Air Travel is Safe: Is it?

Though statistically flying is nowadays an extremely safe form of transportation, accidents do occur. The relative rarity of such incidents coupled with the often dramatic outcome, is definitely one reason why such incidents still make breaking news across the globe. Even though the odds of actually getting caught in a plane crash are nowadays distinctly low (the odds of dying on a commercial airline flight are as low as 9 million to 1!) compared to other means of transportation, the probability of not surviving such a disaster are notably higher. And it's an open secret that a lot can go wrong at 33,000 feet above the ground, and if you’re unlucky enough to be aboard when something does, the decisions you make could mean the difference between life and death. If we look at the air disaster events of last year (i.e. 2006), it does force you to think twice while deciding about air travel.

Air Disaster Events of 2006:

Date	Airline/Location	Location	Aircraft Type/Registration	Fatalities
01.19.2006	Slovak Air Force	Hejce, Hungary	Antonov AN-24B	42:43:00
			5605
03.31.2006	TEAM Transportes Aéreos	Saquarema, Brazil	Let 410UVP-E20	19:19
			PT-FSE
04.16.2006	Transporte Aéreo Militar - TAM	Guayaramerín, Bolivia	Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M	1:31
			FAB-91
04.27.2006	LAC - SkyCongo	Amisi, Congo	Convair CV-580F	8:08
			ZS-SKH
05.03.2006	Armavia	Sochi, Russia	Airbus A320-211	113:113
			EK-32009
07.09.2006	Sibir Airlines	Irkutsk, Russia	Airbus A310-324	127:201
			F-OGYP
08.22.2006	Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise	Donetsk, Ukraine	Tupolev TU-154M	171:171
			RA-85185
08.27.2006	Comair	Lexington, Kentucky, USA	Bombardier Canadair CRJ-100ER	49:50:00
			N431CA
09.01.2006	Iran Air Tour	Mashad, Iran	Tupolev TU-154M	29:147
			EP-MCF
09.29.2006	Gol Transportes Aéreos	São Félix do Xingu, Brazil	Boeing 737-8EH	155:155
			PR-GTD
10.10.2006	Atlantic Airways	Stord, Norway	British Aerospace BAe-146-200A	3:16
			OY-CRG
10.29.2006	Aviation Development Corporation	Abuja, Nigeria	Boeing 737-2B7	96:105+1
			5N-BFK
11.17.2006	Trigana Air Service	Puncak Jaya, Indonesia	de Havilland DHC-6Twin Otter 300	12:12
			PK-YPY
Registration Number: The unique registration number of the aircraft involved in the accident. Registrations are prefaced with a country code such as 'N' for the United States, 'G-' for Great Britain, or 'SU-' for Egypt.
Courtsey: Airdisaster.com

Kenya Airways 737-800 Crashed

The Nairobi-bound Boeing 737-800 that departed from Douala airport early Saturday, an hour late because of rain, with 105 passengers and nine crew members on board had issued a distress call shortly after take-off. But then lost contact with the radio tower between 11 and 13 minutes afterwards, officials said. The wreckage was found about 12 miles southeast of Douala, along its flight path. Ironically, Kenya Airways is considered one of the safest airlines in Africa. The Douala-Nairobi flight runs several times a week, and is commonly used as an intermediary flight to Europe and the Middle East.

What Causes Air Accidents?
Approximately 80 percent of all aviation accidents occur shortly before, after, or during takeoff or landing, and are typically the result of human error and/or unregarded technical problems within an aircraft; mid-flight disasters are rare but not entirely unheard of. Among other things, the latter have been caused by bombs as in the 1988 Lockerbie incident, mid-air collisions such as in the 2002 Überlingen crash, structural failure as in the 1954 Comet disasters and 1988 Aloha Airlines incident, or in cases of (purportedly) mistaken identity where civilian aircraft were shot down by military (compare Korean Air Flight 007).

An accident survey of 2,147 aircraft accidents from 1950 through 2004 determined the causes to be as follows:

• 45%: Pilot error


• 33%: Undetermined or missing in the record


• 13%: Mechanical failure


• 7%: Weather


• 5%: Sabotage (bombs, hijackings, shoot-downs)


• 4%: Other human error (air traffic controller error, improper loading of aircraft, improper maintenance, fuel contamination, language miscommunication etc.)


• 1%: Other cause

*The survey excluded military, private, and charter aircraft.

