Potential disasters

Monday, Oct. 27, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

An airplane crash in Spain that killed 154 people in August was blamed on the pilots. They allegedly failed to depress a lever that lowers the wing flaps and slats, which is essential for the airplane to get enough lift to take off.

As a result, the plane only got a few feet off the ground before crashing and bursting into flames.

USA Today reported on Thursday that failing to perform such a routine and important task is not unusual. Since 2000, there have been 55 reports of pilots flying in the United States failing to set the flaps, according to reports made to NASA.

In the late 1980s, there were two crashes blamed on pilot failure to set the flaps, and since then warning systems have been added to the cockpit. A horn is supposed to sound if the airplane accelerates without the flaps in position, and the system has helped prevent disasters, the newspaper reported. But it has not been foolproof.

The horn apparently never sounded on the Spanish airliner, nor did it sound on a flight leaving Washington, D.C., in May 2005. The pilots of a Boeing 737 forgot to set the flaps and were about 100 feet off the ground when the plane started shaking violently. The co-pilot saw the problem and pulled the lever, averting a crash. The horn never sounded because its circuit breaker had been tripped.

Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation, a research group, called the newspaper’s findings “a disturbing trend.”

“There are obvious human errors that are being made that take away ... layers of safety,” he said.

All nine fatal commercial aviation accidents in the United States since 2000 have been caused by mistakes by pilots or maintenance workers, which isn’t reassuring considering the recent failures of the Federal Aviation Administration to properly police commercial airlines.

Congress should make sure the FAA is doing the right things to ensure that pilots are doing their jobs and commercial airplanes are properly maintained.