Bush pilot culture targeted in reducing air crashes

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Rebel
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Bush pilot culture targeted in reducing air crashes

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Bush pilot culture targeted in reducing air crashes

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Freedom to Joe Darminio is landing on a 200-foot
sandbar as easily as a paved runway, deep in Alaska's wilderness where the
twisted hemlocks and the occasional brown bear are the only company to be
found.

The 15-year bush pilot flies fishermen, hunters and hikers to the places in
the last frontier that can't be reached in a car, to patches of tundra
where you can holler for days and not come within earshot of another soul.

He says being the bridge between civilization and the wild is his religion.

"I fly the plane. Nobody else is flying the plane," Darminio said. "Every
decision, from the minute I take off to the minute I land, is mine."

For decades, that spirit has drawn men and women to become bush pilots, an
occupation that ranks among the most dangerous in Alaska's unforgiving
terrain and constantly changing weather.

The image of the Alaska bush pilot is part Grizzly Adams, part Charles
Lindbergh. Keeping up with that image has led a few pilots to take
unnecessary risks. There's even a name for it: bush pilot syndrome.

It's a term familiar to all Alaska pilots and regulators. To Darminio, it's
a pilot who, because of machismo or bravado, makes a flight more dangerous
than it needs to be, endangering his passengers.

"There is a mystique about Alaska, and some people feel they have to live
up to certain legends," said Jerry Dennis, executive director of the Medallion
Foundation, which runs aviation safety programs for Alaska pilots and air
carriers.

Programs like the Medallion Foundation's aim to reduce the number of air
accidents by changing the culture of the bush pilots. It's part of the
goal of the Federal Aviation Administration to reduce the number
of air accidents in Alaska 20 percent by 2008.

Several years ago, the federal government began looking at ways to reduce
Alaska crashes. Back in 1980, the National Transportation Safety Board
wrote that there were three major factors to the high number of accidents:
Inadequate airport facilities, insufficient ground navigation and bush
pilot syndrome.

John Duncan, the FAA's flight standards division director for Alaska, said
programs that focus on pilot training, technology upgrades in the cockpit
and the tower, as well as passenger education programs, all contribute to
lowering the number of crashes.

The biggest obstacle has been breaking bush pilot syndrome, as well as
reaching the large number of the state's recreational flyers, who may not
be as up-to-date on their flying when they set off on weekend adventures
in the state, he said.

"They're more of a challenge," Duncan said. "There are a lot of folks in
Alaska who have their planes for very specific purposes. They want to go
fishing in the spring, they want to go hunting in the fall, and that's all
they use them for."

Alaskans rely on air travel far more than the rest of the United States.
There are 14,230 miles of road in a state that covers 656,425 square miles,
making the air a vital means of traveling and transporting goods that
far-flung residents depend on to survive the harsh winters.

One out of every 59 Alaskans is a pilot and there are more than 290
commercial air carriers in the state.

This disproportionate reliance on air travel has resulted in a similarly
disproportionate number of crashes. From 1990 to 1999, Alaska aviation
accidents made up 39 percent of the nation's total air crashes, 24 percent
of its fatal crashes and 21 percent of total air fatalities, according to
the National Institute for Occupational Safety. Those numbers spurred the
creation of the safety programs.

Tucked away in a small Anchorage strip mall storefront, pilots practice
flying through engine failures and extreme weather on four flight
simulators. That simulator time, otherwise prohibitively pricey, is free
thanks to federal grants and run in tandem with the Medallion Foundation's
programs.

Medallion's safety and risk assessment programs are for both independent
pilots and air carriers. The carriers' program is a rigorous course that
requires competency be shown in five key safety areas before earning a
shield. More than 40 carriers are enrolled; just two have gotten the
shield.

The private pilots' program is new and an adaptation of the carriers'
program. So far, more than 400 pilots have signed on, with word of mouth
its main form of advertisement.

Rusty Miller, a co-pilot for Frontier Flying Service, has been training on
the simulators in preparation to upgrade to the pilot's seat. He said he's
a staunch supporter of the program and has seen much interest among
his co-workers and other pilots.

"I know the other element exists, but (there are) a lot of people that I
know of that are wanting to become more professional," Miller said.

That professionalism may be playing a role in the lower number crashes
already recorded this year. The FAA's goal this year is for fewer than 125
crashes in Alaska. Through July, there were 53 recorded crashes.

For the first six months of this year, eight air fatalities have been
recorded in Alaska, slightly above the five-year average, according to FAA
statistics.

Jim LaBelle, regional director for the NTSB's Alaska region, says he's
noticed a change in the bush pilot culture over the years, but would not
attribute the reduction to the new safety programs. Because of the
difficulty of tracking flight hours in Alaska, there could be a reduction
in the amount of times pilots are spending in the air and regulators
wouldn't know.

"We need to be somewhat cautious as we look at these numbers, there may be
other reasons attributable to these declines," he said.

Darminio, the bush pilot, said he believes the goal of reducing Alaska
crashes 20 percent is attainable, but it's got to be done through better
communication between pilots.

Darminio sees bush pilot syndrome as a problem with just a few pilots, and
shouldn't be a black mark on the industry.

"Everybody has a taxicab story. But you get into the next one and you're
fine. You've got them in all walks of life," Darminio said. "To single out
us pilots in Alaska and say we're cowboys and the FAA needs to single us
out, it's not true."

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