A study by Boeing determined the primary cause of Airline hull loss accidents (worldwide commercial jet fleet), from 1996 through 2005, to be:

• 55%: Flight Crew error


• 17%: Airplane


• 13%: Weather


• 7%: Misc./Other


• 5%: ATC


• 3%: Maintenance

Top 10 Airline Safety Tips (by Airsafe.com)
Let us also look at how we could work towards minimizing the air travel risks.

• Fly on Nonstop Routings
  
  Most accidents occur during the takeoff, climb, descent, and landing phase of flight so flying nonstop would reduce exposure to these most accident prone phases of flight.


• Choose Larger Aircraft
  
  Currently, aircraft with more than 30 passenger seats were all designed and certified under the strictest regulations. Also, in the unlikely event of a serious accident, larger aircraft provide a better opportunity for passenger survival.


• Pay Attention to the Preflight Briefing
  
  Although the information seems repetitious, the locations of the closest emergency exits may be different depending on the aircraft that you fly on and seat you are in.


• Keep the Overhead Storage Bin Free of Heavy Articles
  
  Overhead storage bins may not be able to hold very heavy objects during turbulence, so if you or another passenger have trouble lifting an article into the bin, have it stored elsewhere.


• Keep Your Seat Belt Fastened While You are Seated
  
  Keeping the belt on when you are seated provides that extra protection you might need if the plane hits unexpected turbulence.


• Listen to the Flight Attendants
  
  The primary reason flight attendants are on an aircraft is for safety, so if one of them asks you to do something like fasten your seat belts, do it first and ask questions later.


• Don't Bring Any Hazardous Material
  
  There are rather long lists of hazardous materials that are not allowed, but common sense should tell you that you shouldn't bring gasoline, corrosives, poisonous gases, and other such items on the aircraft unless they were allowed by the airline and shipped in a proper container.


• Let the Flight Attendant Pour Your Hot Drinks
  
  Flight attendants are trained to handle hot drinks like coffee or tea in a crowded aisle on a moving aircraft, so allow them to pour the drink and hand it too you.


• Don't Drink Too Much
  
  The atmosphere in an airliner cabin is pressurized to about the same altitude as Denver, so any alcohol you consume will affect you more strongly than at sea level. Moderation is a good policy at any altitude.


• Keep Your Wits About You
  
  In the unlikely event that you are involved in an emergency situation such as a precautionary emergency evacuation, follow the directions of the flight attendants and flight crew and exit the aircraft as quickly as possible.

Related Articles:

• Interesting article on Surviving Plane Crash at Wikihow.com
• Want more information on Airline Crashes? Check Planecrashinfo.com
• Boeing Survey Indicates Most Air Travelers Feel Safe
• Are the skies safe enough?
• Fatal Boeing 737 Events
• Aviation Safety Network (get the latest news/updates on Air Incidents)

Ecommerce in India (Part I): The Basics

What is Ecommerce: If we go by dictionary, it would mean "Electronic Commerce" i.e. the conducting of business communication and transactions over networks and through computers. In particular, ecommerce is the buying and selling of goods and services, and the transfer of funds, through digital channels (modes of communication).

E-Business (Electronic Business/ Online Business) Models
There are two basic types of ebusiness models available. These can well be termed as 'Distribution' and 'Retail' (as opposed to B2B and B2C) in order to reflect the manner in which traditional business is conducted in these two sectors.

The retail model
Let us compare this to our day-to-day shopping activity. In the Retail model, customers, to all intents and purposes, remain anonymous. Any guest is permitted to add items to their basket and, when they have finished shopping, can proceed to the checkout where payment may be requested.This model is intended to reflect the way in which traditional retail shopping is carried out and therefore be easy for customers to use; but its very nature makes it unsuited to conducting business worldwide on the Web. That is because the destination of the goods cannot be ascertained until the customer reaches the checkout-point and, therefore, the value of the customer's basket (including turnover tax) cannot be accurately calculated until then.The retail model also raises two important security implications for businesses using it. Firstly, where the ecommerce system provides real-time stock control, anonymous guests can easily disrupt online shopping by selecting large quantities of high demand products that they have no intention of purchasing. Such disruption can lead bona-fide customers to conclude that insufficient stock is available for their own immediate needs and encourage them to shop elsewhere. Secondly, just as traditional retail businesses suffer their unfair share of credit card fraud, so to do online businesses using the retail model. In both cases, fraud is prevalent because no attempt is made to ascertain the true identity of the customer. When the value of goods is modest, some firms see this as an acceptable risk; but it is a risk that will rise continually for as long as the same Retail model is employed. Generally speaking, the Retail model is only useful when product prices remain constant for all destinations or when sales levels depend primarily upon impulse buying.

