The
Article
published
AIR CARGO INDUSTRY
Regulators will discuss
safety issues at
By JOE MAHR
BLADE STAFF WRITER
After years of safety
advocates clamoring for regulators to pay attention to the air cargo industry,
the National Transportation Safety Board this week will host its first forum on
the issue.
But the forum, to be held at
While the pilots' union and safety
advocates applaud the long-awaited gathering, the families of victims complain
they've been shut out of the discussion.
The forum will begin tomorrow, just nine
days before the one-year anniversary of two crashes of the Swanton-based cargo
carrier Grand Aire. The first crash, at
Radio communication between the
The plane is believed to have run out of
fuel while attempting to get into position for a second approach, though the
NTSB has yet to officially rule on the cause of that crash or the earlier
Swanton crash.
Those crashes were the first known time
any air carrier - passenger or cargo - had lost two planes on the same day,
other than the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The pair of crashes increased
attention on the safety of the air cargo industry, which had already been the
target of safety advocates in light of other high-profile cargo crashes.
A Special Report investigation by The
Blade published in May found that the crash rate for air cargo carriers is five
times higher than the rate for passenger carriers in North America.
Counting last year's crashes, Grand Aire had 10 crashes in the last decade that were serious
enough to warrant safety board investigations. The figure was twice as many as
comparable competitors - prompting one national safety advocate, Mary Schiavo, former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector
General, to suggest the FAA shut down the carrier.
Grand Aire
declined comment.
Experts said air cargo crashes often
occur because the industry often employs less-experienced pilots who fly older
planes in often difficult weather conditions to meet the next-day demands of
their customers.
Cargo industry representatives insist
they operate safely, but critics of the industry's safety record said the
Federal Aviation Administration has spent so much time improving the safety
culture of airlines ferrying passengers that they have ignored improving the
safety culture of planes ferrying cargo.
Among the critics is the Air Line Pilots
Association, the union that represents pilots at the largest carriers.
"Cargo operations remain the FAA's
stepchild both in regulations and in practice - ignored until something goes
wrong," the union's president, Capt. Duane Woerth,
said after the forum was announced.
In one of the most-cited crashes, three
Emery Worldwide Airlines pilots died in 2000 after their plane plunged into a
Emery pilot Tom Rachford
and the pilots' union had repeatedly complained to federal regulators in the
months before the crash that the ailing airline was shirking maintenance, with
one missive saying the pilots were "living on borrowed time." Last
year, the safety board concluded that faulty maintenance was to blame for the
crash.
Fred Chesbro, the brother-in-law of one
of the Emery pilots, has been a crusader for air cargo safety since the fatal
crash.
He and Mr. Rachford
wanted to present a paper at the safety forum, pushing regulators to lessen
pilot fatigue while strengthening operating and maintenance rules, but the
safety board turned them down.
"I think that family members of
deceased victims of air cargo tragedies have earned their place at the
table," Mr. Chesbro said.
The forum will have presenters from the
pilots' unions, industry trade groups, regulators, safety board, and airlines.
Safety board spokesman Paul Schlamm said he could not say why Mr. Chesbro's
and Mr. Rachford's paper was not included in the
forum, but noted that the safety board had a limited number of time slots for
presentations.
"They had a lot of papers submitted,
and they only selected a limited number," Mr. Schlamm
said.
While the forum will likely focus on the
bigger cargo carriers - those who fly under stricter FAA guidelines, it will
also include some discussion of the small carriers, such as Grand Aire - carriers that often are the entry points for new
pilots.
But there will be no union speaking on
behalf of those pilots because their carriers are often nonunion.
"I don't want to call it the
forgotten industry," Air Line Pilots Association spokesman John Mazor said, "but the fact that they are not
represented by any kind of large pilots' union of any strength makes it difficult
[for those pilots] to get safety improvements."
An industry trade group disputes that,
saying carriers large and small strive to be safe.
"We absolutely do not believe there
is any safety problem" in the industry, said Debby McElroy, spokesman for
the Regional Airline Association.
Still, one of the key problems safety
advocates cite is the lack of data to prove just how unsafe are smaller cargo
carriers. In other words, just how many crashes are too many?
The FAA does not keep track of key data for
smaller carriers - such as miles flown, hours flown, and takeoffs - that could
be used to compute crash rates for each carrier.
While safety advocates have pushed for
increased data collection, the industry has resisted.
Ms. McElroy said the smaller carriers
would rather spend resources enhancing safety than collecting figures.
"I think we have to measure the need
for collecting more data with what we hope to achieve," she said.
Contact Joe Mahr
at: jmahr@theblade.com or 419-724-6180.
Article published
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
HIGH CRASH RATE
Forum tackles lapses in
air cargo industry
Carriers, regulators
embrace safety
By JOE MAHR
BLADE STAFF WRITER
ASHBURN,
To Mark Rosenker,
for decades that attitude has permeated discussion on how planes that fly goods
have a higher crash rate than planes that fly passengers.
To close the gap, the National
Transportation Safety Board member told a special forum on air cargo safety
here yesterday that the industry and its overseers must remove "It's just
cargo" from its lexicon.
