2009 in review

There were many significant events in aviation in 2009.  Some of these might have lasting consequences. 

In February, a Colgan  regional aircraft  flying as Continental Express crashed outside Buffalo with the loss of all on board.  The investigation revealed many factors known to aviation professionals for years.  The pilots commuted cross country for low wages to make the flight.  Questions arose about the fatigue this commuting policy might have caused.  The First Officer had come from the West Coast in order to make her duty time at Newark.  No known issue with the aircraft has come to light yet, so it appears the crew lost control of the aircraft.  A bill is working its way through Congress now which would require a n ATP license for all crew members, something now only required for the Captain.  Interest groups from all sides including ALPA, (the pilots union),and NAFI (the flight instructor’s union) are getting their opinions on the table.

The Experimental Aircraft Association has long been the gold standard organization for small, grass roots flyng, including but not limited  to   experimental aircraft.  It has been run by two generations of the Poberezny family.  Tom Poberezny announced his retirement, and  a search began for his replacement.  However, disaster has followed.  Several prominent members of  the board of directors have resigned.  They accuse Tom Poberezny of  exerting too much control over the selection of his replacement, and of turning the organization into nothing more than the summer event now called Airventure.  This saga is far from over.

After many delays, Boeing finally got the 787 Dreamliner in the air.  Delays were caused by a myriad of  issues with the new composite construction.  According to reports, the bird is still over its target weight.  There is a great deal riding on this project, Boeing has orders for over 500 of them.  Not to be outdone, Airbus continues the development of  the A350.  It is expected to be in the air in 2012. Both these new aircraft are  long range, medium size ,wide body airliners.  Boeing sought not to build a significant new airframe to compete with the double decker A380, and nobody is seriously considering a supersonic transport now due to the cost, so these two models offer the heavyweight’s  new contenders.  Embraer as well as other manufacturers continue to work on new  short haul aircraft.  Airbus finally got their A400m turboprop medium lift military transport in the air for flight testing.    Many countries have cancelled their orders for the A400mM due to delays and other internal political squabbles in the host countries.  Airbus has orders still valid from NATO partners, but they must sell the A400M outside NATO to keep from losing money on the project. 

Over the summer an AirFrance   Airbus en route from Rio to Paris crashed in the Atlantic near the equator.  It was passing through an area of heavy convective weather.  The black boxes have not been located six months later.   There is speculation  the pitot tubes were defective and that fed inaccurate information to the flight computer.  Without the data from the FDR, it is hard to imagine a certain cause being agree upon.

Interesting week….

It has been an interesting week.  In the last few days two Part 121 ( airline) crews have made what would seem to be colossal blunders.  Fortunately nobody was hurt.

In the first instance, a Delta Boeing 767 en route from Rio to Atlanta landed on a taxiway instead of its assigned runway.  It ws a clear night so weather was not a factor.  There were no aircraft on the taxiway so there was no collision.  The taxiway runs parallel to the assigned runway.

Several days later, a Northwest (aka Delta) Airbus flew past Minneapolis for about an hour.  The crew’s initial statement was they were involved in a heated discussion over airline policy.  Many suspect they fell asleep.  They were alerted (awoken), when a cabin crew member called them on the intercom.

At the same time a bill is working its way though Congress, and it appears headed for passage requiring part 121 flight crew members to possess a ATP license.  An Airline Transport Professional license is currently only required for the captain.  This bill is in response to the Colgan crash last February  in Buffalo, New York.  Crew inexperience is believed to have been partially responsible for the crew losing control of the aircraft.

The flight crews of the Delta and Northwest flight most certainly had ATP licenses all around.  At the very least they would all have had experience far in excess of that which is required for an ATP, making the lack of experience questions moot.

While requiring minimum competency for various tasks is always a good, thing, one cannot assume experience alone will keep professionals from making stupid mistakes.

Free Market Anyone?

