Safety Officials Outline Ambitious Agendas for 2000

Air Safety Week, Jan 10, 2000

Maintaining the momentum on a broad range of safety initiatives is the top priority of the two government officials charged with keeping U.S. skies safe.

In recent interviews, Jane Garvey, head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), outlined what they believe were their top accomplishments in 1999, and the challenges facing their respective organizations this year. Space does not permit a complete itemization, but the ambitious agendas laid out by both Hall and Garvey reflect a desire to push hard for further safety improvements.

While accidents grab media attention, Garvey reminded that safely managing some 150,000 takeoffs and landings daily is "really an extraordinary accomplishment." Nevertheless, she stressed, "efficiency and safety are inextricably linked," and modernizing the national airspace system has been hampered by cuts to the FAA's budget. "Personnel and equipment; these things cost money," Garvey said.

A number of specific issues are on Garvey's radar scope:

* Runway incursions. The effort to reduce them has been "a struggle." Site visits will be made this year to the 20 airports with noticeable runway incursion problems. "We're worried about LAX (Los Angeles International Airport)," Garvey said. She is looking at simple, immediate actions such as "striping, correct lighting, clear signage, and standardized (airport) maps."

* Uncontained engine failures. "The AD's we put out were an extraordinarily positive step," she said.

* Aircrew scheduling. The FAA has granted only one waiver to its reserve rest rule. "Crew rest is a big issue and you're going to hear more about it. I'm sensitive to the carriers, but this (enforcement) is the right thing to do."

* 737 rudder review. The independent panel is expected to complete its review of the design and safety of the 737 rudder power control unit by March. This team was formed in the wake of the NTSB's investigation into the USAir Flight 427 accident.

* Safety audits. "We're going to be doing safety audits on foreign carriers going into code-sharing. For example, if Delta wants to enter into a code-share arrangement with a foreign carrier, we would want Delta to do a safety audit and we would make a judgement or recommendation based on that audit," she explained. "We will be coming up with guidelines that will be challenging."

For NTSB Chairman Hall, completing the USAir 427 accident investigation marked the Board's top accomplishment in 1999. Based on recommendations ranging from flight data recorders, pilot upset training and wake turbulence, completing the 427 investigation "was clearly the most significant event of this year," he said. Hall outlined a full agenda for 2000:

* Completing the TWA Flight 800 investigation.

* Convening a summit, in concert with the FAA, on runway incursions.

* Proceeding diligently with the EgyptAir Flight 990 accident.

* Hosting a symposium on privacy, as it relates to recorders, and perhaps another on the criminalization of air safety.

* Completing a study of maintenance mishaps based on site visits to Part 145 repair stations.

* Conducting an in-house workshop on the structure of the NTSB's "go teams."

* Completing a number of ongoing investigations, to include the Oct. 25 Lear 25 crash that killed golf professional Payne Stewart, the July 31, 1997 crash of the FedEx DC-10 at Newark, and the July 16 crash that killed JFK Jr.

* Completing the emergency evacuation study.

In addition, the Board also will be discussing this February its growing role in foreign accident investigations. Given this full plate, Hall said a study of the adequacy of aircraft certification standards is likely to be relegated to "a longer term process." (For the full text of the interview with Chairman Hall, see this website: http://www.aviationtoday.com/reports/hall.htm.)

The Safety Board's Involvement in Foreign Accident Investigations

* Turkey: Turkish Airlines 737, April 7.

* Shanghai, China: Korean Air MD-11, April 15.

* Hong Kong: China Airlines MD-11, Aug. 23

* Taiwan: UNI Airlines MD-90, Aug. 24

* Argentina: LAPA 737, August 31

* Taiwan: China Airlines, 747SP, Sept. 2

* Romania: Falcon 900, September 14

* Philippines: Federal Express MD-11, Oct. 17

Source: NTSB