Quantifying and characterising aviation accident risk factors

This paper compares normal flights’ exposure to a number of meteorological factors with the equivalent for certain accident flights. The factors examined include visibility, ceiling height, temperature, crosswind, tailwind and instrument or visual meteorological conditions. Differences in exposure and to measure accident propensity related to different levels of risk exposure are quantified based on relative accident involvement ratios. Four categories of aircraft accidents relevant to the assessment of airport safety are examined.