Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 9, 1990 TAG: 9004090113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Life-threatening mishaps, including near-collisions in California skies, also have climbed because marginally qualified commuter pilots lose control of aircraft, stray off course or become confused in traffic.
The trend, which is linked to a general shortage of commercial pilots, has caused rising concern among safety watchdogs at a time when the commuter system has seized a 30 percent share of U.S. air service by tying small but growing commercial centers to major airports.
Industry officials say commuter travel is significantly safer than a decade ago, when the business was primitive and largely unregulated.
In fact, the fatality rate has fallen 60 percent since 1980, although the number of fatal crashes climbed last year.
"The mom-and-pop operators have gone away," said Michael Boyd, president of Aviation Systems Research Corp., a Colorado-based consulting firm.
However, records on file at the FAA, National Transportation Safety Board and National Aeronautics and Space Administration show that public safety is increasingly endangered by commuter pilots who get lost in bad weather, fail to lower landing gear, land at wrong airports and become confused at perilous moments.
Many commuter airline pilots complain that new colleagues are unprepared to handle the rigors of commuter aviation - taking off and landing repeatedly, flying without automatic pilot, operating often at low altitude in turbulence and coping continually with congested skies.
by CNB