America’s National Transportation Safety Board has warned that seaplanes may no longer be a safe form of transport
ON MAY 13TH the pilot of a seaplane flying over Alaska steered to give a better view of a waterfall, just as he had done on many flights before. This time, he saw a flash on his left—and crashed into another plane.
Both aircraft plunged into the sea, killing six people. The following week another seaplane crashed in Alaska with two more fatalities. America’s National Transportation Safety Board , the government agency that is investigating the accidents, has warned that seaplanes, which are able to take off and land on water, may no longer be a safe form of transport. It has asked the Federal Aviation Administration, a regulator, to upgrade its rules about seaplanes, which currently fall far short of safety regulations for other commercial aircraft. Seaplanes used to be the main form of air transport before the second world war, during which America and Europe were carpeted with concrete runways suitable for large passenger jets for military reasons. But it is not just weaker regulation that makes these sorts of planes dangerous today. The lack of a runway on solid ground is also a problem—one of the reasons they fell out of favour seven decades ago.The most exhaustive study of seaplane accidents on water, published by the Canadian government in 1994, found that over two-thirds of fatalities were caused by drowning, rather than the crash impact itself. As the report noted, “had these accidents occurred on land, a large percentage of them might have been non-fatal.” This is because it is difficult to safety evacuate a seaplane on water. The report found that only 8% percent of occupants of these planes were able to escape easily, compared to 26% that escaped with difficulty. Nearly half did not escape at all. Comparisons with accidents involving land-based aircraft are particularly stark. The same report found that for this type of plane, only 0.2% of nose-over or nose-down accidents on take-off or landing were fatal, compared to 10% for seaplanes. There are several reasons for this. Seaplanes often flip upside during a crash landing, something which is relatively rare on land. Passengers who are scared of jumping in the water can block escape routes. For those that do escape, help takes longer to organise and arrive than on land. And icy water, which can cause hypothermia, can kill otherwise unharmed passengers. Pressure to fly these aircraft in less than ideal weather is also a problem. Float planes, as they are also called, are often chartered by cruise lines, particularly in Alaska, as a quick way to give passengers a tour of the landscape. But cruise lines want to ensure these flights start and end on time so their passengers do not delay the ship setting sail. As a result, the NTSB has found that some seaplane pilots feel pressured by tight cruise-ship schedules to carry out excursions even when conditions are dangerous. But a regulatory crackdown on seaplanes looks likely to run into political resistance in America. Alaska is particularly reliant on seaplanes. Most of the American state is inaccessible by road and the tourism industry there is heavily reliant on seaplanes to get visitors around. Alaskans are also six times more likely than the average American to own a plane. Seaplanes are likely to be around for some time yet.
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