Here in Tampa, Florida it is  making news that Delta is going to stop flying non stop to Tallahassee, the state capital, from Tampa and Orlando .  These flights were flown by a Delta Connection carrier.   See my previous article about the name on the tail not being the same as who is paying the pilots,   The flights stopped because they, as Delta Connection, where not making any money.  It has been that way awhile.  So bad does Tallahassee want non stop service to the heavily populated center of the state that they agreed some time ago to reimburse  Delta  for the cost of the flights,  If Delta showed they were not breaking even, the politicians in Tallahassee would cough up cash to keep the props turning.   Estimates range upwards of 1.5 million this year will be owed to Delta under the agreement, and that still was not enough to make it work.

This leaves Gulfstream Airlines, flying Beech 1900 19 seat turboprops as a Continental regional as the only carrier flying non stop between Central Florida and the capital.  A recent search on expedia showed a roundtrip fare of  $303.00 for the 200 mile trip.  To show that capitalism and the free market have very little in common with the state of the airlines, a roundtrip ticket on USAIR from Tampa to Tallahassee costs $449.00 and connects in Washington D.C.  A roundtrip ticket to Costa Rica from Tampa costs $308.00.  A round trip ticket on Delta costs $503.00 and connects in Miami and Atlanta.

 

Prior to deregulation, the US government subsidized legacy airline flights into small markets.  The government felt it was vital to commerce for most cities of any size to have air service.  After deregulation, the regionals  sprung up to take over the flying the legacy carriers were not getting subsidized to do anymore.  Sometimes even the regionals can not make it work.

Free market is a great idea, but sometimes the free market decides you cannot make money providing a service to certain areas, so the service goes away.  I would  feel better if I understood why Continental is charging me the same amount to go 200 miles as another carrier is charging to take me to Central America

Just who is in charge here…

Colgan Airways flight

To most members of the flying public, the logo on the tail of an airliner tells us who is responsible for the flight. However, in the eighties when Reagan deregulated the airline industry, a fundamental change occurred. Legacy carriers, (United , Delta, American, etc..) stopped flying to smaller cities. They instead entered codeshare agreements with another smaller airline.   The  regionals  flew these shorter routes in smaller turboprops, then smaller jets. However, people buy tickets based in part on name recognition, so you were not going to buy a ticket for Mesa to take you from El Paso to Phoenix. So Mesa signed an agreement with United, painted United on the tail, and they flew you to Phoenix.  The public went to Continental’s website, bought a ticket that said Continental,  and got on an airplane that had the Continental logo on the side.  But this aircraft was owned and operated by another entity such as Colgan.  There are several established regional airlines that fly the bulk of these smaller routes. Mesa, Skywest, Commair and Colgan are not well known names to the flying public, but they fly the bulk of these regional routes. They fly them with airplanes which have Continental, Delta, United, or  American Eagle logo on the tail.

This brings us to Colgan flight 3047, which impacted the ground outside of Buffalo, New York on February 12, 2009 with the loss of 50 lives. The pilots flew into an area of icing, and for reasons still being debated they lost control of the aircraft.  The pilot lived in Central Florida. The copilot lived on the West Coast. Both had commuted from their residences to their base in the New York City/Newark area. In particular the copilot had commuted all night to get to her flight by her scheduled duty time. Why did she do this?, because she only makes about 1500 dollars a month, and nobody can live around New York City for that amount. She also stated she did not feel well, but if she called out sick, she would have to get a hotel room at her own expense due to Colgan’s policies. Why would she take a job like that, because it is flying for a living, a coveted spot. Regional pilot groups say the race to the bottom to provide cheap ticket prices has lead regional  carriers like Colgan, to pay low  wages, hire inexperienced pilots, and treat them terrible. More experienced flight crews, such as those flying for legacy carriers, like Delta have certainly made mistakes and put their aircraft into the ground. Few would expect a pilot with 600 hours to have the same level of competency of a pilot with 6000 hours. The ups and downs of the economy has enabled pilots to ask for better wages when there was a shortage of pilots, and has allowed carriers to pay less than flipping burgers when the hiring slows down. As an attorney in Florida, I am required to provide a written document listing my qualifications to any client that asks. The next time you walk down the tube and enter an airliner, ask the pilot if he works for the people with their name on the tail, or someone else, and ask how many hours experience he has, how well he slept last night, and where did he commute from.

