Safety of Small Airlines Challenged : Military Check on Troop-Hauling Planes’ Upkeep Urged

Some aviation safety experts Friday challenged the safety of the smaller airlines hired to carry U.S. troops overseas, and one suggested that rather than relying on the Federal Aviation Administration, the Pentagon should order military crews to monitor the aircraft maintenance themselves.

The Military Airlift Command, responsible for flying most U.S. troops overseas, has signed $251 million in contracts with 17 airlines for its international transportation needs this fiscal year. About $65 million of that business was assigned to so-called supplemental airlines, which depend primarily on charter flights for their business.

One of those flights, flown by Arrow Air Inc., crashed Thursday after refueling in Gander, Canada, killing 248 troops on their way home for Christmas after peacekeeping duty in the Sinai Peninsula. Eight crew members were also killed.

The airlift command has assigned $13 million in business to Arrow, although Thursday’s flight was chartered by the international office of the Sinai peacekeeping force, rather than by the Pentagon.

Low Bid Factor

According to reports filed with the FAA, Arrow since late 1982 has disclosed eight safety-related incidents, ranging from flight turbulence to unsafe pilot acts.

Pentagon officials made clear Friday that once an airline is certified by the FAA--meaning that its airplanes are safe and its crew members are properly trained--contracts are, in most cases, awarded on the basis of the lowest bid.

“If they’re a certified air carrier, then that’s what we have to go by,” with cost becoming the next major factor in determining contracts, said Capt. Wayne Crist, a spokesman for the airlift command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.

John Galipault of the Aviation Safety Institute, a private, nonprofit organization in Columbus, Ohio, that compiles reports on airline safety, criticized that approach.

Insisting that greater care should be applied to safety considerations, Galipault said, “If MAC is just going out and getting the lowest bid and saying, ‘It’s FAA-certified, we won’t worry about it,’ that’s the wrong approach, and you can quote me. It’s astounding no one is keeping an eye on them.”

Without providing any specifics, he said “practically all the supplementals grossly abuse” the government limits imposed on the hours flight crews may spend in the air.

Vigorous Role Urged

John O’Brien, director of safety and engineering for the Air Line Pilots Assn., when asked whether the military should be flying its passengers on the supplemental carriers, said bluntly, “They shouldn’t be.”

He recommended a more vigorous role for the military in ensuring the safe operation of the MAC-chartered aircraft.

“The military, maintenance-wise and safety-wise, probably has one of the best organizations in the world,” he said. “Before a contract is actually signed, the military safety people should look at the history of the (airline) operator. That would be one way to protect those people.”

In contrast, Jerard Bruggink, an air safety specialist and a former airline pilot, said statistics compiled by the National Transportation Safety Board indicate that the supplementals have “a very good record.”

He pointed out that these airlines were used extensively during the Vietnam War as troop transports “and they did fairly well.”

But Randy Stirm, a mechanic for Pacific Southwest Airlines in San Diego, said that he worked last summer on the airplane that crashed and noticed serious malfunctions in one of the jet’s four engines, according to the Associated Press. Stirm said he worked on the jet while employed in Tacoma, Wash., by ServAir, an airplane ground maintenance company.

Arrow Air’s Denial

Robin Mentall, a spokesman for Arrow Air in Miami, denied Stirm’s allegation and said that the engine was replaced “in conformity with all FAA standards and we acted entirely within FAA compliance.”

A supervisor at ServAir said that the Arrow jet had been in Seattle for maintenance Tuesday and “we never had any problems with it.”

Under current procedures, the Military Airlift Command sends representatives every two years to “survey” chartered airplanes. “We don’t call it an inspection,” spokesman Crist said.

In addition, he said, “we look at whether the crew members are qualified, the management, financial capabilities and compliance with regulations.”

The decision to rely on commercial aviation to carry troops overseas was made in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration, and since then the Pentagon has been doing business with a variety of airlines. In 1984, 1.2 million Defense Department personnel traveled on such charter flights--95% of the military people traveling overseas.

To make sure the charter airlines on which it depends are on an independent financial footing, the airlift command requires that no more than 40% of a carrier’s business comes from the Pentagon. Arrow Air, for instance, operates scheduled passenger service to such cities as Boston, Orlando and Cancun, Mexico.

Civil Reserve Fleet

Airlines awarded the contracts are required to make a commitment that their aircraft will be available to carry troops overseas in case of war, as members of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet.

Air Force Col. Robert J. O’Brien, a Pentagon spokesman, defended the cost efficiency of using civilian aircraft. He pointed out that the $220 million spent for such flights last year would have been enough to buy only two giant C5-A transports and would leave no money to operate them.

Besides, said one Pentagon source, referring to crashes this year involving major airlines, “the big carriers fall out of the sky, too.”

Crist said that the Military Airlift Command has not had problems attracting bidders. “There is definitely an element of patriotism on their part,” he said.

With shifts in the airline industry brought about by deregulation introduced by the Jimmy Carter Administration, most major airlines have found it unprofitable to reserve airplanes for charter use, preferring instead to keep them busy on regularly scheduled flights.

Chuck Novak, a spokesman for United Air Lines, the nation’s largest air carrier, said that United has dramatically reduced its charter business and no longer flies all-military charters because it does not pay.

With discount fares replacing most charters, he said, “the demand isn’t there.”

However, he said, the company continues to fly professional football teams on charter flights.

Times staff writer H.G. Reza in San Diego contributed to this story.