Instrument Misguidance?

Of ten airplane mishaps presently under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, no fewer than six involve liners that crashed on approach to an airport. That is a considerably higher figure than the world wide incidence rate of 47%, and it has caused fresh alarm on the part of air safety experts about the adequacy of instrument-landing equipment at U.S. airports. Bad weather--or weather that required instrument landings--was a factor in at least four of the six approach crashes, and safety experts point out that less than a third of the nation's 623 commercial airports have full instrument-landing systems (ILS).

Most airports are only equipped with a navigation and approach system called VOR-DME (for very high frequency, omnirange, distance-measuring equipment), which guides a plane into the traffic pattern. But it is the final letdown through fog or rain that produces the tensest moments for pilot and crew. Then more than VOR-DME is needed. The Air Force relies on a system called PAR (for precision-approach radar). Because it places decision making in the hands of the ground controller, it is not popular with airline captains. In the past 14 months, PAR systems have been abandoned by 14 major civilian airports.

In the past month, two Allegheny Airline Convair 580 turboprops crashed at the Bradford Regional Airport in northern Pennsylvania. Both were approaching the field in similar snowstorms, using the VOR-DME instrument technique. At FAA urging, Allegheny has just raised the level of minimal weather conditions for VOR-DME approaches to a ceiling of 1,000 ft. and visibility of three miles. As in the other approach cases, the board has not yet established a direct connection between the crash and the instrument system either aboard the plane or on the ground. However, at week's end, the Air Line Pilots' Association issued a statement contending that "lack of up-to-date navigation and landing aids has contributed to many of the accidents occurring in the proximity of the airline airports."

Another--and increasingly serious--hazard to air travel continued to plague airlines last week when four planes were hijacked to Cuba within as many days. Two of last week's incidents involved foreign airlines: An Avianca DC-4 captured on a local flight and a Peruvian National Airlines Convair 998 Fan jet en route to Miami. The third was an Eastern Electra taken over on a run from Miami to Nassau. Finally, late Saturday, a United Airlines Boeing 727 carrying 20 people was hijacked on a flight from Jacksonville to Miami.

Though no injuries or deaths have yet occurred as a result of the hijackings, airline and Government officials are convinced that tragedy is only a matter of time if skyjack fever continues. They are equally convinced that the only effective deterrent is to make examples of captured hijackers, who face a possible death sentence under federal law. That, in turn, is not possible until Cuba agrees to extradite offenders--something it has so far refused to do. The International Federation of Airline Pilots has under discussion a proposal to boycott flights into countries that refuse to sign extradition agreements.

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