Report: Airline orders pilots to fly 737s faster to avoid malfunction

The Associated Press 09/27/99 6:05 AM Eastern

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- US Airways has ordered its pilots to fly the Boeing 737 faster during takeoffs and landings to avoid the type of rudder malfunction that is believed to have caused the crash of Flight 427 near Pittsburgh in 1994, according to a report.

Citing US Airways memos dated this month, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Sunday that the airline told its pilots to fly 20 knots, or 23 mph, faster during certain phases of takeoffs and landings. Pilots say the added speed gives them more time to recognize and correct rudder problems that cannot be fixed at slower speeds.

US Airways spokesman David Castelveter declined comment to the newspaper. The Arlington, Va.-based airline has a hub at Pittsburgh International Airport.

"I think it is an acceptance by US Airways that there is a problem, and they aren't relying on the mechanical fixes put into place," said Jim Burnett, a transportation safety consultant and former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. "It is a needed response ... The plane really shouldn't have been certified to fly."

In March, the NTSB ruled that a rudder reversal most likely caused the plane to plummet on Sept. 8, 1994, killing all 132 people on board.

The 737 is the only commercial jet with a rudder controlled by a single hydraulic valve. Other jets have multiple valves that can compensate if one jams, as the single valve has been known to do, according to the NTSB.

An NTSB report released in July lists 112 such "rudder events" in the past two decades, malfunctions "that could be catastrophic," the 346-page report said.

Because there are 3,111 Boeing 737s in use worldwide -- and as many as 800 in the air at any given time -- redesigning the rudder could cause severe airline disruptions, not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars it would cost Boeing.

Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general with the U.S. Department of Transportation who now teaches at Ohio State University, said US Airways' edict to speed up its maneuvering speeds was certainly prompted by the NTSB investigation of Flight 427, as well as a 1991 United Airlines crash in Colorado Springs, Colo., that killed 25 people.

"The pilots I talked to said the change was for safety reasons," she said.

Both the safety board and Seattle-based Boeing have recommended maneuvering-speed changes as a precaution, though the Federal Aviation Administration has not ordered the change, instead making it optional for each airline.

The FAA has ordered other changes, including regular testing of rudder-controlled units; the installation of devices that limit rudder movement; and replacement of the servo valve, part of the rudder's control unit.

John Mazor, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, said increased speeds do not guarantee protection against rudder-system failures on a 737, but his organization wants the FAA to require the practice if airlines do not voluntarily adopt it.

"It's not a guarantee that it will overcome the problem," Mazor said. "It will, at the very least, slow down the onset and give the pilot time to take appropriate measures."

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-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), September 27, 1999

Answers

Now if only they could fly fast enough to stay just ahead of Y2K!

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), September 27, 1999.