November 29, 20041. 2 Hypothesis The hypothesis of this GIS Project is that airplane accidents happen within 25 NM of an airport. General Aviation and.

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Hypothesis• The hypothesis of this GIS Project is that airplane accidents happen

within 25 NM of an airport. General Aviation and Transport category (12,500lbs. or more) aircraft may have a higher probability of accidents in relationship to pilot qualifications, weather...etc. Preliminary data suggest weather does have a significant role in fixed wing accidents. (A fixed wing airplane is a powered aircraft that derives its lift from the movement of air over fixed lifting surfaces known as wings).

• The justification for making such a hypothesis would be based on the researcher’s experiences, as well as information from what other pilot studies have shown. If the aircraft and pilot’s capabilities have been exceeded, the probability of an accident increases. In order for me to carry out this research the following questions were addressed:

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Research Question

• Do airplane accidents happen in higher numbers closer to an airport?

• Is weather a factor?

Santa Barbara, CA

Santa Paula, CA

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Methods

• The data was in .MXB Microsoft Access Personal Geo-Database format.

– NTSB

• This complicated and intertwined database includes all records of accidents, and incidents since 1982 till the present.

• The following data tables that I have obtained from NTSB were used in this research, and were labeled as EVENTS, AIRCRAFT, ENGINES, PILOT CERTIFICATION, INJURY LEVEL, NARRATIVES, and WEATHER.

• National Zip Codes were derived from the “HOMER” W: Drive from the California State University Northridge, Geography Department.

• This project had me joining and linking tables to complete each task. I created a table labeled KVNY BUFFER with 4 rings (25,50,75,100 NM).

• Made graduated color map to indicate zip-codes that had events within them (Accidents).

• Over-lay the buffer rings on-top of the base map.

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VAN NUYS AIRPORT

METHODS Cont…

Buffer Zip-Code Sum of Accidents Area Density

Distance: Count      

25 78 379 1963.5 0.193

50 94 610 5890.482 0.104

75 63 360 11780.98 0.0306

100 55 384 19634.95 0.0196

•Normalized the data.•Calculated the area of each ring. •Π*r2 of each ring and subtracted the prior.•Selected each ring and the # of accidents and took sum.•Sum / Area = Density

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KVNY

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Map of Van Nuys Airport

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Conclusion• I performed a study of the National Transportation Safety Board Accident

and Incident Database to identify aviation accidents where distance, weather, mechanical was a casual or contributing factor to the event. Data were analyzed to find relationships between distance from Van Nuys Airport an most outer ring. The type of weather involved, and various factors such as operating rules of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR), type of operation, training, phase of flight according to their spatial location. In this case Van Nuys, CA (KVNY) was under the microscope for inspection.

• It is safe to say that airplane accidents do occur within 25NM of an airport in higher numbers.

• No Problems were encountered

• GIS is a powerful tool and this could not have been done without the aid of GIS. I also learned that my own study can agree with the Federal Aviation Administration thus know our tax dollars are being spent wisely.