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If air travel is safe today in the U.S., it is still not safe enough.
The number of flights per day—now 13,000—is expected to edge up 2% to 3% annually. To make matters worse, the number of private aircraft is anticipated to grow from 168,000 to 200,000 in two years. As any air controller will testify, some small planes wander through air corridors rilled with huge Boeings and Lock-heeds coming in to land. Says one New York controller: "There are just too damn many planes in the air around certain airports —too damn many for anybody's health."
Can U.S. flying be made safer? The answer clearly is yes, say the experts. One way, according to FAA Administrator Mc-Lucas, is to help the pilot during his final approach—the time when he shifts from watching his instruments to looking at the runway looming up ahead. Says McLucas: "That transition, from instruments to eyeball, it appears, is the most dangerous part of the flight." A panel of six retired pilots set up to advise the FAA in 1975 argued that it was extremely difficult to make the visual adjustment. Said one pilot: "It's getting to be a scandal up there." At the switchover, says McLucas, "the plane typically dips below the glide slope. It's sort of a lag that's built into the pilot's system. I've looked at data from the flight recorders time after time, and you'll see a smooth descent, and then a dip below the glide scope, and then the pilot pulling the ship back up."
McLucas's recommended solution: an electronics system that would project instrument data right onto the windshield so that the pilot would also be able to watch the runway during the entire approach. Last week a group of specialists from the FAA and NASA began talks about developing an airliner "heads up" display system similar to ones already used on military aircraft.
An irony of air safety is that the airliners are built so well today that many passengers and crew members survive the actual impact but die in the flames that follow. Death often results from breathing the poisonous fumes generated by the burning plastic materials in the interior of the plane. One of the deadly byproducts: cyanide. Now, after years of criticism from safety experts, the FAA has begun an active search for cabin materials that will be both durable and flame resistant. Admits McLucas: "The problem right now is that you can offer the passenger the choice of dying by either cyanide or carbon monoxide in a cabin fire. But we don't know any materials that won't burn in an accident such as that in Tenerife."
An FAA panel, set up by McLucas, has recommended 17 steps that the agency carry out to improve cabin safety. Among them: developing a means of preventing fuel from bursting into flame on impact; making sure that flight attendants man the exit doors during a landing instead of frantically collecting cocktail glasses; giving crews better training for emergencies. Says McLucas: "I think the area of cabin safety has to be given a lot more attention, and believe me, we've started on that."