1997 Year-End Wrap-Up

SPECIAL REPORT. The year saw no shortage of aviation news with which we could fill AVflash and NewsWire to overflowing. Good and bad, joyous and sad, funny and tragic, and sometimes downright silly...it just keeps on coming. Looking back, we thought we'd wrap up the year by selecting the most significant aviation news stories of 1997 (our Top 10 list), make a few very special year end awards, and remember the passing of a few friends.

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Top 10 Aviation News Stories | SpecialAwards | Final Flights

AVweb’s Top 10 Aviation News Stories Of 1997

10.  John Denver Crash

John Denver Crash Recovery The death of a celebrity in an aircraftcrash will always make headlines. Couple that with the celebrity being the pilot, theaircraft being a homebuilt and questions raised about the pilot’s medical and certificatestatus as well as his competency and all bets are off. No other General Aviation accidentthis past year so captured the attention of the general media, or caused more pilots to beasked questions from a public looking for answers to the often irrelevant questions raisedby TV and the newspapers.

9.  Military Crash Rash

F-117 Crash While fiscal 1997 turned out to be one of the safestyears ever for U.S. military aviation, from the perspective of public relations they blewat the end when a series of unrelated military crashes in the last few weeks of the fiscalyear resulted in a politically opportune stand down for all the services. It did serve asa stark reminder that military flying is not to be taken for granted, and that ourmilitary pilots pay the ultimate price of freedom on a regular basis. No matter how hardeveryone tries, some will always sacrifice themselves, if they are to be ready when calledupon.

8.  A-10 Goes AWOL

A-10 When Capt. Craig Button disappeared in his A-10 during a routinetraining mission with a pair of live 500 lb. bombs just as the Oklahoma City bombing trialgot underway in Denver, the conspiracy theorists had a field day second only to TWA 800.Then again, they never did find those bombs. Button’s disappearance, the search, discoveryof the crash site and recovery operations provided weeks of news and held the community’scollective interest. It’s not everyday someone makes off with one of Uncle Sam’s war toys.

7.  DOT/FAA Spending Bill

FAA FAA funding was a contentious issue all year, and the fight overfunding is hardly over. Still, GA won a hard-fought victory when Congress directed the FAAnot to even think about charging user fees, or even study the issue. Well, perhaps it’sthe thought that counts, the politicians at DOT and the FAA haven’t dropped the issue, soit won’t die. The NCARC report issued recently only served to provide the impetus for arenewed attempt next year.

6.  ATC Outages and Miscues

ATC Radar Not a single story, but a continuing series of incidentsand conflicts kept the subject of ATC modernization and lack of reliability in the news.For those who fly, ATC represents a critical link in the safety chain and continuedproblems, coupled with the FAA’s reflexive and lame "safety was not compromised"excuses, has done nothing for either pilots’ or controllers’ confidence. Nor has the FAA’sand NATCA’s fight over STARS and other ATC modernization issues done much to convinceanyone that that there is a satisfactory resolution on the horizon.

5.  Boeing and McDonnell Douglas Merge

Boeing & McDonnel Douglas The big get bigger. While the Europeancommunity fumed, many on this side of the pond shed more than a few tears as one of thegreat names in aviation disappeared. Few aircraft have had as great an impact as the DC-3,but economics has no respect for history — or management errors. In the end, MacDacswallowed its not inconsiderable and well earned pride and the white knight Boeing madeoff with the spoils.

4.  FAR Part 61 Rewrite Issued

FAA There are few of our subscribers who were not affected by therewrite of Part 61. To the relief and surprise of many, the FAA actually seemed to listento much of the critical input it received when the NPRM was issued, though the final rulesurely didn’t satisfy every concern we and others had. Then, even after they issued the"final" rule, they managed to make a mess of it by issuing a slew ofeleventh-hour changes and "clarifications," many of them quite substantive innature, just days before the new rules went into effect. It caused widespread confusionand served to further erode the aviation community’s respect for and trust in the FAA.

3.  Meigs Field Reopens

Meigs Field Was it a victory or only a temporary reprieve? TheFriends of Meigs put up an incredible fight with lots of support from AOPA, the Governorof Illinois and others, and Meigs finally did reopen, albeit with only a five-yearreprieve. In truth, the fight has only begun and this was just a battle won, not the war.

2.  TWA 800

TWA 800 Reconstruction A week didn’t pass without some TWA800-related story making headlines. We have been, and continue to be inundated with e-mailfrom those who feel they have the answer to the still unanswered question,"how?" The answer may never be known and, like the assassination of PresidentKennedy, the issue may never die and we may never get answers that satisfy everyone. Wewouldn’t be surprised to see TWA 800 make our 1998 Top 10.

1.  Jane Garvey Becomes FAA Administrator.

Flightless Jane Garvey President Clinton named Garvey after the FAAdrifted for eight months without a pilot in the left seat. In the end, we still didn’thave a pilot in the left seat. Garvey is the first administrator to serve a five year term(at least she can if she decides to) and, as such, her appointment carries even greaterweight than previous ones. Her attitudes and lack of aviation experience will havefar-reaching effects on all of us who are involved in aviation.


AVweb Special Awards Of Distinction

Penguin Award: FAA Administrator and non-pilot, flightless Jane Garvey.

Eagle Award: Linda Finch, who recreated Amelia Earhart’s last flight, and thensome.

Black Crow Award: Mary Schiavo, who will say anything to scare the public andkeep herself in the public eye to sell her book and promotional appearances.

Gooney Bird Award for the Most Misguided Government Action: Gore Commissionanti-terrorism recommendations, which arose out of misguided terrorism hysteria followingthe TWA 800 explosion. (This was a tough competition!)

Worst Enemy Of GA Award: The FAA’s Regulation and Certification Group (AVR),particularly those charged with overseeing the STC and Form 337 Field Approval process.

Best Friends of GA Award: DOT, FAA’s Airports Program Office, and the GoreCommission. As more and more politically-motivated security measures are heaped on theairline-flying public — with their increased delays and attendant aggravation — wepredict that many people who might never have considered it otherwise will discover thebenefits of General Aviation.

Next-Best Friends of GA Award: The airlines, who have decided to limit carry-onbaggage beyond most passengers’ threshold of pain.

Understatement Of The Year: Richard Branson commenting upon hisround-the-world-attempt balloon inadvertantly lifting off without him (or anyone else),"I could see it out of my hotel window rising very quickly and I realized thatsomehow or other I should have been with it, so something had gone horribly wrong."

Worst Place To Receive AVflash: AOL wins this dubious distinction.


Final Flights

Here is a short and hardly-complete list of notables that left us in 1997. We feelpoorer for their passing, but richer for them having been part of aviation and our lives.

Walter Addems — barnstormer, UAL chief pilot

Olive Ann Beech — Beech Aircraft matriarch

Col. John R. Boyd — Wrote the book on modern air combat maneuvers, father ofthe F-16, military tactician

Norm Colvin — "Mr. Bonanza"

Jeff Ethell — Warbird expert, writer, historian

Max Karant — GA advocate, AOPA Pilot editor, record-setting pilot

Leo Loudenslager — Champion aerobatic pilot

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