Colombia’s Little Miracle: Surviving Air Crashes in Modern History

Americans made a hero of “Sully” Sullenberger when he was able to glide his plane gently after losing engine power at take off and landing in the water next to New York city. In that crash, while the plane sank, everyone survived. This week in Colombia a crash occurred on the island of San Andreas, where all but one woman survived, who died of a heart attack. The August 17th escape of 131 passengers made international news this week when their Boeing 737 made a hard approach on landing just short of the runways and broke apart in three main pieces during a rainstorm. Luckily it did not catch fire, which is often the main catalyst for deaths in air crashes. Accounts of the horrific experience by the passengers are all over the media with great interest. The pilot’s skill in staving off a major crash, new technologies in aviation security, and pure luck have been given credit for helping make this air disaster a minor one.

A notable crash in August 2005 in Toronto, Canada shared a lot of similarities with the Colombia crash. While an investigation into the crash in San Andreas will take some months to be produced, the Air France crash in Toronto might shed some light on possible issues with the approach and methods used by the crew which could have avoided the disaster, as lucky as they were. In 2005, a sudden thunderstorm and decision not to come for a second landing lead to a similar hard landing in Toronto’s Pearson Airport when the Air France Airbus A340 ran off the runway into a ravine off at the end of the runway. While the A340 did not break apart like the Colombian airliner, minutes after the plane came to a halt in the ravine, it caught fire and was quickly consumed by the flames. Luckily, as in the Colombia crash, there were no deaths related to the crash and all the passengers survived the crash. Weather in both crashes were considered great contributing factors, but also the pressure to not make second approaches and sudden wind shear and visibility problems often make it harder to land and lead to additional smaller errors as more skill and tasks are needed landing in harsh environments. A complete analysis of the Air France crash can be found here.

Skill and luck play a part in all air accidents, and fortunately this latest accident did not claim more than one life. Crashes such as the Air France crash between Brazil and France in 2009 resulted in all 228 people crashing in the mid Atlantic in deep water without any evidence or information being obtained after a long a labourious search by French and Brazilian officials. Despite this, flying on larger airlines hold a good safety record compared to auto accidents and accidents involving smaller aircraft. Professionalism in aviation can limit accidents in this regard, but on occasion when a plane has a bad landing, it is comforting to know that in some cases people survive, and in other cases everyone has survived.