NTSB: Fatigue a factor in fatal UPS crash

WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday the crew of a UPS jet that crashed last year in Birmingham, Ala., made mistakes during the critical pre-dawn approach to the runway, adding that the fatigue of the pilot and co-pilot were factors in the accident.

However, federal investigators also said that including cargo pilots in new rest rules would not have changed the outcome of the accident.

Instead, the board primarily emphasized crew failures in determining the cause of the crash. The pilot and co-pilot did not properly program their cockpit computer for their final approach, did not make altitude call-outs during a steep descent that might have alerted them to danger, and ultimately should have aborted their efforts to land, gone around and tried again, the NTSB said.

The agency issued 20 recommendations, including a call to the Federal Aviation Administration to require crews to brief each other on fatigue before each flight. The board also said UPS should work with its pilots union to develop a better rest-management program.

"Steps could have been taken to lessen the likelihood of this accident," NTSB Acting Chairman Christopher Hart said.

The NTSB's deliberations have been closely followed by the air cargo industry because the circumstances of the accident raised questions about whether the cockpit crew was properly rested before the Aug. 14, 2013, flight from Louisville to Birmingham.

UPS Capt. Cerea Beal, 58, of Matthews, N.C., and First Officer Shanda Carney Fanning, 37, of Lynchburg, Tenn., were killed in the crash, in which their Airbus A300-600 clipped trees and slammed into a hill less than a mile from the end of a runway at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport.

As they were preparing for the flight from Louisville, the pair were heard on the cockpit voice recorder complaining of being tired and agreeing that cargo airline pilots should have been included in new federal rest rules.

UPS has said it has adequate procedures for ensuring its pilots are rested. But the Independent Pilots Association, which represents the pilots, has charged that the carrier has a punitive system that discourages tired pilots from saying they are fatigued.

Based on an analysis of his sleep periods in the days before the accident, Beal "was not experiencing acute or chronic fatigue," but Fanning was flying without the required amount of sleep, the NTSB said.

The FAA instituted new pilot rest rules in January — well after the Alabama crash — but they apply only to commercial airline pilots flying passengers. Cargo pilots, such as those who fly for UPS and FedEx, are exempt from the new rules, but the UPS pilots' union has called for an end to the so-called "carve-out."

Even if the UPS crew had been under the new rest rules, "we do not think (they) would have changed the outcome of this accident," said Katherine Wilson, the NTSB investigator who examined the role of human performance in the events leading up to the crash.

But, she added, "the board is on record in saying that we don't think any operator should be excluded from the (rest) regulation."

"We want one level of safety for all operators," Wilson said.

Robert Sumwalt, the NTSB member who was on the scene at the Alabama accident, said the board certainly does want cargo pilots included in the new rest rules.

But he cautioned that "the board is not going to sacrifice our credibility to try to make a point."

"Because we do not like the ... carveout, ... it would be wrong for us as an independent and credible agency to make this accident a point for why that carve-out needs to go away," he said.

Sumwalt, however, was also critical of UPS. He cited a union survey that found that 88 percent of pilots said calling in fatigued would "invite adverse scrutiny" from the carrier; 91 percent of the pilots disagreed that the company encourages pilots to report their fatigue.

"Denial is the enemy of change," Sumwalt said sternly. "I want you people to listen to what this is telling you and go back and fix the culture of the company so that next time the survey is issued, it does not show such extreme results. ... You have problems, get them cleaned up."