Transportation Safety

The fatal collision on Friday evening between a large airliner and a small plane on the ground at Los Angeles International Airport, one of the nation's busiest, comes as no surprise to aviation experts who have been issuing warnings about dangerously congested runway conditions nationwide. "We know that the two planes did collide on the (ground)," said Elly Brekke, a regional spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

States should implement a ban on cellphones — even hands-free devices — when driving except in emergency situations, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended Tuesday. The board said the dangers outweighed any benefits to talking or texting while on the road. "It is time for all of us to stand up for safety by turning off electronic devices when driving," NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said. "No call, no text, no update, is worth a human life. " The recommendation was unanimously agreed to by the five-member board and drew attention to an August 2010 traffic collision on Interstate 44 in Gray Summit, Mo. In that incident, a pickup truck ran into the back of a truck-tractor that had slowed because of a construction zone.

Tests so far have found no evidence of problems with the rudder of the USAir Boeing 737-300 that crashed earlier this month near Pittsburgh International Airport, killing all 132 aboard. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Michael Benson said testing and inspections being performed in Seattle and California showed no evidence of malfunction. "Everything fulfilled requirements as far as I know," he said.

A series of weld defects has been found in detailed studies of the high-pressure gas pipeline that exploded last year in a San Bruno neighborhood, killing eight and destroying dozens of homes, federal investigators reported Friday. The spot where the 30-inch line first cracked and failed also has been located, along a seam that ran in the direction of the pipeline. The interim National Transportation Safety Board report does not conclude what caused the 54-year-old transmission line to rupture.

Flying out of Orange County's John Wayne Airport is a memorable experience, especially for the uninitiated. "I've heard it described as somewhat like a roller coaster ride," said United Airlines pilot Todd Thornton, who has flown passengers in and out of John Wayne since 1989. "You do raise the nose up quite a bit, so that the climb angle is quite a bit steeper than normal. The sound of the engines throttling back slightly also might be of concern to the passengers."

Traveling under San Francisco Bay proved to be safer than over it during Tuesday's earthquake. Riders made it safely through BART's four-mile long underwater tunnel linking San Francisco and Oakland. But there were harrowing moments for passengers all along the 71.5-mile Bay Area Rapid Transit system. James Herron Zamora was a passenger on an above-ground BART station in Oakland when the quake hit. "Our train bounced in the air off the tracks and landed again," he said.

On a day that would transform aviation history, fog hung over Los Angeles International Airport. But it did nothing to dampen the festive mood as passengers lined up eager to start their Fourth of July holiday. At one ticket counter, 64 checked in for Trans World Airlines Flight 2 to Kansas City, Mo. Next door, 53 registered for United Airlines' Chicago-bound Flight 718.

Halfway through his 13-hour shift, the Pinnacle Airlines pilot was already tired. After landing in Indianapolis, he headed to the terminal to catch a quick nap during a three-hour layover. Once there, he discovered that the waiting areas were jammed with passengers and there was no lounge for airline crews. So the pilot found a remote corner of the building and curled up on the floor, using his black uniform jacket as a pillow. Although airline officials generally frown on the practice, the pilot said naps in terminals were one way to fight fatigue -- something that's important when you're at the controls of a $25-million aircraft with 50 passengers aboard.

The death of an infant in July's airliner tragedy at Sioux City, Iowa, has revived an emotional debate about the safety of the 9,000 babies who fly on U.S. airlines each day. Though accidents are rare and most infants fly on laps without mishap, babies who do so are especially vulnerable in a crash. The force of gravity builds in a crash, turning a tiny child into an 100-pound weight, making it almost impossible for a mother's arms to hold a child.

A crackdown in the Los Angeles area on so-called "bandit" limousine operators, who allegedly do not have state permits or proper insurance, was announced Tuesday by state and local officials. Three firms were named by Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn, who said the violators are "not the worst, but the first" offenders to be cited in an effort to clean up the industry.

Federal regulators Monday issued seven safety recommendations ? six of them labeled urgent ? stemming from the explosion of a natural gas pipeline that killed eight people and destroyed 37 homes in the Bay Area community of San Bruno last September. The urgent recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board call on pipeline operators and regulators in California and the rest of the United States to find and correct any record-keeping deficiencies that could result in pipelines being operated at pressures higher than they were designed to bear.

The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday issued a series of new safety recommendations based on lessons from the landing of a US Airways plane in the Hudson River last year. Though the board applauded the skill of the flight crew, it said there were problems that could have turned the incident into a tragedy. The Airbus A320 was equipped with inflatable life vests, lifelines and slide rafts, which officials said were crucial to passengers' safe escape.

Their losses deepening, European airlines on Sunday stepped up pressure to reopen the skies by carrying out passenger-free test flights despite the layer of volcanic ash that kept most planes across the continent grounded for a fourth day. Airlines in Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and France sent jets close to or into the plume of ash and dust thrown up by the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, in bids to demonstrate that flying conditions over...

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.

As federal authorities prepare to close out a 16-month investigation of the deadly Chatsworth Metrolink disaster, a key issue remains in dispute: What color was the fateful final signal? The only eyewitnesses to come forward publicly have maintained that the light was green as Metrolink 111 barreled toward a head-on crash with a Union Pacific freight train. And the conductor of the train told investigators that he radioed the Metrolink engineer before leaving Chatsworth station that the signal was green and the train was clear to proceed, records show.

Halfway through his 13-hour shift, the Pinnacle Airlines pilot was already tired. After landing in Indianapolis, he headed to the terminal to catch a quick nap during a three-hour layover. Once there, he discovered that the waiting areas were jammed with passengers and there was no lounge for airline crews. So the pilot found a remote corner of the building and curled up on the floor, using his black uniform jacket as a pillow. Although airline officials generally frown on the practice, the pilot said naps in terminals were one way to fight fatigue -- something that's important when you're at the controls of a $25-million aircraft with 50 passengers aboard.

Corporations around the country Tuesday dusted off and reassessed their guidelines for executives traveling together in the wake of the crash of PSA Flight 1771, which killed the president and three other managers of Chevron USA and three officials of Pacific Bell. The policies, which typically prohibit groups of key officials from flying together on one plane, have become increasingly common among large companies in recent years. The plans are designed to ensure management continuity.

Flight restrictions on small aircraft imposed around Manhattan after New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashed his single-engine plane into an apartment tower will be made permanent, government documents indicate. The plan for the rule change was revealed as the National Transportation Safety Board released papers detailing its investigation of the Oct. 11 crash that killed Lidle and his flight instructor. The NTSB's documents do not contain final conclusions.

Metrolink is investigating a new safety breach on the regional commuter line involving an engineer who allegedly failed to stop at a red signal last week as another train approached. The incident, which also is being reviewed by federal regulators, is the fourth alleged red-light violation since the Sept. 12, 2008, crash in Chatsworth that killed 25. Investigators have attributed that crash to an engineer running a red light. The most recent incident occurred on the San Bernardino line east of Union Station near downtown Los Angeles.

The Federal Aviation Administration will announce new rules on pilot fatigue in January, but they probably will not include restrictions on long-distance commutes that lawmakers said Tuesday are essential to solving the problem. The crash of a regional Colgan Air flight in Buffalo that killed 50 people in February highlighted the need for federal rules limiting the distance pilots often have to fly to begin their workday, said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), who heads the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee's aviation panel.