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Your report on the investigation into the crash of TWA Flight 800 [NATION, Dec. 22] referred to the Federal Aviation Administration's "sometimes contradictory mandate [which] requires it to tend both the airline industry's safety and its financial health." The FAA has not had a "dual mandate" since October 1996, when legislation stripping that anachronism took effect. The FAA is not responsible for the financial state of the aviation industry, and financial concerns were not a factor in the safety actions the agency took following the TWA crash. ELIOT BRENNER, Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs Federal Aviation Administration Washington
...instructors shortly after cadets started flying it in January 1995. At a meeting a week before the first crash, several grumbled that the T-3 lacked parachutes. "It's crazy that we don't fly with parachutes," said one of the instructors present, Captain Dan Fischer. "It's an FAA regulation if you do acrobatics." Air Force superiors said the service didn't have to obey Federal Aviation Administration rules even though the T-3, unlike most Air Force planes, is registered with the FAA. Back at his apartment, Fischer was blunter. "Someone's going to die before they...
...have a better way: they are designing a sort of infrared radar that would let planes scan the sky for agitated particles in the air characteristic of CAT. NASA plans to test the device next spring but does not know when it will be operational. In the meantime, the FAA is improving the pilot reporting system by equipping planes with software that measures even mild turbulence and flashes data to the ground, where computers collate the information and beam it back up to all planes in the area...
...Hall's main attention and considerable scorn, however, were trained on the neglected science of fuel-tank security. "I think I reflect to some degree the concern the American traveling public has in this issue," he said in a deceptively soft drawl. "In this country, we look to the FAA for regulations on safety." Incensed that in the months since the crash, industry inspectors have checked the fuel-tank safety of only 52 of the 970 Boeing 747s in operation, Hall asked Boeing officials whether the 52 included Air Force One. Receiving the predictable affirmative answer, he harrumphed, "Every airline...
...time Hall was done, both his targets were claiming to be on his side. The FAA's Cheney announced that his agency had decided to study the safety board's recommendations. Insisting that "we are seriously embracing attacking this problem on the flammable-vapor level," he pledged to "take action" on fuel-tank maintenance programs for all U.S. aircraft. Boeing declared that it had been studying fuel-tank improvements since the crash and is considering more thorough insulation and "sweeping" out accumulated fumes during flight...