Air safety officials on Thursday published strict new pilot-training rules aimed at halting an epidemic of accidents involving Mitsubishi MU-2B turboprop aircraft.
Over the past five years, there have been at least 25 MU-2B accidents, 16 of them fatal, according to National Transportation Safety Board records.
Two occurred near Centennial Airport, one in December 2004 that killed the pilot-in-command and a pilot trainee, and the other in August 2005, which killed the sole pilot on board.
Three MU-2Bs have crashed since late June, all in Florida, killing all the planes’ occupants.
Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Littleton Republican, introduced a bill in Congress directing the Federal Aviation Administration to ban MU-2B flights in the United States until the FAA “certifies that the aircraft is safe.” Tancredo has long sought a grounding of the planes.
But in the 24-page Special Federal Aviation Regulation published by the FAA, the agency said it “has determined there is no justification to ground the airplane.”
Instead, “the FAA proposes to enhance safety by creating new pilot training, experience and operating requirements,” the document said.
“We have a safe airplane,” said Ralph Sorrells, deputy general manager for Mitsubishi’s aircraft product support division in Addison, Texas.
But the FAA’s program will “provide a repetitive training process that not only brings people up to a standard now, but will keep them there,” Sorrells said. “We’re thrilled about that.”
The FAA’s proposed new rules conclude that “safe operation of the airplane requires initial and annual recurrent pilot training” and “this training must be standardized to be effective.”
Training should cover takeoffs and landings; steep turns and stalls; emergency operations such as the loss of power in one engine; and “areas of special emphasis,” including “stall awareness, minimum controllable airspeed awareness, icing conditions and airspeed management.”
The FAA also mandated use of a standardized cockpit checklist.
The public has until Oct. 30 to comment on the proposed procedures.
Aaron Sauer, a Denver-based NTSB investigator assigned to several MU-2B accidents, welcomed the new FAA rules. “Anytime you increase training for people, it’s not a bad thing,” he said.
Sauer is investigator on the most recent accident, the crash of an MU-2B-35 near Argyle, Fla., on Sept. 1 that killed the sole pilot on board.
The plane was flying near a severe weather cell before it crashed, Sauer said.
A witness heard a “loud bang” and saw the aircraft in a “nose-down spiral” to the ground, a preliminary NTSB report said.
The pilot had more than 29,000 total flight hours, Sauer said, and “was a very experienced Mitsubishi pilot.”
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
