Are there safer hours to fly?
I was wondering if there are actually safer hours to fly?
By safe I both refer to major, but also minor accidents like land vehicles hitting a wing, etc.
I can imagine that there are several reasons for the time of day to influence the incident rate on airplanes:
- In the morning: engines are cold, the pilots need to do a full check to the airplane and might be easier to miss details.
- At night: crew might be tired, less visibility in the runways, etc.
- During busy hours: Due to the amount of traffic either on land or flying.
Are there safer hours to fly?
Best Answer
If you're asking about general commercial air travel, no, there is no meaningful, if any, difference in safety relative to time of day.
You can easily argue that daytime is easier on the pilots but considering that aircraft movements are so tightly controlled and the autopilot, radar, TCAS, and other systems are essentially unaware, it's not a huge difference.
However, since there are generally fewer aircraft operating at night, there's less to go wrong.
Busy times can be more dangerous for the ground crew but that's no different that any other industrial setting.
Finally, aircraft don't always start their 'day' in the morning so the many checks happen at all hours. Same for crew.
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