Averting Future Air Disasters : FAA finally gets clear in warnings about 757s and their dangerous wakes

The Federal Aviation Administration has done the right thing in requiring air traffic controllers to issue turbulence alerts for small planes following Boeing 757 jetliners.

The catalyst was the crash of a private jet in Santa Ana Dec. 15 that killed two executives of the In-N-Out Burger chain and three other men.

The pilot was warned several times by air traffic controllers on approach to nearby John Wayne Airport that he was going too fast. Clearly, those warnings ought to have alerted him to danger, but it is possible that more information could have averted the crash. Federal investigators said that in addition to traveling too fast, the plane may have been caught up in unusually heavy turbulence created by a 757, which was ahead of the private craft.

As recently as September, the FAA issued a warning to air traffic controllers that 757s had the potential to cause dangerous turbulence in their wakes. And the FAA now says that at least four incidents involving at least 13 fatalities in the last year may be linked to turbulence caused by 757s.

Although controllers at John Wayne Airport were aware of the potential problem, as acknowledged later by the manager of the traffic control tower, the pilot of the jet that crashed never was told what kind of plane he was following. Until Wednesday, there was no such requirement; the controllers in this case should not be faulted.

However belated the action, it’s good that the FAA now insists on specific advisory warnings to pilots. Previously existing rules require warnings to planes flying behind jumbo jets such as the 747. The new warnings on 757s likewise will require pilots to remain five miles behind the big jetliners, instead of the current three miles.

It was remarkable, and maybe just lucky, that the Santa Ana crash did not result in an even worse accident. The plane went down at rush hour in a field next to an auto mall, breathtakingly close to the busy Costa Mesa Freeway. Now that the FAA demands that pilots be warned of turbulence from 757s, perhaps some future disaster can be prevented.