The Distribution Model (B2B)
Traditionally, distributors do not sell direct to the public. Instead their customer base consists mainly of firms operating in the value added and retail sectors with whom they enjoy a close working relationship. In this ecommerce model there are no 'anonymous' customers. In order to be able to conduct online shopping the guest must first have a valid account and identify themselves to the system. The Distribution model does not suffer any of the disadvantages or security implications of the Retail model; but, because new customers are required to apply for an account before any goods may be chosen, it can discourage impulse buying from fleeting Internet guests. On the plus side, this model provides the ability to perform detailed client tracking and compile appropriate statistics to ensure that the service provided is meeting all customer needs.

Now, let us take a close look at the most crucial part of this process i.e. online payment/transaction.

Online Payment Process (some facts)
Online payment facilities can be added to both types of ecommerce solution (generally client side & server side solutions) and business model; but there is also a considerable amount of marketing hype from the Merchant Account and Online Banking sectors. One should bear in mind that, if it is easy for you to obtain payment electronically, it is often just as easy for your customers to cancel their transactions on a whim. In the trade, such cancellations are known as 'charge backs' and they are now becoming fairly common. If a customer pays traditionally by cheque you will normally know if their payment has cleared within three working days; but, depending upon the credit card company, customers may have up to 30 days in which to cancel an online credit card payment - and you may not get to know of the chargeback or "charge back" until considerably later. Often the cost of recovering the goods supplied (and often tracing the customer) can significantly outweigh the cost of delivery and the products lost.


What to expect as End User while making an online payment?
Well, if you are making an online payment using your credit card, you should be careful about the followings (at minimum):

• Ensure that the site has a clearly defined support system in place (& the telephone numbers/emails work & are truly reachable)
• Try to get clarity on possible refund norms
• Go through the help sections to understand what to expect after successful payment (e.g. mostly a successful transaction would return you a success message along with a transaction reference number, which could be used for any future communication)
• The payment page should ideally be under SSL (e.g. instead of normal http://www.innindia.com/, it would become https://www.innindia.com/).
• Payment page should ideally ask you for CVV number (& that too as password filed i.e. as you key in your CVV, it shouldn't appear as clear text).
• Finally, do ensure that you are on a steady Internet connection (coz quite frequently it has been noticed that as you key in all your transaction information like Credit Card number, Name, Address, Card Type, CVV, Expiry Date etc. & pressed submit...if at this point you lose your connectivity, unnecessarily there might be a confusion as to whether the payment went through before your details were logged by merchant or was it that the payment was through, but you missed the success screen).

Now, the question is how does this really work?
Let us take a broad look on the steps that actually happen as you or me (say, consumer) make an online transaction:

1. Consumer places an order with the merchant (e.g. http://www.innindia.com/ or http://www.ebay.in/ or http://www.irctc.co.in/) through the secured web page (i.e. a SSL page, where consumer fills in the Credit Card related information)
2. Typically the merchant (e.g. http://www.innindia.com/ or http://www.ebay.in/ or http://www.irctc.co.in/) would have integrated a payment mechanism by taking service from an Online Payment Processing Authority who basically act as a "Payment Gateway" (e.g. http://www.innindia.com/ uses PayPal; http://www.irctc.co.in/ uses ICICI; http://www.ebay.in/ uses PaisaPay amongst many other gateways). So, when consumer makes a payment, this Payment Gateway would pick this request (submitted by consumer), then it would typically encrypt (for security purpose) and forward the Authorization Request to the Consumer's Credit Card Issuer (e.g. say consumer used a SBI Credit Card on IRCTC website, then the ICICI Payment Gateway used by IRCTC would communicate the transaction request to SBI) to verify the consumer's credit card account and funds availability.
3. Then the Authorization/Approval (or Decline) Response is returned via the Payment Gateway back to the merchant website. This entire authorization process happens in or around 3 seconds or less.
4. Upon approval, merchant would show a success screen to consumer & would allocate the product/service to the consumer.
5. On the other hand, the Payment Gateway would send the settlement request to the Merchant Account Provider.
6. The Merchant Account Provider deposits transaction funds into the Merchant's (i.e. the website where consumer made the purchase) Checking Account.