Major Carriers Agree To Share Post-Crash Costs

Air Safety Week, Sept 20, 1999

A new agreement on sharing emergency-response expenses represents a "mindset change" about post-accident family affairs. That's Jamie Finch's take on the September 7th agreement signed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Air Transport Association (ATA). Finch is one of the NTSB's top family affairs officials, but his enthusiasm is shared by outside observers.

For the first time, according to the agreement, the airlines have stated, in writing, their willingness to pay for the cost of victim recovery and identification. There is a slight difference for crashes in the water, as in the 1996 case of TWA [TWA] Flight 800. In these cases, if victim recovery is part of wreckage recovery, the NTSB will pay for victim recovery. However, if salvage equipment is used solely to recover remains, the carriers have agreed to pay for both victim recovery and identification.

The agreement is an outgrowth of the rising cost and the more protracted nature of crash investigations, and the rising cost of identifying the shivered remains of victims through DNA testing. The NTSB's $1 million emergency fund has been overwhelmed; even a recent increase of that fund to $2 million can easily be wiped out by the cost of a single crash (an independent source places the cost of the TWA investigation thus far at more than $60 million).

In recent years, according to Finch, the NTSB has repeatedly had to request supplemental funds from Congress. After the fatal 1997 crash at Monroe, Michigan, of an Embraer EMB-120 twin turboprop flown by Comair [COMR], Congress tasked the NTSB to come to some kind of agreement with the carriers.

The one signed recently is the result. Even before it was signed, according to Finch, American Airlines [AMR] followed its provisions after the June 1 crash of one of its MD-83s at Little Rock, Ark. (see ASW, June 7). That precedent, according to other sources, is a positive sign, as any voluntary agreement is only as good as it is implemented.

Although the agreement was signed by the ATA on behalf if its member carriers, a common fund is not to be established. Rather, the carrier suffering the accident and its insurance underwriter will be the parties responsible for bearing the costs. The cost burden of victim recovery and identification, one source suggested, could be extended to a voluntary commitment from the manufacturers, as well, given that in some cases aircraft design may be a factor in an accident. In this respect, it was suggested that manufacturers and carriers could obtain supplemental catastrophic insurance to mitigate the effects.

Of note, the agreement was spurred by the crash of a regional airliner, yet the ATA represents the major carriers. A similar agreement with the Regional Airline Association (RAA), Finch predicted, "is the next step to be taken." >> Finch, tel. 202/314-6102 <<

Highlights of the Agreement

"Principles of Understanding" (Extracts)

1. Logistical and Transportation Expenses for Families. For a reasonable period of time after an aviation accident, the operating carrier will pay or cause to be paid the various reasonable...expenses (including food, lodging, local transportation and travel to/from their home) of the families of the victims to, at and from the accident site or nearest appropriate location.

2. Victim Recovery. ATA carriers agree, in general, that the operating carrier should pay or cause to be paid the reasonable out of pocket operating expenses incurred for the recovery of victims and remains (as distinct from wreckage...)

3. Victim identification. (T)he operating carrier will pay or cause to be paid the usual and customary out of pocket expenses incurred as a result of the aviation accident by the local medical authority (i.e., local coroner or medical examiner) for identification of victims through traditional means (e.g., visual, dental records, medical records, etc.). To the extent unidentified deceased victims remain thereafter, the operating carrier will pay...the reasonable out of pocket expenses incurred for reasonable alternative technological identification methods, such as DNA testing, solely to complete the victim identification process.

4. Burial Arrangements. (T)he operating carrier should pay for reasonable and customary funeral expenses (including shipment of remains)...

Source: NTSB, ATA