A study of aviation incidents involving military aircraft

This paper presents a flight safety analysis over the past a dozen or so years. The analysis was mostly conducted on the basis of statistical data recorded by units responsible for flight safety in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland. The first part of the paper presents a brief historic outline and basic flight safety-related definitions. It also describes basic elements of flight safety formulated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO. It presents theories providing reasons for the occurrence of aviation incidents and1 the role of a human factor in flight safety and at the same time makes known so called James Reason's Model that explains why aviation accidents occur. In addition, it includes a few examples of the occurrence of serious accidents caused by the human factor. It also emphasises the importance of the system of aviation-related events reporting and investigation and the planning of preventive actions to be taken. The paper also stresses the need to change the way of thinking about aviation accident prevention, where the most important questions are not what or who, but why and how. The second part of the paper presents flight safety analysis in the Armed Forces for the previous year.