The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board is worried that the U.S. Forest Service doesn't take safety seriously enough when it uses airplanes to fight forest fires.
But an NTSB investigator said on Tuesday that the agency's philosophy has changed since a fatal collision last June between two planes preparing to land near Ramona, Calif."At this point in time, they have demonstrated a great deal of enthusiasm toward the safety aspects," Don Llorente, a senior investigator based in Los Angeles, told the board.
The board ruled Tuesday that failure to follow normal landing procedures contributed to deaths of all three people on board when the two planes crashed after fighting fires in a state park 35 miles northeast of Ramona.
It was the first time the board had handled a case involving another federal agency under expanded powers Congress approved last year. In the past, the agencies investigated their own transportation accidents.
On June 15, 1995, a Beechcraft Baron owned by the Forest Service collided about a mile from the airport with a larger air tanker owned by a Forest Service contractor, Aero Union of Chico, Calif.
Federal regulations at the airport required the planes to use a standard landing approach, but both apparently were using the "360-degree overhead" approach - a time-saving practice that involves spiraling downward in a full circle around the airport, losing altitude in preparation for the landing.
The practice, often used in the military, can be dangerous because pilots can fail to see aircraft approaching at the same altitude.
Forest Service officials briefed their pilots before the summer fire season on proper elevations for such approaches, but pilots for the tanker contractor "did not attend the briefing nor were they required to," Llorente told the board.
The approaches had been common practice at that particular airport for more than 30 years, he said.
In fact, Llorente said he used to fly a tanker out of there from 1960-62 "and we did it all the time.
"Everybody just did it. It was a matter of normal operation. . . . The airport manager was aware this was occurring but took no action," he said.
Since the crash, the Forest Service has agreed to comply with federal law that outlaws 360-degree approaches at airports with no control towers, like the one in Ramona, Llorente said.
"I certainly would think there is a special obligation for a federal agency to adhere to federal regulations," said NTSB Chairman Jim Hall.
"We certainly in government need to practice what we preach."
Llorente agreed.
"I think this has changed," he said.
In addition to outlawing 360-degree approaches, the Forest Service now briefs contractor pilots and is taking other "positive steps and will enforce these positive steps in the interest of safety," Llorente said.
Hall urged him to "to follow through with the Forest Service to ensure that the lessons learned from this tragic accident are ingrained."
Other factors contributing to the crash were the Beechcraft pilot's failure to see the tanker and notification of the smaller plane's position on the wrong radio frequency, the NTSB found.