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.