Delta Airlines’ Flight 1086

         The accident with Delta Airlines’ flight 1086 took place on March 5, 2015, at LaGuardia Airport, New York. The plane left the runway 14 seconds after landing. Due to the contact with the fence, its wing was damaged that resulted in fuel leakage. Despite the fact that the plane sustained significant damage, there were only minor injuries.

         The primary problem of this case lies in the fact that the accident was caused by the combination of human errors made by trained specialists, namely the airport personnel and the airplane crew. However, the investigation revealed a number of technical flaws that contributed to it. The presumed cause of the accident was “the captain’s inability to maintain directional control” of the airplane. It was discovered that under certain circumstances, the rudder proves to be ineffective due to the mutual location of the engines and the vertical stabilizer. At the same time, the air traffic control failed to provide required information on the runway condition on time. Moreover, the passengers were allowed to leave the plane only 12 minutes after it stopped that is far beyond the usual time norms of evacuation.

To sum up the relevant information, two vivid causes of the accident can be named: mistakes of both the airplane’s captain and air traffic controllers and technical flaws of the airplane’s construction.

         Since the human factor is the main and the most vivid cause of the accident, the problem could be solved through the amendment of current guidelines to prepare personnel for as many emergency situations as possible. New guidelines should be focused on further enhancement and maintenance of the skills and knowledge of the specialists, for example, by increasing the number and frequency of drills.

         According to the information from the official sources, the problem was caused by the human factor and a fault of the airplane’s construction. Therefore, it can be addressed without significant legislative actions as current civil aviation regulations cover the majority of potential problems. Thus training of pilots and air traffic controllers should be improved by encompassing more types of extreme conditions and contingencies and using state-of-the art technologies, such as virtual reality. In addition, thorough computer simulations of a wider range of emergency conditions during testing of an airplane’s prototype will ensure a more robust and reliable construction that can withstand a larger variety of emergencies.