From a humanitarian perspective, regional air transport suffered perhaps its most destructive 24-hour stretch in history last month. Three separate fatal accidents, all unrelated but for the category of aircraft they involved, shook the industry at a time it could least afford the negative reaction. Once rescuers finished counting, the death toll totaled 72 in Turkey, 46 in Peru and 21 in the U.S. The cost in terms of passenger confidence will take somewhat longer to quantify.
As expected, the press in the U.S. rekindled an old controversy over the safety of turboprop airplanes after an Air Midwest Beech 1900D crashed into a hangar at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, N.C., on January 8, killing 19 passengers and the two crewmembers. It was the first crash of a turboprop in scheduled service in the lower 48 states of the U.S. since January 1997, when the FAA instituted its infamous “One Level of Safety” rule, requiring all Part 135 carriers flying scheduled service with aircraft holding more than nine passenger seats to meet Part 121 standards. Still, the news of the Charlotte crash had barely reached the NTSB in Washington when regional airlines found themselves faced with some of the same questions that gave rise to the Part 121 transition six years ago.
More In Accidents
