Accident: Spirit A319 at Boston on Jul 17th 2015, fumes on board, captain died 50 days later
By Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Nov 6th 2018 21:03Z, last updated Tuesday, Nov 6th 2018 21:52Z
During the research into the events surrounding the fume event of Jul 17th 2015 on board of N519NK for our first coverage The Aviation Herald came across several questions, one for example being, why neither FAA nor NTSB had any knowledge of the occurrence. Therefore we decided to look further into circumstances of the event. There were at least three ways to report the occurrence to the FAA:
1) The Aviation Herald knows that both pilots filed an according official report to the FAA
.
2) The Air Traffic Controller must have noticed that the crew did not react correctly, even appeared to be confused, at one occasion turned into the wrong direction and donned their oxygen masks. Therefore it is more than likely that the controller filed a report too. (Editorial note: We'd appreciate if we could talk to the controller handling flight NK-708 on Jul 17th 2015 in private and ask the controller to contact us via the contact form)
3) Both flight crew donned their oxygen masks, hence this was a (compulsory) reportable incident, the airline was required to report the occurrence to the FAA
It is thus even more puzzling, that during our initial research as well as a specific FoIA request with respect to this occurrence the FAA reported that such an occurrence was not known and no records existed. Quite obviously the NTSB also was never informed about the occurrence as result, too.
We thus decided to expand our research with two objectives:
a) Review of how the FAA conducts oversight of airlines and aircraft operations with respect to fumes on the example of this airline
b) attempt to find out more about the circumstances and causes of the captain's death
Therefore we decided to file a FoIA request with the FAA concerning the captain and his history including medical records. The FAA Medical Center in Oklahoma City told us, they were not able to grant that FoIA request unless we could prove by a legally binding certificate of death, that the airman had deceased. We therefore approached the relevant authority with the request to receive a legal certificate of death for the captain. Usually such certificates are issued only to family members, the family however had indicated to be left in peace, which we respect of course. A clause in the law mentioned significant financial interest as another reason for issuing a death certificate which opened the door for us. We thus argued in our request keeping in mind a sentence out of the first officer's letter to his pilots' association stating "But to be clear: if I had not donned my oxygen mask on that July flight, we would have killed every person on the aircraft":
It is very clear, that had both pilots become fully incapacitated, this flight would have ended in a catastrophy most likely killing all on board. It is also clear, that a fume event like this can occur any time again, in fact, we know of at least a second event in Germany, where both flight crew were almost fully incapacitated at the time of touchdown and managed to maintain control of the aircraft with very last mental power reserves (Germanwings, Cologne/Germany, December 19th 2010, see Accident: Germanwings A319 near Cologne on Dec 19th 2010, smoke in cockpit, both pilots nearly incapacitated).
SOURCE AVIATION HERALD continue reading HERE
By Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Nov 6th 2018 21:03Z, last updated Tuesday, Nov 6th 2018 21:52Z
During the research into the events surrounding the fume event of Jul 17th 2015 on board of N519NK for our first coverage The Aviation Herald came across several questions, one for example being, why neither FAA nor NTSB had any knowledge of the occurrence. Therefore we decided to look further into circumstances of the event. There were at least three ways to report the occurrence to the FAA:
1) The Aviation Herald knows that both pilots filed an according official report to the FAA
.
2) The Air Traffic Controller must have noticed that the crew did not react correctly, even appeared to be confused, at one occasion turned into the wrong direction and donned their oxygen masks. Therefore it is more than likely that the controller filed a report too. (Editorial note: We'd appreciate if we could talk to the controller handling flight NK-708 on Jul 17th 2015 in private and ask the controller to contact us via the contact form)
3) Both flight crew donned their oxygen masks, hence this was a (compulsory) reportable incident, the airline was required to report the occurrence to the FAA
It is thus even more puzzling, that during our initial research as well as a specific FoIA request with respect to this occurrence the FAA reported that such an occurrence was not known and no records existed. Quite obviously the NTSB also was never informed about the occurrence as result, too.
We thus decided to expand our research with two objectives:
a) Review of how the FAA conducts oversight of airlines and aircraft operations with respect to fumes on the example of this airline
b) attempt to find out more about the circumstances and causes of the captain's death
Therefore we decided to file a FoIA request with the FAA concerning the captain and his history including medical records. The FAA Medical Center in Oklahoma City told us, they were not able to grant that FoIA request unless we could prove by a legally binding certificate of death, that the airman had deceased. We therefore approached the relevant authority with the request to receive a legal certificate of death for the captain. Usually such certificates are issued only to family members, the family however had indicated to be left in peace, which we respect of course. A clause in the law mentioned significant financial interest as another reason for issuing a death certificate which opened the door for us. We thus argued in our request keeping in mind a sentence out of the first officer's letter to his pilots' association stating "But to be clear: if I had not donned my oxygen mask on that July flight, we would have killed every person on the aircraft":
It is very clear, that had both pilots become fully incapacitated, this flight would have ended in a catastrophy most likely killing all on board. It is also clear, that a fume event like this can occur any time again, in fact, we know of at least a second event in Germany, where both flight crew were almost fully incapacitated at the time of touchdown and managed to maintain control of the aircraft with very last mental power reserves (Germanwings, Cologne/Germany, December 19th 2010, see Accident: Germanwings A319 near Cologne on Dec 19th 2010, smoke in cockpit, both pilots nearly incapacitated).
SOURCE AVIATION HERALD continue reading HERE
