Washington: Airliner "Incident" and Depressurizationgreenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread |
yahooWednesday May 9 8:37 PM ET Fatal U.S. Airliner Incident Prompts Recommendation
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Responding to the death of a flight attendant who was sucked out of a parked jet last year, U.S. safety regulators said on Wednesday they want to make sure pilots flying Airbus Industrie A300-600 series planes are better informed about cabin pressure operations.
The National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites), in a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites), said it wanted the FAA to require that Airbus update its flight manual on proper procedures for operating the pressurization system.
According to the letter released on Wednesday, investigators want to make sure the crew knows that the plane will not automatically depressurize after landing if the pressurization system is being operated manually.
Last November an American Airlines flight carrying 133 passengers and crew made an emergency landing at Miami International Airport after experiencing a pressurization problem minutes into a flight to Port Au Prince, Haiti.
The crew switched to manual operation of the pressurization system and the plane landed safely. However, when a flight attendant opened the left front door during the emergency evacuation, he was sucked out of the aircraft and killed.
Although the investigation is ongoing, preliminary findings revealed that air pressure inside the cabin caused the door to burst open, the safety board said.
The captain began, but did not complete the checklist on manual pressurization ``because of other priorities,'' investigators said.
But the safety board found neither the Airbus A300-600 manual nor American Airlines one for that plane state that the plane will not automatically depressurize after landing if the pressurization system is being operated manually.
-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), May 09, 2001
Oh my God their're trying operate the pressurization manually. This is suppose to be antomatic.
-- David Williams (DAVIDWILL@prodigy.net), May 09, 2001.