News Briefs

Air Safety Week, Feb 1, 1999

* Conspicuously absent. Attendees at the Southern California Safety Institute's (SCSI) 16th Annual Cabin Safety Conference commented on the notable absence of a significant Federal Aviation Administration presence (although the FAA has been present in force in years past). The commentary was triggered by Transport Canada's booth in the exhibit hall, which was a veritable beehive of activity (making the lack of a comparable FAA booth all the more apparent).

The Canadians were giving away pamphlets on various safety issues and offering a computerized quiz on cabin safety. An official at FAA headquarters in Washington, DC, declined to comment on the non- presence of an FAA booth or major speaker (FAA Administrator Jane Garvey had been invited but a response was never received, according to SCSI President Peter Gardiner). * Applause lines. Two lines generated enthusiastic applause from attendees at SCSI's cabin safety conference last week: 1. Duty-free shops in departure concourses provide passengers an inviting opportunity to purchase alcoholic beverages just before boarding. Although, legally, passengers are not supposed to drink from their own bottles on board, duty-free liquor is seen as a contributing factor to "passenger rage," as many of the worst incidents involve drunkenness. One speaker suggested "selling duty-free (liquor) to arriving passengers, not those departing." This declaration generated big applause from flight attendants in the audience (Note: one attendee said airports at Sydney, Australia, and Cairo, Egypt, already do this). However, such a switch would be no panacea. Jeanne Elliott, a senior flight attendant with Northwest Airlines, pointed out that duty-free liquor still would be sold aboard the airplane. Indeed, airlines make money off the sales and flight attendants are, in many cases, awarded healthy commissions on sales. The extra money is especially appealing to junior flight attendants near the bottom of the pay scale. 2. On the cabin safety role of the flight attendant, Charles Chittum of the FAA's Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI) at Oklahoma City, quipped, "The flight attendant is here to save your a** (posterior), not to kiss it." Huge audience response - clapping, huzzahs and amens. Chittum's candor and competence showed the FAA at its finest. * Emirates excellence. SCSI gave its Award of Excellence in Cabin Safety to Emirates Airlines for its pioneering use of a full 6- axis motion wide-body cabin simulator for training (Note: Emirates recently won the overall best airline category in the Official Airline Guide's annual awards). Emirates' high-tech trainer vividly simulates various scenarios, including gear collapse and aborted take-off, explosive decompression and emergency descent followed by a water ditching (there is an adjacent swimming pool). Smoke-generators provide added realism. * Sensitivity training. For turbulence training, one cabin safety conference attendee said "pilots should be required to stand in a cabin simulator holding a serving tray in one hand and a pot of coffee in the other." * Going back into the water. Speaking at the conference, Benoit Bouchard, chairman of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, described the TSB's investigation into the Sept. 2 crash of Swissair Flight 111 as an "extremely complex, multi-layered investigation." Recovery has been more difficult than U.S. investigators experienced with TWA Flight 800, where the wreckage was strewn across a sandy bottom. At Halifax, the ocean bottom is littered with rocks. Benoit showed a video clip of investigators literally picking parts out of piles of rocks hauled up from the bottom. "We don't yet have what we need to perform a wiring and electrical system analysis," he said. Accordingly, divers will resume their efforts in March, when the ocean surface is calmer. Benoit explained that investigators are particularly interested in recovering wiring running vertically in a bulkhead behind the co-pilot. Meanwhile, the FAA issued an airworthiness directive Jan. 28th (AD 99-03-02) ordering all MD-11 operators to inspect wiring near the forward doors for chafing, cuts, etc., and to repair as necessary within 60 days (see ASW, Jan. 18). * What passes for humor. Sometimes, humorous anecdotes can border on the perverse. "Peanut-free zones" have been established to avoid triggering allergic reactions. Now, with more carriers deploying automatic heart defibrillators to provide emergency life-saving care for an increasingly at-risk geriatric population, one commentator at SCSI's cabin safety conference quipped that "do not resuscitate zones" may have to be established for those passengers with living wills.