Four people fan out across a strip of high desert terrain outside of Prescott, Arizona, walking slowly away from the charred fuselage of a wrecked airplane. The sun burns brightly overhead.
Heads down, they scour the ground as they sidestep brush, occasionally pausing to jot in notebooks. A hawk flies overhead, the flapping of its wings audible in the still air.
"Hey, look at this!" a voice yells, and Larry Gottschamer emerges from behind a scrub pine, carrying what appears to be part of an aircraft control surface. The other three come over and gather around the mangled piece of aluminum, talking and pointing. m A bystander would assume that Gottschamer and his team are investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board or other federal agencies, sent to determine the cause of an airplane crash. Actually, all four are seniors at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, working on their final project for a course in aircraft accident investigation. And the crash site isn't in a remote corner of the expansive desert; it's in the university's accident investigation laboratory, located behind the Robertson Aviation Safety Center on the east side of the picturesque campus. Terrain hides from view all signs of civilization, except for overflying aircraft and some power lines.
The accident investigation course is taught by Bill Waldock, an Embry-Riddle professor and associate director of the university's Center for Aerospace Safety Education. Most of his students are pursuing academic minors in aviation safety; accident investigation is a capstone course in a program that also offers classes in human factors, system safety, aircraft crash survival and design, and other related topics behind the Robertson Aviation Safety Center on the east side of the picturesque campus. Terrain hides from view all signs of civilization, except for overflying aircraft and some power lines.
The accident investigation course is taught by Bill Waldock, an Embry-Riddle professor and associate director of the university's Center for Aerospace Safety Education. Most of his students are pursuing academic minors in aviation safety; accident investigation is a capstone course in a program that also offers classes in human factors, system safety, aircraft crash survival and design, and other related topics.
Waldock briefs the class before it splits into groups of four students that head for their assigned crash sites. Wrecked airplanes have been salvaged from several western states and their crash sites carefully re-created. The students have been given booklets that include aircraft, pilot, and weather information relating to the accident; copies of witness statements; transcripts and statements from air traffic control personnel; autopsy results; some general familiarization information on the aircraft; and a set of blank National Transportation Safety Board accident report forms — essentially a complete NTSB report without a summary or findings. Their job is to compile a complete accident report and determine the cause.
"This lab will put into practice what we've studied all semester," Waldock says. "Look at the accident scene — photography is highly recommended. You will want to do all of the measurements." Teams are issued accident investigation kits that include tape measures and measuring wheels. Gloves and other safety equipment are also provided.
"You will want to do background effort," Waldock continues, suggesting that team members divide the many tasks. "You're probably going to want to do an airworthiness directive search and look up SDRs [service difficulty reports]. At the end of this, you're going to write me a report on what you think happened to the aircraft. You can also add any recommendations — hopefully, the end product is going to include suggestions to keep [the accident] from happening again."
Because some students have taken the background mandate too seriously, looking up final NTSB reports on the Internet, Waldock has had to alter some aspects of the crash sites. Now, any student who relies on NTSB reports will draw erroneous conclusions.
Gottschamer and his team are assigned to investigate the crash of a twin-engine Cessna 401A that went down in Henderson, Nevada, in 1986. Waldock and his crew took six months to painstakingly re-create the accident scene within the eight-acre "crash lab." To increase realism even further, shortly before students investigate the mishap, a propane torch is used to char brush and earth around the wreck to simulate the burn area of the original accident.
The students — Gottschamer, of Prescott; Robin Goodson, of Seattle; James Harkins, of Sitka, Alaska; and Dana Lucas, of Phoenix — know from the transcripts and other background information that minutes after the twin Cessna refueled and departed for Albuquerque on a night cargo flight, the pilot reported that he'd lost about eight feet of the left wing and that there was a fire in the left engine. The flight crashed as its pilot was attempting to return to the airport for an emergency landing.
The students have also read airworthiness directives applicable to the airplane, including one to eliminate chafing of fuel lines with possible fire hazard from fuel leakage in the wing leading edge and another to prevent fuel from collecting inside the leading edges. Although they're already focusing on the left wing, the investigation is still a laborious and time-consuming process.
The control surface Gottschamer found 200 feet away from the rest of the wreckage — it was 300 yards in the original accident, but in the re-creation Waldock wanted to keep all the parts within the lab's fences — was the last key component of the aircraft to be identified. The team is confused by the appearance of fire damage both inside and outside the wing, and is having difficulty differentiating in-flight and postflight fire damage.
Reasonable questions are allowed, and after many of them — and several hours in the lab — the team has finished with its field work. It's time to write the report.
In the reports, Waldock is looking for a proper accident investigation process and for the students to follow the evidence trail(s) discovered during their investigations. "There is no significant penalty for ascribing an incorrect cause," he said, adding that most teams do quite well.
In addition to the accident investigation lab, the Center for Aerospace Safety Education also operates the Robertson Aviation Safety Center. The facility houses Embry-Riddle's Safety Resource Center, a repository and technical library housing a variety of aviation safety materials and accident reports, some of which date back to 1937. "Our official motto is 'aviation safety through education,'" Waldock explained. He views the center and safety programs as an investment in aviation's future. "A lot of these kids, when they graduate, will go on to do something else — they'll be pilots, airport managers, or work for airlines. But having this exposure at the beginning of their career will make them more safety conscious, thereby improving the overall safety of the system."
For more information on Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Center for Aerospace Safety Education, visit the Web site ( www.pr.erau.edu/~case/) or call Bill Waldock at 520/708-6956.
E-mail the author at [email protected].
Crashes for the masses
Courses not limited to Embry-Riddle students
It's not necessary to enroll as a full-time student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to partake of its safety courses.
For several years, the university's Center for Aerospace Safety Education has offered an aviation safety certificate program, developed with the cooperation of industry partners and targeting aviation safety managers. Recent participants have included FAA and NTSB employees, representatives of airlines and aircraft manufacturers, corporate and other general aviation operators, and Coast Guard flight safety personnel. Participants who complete the three required courses receive a certificate in aviation safety management.
The required courses, offered at both the Prescott and Daytona Beach, Florida, campuses, are Human Performance in Aviation, Aviation Safety Program Management, and either Aircraft Accident Investigation and Management or Advanced Accident Investigation.
The required courses are offered in four-day blocks, one course at a time, allowing completion of the safety certificate program in two weeks. This year, the series will be offered in Prescott during March and June, and at Daytona Beach in May; an October session is being planned for Prescott.
Cost of the safety certificate program is $2,500. For more information, call Bill Waldock at 520/708-6956 or send him an e-mail ( [email protected]). — MPC
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