An assessment of risk and safety in civil aviation

Risk and safety have always been important considerations in civil aviation. This is particularly so under current conditions of continuous growth in air transport demand, frequent scarcity of airport and infrastructure capacity, and thus permanent and increased pressure on the system components. There is also the growing public and operators’ awareness of these and other system externalities such as air pollution, noise, land use, water/soil pollution and waste management, and congestion. This paper offers an assessment of risk and safety in civil aviation. It deals with general concept of risk and safety, describes the main causes of aircraft accidents and proposes a methodology for quantifying risk and safety.