Originally Posted by
AirScotia
Does anyone know whether DCA (via the FAA database) has a significantly higher rate of dodgy incidents per movement than other airports? Unless it has, I can't see how blaming the airlines is a starter.
I may have a dig round on the stats when I get time (currently sorting out heating in the house so quite busy with pipework everywhere!). But I'm sure many in the FAA etc have done exactly that and it's why the NTSB came down on the setup at DCA like a ton of bricks. IIR, they suggested that the FAA look to see if there were other similar risks at other airfields as well.
Also, there were some comments a while back in this Thread that there had been a number of "incidents" (ie TAs) at DCA. Also, it's not how many compared to X, Y or Z. It's not just down to simple numbers - risk assesment is way more than that. It's down to the SME's involved.
Just a few incidents should prompt a much more detailed analysis which then reveals the true risk. If there are more happening elsewhere, all that should do is make you look across the board and ask "Where else is this risk present?" despite no evidence to date - in other words they should have indirectly flagged up DCA.
The danger is an accident can happen the very first time a risk comes home to roost - if you are fortunate, you may get some "near-misses" first as a warning ..... but you may not! But, from what I've read, I'm not sure the NTSB saw this as an "out the blue" event - rather an "accident waiting to happen". Finally, safety is not purely numbers - it's appropriate/intelligent interpretation of those numbers. One event can be more significant than a history of 1000 of similar, but slightly different, events
Anyway, I've had my say and much of this has been said before anyway so I'll return to lurk mode! And my plumbing..... Deep joy!!!!!
