German plane at wrong altitude at time of crash, Air Force says
     WASHINGTON - March 31, 1998 09:43 a.m. EST - A German military
 transport was flying at the wrong altitude when it collided with a
 U.S. Air Force C-141 off Africa last year, killing all 33 people
 aboard the two planes, a U.S. probe released Tuesday found.
     The six month air force investigation also concluded that poor
 management of air traffic through Angolan airspace was a "substant-
 ially contributing factor" in the Sept. 13 disaster.
    The German Tupolev 154 carrying 22 people was flying to Windhoek,
 Namibia from Niamey, Niger at an altitude of 35,000 feet when it
 collided with the C-141, which was heading from Windhoek to the
 Azores with a nine-member crew.
    "The primary cause of this accident, in my opinion, was GAF 074
 (the call sign of the German plane) flying a cruise level (FL 35O)
 which was not the level that they had filed for (FL 390)," Colonel
 William Schell, the chief of the investigating board said in his
 report. FL 350 refers to flight level 35,000 feet and FL 390 to
 flight level 39,000 feet.
     Moreover, the flight levels filed for the German plane were in-
 correct under international Civil Aviation Organization regulations,
 the report found.
     The Luanda air traffic controllers had all the pertinent infor-
 mation they needed to provide critical advisories to both aircraft,
 the report said, but apparently failed to act on it.
     The "complicated and sporadic operation" of the aeronautics
 telecommunications network linking the air traffic controllers was
 another "substantially contributing factor" in the disaster, the
 report said.
     "Routing of messages to affected air traffic control agencies is
 not direct and is convoluted, creating unnecessary delays and
 unfortunate misroutings," the report said.
     "Specifically, ATC (air traffic control) agency - Windhoek did
 not receive a flight plan or a departure message on GAF 074 (the
 German plane), which could have been used by the controllers to
 identify the conflict so they could have advised REACH 4201 (the
 U.S. plane)," the report said.
     Having received neither a flight plan nor a departure message
 for the German aircraft, Windhoek air traffic controllers were un-
 aware the plane was approaching as the C-141 was heading north, the
 report said.
     Luanda air traffic control, which recieved flight plans for both
 aircraft but a departure message only for the U.S. plane, was in
 radio contact with the German plane but not in radio contact with
 the U.S. plane, the report said.
     "If ATC agency-Luanda was unable to contact GAF 074, it should
 have used other communication means (HF radio, telefax or telephone)
 to contact REACH 4201 through ATC agency-Windhoek, as outlined in
 governing documents," the report said.
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              Study finds FAA doesn't punish violators
     WASHINGTON - March 31, 1998 10:25 a.m. EST -- Federal Aviation
 Administration inspectors often find airline safety and airport
 security violations in the course of their work, but seldom write up
 or punish the violators, a new government review has found.
     The General Accounting Office, in a report to Congress, said
 interviews conducted during its review found some inspectors who
 complained that they were so inundated with paperwork or second-
 guessing that they did not write up the violations they discovered.
     In nearly 96 percent of the 2 million inspections from 1990
 through 1996, there were no reports of problems or violations.
     Coming after criticism of FAA policies following the 1996 Valu-
 Jet crash in Florida and the explosion of TWA Flight 800 two months
 later, "GAO questions whether this rate (of finding violations) is
 a meaningful measure of the aviation industry's compliance with
 regulations," the auditors wrote.
     Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who requested the report along with
 Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said Monday: "I am very concerned that
 once again the FAA has fallen short by not fully utilizing its cap-
 abilities to help determine potential aviation safety and security
 problems."
     The FAA refused immediate comment, saying it not had a chance to
 review the final report.
     In a response included in the report, the FAA said it does not
 have adequate legal resources to litigate all the violations it
 unearths. In addition, the agency said it has sought to work cooper-
 atively with airlines to correct problems rather than respond
 punitively.
     The FAA is the government entity charged with operating and en-
 suring the safety of the nation's aviation system. It has been crit-
 icized over the years for lax management and coziness with the
 airlines it regulates.
     The agency's new administrator, Jane Garvey, has pledged better
 results and is about to unveil a set of safety priorities that will
 guide the FAA's operation in coming years.
     The FAA has a 3,000-member inspection staff spread over five
 program offices, with a total budget of $535 million. The GAO re-
 viewed the Flight Standards Service, which is primarily charged
 with aviation safety, and the Office of Civil Aviation Security,
 charged with flight security.
     Overall, during the government fiscal years of 1990 through
 1996, the GAO found, some 96 percent of Flight Standards'
 inspections and 91 percent of Security's inspections resulted
 in no reports of problems or violations.
     But follow-up interviews with 600 safety inspectors and 175
 security special agents found that 35 percent of the Flight Safety
 inspectors, and 32 percent of the Security inspectors, said that
 they reported half or fewer of the problems or violations they
 observed.
     To correct the deficiencies, the GAO suggested that FAA in-
 spectors report all observed problems or violations, start disting-
 uishing between major and minor violations, and integrate their
 enforcement and inspection databases to better identify major
 violators.
--- DB 1.39/004487
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