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Embry-Riddle’s Prescott Campus Offers Short-Course in Advanced Aircraft Accident Investigation

Accident Investigation Prescott, Ariz., June 7, 2010 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s College of Aviation – Professional Programs Department will offer a short-course in Advanced Aircraft Accident Investigation at the University’s Prescott Campus from Aug. 2-6, 2010.

This five-day course is designed to introduce the participant to advanced aircraft accident investigation procedures involving design, materials, and aircraft performance. This comprehensive course is a follow-on course for the accident investigation management course or for an individual who has experience in accident investigation.

Participants will analyze various mechanical and structural factors and loads on an airplane and will be introduced to investigating composite materials and advanced fire investigation. Participants will also discuss aircraft crashworthiness, survivability, and CFR emergency response procedures.

Extensive use will be made of Embry-Riddle’s Robertson Crash Laboratory, the most complete facility of its kind in the United States. Participants will experience accident investigation simulated scenario exercises and learn how to identify, collect, and analyze data in the process of determining probable cause/s.

Short-course attendees will learn how to:

  • Appraise various mechanical and structural factors that produce accidents, including design, manufacturing, and maintenance.
  • Analyze typical air loads on an airplane to calculate external design loads.
  • Analyze a particular in-flight breakup to determine sequence of failure and primary and secondary structural failure.
  • Explain new structural concepts and materials such as composites.
  • Describe events and forces associated with an aircraft accident.
  • Identify the crashworthiness and survivability factors of an aircraft accident.
  • Explain the basis of airworthiness and crashworthiness from both an investigation and a design standpoint.
  • Analyze an accident from a survivability perspective and gather the necessary evidence from the scene to carry out those evaluations.
  • Complete a fire investigation and fire-survival analysis.
  • Describe the fundamentals of crash/fire/rescue techniques and apply those techniques to an aircraft crash scenario.
The course runs Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and provides 4.0 Continuing Education Units. The $2,000 cost includes course materials and textbook.

For more information, contact Sarah Ochs, Director of Professional Programs, Embry-Riddle College of Aviation, at (386) 226-6928, or send an email to case@erau.edu. Course details can also be found online at http://erau.edu/case.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates more than 34,000 students annually at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 150 campuses in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.