Word: developers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...need for more FAA inspectors is obvious. In the view of Jim Burnett, it may even be more important for FAA inspectors to develop a new attitude toward their work. "They must take a more aggressive posture," he says. Specifically, Burnett would like to see more spot inspections to detect any cheating on maintenance rules...
...pilots have no choice but to fall back on "see and avoid" flying practices. But that is sometimes difficult to do in today's instrument-filled "glass cockpits," which require pilots to keep their heads down much of the time. Flights are diverted to open airports and long delays develop. At the New York area radar facility on Long Island -- which controls Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark airports -- one controller says, there is "some sort of equipment breakdown two or three times a month" during which "everybody scrambles into high gear...
NTSB Chairman Burnett contends, furthermore, that FAA inspectors too often develop a cozy relationship with the airlines they are assigned to monitor. Inspectors and airlines, says Burnett, go through a "choreographed dance." One example: Eastern had a string of problems with missing O rings on engines in its L-1011 jumbos that caused seven forced landings. At a hearing on the problem, Burnett asked the top FAA inspector watching Eastern whether he ever checked the airline's maintenance procedures. No, said the inspector, but he had discussed the problem with Eastern's vice president for maintenance. Burnett's acid response...
...even though in his cockpit 14 red tags were hanging from parts on which needed maintenance work had been deferred. While this may be legal, John Galipault of the Aviation Safety Institute insists that one airline assigns mechanics to fly in what repairmen call "hangar queens," airplanes that develop frequent problems. When a minor ailment arises, the flying mechanic "signs off" on the paperwork needed to permit the plane to keep operating, even though no repair is done...
...this reason, the FAA and the industry have been working since the late 1950s to develop an onboard electronic system that will automatically alert pilots to the danger of a collision. Piedmont Airlines first tested a prototype in 1981 and 1982, and is currently evaluating a more advanced one. Next month United will also begin testing the device, known as TCAS II (for traffic alert and collision avoidance system); Northwest and Republic will quickly follow. By 1991, says FAA Administrator Donald Engen, all U.S. commercial planes will be required to carry the TCAS II; eventually, foreign aircraft entering U.S. airspace...