With crash rates of cargo carriers at
least twice as high as passenger carriers, the board held its
first-ever air cargo safety forum at its new academy in suburban
No airline, big or small, had ever
crashed two planes on the same day other than during the 2001 terrorist
hijackings.
But the unprecedented forum focused more
on safety concerns with the bigger cargo carriers, which have had their own
share of crashes, including a 1992 crash of a Burlington Air Express DC8/63
near Toledo Express that killed three pilots and a passenger. It is an issue
that affects metropolitan
Toledo Express has made
a concerted effort to lure air cargo carriers
- ranking in the top 30
Through a host of presentations
yesterday, the participants touted the spirit of "collaboration" -
with industry groups, regulators, and a major pilots' union insisting they're
committed to improving safety.
They have been working since 2000 to
shape a group of industry recommendations for safety improvements, which are
expected to be released later this year.
"We want the same level of safety.
It's not 'just cargo,' " said David Cann, the Federal Aviation Administration's manager of the
aircraft maintenance division.
Added Mr. Cann,
a
But the pilots' union is pushing for more
oversight for an industry with a crash rate twice as high as the passenger
carrier industry - and five times as high when only serious crashes are
studied.
In presentations yesterday, the Air Line
Pilots Association noted that cargo fliers have less stringent rules than
passenger carriers, and union officials recommended the FAA mandate many of the
safety ideas, which are now expected to be part of only a nonbinding
"advisory."
"Today, oftentimes we have the same
airplane-type operating in the same airspace at the same airport. We can no longer
afford to have a different regulatory requirement ... based on the payload the
airplane is carrying," said Capt. Terry McVenes,
vice chairman of the union's safety committee.
Still, industry representatives were
reluctant to embrace more regulation, although they insisted they were more
than willing to embrace safety improvements.
"As a practical matter, no company
can stay in business without total dedication to all aspects of safety,"
said Stephen Alterman, president of the Cargo Airline
Association trade group.
Beyond platitudes on the importance of
safety, the forum did delve into specific areas of concern, particularly the
importance of properly loading planes. That became a key issue in the 1997
crash of a Fine Air cargo jet in
But other issues were not raised, such as
data collection on small air cargo carriers. In the case of small carriers,
like Grand Aire, the FAA does not keep track of how
often each flies. That makes it impossible to compute crash rates. So, while
Grand Aire had 10 crashes in 10 years, there's no
data to compute its crash rate, or how it compares to the industry or its
peers.
During a break, FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto said the regulatory agency has no immediate plans
to boost data collection, saying it relies on inspections to ensure carriers'
safety.
Still, some forum participants noted how underfunded the FAA and the safety board are. Regardless,
the safety board - the federal agency charged with investigating air crashes -
insists it does not want to ignore boosting safety at the smallest carriers.
Board Chairman Ellen Engleman
Conners said the agency wants "one level of
safety" for carriers of all sizes and types. She said it's clear the forum
won't solve all cargo safety issues by the time it finishes this afternoon, but
she believes it's at least a starting point.
"We hope it will lead to substantive
discussion and debate because we are all seeking solutions," she said.
Contact Joe Mahr
at
jmahr@theblade.com
or 419-724-6180.
Article
published
NTSB forum focuses on
sleep challenges faced by pilots
By JOE MAHR
BLADE STAFF WRITER
ASHBURN, Va. - In 12 days,
Federal Express pilot Capt. David Wells flew a cargo jet from Memphis to Alaska
to Tokyo to Manila back to Tokyo to Hong Kong to Kazakhstan to Paris and,
finally, back to Memphis.
He flew early in the morning. He flew
late at night. He rarely got eight straight hours of sleep. He grabbed power
naps when his time and body allowed. But he could never completely catch up on
his sleep - piloting an MD-80 jet while missing about a fourth of the hours slumber experts recommend.
And it was a routine trip.
Captain Wells offered his itinerary
during the second day of the National Transportation Safety Board's air cargo
safety forum here as proof of the fatigue faced by cargo pilots, who often fly
at night and assume ever-changing shifts.
"How many 'pilot error' accidents
were really fatigue accidents?" Captain Wells asked.
The unprecedented two-day forum gathered
members of industry, pilots' unions, and regulators to try to figure out why
planes that carry cargo are at least twice as likely to crash as planes that
carry people, and what can be done about it.
Yesterday's session broached the age-old
problem of fatigue in aviation, particularly in a cargo industry that routinely
flies at night and sometimes in poor weather.
Dr. Mark Rosekind,
a nationally recognized sleep expert, pointed to studies done by NASA that
showed long-haul cargo pilots, such as Captain Wells,
routinely lose sleep - about one to two hours per day.
The studies show it is nearly impossible
for the human body to adjust well to sleeping during the day and staying awake
at night.
He said the problem is not unique to
cargo pilots - any body working third shift must cope with lost sleep, their
bodies often awaking after only four to five hours of slumber.
But he said the demands of air cargo
complicate pilots' fatigue, including flying in poor weather in older planes
more prone to mechanical problems on schedules that routinely change.
