Editor’s note: this assessment comes from a full-time pilot with more than a decade’s experience flying internationally.
Although it is early days in terms of an investigation into the crash of a Delta Connection flight in Toronto, Canada, this week, it does seem likely to be mainly due to pilot error—resulting in the very hard landing and crash.
Airliners really should not be descending as rapidly as the Delta CRJ jet did in the last few feet before the runway. It is possible that a change in wind speed near the ground (wind shear) may have contributed, but normally pilots should be able to recognise that and go around for another approach, or divert to another airport—or possibly add some engine power to soften the landing.
One factor that occurred to me is that perhaps they were trying to avoid landing too far down the runway and risk running out of room (braking action would be poor in snowy conditions). They might have been prioritising getting it quickly onto the ground and just made a mistake. This could have resulted from an unstable approach, where the aircraft was initially too high, and therefore had to be made to descend more steeply close in to the runway to land in the touchdown area.
A breakup of the aircraft upon landing has happened before. In one instance in the 1990s, the flight crew was preoccupied by landing the aircraft early on the runway. Normally very heavy landings simply result in damage to the landing gear, not complete failure like in this week’s accident.
Some commentators have queried if a “stretched” aircraft—an aircraft significantly longer than the original design—are more prone to structural failure. This could still be the case even though they are certified as safe by airworthiness authorities.
In general, we may be seeing the tip of an iceberg of declining safety in aviation in North America, with many possible causes. If we focus our attention on pilots, though, it appears likely that overall experience levels on the flight deck have declined significantly in recent years. This is due to:
(1) The reduced number of ex-military pilots who are trained to higher standards than civilians (i.e. fully trained in aerobatics and other more demanding types of flying). As they retire, their experience is not being passed on to civilian pilots as it once was.
(2) We are currently in a wave of retirements as pilots reach age 65 and a subsequent mass hiring of new pilots.
(3) New airline pilots are typically ex-flying instructors with the legal minimum of 1,500 hours, but most of those hours are spent teaching others to fly, not operating the plane themselves, so their actual handling experience is relatively low.
Although airline training is technically rigorous and covers all that has always been legally required, in the author’s opinion the lack of hands-on experience and exposure to varied types of flying before joining an airline does make for less effective and less resilient pilots, particularly when they are new to airline flying. Like in any profession, it takes time to develop experience on the job.
Another cause for concern is systemic problems with air traffic control in the United States. One example is inappropriate aircraft separation procedures that push or exceed the limits of safety, such as helicopter routes crossing approach paths around Reagan Airport in Washington, DC—a known factor before this month’s tragic accident. A second example is the procedures that differ greatly from internationally agreed norms: quite an issue considering the number of foreign airlines flying in and out of the United States daily, many with nonnative-English-speaking crew.
Arrogance seems to underlie other problems as a root cause. There are many examples of this visible on YouTube, such as with controllers speaking in a condescending fashion to foreign airline crews. Air traffic controllers exhibit a concerning overreliance on requesting—which often comes across sounding like an order—pilots separate themselves from other aircraft, even though it is proven to be very difficult and sometimes impossible. This is in order to speed up the flow of arrivals and departures at airports during busy periods.
Overall, it is clear the United States still has a great aviation system, with tremendous innovation and knowledgeable and experienced professionals. But one gets the impression those administering the system as a whole—and major components of it such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), airlines, and indeed Boeing, with their well-publicised problems—have rested on their laurels too much. They have not addressed some of the well-known issues, some of which are outlined here and have come to light in the past few years.
Let us hope that recent events have highlighted that bold and courageous action will be required to ensure aviation remains as safe as reasonably possible in the future.
