US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to verify that airline maintenance programmes include “stringent criteria to address recurrent or systemic problems”.
The NTSB cited faulty maintenance and inadequate FAA oversight as likely causes of the December 2005 crash of a Chalks Ocean Airways seaplane.
The recommendations came at the conclusion of today’s final public hearing on the 1947-manufactured Grumman G-73T Turbo Mallard that crashed after take-off from Florida’s Miami Beach, killing the two crew and all 18 passengers onboard.
Probable cause of the accident was the “failure and separation of the right wing, which resulted from the failure of Chalks’ maintenance programme to identify and properly repair fatigue cracks in the wing, and the failure of the FAA to detect and correct deficiencies in the company’s maintenance programme”, the NTSB has determined.
“This accident tragically illustrates a gap in the safety net with regard to older airplanes,” says NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker. “The signs of structural problems were there – but not addressed. And to ignore continuing problems is to court disaster.”
Investigators found that the Turbo Mallard had a history of recurring fuel leaks near the area where the right wing separated and that there were “indicators” present of the internal structural damage.
“Although some repairs were attempted, many were ineffective in that they did not properly restore the load-carrying capability of the wing structure,” the board notes.
Furthermore, investigators revealed that the pilots would not have been able to notice the structural damage either visually or in the aircraft’s performance prior to departure, and that after the separation, “there was nothing the crew could have done to regain control”.
The NTSB in July asked the FAA to eliminate an exemption that allows aircraft with fewer than 30 seats type-certificated before January 1 1958 to forgo certain damage tolerance-based supplemental inspections that would likely reveal such faults.
It now calls on the FAA to “verify that airline maintenance programs include stringent criteria to address recurring or systemic problems, if necessary through comprehensive engineering evaluations; and, to modify procedures for oversight of maintenance programs of carriers like Chalk's to ensure the continued airworthiness of the operator’s fleet”.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: FlightGlobal.com
