Which flight is safe day or night?

Many individuals who book a flight consider the notion of whether it is better to travel during the day or at night. Although there are differences in safety between daytime and nighttime flights, they also have their merits and demerits. Below are the comparisons of the safety of day and night flights, Download the Free PDF.

Night-time visibility problems are much more frequent than during the day.

Day flights are safer as they have fewer risks due to improved light standards of the environment. This implies that during the day, the pilots will be in a position to view the land, other planes as well as weather conditions that can be dangerous. This is especially important if there is an issue such as in the takeoff or landing phase of the plane since the pilot can easily observe the status of the runway and the nearby landscape.

During the night, for example, time is not as easily discernible due to low visibility. For instance, pilots are known to mostly depend on interior and exterior lighting systems particularly when flying at night. If any of these systems were to fail or if external lights were to go off it may infer to a pilot’s control, take-off, or even landing at an airport. National Transportation Safety Board’s analysis revealed that poor visibility was identified as a contributing cause in almost thirty percent of fatal airplane crashes at night between 2001 and 2011.

However, some experienced pilots have indicated that there is a positive side to having poor visibility – at least it guides pilots to concentrate on the instruments and controls of the airplane with little interference from the outside world. Day flying as well as night flying is completely different and these two types are a challenge that commercial pilots are trained for.

Lack of Energy Is More Common during Night Hours

Two, are fatigue and tiredness which are among those things that pilots always struggle to fight off, more especially on long distances. The studies indicated that sleepiness and fatigue affect the decision-making capacity and the responses – the two things that are imperative when flying an aircraft.

Worse still, it has been established that the effects of fatigue are worse during nighttime than during the day from a safety perspective. These are the body’s natural rhythms, which make people naturally sleepy after the sun sets. Other effects include the disruption of normal sleeping patterns by maintaining long-haul flights that take up to the early morning. When flying at low altitudes and during nighttime, results in more chances of fatigue-related mistakes by sleepy pilots and air traffic controllers who are on the night shift.

To this effect, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has put certain provisions for flight and duty time limitations for air carrier pilots as well as air traffic controllers. Pilots that are rostered to fly at night are supposed to be allowed more rest time before going to their shift. Cockpits should also have at least two qualified and alert pilots on board at the period of the night, to enable them to cross-check on any processes and decisions being made. Fatigue does add extra safety risks to night flights but these are risks that need to be addressed to keep safe.

Potential Health Risks of Passengers at Night

A factor that is not in the pilot’s or airline’s jurisdiction is the effect that overnight, red-eye flights have on the health and well-being of the passengers. Scientific studies also show that sleep loss and disruptions of the body’s natural biological clock due to overnight flying cannarrors have negative impacts on cognition, alertness, and mood.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND AIRCRAFT CABIN CONDITIONS increase the propensity of the passengers’ health to deteriorate through the development of deep vein thrombosis, respiratory illnesses, and stress levels. These negative health risks tend to build up over time the more frequent or long the red-eye flights. It is essential to understand that these adverse health outcomes mostly occur to passengers and not the pilots flying the aircraft. However, passengers with diseases, conditions, anxiety, or excitement can easily distract the crew, thus causing great concern when controlling the plane.

During an emergency, passengers might also fail to understand the safety measures or perform them as required if they are groggy from sleep deprivation and if their internal biology is out of whack.

Now you can have somehow different and even more dangerous weather at night than during the day.

Darkness and poor visibility are not the only problems affecting night flights, as seen with the current example. Some of the weather features such as turbulence, storms, and icing conditions exhibit a diurnal rhythm that can make them more severe or variable at night time.

When the sun sets, the temperature drops faster in the sky, and new ice particles in the clouds are produced, which are important for the generation of thunderstorms. Research shows that storm occurrence continues to rise until the later part of the afternoon and early evening. While flying at the cruising heights that commercial airplanes typically operate at, moderate to severe turbulence is more noticeable at night and especially when descending to dawn airports. However, L. G. Percival and J. W. D. Smith have also gathered data that suggest wave action which causes turbulence increases at night.

It is worth emphasizing that research on the dangers of aircraft icing due to freezing water droplets shows that the highest risk period is the early morning just before sunrise. This is because when night sets the sky becomes cool enough to allow the formation of more unstable super-cooled water droplets which in contact with the airplane freeze instantly. Currently, pilots lack adequate methods of determining clear Ice build-up on aircraft structures, especially in dark periods, which compromises aircraft stability.

When it comes to weather risks at night time aircraft radar, lighting systems, and de-icing fluids assist in the management of the risks although, yes, the risk is high. To overcome these exaggerated weather risks, a lot of personal attention is needed from air traffic managers and pilots while scheduling and flying through the dark sky.

Strong Measures when Flying at Night

Due to the higher risks involved, safety measures in commercial night flights are required to be enhanced by aviation regulatory bodies as of now. These measures make night flights almost as safe as day flights and hence the stepped-up safety records on aviation.

Some of the key enhancements for after-dark air travel include:

• Forcing pilots to have co-pilots on the right seat for night flights so that many crewmen check decisions and processes. Another interesting observation is consistent with the first hypothesis, stating that the usage of autopilot also rises with the presence of an extra flight crew member.

• Imposing restrictions on the number of hours pilots can fly in sequence due to FAA orders that protect crew member fatigue.

• Hi-intensity lighting for runway/taxiway edges and approach lighting at airports for aircraft operation. External lights on an aircraft also have to meet a certain minimum level of brightness and view factor.

• Smart controls in aircraft allow the radar to define side landscape, and weather conditions that are unfavorable for flying, and more extensively identify other aircraft at night. Another element of global satellite positioning is used in pinpointing location and elevation when the craft is over the seas.

• Procedures related to icing checks before a flight if it has freezing precipitation only ensure that no problems with ice accumulation are present. They are also used more generously especially during the cold winter nights to prevent the freezing of the fluids.

• Better passenger briefings where the general risk factors are complemented by specifically increased dangers for flights during darkness. Some examples include flight attendants being more conscious, more measured, and slower in their movements during darkened cabin safety demonstrations.

  Summary The findings of this study are as follows: Night and day have an equal level of safety.

  Having examined the comparative results, one necessary to state that nighttime flights add new safety risks to pilots and passengers. For visibility, weather, fatigue, and health concerns, many risks require a careful check with appropriate policies in place. However, newer training procedures for overnight flight operations and technological improvements to cockpits dismiss the greater risk possibilities.

  According to expert opinions, it is clear that the business flying at the same level of safety both during the day and at night. Airlines also report that there is no significant variation in the accident risk threat associated with aircraft takeoffs and landings during the day as opposed to at night. Even with every available measure and protection that could be put up in the case of contingencies, the factor of darkness is not overly dangerous or detrimental to the safety of the flight.

  Passengers can book either day or overnight flights according to their working or leisure schedules and financial and personal comfort measures without any doubt about the safety of the flight. In line with the consumption process, more flights will be scheduled to be available 24/7 by the airlines. Aviation regulators and aircraft operators have proven over the years that they can safely take passengers through dark skies to their respective destinations across the globe.