National Transportation Safety Board Issues Safety Alerts for Aviation Pilots and Mechanics
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued four safety alerts to aviation pilots and mechanics as a result of investigations into recent accidents. The safety alerts involve considerations for flying skills, survival skills, training, and preflight checks.
In the wake of an increase of accidents within the past couple of years due to neglect by maintenance and pilot staff, the NTSB has come to the conclusion that more extensive and advanced checks should be performed, and more specific training should be required for pilots should they find themselves in an incident where they cannot safely handle in-flight emergencies.
Four Safety Alerts:
In recent years, incorrect rigging of flight control and trim systems have caused accidents, deaths, and in-flight emergencies. In all cases, maintenance personnel did not identify that the control and trim surfaces were moving in the wrong direction when servicing the planes, and pilots failed to recognize abnormal controls in preflight checks.
Pilots have been failing to notice anomalies in and properly read the controls during preflight checks, after maintenance checks. Although the main fault lies with maintenance personnel, pilots could have prevented an accident by conducting thorough, advanced preflight checks.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allows pilots to operate aircraft across many specific categories and classes without experience within a specific category or class. In many accidents, it has been found that even though pilots met the minimum requirements for flight, and had years of experience, they had little to no training in operating the specific type of aircraft they were flying at the time of the accident.
Aircrafts perform differently at high-density altitudes, and pilots with little to no experience flying in mountain ranges may not be aware. Not only are they ignorant of differing reactions of wind and weather when they interact with mountainous terrain, but they also lack survival skills in mountainous areas should they experience and survive an accident.
Slack Davis Sanger’ aviation attorneys can help if you or someone you know has been affected by a plane crash. If you have questions about air safety procedures, or would like to speak to one of Slack Davis Sanger’ airplane accident attorneys, call us today.