Paper Says Delays Caused Key Evidence To Be Lost

The editorial board of the East Bay Times newspaper has written a piece in which they accuse the FAA and Air Canada of dragging their feet in the investigation of an incident July 7 at San Francisco International Airport (KSFO). An Air Canada A320 lined up to land on a taxiway where four aircraft were lined up waiting for takeoff, and initiated a go-around below 60 feet of altitude, according to the NTSB's preliminary report.

But the editorial board says that Air Canada and the FAA have slowed the pace of the investigation, which has led to the cockpit voice recorder data to be erased. They also say that the Canadian pilots were never tested for drugs and alcohol, and conclude that it all points to a "bureaucratic cover-up that conveniently protects the federal agency and the airline involved."

According to the editorial, the FAA only required one controller to be on duty at the time that the incident occurred, and that the agency did not notify the NTSB about the incident until more than 24 hours after it happened. That allowed Air Canada to operate the aircraft three more times before the investigation began, and the subsequent flights caused the Cockpit Voice Recorder to overwrite the recordings made during the incident flight multiple times.

The board says Air Canada refuses to answer questions about the investigation, the FAA will not explain why it took more than a day to report the incident, and the NTSB says that federal rules do not require such notification because there was no actual collision.

The board says that former NTSB chairman Jim Hall told a reporter for the paper that the investigation should have begun immediately, due to the potential for disaster caused by the mistake.

(NTSB image from file)

FMI: Full Editorial