Research an air incident that was considered to be the airlines fault because of safety violations. Give the details of the cases and the url for the case (only include the url at the end of the post). Lastly, give your opinion of why airlines cut safety corners in light of protecting their employees.
THESE WERE RESPONSES OF THE STUDENTS WHICH I NEED TO RESPOND TO.
POST 1 - BY STEVEN
On August 13, 2004 Air Tahoma flight 185 crashed while on approach to Cincinnati causing 1 fatality. After a thorough investigation by the NTSB, it shows that the Pilot in Charge (PIC), had miscalculated his fuel load and as such caused the cross feed of the fuel being starved to the engines, the plane became difficult to fly and as such, the plane went down. According to the NTSB report "the captain's inadequate preflight planning, his subsequent distraction during the flight, and his late initiation of the in-range checklist, contributed to the crash" (p. viii). Despite the training received, the captain was ill prepared once the aircraft was on approach. The engines went out. According to the maintenance personnel who reviewed the fuel boost pumps after flight. The fuel boost pumps are capable of pumping fuel back in to the engines in case of engine shut down. Since the pilot was pre-occupied correcting his fuel calculations and not listening to the first officer, the captain would have begun his checks at 12000 feet in accordance with regulation. Not doing so allowed the aircraft to pass the point of the check and begin its descent to the airport runway. The NTSB investigation made recommendations for cross feed fuel lights to be illuminated while either closed or to allow the pilots to visually see whether or not to continue with them open or shut them. Shutting the valves would keep air from going in to the tanks once all the fuel is vented out and not allowing the air to shut off the engine. Both the first officer and the pilot had passed all tests for qualification of duties and had been assessed by family and coworkers after the accident. Both had not had any medication or alcohol incidents and were alert for the flight as well as the pre-flight duties. The captain had just seemed "stressed and pre-occupied" by the weight and balance issues prior to take off with the fuel.
As a result of the NTSB investigation, "NTSB believes that the FAA should issue a flight standards information bulletin to all principal operations inspectors of Convair 580 operators that familiarizes operators with the circumstances of the Air Tahoma flight 185 accident, including the importance of closing the fuel tank shutoff valve for the tank not being used during fuel cross feed operations" (p.33).
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20040813-0
POST 2 - BY LEVENTE
Good afternoon everyone,
On August 12th, 1985 Japanese Airlines Flight 123 crashed into Mt. Osutaka. The crash was a very costly in terms of human fatalities. Of the 524 people on board all but 4 passed away. The flight took off without any issues, but about 12 minutes into the flight there was an explosive decompression event. According to the FAA (2016) it was revealed that the decompression event was a result from a catastrophic malfunction on the aft pressure bulkhead that was repaired couple years before the accident. The repair was not done properly and over time it caused cracks weakening the bulkhead.
While the repairs took place several years prior to the accident there were several failures on the part of the airline to remedy the situation. While they can not prevent all accidents, they should be on top of maintenance and safety. With airlines putting profits margins above all things, repairs are often tightly scheduled. Maintenance crews are often under tight deadlines, because any plane not in the air is costing the airline money. I feel that after the repair of the plane it should have been noted on records to thoroughly recheck the bulkhead after so many miles. Unfortunately anytime money is the primary concern it can be assumed that safety will be risked at some point. It has been proven that the industry needs to be tightly administered by regulations. Even though regulations may add up in the ticket price, I feel that people are more than willing to pay for a safe flight.
Have a good week everyone!
Lev
https://lessonslearned.faa.gov/ll_main.cfm?TabID=1&LLID=16
POST 3 - BY TIM SCOTT
Hello classmates,
I decided to do my story on the FAA accusing the American airlines for safety violations. In 2008, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was seeking a whopping $7.1 million for American Airlines. Their reasons were because American continued to fly planes after safety problems were reported and for drug testing violations. DRUG TESTING VIOLATIONS?? American reported problems with their autopilot systems on two planes and still flew anyway. American delayed repairs to the two MD-80s, which is a mid-sized airliner. American is accused of still flying the planes 58 times after reporting the autopilot issues. For one of the planes in December, an FAA inspector discovered the violations and informed American but they still sent the plane out 10 more times before fixing the issue. Later that month the same plane had issues with the autopilot disconnecting during landing. American technicians did check for the right problem so they delayed maintenance again and flew the plane 36 more times before maintenance discovered that the problem was a fault in a radio altimeter and not the autopilot.
In the same month on the other MD-80, the autopilot disconnected. Although American identified to problem, they delayed maintenance again and flew the plane four more times with this problem. The FAA is saying that American violated drug and alcohol testing procedures involving flight attendants, a pilot and other employees. American also flew aircrafts for several years without making timely inspections on the emergency lighting systems inside the plane.
I think airlines cut safety corners because they are money hungry and they will be missing out on money with planes under maintenance. Or they do not think that the problem is serious and it can wait. When dealing with planes there should be no delaying maintenance. They should hop on those issues quickly and get the problem solve.
Sources
CBSNEWS, "FAA Accuses American of Safety Violations", (2008)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/faa-accuses-american-of-safety-violations/
POST 4 - BY TERRANCE GOODWIN
The flight I researched was the accident of an Air Asia airbus A320 flight QZ8501 that departed Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore. The flight that was originally scheduled for departure on a Sunday in which it did not have authorization from the Indonesian transportation ministry to depart. This was not the cause of the accident but perhaps a small factor that led contributed along with other key events that led up to the disaster. Flight QZ8501 departed normally from Indonesia but 41 minutes after departure encountered a line of thunderstorms that required the pilots to ask for a deviation in route and a higher altitude. Due to other air traffic that was flying above their already altitude, the request was denied. Standard procedure is to gain latest weather report prior to departure. This step was not taken. Once airborne and 42 minutes into the flight and encountering the storm the cockpit "STALL" warning signals begin to sound and the pilots begin procedures to correct the indicating warning. The plane subsequently crashes into the Java Sea killing all 162 people onboard. Subsequent investigation revealed that the aircraft encountered severe turbulence as a result of the thunderstorm and the actions taken by the pilot's violated protocol by not following procedures. The miscommunication and disengagement of key assisting computer systems that aid pilots during flight along with the storm contributed to the perishing of Air Asia flight QZ851. This was confirmed by the information contained in the black boxes.
In my opinion airlines cut corners to capitalize on making profits. At the end of the day all major airlines are covered by big insurance companies that have to pay out when accidents that results in loss of live. But with that said air travel is one of the safest forms of travel so it only on occasions that these things happen. The reward is higher than the risk and being able to save money, by delaying maintenance and increasing cabin capacity generates additional revenue and savings. This sometime offsets the cost of fuel and CEOs can keep their bonuses.
https://www.cnn.com/2015/12/01/asia/air-asia-crash-report/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/01/07/aira-j07.html