FAA Chief Denies Reports He Sought to Relax Air Show Safety

Federal Aviation Administration chief T. Allan McArtor sought to modify federal safety regulations covering air shows last year, according to knowledgeable sources, triggering a dispute among FAA officials over whether he was attempting to erode safety margins.

McArtor wanted changes in regulations that, among other things, forbid stunt flying over spectators at low altitudes. Outraged career civil servants at the FAA blocked the plan after a series of heated meetings with McArtor, a retired Air Force stunt pilot who once flew with the Air Force’s Thunderbirds demonstration team.

But McArtor, who became administrator of the FAA last year, denied in a statement issued by FAA officials that he had attempted to relax safety regulations, although he did not deny that discussions were held on the issue.

“It is ludicrous to think I had proposed any loosening of air show regulations,” his statement said. “On the contrary, everything I have done has been directed toward making air shows more safe.”

The FAA’s strict air show policies, which cover military air shows in the United States, have been credited with preventing disasters of the type that occurred Aug. 28 at Ramstein, West Germany. An Italian stunt jet plunged into a crowd there and killed 52 spectators.

“McArtor had a special group of people named to see if our regulations could be relaxed,” said one source close to the FAA who asked not to be named. “He wanted the standards reviewed because he felt that there was room for the standards to be relaxed.

“As a (former) Thunderbird, he felt that the restrictions were too severe in some cases,” the source added.

Another source, an FAA official who is knowledgeable about McArtor’s initiative last year, said: “I did have a very big concern over any relaxation, such as crowd (position) . . . flight altitudes, maneuver over the crowds or any maneuvers that head aircraft toward crowds.”

Those were among the proposed changes under discussion, according to the official, who also asked not to be named.

“We are all products of our environment,” he said. “Allan came out of the military, and he thinks they do things the right way. I have no problem with that. But a person who is a safety regulator may have a different view.”

Since the Ramstein accident, the FAA has boasted publicly about the record of air shows in the United States.

“During the fiscal year, the FAA has made a significant effort to emphasize the importance of safety at air shows within the United States,” according to an official “briefing memorandum” handed out to reporters after the Ramstein accident. “The FAA is extremely proud of the air show safety record within the United States,” it said.

But critics say the safety record at U.S. air shows is poor and that regulations should be significantly tightened rather than relaxed.

“I’ll bet McArtor has changed his mind now (since the Ramstein accident),” said Tony LeVier, a retired Lockheed test pilot who has been crusading nationally for better U.S. pilot training. “The regulations have been too lax all these years. And they have been breaking the rules on and off for years. I know these guys. They are an eager bunch.”

Earlier this month, The Times published the results of a one-year investigation that documented more than 115 air show accidents at U.S. armed services air shows, publicity flights, demonstration events and practice flights both in the United States and abroad since 1955.

Those mishaps resulted in more than 100 fatalities and the loss of more than $1 billion worth of government-owned aircraft. The list is believed to be incomplete because neither the military services nor the FAA has ever kept comprehensive records on air show accidents and now say they are unable to sort out accident reports involving such shows.

Air shows annually attract millions of spectators and are counted on by the military to generate support for the armed forces. Aviation experts, including LeVier, are not opposed to them but say that because of the staggering record of losses officials should consider stricter regulations.

Policy Review Sought

Rep. Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash.) and Rep. Edward F. Feighan (D-Ohio) have called for a thorough review of air show policies at the Pentagon. In a letter to Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci, Dicks has raised the issue of whether the costs of air show disasters outweigh the benefits.

Military officials, however, say the aerial routines at armed services shows are thoroughly reviewed and are typical of normal training, according to Maj. Gen. Joseph Ashy, commander of the Air Force Tactical Weapons Training Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., the parent organization of the Thunderbirds demonstration team.

Ashy said in a recent interview that the Thunderbirds have not had an accident since 1982 and thus have a mishap rate of zero for the past six years. But in the two years preceding 1980, there were two mishaps. Since the group was formed more than three decades ago, it has had 16 accidents resulting in fatalities.

The military determines its safety record in terms of mishaps per 100,000 hours of flying. The six Thunderbird pilots cumulatively fly about 3,000 hours a year and have logged an estimated 24,000 hours since 1980. On that basis, the group has had a mishap rate for the past eight years of roughly 8.3 per 100,000 hours. (A request for official data on the Thunderbirds’ mishap rate was still being worked on by the Air Force last week.)

Mix-Ups Indicated

By comparison, the Tactical Air Command, which operates more than half of the fighter and attack aircraft wings of the Air Force, had a mishap rate in 1987 of 2.4 per 100,000 hours.

Thus, the highly trained Thunderbirds, who fly significantly more hours than other Air Force pilots, apparently have a safety record that is not as good as that of Air Force pilots flying comparable aircraft on routine operations.

An examination of the accident reports obtained by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act indicates that many Thunderbird accidents have involved misunderstandings between pilots in the six-member team. Those mix-ups resulted either in air collisions or in instances where the flight leader led the other aircraft into hazardous situations that resulted in crashes.

Some critics say that is one of the most dangerous aspects of flight shows--the coordinated flying of many aircraft at low altitudes in severe flight maneuvers. Demonstrations involving single planes are generally much less risky, they say.