While everyone was lauding the aviation industry for its safest period in history, witnesses during the House Subcommittee on Aviaton hearing on the Oversight of FAA Safety Programs last week cited several areas of concern, including the introduction of Very Light Jets (VLJs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Committee members and witnesses alike also pointed to runway safety and aging aircraft as top issues, especially in the wake of Comair's Lexington, Ky. crash which killed 49 and the Chalk's crash last December off Miami when a wing separated on takeoff, killing all aboard.

Perhaps FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety Nick Sabatini described the current environment best, when he said the industry is experiencing the greatest change in the history of civil aviation. "Yet at the same time U.S. travelers are enjoying unprecedented safety," he said.

Runway Incursions Reduced But More is Needed

Sabatini admitted that runway safety management strategies implemented early in this decade have achieved their maximum effect. Indeed, analysis of the trend from 2001 through 2005 shows that the rate of reduction flattened. He said FAA must identify new strategies and is currently deploying and evaluating emerging technologies that will improve the situation. However, the General Accountability Office (GAO) and the Department of Transportation Inspector General criticized FAA's efforts, saying schedule delays and cost increases have hampered the program and reduced the number of airports for deployment.

Runway safety remains high on the safety agenda, given the impact of the Comair crash and the fact that the most lethal incursion in the U.S. also involved a regional aircraft - the 1991 US Airways (LCC))/SkyWest (SKYW) collision at Los Angeles. In addition, regional aircraft have been involved in several close calls just this year, according to the IG, two of which occurred three months apart at O'Hare. Three airports in particular -- Chicago O'Hare, Boston Logan, and Philadelphia -- have experienced a recent increase in incidents. During FY 2005 through August 2006, Boston Logan had 22 incidents (1 severe), Chicago O'Hare had 15 incidents (5 severe), and Philadelphia had 15 incidents (1 severe involving a collision). The IG is currently conducting a review of FAA's actions to address the issue.

The rise in incidents would suggest the need for a direct pilot alert system - on the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) Most Wanted List - is more critical. Indeed, both IG and GAO called for such a system. These systems are already available and two such systems were covered in the Comair accident analysis in the September 11 issue of Regional Aviation News.

The NTSB reported the FAA is developing several technologies to further reduce runway incursions, such as runway occupancy signals that will flash the approach path lights when another aircraft or vehicle is on the runway, enhance the visibility of hold lines, and runway status lights to warn pilots that it is unsafe to enter a runway.

GAO Deputy Director Physical Infrastructure Issues Gerald Dillingham reported that FAA is working on the Airport Movement Area Safety System (AMASS) and Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X (ASDE-X) to reduce runway accidents. However, FAA has reduced the number of airports scheduled to receive the equipment, slipped the schedule from 2007 to 2011 and incurred $40 million increased costs -- troubling factors that call into question the agency's reliance on these technologies. In total, 59 airports were to receive one or both technologies, but this number was reduced to 44 in August 2006 after FAA canceled plans to deploy ASDE-X at 15 of the originally scheduled airports. FAA plans to take these 15 systems and upgrade certain airports that already have AMASS, reserving ASDE-X for the busiest airports. This decision leaves 15 airports that were supposed to receive ASDE-X with nothing. In view of the advent of VLJs serving smaller airports that lack any advanced technology, the IG wants FAA to periodically re-evaluate its decision.

FAA's plans run counter to a NTSB recommendation - the only one of 21 runway incursions recommendations that remains open - requiring all airports with scheduled passenger service, a ground movement safety system that provides a direct warning to flight crews. "The issue is one of reaction time," NTSB's Thomas Haueter told the committee. "Safety Board investigations have found that AMASS is not adequate to prevent serious runway collisions, because too much time is lost routing valuable information through air traffic control...situations were instead resolved by flight crew actions that sometimes bordered on heroics or just plain luck."

Aging Aircraft

The Inspector General Todd Zinser charged that FAA's records review and visual inspections of aircraft will not identify hidden cracks or corrosion and cited the fact that two months before the Chalks accident, fatigue cracking was evident in both wings. These types of problems will only be identified through more detailed supplemental inspections, which are not required for all aircraft under the current rules, said the IG, adding the structural integrity of aircraft cannot be assured if they are only covered under FAA's Aircraft Inspection and Records Review process and not subject to supplemental inspections. Additionally, the IG said, there are some categories of aircraft that are not covered by any aging aircraft program, because of the costs of developing programs for these operators.

Turning to the area of air cargo, Sabatini said safety statistics for air cargo operators have significantly improved. "The part 121 cargo operation per departure hull loss accident rate has consistently improved, and now stands at about one-third of where it was in 1990," he said. "A consistent downward trend is also shown for the 135 operators with the number of accidents in 2005 at about half of what they were in 1990."

Even so, NTSB voiced concern. "From 1998 through 2005, the accident rate...was still about 2.5 times higher than the accident rate for scheduled passenger operators. Further, in instances where there was not an isolated injury to an individual, the accident rate was about 6.3 times higher than for commercial passenger aviation."

It also criticized the FAA for its problematic response to establishing flight and duty rules for Part 135 operations, especially in view of FAA's own admission that an Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC) had produced some promising work that would simplify hours-of-service practices for Part 135 operations. (RAN, August 28, p.3) "However, the Safety Board has not seen this work, nor has the FAA decided whether to make explicit regulatory changes based on the ARAC's work," said Haueter, noting that the FAA has unsuccessfully attempted on three occasions to reach consensus with the industry.

Citing the equipment installed in the Cessna 208B involved in the Russian icing accident as revealing safety issues that may not have been otherwise identified, the board also wants CVRs and FDRs required for single-pilot certificated turbine-powered aircraft and dual certificated cargo/passenger aircraft. It also cited the vast number of incidents on smaller aircraft and suggested a single crash-protected video image recorder, at $8,000 per installation would capture audio information and event data as well as information about the environment outside the cockpit window.