Defiance & Determination

The crash of National Airlines' Miami-bound DC-6B threw an eerie flash of light across one of the darkest problems of U.S. commercial aviation: the stubborn campaign by top brass of the Air Line Pilots' Association (A.F.L.-C.I.O.) against the efforts of the Federal Aviation Agency to enforce stricter pilot and airline compliance with U.S. air-safety regulations.

While experts were still collecting the North Carolina wreckage, the head of the National Airlines branch of the pilots' union, Captain Robert J. Rohan, fired off a telegram to FAAdministrator Elwood Quesada suggesting a charge that made more responsible pilots' union members gasp. The FAA's recently instituted pilot check procedure, Rohan implied, may have caused both the crash of National's DC-6B and the crash of a National-operated DC-7B (with 42 dead) last November over the Gulf of Mexico. FAA's pilot-proficiency tests require pilots to go through "approaches to stalls and unusual maneuvers . . . even though . . . these maneuvers are not necessary, and are deleterious to the air frame, and may eventually lead to the failure," wrote Rohan. National's pilots, he added flatly, would refuse to take further FAA proficiency tests "until this matter is resolved."

That matter was resolved quickly enough. As FAA's "Pete" Quesada quickly pointed out, "the maneuvers required in pilot-proficiency checks place less stress and strain on the aircraft than that frequently encountered in routine and regularly scheduled operations." He was backed unanimously by airline officials. National Airlines' Vice President L. W. Dymond hurriedly said that the problem was a result of "local misunderstanding"; the pilots would indeed continue to take such tests--or else lose their licenses. Still, the telegram served to dramatize the pilots' union feud with General Quesada's administration: a feud based principally on the fact that in his 13 months as boss of civilian and military air operation, tough, dedicated Pete Quesada (TIME, July 6) has cracked down mercilessly on slipshod maintenance and flying procedures that have bedeviled the airlines for years.

No Nonsense. Quesada, retired Air Force general officer and at 55 still a first-class flying man, took over his new job at a time when air-traffic control in the U.S. was a dangerous hodgepodge of uncoordinated civil and military operation and when the onrushing jet age was threatening to make deadly confusion on the nation's airways. He began by instituting a new program of cooperative military-civilian control of airspace, then set out to tighten civilian air-safety practices and bring them up to military standards. He sent his inspectors through a demanding Air Force check-out course in the KC-135 (the military version of the Boeing 707), and took the course himself (he is qualified to fly all jet types including fighters).

"Now," he says, "the FAA inspectors can fly these jets better than the man they're checking out." One out of four pilots, in fact, fails the FAA flight test on commercial jets first time around, and it was because the ratio was higher among pilots 55 and older that Quesada a few weeks ago made 60 the mandatory retirement age--and thus once more incurred the anger of most oldtime airline flyers, who had looked for retirement at 65.

In no-nonsense inspections of pilot qualification, flying and maintenance practices, the FAA has jumped on infractions, slapped heavy fines on offending pilots and lines. Last February, for example, a Delta Air Lines DC-6 dropped an improperly fastened cowling while in flight--the fourth such incident in eleven months. Fine: $1,000 (later reduced to $500). In June a National Airlines pilot, while observed in cockpit by an FAA inspector, failed to use his check list in taking off and landing, explained to the inspector: "I don't use the check list when you're not on board; why should I use it when you are?" Fine: $1,000.

No Drinks for Drunks. On the whole, many pilots and airline executives agree, with varying amounts of reluctance, that Pete Quesada's clean-up campaign is a good thing. Though many think that he is a stubborn hairsplitter in enforcing too many rules and regulations (e.g., forbidding pilots to fraternize with passengers during flight), most will admit that he has achieved more results than any of his predecessors--at a time when results are sorely needed. Last week, for example, Quesada issued a ruling (to the airlines' and air crews' gratification) that forbids passengers to drink liquor in flight unless it is served by a member of the crew-- and not even then if the passenger appears drunk. More far-reaching was Quesada's ruling that all U.S. air carriers must install functioning airborne weather radar in their passenger planes (exceptions: the aging C-46, DC-3). The order came after the FAA found that a Capitol Airlines Viscount, which broke up in a thunderstorm south of Baltimore last spring killing 31 people, could have avoided the turbulent core of the storm if its radar had been operating properly.

Pete Quesada is determined to carry out such improvements and tightening of rules no matter how rough the fight. This week the fight will hit Congress, when Senator Mike Monroney's Senate Aviation Subcommittee opens hearings on the state of U.S. commercial aviation. The pilots-union reaction to the National DC-6 crash indicated that complaints will fall fast and furiously. Quesada knows it, but he feels that he has got the public on his side.

"When you go to the ticket counter and buy a ticket," says Pete Quesada, "you don't know who's going to fly you, or anything about his training, or the airline's equipment--nothing. The public acts in faith, faith in this system, and we'll see to backing up that faith. I'm here to represent the public, and dammit, the public will be protected."

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