**3. Case studies**

Typical life cycle of an aircraft can broadly be classified into three stages. The first stage comprises activities covering design and manufacturing, signaling its "birth." Second stage comprises "active flying years" during which the aircraft is put into operational service. The aircraft is maintained in fully airworthy condition by

*Role of Human Factors in Preventing Aviation Accidents: An Insight DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106899*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Distribution pattern of civil aircraft accident fatalities from 1918 through 2022.*

following approved Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) procedures. Once the aircraft completes its intended service life, it is eventually grounded or phased out and sent to boneyards. This corresponds to the third stage.

Some of the valuable components are dissembled from the aircraft and depending on their technical condition, are inspected, repaired or overhauled by approved facilities in the aerospace sector, prior to reuse in other aircraft. Some of the retired aircraft find their way into educational institutions or museums for display.

Aircraft accidents can be attributed to one or more of a combination of causes identifiable in the above three stages and usually comprise human factors and technical failures. Generally, occurrences due to experimental test flights, terrorism, hijacking, sabotage, and direct military action are not considered for analysis of airplane

#### **Figure 3.**

*File photo of Boeing 737-89P aircraft B-1791. (photo credits: CWong, https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/10528109).*

accidents. Analysis of the data from aviation accidents throws light on several vital factors that eventually resulted in respective accidents. Let us look at a few typical examples of aircraft accidents from history. Statistical analysis and summary of commercial aviation accidents for the last 60 years are documented in [10, 11].
