Not sure of the Author of this article, but my
comments are in bold. I have also underlined some sentences for emphasis.
Flying
on a commercial jetliner has never been safer. The most dangerous part
of my job is driving to airport.
It
is four years today since the last fatal crash in the United States,
a record unmatched since propeller planes gave way to the jet age more than
half a century ago. Globally, last year was the safest since 1945, with 23
deadly accidents and 475 fatalities, according to the Aviation Safety Network,
an accident researcher. That was less than half the 1,147 deaths, in 42
crashes, in 2000. In a stark contrast, in 2009 alone, the last year
the census has available, 35,900 people died as a result of motor vehicle
accidents in the US.
In Georgia
alone, 1284 died. In Florida, 2558 died
and California
was the deadliest state with 3,081 dead as a result of car accidents in 2009.
In
the last five years, the death risk for passengers in the United States
has been one in 45 million
flights, according to Arnold Barnett, a professor of statistics at M.I.T.
In other words, flying
has become so reliable that a traveler could fly every day for an average of
123,000 years before being in a fatal crash, he said.
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Regional
Jets lined up at Detroit
Metropolitan Airport.
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There
are many reasons for this remarkable development. Planes and engines have
become more reliable. Advanced navigation and warning technology has sharply
reduced once-common accidents like midair collisions or crashes into mountains
in poor visibility.
Regulators,
pilots and airlines now share much more extensive information about flying
hazards, with the goal of preventing accidents rather than just reacting to
them. This is a great program
that all airline pilots participate in. And when crashes do occur,
passengers are now more likely to survive.
“The
lessons of accidents used to be written in blood, where you had to have an
accident, and you had to kill people to change procedures, or policy, or
training,” said Deborah Hersman, the chairwoman of the National Transportation
Safety Board. “That’s not the case anymore. We have a much more proactive
approach to safety.”
The
grounding of the Boeing 787 fleet last month illustrates this new era of
caution. The last time a fleet was grounded was 1979, after a McDonnell Douglas
DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, killing 273 people. The 787s, by
contrast, were grounded after two episodes involving smoke from batteries in
which no one was hurt and no planes were lost.
The
last fatal accident involving a commercial flight in the United States was Colgan Air Flight 3407, which
crashed near Buffalo,
killing 50 people, on Feb. 12, 2009. The pilot’s maneuver was the opposite of
what he should have done when ice formed on the wings. FYI, ice
forming on the wings while flying is a hazard particular to propeller-driven
airplanes. Jet aircraft do not have this issue. Even so, prop
planes have very good systems in place to avoid ice build up on wings.
Perhaps
even more noteworthy, there has not been an accident involving a major domestic
carrier since an American Airlines flight to the Dominican Republic crashed
after takeoff in Queens in November 2001, killing all 260 people on board.
But
while flying is safer, it is still not risk-free. Nothing is. Buses crash,
trains derail, and you saw my stats on autos. Even staying at home is not
risk free. Air traffic is set to grow in the next decade, and
airports are more congested. Near-misses on runways and taxiways have risen. And with two million passengers in the United States boarding more than
30,000 flights every day, maintaining that safety record will be a challenge.
The
Colgan accident also cast a troubling light on regional airlines, which hire
young pilots, some with little experience, ("little
experience" is a subjective statement. My airline is a regional and
we have Captains with over 30 years of experience. Our newest captain has
a minimum of five years flying as a First Officer before upgrading to Captain. The captain in the
Colgan crash had been with the company for four years. I have been a
captain for 13 years in three different aircraft. Prior to that, I was a
Naval Aviator for 17 years.) at a fraction of the salaries at bigger
carriers. Well, unfortunately, this is true about salaries.
Consider, though that 53 percent of all
commercial airline departures in the United States today are
operated by regional airlines. The Colgan crash was an aberration and the
Captain was inadequately trained. But even in light of that, fifty three
percent of all departures? You don't hear about them falling out of the sky
every day if they are THAT bad. I
haven't heard for more flight time requirements for "non regional"
airline pilots since the debacle of the Air France
crash over the Atlantic in 2009 that killed 228 people and was completely avoidable. In fact, that was an Airbus/pilot training issue and Airbuses are still flying all over the place. No one has grounded them nor is there a demand for more pilot hours for Air France pilots (or any other "mainline" pilots for that matter.
Since the Colgan crash, the
Federal Aviation Administration has mandated longer resting periods for pilots. I am all for this. But in
the face of opposition from airlines, it is still working on new rules for more
extensive co-pilot training.
“It’s
important not to define safety as the absence of accidents,” said Chesley B.