The safety board for more than a decade
has acknowledged the problem of fatigue in plane crashes. In 1993, the board
ruled that it might have contributed to the errors made by pilots of a
Burlington Air Express jet that crashed near
Captain Wells knows the fatigue problem
well.
The 25-year pilot for FedEx, who now is
chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association's safety committee, said it is no
secret that pilots sometimes nod off in the cockpit.
"If there's any pilot who said
they've not fallen asleep on an airplane, they're not telling the truth,"
he told the forum, as some fellow pilots nodded in agreement.
While the Federal Aviation Administration
has rules on sleep and flying time for pilots, the rules for cargo pilots are
less strict than for passenger pilots, something the pilots' union wants to
change. It's part of a push by the union to get the FAA to boost many of the
safety regulations of cargo carriers to the levels of passenger carriers.
But the FAA is reluctant to mandate
changes, instead pushing a new set of recommendations for the cargo industry
fashioned from a team, including industry and labor.
The problem goes beyond the big carriers,
such as FedEx. Smaller air cargo carries, such as Swanton-based Grand Aire, ferry cargo on-demand, meaning pilots can be called
into work at night to fly through the night. Some planes require only one
pilot, so no one is there to nudge him or her if they nod off.
The carrier had two crashes a year ago -
one killing three pilots - but so far the safety board has not ruled on the
causes.
While strengthening regulations may help
some, Dr. Rosekind cautioned that they would not be a
cure-all. He said the problem has to be tackled on different levels - from more
education to flexible schedules.
And he had a suggestion that has been
adopted by many other countries' regulators - in-flight naps.
A recent study showed that a 40-minute
nap dramatically improved alertness and performance.
Beyond talking about fatigue, the forum
tackled issues ranging from improperly loaded cargo - which can cause planes to
lose control - to the lack of fire suppression at some airports serving cargo
jets that haul flammable goods.
The forum wrapped up with safety board
Chairman Ellen Engleman Conners
saying the safety board cannot make the suggested changes - it just
investigates crashes and makes suggestions. It is up to the participants to
reform the system.
Contact Joe Mahr
at: jmahr@theblade.com
or 419-724-6180.
The
Commercial Appeal --
Pilot napping procedures discussed
Forum focuses on night flights by cargo planes
By Bartholomew Sullivan
Contact
ASHBURN, Va. - It would be much better for a pilot to
take a planned 40-minute nap at 33,000 feet than to nod off while approaching a
runway at 300 feet, safety experts told a federal air cargo safety forum
Wednesday.
"In most instances, complete circadian adaptation to night work never occurs," said Mark R. Rosekind, president of California-based Alertness Solutions, referring to the 24-hour biological cycle of waking and sleeping. He asked for a show of hands of those in the audience - including some pilots - taking the so-called "NASA naps." Just a few raised them.
With a FedEx hub and headquarters in
The National Transportation Safety Board
investigates transportation accidents, including plane crashes. This week's
forum occurred at its new training academy and was attended by industry safety
officials, employee union representatives and federal regulators, among others.
Rosekind, whose research with NASA in the early 1990s showed
the positive productivity and alertness effects of even a brief "power
nap," spoke at the second day of the Air Cargo Safety Forum. He said the
challenges of night flying, and the special fatigue issues raised by air cargo
operations, are a shared industry and regulatory responsibility.
Pilot napping does occur, but more should be
done to establish standard operating procedures for incorporating planned naps
into long flights, he said. Studies indicate that air cargo pilots on
multi-day, international trips typically run up a sleep debt that can affect
alertness levels. He predicted the issue will grow more critical as airplanes
become more automated, providing fewer mental stimuli to keep pilots alert.
David J. Wells, a FedEx pilot and chairman
of the Air Line Pilots Association Air Safety Committee, said federal
regulations permit air cargo pilots to fly longer hours than passenger jet
pilots, although both are held to the same level of safety.
Wells noted that working on the
"backside of the clock" is more likely to generate human error and
that other factors, including the variety of destinations and less supportive
airport safety infrastructure at some cargo facilities, can complicate fatigue
issues. He advocated mandatory pre-flight rests and "special
consideration'' for late-night and trans-meridian flying.
FedEx's Krause said FedEx has one of the
most effective and personalized scheduling systems to manage its flight
operations.
"Our pilots have shorter duty limits
for middle-of-the-night flying than other times of the day and those duty
limits are well below the FAA minimum guidelines," she said. In addition,
a committee of managers and pilots meets regularly to discuss flight issues to
ensure a continued safe flying environment, she said.
FedEx has worked with fatigue researchers at
Circadian Research and NASA Ames Research to find the best ways to manage sleep
disruption and fatigue within its operation, said Krause. FedEx trains all
pilots to recognize their own circadian rhythms and how to combat sleep
disruption.
Tuesday's session began with an overview of
flight accident data by James M. Burin, director of technical programs for the
Virginia-based nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation. Burin noted that, in recent
years, cargo flights accounted for 26 percent of all accidents, including four
of 16 jet "hull losses" in 2003.
Contact