NTSB Safety Recommendations A-08-40 through -43

[NTSB Press Releases <NTSBPressReleases@xxxxxxxx>]

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                   NTSB SAFETY RECOMMENDATION
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National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594

June 17, 2008

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NTSB Safety Recommendations A-08-40 through -43

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The National Transportation Safety Board recommends that the 
Federal Aviation Administration:

Emphasize with principal operations inspectors the 
importance of conducting timely postaccident drug and 
alcohol testing. (A-08-40)

As part of the Takeoff/Landing Performance Assessment 
Aviation Rulemaking Committee, address the need for initial 
training on the rationale for and criticality of conducting 
landing distance assessments before landing on contaminated 
runways. (A-08-41)

Issue a CertAlert to all 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 
139 certificated airports that describes the circumstances 
of this accident, emphasizes the importance of specific and 
decisive radio communications, and urges airports to ensure 
that those criteria are being met in all airfield radio 
communications. (A-08-42)

Require all 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 139 
certificated airport operators to include in their airport's 
snow and ice control plan absolute criteria for type and 
depth of contamination and runway friction assessments that, 
when met, would trigger immediate closure of the affected 
runway to air carrier operations. Friction assessments 
should be based on pilot braking action reports, values 
obtained from ground friction measuring equipment, or 
estimates provided by airport ground personnel. (A-08-43)

The following previously issued recommendations to the 
Federal Aviation Administration are reiterated:

Evaluate crash detection and location technologies, select 
the most promising candidate(s) for ensuring that emergency 
responders could expeditiously arrive at an accident scene, 
and implement a requirement to install and use the 
equipment. (A-01-66)

Immediately require all 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 
121, 135, and 91 subpart K operators to conduct arrival 
landing distance assessments before every landing based on 
existing performance data, actual conditions, and 
incorporating a minimum safety margin of 15 percent. (A-07-
57) (Urgent)

Modify and simplify the flight crew hours-of-service 
regulations to take into consideration factors such as 
length of duty day, starting time, workload, and other 
factors shown by recent research, scientific evidence, and 
current industry experience to affect crew alertness. (A-06-
10)

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http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2008/A08_40_43.pdf

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The complete recommendation letter is available on the Web 
at the URL indicated above.

The letter is in the Portable Document Format (PDF) and can 
be read using the Acrobat Reader 5.0 or later from Adobe 
(http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html). 
	
An archive of recommendation letters is available at 
http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/letters.htm. 
Electronic versions of letters may or may not include 
enclosures; however, related publications, accident 
briefs, and aviation accident synopses may be found 
on the NTSB website.

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