Turbulence isn't as scary as it feels. Yes, it can give an airplane a sudden jolt, but commercial airplanes are built to withstand much more than these jolts."

"Pilots are trained to handle all kinds of situations, including the unnerving experience of flying through turbulence."

"Tim Lancaster's survival was little short of miraculous. He'd been minutes away from death."

"Alastair Atchison's achievement in saving flight 5390 was outstanding."

"If you disrupt a flight with threatening intimidating or violent behavior you'll face a civil penalty from the faa of up to 35 000 and possible imprisonment as well."

"You never know if the airplane is gonna teach you a little lesson right at the very end."

"Commercial aviation is one of the safest ways to travel, according to statistics measuring passenger injury and fatalities."

"We're just trying to ensure our job and guarantee the flight safety."

"A deadly plane crash changes the face of passenger aviation."

"Your smartphone won't bring down a plane...a cellphone has never caused a plane crash."

"We couldn't live with the fact of having two unsolved 737 accidents."

"This was an intentional act, not an accident."

"UAPs may pose a serious threat to our military or civilian aircraft, and that must be understood."

"Last Words: Cockpit voice recordings, transcripts, air control traffic tapes."

"A civilian pilot isn't going to do that, okay? Do you understand that point?"

"No, they won't activate FTS if there are seagulls on today's landing pads. Say singles, funny."

"There comes a moment when you have to arm your ejection seat if you have to make an emergency exit, there is an explosive charge that literally blows your entire seat out of the plane with you in it. I was keenly aware."

"During their approach to Hong Kong, the crew stayed calm and continued to collaborate in a highly effective manner despite being faced with a totally novel set of failures for which they had never been trained."

"A simple distraction during a critical phase of flight can quickly lead to an undesirable aircraft state."

"It's hard to always know, but there was another pilot on frequency that said they heard the radio calls coming from the helicopter announcing their position but never heard a radio call announcing the position or intentions from the aeropilot."

"As we approach the 50th anniversary of the disaster at Tenerife, we can say with confidence that the safety improvements made in the wake of the disaster have made flying safer."

"The collision over the Grand Canyon is one of the most significant accidents in the history of commercial aviation."

"Was he trying to fly the plane into the ground?"

"Two 737s have gone down in startlingly similar ways."

"The aircraft was seriously sick, and what little automation was still working was trying to kill everyone on board."

"The very systems which had been so meticulously designed to help the pilots had now become their worst enemy."

"This was teamwork at its finest but teamwork alone would not get the plane down safely."

"Delays, scheduling problems, and fierce thunderstorms would all conspire to turn a routine flight into a terrifying race against time."

"The pressures of get-there-itis sparked a fatal series of mistakes."

"Tom Howter and his team have now found that a small hydraulic valve that controls the rudder of the world's most popular commercial jetliner can jam in the right circumstances."

"When the Max comes back into service, it will be the safest aircraft that will ever have flown."

"The crash of flight 9633 shone a harsh spotlight on commercial aviation in Russia."

"Almost 150 crashed of which 50%. The crashes were fatal. Disaster in every sense of the word."

"Following the accident, investigators made recommendations that called for stricter rules for air carriers."

"You know they say it's now the safest airplane in the air."

"If there's anything we can do to help make you a safer, smarter pilot, please don't hesitate to reach out."

"The FAA cares about you colliding with another aircraft and they care about you hurting someone on the ground."

"There was no doubt that aircraft were departing... with a partially or largely contaminated wing surface."

"From this final NTSB report from Blue Bonnet Bell, we see that it's less of an issue of the aircraft itself."

"Believe It or Not, birds often cause problems for planes."

"The Miracle on the Hudson has since inspired the National Transportation Safety Board."

"Airlines need a systematic, scientifically based approach to pilot selection."

"If you never do it or you don't do it regularly in training, it could be a smoking crater in your future."

"The major question was why were the pilots so preoccupied?"

"Any mistake whether in the cockpit or the control tower could easily lead to disaster on a grand scale."

"Could an altimeter be to blame for the Air France crash?"

"Despite everything, commercial flights still remain the safest form of Transport in the world."

"The pilot had been the victim of two previous hijackings. His success rate was a hundred percent."

"Piston engines have the advantage of being less risky in case of mid-flight failures."

"It literally takes like 12 seconds and it just ensures that the aircraft is going to fly correctly."

"A black box can remain intact after being hit with an impact speed of 310 miles per hour and survive exposure to flames as hot as 2000 degrees Fahrenheit for more than an hour."

"Plane engine bursts into flames with 231 aboard, lands safely."

"The 737 Max saga has so rocked the industry that even Southwest Airlines is reconsidering their entire business model."

"A catastrophic failure, according to the FAA, is something that happens on the order of 1 to the 10th negative 9."

"The tragedy of one trip to Hong Kong may have contributed something to the safety of other passengers and crew."

"He appeared to be completely familiar with the parachutes."

"No evidence suggests maintenance was a factor in the mishap, with the mishap aircraft undergoing routine inspections and flying multiple sorties without discrepancies."

"It's likely that he did not properly set up the autopilot to intercept the localizer."

