Dayton Daily News Op-Ed / Other Voices

By Fred Chesbro
Monday, June 2, 2003

Reported lapses in basic record keeping at the Federal Aviation Administration have some people questioning the agency's competence. The possibility that these lapses are indicative of larger problems at the FAA is disconcerting.

Remember, it is the FAA that has charge of regulating the nation's air transport system.

The issue of deficient record-keeping is not merely about the disappearance of some meaningless bureaucratic files that exist only to help justify the ongoing employment of government file clerks. Rather, the deficiencies concern commercial airline maintenance inspection records--documentation designed to help identify trends and recurring problems that may ultimately affect flight safety.

This month the National Transportation Safety Board has convened a public hearing on the facts and issues surrounding the commuter crash of Air Midwest Flight 5481 that killed all 21 persons aboard at Charlotte, N.C. Hopefully, discussions from the hearing will have a positive effect on pertinent commuter airline regulations, airline weight and balance procedures and government and industry oversight of commercial airline contract maintenance functions.

Already, industry observers have recognized the striking similarities between the fatal February 2000 crash of an Emery Worldwide Airlines DC-8 at Sacramento and the crash of Flight 5481.

While the NTSB has not yet provided its own probable-cause finding, many believe a maintenance mistake on the horizontal stabilizer caused the Emery crash. And now investigators are reportedly looking at a maintenance mistake as the most likely cause of the Air Midwest twin-turboprop disaster, too.

An Air Safety Week article identified several obvious parallels soon after the Air Midwest crash: third-party maintenance and repair work issues; loading/weight and balance questions; suspected catastrophic malfunction of the horizontal stabilizers; possible pre-accident data recorder indicators showing the crash airplanes' elevators moved in ways "inconsistent" with what might be expected; and both airplanes were destroyed in fireballs shortly after takeoff.

But there seems now to be another noteworthy parallel: namely, the apparent failure of the FAA to adequately maintain and utilize its very own report documentation relating to particular commercial airline maintenance inspections, practices and findings.

Consider the recent Charlotte Observer report that revealed how, "despite an exhaustive records search, the FAA has been unable to provide documents showing that its inspectors ever saw the (contract maintenance mechanics') work on planes before the Jan. 8 crash."

According to the article, the chief FAA inspector overseeing Air Midwest maintenance said that he personally visited the maintenance facility on two occasions before the crash, but that he "couldn't explain why the visits didn't show up in a database where information about all FAA inspections is supposed to be captured."

An FAA spokeswoman indicated that a "computer glitch" might have kept the record from being saved. But it is curious how, according to an FAA Freedom of Information Act manager, "such computer problems probably affect one or two of the more than 10,000 inspection records entered into the database annually."

Compare this episode with an earlier Dayton Daily News article that focused on a Sept. 27, 2000, report prepared by an FAA inspector responsible for inspecting Emery's operations. The FAA inspector's memo reportedly charged that "an Emery maintenance supervisor was fired when he would no longer allow use of a commercial repair shop that overhauled engines for Emery's cargo jets because of inadequate repairs. The day after the maintenance supervisor was fired, (the inspector said), the repair shop resumed servicing Emery's planes."

According to the article, the FAA inspector stated in a taped conversation with a former Emery pilot that this memo somehow "disappeared from an FAA database."

Information regarding the alleged disappearance was later turned over to the FBI, according to the Dayton Daily News. And as for the current disposition of the disappearing memo, the inspector reportedly said, "Let's just say, yeah, they found it. They had help."

Published safety statistics reveal that aviation maintenance errors account for more than 3,000 deaths during the last three decades. In light of Air Midwest 5481 and predecessor flights Value Jet 592, Alaska Airlines 261 and Emery 17, it seems that government and industry authorities have a daunting task ahead.

As authorities grapple with what looks to be an increasingly disturbing trend in the area of commercial airline maintenance, they must look to all sources of information for solutions. This includes utilizing data gathered by the government--data designed to enhance commercial aviation safety by identifying disturbing trends.

Fred Chesbro is a pilot and a member of the National Air Disaster Alliance & Foundation. His brother-in-law, Kevin Stables, was the captain of Emery Worldwide Airlines flight 17. Write him at Fred.Chesbro@att.net