Denver Runway Accident Demonstrates Hazard

WASHINGTON – Airline pilots’ long-time call for timely, accurate weather information in the cockpit was echoed during this week’s National Transportation Safety Board sunshine meeting to detail the findings of its investigation into a 2008 accident in which Continental Flight 1404 departed the left side of the runway at Denver International Airport.

ALPA remains concerned, however, that the single-probable-cause outcome of NTSB investigations creates a scenario that focuses on a single element at the risk of ignoring the many safety issues brought out in the investigation.

“For decades, the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, has challenged the industry to provide pilots more accurate information more quickly on weather phenomena such as strong, gusty crosswinds,” Capt. Rory Kay, Executive Air Safety Chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), said after the meeting. “Across the industry, the information on, and response to, extreme wind hazards is not as robust as it should be to keep our passengers and crews as safe as possible.”

The pilots of ALPA, the world’s largest non-government safety organization, advocate a solution that includes:

• Wind information most relevant to aircraft operations must be provided. Many airports in the U.S. are equipped with a large number of wind sensors, but there is currently no requirement that the most operationally significant data be given to crews. If a sensor exists that can give valuable information to flight crews, its information should be provided.
• Pilots on the flight deck need to receive all relevant wind data information in a timely manner. The most accurate data available on operating conditions fails to enhance safety if pilots never receive the information in the cockpit.
• The FAA must mandate crosswind limitations for each commercial aircraft, regardless of whether it carries passengers or cargo. Aircraft manufacturers are only required to publish a maximum demonstrated crosswind component, which is not a limitation. Some airlines publish this number as a limitation, but not all do. In the latter cases, flight deck crews have no indication that they may be operating at the very edge of their aircraft’s performance capability. Limitations exist for all other operating conditions, and crosswinds should be no exception.
• The FAA and the industry need to ensure use of gusty-crosswind-conditions training in a simulator that can accurately replicate these conditions. Flight simulators frequently simulate only steady winds on the ground. As winds often occur in erratic gusts rather than at a steady rate, this training does not allow pilots to experience aircraft operations in “real world” circumstances. The wind data should be made available by the manufacturers and should be incorporated into training, so that pilots can be exposed to the maximum amount of crosswinds and gusts authorized for their operations.

“ALPA also commends the NTSB’s recommendation to ensure that seats on the flight deck meet the highest possible standards of safety for crewmembers,” said Kay. “As the NTSB pointed out, flight crews deserve to benefit from a single, high level of safety across the industry.

“It’s unfortunate that it takes an accident like the one in Denver to draw attention to the safety risk posed by pilots’ not receiving timely and accurate information about crosswinds,” Kay concluded. “The good news is that we know the type of information access, operating limitations, and pilot training that are needed to address the hazard. We urge the regulator and the airlines to work together with pilots to swiftly implement these solutions.”

Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s largest pilot union, representing nearly 53,000 pilots at 38 airlines in the United States and Canada. Visit the ALPA website at www.alpa.org.

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CONTACT: Linda Shotwell, 703/481-4440 or media@alpa.org