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Expert-Based Risk Assessment for Flight Safety Using Kendall's W and Pearson's Chi-Square

Open Access
|Oct 2025

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1.

Structure of the Annual Safety Review 2024 [2].
Structure of the Annual Safety Review 2024 [2].

Figure 2.

Pyramid of negative events (illustrating the “1:10:30:600 rule”) [3].
Pyramid of negative events (illustrating the “1:10:30:600 rule”) [3].

Figure 3.

Airworthiness requirements for the functional reliability of aviation equipment.
Airworthiness requirements for the functional reliability of aviation equipment.

Figure 4.

Application of airworthiness criteria in risk evaluation [3].
Application of airworthiness criteria in risk evaluation [3].

Ranging of adverse events by independent experts_

12...iM
1c11c21 c1j cm1
2c12c22 c2j cm2
….
jc1jc2j cij cmj
...
nc1nc2n cin cmn

Factors affecting flight safety and assessment of their significance based on expert survey_

Experts ↓Weather conditionsRadio nav. System failuresBirds and foreign obstacleCollisions on the groundFinancial conditions and economyPsychological factorOrganization and Control
Factors → 1234567
Technician Stuff17324561
Captain23545362
Pilot 232613745
Dispatcher TC44653352
Quality Manager54345467
Airport services64235657

Chi-square (χ2) distribution reference table listing critical values [6]_

Degree of freedomLevel of significance α
0.990.9750.950.90.10.050.0250.01
1------0.0010.0040.022.73.856.6
20.020.0510.1030.2114.667.49.2
30.1150.2160.3520.5846.257.89.411.3
40.2970.4840.7111.0647.789.511.113.3
50.5540.8311.151.619.2411.112.815.1
60.8721.241.642.210.6512.614.416.8
71.241.692.172.8312.0214.11618.5
81.652.182.733.4913.3615.517.520.1
92.092.73.334.1714.6816.91921.7

Weight of the factors_

1234567ΣΣ Xij = 177
17324561
23545362
32613745
44653352
54345467
64235657
Weights24251925283224
0.1350.1410.1070.1410.15810.18070.1355

Probability of an accident for different event types_

i Index of event typeEvent type (special situation in flight)Qi Accident probabilityni Number of controllable events of type iT
1WCFC (Situation without complication of flight conditions)Q1=10−5q1 – Number of controllable events of WCFC typeFlight hours during the flight safety monitoring
2CFC (Situation with complication of flight conditions)Q2=10−4q2 – Number of controllable events of CFC type
3DS (Difficult situation)Q3=10−3q3 – Number of controllable events of DS type
4E (Emergency)Q4=10−1q4 – Number of controllable events of E type
5CS (Catastrophic situation)Q5=100q5 – Number of controllable events of CS type

Ties in expert rankings_

1234567Ti
100000000
2120210012
300000000
4001221012
5101010024
600010106

Risk classification_

Rank of consequences
Insignificant (WCFC)Insignificant (CFC)Significant (DS)Dangerous (E)Catastrophic (CS)
Probability of eventFrequent 10−3 < Q ≤ 100Subject to analysisUnacceptableUnacceptableUnacceptableUnacceptable
Quite probable Q ≤ 10−3Subject to analysisSubject to analysisUnacceptableUnacceptableUnacceptable
Probable Q ≤ 10−5AcceptableSubject to analysisSubject to analysisUnacceptableUnacceptable
Improbable Q ≤ 10−6AcceptableAcceptableSubject to analysisSubject to analysisUnacceptable
Extremely improbable Q ≤ 10−7AcceptableAcceptableSubject to analysisSubject to analysisSubject to analysis

Rank of the experts_

1234567RiR̄ − RiSi
1732456128−1.52.25
2354536228−1.52.25
3261374528−1.52.25
4465335228−1.52.25
54345467333.512.25
64235657322.56.25
Language: English
Page range: 75 - 91
Submitted on: Jul 25, 2025
Accepted on: Oct 13, 2025
Published on: Oct 31, 2025
Published by: Sciendo
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

© 2025 Igors Petuhovs, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.