Recessed public hearing may not reconvene

WASHINGTON | Federal investigators will wrap up their work on the February 2000 crash of an Emery Worldwide Airlines cargo jet "early next year" without continuing the public hearing that was recessed last May, a safety official predicted.

Investigators have found the information they were seeking in boxes of documents Emery officials recently turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board, said John Goglia, an NTSB member and chairman of the EWA Flight 17 investigation.

The DC-8 airliner crashed on Feb. 16, 2000, in Rancho Cordova, Calif., two minutes after takeoff on a flight bound for its Dayton hub. The crash killed its three-man crew and carved a fiery swath through a closed auto-auction yard that had been occupied by hundreds of people hours earlier.

The NTSB said the crash raised questions about maintenance practices by Emery and its repair contractor, Tennessee Technical Services of Smyrna, Tenn., as well as Emery's oversight of contractor maintenance.

The safety board said it also raised questions about the Federal Aviation Administration's oversight of Emery. The board is an independent federal panel that investigations aviation and other transportation accidents.

Goglia recessed the May hearing after two long days before investigators questioned any FAA officials. But Goglia, speaking Saturday night at the annual meeting of the National Air Disaster Alliance, said the documents answer the safety board's questions about FAA oversight.

The National Air Disaster Alliance is an organization of survivors and family members of air crashes, including family members of the EWA 17 crew.

In May, Goglia was harshly critical of Emery safety managers when he recessed the hearing. He said the Emery witnesses "weren't forthcoming" in answering investigators' questions.

The NTSB's investigation has focused on a bolt investigators say was missing from the airplane's flight control system. The May hearing revealed Emery mechanics inspected or worked on the jet's tail, where the bolt was later found missing, at least twice at its Dayton hub before it crashed.

The NTSB originally scheduled the hearing for late August in 2001. But Emery voluntarily grounded its airline fleet on Aug. 13, 2001, when the FAA threatened to revoke its license for 100 alleged safety violations unearthed in a series of inspections dating from January 2000, a month before the crash. The hearing was postponed.

In December, parent company CNF Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., reorganized its Dayton operation and eliminated the airline.

CNF still operates a freight-forwarding business and flies freight to and from its Dayton cargo hub with contracted airlines. Emery also still owns a fleet of Boeing 727s flown by a contractor.

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

[From the Dayton Daily News: 09.30.2002]