Private Eyes of the Sky

They're the gumshoes of aviation

When an airplane goes down they're on site within hours, staking down the scene, asking questions, taking notes, making phone calls, and assembling a team.

They're the National Transportation Safety Board's air safety investigators, called in after any incident that results in substantial damage to a plane, be it a four-seater or a jumbo jet.

In the wake of the July 17 mid-air explosion of a TWA plane off Long Island and the crash of a ValuJet plane in the Everglades two months earlier, the work of these specialized detectives and their role in preventing future accidents is gaining public exposure.

Which is just fine with them. Since the NTSB's mandate is to recommend and not regulate, public awareness increases the pressure on the Federal Aviation Authority to adopt their proposals.

Investigations vary

Most of them investigate accidents involving the smaller planes of general aviation. "We go to work when the plane crashes," says Embry-Riddle graduate Dennis Jones (BSAT'80), who is regional director of NTSB's 15-state northeast region. Typically, an investigator will assemble and supervise a 3-4 member team representing the FAA and the airframe and engine manufacturers.

Jeff Kennedy and Tim Monville Their involvement depends on the type of crash and the number of injuries or fatalities involved. "If it's a Piper Cub or a commuter airline with one fatality, I determine the manpower needs and have Washington send in specialists," says Jeff Kennedy (BAST'76, MAS'80, MBAA'80) (pictured on the left in this photo with Tim Monville) who works in the southeastern region, which includes Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and occasionally Caribbean countries that ask for help.

Depending on their complexity, general aviation investigations average from one day to half a year. Kennedy has 18 files open at present, among them a DC9 incident and three helicopter accidents.

The Go Team

But when a more serious accident occurs, the Washington, D.C.-based "Go Team" sets up shop. The first NTSB investigator to arrive at the ValuJet crash scene in May, Kennedy secured the site for fellow Embry-Riddle alumnus Greg Feith (see Playing Dick Tracy for an interview with Feith), who flew in hours later to head up the inquiry. Jones was first on the scene after TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island, where he lives.

And although most air safety investigators are generalists, some, like Seattle-based Debbie Eckrote (BASC'82), who investigates accidents in the northwest region, also serve as special consultants on high-profile accidents. For the ValuJet and TWA investigations, she was called in to do intensive reviews of both aircrafts' maintenance records, policies, and procedures from the previous 90 days.

Others focus on a single area of expertise. Go Team member Charley Pereira (BSAE'89) specializes in using flight record, radar and other numerical data to reconstruct an aircraft's movements. "At any given time, the aircraft is in a certain point in space. The data allow us to reconstruct this flight path and understand much of what the aircraft and its pilots were doing."

Charley Pereira Pereira's research of a manufacturer's records in France led him to pinpoint ice in front of the ailerons, a moveable surface on the plane's wings, as the probable cause of control problems that led to the fatal 1994 crash of an American Eagle ATR-72 in Roselawn, Indiana. His findings contributed to FAA directives that changed the way turboprop aircraft operate in icing conditions.

Putting the future together

Investigators say their ability to make recommendations to prevent future accidents--or "putting the future together," in the words of Eckrote--is what keeps them going to work every day. Their influence may result from a report in which they advise a change in procedures or regulations, or from working directly with a manufacturer during an investigation.

As an example, Kennedy cites an incident in which a propeller on a Mesa Airlines Beech 1900 separated. "We determined what failed and gave our opinion," he says. "The manufacturer of the part immediately came up with a new bolt of a different material, issued a recall to all owners, and replaced them."

Margaret Napolitan (BSAE'86), manager of air safety investigations at The New Piper Aircraft Inc. and a former NTSB investigator, says her company sends near-daily service bulletins to owners of its planes. "We try to put more thought into the human factor, to make things easy to use--and safer," she says. "For example, will a pilot be able to see that amber light if the sun is bright, or would it be better to put it somewhere else or make it a different color?"

She complains that even though manufacturers supply technical data and review accident reports before they're issued, "a lot of the recommendations by NTSB investigators are too costly to implement. They don't appreciate what it takes to make an airplane."

However, not all proposals by NTSB investigators are approved by regulators. "My biggest frustration comes when I see a problem I can change, and I'm face to face with surviving family members," says Eckrote, "but for whatever reason my recommendation is shot down."

Some rejections are particularly hard to accept in retrospect. "In the early 1970s, we recommended that smoke detectors be installed in the cargo compartments of planes, but the FAA said no," says Tim Monville (BAPA'86), an investigator based in Miami. "Who knows if that would have saved ValuJet Flight 592?"

Beeper duty

A smaller annoyance for investigators is the "beeper duty" that can bring personal activities to a screeching halt. "Once in a while you get launched pretty quickly, before you've even wrapped up work on the previous investigation," says Kennedy, who recently missed his son's birthday party when a call came in.

For members of the Go Team, personal time is as foreign as the locations of half of their investigations, often requested by the State Department. Pereira, who spent two weeks in Croatia reconstructing the April 3 crash that killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, says, "There's usually a two-hour response time. Every time I get a call, my girlfriend complains. I'm doomed to be single."

An aspect of the job that some prefer to avoid-traveling in the cockpit jumpseat--appeals to Pereira. Flying jumpseat enables him to listen to the air traffic controllers, watch the pilots navigate, observe the operation of systems, and understand pilots' conversation, he says.

Co-op training a plus

The media scrutiny of the ValuJet crash also focused a spotlight on the skills of one of Embry-Riddle's own, Greg Feith, who, as investigator in charge, spent nearly as much time talking to reporters as he did to fellow sleuths. But he's not alone. "You run into Embry-Riddle people all the time in this job," says Monville. "At one time, all of my investigators in the field office were Embry-Riddle graduates," Jones says. According to University records, at least 10 alumni work as NTSB investigators.

Jones, who hires and oversees the investigators in his region, is enthusiastic about the training the University provides. As the first Embry-Riddle co-op student hired by NTSB--the second was Feith--he's particularly partial to the hands-on learning program.

Others who swear by the program are Monville, who was hired by NTSB after two assignments there as a student, and Pereira, who says the experience in flight test data he gained co-oping at Gulfstream was what qualified him for his present career. "To not co-op as a student is to do yourself an injustice," Pereira says. "You can't compete for many entry-level jobs without it."

Another thing investigators learn on the job is sensitivity in dealing with crash victims' loved ones. "I talk to surviving family members all the time," says Jones, who's investigated nearly 900 crashes, one-third of them fatal. "We're pilots, so we can relate to what took place. You become very compassionate in this job."

Spreading the word about safety

That close-up acquaintance with death fuels their desire to help prevent future air accidents. For some that means spreading the word to others about what they do.

At an Extended Campus site in Miami, Kennedy shares his experience with Embry-Riddle students who are studying for a minor in aviation safety, a program that didn't exist when he attended the University (see article about aviation safety minor). "We're teaching them how to set up a safety system in an airline. Embry-Riddle is becoming a leader in safety." Feith also lectures in classes on the Daytona Beach campus when he visits at least twice a year.

Jones helps to satisfy a growing public interest in "the whodunit aspect" of air safety investigation by giving speeches about the field. In one recent month, he gave talks to groups of funeral directors, high school teachers, attorneys, and emergency medical specialists.

Whether it be speaking to students, groups of citizens, or just doing their job, these private eyes are putting aviation safety in the public eye.

By Robert Ross

Learn more about the Center for Aerospace Safety Education