Are Turboprop Airplanes Safe?

We had any good years of airline safety, but up-to-date turboprop accidents like that of Continental connection Dash-8 flight 3407 in Buffalo, Ny has located a spot light once again on the safety article of turboprops airplanes. Usually, after an incident, or urgency there's usually a period were you see an growth in anxiety with citizen who have a fear of flying. The news media doesn't help when they give over-sensational news coverage about an accident. For example, I was astonish on how one news outlet described with such graphic details on what the passengers on a up-to-date urgency experienced. I immediately started to think about some graphic terrible car accidents I seen in my life time, & how they seemed to never make the news.

Turboprop airplane technology is old, & been around since the jet age. Turboprop airplanes use engines that are gas turbine to drive a propeller. Turboprop airplanes are slightly dissimilar from other propeller airplanes because the components of the turboprop engines are the same as a jet engine. In fact, if you look up the definition of the words turbo, & turbine your consideration that they are defined almost the same. Even some of the engine instruments in turboprop cockpits are similar to that of jet airplanes. The only big inequity in the middle of jet aircraft, & turboprops are jets have swept wings to sacrifice drag & because of the growth speeds jet fly at. Turboprops have a lot more drag because of the propellers, & the wings are usually more rectangular shape, & tapered. Turboprops are much more slower then jets with an midpoint speed of 250-300 knots.

Safety

One of the reasons why turboprops are beloved with some airlines is that they are cheaper to operate because they burn less fuel. With the article high fuel prices we seen in the past, many airlines decided to get rid of their regional jets, and replace them with some turboprops. There is one major factor about turboprops that concern many people. For many years turboprops had received bad publicity about their handling of in flight icing conditions. Virtually every turboprop is popular ,favorite to fly in icing conditions. Some turboprops cope icing conditions better then others. But, make no mistake about it that icing is a danger to all aircraft rather its a turboprop, or jet. Jets cope icing conditions a puny easier because they furnish more power, & uses heat to abruptly melt off any ice on the wings.

Turboprops usually uses rubber boots on the wings that looks like large black tape. Pneumatic air then blows into the boots to inflate it just like a balloon. This inflated boot then cracks off any ice on the prominent edge of the wing. Too much ice build up on the wing can disrupt the flat airflow over the wing. If this happened, it can cause an airplane to lose speed, & stall. To show a perfect example of ice build up on the wing, just stick your hand out of a spicy car window. Once your hand is horizontal to the ground, you can feel the flat airflow over your hand. However, if you tilt your hand at a angle then your will feel the disruption of the flat airflow. This is the same work on of icing on a wing.

However, turboprop airplanes are just as safe as jets. Turboprop airplane pilots wish greater insight of their aircraft's limitations, awareness, & industry safety practices. I had many fun safe years flying a turboprop before I moved on to jets. Like any other airplane, turboprops can be flown just as safely as jets. However, the best safety device in any airplane is still a well trained pilot with the knowledge to operate their airplane safely.

Are Turboprop Airplanes Safe?