I took a look at the US National Transportation Board (NTSB) statistics for 2022, focusing on aviation accidents and pulling data from this link. The summary below is organised according to the broad phase of flight. Out of 822 cases which already have a final report, the breakdown is as follows.
Landing 357 (43%)
Take-off 95 (12%)
Approach 94 (11%)
Enroute 90 (11%)
Manoeuvring 79 (10%)
Initial Climb 52 (6%)
Taxi 30 (4%)
Unknown 10 (1%)
Standing 8 (1%)
Emergency Descent 5 (1%)
Uncontrolled Descent 2 (0,2%)
Hardly surprising, approach and landing coupled with take-off and initial climb account for three quarters of the accidents. What is common is that during these phases of the flight, the aircraft low (on the ground, heading away from the ground or heading towards the ground), it is slow (still building up speed or reducing speed) and most likely in the “dirty configuration”. Dirty configuration refers to the extension of various lift augmentation or lift spoiling devices. For example, in the case of take-off, the flaps are at the minimal stage which gives some additional lift but still has a penalty of increasing drag, the landing gear is extended until a safe height is reached, upon which it can be retracted (more drag in the climb) and the nose-high altitude (high angle of attack) also gives more lift but with more drag. In simple terms, efficiency is sacrificed.
When landing, again the flaps are extended, lift spoilers may also be deployed and the gear is extended.
In both these broad phases of flight, airspeed is much lower than enroute phases of flight and manoeuvrability of the aircraft is significantly reduced. Of course, at a lower altitude, with increasing workload for the pilot, the reaction time to any issue needs to be higher than at enroute phase which is mostly a constant speed at relatively higher altitude.
Approach and landings are especially dangerous. It is no surprise that these two parts of flight account for 55% of the accidents. In addition to the factors mentioned above (low, slow, close to the ground), there is a tendency for the pilots to be complacent, arising from the feeling that they have finally made it home hence slow reaction times. My old instructor used to remind me that the flight is only done when the plane is back in the hangar, engine off, pitot covers in place, paperwork all signed and hangar doors locked. Did you notice that 4% of the accidents occurred when taxiing? I guarantee some of those happened when taxiing back to the hangar or parking bay after the flight.
These dangers have been known for a long time. Pilots in training are drilled, in a bid to train out these emergencies but they still happen. Why?
The laws of physics simply mean the margin for error is much reduced. Human nature and our fallibility mean that sooner or later, we wander out of the margins. We need to learn from those who were in these accidents, some of whom never made it alive. We need to remember we are no better than them. At any of those phases of flight, the things that happened can happen to us.
Rabid Renegade 