 
|
|||||||||
              
|
NTSB's 10 recommendations
Thursday, March 25, 1999
The National Transportation Safety Board issued the following 10 safety recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration stemming from the investigation into the crash of Flight 427. The board said the FAA should:
1. Require all existing and future 737s to have a rudder system with a reliable backup system. Such a goal could be accomplished, for instance, by redesigning the plane's entire tail section, creating a system that would automatically activate the aircraft's standby rudder control system, or turning the plane's large, single-paneled rudder into two pieces, one of which could counteract the other during a malfunction.
2. Convene a blue-ribbon panel to discover new ways, if any, the rudder power control unit can malfunction and design tests that can uncover problems. The panel's work should be completed by March 31, 2000.
3. Ensure that all future commercial jetliners certified by the FAA have a rudder system with a reliable backup system.
4. Require that commercial jetliners be shown to be capable of continued safe flight and landing after jamming of a flight control unless such a jam is shown to be extremely improbable.
5. Revise procedures for pilots to deal with a jammed rudder.
6. Require carriers operating 737s to provide their pilots with ongoing flight simulator training in how to deal with a jammed rudder and sharp rolls or yaws in crossover speed situations. Crossover speed is the speed below which a plane's ailerons - panels on the wings that roll the plane and are controlled by the wheel in the cockpit - can overcome the rudder.
7. Require Boeing to update the flight simulations it creates to reflect data on crossover speeds and require operators of 737s to incorporate the changes in the simulators used for 737 pilot training.
8. Evaluate whether the recommended flying speeds for 737s under various conditions are adequate, and require Boeing to revise the speeds as necessary to make sure pilots are flying their planes fast enough during descent to ensure they can retain control if the rudder malfunctions.
9. Require newer planes to upgrade their flight data recorders by December 1999.
10. Require older planes to upgrade their flight data recorders by August 2001.
|
||||||||
