Causes of Air Crash

Stalling

Updated: 2010-09-02 10:03

Stalling an aircraft (increasing the angle of attack to a point at which the wings fail to produce enough lift), is very dangerous and usually results in a crash unless the pilot quickly reacts in the proper manner and there is sufficient altitude left to regain adequate flying airspeed, while the plane is losing altitude.

Most stalls are a result of the pilot allowing the plane's to go too slow for the particular weight and configuration at the time. There is, however, such a thing as a high-speed stall. That can occur when a plane pulls out of a high speed dive too rapidly, causing the angle of attack of the airfoil to become so extreme that the air flow over the top of the wing is broken up into a turbulent mass, which destroys the lift capability of the wings.

Devices have been developed to warn the pilot when the plane's speed is coming close to the stall speed. These include stall warning horns (now standard on virtually all powered aircraft), stick shakers and voice warnings.

Notable crashes, caused by a full stall of the airfoils:

British European Airways Flight 548, June 18, 1972

United Airlines Flight 553, December 8, 1972

Aeroflot Flight 7425, July 10, 1985

Arrow Air Flight 1285, December 12, 1985

Northwest Airlines Flight 255, August 16, 1987

Delta Air Lines Flight 1141, August 31, 1988

The Paul Wellstone King Air Charter crash, October 25, 2002

Colgan Air Flight 3407, February 12, 2009

Turkish Airlines Flight 1951, February 25, 2009