Since the airplane is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, greatly facilitating people's travel and shrinking distances between different parts of the world, it has also brought about more unknowns due to its characteristic of flying in the air.

Everyone can say a few words about airplane safety. Still, most people only know that "the accident rate of airplanes is the lowest among various modes of transportation."

How airplanes ensure safety is something many aviation professionals struggle to explain because it involves complex concepts.

At the beginning of 2024, within just a few days, there were a series of accidents in the civil aviation sector, including incidents where aircraft were destroyed and lives were lost.

On January 2nd, at Haneda Airport in Japan, two airplanes collided, resulting in the death of 5 personnel and one person sustaining severe injuries from the Japan Coast Guard aircraft. On January 4th, also at Haneda Airport, a ground vehicle collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft, damaging its wing and rendering it unable to fly.

On January 13th, a Japan Airlines aircraft discovered a crack in the cockpit window shortly after takeoff and had to make an emergency landing. On January 14th, at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, a Japan Airlines flight collided with the tail of a Delta Air Lines aircraft while taxiing, resulting in minor damage to both aircraft. On January 16th, at New Chitose Airport in Japan, a Korean Air passenger plane and a Cathay Pacific aircraft collided on the ground.

The causes of aviation accidents can generally be categorized into three types: human factors, hardware failures, and adverse weather conditions.

Human factors mainly include pilot error, ground crew maintenance errors, communication errors between pilots/ground personnel, and mid-air or airport collisions.

For example, the collision of two airplanes at Haneda Airport on January 2nd appears to be due to a lack of sufficient safety time between takeoffs and landings, which was likely a communication problem between air traffic control and the pilots receiving takeoff and landing clearance. In the ground vehicle collision incident at Haneda Airport on January 4th, the blame likely falls on the driver of the ground vehicle.

The collision incident at O'Hare Airport on January 14th may be related to pilot or air traffic controller errors—the ground handling personnel suspected misconduct in the incident at New Chitose Airport on January 16th.

Hardware failures include aircraft structure fatigue and failure, hydraulic control system malfunctions, engine failures, etc. The incidents involving the emergency cabin door detachment on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines on January 5th and the discovery of a cracked cockpit window during flight by Japan Airlines on January 13th likely resulted from fatigue damage near aircraft-related structures.

In the collision involving two aircraft at New Chitose Airport on January 16th, the possibility of a malfunction in the aircraft's hydraulic control system cannot be ruled out.

Adverse weather conditions include dense fog, rain and snow, ground and aircraft icing, lightning, sudden wind gusts, crosswinds, and wind shear. For example, it was snowing during the ground collision of two jets at New Chitose Airport on January 16th, so some attribute the slippery runway as the leading cause of the incident.

Of course, some aviation accidents result from the combined effects of two or all three factors.