Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 3, 1993 TAG: 9312030182
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: ST. PAUL, MINN. LENGTH: Medium
Nicknamed "white knucklers," by frequent fliers, the short-haul flights attracted 48.9 million passengers in 1992, more than four times the number when the U.S. airline industry was deregulated in 1978.
Although details of Wednesday night's crash were somewhat sketchy, FAA spokesman Bob Buckhorn said Northwest Airlink Flight 5719 from Minneapolis was approaching the Hibbing airport when it disappeared from radar screens at about 4,500 feet. It slammed into a mound of mining waste near a city park two to three miles from the airport.
Initially, authorities said two pilots and 16 passengers were killed. However, safety board spokesman Alan Pollock said rescue workers removing bodies from the snowy hill reported more may have been aboard. The plane can carry 19 passengers and two pilots.
While major carriers like Northwest, United and American are trimming flights and canceling aircraft orders to offset three consecutive years of record losses, regional players have enjoyed explosive growth picking up abandoned routes.
Mesaba Aviation, one of two Northwest Airlink operators in the Twin Cities, saw its traffic increase 25 percent last year. More impressively, its earnings increased 16 percent while its major partner recorded losses of more than $1 billion.
But, as regionals proliferate, the debate intensifies over just who is watching the so-called "puddle jumpers."
A congressional aviation subcommittee hearing in 1992 highlighted four major concerns surrounding regional airline accidents:
Problems in pilot training and judgment, which a hearing summary document stated "are a cause or contributing factor in approximately two-thirds of all commuter accidents historically."
High turnover and instability among pilot and management ranks of commuter airlines.
Problems with FAA surveillance and oversight.
Equipment problems, such as a lack of ground-proximity warning devices on regional aircraft.
During the past three years, the number of fatal accidents of small commuter-type airplanes has been six times greater than larger commercial planes. And those small plane crashes have caused twice as many deaths compared with larger aircraft.
Last year, 87 people were killed in 31 accidents involving planes which have 30 or fewer passenger seats, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. By contrast, 33 people were killed in four accidents involving commercial planes which had more than 30 passenger seats, the agency reported.
Regional airline industry officials maintain that the crash data exaggerates the regional airline safety picture, because they include nonscheduled flights. Also, they fail to acknowledge the role regionals play.
"Factually, it is accurate," acknowledges Deborah McElroy, vice president of the Regional Airlines Association. "But you need to look at the nature of the operations."
McElroy said the nation's 127 regional carriers are providing service to small airports that lack the sophisticated navigational aids of their major counterparts. It puts a bigger burden on pilots to make judgments with less information, she said.
But critics maintain the problem is being ignored by federal officials, and will only get worse as regionals continue to grow.
"I would like to see more attention paid to the safety of regional carriers," said Wesley Smith, co-author with Ralph Nader of "Collision Course: The Truth About Airline Safety."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB