aviation safety Aviation safety is the study and practice of managing risks in aviation. This includes preventing aviation accidents and incidents through research, educating air travel personnel, passengers and the general public, as well as the design of airc ...

, parts departing aircraft or parts detached from aeroplanes (PDA), also known as objects falling off airplanes (OFA), things falling off aircraft (TFOA), and other analogous variations, can range from small fasteners like screws and rivets up to major sub-assemblies like hatch covers and doors. PDA are a safety concern because they may be critical parts needed to safely continue flight, may damage other critical parts of the aircraft as they depart, may cause

foreign object damage In aviation and aerospace, foreign object debris (FOD), is any particle or substance, alien to an aircraft or system, which could potentially cause damage. External FOD hazards include bird strikes, hail, ice, sandstorms, ash-clouds or obje ...

to other aircraft, or may cause serious injuries or damage to people and property on the ground. These occurrences are a longstanding worldwide problem in aviation. In a 2018 study, the

European Aviation Safety Agency The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) with responsibility for civil aviation safety. It carries out certification, regulation and standardisation and also performs investigation and monito ...

concluded that the likelihood of fatally injuring people on the ground due to a PDA event is low enough that it does not constitute an unsafe condition according to their standards; they also noted the absence of any people fatally injured from PDA. But in Japan, preventing objects falling off airplanes is required by all air carriers after a series of serious incidents at

Haneda Airport , officially , and sometimes called as Tokyo Haneda Airport or Haneda International Airport , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary ...

which is very close to Tokyo. Regardless of whether PDA are considered acceptable risk by aviation regulators, things that fall from the sky are generally not well tolerated outside the aviation community. The

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

found complaints about TFOA (their preferred acronym) increased as residential development has encroached around naval air stations. Leaking aviation lavatory liquids have been known to build up on the exterior of the aircraft in sub-freezing temperatures at altitude, only to fall to earth as blue ice after the airplane descends to land. And

London Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

has had a recurring problem of wheel-well stowaway bodies dropping in residential areas around the airport when airplanes extend their landing gear as they prepare to land.

External links

"Cases of objects, including human stowaways, falling from planes"

References

Aircraft maintenance Aviation risks Aviation safety {{aviation-stub