Many, many thanks to all of you who helped make the ongoing (May 9-10, 2002) NTSB Emery 17 Public Hearing possible.

Best regards,

Fred Chesbro

(703) 455-4079

For more information on Emery 17, see website: http://emery17now.home.att.net/

Dayton Daily News

May 9, 2002

Deadly crash of Emery flight prompts historic hearing

Hearings focus on Emery, cargo industry

By Timothy R. Gaffney

e-mail address: timothy_gaffney@coxohio.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. | On Feb. 16, 2000, Emery Worldwide Airlines Flight 17 took off from Mather Field in Sacramento, loaded with fuel for a freight run to Dayton.

Almost immediately, Emery Capt. Kevin Stables declared an emergency and reported an "extreme" balance problem with the big cargo jet, a four-engine DC-8. Witnesses said it appeared to "porpoise" and lose altitude as it circled back toward the airport.

Two minutes later, Emery 17 slammed into a nearby auto auction yard. It plowed a 500-yard swath through the yard, disintegrating as it went. Fuel spraying from its ruptured tanks turned the yard into an inferno.

The crash killed all three aboard — Stables, 43, of Berlin, N.Y.; First Officer George Land, 35, of Placerville, Calif., and Second Officer Russell Hicks, 38, of Sparks, Nev.

More than two years later, family members and fellow pilots still ask: Why?

They hope to get some answers here today when the National Transportation Safety Board opens a two-day public hearing, its first ever on an air cargo crash.

Fred Chesbro of Springfield, Va., Stables' brother-in-law, said he will be at the hearing.

"On a very personal level, finding out the truth" is important in helping him come to terms with the loss, he said last week. But Chesbro, who is also a professional pilot, said, "I hope they address the larger issues" that affect safety in the growing air cargo industry.

The NTSB is an independent federal agency that investigates transportation accidents. It has no enforcement powers, but can make recommendations to regulatory agencies.

Emery grounded its Dayton-based fleet last August under pressure from the Federal Aviation Administration, and the airline is now defunct. But the NTSB says its hearing will focus on issues of "contract maintenance and the associated oversight" by both the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration — issues that have dogged the airline industry for years.

While the board hasn't speculated on what caused the crash, it has disclosed that investigators discovered a bolt missing from a part of the airplane's elevator control system.

Other evidence indicated that on the fatal flight, the plane's tail moved to push its nose up while the pilots were trying to push the nose down — something ground tests indicated would happen with the bolt missing. The bolt was supposed to be secured with a nut and a cotter pin.

Maintenance records showed the airplane had been overhauled the previous November by Tennessee Technical Services in Smyrna, which serviced Emery's DC-8s.

FAA inspectors interviewed by NTSB investigators described Emery prior to the crash as a rapidly growing airline far from the FAA office charged with monitoring it. While the airline was based at Dayton International Airport, its corporate headquarters were in California, and the FAA assigned a California office to oversee it.

The FAA transferred responsibility to its Cincinnati office in December 2000, just two months before the crash. An FAA inspector there told crash investigators his Emery workload was "horrendous" and included "virtually making them rewrite every manual they have," in part because vague language in the manuals made it difficult to tell when Emery personnel were violating procedures.

Contract maintenance and oversight are issues that have come up before in airline crash investigations.

Safety Board Member John Goglia, who will chair the Emery 17 hearing, has said he sees parallels between this crash and ValuJet 592. That was a DC-9 passenger flight that crashed in the Florida Everglades in 1996 after cargo that wasn't supposed to be in the plane caught fire. The crash killed all 110 people aboard.

Goglia also chaired the hearing on that crash. Among NTSB's findings was "the failure of the FAA to adequately monitor ValuJet’s heavy maintenance programs and responsibilities, including ValuJet’s oversight of its contractors."

The biggest difference between the two crashes is the number of fatalities. The ValuJet crash killed 110 people, including passengers and crew. The Emery crash killed three.

