Sound Bites

• Medical helicopters are sometimes forced to land in rough terrain and navigate through bad weather. The difficulties include extreme winds, poor visibility from darkness or fog, and tight spots in which to land, such as accident scenes with power lines nearby, said Bill Waldock, a safety science professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.

  “It’s the rigorous environment that’s causing these accidents,” Waldock said. “You are putting yourself and your aircraft into a situation that’s already not good, and you get in trouble.” Also, many emergency medical helicopters in the U.S. lack night vision goggles, in part because of a shortage cased by the war in Iraq.

  -- “Ariz. crash raises questions about medical flights,” Associated Press, July 1, 2008

• Because the industry remains intensely competitive, airlines are hesitant to simply pass along all increased expenses to customers through higher fares – so they are resorting to implementing a whole host of fees.

  “Airlines are desperate,” said Ahmed Abdelghany, an airline operations professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. “That’s why they’re now making you pay for meals and baggage.”

  Abdelghany said the unpleasant surprises being experience by many travelers at airports illustrate the soap-dash way some of the new charges have been implemented. “Lots of questions need to be asked – such as ‘Is this the best way to do this?’” he said.

  -- “Nickel-and-dimed by the airlines?” The Kentucky Enquirer, July 3, 2008
• Explosive bolts have been used extensively on spacecraft, including NASA’s manned shuttle, and on military aircraft for decades while accruing a good safety record, said Arthur Draut, a professor of aeronautical sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.

  “The technology is mature enough that handling the bolt is fairly safe,” said Draut. “I don’t see any danger from removing it.”

  -- “Cosmonauts going outside to help avert near-crashes,” Houston Chronicle, July 10, 2008

• Alan Bender, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said the steep losses at American and Delta show that “legacy airlines no longer have control of their business” because of the spiraling fuel costs. Bender said the so-called legacy carriers such as American, Delta and United may have difficulty raising fares in markets served by the discounters, which have managed to keep ticket prices somewhat lower than the majors.

  -- “Higher fares, fewer flights as airline post losses,” Newsday, July 17, 2008

• Daniel Petree, dean of the college of business at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said JetBlue has been a “darling of the industry,” but fuel cost increases are hurting. He described the company’s business model as offering a form of premiere service to the low-cost market. “Their business model is not able to sustain under the constraints of the economy right now,” Petree said. “But their problems are not unique. It’s them and everybody else in the business.” Petree anticipates that a drop in flights will be felt more in smaller airports such as Sacramento than in larger hubs due to fewer alternative airline routes. -- “JetBlue to halt flight to N.Y.,” Sacramento Bee, July 25, 2008
• The super-jumbo, while an impressive eyeful, is not the revolutionary aircraft Boeing’s 747 was nearly four decades ago when it first took to the skies, said Alan bender, professor of airline economics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

  “Even though it’s a double-decker and it looks like a whale, it’s only modestly bigger than what’s already out there,” the professor said.

  -- “S.F. gets eyeful of A380 aircraft,” Contra Costa Times, Aug. 7, 2008

• “Thunderstorms are very dangerous to pilots and planes,” said Dan Cutrer, assistant professor of safety science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., and a retired U.S. Coast Guard pilot. “A lot of bad things can happen to you inside a thunderstorm.” Wind shear is one of them.

  “If the wind is trying to push you down and you are trying to push the plane up, you can actually overstress the airplane to the point of structural failure,” Cutrer said.

  -- “Two years later, questions cloud fatal plane crash,” Daytona Beach News-Journal, Aug. 25, 2008

• Sid McGuirk, coordinator of the air traffic management program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., said the FAA has been running its system efficiently without compromising safety despite budget constraints.

  “Would I like to see more modern equipment in the system? Sure. But most folks would not want to see their taxes tripled to pay for new technology every two years,” said McGuirk, a former air traffic controller and FAA manager for 35 years.

  -- “FAA system doesn’t compute, outage shows,” Orange County Register, Aug. 30, 2008

• William Waldock, a professor of safety science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., said how few commercial airlines required their pilots to check the heading before takeoff was a startling revelation from the Comair crash investigation.

  While most pilots are trained to check their direction before takeoff, he said making it part of the pre-takeoff checklist would both remind and condition pilots to do so. “That could have prevented the crash,” he said.

  Waldock characterized the FAA’s response to the recommendations from the Flight 5191 crash as average. He noted the relationship between the safety board and the FAA is designed to be adversarial to avoid conflicts of interest.

  -- “FAA slow to adopt safety changes,” Cincinnati Enquirer, Aug. 30, 2008