Congress to Tackle FAA Handling of 757 Issue : Aviation: House subcommittee will investigate whether the agency ignored safety warnings involving the aircraft until after fatal Santa Ana crash. Turbulence from the jets can affect trailing planes.
A congressional subcommittee will convene a hearing next month to determine whether the Federal Aviation Administration ignored safety warnings involving Boeing 757 jetliners until after the deaths of 13 people, federal officials said Monday.
Saying the FAA has a history of not acting until after a tragedy, Rep. Tom Lewis (R-Fla.), the ranking Republican on the House subcommittee on technology, environment and aviation, said he called for the hearing because he believes the FAA may have put the airline industry’s well-being before the public’s.
“I’m really frustrated with the FAA over this thing,” Lewis said. “I passed legislation--the Catastrophic Failure Prevention Act--that’s supposed to require them to look at these kinds of things before they happen.
“This tombstone technology attitude of the FAA does not seem to want to go away,” Lewis said.
Two crashes, including last December’s accident in Santa Ana that killed two In-N-Out Burger chain executives, occurred after private aircraft encountered “horizontal tornadoes” caused by 757 jetliners. Although aviation experts disagree on the degree of the hazard, the 757’s unique, fuel-efficient design creates windstorms emanating from each wingtip that are more powerful and last longer than those made by other aircraft its size.
The Times reported earlier this month that the FAA’s top scientist, Robert E. Machol, had issued warnings on the 757 wake turbulence danger as far back as 1990. It was that report that prompted Lewis’ call for the hearing, he said.
Congressional staffers said the hearing, the second federal inquiry on this subject to be announced in recent weeks, will focus on why the FAA tarried before instituting new safety rules designed to prevent accidents caused by 757 wake turbulence when its own scientists had called attention to the potential danger years ago. Among the FAA’s new rules on 757s: an interim requirement that smaller planes landing behind 757s stay four miles back on final approach, instead of three miles, so pilots can better avoid the wake turbulence.
The hearing also will address the larger questions of whether the regulatory agency “pays attention” to its scientists on safety recommendations, and whether the agency’s conflicting twin tasks--ensuring safety and promoting the aviation industry--would best be split up and handled by separate entities, staffers said.
“We would like the FAA to do what it’s supposed to do,” said a congressional staffer involved in gathering witnesses and evidence for the hearing, tentatively scheduled for July 19. “If they don’t pay attention to their own scientists and research staff, then this might happen again.”
The House subcommittee on technology, environment and aviation is chaired by Rep. Tim Valentine (D-North Carolina) who agreed to schedule the hearing at Lewis’ request. The subcommittee has been instrumental in increasing FAA’s research budget in recent years--a point of contention for Lewis, who said the agency had “plenty of money” to study the wake turbulence hazard before now.
Historically, the FAA has moved cautiously before making policy changes that could prove costly to the airline industry. In the case of 757s, the agency had resisted efforts to increase separation distances between the popular, sleek-bodied jets and trailing aircraft because it could potentially decrease the number of flights at the nation’s busiest airports. That could mean revenue losses for the airline industry, which has battled financial problems in recent years.
“I think there’s a terrific conflict of interest between promoting commerce and ensuring safety,” Lewis said. “For years, I’ve tried to get the two tasks separated and the FAA has been successful in putting that off.”
The FAA has maintained that there was insufficient data to warrant a rule change on 757s. However, in May, following the fatal crash in Santa Ana, the agency announced a new set of policies.
Five people were killed on Dec. 15, 1993, as a private jet crashed on final approach to John Wayne Airport. Eight people died in a Billings, Mont., crash on Dec. 18, 1992.
According to internal FAA documents obtained by The Times, 11 days before the 1992 accident, Machol, the agency’s top scientist at the time, warned FAA managers that wake turbulence created by 757 jetliners would cause a “catastrophe” if the agency failed to take preventive measures.
“It was in 1990 that they knew they had a problem, but they don’t create a wider separation until after 13 deaths,” Lewis said. “I think that’s heinous.”
Earlier this month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena ordered a review to determine whether the FAA bungled the handling of the 757 wake turbulence problem. Both he and FAA Administrator David R. Hinson expressed concern about whether the agency was equipped to identify potential safety problems and act on them in a timely fashion. The results of that inquiry, which is being conducted jointly by the FAA and the Department of Transportation, are scheduled to be released July 22.
The wake turbulence, created by rapid air movement across the 757’s wings, poses the greatest hazard during landings and take-offs, when trailing aircraft can inadvertently slip below the larger craft’s flight path and become entangled in a danger zone of hurricane-force winds.
The FAA has parried criticism stemming from the two fatal accidents by saying both planes were flying under visual flight rules, which require pilots to bear the primary responsibility for maintaining a safe distance.
Yet, in the wake of the two accidents, several new procedures take effect beginning this summer. In addition to the new interim four-mile separation rule, the FAA will require air traffic controllers to complete regular wake turbulence training and be more cautious when dealing with planes landing behind 757s.
The agency also will educate pilots of 757s on the potential threat their aircraft poses to other planes. And it also has begun alerting pilots of smaller planes when they are following a 757.
