It’s been a rough week for traveling. So far, our connections have been smooth and all of our bags arrived on time.
But the day before we left (Jan. 29), there was the horrific collision in Washington, D.C., between an American Airlines commuter airliner and a military helicopter. Sixty-seven people died.
The air crash was over the Potomac River near D.C. But travelers everywhere, along with aviators and their families, were affected. Anytime a crash punches a hole in the universe that big, there’s an instant ripple effect that extends far and wide. Everyone feels it.
Alaskans are particularly attuned to aviation accidents, as they are more common within the state compared to the Lower 48.
[Coast Guard: No survivors in crash of Bering Air plane on ice near Nome]
January’s midair collision at Reagan Airport comes 25 years after the ill-fated crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 off the coast of California. Eighty-three people died.
On that day, Jan. 31, 2000, I was visiting then-state Sen. Loren Leman at his office at the Capitol in Juneau. His staff had a TV tuned to CNN. Together, we watched the report as helicopters circled the crash site.
“Our friend Morris Thompson, his wife and daughter were on that flight,” said Leman, who went on to serve as Alaska’s lieutenant governor.
“It’s OK to cry,” said Leman. “Our son Joseph is a pilot for Alaska Airlines and so we, too, are touched by this tragic accident,” he said, referring to the American Airlines crash.
The American Airlines commuter jet was operated by PSA Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary. We were scheduled to fly from Dallas on a PSA flight last week.
I wanted to do something to acknowledge their terrible loss. I settled on a card and some chocolates for the pilots and flight attendants. I gave it to the lead flight attendant when we boarded.
Even though I didn’t know anyone on the PSA flight, I’m overcome by a terrible sense of loss and sorrow.
“It’s so terribly sad,” said Father Scott Medlock, pastor at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in South Anchorage.
Medlock leans on the spiritual comforts of his faith tradition during difficult situations involving death and tragedy.
“But grief is a universal human experience,” he said. “You don’t have to know the people to grieve their loss. Grief is different for everyone and it cannot be rushed or forced.”
Medlock has performed several funerals for victims of aviation accidents. One tragic accident stands out, though. In 2006, while leading a group of hikers on a overnight trip near Resurrection Pass, a pilot came by with a pre-arranged food drop. Tragically, the pilot lost control of the plane and crashed in full view of the group. The pilot was killed on impact. Medlock’s son, Matthew, was a passenger in the plane.
“For a couple of minutes, we were wailing because we thought Matthew also had been crushed,” said Medlock.
Miraculously, Matthew survived and made a full recovery.
A week later, Medlock invited the hikers to a sharing session, to deal with the trauma of the incident. He learned about this technique from his work at the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group.
“It gave people permission to talk about their emotions ... even if they wouldn’t normally do so,” he said. “This is an important part of the healing process.”
Colleen Mondor is a freelance journalist who has been investigating aviation accidents since she was 18 years old.
“Aviation is very unforgiving,” said Mondor. “There’s such little room for error. The only way you can endure is to be very, very good ... and you have to be lucky.”
“And it’s better to be good than lucky,” she said.
Airplane accidents tend to grab the headlines, because the details are so gruesome. The work of safety inspectors, in contrast, is methodical and precise and takes place mostly outside the bright lights of the news cycle.
For aviation in the U.S., there are many layers of regulations and safeguards. That includes regulations on aircraft manufacturing, to deal with problems like the Alaska Airlines door that blew out last year, as well as the 737-MAX8 crashes in Indonesia (2018) and Ethiopia (2019).
Additionally, there are safeguards and regulations for passengers in the cabin. Some of those regulations came about after the air crashes on Sept. 11, 2001 and the subsequent development of the Transportation Security Administration.
Further, there are the stringent requirements for pilots. Different levels of training and expertise apply for big airliners, as well as for planes that carry nine passengers or less.
Finally, there’s a nationwide air traffic control system in place to coordinate all the planes in the air and on the ground at the nation’s airports.
“It’s always awful to investigate an accident,” said Mondor.
“We want to say it was just one thing (that caused an accident),” she said. “But it’s not. It’s layers: It’s weather, or no communication. You can’t point to just one thing.”
The tedious job of investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board is to examine the physical evidence, interview parties to the accident and carefully discern what happened. Then, determine how it happened.
“The only thing that can come out of this process is to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Mondor.
Former Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell is an advocate for passenger safety in Alaska. That’s partly because so many of his friends have died in planes.
“I made a list of really good friends who have died in Alaska. Just one of them died in a car wreck. Twelve died in avalanches. But 30 of them died in plane crashes,” said Treadwell.
You don’t have to know the people who died in planes crashes to grieve for them. As Alaskans who are affected the most by aviation accidents, we should hold space in our hearts for all the families and friends of those who perished.
Further, we should encourage the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to fund and implement the recommendations of the NTSB.
For Alaska flying, that means more navigational aids and weather reporting to accommodate safer instrument landing capabilities.
For aviation safety nationwide, it may mean increasing the number of air traffic controllers.
“Safety is not cheap,” said Mondor. “What price are you willing to pay?”