Chesbro said the low body count is why cargo plane crashes receive less attention than passenger plane crashes. But the consequences could be deadly if one of the big jets were to come down in a populated area.

The FAA hired more inspectors after the ValuJet crash, but questions of oversight continue, especially in the air cargo segment.

In fact, Emery wasn't the first cargo crash since ValuJet to raise questions about contract maintenance and oversight.

"Fine Air was faulted for maintenance, too," Audrey Ulozas of Pompano Beach, Fla., recalled last week. She is the mother of Steven Steven Petrosky, a pilot who died on Aug. 7, 1997, when Fine Airlines Flight 101 crashed after takeoff from Miami. The crash and resulting fire killed the DC-8's crew of three, one security guard aboard the plane, and one motorist on the ground.

NTSB investigators determined the airplane was misloaded and its crew lost control when the plane's nose pitched up steeply at takeoff. But contributing to the crash, the board concluded, were the FAA's failure to adequately monitor Fine Air's responsibilities for cargo loading, and its failure to make sure Fine Air corrected known cargo-related deficiencies.

Ulozas, who is now vice president of the National Air Disaster Alliance, said she and other parents of Fine Air 101 victims will attend the Emery 17 hearing. She said she regrets the NTSB never held a public hearing on the crash that killed her son.

"With the criminal indictment and plea bargaining going on I feel Fine Air did get away with murder," she said.

Both the ValuJet and Fine Air crashes led to criminal charges, a rare thing in the airline industry.

Last December, a Florida judge dismissed 110 murder and 110 manslaughter charges against defunct aviation maintenance contractor SabreTech, which had mishandled the ValuJet cargo, in exchange for a no-contest plea to one charge of unlawfully causing the transportation of hazardous waste. The settlement also included a $500,000 donation from SabreTech's parent, Sabreliner, to organizations that promote aviation safety and victim services.

In March 2000, Miami-based Fine Air pleaded guilty to two felony charges related to improper record keeping that was not directly related to the crash, and agreed to pay a $ 3.5 million penalty. Aeromar, half-owned by Fine Air, pleaded guilty to three felony charges related to how the cargo was loaded on the fatal flight, and agreed to pay $ 1.5 million.

No criminal charges have been brought against Emery.

Following the Emery 17 crash, the FAA launched more inspections of the airline's operations. But maintenance-related issues continued to plague the airline, and two accidents flirted with disaster.

•On April 27, 2000, an Emery DC-8 made an emergency landing in Denver after an engine cowling blew off at 38,000 feet. An NTSB report said debris damaged the tail and tore holes in the fuselage, depressurizing the plane. In Sept. 2000, an FAA inspector reported an Emery employee told him the airline had continued using the engine for six weeks after a maintenance worker said it should be removed. The report, which contained additional allegations of improper maintenance procedures, surfaced earlier this year and was turned over to the Department of Transportation's Inspector General's office.

•On April 26, 2001, an Emery DC-8 landing in Nashville couldn't lower its left main landing gear. The crew made a controlled landing, settling the left wing on its engine pods. NTSB investigators found an Emery mechanic had installed the wrong kind of hydraulic valve during maintenance on the landing gear, and the valve was misidentified in the maintenance log.

Emery grounded its airline Aug. 13 and furloughed approximately 800 airline employees after FAA officials threatened to revoke the company's airline certificate.

FAA officials said they took action after a series of inspections over 18 months resulted in claims of more than 100 safety violations. But the sudden demand also came two weeks before the NTSB originally planned to hold the meeting that opens today — a hearing Goglia said would raise questions about FAA oversight.

The NTSB immediately postponed the hearing, saying Emery officials needed to focus on the issues raised by the suspension, and the safety board needed time to review the FAA's and Emery's actions.

Emery officials signed a compliance agreement with the FAA to resolve safety issues and get its planes flying again. But in December, Emery's parent company, CNF Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., announced a reorganization that included eliminating the airline.

