The picture at left is of the Stabilizer Trim Cutoff Switches on Boeing 737 aircraft.  Turning them off, and leaving them off,  required by the Boeing 737 Max “Runaway Stablizer Emergeny Checklist”, as well as disconnecting the auto-throttle system, could have saved the lives of all aboard the two recent 737 Max-8 aircraft involved in the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes.   As a person who has spent virtually all of his adult life involved with various aspects of the field of aviation, I am distressed to see what has happened in the last 6 months with regards to the 737 Max-8 situation.  In my opinion, we are once again allowing emotions, rather than facts, rule our lives. 

Two fatal Max-8 crashes, both involving Third World airlines, have started a feeding frenzy among battalions of personal injury lawyers who are trying to make the case that the design of the Max-8 series was fatally flawed, and that Boeing, pressured by a desire to keep pace with it’s only major competitor, Airbus Industries, knowingly allowed the aircraft to go into production.  I believe that a dispassionate examination of the facts will lead to the unmistakeable conclusion that it was pilot error which caused both crashes, and while there are undoubtably issues with the design of the “MCAS” system, nothing which occurred with either Max-8 should have caused a fatal accident if the crews involved were properly trained and had sufficient skills in handling a sophisticated aircraft in an abnormal flight regime by manually flying the airplane without auto-flight inputs. Continue reading Rush to Judgement? →

As the controversy continues to rage over the cause of the fatal crashes of two Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft in the last five months, the flying public is becoming mesmerized by the term “MCAS” which stands for Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System.  As the facts become known, it is becoming apparent that what they should be concerned about is “LOBFS”. What does that stand for?

Lack Of Basic Flying Skills!

Transcription of the voice recorder tape for Lion Air Flight 610, which crashed into the Java Sea last October, killing all 189 souls on board,  gives some chilling insights. The tape reveals that the Captain was going though the flight manuals trying to figure out why the aircraft was continuing to pitch the nose down, while the “stick shaker” another indication of an imminent stall, was sounding. The co-pilot was at the controls.

Unlike a flight on the same aircraft the previous day, where a “deadheading” pilot sitting in the cockpit jump-seat between the pilots correctly diagnosed the problem and told the crew what needed to be done (turning off two switches on the center pedestal) to return to a safe flight regime, the Lion Air 610 crew was apparently clueless, and everyone died as a result. Continue reading LOBFS? →

I was recently asked by an individual (who is a military trained aviator by the way) if I thought it was safe to fly in a Boeing 737 Max-8, considering the current situation of recent fatal accidents and mandatory groundings.  My answer might surprise you.  I said: “Yes and no”. Let me explain.

The Max-8 has been in service with many of the worlds airlines since May of 2017.  There have only been two accidents involving the aircraft.  Unfortunately both were unsurvivable, fatal to all onboard.  That’s the surface fact, but what else is germane to the issue? 

First, consider the fact that thousands of hours of flight time on Max-8s, carrying tens of thousands of passengers safely to their destination have been accomplished since the model was introduced.  So why now, have we had two fatal crashes in less than five months, causing the deaths of 346 people? 

Look to the airlines involved.  Both Lion Air, a low fare Indonesian air carrier, and Ethiopian Airlines, the flag carrier of that country, must be considered “Third World” airlines.  While that doesn’t necessarily mean that travel on their flights is potentially hazardous, it does mean that we must look closely at their training facilities, training standards, and the experience levels of their flight crews. Continue reading 737 Max-8, Safe or Not? →

There is an alarming trend which has been growing for many years in the field of aviation.  Specifically, greater and greater reliance on computer driven aids and less and less on basic piloting skills. 

This isn’t only at the upper end of the scale, where pilots fly extremely sophisticated “glass cockpit” airliners and corporate aircraft, but all the way down to down to the very basics of flight knowledge.  What good is the information provided to a student pilot by an air traffic controller that they have converging traffic at their “10 o’clock” position if they have never owned, or perhaps even seen, a non-digital analog timepiece?

Why is this trend important to the average air traveler in this country, and indeed world wide?  Because there is a coming shortage of trained pilots to fill the cockpit seats of the world’s airlines which has not been felt since the late 1960s when the demands of the war in Viet Nam choked off the supply of military trained pilots, which had always been the main source of supply for the airline industry in the U.S.

When I was hired by Trans World Airlines in 1964, over 90 percent of the pilots being hired by the nation’s airlines were ex-military, and as such had been trained to a high level of proficiency in complex, and frequently multi-engined aircraft.  Continue reading Gear Up – Brains Off! →

Lost in the coverage of the death President George H.W. Bush last week is another event which is near and dear to the hearts of the former employees of Trans World Airlines.  On December 1, 2001, the last flight under the TWA logo was flown after the airlines assets had been acquired by American Airlines earlier that year.

When TWA ceased operations it was, at 76 years, 4 months, and 18 days, the oldest continuously operating airline in our country.  It was not the first airline to lose its identity by merger or outright failure, and sadly it wasn’t the last.

When the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter, there were 31 Part 121 Airlines in business in our country.  Today, there are 10 which fly 737s or larger, and only 7 of those can be considered major airlines.

Among the spectacular flops of the Carter administration, deregulating the airline industry must rate very near, if not at the top of the list.  For a very short period of time, Americans enjoyed lower fares from the so-called “New Entrant” carriers like New York Air and Peoples Express.  However, people who lived in smaller towns and cities which had previously been served by the bigger airlines using DC-9s or 737s, found that the “Equivalent Service” promised by the law was not “equivalent” at all.  Continue reading Ghosts Of Christmas Past →