2 / 21
Occupational Health 2018
Journal of Nursing and Health Studies
ISSN: 2574-2825
Page 52
May 28-29, 2018
London, UK
4
th
Edition of International Conference on
Occupational Health and
Safety
T
his research utilized the U.S. National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) aviation accident/incident database from 1982-
2016 to examine differences in severity of accidents by age for
general aviation. The NTSB data set uses strict coding for each
accident (damage to plane/injury to individuals) and incident (all
other events). Of particular interest in for this study were number
of flight hours for pilots, degree of damage to the plane (none,
minimal, substantial, destroyed), and degree of bodily injury (none,
minor, serious, fatal). There were 74,686 entries in the database.
For this study, commercial (14 CFR part 121 and 135) operations
were excluded as were home-built aircraft, helicopters, and gliders,
leaving 61,363 events. Males were 91.8% with females at 3.7%
(4.5% missing). The average age for pilots was 45.29 (SD=14.63).
The mean number of flight hours for pilots was 2822.55
(SD=4980.61, SK=3.58). An ANOVA by age across damage levels
was significant, F(3,60302)=4.06, p=.007. Post-hoc test indicated
there were significant differences between no damage and
substantial (p=.001) and destroyed (p=.005) but no other levels.
An ANOVA by age across highest injury levels was also significant,
F (3, 61312)=110.94,
p
<.001. Again, post-hoc analysis indicated
significant differences between all levels of injury. This study
indicated that there are differences in the degree of damage and
injury related to aviation accidents based on age. While the cause
of this increase has not yet been identified, pending examination
of NTSB codes related to physical and psychological factors,
currently underway, this preliminary examination begins to identify
age ranges that become problematic with air flight operation.
Biography
Michael Politano completed a doctorate and post-doctorate in clinical child
psychology. He also holds amaster’s degree in religion. He has held the post of
Head of Psychology at the Citadel and is currently a Professor of Psychology.
He has published and/or presented over one hundred referred papers. He is
co-author of
Statistics and research methodology: A gentle conversation,
and
Introduction to the process of research: Methodology considerations.
He is also
author and illustrator of
A pig in a tree
and author of the novel,
Tag and Chubs.
politanom@citadel.eduAge as a factor in damage or injury among
general aviation pilots
P Michael Politano
1
and
Robert O Walton
2
1
The Citadel, USA
2
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, USA
P Michael Politano et al., J Nurs Health Stud 2018, Volume 3
DOI: 10.21767/2574-2825-C2-006