Aviation Safety

Thank you for the concern for aviation safety shown in the series "Danger in the Sky" (March 10-12). However, by concluding Part 2 with my statement, "Aviation safety is excellent--but accidents will occur," you shortchanged readers. Taken out of context that statement gives the impression that we in aviation are callous regarding safety. Nothing can be farther from the truth. With others representing virtually every major aviation group in the country, I have worked for three years in the Southern California Airspace Users Working Group finding ways to improve the safety and efficiency of the airspace system in Southern California.

A series of pilot errors caused the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 near Buffalo, N.Y., last year, killing 50 people, but several common aviation industry practices may have led to the mistakes, the National Transportation Safety Board reported Tuesday. NTSB Chairwoman Deborah A.P. Hersman said the pilots' errors showed their "complacency and confusion that resulted in catastrophe." She said she would press the Federal Aviation Administration and Congress to change procedures.

A presidential commission called today for major changes in the way the government regulates the airlines, including more inspections of air carriers and appointment of an aviation "safety czar" with broad authority. After months of examining aviation safety, the seven-member panel concluded that "the air transportation system is safe" but added that "safety is being maintained to an increasing extent through delays and other inconveniences."

Racing at speeds of up to 350 mph, the Soviet-made military jet made several low-altitude passes at the Santa Monica Pier, seemingly keying on the popular Ferris wheel as frightened onlookers scattered, some screaming. Emergency calls poured in to police as the aircraft flew about 50 feet off the ground, then spiraled skyward in a series of tight rolls, smoke trailing from its tail as if it were an aerobatic plane. The lifeguard in Tower 26 said the jet passed so close that she felt a wall of heat.

Leonard M. Greene, 88, an inventor and pioneer in aviation safety who developed an instrument that would warn a pilot that a plane was about to stall, died Nov. 30 of cancer at a hospital in White Plains, N.Y. According to the New York Times obituary of Greene, the device he developed gives an audible alert to a pilot when an aircraft is in danger of not having the required lift to maintain altitude.

The planned U.S. aviation safety summit called for after the fourth major airline crash in recent months will be held in Washington on Jan. 9-10, the Transportation Department announced Friday. At the same time, the Federal Aviation Administration said it would continue flight restrictions for the time being on ATR commuter aircraft in icy weather. An Oct. 31 crash of an American Eagle ATR-72 in Roselawn, Ind., killed 68 people.

Racing at speeds of up to 350 mph, the Soviet-made military jet made several low-altitude passes at the Santa Monica Pier, seemingly keying on the popular Ferris wheel as frightened onlookers scattered, some screaming. Emergency calls poured in to police as the aircraft flew about 50 feet off the ground, then spiraled skyward in a series of tight rolls, smoke trailing from its tail as if it were an aerobatic plane. The lifeguard in Tower 26 said the jet passed so close that she felt a wall of heat.

Half of the government's corps of 11,088 air safety technicians are eligible for retirement over the next decade, a federal report showed, and experts said such a mass departure would hurt aviation safety. The highly trained technicians certify that Federal Aviation Administration radarscopes and computers are in working order.

New Airports Sought: Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner said the nation's major airports are operating at or near capacity and that his department is "committed to finding ways to build new airports and expand existing capacity." Skinner said aviation safety, a closer working relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration, tackling the problem of aging planes and deterring terrorism are the other priorities for his department.

The Federal Aviation Administration introduced a dozen experts in various flight specialties who will advise the government on aviation safety. The new National Resource Specialists were announced by FAA Administrator David R. Hinson, who called the team "a manifestation of common sense." Guy Gardner, newly named associate administrator for regulation and certification, will direct the team, with an eventual membership of 18 planned. All but one of the posts has been filled.

WASHINGTON -- Two Northwest Airlines pilots have told federal investigators that they were going over schedules using their laptop computers in violation of company policy while their plane overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday. The pilots -- Richard Cole of Salem, Ore., the first officer, and Timothy Cheney of Gig Harbor, Wash., the captain -- said in interviews conducted over the weekend that they were not fatigued and didn't fall asleep, the board said in a statement.

Prompted by testimony last week about the crash of a commuter plane near Buffalo, N.Y., four senior senators have called for an independent investigation into federal oversight of regional carriers. In a letter released Tuesday, members of the Senate aviation safety subcommittee told the Transportation Department's inspector general, Calvin L.

After a week of partisan fighting, a far-reaching aviation safety bill was effectively grounded in the Senate on Tuesday over squabbles on unrelated issues. The legislation to modernize and fund the Federal Aviation Administration included such provisions as money for a satellite-based air traffic control system and a mandatory two-year prohibition on official contact between the agency and former FAA inspectors who go to work for airlines. The House has already passed its version of the bill.

Rescue workers pulled bodies from mounds of blackened rubble Wednesday while this metropolis poured out its grief and anger over a plane crash Tuesday night that many Brazilians saw as both predictable and avoidable.

The premise is right out of a disaster movie: Ignite the massive fuel tanks required to keep an international airport up and running each day, stand back, and watch a chain reaction of explosions throughout the labyrinth of pipelines running underneath the tarmac. But aviation experts cautioned Saturday that the alleged plot targeting John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York would have faced many hurdles, not least of which is the fact that jet fuel does not easily explode.

Leonard M. Greene, 88, an inventor and pioneer in aviation safety who developed an instrument that would warn a pilot that a plane was about to stall, died Nov. 30 of cancer at a hospital in White Plains, N.Y. According to the New York Times obituary of Greene, the device he developed gives an audible alert to a pilot when an aircraft is in danger of not having the required lift to maintain altitude.

The March 5 editorial, "The Bottom Line at 30,000 Feet," questions whether British Airways may have put cost-cutting before passenger safety. This is simply untrue. British Airways would never compromise the safety of our operation. First, a Boeing 747 is fully certified to fly on three engines, and the operation of BA268 on Feb. 20 did not compromise any safety regulations. The United Kingdom aviation safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, accepts this. Although the incidents are rare and infrequent, our pilots are trained to fly a Boeing 747 safely on three engines, and the aircraft manufacturer has designed the aircraft to fly normally in this situation.

There is a striking disparity between the great majority of Americans, who expressed shock and disbelief that terrorists could so easily employ four passenger jets as instruments of carnage on Tuesday, and aviation security experts, many of whom said they were not at all surprised that America's aviation safety systems could be violated.