2002 Aviation Law & Safety News Article Excerpts

Reuters, "Experts: Steward flew doomed [Cypriot Helios Airlines] plane"

A flight attendant was in control of the Cypriot Helios Airways plane before it crashed on a Greek hillside on August 14, killing all 121 people on board in Europe's worst air disaster this year, experts said on Monday. Aviation experts said after re-enacting the doomed Boeing 737-300 flight from Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague, that the steward who had some flight training and used an emergency oxygen kit actually flew the plane for 10-12 minutes. More...

South China Morning Post, "China Eastern Airlines crash families may wait years for result in lawsuit"

Family members of 21 people killed in last year's China Eastern Airlines plane crash in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, will probably have to wait at least two years for a result in their civil compensation suit lodged in a US state court. More...

USA Today, "Runway near misses prompt urgent safety concern"

Close calls between jets happen with alarming frequency on the nation's runways and federal regulators need to find better ways to curb the problem, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled Tuesday. More...

Black Britain, "Confusion Still Surrounds Cause of Nigeria Plane Crash"

There is still confusion as to what caused a Nigerian Boeing 737 to crash on Saturday night, killing all 111 passengers and 6 crew members, minutes after taking off. The investigation is still in its recovery phase as emergency workers and local people comb through the plane’s debris to recover bodies and retrieve the aircraft’s black box flight recorder. More...

Los Angeles Times, "7 Airbus Jets Had Landing Gear Trouble"

The problems with JetBlue Flight 292 marked at least the seventh time that the front landing gear of an Airbus jet has locked at a 90-degree angle, forcing pilots to land commercial airliners under emergency conditions, according to federal records. No one has been injured in the incidents, which span about a decade. There are more than 2,500 planes from the Airbus 320 family, which includes the Airbus 318, 319 and 321 models, in operation worldwide. Aviation safety officials Thursday said the planes have a good safety record. More...

International Herald Tribune, "Cockpit Confusion Found in Crash of Cypriot Plane"

The crew members of a Cypriot airliner that crashed Aug. 14 near Athens became confused by a series of alarms as the plane climbed, failing to recognize that the cabin was not pressurizing until they grew mentally disoriented because of lack of oxygen and lost consciousness, according to several people connected with the investigation into the crash. More...

Associated Press, "At least 147 die in crash in Indonesia"

A 32-year-old woman clutched her baby as she stumbled from the flaming plane wreck, only to watch in horror as her eldest son burned to death. Another passenger fled through a hole in the shattered jet, leaping over charred bodies. At least 16 people survived Indonesia's deadliest airline disaster. At least 147, many of them on the ground, were killed in Monday morning's crash. More...

Cyprus Weekly, "Aviation Law Expert Nigel Taylor Talks to Cyprus Weekly About Air Disasters and the Recent Greek Helios Crash"

Legal specialists from Britain and the United States who work with a large American law firm specializing in airplane accidents were in Cyprus this week in the wake of the recent air disaster and asked to speak to the Cyprus Weekly about the purpose of their visit. More...

Reuters, "Third U.S. victim identified in Peru plane crash"

A third American was identified among the dead after a plane crash in a swamp in the Peruvian jungle as searchers swarmed over the wreckage on Thursday, some trying to help, others seeking to loot.

Police said torrential rain had hampered the search for an Australian woman and two other people, still unaccounted for after a TANS Boeing 737-200 crashed in a freak hailstorm in Peru's northern jungle on Tuesday, killing 40.

The plane was reduced to chunks of charred rubble and body parts were strewn about, yet more than half the 98 passengers and crew miraculously survived. Officials said it was too early to say why the plane crashed, but suggested bad weather or pilot error may have been to blame.

Bloomberg, "Peru Rescue Workers Recover 31 Bodies From Crash"

Peruvian rescue workers recovered 31 bodies from a plane crash in the northeastern Amazon jungle, the second South American crash in a week, state airline Tans said. The Boeing 737-200 run by Tans was carrying 92 passengers and six crew members when it crashed yesterday during a storm outside of Pucallpa, 480 kilometers (300 miles) northwest of Lima. More...

Reuters, "Chirac vows to shed light on Venezuela plane crash"

French President Jacques Chirac vowed everything possible would be done to discover what caused last week's plane crash in Venezuela as he mourned the 160 victims, most of whom were French. "Today, the hearts of all French are beating in unison with those of their brothers and sisters in Martinique," the president told reporters on Wednesday as he arrived on the French Caribbean island for a ceremony in memory of the dead. More...

Bloomberg, "Helios Jet Crashed After Fuel Loss Followed Pressure Drop"

The Helios Airways plane that crashed Aug. 14 near Athens came down when fuel ran out, possibly after a loss of pressure incapacitated crew and passengers, an investigator said. "The plane's engines stopped functioning when fuel ran out, which was the final cause of the crash," the head of investigations Akrivos Tsolakis said today in a letter to Greek Transport Minister Michalis Liapis, released by e-mail from the transport ministry today. More...

