Senator Dancing On Fresh Graves?

Within days of a tragic fatal crash on a Coney Island Beach of a Cessna 172, operating under part 91, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has latched onto the tragedy in order to conduct a little political grandstanding... long before the cause of the crash has been determined.

The 2001 Cessna 172S (N778LP) was circling above Coney island when the aircraft suddenly lost altitude and impacted the beach near West 19th Street, 150 feet south of the Coney Island Boardwalk. The pilot of the plane was identified as Endrew F. Allen, 34, of Jamaica. He was employed as a flight instructor with Air Fleet Training Systems Inc., with locations in Teterboro and Linden, NJ. He was qualified to instruct in single and multi-engine aircraft, and had logged over 1,800 flight hours.

The aircraft had departed Linden on a "Discovery flight" with three passengers from West Virginia. Police identified the male passenger as Courtney Block, 38, of Benwood. The female passengers were Danielle Block, 18, of Benwood and Joel-Beth Marie Gross, 18, of McMechen.

The NTSB has barely begun the investigatory process involved in reaching a cause for this accident, and a recent summary indicates that over 40 eyewitness reports are being checked, in addition to all the other normal factors involved in an investigation of this type.

Despite the lack of a clear cause and with the NTSB barely into the first week of an investigation, Schumer wrote FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, opining that "In light of the recent fatal accident in Coney Island, N.Y., and the many accidents involving commercial air tours nationwide, I respectfully ask that you work quickly to revise the FAA's initial proposal and implement a final rule as soon as possible."

Schumer added that, "Our nation remains without comprehensive safety regulations protecting passengers on small commercial air tours," despite a fairly solid safety record for the industry when averaged as a whole.

The Air Tour industry reacted aggressively last year when the FAA signaled (in October of 2003) that extensive and aggressive rewrites were in the making. Strong testimony and research form the industry has reportedly cause FAA to rethink certain aspects of their anticipated new rule-making with most of he emphasis to be placed on larger tour activities and operations.

The FAA's Les Dorr Jr. claims that the FAA had decided to tighten regulations only on large sight-seeing operations, adding that, "We got a lot of comments, and we felt we had to do something differently with the small operators." Further FAA action is expected later this year or early next.

FMI: http://schumer.senate.gov/, www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20050526X00678&key=1