Transportation Safety

The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that it will hold a formal hearing on the Palm Springs bus crash in July that killed seven people and injured 47 others, most of them Girl Scouts. The two-day hearing, which will begin Oct. 31, is designed to help board investigators unearth more information about the accident and to air safety issues before the public, a spokesman said.

Federal safety officials blamed a shifting river channel for the collapse last year of a Tennessee highway bridge that killed eight motorists. They said state officials should have corrected the problem a decade ago. National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the river channel has moved 83 feet since the bridge was constructed in 1936. The board also said the lack of a backup support system contributed to the severity of the accident.

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.

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.

An Orange County jury Tuesday found the world's largest manufacturer of helicopters liable for installing a dangerously faulty fuel system in one of its models, a helicopter widely used by law enforcement, fire departments and television news crews. The jury also found Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.

The National Transportation Safety Board, reporting on a study of drinking and drug use by truck drivers who died in accidents, said that 33% of the drivers killed within 12 months in eight states were impaired by alcohol or other drugs. The board indicated that it will recommend stepped-up testing and a reduced legal limit on blood-alcohol content--perhaps 0.01%--for commercial haulers. The current limit is 0.04%, and a driver can be ordered off the road for 24 hours for any alcohol use.

Federal safety officials, citing their investigation of last month's fatal runway collision in Detroit, urged that hundreds of DC-9 jets be inspected for broken or cracked rear exit handles. The National Transportation Safety Board also said the McDonnell Douglas Corp., manufacturer of the DC-9 and the follow-on MD-80, should redesign the tail cone emergency exit system on both aircraft "to correct its propensity for damage and malfunction."