NTSB CALLS FOR INCREASED PART 135 STANDARDS
August 26, 2019
At a July 17, 2019 hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the NTSB reiterated its call for increased standards in Part 135 in testimony from NTSB Office of Aviation Safety acting director Dana Shulze. Acting director Shulze told Members of the Committee that Part 135 safety is on the NTSB’s “most wanted” list, noting that “[r]egardless of the purpose of the flight or the type of aircraft, all passenger-carrying flights should be safe. However, currently, air medical service, air taxi, charter, and on-demand operators are not required to meet some of the same safety requirements that have proven effective at enhancing the safety of commercial airline operations.”
Acting director Shulze highlighted certain recommendations the NTSB has made in the wake of its investigation of the May 15, 2017 crash in Teterboro, New Jersey, including improvements to flight data monitoring and safety management systems. Shulze noted that the NTSB recommendations were made in connection with previous accidents, including those in 2016 in Togiak, Alaska and in 2015 in Akron, Ohio.
According to Shulze, the NTSB has initiated an additional 13 investigations into Part 135 accidents and incidents, all beginning after the NTSB completed its investigation into the accident in Teterboro and issuing safety recommendations. The NTSB is also increasingly concerned over recent crashes of flights that involved paying passengers but were not conducted under Part 135, including a June 21, 2019 crash of a skydiving flight in Hawaii that killed all 10 passengers and a March 11, 2019 sightseeing flight in New York City.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6622); Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6665), or Alexander Matthews (amatthews@eckertseamans.com or 202-659-6633).
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