Air Safety Investigators Overburdened, Study Finds

The nation’s air safety investigators are stretched to the breaking point, and their ability to keep solving increasingly complex disasters is being compromised, according to a comprehensive study released Thursday.

A lack of resources and staff, outdated investigative methods and overreliance on aircraft builders and other parties with a stake in the outcomes of its inquiries threaten to erode the role of the National Transportation Safety Board in protecting the public, the yearlong analysis by the Rand Corp. think tank has concluded.

“The NTSB is a critical factor in the safety equation,” said principal investigator Cynthia Lebow. “The only way we can avoid a breakdown is through the infusion of additional resources.”

The NTSB, the nation’s transportation safety watchdog, is an independent, 400-person federal agency with an annual budget of $57 million. Though it has no power to issue regulations, its findings and recommendations carry great weight with other federal agencies, industry and the public.

The Rand study was the first examination of the agency done so thoroughly by a party outside government in the agency’s 30-year history. It comes at a time when major air crashes are rare but determining their causes has become more difficult.

Once, the key to explaining many accidents lay in finding broken parts in piles of debris. Now that computers and electronics play a major role in flight, the chain of cause and effect is more elusive.

More than three years after the crash of TWA Flight 800 near New York, for instance, no cause has been officially established. A wiring problem that may have led to the explosion of the Boeing 747’s center fuel tank is suspected. All 230 aboard were killed.

NTSB Chairman Jim Hall, who requested the study, endorsed its findings as “candid, independent and honest.” An NTSB official said the agency is seeking an increase of $5 million to $10 million in its budget and would like to hire an additional 15 air safety experts.

On Capitol Hill, there appears to be agreement that the agency needs more money. “We do believe that they are stretched too thin,” said Scott Brenner, a spokesman for the House Transportation Committee.

Rand is a Santa Monica-based think tank that conducts research on a wide range of scientific and social policy questions. Among its study’s conclusions:

* Although major aviation accidents are few and far between, the workload of the 130 professionals in the aviation safety branch is going up. That is partly because the rate of minor commercial aviation accidents--which must also be investigated, even if no fatalities are involved--has nearly doubled over the last five years, rising from fewer than two per month to almost four.

In addition, the office must investigate crashes of about 2,000 private planes a year and lend assistance in foreign investigations involving U.S.-built aircraft.

* Aviation investigators work an average of 50 hours a week, rising to 60 hours after a major crash. “Those 130 people are working under dreadful conditions, away from home, facing enormous pressures,” Lebow said. They must sift through horrifying crash scenes and help brief the families of the victims.

They also must become astute detectives. In any major investigation, there is usually a heated ‘blame game’ among parties, such as the airline, pilots’ representatives and manufacturers. The recent effort by Egyptian officials to cast suspicion on Boeing Co. in the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 is an example. In that case, investigators have said that they found no problem with the Boeing 767 and that evidence points to deliberate action by a member of the crew. The crash killed 217.

* The NTSB’s practice of relying on the industry creates the potential for conflicts. The agency often designates aircraft manufacturers, airlines and unions representing crew members as official “parties” to an investigation. They provide needed expertise, while gaining access to the inquiry. That access can be valuable for an airline preparing to defend itself against lawsuits from victim’s families.

Lebow said Rand researchers found that outside parties walk a fine line between protecting their own interests and aiding the safety board. “Sometimes the parties will wait to see whether the NTSB asks the right question. How forthcoming the parties may be is a real issue.”