This July 4, Travel Safely—Don’t Put Unnecessary Strain on First Responders and Hospital Staff

By Dolline Hatchett, Director, NTSB Office of Safety Recommendations and Communications

COVID-19 has affected every American, and the NTSB has adapted to respond to the effects of the pandemic. As the agency’s Director of Safety Recommendations and Communications (SRC), I know how important it is to keep the industry, elected officials, and the advocacy community briefed on transportation safety; that’s why I decided to take advantage of this platform to try to reach as many of my fellow citizens as possible.

As we approach the July 4th weekend, with travelers expected to hit the roadways even in the midst of a pandemic, it’s important to remind the traveling public to drive safely. Motor vehicle crashes continue to constitute a chronic national health care crisis, resulting in 35,000 or more deaths and millions of injuries each year. Highway crashes create an enormous demand for medical services, year in and year out. At the same time, an emergent crisis, like COVID-19, demands those same resources, and they start to get stretched thin.

SRC works not only to inform, but also to advocate for safer personal transportation choices. Although much of the country has been shut down for the past few months, the agency continues to craft and track safety recommendations, and it’s up to my office to publicize safety advances when we close recommendations.

Throughout the lockdown, SRC has continued to facilitate communication with state and national policy makers, upon request, about transportation safety issues that are relevant to legislation they may be considering. The difference these days is that the office responds to these requests in writing, rather than in face-to-face testimony. We’ve also responded to requests from federal congressional staff to provide information on our recommendations to help them develop a surface transportation bill. And of course, we continue to make safety publications available to the public and to respond to queries about ongoing investigations.

But perhaps the most innovative response we’ve had during this pandemic is our Safety Reminder campaign, which launched just before Memorial Day with a public service announcement. This outreach was important; surprisingly, while most of the country was on lockdown leading up to Memorial Day weekend, a nationwide speeding trend emerged. We decided to proactively remind the public about safe transportation across all modes as the nation began to re-open.

I believe it’s important to re-emphasize safe road travel ahead of the July 4th weekend, especially because stay-at-home orders have eased throughout the country, and we may see even more road travelers this holiday weekend than we did over Memorial Day weekend. Despite  being away from our physical offices, SRC continues to keep the public informed of the agency’s work as we advocate for safety improvements across all modes of transportation. We’re the conduit between the technical expertise at the agency and our stakeholders—the traveling public, lawmakers, and industry—and it’s up to us to effectively communicate the vital safety improvements that come out of our investigations, reports, and studies. There’s no better time to convey that important information than now, just before a holiday weekend during which many Americans will be taking to the roads, perhaps for the first time in months.

So, before the start of the holiday weekend, when you’re picking out your mask and planning socially distant celebrations, remember how your actions behind the wheel relate to this pandemic and those directly affected by it. Don’t drive impaired. Don’t drive distracted or fatigued. Don’t speed. Whether you’re a passenger or a driver, always wear your seatbelt.

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Let’s work together to avoid further strain on our health care system; every ambulance not called, every unit of blood not transfused, every bed in an emergency department not filled because of a crash, is one more resource made available to fight our emergent crisis.

 

Episode 34: Highway Safety

In this episode of the Behind-the-Scene @NTSB podcast, NTSB Office of Highway Safety Director Rob Molloy, PhD, and Deputy Director Kris Poland, PhD, discuss their journeys to the NTSB and current work. Hear their views on the increase in speed-related crashes, current NTSB highway investigations, new safety recommendations related to vehicle automation, and much more. They also discuss the NTSB #SafetyReminder campaign & share important road safety reminders as the nation resumes normal operations during the pandemic.

 

The NTSB final reports for the investigations mentioned in this episode are available here.

For more information about NTSB school transportation-related investigations, safety recommendations and presentations, visit the NTSB School Bus Safety page.

The previously released podcast featuring Kris Poland, PhD, is available here.

Get the latest episode on Apple Podcasts , on Google Play, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast platform.

And find more ways to listen here: https://www.blubrry.com/behind_the_scene_ntsb/

FAA Must Take Action on Recorder Safety Recommendations

By Member Jennifer Homendy

Crash-protected flight recording systems, such as cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) and flight data recorders (FDRs), often called “black boxes,” are required on most commercial aircraft by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). CVRs record sounds like engine noises and pilots’ voices in aircraft cockpits. FDRs record important data on a plane’s operating condition during flight, like altitude and airspeed. Both are installed in a part of the aircraft most likely to “survive” a crash—usually the tail. These instruments have proven invaluable to determining the causes of a crash and preventing similar accidents from occurring; yet, the FAA doesn’t require them on most helicopters.

