Last year’s ranking: n/a
'09 Incident rank: 6
'05-'09 Incident rank: 2
‘09 Accident rank: 1
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 3
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 2,778,000
Incident/Accident: Two aircraft. One runway. And one very close call. In May 2007, a SkyWest flight landed in San Francisco and taxied across the path of a Republic Airlines flight cleared for takeoff. In the nick of time, an air-traffic controller noticed that the planes were on a collision course and said, "uh, SkyWest HOLD HOLD HOLD," according to the NTSB. The Republic Airlines plane lifted off, and flew over the SkyWest plane. The SkyWest crew estimated there was as little as 30 feet between their flight and catastrophe. "At SkyWest Airlines,” a spokesperson said, “the safety of our passengers and our people is always top priority.”
Last year’s ranking: 4
‘09 Incident rank: 4
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 5
‘09 Accident rank: 6
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 4
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 2,284,000
Incident/Accident: A plane can land without its anti-skid system. It just needs more room, and can’t carry as much weight. A US Airways Boeing 737 twice landed just fine in late August 2006, despite a faulty anti-skid system. But just after noon on August 31, 2006, the plane was carrying 113 passengers and, on landing, its left tire blew out, smoke trailing. Smoke led to fire, and the pilot ordered an emergency evacuation while the left gear tires burned. Emergency personnel quickly put out the fire, and passengers and crew were safely evacuated. "The 30,000 aviation professionals at US Airways hold safety at the forefront of everything we do every day,” says a US Airways spokesperson, “as we operate more than 3,000 daily flights.”
Last year’s ranking: n/a
‘09 Incident rank: 8
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 1
‘09 Accident rank: 8
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 2
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 1,444,000
Incident/Accident: Forget not having an anti-skid system—try landing without half your landing gear. That’s what happened on an Atlantic Southeast flight operating as a Delta Connection approaching Atlanta in June 2009. The left main landing gear refused to budge on descent, and crew from a parallel flight confirmed the Atlantic Southeast pilots would have to land without it. And they did it by keeping a flap on the right wing—called an aileron—raised as long as possible, to prevent the plane from favoring its left side. That worked, at first, but the left wing skidded along the runway as the plane came to a stop. No one aboard was injured.
Last year’s ranking: 2
‘09 Incident rank: 1
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 7
‘09 Accident rank: 11
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 1
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 848,000
Incident/Accident: A small cumulus cloud led a JetBlue flight approaching Fort Myers, Florida, to suddenly fall 20 feet in July 2009. The jolt occurred during the plane’s descent, and the fasten seatbelt light had been on for four minutes. But two passengers didn’t heed the warning. One passenger wasn’t strapped in and fell into the tray table in front of her, fracturing two ribs. Another passenger was in the bathroom and suffered two spinal fractures.
Last year’s ranking: 3
‘09 Incident rank: 11
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 3
‘09 Accident rank: 3
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 5
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 5,638,000
Incident/Accident: Impressively, Southwest has only had one fatal event in its history: In December 2005, a Southwest Airlines flight from Baltimore into Chicago’s Midway Airport ran off the runway, through a fence and on to a road, striking a car. A child in the car was killed and another was seriously injured, while 18 of the 103 people on the plane had minor injuries. The pilots were not familiar with the airplane’s brake system and were distracted during what was deemed a “challenging” landing.
Last year’s ranking: 6
‘09 Incident rank: 1
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 13
‘09 Accident rank: 1
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 8
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 625,000
Incident/Accident: In December 2005, a baggage handler performed a tight maneuver to get his baggage tug into position, loaded the plane with luggage, and started to drive off when he felt his tug “going against something,” he told the NTSB. Through drops of rain he looked back at the plane, couldn’t see any damage, and kept the accident to himself. At 26,000 feet, there was a loud bang. The plane became depressurized and the cabin was awash in oxygen masks. Luckily, the plane turned and landed safely back in Seattle. A 12-by-6 inch hole was found in the cargo doors.
