Word: faa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...plague of deadly crashes spurs FAA to tighten safety rules
Federal investigators say planes like the American Eagle that crashed in Indiana last week should be temporarily barred from flying in conditions that could cause steering mechanism icing. This development follows mounting evidence that the plane rolled out of control while on autopilot in just such conditions. The FAA has already barred crews of the ATR-72 -- the model of the American Eagle plane -- and of the similar ATR-42 from using the automatic pilot in icing conditions. But in a letter yesterday the government's National Transportation Safety Board urged the FAA to take the planes out of service...
...Safety Board's most recent warning about wake vortex, issued in February, concentrates on the turbulence stirred by the heavier 757, whose wake has upset or downed seven planes -- among them a 737. The NTSB called upon the FAA to reclassify the 757 so that other craft must follow at greater distances during takeoffs and landings. The FAA has yet to act. Canada, however, upped the classification of the 757 from "large" to "heavy" earlier this year; Britain made a similar change last year by carving out a new category to accommodate...
...safety watchdogs have been frustrated by the FAA's slow response to their repeated calls over the years for rules requiring pilots to report wake- vortex incidents more thoroughly. "The FAA has got to develop a sense of urgency where wake-vortex phenomena are concerned," says Jerome Lederer, founder of the Flight Safety Foundation in Arlington, Virginia. At the same time, however, the FAA has been urged by cash-strapped airlines to reduce the separation distances between landing airplanes so that carriers can turn the planes around faster to make more flights...
Long paralyzed by these competing demands, the FAA is at last responding to safety concerns. Last month the agency established a special office that will devise a system to catalog and analyze turbulence data. Prodded by other organizations in the flying community, pilots have begun reporting about five wake-vortex incidents a month. Participants predict that a more complete network, which is expected to be operating by next February, will catalog quite a few more...