Sullenberger III, the US Airways pilot who became a hero when he landed an
Airbus A320 in the Hudson River in January 2009 after both engines lost power.
All 155 aboard escaped.
“When
we’ve been through a very safe period, it is easy to think it’s because we are
doing everything right,” he said. “But it may be that we are doing some things
right, but not everything. We can’t relax.”
Not
long ago, the industry’s safety record was far bleaker. In 1985, more than
2,000 people died in dozens of crashes, including 520 when a Boeing 747 crashed
in Japan.
A crash of a Delta Air Lines Lockheed TriStar killed 134 in Dallas that year.
After
another series of accidents in 1996, federal officials set a goal of cutting
accident rates by 80 percent over 10 years. That year, 340 people died in just
two crashes in the United States
— ValuJet Flight 592, a DC-9 that crashed in Florida,
and TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 that blew up after its fuel tank exploded off Long Island.
Since
then, the F.A.A., airlines and pilot groups have stepped up efforts to share
safety concerns through a series of voluntary programs. Airlines agreed to
participate after obtaining assurances that the information would not be used
to discipline them.
An
F.A.A. Web-based system, created in 2007, now includes information from 44
carriers. The result is widely viewed as successful, spawning an attitude that
allows hazards to be identified before accidents occur.
The
F.A.A. and airlines now systematically study data from flight recorders to
analyze common problems, like finding the best angle of approach and speed to
land at airports with tricky wind conditions.
Besides
advances in navigation technology, today’s airplanes are equipped with systems
that can detect severe turbulence or wind shear, allowing pilots to avoid them
altogether. Engines are also better built — when one fails, pilots can still
land safely.
“We
have engineered out the common causes of accidents,” said Patrick Smith, a
commercial pilot who writes a blog called Ask the Pilot.
And
because planes have better hull and seat design, said Kevin Hiatt, the
president of the Flight Safety Foundation, “crashes are more survivable today
than decades ago.”
In
August 2005, for instance, an Air France flight to Toronto overshot the runway and burst into
flames, yet all 309 passengers and crew managed to escape.
Aviation
safety officials will also go to considerable lengths to learn what caused a
crash. Uncertainty is rarely tolerated, said Peter Goelz, a former managing
director at the National Transportation Safety Board.
After
an Air France jet crashed in the Atlantic in 2009 on its way from Brazil to Paris,
investigators spent nearly two years — and millions of dollars — looking for
the flight data recorder. “Aviation, in particular, abhors a vacuum,” Mr. Goelz
said.
Mr.
Smith said there was another reason for the safety record: “Luck is always
going to be a part of it.” I believe that you create your own luck.
Who was it that said, the harder I work, the luckier I get?
The
biggest battle still being fought is over co-pilot training. The F.A.A. missed
a Congressional deadline for new rules requiring first officers to have at
least 1,500 hours of flying, the same as pilots, before being hired, instead of
250 hours today. The agency has proposed a compromise of 750 hours for former
military pilots and 1,000 hours for pilots with an aviation college degree.
In my opinion, and most others in the profession, this will do little
to improve safety and only exacerbate a quickly growing pilot shortage. Quality
time verses quantity time, e.g droning around straight and level for hours on
end, is more important than amassing hours.
But
the F.A.A.’s work has been slowed by lobbying by the airlines, according to a
recent report by the Transportation Department’s inspector general. Roger
Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association, said the F.A.A. should
not set arbitrary numbers. “It’s about quality training, not quantity,” he
said. This is true. The
numbers are completely arbitrary. I would rather have a former military
pilot with 500 hours than a civilian trained pilot with 1500 hours.
But
Mr. Sullenberger said: “Some in industry still are fighting so hard to weaken,
to delay or to kill an important safety initiative. The lessons of Colgan have
not been learned.”
Ray
LaHood, the transportation secretary, said that the Colgan crash was his worst
day in four years on the job, and that he had worked closely with family
members of victims to strengthen the pilot training rules. Even though he plans
to step down soon, he said, the F.A.A. is “going to continue to work to get
that over the finish line.”
Our long layover in Philadelphia is downtown, walking distance to everything. On our way to the famous Reading Terminal Market, my First Officer and I passed "Love" park, really JFK plaza and home to the famous "Love" statue by Robert Indiana. The Reading Terminal Market, is a mecca for Foodies and where many Amish farmers sell their wares. There are some great food stalls, not all of them Amish. You could spend months before you will have eaten at everyone of them. I was amazed at the butcher shops, bakeries, and the vast amount of delicious foods available at the numerous stalls. The aromas were sensational and the atmosphere was carnival like. One Amish vendor specialized in beef jerky (I bought a pound of it...handy to
