Page 21 - Oct24

NTSB Special Investigation Recommends Safety Improvements for
Part 135 Operators
A special investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board of more than 500 accidents involving Part 135 operations between 2010 and 2022 has resulted in the NTSB issuing three new and two reiterated recommendations to improve safety.
The investigation initiated in 2022 after a cluster of safety issues emerged from recent investigations of accidents involving Part 135 operators, including commuter air carriers, air tour operators, air ambulance services and on-demand business charters, among other operations. The report did not look at Part 121 major airline operations.
Safety issues explored in the report include:
= Unsafe loading conditions. Investigators cited four single-engine airplane accidents where unsafe loading conditions were identified. The NTSB said that a requirement mandating flight manifests and weight and balance documentation be recorded
for all aircraft operated under Part 135 would
help pilots detect and correct unsafe loading conditions. Such a requirement would also provide operators and inspectors the information needed to support proactive, comprehensive assessments to identify any related operational risk areas
that may influence improper aircraft loading and mitigate them before an accident occurs.
= Lack of certificated dispatchers for some operations. The report identified 12 accidents in which flight dispatch and operational control were deficient because the personnel responsible for those areas were not certificated flight dispatchers nor did FAA regulations require them to be. The NTSB said that certificated flight dispatchers would expand the safety margins of many Part 135 operations because of improved quality control over functions such as preflight weather, fuel and route planning, active monitoring of conditions along the route of flight and timely notification of emergency response organizations if an aircraft is overdue.
= Flight data monitoring. The report noted that flight data monitoring programs could provide Part 135 operators with objective information on how their pilots conduct flights, and a periodic review of such information could assist operators in detecting and correcting unsafe deviations from company standard operating procedures.
The NTSB also called for needed improvements in the collection and reporting of aircraft accident and flight activity data used to determine accurate accident rates for certain segments of Part 135 on demand operations. The NTSB is pushing for enhancements to data collection so it can better target safety initiatives. The full Special Investigation Report AIR-24-03 is available at ntsb.gov.
Source: National Transportation Safety Board KA
OCTOBER 2024
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