Emery continues to fly freight in and out of Dayton using contract air carriers, and it still owns a fleet of Boeing 727 jets flown under contract.

Air cargo in general is expected to grow. Until last year's recession slowed air freight, it was the airline industry's fastest growing segment. In a 1999 forecast, Boeing predicted the world's freighter fleet would double in the next 20 years, with most growth in big jets.

Ulozas said she hopes today's hearing will lead to "more stringent guidelines for air cargo. I don't think people conceive there's so much air cargo overhead."

• Contact Timothy R. Gaffney at 225-2390 or e-mail him at timothy_gaffney@coxohio.com

[From the Dayton Daily News: 05.09.2002]

Dayton Daily News

May 9, 2002

Major U.S. cargo jet crashes in the 1990s

• Aug. 7, 1997: A Fine Airlines DC-8 crashed and burned after takeoff from Miami, killing the crew of three, a security guard on board and a motorist on the ground. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the airplane was misloaded, and the crew lost control when the plane’s nose pitched up steeply at takeoff. It also said contributing factors were the FAA’s failure to adequately monitor Fine Air’s responsibilities for cargo loading, and its failure to make sure Fine Air corrected known cargo-related deficiencies.

• July 31, 1997: A FedEx MD-11 crashed and burned while landing at Newark International in New Jersey. The two pilots and three passengers escaped with minor injuries. The NTSB said the most probable cause was overcontrol by the captain, who was concerned about touching down early to leave adequate stopping distance.

• Dec. 22, 1996: An Airborne Express DC-8 crashed and burned in mountainous terrain near Narrows, Va. Three crewmembers and three maintenance technicians died. The crew was making an evaluation flight from an airport in Greensboro, N.C. The NTSB said the probable cause was failure to control the plane during a stall recovery attempt and Airborne’s failure to establish a formal evaluation flight program with adequate program guidelines, requirements and pilot training. It said an inoperative stall warning system and an inadequate flight training simulator contributed to the accident.

• Oct. 22, 1996: A Miami-based Million Air Boeing 707 crashed after takeoff from Manta, Ecuador, on a flight to Miami. The crash killed the crew of three, a passenger and 30 people on the ground. Approximately 50 others on the ground were seriously injured. Two days later, the airline voluntarily ceased operations following an FAA inspection.

• Sept. 5, 1996: A FedEx DC-10 burned up after an in-flight fire of undetermined origin forced an emergency landing in Newburgh, N.Y. The captain and flight engineer suffered minor injuries while leaving the airplane; the first officer and two passengers escaped unharmed. Inspectors found undeclared items in the cargo, including hazardous materials and packages of marijuana.

• Feb. 16, 1995: An Air Transport International DC-8 crashed and burned during an attempted three-engine takeoff from Kansas City, Mo. All three crewmembers died. The crew had been assigned to ferry the four-engine jet to a repair station to fix the nonworking engine. The NTSB blamed the crash on fatigue, lack of training, a miscalculated takeoff speed and failure to maintain control. It said inadequate FAA oversight contributed to the crash. The FAA inspector assigned to ATI said a lack of funding limited FAA oversight of the company’s rapidly expanding operations. This crash followed two other ATI crashes, one fatal.

• Feb. 15, 1992: An ATI DC-8 crashed at Toledo Express Airport on the second of two landing approaches. Four died in the crash. The NTSB said the most likely cause was the crew’s failure to recover control of the airplane after the captain apparently became disoriented after rejecting the second landing attempt.

• March 12, 1991: An ATI DC-8 burned up after veering off the runway and hitting an airport building at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. The pilots and flight engineer escaped with minor injuries. The NTSB said the flight engineer calculated takeoff speeds and control settings based on a takeoff weight that was 100,000 pounds too low. The safety board blamed improper preflight planning and improper supervision by the captain. It said contributing factors included inadequate monitoring of the data by the first officer, and inadequate surveillance of the airline operation by company management.

—Source: National Transportation Safety Board

[From the Dayton Daily News: 05.08.2002]