…As Alphabets And FAA Talk Safety

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As crews continued the cleanup in Colorado, the FAA and members of various alphabet groups were meeting to, as NBAA President Ed Bolen put it, “discuss industry involvement in promoting safety.” The meeting was called before the Pueblo crash but was in response to a spate of business aircraft crashes in the last few months. But Bolen maintains that the FAA’s categorization for business aviation is too broad to provide the clear data needed to get at the root causes of business aviation accidents. Bolen told AVweb that true business aviation stats are skewed by the fact that mishaps involving commercial carriers on positioning flights (like the Pinnacle Airlines CRJ crash late last year) are flown under Part 91 and hence become part of the business aviation accident data. As is normal with such meetings, it has led to more meetings. FAA brass will attend the National Air Transportation Association convention in Las Vegas March 8 to give the topic an airing with delegates. Meanwhile, some are calling for an “industry-wide investigation” in light of the recent crashes. Robert Spragg, a partner at Kreindler and Kreindler LLP, which bills itself as “the nation’s largest aviation law firm,” said in a statement that the rash of crashes “is cause for alarm.” Kreindler said passengers and crew on corporate and business aircraft “deserve a greater sense of safety and security than they have now.”

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