Despite 2nd DC-10 Incident, FAA Chief Says Plane Is Safe

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration said today that despite a second incident of a DC-10 engine breaking up in flight the McDonnell Douglas wide-body plane remains safe to fly.

FAA Administrator James Busey said the fact that the pilot on the Northwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Minneapolis shut down the tail engine and made a safe emergency landing in Denver on the remaining two engines Wednesday night showed the system worked.

Busey told a press conference that the Northwest plane’s engines were built by Pratt and Whitney, unlike the one on the United Airlines plane that disintegrated on a Denver-to-Chicago flight July 19.

A total of 111 people of the 296 aboard the United flight died when the plane crashed and burst into flames trying to make an emergency landing in Sioux City, Iowa.

The United engine, whose parts sprayed through the plane’s tail section and severed the DC-10’s main and two backup hydraulic control systems, was made by General Electric.

Government-Industry Study

After the incident, the FAA announced a joint government-industry study into the ability of wide-body planes to survive after such catastrophic incidents.

It said the study would later extend to other planes with similar hydraulic systems that terminate in the tail section.

Busey said there was no reason to ground the DC-10 as a precautionary measure. He said of the plane, “It’s safe.”

He said the two incidents were being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and “when we know what needs to be done, then (we will) take the requisite action.”

Busey added that it would be irresponsible to act without sufficient information.

He said, “We know of no hard facts at this time that would lead us to take any kind of action to ground the DC-10.”

But Busey said, “Rest assured, as the facts become available out of the investigatory process, we are prepared to take whatever action is indicated by those facts.