Nearly 4 months ago, a helicopter carrying nine people collided with a mountainside in Calabasas, California, tragically killing all on board. As the Board member on duty, I launched to Calabasas with a team of NTSB investigators just a few hours after learning of the crash. In the days following the accident, our team of investigators thoroughly examined the details surrounding the collision and I relayed our initial findings to the public. At our final press conference, I highlighted a 2006 safety recommendation issued to the FAA that the agency had refused to implement: require all transport-category rotorcraft operating under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 (requirements for general aviation operations in the United States) and Part 135 (requirements for operating charter and on-demand flights) to be equipped with a CVR and an FDR. The transport-category helicopter in the Calabasas crash was operating under Part 135, but was not equipped with either a CVR or an FDR.

CALABASAS, California — In this photo taken Jan. 27, NTSB investigator Carol Horgan examines wreckage as part of the NTSB’s investigation of the the crash of a Sikorsky S76B helicopter near Calabasas, California, Jan. 26. The eight passengers and pilot aboard the helicopter were fatally injured and the helicopter was destroyed. (NTSB photo by James Anderson)

Although it’s too soon in the ongoing Calabasas helicopter investigation to know how the lack of recorders will affect our investigative work, the NTSB has long seen the value of using flight recorders to conduct comprehensive accident investigations, including those involving helicopters. At the time of the Calabasas accident, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert spoke about how a CVR was instrumental in determining what caused Eastern Air Lines flight 212 to crash in 1974, killing 72 people on board—including his father and two brothers. Colbert appealed to the FAA to require that helicopters be equipped with black boxes so we can learn more about what occurred in a crash and prevent the next one from happening.

Unfortunately, the absence of a CVR and an FDR in the Calabasas crash was not unique. In fact, the NTSB has investigated several helicopter crashes and issued recommendations to address the lack of crash-resistant flight recording technology onboard helicopters as far back as 1999 (A‑99‑60). We followed up with comparable recommendations in 2003 (A-03-62 to -65) and 2009 (A-09-9 to -11), and recently released a safety recommendation report detailing several helicopter crashes in which recorded flight data would’ve helped us better identify potential safety issues.

On May 19, the Board adopted a report on the January 29, 2019, crash of an air ambulance near Zaleski, Ohio. The investigation found that if cockpit image data had been captured, investigators would have been able to better understand why the pilot failed to maintain altitude in the final moments of the air ambulance’s flight. We reiterated two previous recommendations (A-13-12 and -13) that the FAA require crash-resistant flight recorder systems on new and existing aircraft operating under Parts 91, 121 (domestic operating requirements), and 135. As we learned at the Board meeting, these crash-resistant devices are available on the market today.

We also reiterated a recommendation (A-16-35) that the FAA require all Part 135 operators to create flight data monitoring (FDM) programs “to identify deviations from established norms and procedures and other potential safety issues.” In the Zaleski investigation, although the helicopter was equipped with FDM devices, the data was not used to verify and improve safety.

Expanding the use of recorders has been on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List (MWL) going back to 2011. The MWLs in 2014 and 2015 both specifically called for crash-resistant flight recorder systems to be adopted to enhance helicopter safety. Our most current MWL, which spans 2019 and 2020, calls on regulators to “require all Part 135 operators to install data recording devices” to meet the same safety requirements as commercial airlines.

The NTSB’s history of recommendations on flight recording systems has not gone unnoticed by lawmakers. Following a June 2019 helicopter crash in Manhattan that killed the pilot and started a fire on top of a Midtown skyscraper, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand urged the FAA to require FDRs in helicopters, just as they are required for commercial planes. In their press release, Senator Schumer stated “to know that the NTSB has been trying for years, without success, to compel the FAA to take action as it relates to making helicopters more valuable to safety by installing flight data recorders is cause for serious concern.” He went on to say that the FAA “must take another look” at the NTSB’s recommendations on FDRs.

To date, the FAA has not acted on our repeated recommendations regarding crash‑resistant and crash-protected flight recording systems for helicopters. Although the FAA encourages helicopter operators to voluntarily use crash-resistant flight recording systems, the agency stops short of mandating CVRs and FDRs. This is especially disappointing because, although flight recording systems are undoubtedly crucial to improving aviation safety, they serve another important function: they provide grieving families with answers.

The benefits of crash-resistant flight recording systems well outweigh their cost; it’s beyond time for the FAA to take action on our safety recommendations regarding them.