"Your natural human reaction... is to push forward on the yoke."

"When you are not trusting and believing your instruments, it is very hard if not impossible to overcome."

"That's the news... I'm Scott Manley. Fly safe."

"The pilots slowly bring the plane out of its dive and back under control."

"We flat out deserve to know what is on our airplane. We're the last line of defense to be in that smoking hole and we need the knowledge."

"There is a fundamental problem at the heart of aviation safety."

"You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that your aircraft every time it leaves the ground returns safely."

"The pilots did an amazing job at saving the lives of their passengers."

"Safety has drastically improved in the country’s aviation sector since 2000."

"The remarkable flying of Bryce McCormick had saved the lives of everyone on board Flight 96."

"The evidence is pointing to a problem with the plane's tail."

"Passengers around the world are safer, less likely to be on a plane that's fitted with bogus parts."

"If that tail rotor gearbox and two rotor assembly completely separated from the helicopter, then all 18 lives would have been lost."

"Inexplicably, the pilot continued to pull back when he should've been pitching the plane's nose down to gain speed and lift."

"Pilots are telling me I've spoken to Pilots with Decades of experience flying for commercial airlines they are telling me they have never seen these types of things happening in their careers never seen before that is just really concerning."

"Pilots typically have about 17 minutes to get the aircraft down before the fire does that for them."

"If the pilot was in some sort of distress, then they would seek to land at the best possible area."

"I knew if he ever got back in the cockpit, we were history."

"Imagine a plane making an emergency landing in the open sea... passengers hold on to this cable like a railing and don't fall."

"At first, investigators believe the problem is mostly with smaller airlines."

"Peter Burkhill, John Coward, and the rest of the crew of flight 38 received the British Airways Safety Medal for their performance during the accident."

"Microbursts caught on camera. A microburst is a downdraft in a thunderstorm with a diameter of less than 2.5 miles. Some microbursts can endanger people and property, but they will always endanger aircraft."

"The accidents made the aviation industry aware that something simple like a pitot tube or a static port can cause a major incident."

"The changes made after the crash of delta 191 have saved countless lives."

"The worst ever mid-air collision happened near Indira Gandhi Airport, Delhi."

"The average passenger might believe that if they were involved in an emergency, the captain would land the aircraft and everyone would be fine."

"We're all gonna make mistakes at some point and we can learn from those mistakes to become better pilots."

"Decisions passengers make before takeoff can sometimes make the difference between life and death."

"There is a slightly higher percentage of survival in the back of an aircraft during a crash."

"If you see a pilot exhibiting unsafe practices consistently over and over again, it's upon all of us to bring it to that Pilot's attention."

"The simulations are conclusive: losing just one leading edge along the horizontal stabilizer will send the plane into a catastrophic nosedive."

"As long as airplanes are operated by humans, fatigue, distraction, and other human weaknesses can only be managed, never erased."

"I'm not sure that we can prevent subtle incapacitation, but we should at least try to eliminate all the possibilities that are the human factor because human factors are still the majority of most of the accidents."

"Through the sheer skill of the crew of BA 5390 as well as a small measure of luck, 87 people are now still alive as a consequence of this investigation."

"The tragedy of flight 3407 is under intense scrutiny at the NTSB offices in Washington."

"The fact that everybody survived including the pilot that was outside the plane is just completely a miracle and all because the screws were the wrong size."

"This psychological approach took air accident prevention to a new level."

"Captain Garvey raised the plane's nose up to nine degrees at the last possible moment."

"Flight attendants are highly trained professionals who can extinguish a fire thirty thousand feet in the air."

"If the engine dies, you'll be fine. Always fly with a spot where it's okay to land."

"Nothing is without risk. What I worry about most are things that will stop me from being able to get to the surface... But A Good Pilot can avoid those things."

"In the years after Flight 797, attendants received better equipment and training."

"When an airplane crashes in the United States, it's up to the National Transportation Safety Board to determine what went wrong."

"Finding out what caused a crash is the first step to preventing another one."

"What they discover is that the initial blast wave wasn't the only one to damage the plane."

"Ice and snow can interrupt the flow of air over the plane's wings, decreasing lift."

"The Air Moorea fleet is grounded when pilots refuse to fly the Twin Otter, until they know what caused the crash."

"The future of the entire Qantas fleet of A380s now depends on understanding what went wrong inside one single engine."

"All of this is to say that the fatal problem with the Boeing 737’s rudder had been discovered."

"Planes can fly even after one engine fails, pilots can control such emergency situations and land the aircraft safely."

"They have to remain safe and get even safer because we rely so heavily on this incredible mode of transportation that takes us somewhere we were never meant to be."

"That is an amazing accolade to what we've learned not just boeing but what we've learned about maintenance about structures maintaining them and inspecting them."

"Emergency Landings in Conflict zones pose significant challenges requiring quick thinking and decisive action."

"If a commercial airline pilot sees something they can't explain under this bill, they can report it to the FAA."

"A near miss at one of the country's busiest airports, the second separating dozens of passengers, and what could've been the worst aviation disaster in U.S. history."

