Safety in the Skies--Retrogressing?

Air-passenger trips last year numbered 835 million worldwide, 750,000 on overseas flights to and from the ROC Air travel may not be the cheapest way to go, but it is certainly the fastest and, at the same time, actually the safest.

But the situation this year, according to figures from the UPI, is not so rosy. Civil aviation fatalities have reached 1750, already making 1985 the worst year in history.

What is wrong? While technology steadily strides forward, is airline safety actually going backward?

"Just looking at fatality figures won't tell you whether air safety is getting worse or better," explains Liu Teh-ming, Director of the ROC's Civil Aeronautics Administration. "While this year is the worst for fatalities, it doesn't have the highest accident rate since the number of passengers has greatly increased."

In fact, airplane construction has advanced enormously since the days of the Wright brothers. Designing the Boeing 747, for instance, the world's first jumbo jet, took over three years and US$2 billion, with 13,000 hours of wind tunnel tests. Five complete planes were built just for testing, to answer questions like these: Could the wings bearing the 323-metric-ton craft at speeds of up to 600 miles per hour hold up to the stress? Could the fuselage bear the force of cabin pressure at high altitudes without exploding? How about wear and tear on the engine and parts? Only after meeting the strictest standards and passing rigorous test flights did the planes go into full-scale production.

And backups are the rule, just in case. Passenger jets have at least two engines. (The 747 has four.) Landing wheels come from four to six to a side, and even if they all should blow, a special foam can be sprayed on the runway to allow for "belly flops." Extra fuel goes without saying. Even the meals of the captain and copilot are prepared differently to prevent them from both getting food poisoning at the same time.

So with so much technology and attention, why are there still airplane accidents? Accidents due to mechanical failure and weather have indeed dropped sharply since the 1960 s. But over the last 20 years, statistics reveal, two out of three air accidents have been caused by pilot error.

Every country places strict demands on the skills, health, and mental well-being of its airline pilots, and the ROC is no exception. Almost all airline pilot candidates here have thousands of hours flying for the ROC Air Force, but they still must take a year of ground school and thoroughly master operating procedures before stepping into a real airliner. In-flight training is equally rigorous and demanding.

Demands on physique are also strict. Faced with the Civil Aeronautics Administration's semiannual physicals, most pilots play ball, swim, or do calisthenics to keep in shape.

Skills and conditioning are easy to check. A pilot's mental state is not. "Our company has a rule. Before the plane takes off, nobody quarrels with the pilot," Jennifer Pai of China Airlines' public relations office says. Nor are pilots permitted to drink or stay up late 24 hours before a flight. "If we find out about marital problems or a death or illness in the family, we go right ahead and ask them to take leave until the problem's settled and everything's back to normal," says Capt. S. C. Liu, the company's operations director.

How does the company know if wife and hubby are not getting along? "We have to 'keep an eye' on their private life," Capt. Y. L. Lee, deputy operations director, says half-jokingly. "Actually, we just pay a little closer attention when we get together with them to play ball or chat." Since the pilots nearly all come from the air force and may have been buddies for years, this is not very difficult.

To counter the possibility of human error, the best method at present is to rely on external, objective standards. For example, during takeoffs and landings the flight engineer reads off one by one from a checklist the procedures for the pilot to perform. And precision instruments cover every aspect of the flight. Airline companies tell their pilots to trust the instruments more than they trust themselves.

But the trustworthiness of instruments--and equipment--depends on the effectiveness of maintenance. So this area has not been slighted by the airlines and the Civil Aeronautics Administration either. Maintenance in the ROC follows the standard operating procedures of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration adapted for Taiwan's island climate, in which metals more easily rust.

Every plane is thoroughly maintained and inspected by licensed technicians at regular intervals and before takeoff. M. K. Sun, director of engineering and maintenance at China Airlines, says that the maintenance period for each type of aircraft is different. But to take the Boeing 747 as an example, besides regular maintenance, the plane is completely disassembled and rehauled after 25,000 hours of flight. All 40 some systems are carefully examined and the fuselage is X-rayed for cracks invisible to the naked eye.

In theory, if maintenance procedures are up to standard and executed faithfully, then every plane would be safe. No wonder Japan Asia Airways claims that, maintained properly, an airplane can fly 50, even 100, years. Is that really true? "No data in aviation history shows an absolute relationship between aircraft age and safety," M. K. Sun responds. "But every time an airplane takes off, pressure is increased and decreased one more time, which has got to lead to metal fatigue in an older plane." The average age of China Airline's 17-plane international fleet is just under four years, the lowest in the world.

If maintenance crews can be said to be an airplane's doctors, then the air traffic controllers are its police. To keep tabs on the traffic in the sky and make sure it stays on the right track, a whole series of overlapping control grids have been laid out around the globe. An airplane leaving Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, for example, is under the responsibility of the airport control tower up to 3000 feet above ground. After that, the baton passes to the approach control tower. Fifty miles out and the Taipei area control center takes over. No matter how far it goes, an airplane always remains within a control area, just like Sun Wu-k'ung, the Monkey King, who jumped to the end of the universe without leaving the Buddha's palm.

"Passengers have a great deal of influence on flight safety, too," W. C. Shen, chief of China Airlines' cabin crew training section, reminds us. Knowing how to put on the life vest, where the safety exits are, and when to fasten the seat belt is important and must not be overlooked. If he had not buckled his seatbelt before crashing, Hsiao T'ien-jun, when he flew his plane to freedom this year, would not just have broken a few ribs, doctors say.

And there is a reason for not smoking on takeoff. "Fueling up before the flight and opening up the throttle on takeoff lead to fuel vapor inside the cabin," Y. L. Lee explains. In 1980, 301 people were burned to death at Riyadh airport. The cause of the disaster was some passengers who lit a small gas stove on the plane to cook some food.

Terrible to hear of as they are, such tragedies are, after all, the rarest of exceptions. Safe, enjoyable flights are the nearly invariable rule. As long as each link in the air safety system--including passengers, pilots, maintenance, and air traffic control--performs its duties adequately, flying is still the fulfillment of one of mankind's most beautiful dreams.

[Picture Caption]

Flying is an age-old dream of civilized man.

A piece of equipment that no one hopes to use, the black box provides important evidence in the event of an accident.

Would you believe this cockpit is actually all inside the unprepossessing contraption on the right? The six hydraulic supports of the Boeing 747 simulator extend and contra ct to imitate takeoff, landing, and maneuvering.

The proctologists of aircraft maintenance, these mechanics specialize ininspecting, cleaning, and repairing the plane's tail section.

A behemoth in bonds, a Boeing 747 undergoes maintenance in the hangar. Maintenance is a vital part of air safety.

China Airlines engineers check the performance of a nose-section radar i n the electronics lab.

This is the radar scan as it appears on the screen in the cockpit.

A special black paint on the nose section increases the radar's sensitivity. It must be scraped off and repainted to remain effective.

In the pitch-dark approach tower at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, air traffic controllers are busy guiding the planes by radar.

Dusk is the slack period at CKS Airport, a good time for controllers in the tower to take a break after a tense day.