Aviation Safety, Where Did That Come From?

On December 17, 1903, the dream of powered flight became a reality for Orville and Wilbur Wright as Orville piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above a wind-swept beach at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They made history on this day and changed the way mankind would circumnavigate the earth and eventually travel to outer space. The flying part was deliberate, however the ancillary business of avoiding getting hurt or maybe dead while participating in this new endeavor was also born. This day the brother’s flew four short flights, crashing to some extent each time. And although ground safety issues had it’s own calling, on this day Aviation Safety was born.

With the advent of powered flight it didn’t take long before you could find aviation activities taking place all over the country as well as around the world. But it wasn’t until after World War I that it absolutely exploded. It was pretty much a free for all with common sense being the safety net and very little else. So it was, with so many folks getting involved in flying local and state governments saw a need to regulate this new industry before it got out of hand. Soon beyond the states getting involved the Federal Government made it’s play to control how aviation and those involved in it would operate. Since it didn’t appear this aviation thing would be going away the Federal Government, specifically the Congress of the time created offices and departments to handle every aspect of aviation. Data was collected on everything from how aircraft were built, what they landed on, who flew them and what caused some to crash, and the list goes on and on. Armed with facts of what worked and what didn’t the folks working in the many departments of aviation were able to pound out rules and guidelines for aviation operators to abide by. These rules when followed lowered the incident rate of accidents. Safety rose out of common sense to written rules and laws in support of the aviation industry. Originally the Department of Commerce was empowered by the Air Commerce Act, signed into law in 1926, the responsibility of overseeing the whole crazy business of aviation. As aviation grew so did oversight, all with the intent of making aviation as safe as humanly possible. Programs were and are constantly developed and tailored to ensure every aspect of safety is employed. Today the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), working as an independent agency free of outside influence, determines probable cause of transportation accidents and promotes safety through the recommendation process. Their oversight provides us today the plans, rules and guidance two brothers could have used on that sandy knoll back in 1903.