"The Delta crash would uncover potentially deadly flaws in the checklists."

"You're always learning, so you can't just go, 'Oh I know how to do everything.'"

"I always said that pilot air is not an answer it's only a symptom of some underlying problems."

"The deeper they looked, the more the NTSB found that flying into thunderstorms was disturbingly widespread."

"The crew struggles to raise the plane's nose and gain altitude."

"So scrubbed it's beautiful and it's so easy."

"Holden could not eject because the ejection seat had the ground locks in to make it safe for ground servicing."

"Every safe flight from small planes to jumbo jets depends on pilot and plane working together."

"Even if a jet's technology is crippled, modern planes are so well built pilots can still bring them safely down."

"Neither plane took any action to avoid the deadly collision."

"To prevent this from happening again, investigators need to understand why the crew became so confused."

"Any landing that you can walk away from is close enough for government work."

"Now clear that Captain Lutz made a series of catastrophic piloting errors."

"Safety has improved considerably and also the quality of the pilots."

"I am here today because I felt that I must come forward, because I do not want to see another 787 or 777 crash."

"Passengers shouldn't have to rely on whistleblowers to provide the truth."

"Boeing routinely states that their airplanes meet or exceed all safety standards, this is untrue."

"The inability of the first officer to perform the memory items and locate the checklist in a timely manner indicated the first officer was not familiar with the non-normal checklists."

"The way they managed to guide this aircraft back down to a safe landing after having been through such extreme circumstances, it was fantastic."

"Could the key to surviving a plane crash be a matter of choosing the right seat?"

"Something came within feet of taking out a passenger plane."

"Any landing you drive away from is a good one."

"Attitude director indicator: a faithful guide, painting the canvas of the sky with pitch and roll."

"Fuel quantity selectman: a steward of resources, ensuring pilots are never left wanting in the vast expanse."

"US airlines warn wireless could cause havoc with flights."

"Nothing in Aviation Security can be the same after 9/11."

"In minutes they are alongside a private jet which is off its flight plan."

"An aircraft does not recognize a pilot's rank or experience; she only recognizes his mistakes."

"The crash site itself tells investigators that the plane could not have been traveling forward at high speed when it hit the ground."

"There is never ever just one cause to an airline accident it simply doesn't exist maybe someday god will swap one out of the sky but until then there's never one cause."

"The actual odds of being involved in a plane accident is about 1 in 11 million, but the fact that the possibility is never zero still unnerves most people."

"These steps will lead to safer and more secure skies for our air Travelers, our military, our scientists, and for people on the ground as well."

"When you have this situation where I'm spatially disoriented, I don't know where I'm going, I don't know what's going on, I don't know which way is up, we have to step back."

"Finally, here's one more takeaway for all of you non-pilots who might get on a small plane with a friend: ask the pilot if they're current."

"Incredibly all 300 occupants on board the plane survived."

"The NTSB found the probable cause of the accident was the airplane's departure from normal Cruise flight and subsequent impact with the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the first officer's flight control inputs."

"Airspeed is a crucial component of staying alive in an airplane."

"Turbulence can't take down a plane; it's just a quick drop."

"Pilots, the crew, and the passengers of ifo 21 who paid the ultimate price for oversights made by the 86th airlift command."

"Getting you and your passengers back on the ground with a low impact is the goal."

"Loss of control in flight remains the single greatest cause of fatalities in all of commercial aviation."

"The reality is, if you were to get sucked out of an aircraft at that altitude, you'd pass out almost instantly because you have no oxygen."

"The most important thing of all was passenger baggage reconciliation this is the key to detecting an explosive device or a terrorist."

"It was such a catastrophic failure of maintenance standards that US regulators overhauled the inspection process of all older aircraft in their service."

"What the safe outcome of Flight 1549 proved is that right now the best defense against this threat is a good team in the cockpit."

"This is the safest form of aviation that the world has ever seen."

"This is not just a story of an Air Traffic incident. It's a story of human psychology, negligence, process failure, and skilled airmanship."

"Fly smart and fly safe, also fly legal."

"Each airplane in the US's commercial fleet is struck lightly by lightning at least once per year."

"Quantas Airlines flight 32 was considered a turning point in aviation safety and maintenance regulations."

"We have improper repairs, mechanical irregularities, and pilots that are reporting the same problems on the same planes over and over again."

"These changes come as little consolation to the families of those who died on board Flight 7, but they have made flying that much safer for all of us today."

"It's an uncomfortable truth that as long as humans can fly passenger jets, humans can crash passenger jets."

"But despite your fears, realize that ATC is there to help keep everyone safe and can be just as stressed as you are."

"Traveling by air in a commercial passenger plane is the safest way to travel between 2000 and 2009 only 97 Americans died in aviation-related accidents."

"After the Paris crash, foolproof changes were finally made to the DC-10's cargo door."

"It is an increasingly prominent issue. So, it is important for pilots to report this information so that action can be taken."

"The most important thing that keeps aviation safe is the non-punitive essence of aviation as such. If I make a mistake and it's an honest mistake and I report it, which I should do, then what's going to happen is that the airline is going to look into it."