MerlinXX:
The accident at NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was the first by which the NTSB found the fortitude to describe crew fatigue as the primary cause. This was years before the MD-83 tragedy at LIT.
Because the LIT accident involved passenger fatalities at the end of a long duty day, the FAA was forced to deal with the fact that 'their' FARs (created by the FAA) had never required a flight crewmember on repeated standby/reserve duty days to have a designated rest period. A pilot could make a guess as to when he/she might be on duty, but could never be sure with some companies. If they stayed awake in the day time, they could still be called at 2100 for an all-night flight to Cuba or anywhere else.
With a long Part 91 ferry flight attached to a 14-hour Part 121 duty period, the 91 period was not considered part of THE duty period, and so crewmembers often were abused by their employers for 20 hours or much more, all with no rest period. It might have begun after only 5 hours sleep.
Why would our beloved FAA be called "the Tombstone Agency"? How many dead people are there, or will there need to be, in order to require costly changes in the regulations, or new xyz equipment for a Part 121 airline (maybe not for Part 135 or 91....the public will forget in a few days after the crash)? Notice that the Gitmo Bay crash led to no basic changes in regulations, did it?
The LIT accident was years later, and was the catalyst for change because people-not crewmembers-were on board and died.
At ' Gitmo Bay' it was not a Fedex jet. The DC-8 (Fedex never had them) which cartwheeled was operated by part of Connie Kallitta's freight airline. The main hub has always been Willow Run (YIP) in Ypsilanti, MI, which is part of the Detroit area. By the way, pilots who flew Kallita Learjets almost never declared an emergency when an engine flamed out-they simply told ATC that they needed lower (NOW) and restarted the engine.
They were afraid of losing their jobs.
Pilots with some other smaller freight airlines were also quite reluctant to declare an emergency with ATC, unless absolutely necessary, i.e. 'allegedly' a DC-6 engine fire.
Na ja....
Last edited by Ignition Override; 24th Mar 2007 at 03:49.