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Aviation History
1992
1992 - 0067.PDF
NEWS ANALYSIS SAFETY IN NUMBERS Figures for the year just ended cast the safety record of the US regional airlines in bad light and overshadow advances made to close the safety gap between commuter carriers and major airlines. US regional airlines have just had their worst safety year ever — in fatalities, if not in aircraft lost. In 1991, says the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), commuter air craft were involved in six fatal accidents resulting in 71 deaths. The US Regional Airlines As sociation (RAA) disagrees — it counts seven fatal accidents costing 76 lives. Neither set of figures includes the most recent regional-airliner accidents: the 28 December crash of a Business Express Beech 1900 in which three died, and the 3 January crash of a CommutAir Beech 1900 in which two died. The first is omitted from NTSB and RAA safety figures because it involved a passenger- less training flight; the second because it ocurred in 1992. The year began badly when, on 1 February, a USAir Boeing 737 landed on a Skywest Fairchild Metro preparing to take off from Los Angeles air port. All 12 on board the Metro died. Controller error was blamed. On 5 April an Atlantic Southeast Embraer Brasilia crashed short of the runway at Brunswick, Georgia, killing all 23 on board. The NTSB is ex pected to conclude that a worn spline in a propeller governor was at fault. Another Brasilia, this time be longing to Continental Express, crashed on 11 August, killing all 14 on board. Investigators found that the lower leading-edge of the left-hand tailplane had not been secured correctly after maintenance. The NTSB lists three other fatal accidents for 1991: 18 March, Treasure Cay (Bahamas), an Aero Coach Cessna 402C crashed, killing five; 10 July, Birmingham (Alabama), a L'Ex- press Beech 99 crashed, killing 13; and 20 August, Ketchikan (Alaska), a Temsco Britten- Norman Islander crashed, killing four. The RAA adds one more to its list: 10 December, Grand Canyon (Colorado), an Air Vegas Piper Navajo Chieftain crashed, killing five. There is no common factor to the 1991 crashes, other than the fact that an unusually high pro portion of the accidents involved aircraft that were full or nearly full, says the RAA. That may simply reflect the fact that 1991 was a better year for the region- als than for the majors, with traffic likely to have increased by around 6%. The 1991 figures continue the noticeable difference in safety record between Part 121 opera tions — with aircraft with more than 30 seats — and Part 135 operations — with aircraft with 30 seats or fewer. There have now been eight years without a fatal accident involving regional- airline Part 121 operations. Part 121 operations account for about a third of regional- airline departures, and the RAA attributes their better safety re cord to the greater sophistica tion and system redundancy possible in the larger, more ex pensive aircraft. Part 135 opera tions often involve smaller, less well-equipped aircraft flying in and out of smaller, less well- equipped airports. The RAA characterises the dif ferences in pilot-training and aircraft-maintenance standards between Part 121 and Part 135 operations as "minor". Differ ences in equipment standard are reducing. Notable safety-related examples are ground proximity warning systems (GPWS) and traffic alert and collison avoid ance systems, which Part 121 aircraft are required to carry, while Part 135 aircraft are not. In the case of GPWS, certainly, that is about to change. US regionals have acquired a reputation for resisting the in stallation of equipment for which they see no economic justification. That all changed in 1991, with the fleet-wide intro duction of cockpit voice record ers on all turbine-powered aircraft — Part 121 and 135 — and flight data recorders on all aircraft with more than 30 seats. Last year should also have seen the launch of a two-year programme to install GPWS on all turbine-powered aircraft. The rule is ready for signature at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), but adminstrator James Busey's elevation to head the transportation department, fol lowing secretary Sam Skinner's departure to become White House chief of staff, has left no-one at the FAA empowered to wield the pen. While it supports the installa tion of GPWS, the RAA points out that there have been no recent cases of controlled flight into terrain. That may no longer be true. If the CommutAir crash ulti mately serves to prove the case for GPWS, then the Business Express Beech 1900 crash un derlines the already accepted wisdom of moving pilot training from aircraft to simulators. Busi ness Express had only just an nounced plans to hand over all pilot training to simulator opera tor FlightSafety International when the Beech 1900 was lost on a training flight. BY GRAHAM WARWICK • US regional airline fatal accidents 1983-1991 US regional airline total accidents US regional airline fatal accidents 3 7 7 2 10 2 5 2 7 UT 83 84 85 86 !@ JZI 87 Year 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 Year I I Pt 121 | Pt 135 90 83- 84 85 86 87 Year 88 89 90 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 15 - 21 January, 1992
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