Associated Press, "Plane crash in Venezuela kills 160"

A chartered jet filled with tourists returning home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique crashed Tuesday in western Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. The plane plunged to the ground after the pilot reported both engines had failed, officials said. Wreckage was strewn across a remote pasture near Machiques, 400 miles west of Caracas near the border with Colombia just east of the Sierra de Perija range. From above, only the tail of the West Caribbean Airways plane could be seen intact amid charred trees. More...

BBC News, "Greek crash 'kills all on board'"

An investigation has begun into Greece's worst ever air crash, in which all 121 people on board a Cypriot airliner are feared to have died. The jet hit a hill near Athens after the pilots apparently fell unconscious after a drop in cabin pressure. More...

USA Today, "Air ambulance firms warned"

The Federal Aviation Administration is asking air ambulance companies to adopt better safety practices to curb a deadly surge in rescue helicopter crashes that have killed 60 people since 2000. More...

USA Today, "Surge in crashes scars air ambulance industry"

The helicopter flight to take heart patient Jerry Leonard from one Indiana hospital to another should have been routine. But on the night of the trip, April 20, 2004, the pilot on the Air Evac Lifeteam air ambulance apparently forgot to adjust the helicopter's altimeter, federal records show. When he slammed the helicopter carrying Leonard into a hillside near Boonville, Ind., the cockpit gauge showed he was 310 feet off the ground. More...

Washington Post, "Airline Inspections Called Inadequate: FAA Hasn't Kept Up With Risks Posed By Industry Cost-Cutting, Report Says"

The Federal Aviation Administration is failing to effectively oversee new safety risks posed by sharp cost-cutting in the airline industry and rapid growth of budget carriers, a government report concludes. U.S. airlines -- many of which continue to struggle financially -- are looking for new ways to cut costs by outsourcing maintenance and reducing the time that planes are parked at gates. More...

Reuters, "Egypt Plane Crash Report Delayed to Year-End"

The release of a report into an air crash in Egypt which killed 148 people last year has been delayed from June until the end of the year, the head of the investigation said on Wednesday.

Shaker Kelada said investigators needed more time to study what caused the Flash Airlines Boeing 737 to crash, killing 133 French tourists in January 2004. The plane crashed into the Red Sea just after take off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

Investigators said in November the plane had gone into a steep turn after take-off and the crew did not fully correct it before the crash. Samir Abdel Maaboud, head of Egypt's Civil Aviation Authority, said there were new details which needed study but he did not specify what they were, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency said.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock), "EagleMed joins Air Evac crafts in local rescues Statistics on need for, safety of copter ambulance conflicted"

Northwest Arkansas is grappling with a growing yet little regulated medical air ambulance industry at the same time a national task force is trying to curb an increasing number of accidents. The fatal crash of a helicopter ambulance in Benton County earlier this year helped fuel the national debate about safety. Some national critics believe the emergence of private operators has increased safety risks. More...

The New York Times, "Dispute Builds Over Rise in Close Calls in New York Airspace"

Air traffic controllers and managers at the Federal Aviation Administration are in an increasingly acrimonious dispute about why airplanes in flight in the New York City area are coming closer together than the rules allow at a rate 20 times higher this year than last. So far, 117 "operational errors" have been reported this year from the office in Westbury, on Long Island, where controllers sit at radar scopes in a windowless room and handle arrivals, departures and low-level flyovers in the area. There were 24 such errors in all of last year, and a previous high of about 60 in the mid-1990's at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control office. More...

Rocky Mountain News, "Air ambulance too low on approach; Agency investigating crash that killed 3 near Rawlins, Wyo."

The Steamboat Springs-based air ambulance that crashed about three miles from the Rawlins, Wyo., airport was flying too low and hit a ridge, officials said Thursday. "For some reason he was coming too low," Carbon County Sheriff Jerry R. Colson said. "He was coming in for a final approach to land, had his landing gear down, and it was snowing. Possibly, he thought he was higher than he was." More...

Newsday (NY), "U.S. to quash aircraft laser threat"

Federal transportation officials Wednesday told pilots to immediately report laser beam incidents to air traffic controllers, and announced they are setting up a mechanism for pilots to receive warnings of such sightings and communicate them to federal authorities.

Speaking at a news conference in Oklahoma City, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said that shining lasers at an aircraft "is stupid and dangerous. You are putting people at risk, and law enforcement authorities are going to seek you out, and if they catch you, they are going to prosecute you."

Pilots have complained that they were given little guidance on how to report laser sightings and weren't told of a recent rash of incidents until learning of them through the media. Powerful new lasers commercially available can temporarily blind a pilot or even cause permanent eye damage. Officials believe the recent events are not terrorist-related, but stress that the potential for causing an airplane to crash because the pilot is temporarily blinded is real.

USA Today, "Pilots want warnings about laser dangers"

Officials with airline pilots unions say the government should be doing more to alert them to incidents involving lasers and to provide guidance about how best to protect themselves against beams that can blind.

At least eight recent incidents involve lasers being pointed at aircraft cockpits as they approached for landings. No one was hurt and all the aircraft landed safely.

Denis Breslin, an American Airlines captain, said pilots learned about the incidents only through the news media. He said the government should have a way to alert pilots so they can take precautions. "Pilots want a generalized warning and training. I think that's not too much to ask," said Breslin, first vice president of the Allied Pilots Association.