Aviation Safety

I'M A professional airways system specialist. There are 11,000 of us nationwide - we certify air traffic safety. We work on radar, approach light systems, instrument landing systems and other facilities and equipment used in air traffic control. Men and women like me have dedicated our careers to maintaining the safety of our air traffic control system. The agenda of the current administration is to eliminate half of our workforce over the next three years. Unless we can change the administration's direction, the president's committment to decrease the size of the federal workforce will lead to contracting out the inherently governmental work performed by system safety specialists and aviation safety inspectors.

A few minutes after 4 p.m. this afternoon a red, white and blue Boeing 727 will lift off a North Carolina runway and begin a new era in aviation safety. Although passengers aboard the Piedmont Airlines jetliner bound from Greensboro to Washington may not know it, they will be traveling with a new device designed to eventually end the threat of midair collisions. Piedmont Flight 74 will represent the first operational use of a package of instruments known as the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS 2)

Under tremendous stress from continued growth in commercial and general aviation, the nation's air traffic system is being pushed to the limits of safety, according to a congressional study released yesterday. Unless the federal government acts immediately to modernize the air traffic control system, "present safety levels may not be sustainable," the Office of Technology Assessment warned in a 183-page report. The OTA said that the Federal Aviation Administration, hampered by budget cuts and bureaucratic inertia, has been "scrambling to catch up" with changes that the agency has been ill-equipped to anticipate or to tackle since the airline industry was deregulated in 1978.

The Maryland man who was killed with his wife and daughter when his plane crashed into a Newark neighborhood Friday was a cautious pilot who taught flying safety to others, a colleague said. The pilot, Itzhak Jacoby, 56; his wife, Gail, 50; and their 13-year-old daughter, Atira, all of Bethesda, Md., were killed when the plane crashed, setting a factory on fire and wreaking havoc over two square blocks. Authorities said 22 people on the ground were injured and two remained hospitalized yesterday.

I reply to the May 20 editorial, "FAA still asleep at the wheel. " You quoted Herbert R. McClure, General Accounting Office associate director, as saying, "The FAA headquarters doesn't know what inspections are being done, who is doing them, which airlines are being inspected, what kinds of inspections are going on and what are the violations. " It is that kind of statement that is going to give the phrase informed analysis a bad name. The facts are that we have the most comprehensive and sophisticated aviation inspection system in the world.

The biggest clue to what caused American Airlines flight 587 to crash yesterday is the 9,480-pound engine resting in a Texaco gas station a few blocks from the rest of the wreckage. That's because the workhorse General Electric Co. CF6-80C2 engine apparently fell off the jetliner just minutes after takeoff. And investigators want to know why. Although the loss of an engine on takeoff is a potentially catastrophic event, the A300 Airbus is designed to keep flying in such a situation, aviation experts say. "Engine failures by themselves don't cause the plane to crash; they have to come together with something else to take out a critical system," said Bill Waldock, associate director of the Center for Aerospace Safety Education at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.

Critics of airline deregulation have ample ammunition for questioning whether the public continues to benefit from unfettered competition. Some of the more articulate detractors had a field day at a recent conference on the future of aviation sponsored by the University of Denver College of Law. Deregulation, especially as it has been allowed to flourish under the Reagan and Bush administrations, has contributed to numerous airline failures,...

The age of many airplanes flying Americans around the nation and the world has led to increased federal scrutiny for possible safety problems. The Federal Aviation Administration pledged yesterday to start taking a much closer look at the systems of these very old planes. "We want travelers to feel confident when they board a U.S. aircraft - whether it was built last year, or 10, 20 years ago," FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said. Teams of experts will study each aircraft model in use to determine what steps should be taken to deal with their aging systems.

Around this time each year for about a decade, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has rounded up Canada geese from parks and airports across New Jersey, herded them into pens, and euthanized them with carbon dioxide. The process has begun again, and it is set to continue through July as the government fights an overabundance of geese up and down the East Coast, responding to complaints about waste, property damage, and aviation safety. But the program is not without detractors in the animal-rights community.

This was the selling of Frank Lautenberg: On his first trip to South Jersey in the year he is seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate, the state's freshman Democrat began his day across the Delaware River, appearing before television cameras to promote the expansion of Philadelphia International Airport. The airport, Lautenberg said, is "a vital link in the region's transportation system. " He talked about new runways, more efficient terminals. And, of course, more federal aid. Then, there was the working Frank Lautenberg: On a tour of the airport control tower yesterday, he leaned against a gray fuse box and debated for 20 minutes about aviation safety with Jamison Hurst Jr., the airport's air traffic manager, and Robert Snead, the local president of the new air traffic controllers' union.

