Piedmont pilots lack key safety training
Unfamiliarity with stick pusher shocks Flight 3407 victims' families, aviation experts
Published: January 31, 2010, 6:12 am
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Nearly a year after the pilot of Continental Connection Flight 3407 tried to override the safety device that was supposed to help rescue the tumbling plane, pilots at another regional airline flying into Buffalo say they have never been trained in how that safety device works.
Even though investigators revealed months ago that Capt. Marvin Renslow, Flight 3407's pilot, inappropriately pulled back on the controls after the "stick pusher" activated, two Piedmont Airlines pilots told The Buffalo News they have received no stick-pusher training.
"It'd be nice to know when that thing activates that I've had some sort of experience with it," one Piedmont pilot told The Buffalo News on condition of anonymity.
A spokesman for US Airways, which owns Piedmont, confirmed that Piedmont's main training center in Charlotte, N.C., does not include hands-on stick-pusher instruction for the more than 300 pilots undergoing once-a-year, mandatory recurrent training.
"The FAA does not compel us to have the training. We feel it should be there," said Morgan Durrant, a US Airways spokesman, adding that the airline is now looking into upgrading its Charlotte simulator to offer the training for the stick pusher.
Renslow didn't have hands-on stick-pusher training in the plane he was flying, either, and federal safety officials have questioned whether that could have been one of the factors leading to the crash, which claimed 50 lives.
More details about Flight 3407 are sure to emerge Tuesday, when federal investigators release their final report on the accident.
Still, a great deal already has been learned about Colgan Air, the regional airline that operated Flight 3407, along with the crew and the flight and the crash's ramifications for aviation safety, particularly on regional airlines.
Colgan started giving its pilots stick-pusher training in a simulator after the crash — but the new information from the Piedmont pilots shows that at least one regional airline is still allowing its pilots to fly without training in one of the life-or-death devices on their plane.
"I think that's terrible," said Mike Loftus, a former Continental pilot who lost his daughter, Maddie, in the Clarence crash last Feb. 12. "It's an accident waiting to happen."
No one can blame the crash of Flight 3407 solely on the handling of the stick pusher, given that investigators also said the crew — which may have been fatigued — let the plane get too slow and mishandled the positioning of the plane's flaps.
Nevertheless, investigators have devoted a great deal of attention to the stick pusher, a safety device that automatically activates when the plane experiences an aerodynamic stall — when it gets so slow that the wings or tail no longer keep the plane flying.
When that happens, the stick pusher pushes the plane's nose downward so that it can gain speed and start flying again.
Aviation experts said that sudden uncontrolled movement — and the view of the fast-approaching ground out the cockpit window — can be a shock to a pilot unfamiliar with the stick pusher.
And when the stick pusher activated on Flight 3407, Renslow did the wrong thing.
"There was force exerted on the wheel which countered what was supposed to be done," said Robert L. Sumwalt, a National Transportation Safety Board member, at the May hearings in the Colgan crash.
What's more, pilots at Colgan told The News in December that they had been taught to respond to aerodynamic stalls in the wrong way. They were taught to maintain altitude even though aviation experts say pilots should lower the nose of a stalling plane to gain speed and regain control, which is precisely what the stick pusher is supposed to automatically do.
Safety board members and witnesses discussed stick-pusher training at length at the NTSB hearings in May.
Asked if pilots should receive simulator training in the stick pusher, Robert K. Dismukes, chief scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center, said: "Absolutely. Just a few exposures would make it somewhat less astonishing when it happens."
That kind of training is not routinely happening at Piedmont, a US Airways subsidiary that flies turboprops throughout the Northeast, including some flights between Buffalo and New York's LaGuardia International Airport.
New Piedmont pilots and those being upgraded to different planes in the past year began going to facilities in Toronto or Seattle with stick-pusher training, said Durrant, who also said there is stick-pusher information contained in pilot training manuals and in classroom sessions.
But Piedmont pilots strongly disputed those claims.
For one thing, the airline has not been hiring pilots during the recession.
And for another, the pilots said any reference to the stick pusher in any manuals is almost useless, since it includes no information on how the devices actually work or how a pilot should react if the safety feature suddenly engages.
The Piedmont pilots blamed the lack of stick-pusher training on cost considerations and a coziness between the carrier and the Federal Aviation Administration, which does not require the training.
"It's the classic story of the FAA treating the airlines like customers," said one Piedmont pilot, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of getting fired.
Told that another regional was still not doing stick-pusher training, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said other airlines were considering adding such training — but he downplayed the need for it.
"Remember the key component we're training for is to avoid the stall," Babbitt said. "You never want the situation to get that far. You may want to demonstrate what the airplane can do, but the training is to never get to the stall."
Nevertheless, other aviation experts were shocked that Piedmont pilots still had not been trained in how to use the stick pusher.
"It is critical, if a piece of equipment like that is installed, that the pilots understand why it's there and how it operates," said Capt. Rory Kay, executive safety chairman for the Air Line Pilots Association.
"I fail to understand how the FAA could not require a training program to not include a comprehensive explanation of and demonstration of the stick pusher," Kay added.
One Piedmont pilot said the FAA should require the stick pushers to be turned off until pilots are trained.
"You get guys who say I'm not going to let the plane get to that point. But the guys in the Colgan crash got to that point and didn't know what to do," the pilot added.
tprecious@buffnews.com and jzremski@buffnews.com
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