Introduction
The United States' Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) receives numerous
requests for information about the accident records of both domestic and
foreign airlines. In response to these requests, the FAA entered into a
licensing agreement with FlightGlobal Ltd. to develop a database, which the
the public can access via the Internet, that contains a subset of the accident
information maintained in the World Aircraft Accident Summary (WAAS) database.
The World Aircraft Accident Summary (WAAS) produced on behalf of the
British Civil Aviation Authority, by FlightGlobal Limited, provides brief
details of all known major operational accidents to jet and turboprop aircraft
and helicopters and the larger piston-engined types worldwide.
The subset of the WAAS purchased by the FAA contains data and descriptive
information about all known fatal airline accidents with passenger fatalities
for the last ten years. No part of the WAAS subset may be produced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission in
writing from FlightGlobal Limited.
The accident details presented in the WAAS subset have
been drawn from many sources both official and unofficial (including press
reports). Therefore, they may be incomplete or otherwise incorrect.
The narrative generally will be longer and more specific when an official
investigative report of an accident is available to the public.
The conversion of accident descriptions from hard-copy
to electronic format often requires that narrative information be condensed.
This can result in unintentional shifts in emphasis. Whilst the utmost
care has been taken to ensure accuracy, the information is supplied on
the understanding that no legal liability whatsoever shall attach to the
FlightGlobal Limited, its subsidiaries, their officers or employees
in respect of any error or omission that may have occurred.
Accident definition
The definition of an accident used in WAAS generally
follows that of ICAO Annex 13, being any event which causes death or serious
injury and/or substantial damage to the aircraft from the time the first
person boards with intention of flight until the last person leaves after
flight. FlightGlobal Limited has excluded: non-operational accidents such
as hangar fires, damage contained entirely within an engine and deaths
and injuries caused by slips and falls, food poisoning, onboard machinery
etc.