Last year’s ranking: n/a
‘09 Incident rank: 7
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 6
‘09 Accident rank: 5
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 7
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 2,550,000
Incident/Accident: An American Eagle pilot leaving Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, in March 2005 caught wind of a “foul smell” in the cockpit and cabin and re-routed the plane back to RDU airport. After an emergency landing, one passenger was injured during evacuation of the plane. A maintenance crew wasn’t able to find any evidence of oil or air leaks.
Last year’s ranking: 1
‘09 Incident rank: 5
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 4
‘09 Accident rank: 12
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 6
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 1,209,000
Incident/Accident: Passengers usually have a few minutes after a turbulence warning to return to their seats. Not so on an AirTran flight in October 2009 from Orlando. Seconds after the captain announced the flight was heading into some choppy wind, the plane plunged hundreds of feet, according to flight attendants on board. A 10-year old boy leaving the bathroom and a flight attendant were bounced from ceiling to floor like ragdolls. The flight attendant ended up with a two-day stay in a hospital bed, and the boy suffered minor injuries. The herky-jerky pilot was trying to avoid a mid-air collision with another plane.
Last year’s ranking: 5
‘09 Incident rank: 12
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 9
‘09 Accident rank: 4
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 9
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 3,109,000
Incident/Accident: Without warning, and with all systems go before takeoff, a fire erupted in the left engine of an American Airlines flight leaving St. Louis in September 2007. After the pilot briefed the flight attendants, his primary flight and navigational panels went out. “We’ve lost all… power,” the first officer reported, and flight attendants reported difficulty keeping the cockpit door shut. To top it off, the landing gear would not deploy on the first landing attempt, and an off-duty pilot was called into the cabin to help. Circling back around, with no left engine and no hydraulic pressure, the landing gear finally extended. The 138 passengers were safely evacuated on the tarmac.
Last year’s ranking: 9
‘09 Incident rank: 10
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 8
‘09 Accident rank: 9
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 11
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 1,970,000
Incident/Accident: Not all near misses involved high drama miles above the earth. Some just damage expensive company property. In December 2008, a Northwest plane collided with a Delta plane on the tarmac at Seattle-Tacoma Airport, causing substantial damage to both planes, with no injuries. A member of the ground crew responsible for clearance between planes later told the NTSB that he simply did not "see the other airplane."
Last year’s ranking: 8
‘09 Incident rank: 3
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 10
‘09 Accident rank: 13
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 12
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 2,520,000
Incident/Accident: Captain Chesley Sullenberger is merely the most famous pilot to deal with bird strikes. At about 12,000 feet, a first officer on a Delta flight in November 2009 leaving Phoenix noticed several black dots right in front of him, then, quickly, heard a loud bang—birds had hit the fuselage, pressurization was compromised, and the flight was diverted back to Phoenix, where it landed safely 10 minutes later.
Last year’s ranking: 10
‘09 Incident rank: 9
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 11
‘09 Accident rank: 7
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 13
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 2,303,000
Incident/Accident: Accidents can sometimes lead to improvements. A United flight in December 2007 had a right engine with low oil, and pieces of metal stuck inside. Just before landing in Chicago, the cabin began to fill with smoke. The plane was allowed to land immediately, but one passenger suffered a broken vertebra while evacuating. The manufacturer of the engine had been replacing ball bearings on an as-needed basis—after this accident it determined to replace all existing engine bearings with new ones.
Last year’s ranking: 7
‘09 Incident rank: 13
‘05-‘09 Incident rank: 12
‘09 Accident rank: 10
‘05-‘09 Accident rank: 10
‘05-‘09 Total flights: 1,485,000
Incident/Accident: Skymall shoppers, beware. On a December flight in 2006, an Ecoquest Fresh Air Buddy Personal Air Purifier around a passenger’s neck “exploded into a ball of flames about the size of a volleyball,” according to the NTSB. The culprit was a short circuit in the device’s battery compartment. The passenger—though no longer allergen-free—suffered only minor injuries, and the flight made an emergency landing in Colorado Springs. The other 159 people aboard escaped the purifier’s wrath unscathed.