Around this time each year for about a decade, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has rounded up Canada geese from parks and airports across New Jersey, herded them into pens, and euthanized them with carbon dioxide. The process has begun again, and it is set to continue through July as the government fights an overabundance of geese up and down the East Coast, responding to complaints about waste, property damage, and aviation safety. But the program is not without detractors in the animal-rights community.

I'M A professional airways system specialist. There are 11,000 of us nationwide - we certify air traffic safety. We work on radar, approach light systems, instrument landing systems and other facilities and equipment used in air traffic control. Men and women like me have dedicated our careers to maintaining the safety of our air traffic control system. The agenda of the current administration is to eliminate half of our workforce over the next three years. Unless we can change the administration's direction, the president's committment to decrease the size of the federal workforce will lead to contracting out the inherently governmental work performed by system safety specialists and aviation safety inspectors.

The biggest clue to what caused American Airlines flight 587 to crash yesterday is the 9,480-pound engine resting in a Texaco gas station a few blocks from the rest of the wreckage. That's because the workhorse General Electric Co. CF6-80C2 engine apparently fell off the jetliner just minutes after takeoff. And investigators want to know why. Although the loss of an engine on takeoff is a potentially catastrophic event, the A300 Airbus is designed to keep flying in such a situation, aviation experts say. "Engine failures by themselves don't cause the plane to crash; they have to come together with something else to take out a critical system," said Bill Waldock, associate director of the Center for Aerospace Safety Education at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.

Despite urging by aviation experts and several U.S. senators, Bush administration officials said yesterday they were not ready for the government to take over the job of screening passengers and bags at airports. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta told a Senate committee that it would cost $1.8 billion a year for the government to do the job now performed by private security firms hired by the airlines. The administration is still exploring the idea, Mineta said. Whatever happens, he said, the government will insist on tighter security in the aftermath of last week's hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in suburban Washington.

The Maryland man who was killed with his wife and daughter when his plane crashed into a Newark neighborhood Friday was a cautious pilot who taught flying safety to others, a colleague said. The pilot, Itzhak Jacoby, 56; his wife, Gail, 50; and their 13-year-old daughter, Atira, all of Bethesda, Md., were killed when the plane crashed, setting a factory on fire and wreaking havoc over two square blocks. Authorities said 22 people on the ground were injured and two remained hospitalized yesterday.

The age of many airplanes flying Americans around the nation and the world has led to increased federal scrutiny for possible safety problems. The Federal Aviation Administration pledged yesterday to start taking a much closer look at the systems of these very old planes. "We want travelers to feel confident when they board a U.S. aircraft - whether it was built last year, or 10, 20 years ago," FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said. Teams of experts will study each aircraft model in use to determine what steps should be taken to deal with their aging systems.

Critics of airline deregulation have ample ammunition for questioning whether the public continues to benefit from unfettered competition. Some of the more articulate detractors had a field day at a recent conference on the future of aviation sponsored by the University of Denver College of Law. Deregulation, especially as it has been allowed to flourish under the Reagan and Bush administrations, has contributed to numerous airline failures,...

Under tremendous stress from continued growth in commercial and general aviation, the nation's air traffic system is being pushed to the limits of safety, according to a congressional study released yesterday. Unless the federal government acts immediately to modernize the air traffic control system, "present safety levels may not be sustainable," the Office of Technology Assessment warned in a 183-page report. The OTA said that the Federal Aviation Administration, hampered by budget cuts and bureaucratic inertia, has been "scrambling to catch up" with changes that the agency has been ill-equipped to anticipate or to tackle since the airline industry was deregulated in 1978.

This was the selling of Frank Lautenberg: On his first trip to South Jersey in the year he is seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate, the state's freshman Democrat began his day across the Delaware River, appearing before television cameras to promote the expansion of Philadelphia International Airport. The airport, Lautenberg said, is "a vital link in the region's transportation system. " He talked about new runways, more efficient terminals. And, of course, more federal aid. Then, there was the working Frank Lautenberg: On a tour of the airport control tower yesterday, he leaned against a gray fuse box and debated for 20 minutes about aviation safety with Jamison Hurst Jr., the airport's air traffic manager, and Robert Snead, the local president of the new air traffic controllers' union.

In a moment, I will bring you up to date on the ongoing effort to time the World's Fastest Tomato, but first we need to discuss two important aviation- safety concerns. The first concern was brought to my attention by an alert reader named Mike Hallinan, who sent me a clipping from The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune of a United Press International article headlined: TOILET SUCKS OUT WOMAN'S INTESTINES. I swear I am not making this up. According to the article, this 70-year-old woman was on a cruise ship, and she flushed the toilet without getting up, and the suction caused a medical development so upsetting that you would not wish it upon anybody, not even popular former televised evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.