The Next 30 Years: 1983-2013

Commercial Aviation and Air Traffic Control
 

An investigation blamed the Mooney M-20 instructor pilot for straying into the Salt Lake City Airport radar service area. The Mooney did not have a Mode-C transponder.
 

          February 1, 1987 - The Texas Air holding corporation merged New York Air and People Express into                                                                              Continental Airlines.

After being cleared for a visual approach to Runway 21R, at 65 feet above the ground the aircraft banked left in a descent and then rolled right. The twin-engine turboprop aircraft struck the ramp area to the left of the runway threshold, flipping over, and then striking a catering truck before bursting into flames.

The CASA C-212 is a turboprop-powered STOL medium transport aircraft designed and built by CASA in Spain. The C-212 has a high-mounted wing, a boxy fuselage, and a conventional tail. The tricycle undercarriage is non-retractable. It has space for up to 28 passengers, depending on configuration. Since it does not have a pressurized fuselage, it is limited to relatively low-flight-level airline usage. (below 10,000 feet)

An investigation was difficult because the CASA C-212 did not have a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder. The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the accident  was the captain's inability to control the airplane in an attempt to recover from a power condition at low speed following his intentional use of the beta mode of propeller operation to descend and slow the airplane rapidly on final approach. Other factors include an unstabilized visual approach, the presence of a departing DC-9 and the desire to make a short-field landing.
 

The information for ASD is provided by more than 100 long-range radars across the country.
 

 
   May 29, 1987 - FAA commissioned the first of its Host Computer Systems at the Seattle Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC).

                                                               

 

   June 19, 1987 - The Federal Labor Relations Authority certified the National Air Traffic Controllers Association as the exclusive representatives of all GS-2152 series terminal and center controllers whose primary duty was separation of aircraft. The controllers had voted for representation by a margin of 7,494 to 3,275.

 

McArtor received a B.S.E. from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1964 and a M.S.E. in engineering mechanics from Arizona State University in 1971. He was a fighter pilot in Vietnam and logged 200 combat missions and won the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross.

From 1972 to 1974 McArtor flew with the Air Force Thunderbirds precision flying team. He joined the Federal Express Corporation in  1979, and was senior vice-president for telecommunications when he was selected to head the FAA.

He had also chaired the Department of Transportation Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee from June 1986 to June 1987.

Flight 255 departed Saginaw, MI, flying to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California with intermediate stops at Detroit and Sky Harbor in Phoenix, AZ. The pilots expected to be using runways 21L or 21R, but the tower cleared them for takeoff from Detroit's runway 3C, the shortest available runway.

The jet lifted off the runway at 170 knots and began to roll from side to side just under 50 feet above the ground. The MD-82's rate of climb was greatly reduced as a result of flaps not being extended. Now 2,760 feet past the end of runway 3C, the jet's left wing struck a light pole in an airport rental car lot. The impact caused the left wing to start disintegrating and catch fire. The plane rolled 90 degrees to the left, striking the roof of an Avis car rental building and crashed inverted onto Middlebelt Road and struck vehicles just north of its intersection with Wick Road, killing two people on the ground in an auto. It then broke apart, with the fuselage skidding across the road, disintegrating and bursting into flames as it hit a railroad overpass.  (158 Fatalities)  including 2 on the ground.
 
Debris from Flight 255 scattered along Middlebelt Road, near I-94 in Romulus, MI.

Two motorists on Middlebelt Road died and five people on the ground were injured, one seriously. More than 30 passengers on the flight were under age 25, and two 12-year-olds were unaccompanied minors. The sole survivor of the crash was a 4-year-old girl from Tempe, AZ. She was found belted in her seat several feet from the bodies of her mother and father and 6-year-old brother.

The NTSB determined that the probable cause of this accident was the flight crew's failure to use the taxi checklist to ensure that the flaps and slats were extended for takeoff. Contributing to the accident was the absence of electrical power to the jet takeoff warning system which did not warn the flight crew that the airplane was not configured properly for takeoff.
 

 

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude from Yale University, and received his Juris Doctor from Harvard University. On December 3, he became Secretary of Transportation.
 

Holding at the end of Runway 35L, the crew was ready for takeoff, and after holding for several minutes they were cleared for takeoff. As the plane was taking off, it over-rotated and the aircraft descended with the left wing striking the ground causing a wing to separate. A fuel-fed flash fire ignited causing a 'fireball' inside the cabin. The left side of the plane and cockpit struck the ground next and the jet continued rolling, inverted. As the plane skidded, the left side was tilted over and the tail was inverted. This caused the middle part of the plane to compress and crush many of the passengers.  (28 Fatalities)

The NTSB cited the probable cause of the crash as the captain's failure to have the airplane de-iced a 2nd time after a delay before takeoff. Contributing factors included the absence of regulatory or management controls governing operations by newly qualified flight crew members and the confusion that existed between the flight crew and air traffic controllers that led to the departure delay. Twenty-seven minutes had elapsed between the conclusion of deicing and the DC-9's attempt to take off, 7 minutes longer than should have been allowed to elapse before takeoff.

The NTSB concluded that the wing surface became contaminated by a build-up of ice on the wings prior to departure. Also the first officer rotated the jet at more than 6 degrees per second, or twice the recommended rate. Combined with the effects of ice on the wing, the high ascent rate caused the jet's left wing to stall and the plane to begin rolling over.

The captain, with no more than 166 hours of experience on the DC-9, had been dismissed by another airline after failing 3 times to pass a flight exam.