A base competing with Hill Air Force Base for survival has been slammed by congressional investigators for a poor safety record.
The San Antonio Air Logistics Center at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas, has suffered worsening rates of accidents despite pledges to improve after earlier criticism, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office, a research arm of Congress.The Air Force has five large supply and repair centers - including the huge Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill Air Force Base. The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission has said it wants to shut down three of the five centers in the 1995 round of closures, which pits the bases against each other for survival.
Data obtained separately by the Deseret News from the Air Force shows that the San Antonio center has three times more accidents than average for a logistics center. Meanwhile, Hill has only about half as many accidents as average.
Figures show that the San Antonio center had 1.22 accidents per 100 employees during fiscal year 1993, which ended Sept. 30.
The average for the Air Force Materiel Command was only 0.76 per year per 100 employees, and the average at Hill was a mere 0.43.
"But I want to stress that comparing San Antonio and Ogden is like comparing apples to oranges," said Maj. Jim Stratford, spokesman for the Air Force Materiel Command.
"Hill works on F-16s (fighters) and landing gear, and San Antonio works on engines and big planes like C-5s (cargo planes). If you fall off the wing of an F-16, you might get hurt. If you fall off the wing of a C-5, you might get killed," Stratford said.
"These figures are most useful to compare a base's current performance against its past performance instead of against others," he said.
But the GAO complains that San Antonio's performance is getting worse compared to its own past track record - which was already bad.
"The mishap rates at the San Antonio ALC have increased - increasing from 1.12 in September 1991 to 1.16 in June 1992 and to 1.22 in April 1993," the GAO said.
It added that `deficiencies identified in prior Air Force, GAO and Occupational Safety and Health Administration reviews are still occurring."
For example, an earlier GAO report had said a fatal B-52 refueling accident resulted from inadequate training, use of uncertified maintenance workers, violating operating procedures and poor supervision.
"Similar problems were recently revealed," the GAO said. "On Nov. 7, 1992, during operational checks on the main landing gear of a B-52 aircraft, the landing gear was retracted inadvertently with a maintenance worker inside the wheel well. . . (Investigations showed) workers did not follow technical order procedures and failed to comply with Air Force regulations."
The GAO added that OSHA recently cited the base for such infractions as the "improper operation of a forklift, workers being exposed to electrical shock conditions while operating equipment, improper use and storage of respirators, hazardous chemicals in the workplace not labeled, and work platforms without proper guardrail."
The GAO said the mishap rate may actually be much worse because it does not "reflect all instances when workers are away from their assigned responsibilities because of accident or injury. . .. Statistics do not include time when workers cannot perform their normal duties but are assigned some other work."
The GAO said the commander at San Antonio has ordered more steps to increase safety, including considering any accident as a sign of unsatisfactory performance during annual reviews for pay raises.