- Visit the Photo Place

Safer skies

Congressional hearing bring regional air-carrier safety to the forefront

Date published: 6/14/2009

WHEN SCORES OF people perish in an airplane crash, the rare, sudden, and massive loss of life produces a palpable feeling of shock and sorrow. It also produces questions that demand answers.

The crash of Continental Express Flight 3407 near Buffalo, N.Y., last February has raised many questions about commuter airline safety, and Congress wants answers. But hearings before Senate and House committees seem to have told congressional investigators only this: If you're looking for answers from the Federal Aviation Administration, you're going to come away frustrated.

For starters, the inquisitors wanted to know why 450 recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board for improving commercial air safety have gone unheeded. They wanted to know why it appears that regional commuter airlines, which account for half of all U.S. flights, are not getting the FAA attention they evidently need.

Is the agency concerned that many regional airline pilots make their homes thousands of miles from their bases of operation? Is it surprised that the co-pilot of the doomed flight in Buffalo lamented moments before the crash that she lacked flight experience in icy weather conditions? Does it care that she was making about $11 an hour when the minimum wage is $7.25?

FAA Administrator J. Randolph Babbitt seemed not to share the urgency expressed during the hearings by lawmakers. Isn't it time to bolster the rule book when the last six fatal airline crashes in the U.S. involve regional airlines, and a key factor in half of them is pilot performance?

With nearly every crash of any sort, a confluence of unpredictable, unfathomable events eventually gets the blame. In nearly every case, the removal of one of those factors would have resulted in a safe landing. Those that involve pilot performance wouldn't have happened if pilots had performed properly.

As Flight 3407 descended toward the airport near Buffalo, the pilots' actions over a period of seconds probably determined whether the flight would end tragically or routinely. In those crucial moments, a lack of experience with a particular plane in particular conditions could make the difference, as could an otherwise unimportant level of pilot fatigue.

Airlines are depending more on short hops to collect passengers and get them to their hub airports. Studies show that the more takeoffs and landings a pilot endures during a shift, the greater the physical toll. When the airlines' cost-cutting measures jeopardize safety, and the governing agency fails to crack down, the result will certainly be lives lost.

Despite any FAA protests to the contrary, its pursuit of air safety appears lax. It's up to Congress to press the issue with unrelenting zeal.

Date published: 6/14/2009