Actually I just got a hug. It was from your father, on an SFO overnight. He was dressed up like Donna Summer looking for
some hot stuff baby tonight. I sure you're wired just like him.
Now those that care read this. See the following, thrill at the the condemnation! Stand in amazement at the strength! Be a witness to the massive determination! Be astounded at the incredible fortitude that is possessed by the pilots of AMR as they vehemtly protect their own dead comrades!
October 28, 2004
Honorable Ellen Engleman Connors
Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board
490 L'Enfant Plaza East, S.W.
Washington, DC 20594
Re: Investigation of American Airlines Flight 587
Dear Chairman Engleman Connors,
The Allied Pilots Association (APA) would like to commend and thank the National Transportation Safety Board for their investigative acumen and diligence in the investigation into the crash of American flight 587. We agree with the safety recommendations proposed by the Board and hope that they are implemented expeditiously.
The APA takes issue, however, with the assertion that the prior investigation into the American flight 903 accident has no relation to the 587 accident. The only reason that there is no relation between the two is because the Board's analysis of the 903 accident was incomplete. It is an incontrovertible fact that the Board unknowingly used filtered digital flight data to investigate the 903 accident. The entire analysis of the accident, based upon DFDR data, is questionable. It would have been impossible for the Board to conduct a complete analysis using filtered data. Furthermore, the Board was not informed of loads calculations performed by the manufacturer which showed that the aircraft may have exceeded ultimate load. The manufacturer's memo dated 16 June 1997 clearly speaks of loads approaching, and perhaps exceeding, ultimate. This knowledge would have triggered a much more thorough investigation from any investigative authority. It seems contradictory that the Safety Board, an agency that prides itself on complete and thorough investigations, would propose that knowledge of loads possibly exceeding ultimate in a primary structure would not have led to sufficient investigation to precisely determine those loads. Such an investigation would have revealed the rudder reversals due to the extraordinary sensitively of the A300-600 rudder control system, thus providing an opportunity for the Board to issue flight 587's eight recommendations seven years ago.
The APA is not asserting malfeasance by the Safety Board. The Board did not have the required information to perform an effective analysis. The attached System Safety Model clearly shows how the investigation in the 903 accident should have progressed had the Board possessed all available information. Based upon these facts, the Allied Pilots Association feels that it is disingenuous to assert that there is no relationship between the flight 903 accident and the flight 587 accident. As safety professionals, it is incumbent upon us to look at facts and admit our shortcomings. Though cursorily easy to deny a 903/587 relationship based upon the argument of "20/20 hindsight", it is not easy to deny that the Board's investigation into the 903 accident was incomplete. The flight 903 aircraft flew for five years with a damaged tail after an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board that was incomplete due to the lack of relevant information.
We are not asking the NTSB to place blame upon any party. We are asking the Board to acknowledge that their investigation into the flight 903 accident was incomplete. Had a thorough, accurate and complete investigation been performed, a different conclusion is highly likely as the System Safety Model shows. Again, please bear in mind that the APA is not impugning the Board's investigation into the flight 903 accident. We are simply requesting acknowledgement of the facts which limited the Board's ability to accurately assess the severity of the accident and control future hazards.
Please consider these facts when generating the Board's statement concerning the relationship between the incomplete investigation into flight 903 and the flight 587 tragedy.
Very respectfully,
Ralph Hunter
President
Enclosure
cc: Vice Chairman Rosenker
Member Carmody
Member Healing
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Notice that Ralphy Hunter practically kisses the NTSB starfish. These guys raise pathetic to a new level. Get off your belly sissy boys of the APA. Stand by the BLOOD of two fellow pilots whose good name has been drug through the mud. Because guys like you were too frightened to actually stand up like MEN and say, you cannot say this.
"We take Issue" and how about "we are not impugning" this is truly the death of outrage. Hunter! Get up off the floor! You're belly is in the mud, you're on your hands and knees BEGGING to have them reach a different conclusion. You and the rest of the APA minions are so busy wringing your hands and nashing your teeth you can't even wipe the tears from your eyes to see the truth! You have no principle, no guts, and no "gonauds".......you know what, forget it. You guys are a lost cause, if this is all the public outcry this develops. The profession is truly doomed. The pilots of AMR will sell their souls to the devil.
May God save you all.
