Why does air travel safety seem to focus on airlines rather than on airports?

Just because accidents tend to happen during takeoff and landing doesn't mean it's the airport's fault. While the weather and runway layout can play a role, in the end these crashes typically come down to aircraft malfunction or pilot error in dealing with those factors while trying to takeoff or land (which requires a lot more concentration than when they're just flying at altitude). Here are some crashes off the top of my head that took place at takeoff or landing:

  • AA587 (Queens crash, 2001) - pilot error
  • Asiana crash in SFO - pilot error
  • Concorde - debris left by previous plane (not the airport's fault, no airport cleans the runways after every takeoff)
  • Recent crash in Rostov - pilot error
  • Dash 8 in Buffalo in 2009 - pilot error
  • Tenerife - pilot error

So even when there are crashes where some aspect of the airport is a contributing factor, they're not happening repeatedly, so there are no useful statistics to be gained from this. E.g., I can think of two JFK crashes (one trying to land, and one taking off), but they happened for totally unrelated reasons. It doesn't make JFK less safe than any other airport.

Yes, Asiana hit the airport's seawall as they came in to land over SF Bay, but that was because they came in too high and fast. If planes were constantly hitting it when trying to land, then it could be considered an unsafe airport, but they're not.

Basically, this information would only be useful if planes were repeatedly crashing at airports for the same reason, but that rarely happens.

/r/NoStupidQuestions Thread