HELIOGEOPHYSICAL FACTORS AND AVIATION ACCIDENTS

It was shown by two independent methods that: there is a certain corre lation between the number of aviation accidents and heliogeophysical f actors. The statistical and spectral analyses of time series of heliog eomagnetic factors and the number of aviation accidents in 1989-1995 s howed that, of 216 accidents, 58% are related to sudden geomagnetic st orms. A similar relation was revealed for aviation catastrophes (64% o ut of 86 accidents) and emergencies (54% out of 130 accidents) that co incided in time with heliogeomagnetic storms. General periodicities of the series were revealed by the method of spectral analysis, namely, cycles of 30, 42, 46, 64, 74, 83, 99, 115, 143, 169, 339 days, which c onfirms the causative relation between the number of aviation accident s and heliogeomagnetic factors. It is assumed that some aviation accid ents that coincided in time with geomagnetic storms, are due to change s in professional abilities of pilots that were in the zone of storms.