{
  "id": "2004-july-august-data-shows-maintenance-problems-with-planes",
  "slug": "2004-july-august-data-shows-maintenance-problems-with-planes",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2004-july-august-data-shows-maintenance-problems-with-planes.html",
  "year": 2004,
  "month": "July-August",
  "monthNum": 7,
  "headline": "Data shows maintenance problems with planes",
  "kicker": "AIR SAFETY",
  "author_name": "Ted Mellnik",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "The Charlotte Observer",
  "summary": "A Charlotte Observer investigation reveals that airline maintenance problems have become a significant factor in fatal crashes, contributing to 42 percent of fatal accidents since 1994, with inadequate oversight and cost-cutting measures compromising safety.",
  "keywords": [
    "maintenance",
    "crashes",
    "oversight"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Public Safety",
    "Data & Databases",
    "Investigative Methods"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "Access",
    "SQL Server",
    "ASP",
    "VBScript",
    "SQL"
  ],
  "full_text": "Soon after a heavily loaded U.S. Airways Express Flight 5481 crashed in Charlotte shortly after takeoff, airline maintenance appeared as a likely cause. A mechanic at a small West Virginia re- pair station had recently adjusted the plane's elevator control cables, a job he had never done on a Beech 1900D. His instructor was also his inspector. He and other mechanics worked nights; the manager usually worked days. And the FAA officer in charge of monitoring the site had visited only once since mechan- ics began working there. The Charlotte Observer set out to find how the Jan. 8, 2003, crash that killed all 21 aboard fit with industry trends. A four-part series Dec. 7-10 reported that airlines are spending less to maintain their planes. Mechanics are checking them less often. Federal oversight is stretched thin. And maintenance is in- creasingly a factor in fatal crashes. The Observer found that since 1994, maintenance problems have contributed to 42 percent of fatal airline accidents in the U.S., up from 16 percent the previ- ous decade. Faulty maintenance contrib- uted to three of the past five fatal airline crashes in the U.S., and likely played a role in a fourth, now under investigation. Airlines have invested millions to fix other serious problems such as pilot error, and overall, crashes are declin- ing. But faulty maintenance, an equally preventable problem, has never re- ceived the attention it deserves, ex- perts told the newspaper. Sources of data for the series included: National Transportation Safety Board accidents. This relational data- base, available for download in Microsoft Access format or for online query from the NTSB, includes facts about crashes, the planes involved, events and contrib- uting factors. At the time of our use, the database held details on more than 50,000 events; it's updated monthly. It was the primary source for statements about accident trends. We started with a list of U.S. fatal air carrier accidents since 1994 in which the aircraft was substantially damaged or destroyed. An intranet application built using Active Server Pages/ VBScript and Microsoft SQL Server allowed reporters to browse the list, fil- ter it with a Structured Query Language \"Where\" statement, follow a link to in- vestigative reports, as well as add and edit crash entries. The additions were for new crashes. The air accident- data is referred to as ADMSPUB data and documentation can be downloaded at www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/ query.asp. The documentation is key to understanding and using the relation- ships among accidents, aircraft, people, events and contributing factors. Staff in the NTSB Public Inquiries branch an- swered almost all data questions. PTRS inspections. The FAA's Pro- gram Tracking and Reporting Subsystem manages information about inspections of contract repair stations and nonmajor airlines, and a portion of inspections of the nation's major carriers. It was ob- tained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The data was provided in yearly text data files, sometimes cover- ing more than a million inspections. While the data structure was documented, the challenge was to learn how the inspec- tion data was created and used so we could formulate queries. We focused on more than 450,000 closed, completed airworthiness and avionics inspections from 2000 to mid-2003. An inspection was considered to have an unfavorable result if the inspector reported that it led to an enforcement investigation or re- quired follow-up action. Valuable information about PTRS can be gleaned from watchdog reports is- sued by agencies such as the Gen- eral Accounting Office. For example, in 1998 the GAO reported that PTRS records understate the incidence of problems and violations. The Observer obtained an unpublished memo that described in detail the GAO's methods and confirmed ours. Key questions about PTRS were an- swered by interviewing inspectors and others in the FAA who use the system and its data. EIS. The Enforcement Information System data is the FAA's record of its actions against people and orga- nizations in aviation. Current data used to be available online. Its distri- bution was limited and some key Web pages removed following the 9/11 ter- rorist attacks. An extract of the data became available again in mid-2003. The IRE and NICAR Database Li- brary makes the EIS available to jour- nalists. For more information see www.nicar.org/data/faae. TranStats. This online service by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics provides data on airline spending, in- cluding maintenance spending, depar- tures and passengers. It's available at www.transtats.bts.gov. Other data. Several other data- bases were used in background. These included FAA Accidents and Incidents Database, System Difficulty Reports and lists of contract repair sta- tions. These and other databases are listed on the Aviation Data Systems (AFS-620) Web page at http:// afs600.faa.gov/AFS620.htm. You can read the stories on the Web at www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/ special_packages/planes, and an archive of the newspaper pages in Adobe Portable Document File format is at http://161.188.204.190/charlotte/air. Contact Ted Mellnik by e-mail at tmellnik@charlotteobserver.com.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "pre-v2",
    "extracted_at": "",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1997-february-counting-the-crashes",
      "score": 0.229
    },
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  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2004-july-august-data-shows-maintenance-problems-with-planes.html",
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}