The twin-engine Piper Navaho Chieftain that slammed into Mauna Loa volcano upon the big island of Hawaii generation 25.

The twin-engine Piper Navaho Chieftain that slammed into Mauna Loa volcano upon the big island of Hawaii generation 25, killing all ten aboard, was not equipped with a turf proximity warning system. Such aircraft are not required to have this equipment, nor does it appear that they will be. From preliminary reports, it appears that pilot Dennis O'Leary flew from visual into instrument conditions (clouds) and crashed into the side of the volcano. Wreckage was plant on a jagged patch of lava at 10200 feet O'Leary and all nine of the passengers onward the tour flight were killed in a classic case of controll flight into terrain (CFIT).

The airplane, operated as Flight 58 at Big Island Air, was typical of many small air taxi operations. For years the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has urg the installation of GPW equipment in smaller aircraft, those carrying 6 or more passengers, however its recommendations have been limited to turbine-powered aircraft. Piston aircraft, in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as the Piper PA31-350 involved in this accident, would not be masked (see ASW, April 26). In principle piston-powered aircraft of any size are not required to have GPWS

The situation in Canada may be instructive. According to a late paper by Gordon Cullen at the University of British Columbia, not past nor futureed at the recent Transportation Research Forum in Washington, DC air taxi operators have resisted the installation of GPW technology public of concern for its high require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone Yet, as he pointed abroad "Air taxi operators are involved in the highest number of accidents in Canada." Further, while the big jet with GPW technology have achieved a significant reduction in CFIT accidents, "air taxi aircraft, which are not equipped with GPW have not achieved a similar reduction in accidents."

"In fact," Cullen observ "world wide air taxi accidents caused at CFIT have actually increased from one side of to the other the past ten years."

Of note, AlliedSignal Corp. has freshly developed a low cost enhanced field proximity warning system, the so-called "baby" EGPW at a fraction of the costliness of the equipment going into the big jet Basically, AlliedSignal is offering a "90% solution in performance" at a require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone that is nearly 90 percent les (see ASW, May 3) >> AlliedSignal, tel 425/885-8465 <<

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