Colgan is entering contract negotiations with its pilot group right now. The pilot group sees an opportunity to break out the “safety for the flying public card” to demand greater wages and a better work enviroment.   The pilot group believes the public will demand better wages and working conditions in the name of safety.  The company believes the public will demand low ticket fares and just not think about safety.  Will the flying public start to ask these questions about their aircrew, or will they do as they have done in the past, trust the name on the tail to make everything comes out alright.

It had happened before….

As we approach this eve of September 11, I am reminded of the fact many people think the idea of forcefully taking command of a carrier class air craft solely for the purpose of crashing it into the ground was a novel one.  Actually it occurred twice, in not so ancient history , in this country.

On December 7, 1987, Pacific Southwest Airlines flight 1771 crashed into the ground near Cayucos, California, killing 43 people.  The  BAe 146-200 was on a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  Pacific Southwest Airlines, (PSA) had recently been consumed by a conglomerate that would eventually become USAir.  The NTSB concluded a USAir  employee had recently been terminated for stealing $59 from an in flight beverage service.  He had attended a meeting with his Supervisor, Raymond Thompson, asking to be reinstated.  He was turned down.  His supervisor commuted from LA to San Francisco and was aboard flight 1771.  An  airsickness bag was located at the crash site which read “Hi Ray, I think it is sort of ironical that we ended up like this. I asked for some leniency for my family. remember? I got none and you’ll get none”

The cockpit voice recorder recorded a female entering the cockpit and saying we have a problem, a male voice was heard to say “the problem is me”, then two shots were heard.  As the flight plummeted toward the ground another shot was heard.  The aircraft was approaching 700 MPH when it impacted the ground.  The investigation concluded the disgruntled employee,  David Burke had borrowed a .44 magnum handgun from a friend and used his employee credentials, still in his possession to sneak the weapon onto the aircraft. 

 

 

On April 7, 1994 FedEx flight 705  a DC-10-30 was departing Memphis with a flight crew of three.  The NTSB concluded an employee pilot, Auburn Calloway was facing termination for inaccuracies on his resume about his flight experience while serving in the United State Navy.  He attempted to disable the CVR, however he was unsuccessful.  He hid a speargun and a several hammers inside a guitar case as he boarded the flight to hitch a ride to California.  He planned to kill the crew, take over the aircraft, and crash it into FedEx headquarters in Memphis making it appear to be a plane crash so his family would collect on 2.5 million in insurance money.

 

About twenty minutes into the flight he began his attack.  The CVR recorded the sounds of a struggle.  The crew used a combination of  abrupt flight maneuvers to fight back and eventually restrain Calloway.  All of the flight crew suffered severe injuries during the attack and at one point the aircraft approached the speed of sound while nearly inverted.  It was able to return and land at Memphis.  Callloway was sentenced to two life sentences.  None of the heroic flight crew have been able to return to commercial flying due to their injuries.  You can download the CVR recording here http://www.airdisaster.com/cvr/atcwav.shtml

9/11 certainly raised the consciousness of the flying public.  Pity the poor fool who stands up in an aisle today and says  ”I am taking over”  The FAA has added additional protections to keep flight crew somewhat protected.  Prior to 9/11 it was easier to barge into a cockpit than it was to get in the monorail cockpit at Wally World.  It is unfortunate it took a large tragedy to bring  this weakness to light.  Two tragedies of smaller overall proportions failed to get noticed adequately by the FAA and the public at large.

The Medical Quagmire..

Every now and then, the FAA does something right.  Sometimes it takes  awhile, and  there are speedbumps along the way.  Such is the case with the current “catch 22″ involving the FAA, the medical, and the rights and privileges to fly a light sport aircraft.  First, some background.

