Is Airplane more risky on takeoff or on landing ?

Question

Do airplanes crash more on takeoff or on landing ?

Answer 1

There's a saying in aviation community, "don't worry about the runway behind you and the altitude above." An airplane is more likely to suffer a crash from mechanical failure during take off. Imagine you just took off and climbing with maximum power and one of your engine failed. Depending on what type of aircraft you are flying, most likely, you don't have enough altitude and speed to turn around, and all the runway is already behind you. At this point you have a full load of fuel and your aircraft is in takeoff configuration (flaps up, landing gears were coming up or already up, etc.). Even if you can manage to get your aircraft to the landing configuration, you will not have any runway to land right front of you. If you turn around, you can't lower the flaps to increase lift which results in soft landing. You can't lower the flaps because at this slow speed they will produce more drag then lift. On the other hand, when you are landing, if anything goes wrong, you have runway front of you and altitude below you to maneuver, and most importantly, you are already prepared for landing- your land gears were down, flaps extended and you were in a mindset to touch down anyway. Planes glide to landing anyway after an engine failure. They don't glide to altitude after an engine failure during takeoff.

Answer 2

Takeoff is more risky than landing for a few reasons, once you reach desicion speed, you are taking off, no matter what happens next. You could loose an engine, but, you must still takeoff because you would not be able to stop in time if you aborted takeoff. Also, any obstacle on the runway can be a problem because airplanes are not the most agile vehicle on in the world. Landing is safer for a few reasons, one, landing is often done by a computer, eliminating the risk of human error. Also, landing can be aborted at any time until the aircraft makes the turn off the runway, so if a problem occurs down the runway, the pilots just go around, not try to over-rotate as they would on takeoff and risk going into a stall...

Answer 3

Statistically, many more accidents happen during landing than taking off. Between 1996 and 2005, 46% of jet airliner losses were during landing, and 12% were during takeoff. So the short answer to your question is...landing.

For many reasons already discussed by others here, takeoff is actually a more vulnerable time for an airplane than landing. But you asked where they crash more...and the answer is landing.

Answer 4

While the takeoff is a crucial time, and most answers here are right, you are typically at a higher risk during the takeoff roll after reaching the point of no return and having no place to go. NTSB statistics show that airplanes do crash more often when attempting to land an airplane,
(usually attempting to land at a place other than a runway ) trees, field,
and usually after fuel exhaustion ( which is far more common than an actual engine failure )

Answer 5

I guess it would be during take-off because the airplane wouldnt be having energy to negotiate a crisis. This is just a comparison of the risk factor of take-off and landings of fully functional aircraft with fresh pilots.

Not sure about the statistics, maybe landings would have more accidents, because there is the possibility that a malfunction had occured during the flight and the landing is impaired because of that and add pilot fatigue to that...

There was an answer about the landing speed being higher. Thats interesting, because that means an option to go around. But for the heavier clambering arcraft on take off, there is no such option after the "Point of No return" is crossed.

Answer 6

This is a trick question with an easy answer. They crasj more on landing-due to a wide varity of errors, but actually the most dangerous time for an airplane is upon take off. Due to its full fuel load and other things. There are more things to go wrong upon takeoff than there is at landing.

Answer 7

You should look for statistics, but as a pilot I think there is more risk on landing because the airplane is in a higher speed and heading the ground to a thin strip, that grows the risk of collision. But this could be a mistake because to land a airplane is more difficult than take off, but if something goes wrong on take off and if It is serious, there is no place to go instead of the ground again but with no strip under you. So, in normal conditions I think to land is more risky but in case of trouble to take off is the worst.

Answer 8

Taking off is more dangerous. This is when the airplane is at its heaviest and most volnurable point. If there is a mechanical problem then it will more than likely show up on take off. The engines are at max power at this time compared to low power when landing. If you abort the take off you have to worry about running out of runway space. If you abort a landing you just simply go around and try it again.

Answer 9

Landing because the pilot has to get the plane just right to make a safe landing. The pilot has to get at the right heading exactly to the runway heading. Also you have to be at a speed no more than 200 knots and the plane has to be at a low altitude below 1000 ft and the attitude indicator has to be a certain pitch or else you might miss the runway.

Answer 10

It is landing because when we compare the equation of motion of
the airplane at taking off with landing we will see the forces of weight are very big because weight of airplane and gravity so the poilt do more job than landing as he try to raise the lift by flaps so the landing gears doesnot damage buy suddenly force of landing with the ground as there were will big reaction.