In 2006, the U.S. air safety community will continue its attempts to take the nation’s aviation network toward a “system safety approach” and to modernize many of its procedures, says Terry McVenis, executive air safety chairman for the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA).
The basic philosophy of such an over-arching safety approach starts with integrating all the available data that is generated by any of the interested aviation firms, government agencies or organizations. The accumulated data is analyzed, with recommendations for improved safety getting back to all areas of aviation, including air traffic control, aircraft manufacturing, daily operations and personnel training.
Today “we have bits and pieces” of a potentially complete system, McVenis tells Air Safety Week. For example, cockpit-based recording devices take down hundreds of parameters. But the typical modus operandi is that each carrier generates its own kind of data, and then acts independently.
One issue that would benefit from data integration involves the fatigue suffered by flightcrew members, an issue that is rapidly “coming to a head,” McVenis says. In recent years, there have been a number of accidents with human fatigue as at least one of the factors. It’s not so much the length and the number of flights that are important as it is gaining a better understanding how certain flight conditions affect pilots’ bodies and minds. Once such condition, for example, involves those “back side of the clock” hours during red-eye flights.
While modernization takes many forms, the fortunes of certain types of systems seem to be on the rise. Near the top of ALPA’s priorities is Required Navigation Performance (RNP), which gives pilots vertical as well as lateral approach guidance, allowing a more precise means of navigating into certain airports.
This year, Alaska Air [ALK] has been successfully conducting RNP trials at the various airports it serves, including Juneau Int’l (JNU), which has a particularly mountainous (and thus hazardous) approach, says FAA spokeswoman Allison Duquette.
Alaska Air also has been experimenting with RNP on the approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) that, for a variety of reasons that include noise abatement, follows the path of the Potomac River. In late December, the FAA announced that the RNP approach to DCA is now open to other carriers.
A second type of system due for an expanded rollout with FAA backing is Automated Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), which provides situational awareness for pilots and controllers, and may especially serve as an alternative to radar in areas where there may be little or no radar.
An additional rising star among the latest-generation aviation technology is likely to include the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), a precision guidance system that works by correcting sometimes-errant GPS (global positioning system) signals.
Then again, a good part of “looking ahead” into 2006 and beyond will be determined by looking back into 2005. As usual, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will have its hands full with accident investigations (perhaps even more so; the board recently announced that its next round of site inspections training is being postponed because so many of its staff are already involved in investigations.)
Prominent among these will be NTSB’s final report of its investigation into Chalk’s Ocean Airways’ Dec. 19 accident in Florida (Air Safety Week, Jan. 2, p. 1), which killed all 20 people aboard. Beyond the technicalities of what caused this crash, this incident may force a more honest approach to the way FAA and the air safety community appraise risk, Todd Curtis, founder and publisher of AirSafe.com, tells Air Safety Week. This is because the smaller the craft, the lower the rate of survivability. The question becomes, “Do we divert more resources into small craft safety, or do we accept that different types of planes and routes have different levels of risk?”
Also, because two of last year’s most notorious incidents were runway overruns — an Air France [AFRAF.PK] aircraft at Toronto Pearson Int’l (YYZ) in August and a Southwest Airlines [LUV] flight at Chicago’s Midway Int’l (MDW) on Dec. 8 — that issue is taking on a life of its own. Congress has already toldFAA to take new action on runway overruns by 2015.
Whatever FAA ultimately decides to do, it will have to be mindful that many airports have space constraints — Midway among them — due to surrounding urbanization or waterfront perimeters, and will not be able to use the current options for to be in compliance, says Dick Marchi, vice president of technical affairs with Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA). These involve either a 1,000-foot runway extension or an extra 600 feet with some kind of Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS), like the lightweight crushed concrete particle already in use at many airports.
Another report that arrived late in 2005, from the Department of Transportation Inspector General (IG), is bound to have implications that will be felt even more in the coming year. IG found FAA remiss in monitoring non-certified foreign and domestic aircraft repair facilities (Air Safety Week, Jan. 2).
Many mechanics have made similar allegations, says aviation attorney Charles Slepian, with Fuller and Fuller in New York. And it’s not just an effort to save their own jobs. They have come up with hard evidence, such as nosewheels that have collapsed after being worked on in foreign shops. Some foreign workers never undergo background checks, so there’s also a security side to the issue.
It also will be interesting to learn exactly what the modern industry looks like, and what differences become evident when airlines send work to facilities in places like London versus to third-world countries, says Steve Van Beek, ACI-NA’s executive vice president for policy.
Also, even though it is not due until Sept. 30, 2007, there already is considerable discussion concerning Congress’s next 10-year reauthorization of FAA. So far, the biggest issue involves who pays how much into the agency’s trust fund, which provides most of its funding. Two of FAA’s biggest responsibilities are managing the air traffic control system and setting and enforcing safety regulations.
The Air Transport Association (ATA), in particular, would like to see more money come from corporate jets, which are using disproportionately more airspace in comparison to regularly scheduled commercial flights, says David Castelveter, ATA’s vice president of communications. Years ago, when the proportional allocations were set for the fund, commercial flights dominated the national airspace.
A related issue involves where some of the agency’s money goes, says Seth Young, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus. In the recent past, considerable sums have paid for increasing the infrastructure at the nation’s major hub airports. But all that spending doesn’t seem to have solved the traffic congestion problems, Young tells Air Safety Week.
Meanwhile, an aide to Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), who chairs the Senate Aviation Subcommittee, says, “We’re ramping up for FAA reauthorization,” but only adds that some of the early concerns involve “aviation trust fund feasibility,” rural air service, and “FAA funding options.”
Aides on both sides of the Hill tell Air Safety Week that it is generally too early to tell what will be on the agenda regarding aviation safety and security in the coming year. The exceptions are the two security-related hearings scheduled for Feb. 9 by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee — including a 10 a.m. hearing on the Secure Flight and Registered Traveler programs, and a 2:30 p.m. session investigating TSA’s procurement policies, passenger screening procedures, cargo screening, and explosive detection systems.
>>Contact: Terry McVenis, ALPA, (703) 689-2270; Dick Marchi, ACI-NA, (202) 293-8500, [email protected]; David Castelveter, ATA, (202) 626-4033; Todd Curtis, AirSafe.com, (206) 300-8727, [email protected]<<