New Safety Checks For Turboprops
The FAA has ordered immediate inspections of the elevator control systems on all Beech 1900 turboprops, CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr reports.
By midnight, Jan. 31, airlines must ensure that the control columns and elevators are properly rigged and freely moving as designed. (Elevators are the hinged flat surfaces on the trailing edges on the rear wings that control a plane's up and down movements.)
The order affects 368 planes in the U.S.; 143 of them are passenger planes operated by seven different airlines.
In addition, the FAA is requiring airlines to re-examine their weight and balance procedures for small planes that carry between 10 and 19 passengers. On some flights, bags and passengers will actually be weighed to make sure that planes are not overloaded.
All of this stems from the investigation into the Jan. 8 crash of a USAirways Beech 1900 that killed 21 people in Charlotte, N.C.
The National Transportation Safety Board suspects that an improperly rigged elevator and a very heavy load may have combined to cause the crash. No official cause has been determined.
Debby McElroy, president of the Regional Airlines Association, which is working with the FAA, said airlines are being asked to weigh passengers and bags once within a month at about a third of the airports used by aircraft that carry 19 passengers.
The FAA allows airlines to estimate that a male passenger flying in winter averages 175 pounds, including clothing and carry-ons, and that each checked bag weighs an average of 25 pounds.
"They want to get a sense for whether those numbers are still appropriate," McElroy said.
Adult men averaged 180.7 pounds in 1994, the most recent year in which statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are available. And bags, particularly the popular wheeled versions, also have gotten larger.
"People go out with these roll bags that weight 40 to 50 pounds," said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association.
The maximum takeoff weight for the Beech 1900 that crashed in Charlotte is just over 17,000 pounds. The NTSB said the plane's documentation shows it was within 100 pounds of that weight.
Investigators also are looking at weight distribution, which is just as important as total weight because it affects an aircraft's center of gravity. Too many bags in the rear compartment or a few large people in the back could change a small plane's center of gravity and make it more much difficult to fly.