1. Group Eight - 8AA SMS 221NAA
The Data analysis of Southwest Airlines
SeyedHamed Jabbari Behnam 016460156
Courtney Young 035044114
Nicoy Davis 111996153

2. Group 8AA SMS221 1
The Data Analysis of Southwest Airlines’ Incidents
Risk Level by Aircraft Type:
High level of risk Medium level of risk Low level of risk
B737-300 5 18 16
B737-500 0 2 2
B737-700 8 22 14
B737-800 1 1 2
In regards to risk level by aircraft type, Southwest’s largest aircraft (B737-800’s) saw the
fewest accidents/incidents with low level risk being more frequent. Astonishingly enough,
Southwest’s B737-700’s experienced the highest level and medium level incidents. The B737-
500’s reassuringly saw no high level risk incidents and very few medium and low level risk
occurrences.
Risk Level by Causal Factors:
High level of risk Medium level of risk Low level of risk
People 4 3 3
Equipment 6 22 25
Environment 4 18 5
Organization 0 0 1
0
5
10
15
20
25
B737-300 B737-500 B737-700 B737-800
NumbersofIncidents
Type of Aircraft
Risk Level by Aircraft Type
High level of risk
Medium level of risk
Low level of risk

3. Group 8AA SMS221 2
According to the data collected, the airlines equipment seems to be the number one cause
for medium and high level risk incidents. Whether there was smoke in the cabin, problematic
landing gear or fuel leakage, these all resulted in low to high risk occurrences. Southwest’s
organization was responsible for the fewest amount of episodes. In one occurrence, a drone was
seen on approach. With good communication however, this event only led to a low level risk
incident.
Risk Level by Department:
High level of risk Medium level of risk Low level of risk
Maintenance 9 38 30
Flight Ops. 3 4 2
Commercial 2 1 2
Our findings resulted in Southwest’s maintenance department to be more involved in the
airline’s occurrences. This does not necessarily mean that they are at fault for the majority of
events, but they are undeniably the department that resolves the issue afterwards. Most incidents
result in maintenance ensuring that the aircraft is safe to fly or if it needs to be repaired.
Therefore, the amount of low, medium and high risk events that they are involved with is logical.
The commercial department and flight operations department do not particularly compare with
the maintenance department with the commercial department having the least involvement.
0
5
10
15
20
25
People Equipment Environment Organization
High level of risk
Medium level of risk
Low level of risk
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
High level of risk
Medium level of risk
Low level of risk
Commercial
Flight Ops.
Maintenance

4. Group 8AA SMS221 3
Risk Level by Flight Phases:
High level of risk Medium level of risk Low level of risk
APR 1 9 6
ENR 6 7 14
ICL 4 20 10
LDG 2 1 4
TXI 1 2 0
TOF 0 4 0
It is concluded that during the initial climb, Southwest Airlines saw the most
accidents/incidents. During this phase of flight is when an engine would fail or the aircraft would
strike a bird which were two of the more frequent causal factors. These incidents typically
resulted in a low to medium level of risk. Trailing behind, the enroute phase of flight also lead to
a few more events than the other phases of flight. This could have been caused by turbulence
resulting in injury as it was quite recurrent. Taxiing and take-off could possibly be acknowledged
as the safest phase of flight for Southwest Airlines as they both result in zero low level risk
occurrences and very few medium level risk incidents.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
APR ENR ICL LDG TXI TOF
High level of risk
Medium level of risk
Low level of risk

5. Group 8AA SMS221 4
OCCURRENCE TYPES:
Based on the information gathered the following key findings were determined:
25% of the incidents/ accidents were related to Bird Strikes, while 14% were related system
component failures (non power plant) such as Damaged tires, problems with flaps and landing
gear, and 12% of cabin related issues varying from smoke smell in cabin to issues with
pressurization. 10% were system component failure (power plant) such as one more Engine
failures enroute. This might could be due to poor maintenance and an aging fleet.

6. Group 8AA SMS221 5
Conclusion:
Thorough analysis of the 90 Aviation Herald Accident reports on Southwest Airlines the
following key findings were determined:
 25% of accidents/incidents were related to bird strikes.
 14% of incidents/accidents were related to system component failures.
 Southwest B737-700’s experienced the highest level of medium risk incidents.
 The airlines Equipment is at the number causal factor of medium to high level incidents.
 The department that saw the most occurrences was maintenance.
 The phase of flight in which the accidents were most prone was determined to be the
Initial Climb.
With 14% of incidents related to system component failures and resulting in equipment being the
cause of 22 medium level risk and 6 high level risk, the airline needs to implement better
maintenance procedures in relation to aircraft maintenance. The airline also needs to review its
SOP as it relates to preflight checks to ensure that its aircraft are truly fit to fly.
Some of the challenges faced while compiling the data are as follows:
 No consistency in the way data is reported in the AV Herald for example some reports
listed total crew and pax separately whilst some reports just listed total souls onboard.
 Meticulous caution has to be taken when entering data in order to maintain accuracy.
 The weather column was of no use as out of 90 reported incidents only 4 report weather
conditions.