A pilot is generally required to have a vaild medical certificate to operate as pilot in command of an aircraft.  The FAA recognizes three classes, First and Second class certificates deal with commerical aviation and are not part of the current discussion.  A Third Class certificate is what the average general aviation pilot must possess to take his mother for a ride in the Cessna.  A person goes to an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) and passes a few simple tests and fills out a questionnaire and if he qualifies, he is granted a certificate good for between two and three years depending on his age.  There are several disqualifying factors  from alcohol abuse, certain chronic conditions, or  certain medications which will render a person ineligible for a certificate.  A process exists to have the FAA conduct a special review for those people in “grey areas”, meaning they have had a disqualifying condition in the past, but believe they are no longer effected by the condition.  The FAA could grant a certificate, or issue a “denial”.  Hold that thought for a moment.

Several years ago, the FAA created a new classification of licensees called Light Sport Aircraft. (LSA)   This was created for the thousands of people who were licensed to fly aircraft, but did not want to fly large, complex aircraft in various types of weather, but only wanted to operate smaller (under 1320 pounds) aircraft, with only one passenger, in clear weather.  Think of the guy in his Piper Cub cruising over the countryside at 500 feet and 60 knots.  The FAA decided this type of operation was safe with a lesser type of medical certificate.  The rule states a person can operate a LSA as long as they posses a valid drivers license from some state.  The FAA still lists disqualifying conditions that will ground a pilot even he possess a license.  An additional requirement, one that is important for our discussion, is a person is only eligible to operate a LSA under the drivers license rule if he never had a medical  ”denial” issued by the FAA.  So here is what happens in reality, lets take two pilots, Chuck and Burt.  They both own Piper Cub’s and only desire to fly around the countryside on sunny afternoons.

Chuck is 45 years old and has a minor outpatient heart procedure.  This is not automaticaly disqualifying but something that the FAA needs to review under a special issuance procedure.  On his next medical renewal application, he is required to list this doctor visit to the FAA.  His AME sends the information to the FAA, they review his documentation and decide he is not eligble for a third class certificate and issues a denial.  He is now not eligible to fly a LSA under the less stringent standard because he has been issued a denial.

His friend Burt is also 45, and had the exact same outpatient medical procedure.  He has heard about Chuck’s experience so he does not apply for a third class certificate.   His third class medical will expire, but he is still eligible to fly a LSA because he holds a drivers license from a state.  The FAA ‘s denial not only disqualified Chuck from a third class, but also disqualified him from the less stringent LSA standard, a standard he actually meets because he possess a state issued drivers license.   One is legal to fly, one is not, not because of a difference in medical condition, but because one had the audacity to  ask if he qualified for a higher level of certification.  This is like the state taking away your drivers license to drive a car because it found out you are not eligible to drive a bus. 

The FAA did a good thing by creating LSA, but this rule punishes people for merely asking a question about the possibility of  obtaining a higher level of certification.  The AOPA and other organizations are aware of this and are working on getting someone in Washington to listen.  Asking a question should not result in the loss of a privilege.

In the beginning……

You have to begin somewhere.  I will begin on New Years day, 1914.  It took thirteen years until somebody matched the  technological accomplishments of Wilbur and Orville Wright to the age old American pastime of trying to make a buck.  On that January 1, Antony “Tony” Jannus piloted a Benoist XIV aircraft from the pier at St. Petersburg, Florida to downtown Tampa, Florida in what usually is regarded as the first scheduled airline flight.  His passenger, St. Petersburg Mayor A.C.  Pheil, paid upwards of $400 for the honor.  It appears some in attendance were aware of the significance of the event, as the trip began and ended in front of large crowds and numerous reporters.  The flight took 23 minutes, and probably did not include an inflightmovie, a beveragecart, nor an additional fee for checked baggage.  The flight did not get stranded on the tarmac for nine hours, nor did the flight crew belong to a union.  Yet Pheil paid over one half the average yearly wage of an American worker for the privilege. The equivalent today would be paying over $17000.00.  

The fee for service is just one of the myriad of  issues facing today’s aviation industry.  The commerical carriers are upset they pay the bulk of the costs of the air traffic control system.  The pilots of regionals are upset they are paid less than the guy flipping burgers.  The general aviation industry which was once such a point of pride in this nation has been priced nearly to extinction.  Counties and cities across the nation are eyeing prime real estate in their community occupied by an airport and see better uses.  We shall seek to educate and inform, and hopefully occasionally enrage, or  else nothing is being accomplished.