100 years of flight safety advances2英文.doc

100 years of flight safety advances
By: DAVID LEARMOUNT
LONDON
Source: 
In the 1930s the relationship between flying and safety was summarised cryptically by a First World War pilot who became an aviation insurer, Capt A G Lamplugh. He provided the industry with what is still recognised as the definitive description of the risks faced by those who would fly: "Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect."
Somewhat earlier, Wilbur Wright had written to his father: "In flying I have learned that carelessness and overconfidence are usually far more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks." Wright's assessment of the safety issue is more or less synonymous with the well-established concept of "calculated risk", and pre-dates by about 90 years today's increasingly precise science of "risk management". This science is based on a tacit acceptance that no activity, including flying, can be completely risk-free, but that risk should be managed so as to remain within acceptable bounds. What is deemed acceptable is subjective and varies according to societal perceptions.
 
Flight International regularly analyses the industry's safety record
In the hope of globalising the approach to risk in aviation, theInternational Civil Aviation Organisation and the world's