Meteorology the Hazards That Small Plane Pilot\'s

Meteorology

The hazards that small plane pilot's face from the vagaries of weather is legendary. Some crashes like the aircraft crash of John F. Kennedy Jr. At the coast of Massachusetts in Jul 16, 1999 relates to 'conspiracy' theories, fear of sabotage and even to terrorist action. But there always will be the simple explanation of what went wrong, especially in a case where the aircraft is very vulnerable to the wind and climatic conditions. While big jets fly at higher altitudes and have sophisticated forewarning systems the smaller planes fly at lesser altitudes and are more susceptible to accidents owing to the unstable weather conditions. That being so it is possible that the accident occurred due to weather conditions and the inexperience of the pilot. In order to substantiate this hypothesis it is necessary to examine the possible conditions of weather that could have caused the disaster. Secondly it is also pertinent to see if the error could be also because of the inexperience of the pilot and other snags in the plane.

Weather and Planes:

Primarily it is a truth that there was a large high pressure system during July 1999 in the flight path of the plane piloted by John Fitzgerald Kennedy. (Clients PPT slide) Thus the weather must be examined in detail. There is overwhelming evidence that the weather plays a very important role in flight safety. Anti-cyclones and cyclones can cause plane crashes. While cyclones are identifiable and the pilots get warning the anti-cyclone is a local factor that can be caused instantaneously. The Air France 447 Disaster that occurred in RioDejenero is a result of flying into such a situation. (NOAA, 2010)

On May 2009 there was a thermodynamic pool in the Atlantic, that was the centre of an anti-cyclone and this is said to be the cause of the crash. The two types of disturbances, namely cyclones and anticyclones are opposite in nature. Cyclones and anti-cyclones are air masses set in motion by the wind system. The convergence of air upward in the cyclone causes cloud formation and rain while the movement of air from the top to the earth in an anticyclone causes no cloud to be formed and is like a dome of clear dry air. (Strahler; Strahler, 2007) The reason for a plane crash therefore lies in this meteorological fact.

Anticyclones and plane crash:

The fact that anticyclones can cause a drop in the altitude of the plane that flies over it is a fact. This could be due to the drop in air temperature and the pressure altimeters do not work properly because the indicators in these small planes are based on the altimeter which determines the height by assuming that the air pressure and atmosphere is standard. Thus when the temperature decreases all of a sudden the altitudes would be shown higher than what is true. When the constant pressure drops at a particular altitude, the warm air that is present creates the illusion of an altitude that is very much higher than the actual altitude causing the pilot to make error. Thus planes crash into mountains on account of this error. (Ahrens; Samson, 2010)

Added to that if the visibility is poor, there is a chance that the pilot not only erroneously estimates the altitude, but also has to fly blind, lower and lower than the actual flight path. The visibility is poor in these high pressure systems which also have light winds. This causes fog and haze in summertime on account of the pollution near the urban areas and the pollution clouds move "downwind" in the case of anticyclones. (Clients PPT slide) In the case of the Kennedy crash, this fog was present as a dense layer of haze and is proved by the satellite image that was obtained on the day of the accident. This could be the major cause of the crash. To be through we also have to examine the pilot, the weather, the flight plan, preparedness and the evidence collected after the crash.

Pilot Appraisal: