Waiting On The NTSB: What Really Happened To my Daughter?

Some of you old-timers may recall February 2005 when I wrote about the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into the death of Denise Bogucki who was crushed against the nose of a plane in September 2003. The NTSB report essentially blamed Bogucki for her own death, stating that she had chosen to use the incorrect equipment to push back an airplane from a gate, causing the accident that pinned her against a plane.

The union objected, saying she had been using the only equipment available, and that she shouldn't have been working alone. Virginia OSHA cited the company, Northwest Airlines, and Northwest -- essentially admitting that there was a problem -- instituted changes, including requiring two people for pushbacks.

Several weeks after the report was released, the NTSB, citing "new information,"decided to take a second look at the Bogucki's death "due to new information."

Now, a year and a half later, Bogucki's mother, Jeanne Earley, is still waiting for that report.

"It's never going to end for me," said Earley, an executive assistant in the airport's administrative office. "But it would be nice to have this part of it over with and settled once and for all."

It doesn't help that a September issue of a Northwest newsletter referred to two recent accidents that resulted in "potentially life-threatening injuries" while doing the same job Bogucki was doing when she was killed.

Safety board spokesman Keith Holloway said last week that the investigation of Bogucki's death would be complete "before the end of the year, if not sooner." He added that the agency is not investigating the recent accidents.

Earley's heard it all before. About this time last year, the agency said it would finish by the end of 2005.

"I don't know if they're afraid to address it because of big business," she said. "We're just the little guys, and they're dragging her through the mud again."

The union is upset too

"It's like there's no value to human life," said Bob Bennek, safety and health director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Air Transport District 143, which includes Norfolk.

"You would think a fatality would get some type of resolution sooner than this," Bennek said. "The family deserves to have a resolution."

As for the other accidents where ground crew employees were injured, Airline spokesman Roman Blahoski says they weren't related. And although Northwest made changes after Bogucki's death, they are contesting the OSHA citation.

"Our investigation showed it to be an accident and not the result of a violation of OSHA standards," Blahoski said.

The two recent accidents mentioned in the Northwest newsletter also occurred "during the push-back of an aircraft." The newsletter said two employees "suffered injuries, one of which was serious."

Blahoski said the accidents, which occurred over the past few months, were different from Bogucki's because they injured ground crew members, not the driver of the push-back tug.

He said an internal investigation concluded that proper procedure was not followed in one case and that the other is still under review. (emphasis added)

Of course, experts who investigate the root causes of "accidents" generally will ask "why" procedures weren't followed and usually find that there are understandable reasons. (For example, understaffing, improper equipment, or the job just can't get done by following the rules.) And numerous "accidents," even if they appear "unrelated," generally mean that there's something seriously wrong with the management safety systems in the workplace.

Bennek, the machinists union's health and safety director, would like to see the safety board issue recommendations for making push-backs safer, including specifying push-back tractor designs, tow bar lengths and inspections criteria.

"They could make some findings that could forever change the industry," he said.

Meanwhile, Bogucki's mother waits:

Jeanne Earley checks a federal investigators' Web site daily, hoping for closure three years after her daughter was killed while working at the airport.

Every day, she longs to see that the inquiry has ended and to know, finally, what really happened.

Every day, she is disappointed.

Airport Ground Crews: Grind 'em Up And Spit 'em Out

Before you open up your book next time you get on a plane, take a look out the window and check out all the work being done on the tramac below you.

Keith L. Alexander of the Washington Post penned a great article today about the hazards faced by airport ground crews. It aint' pretty:

So far this year, four ground workers have been killed or seriously injured, according to data collected by The Washington Post. In one incident, a mechanic died in January when he was sucked into the engine of a Continental Airlines aircraft at El Paso International Airport. A month later, a baggage handler for Comair, a Delta Air Lines regional carrier, was killed when he was struck by a baggage cart at the Detroit airport. Three serious or deadly accidents occurred in 2005 and two in 2004.

Through the busy summer season, ground workers have been under increased pressure to load and unload bags swiftly and to ensure that the aircraft are prepared for safe travel. Many financially strapped carriers have reduced their staffs, leaving more work for the remaining employees. Some airlines have been hiring ground workers at lower wages to cut costs.

I've spent some time working on health and safety issues with baggage handlers and other ground crew and it's pretty depressing. First, they fall in a gray area in terms of OSHA enforcement. Section 4(b)1 of the OSH Act prevents OSHA from enforcing its regulations if a working condition is regulated by another Federal agency such as the Federal Aviation Administration -- even if that agency is doing a lousy job. Safety conditions for flight attendants, for example, can't be enforced by OSHA, because the FAA claims jurisdiction. Baggage handlers and other ground crew, I learned when I was at OSHA, are in a gray area. If they're actually working on the plane, they're covered by the FAA. If they're on the ground, sometimes their OSHA's and sometimes their FAA's. When I first arrived at OSHA, the policy differed from Region to Region, although I believe it's been straightened out now.

The other problem is their working conditions. As the post describes:

They fix planes and load and unload heavy bags in sweltering heat and frigid cold. For many passengers, they are invisible, though they toil right underfoot. Airport ground workers do their jobs amid the deafening roar of aircraft engines and the arrival and departure of tanker-size jetliners. They must avoid stepping in oil slicks and watch out for baggage carts whizzing by.

***

While serious injuries and death occur, the most common injuries among ground workers result from heavy lifting, in many cases causing severe back strain. According to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 4.53 injuries and fatalities per 100 airport ground workers in 2004, the latest year for which data are available. By comparison, coal miners had a rate of 6.58 injuries and fatalities per 100 workers; in construction, the rate was 5.77.

When I was working at the AFL-CIO, I received a call from a disabled USAir ground employee who had seriously injured his back unloading bags. He worked on the smaller commuter planes where you have to lift the heavy luggage without being able to stand up in the luggage compartments -- not exactly proper lifting techniques. The company was fighting his workers comp claim. (Must have hurt his back bowling or playing tennis.) He couldn't believe that the company he had given his life to was treating him like garbage.

The reason for the article and the current attention to employee health and safety is a three day symposium that the airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration are co-hosting for the first time to focus on "improving safety on the tarmac at the nation's airports." All of the airlines quoted in the article claim that safety is a first priority. The families of those killed on the job disagree:

Yolanda Corbett, 32, was attracted to a subsidiary of the airline during an earlier hiring fare in 2005. She liked the free travel offered to employees and a chance to take her two young daughters to Disney World. The pay, about $9.75 an hour, was low, but it represented steady work for the single mother who had held such odd jobs as babysitting after being laid off from an accounting position at a local Welfare to Work office.

For two weeks, US Airways baggage handlers instructed the D.C. resident on the proper way to lift bags and navigate the busy runways of Reagan National Airport in a baggage-loading cart. She received a 100 percent accuracy rating in her training tests. In her third week on the job, Corbett was killed when she lost control of a baggage cart, which rammed the side of a regional jet, pinning her under the aircraft and severing her spine.

The NTSB attributed the accident to Corbett's inexperience with driving the cart.

Corbett's mother, Mary, said her daughter was trained to operate the baggage cart, but the day she was killed was the first time she had driven it by herself. "She wasn't trained properly. She wasn't ready to drive that vehicle. It just wasn't safe," she said.

Last year, the International Association of Machinists objected to a National Transportation Safety Board report on the death of Northwest Airline worker, Denise Bogucki, who was crushed against the nose of a plane in September 2003. The report essentially blamed Bogucki for her own death because of her "decision to use improper equipment" to push back an airplane from the gate. The union argued that she was using the only equipment Northwest provided to do the job and that she shouldn't have been working alone. Virginia OSHA cited the company and Northwest instituted changes, including requiring two people for pushbacks. The NTSB later agreed to reevaluate the investigation "due to new information." (Also check out the comment left by Bogucki's son.)

The unions want more oversight:

Paul Kempinski, director of ground safety for the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers District 141, said unions have urged government agencies to more rigorously monitor ground operations. OSHA "only comes out when something happens," said Kempinski, who represents baggage handlers at United and Aloha airlines and US Airways. "Something needs to be done sooner. Someone needs to be in charge of oversight."

And ground crews aren't the only ones with problems.

By coincidence, I was wearing my OSHA NOW! t-shirt today, given to me by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) in 2000 after OSHA and the FAA signed an agreement directed the agencies to “establish a procedure for coordinating and supporting enforcement … with respect to the working conditions of employees on aircraft in operation … and for resolving jurisdictional questions." Unfortunately, under the Bush administration, the agreement was never implemented and last year the AFA filed a complaint in District Court against Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and FAA Administrator Marion Blakely for their failure to ensure the health and safety of flight attendants and other employees working in the airline industry. And if you think their jobs are safe and easy, check out their health and safety website.

So, now you know all you never wanted to know about airport workers. They're not all glamorous pilots. So think about all of this again next time the airlines cut staff and ask ground workers to make concessions.

NTSB Takes Another Look At Death of Denise Bogucki

I wrote earlier this month of the National Transportation Safety Board's report on the death of Denis Bogucki. The report had blamed Bogucki for her own death, stating that she had chosen to use the incorrect equipment to push back an airplane from a gate, causing the accident that pinned her against a plane. The union objected, saying she had been using the only equipment available, and that she shouldn't have been working alone. Virginia OSHA cited the company, Northwest Airlines, and Northwest instituted changes, including requiring two people for pushbacks.

Now, citing "new information," the NTSB is taking a second look at the Bogucki's death. The board said on its Web page that the "investigation is currently being reevaluated due to new information." Board officials declined to comment further.

The report states that she used a tow bar that was too short for the tug she was driving.

But the union contends that she was using the only equipment Northwest provided to do the job.

"You don't put out false facts on an accident," said Bob Bennek, safety and health director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Air Transport District 143, which includes Norfolk.

Jeanne Earley, Bogucki's mother, told The Virginian-Pilot the report portrayed her daughter "like she was some dumb thing who didn't know what she was doing."

Before she died, Northwest workers had complained that staffing cutbacks were jeopardizing safety. Staffing was not mentioned in the federal report.

Shortly after the accident, Northwest began requiring two people for pushbacks. The airline also replaced the open-cab tug used in the accident with a closed-cab one.

Still, the union contends, conditions at Northwest's Norfolk operation have not improved significantly. The station is still understaffed, officials said, and despite having a new tug, the tow bars are still the same length.

The union said that the airline has begun installing protective roll bars on all of its tugs nationwide.

"I'd say that's the single biggest thing that could have prevented her death," Bennek said.

NTSB Blames Airline Worker For Her Own Death

I'm not quite sure what they were thinking over at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)when they concluded that an Northwest Airline worker, Denise Bogucki, was to blame for her own death when she was crushed against the nose of a plane in September 2003.

According to the NTSB, the accident occurred because "Bogucki made a "decision to use improper equipment" to push back an airplane from the gate."

The report states there were two pushback tugs and two tow bars to choose from and that Bogucki used a tow bar that was too short for the tug she was driving. A tow bar is a long, straight bar that connects the tug to the airplane’s front-wheel assembly.

***

The accident occurred on the evening of Sept. 12, 2003, when Bogucki had connected one end of a tow bar to the airplane and was driving the tug slowly toward the other end, trying to attach it to the tug.

The NTSB report states that the tow bar buckled and the tug struck the nose of the plane. Bogucki, who was riding in the open-air cab of the moving tug, was pinned between the tug and the plane.

Why this "improper decision" was made, the report doesn't say. One thing is certain. Bogucki, 43 and the mother of two grown sons, was no novice. She had worked for Northwest for 13 years.

Unfortunately, the NTSB, unlike its sister agency, the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, does not always look for the "root causes" of such incidents. But by focusing more on the immediate cause, the agency fails to identify to underlying causes which, if addressed, can prevent similar accidents from happening in the future.

Again, I don't know what the NTSB was thinking, but we do know what the union, Virginia OSHA and Northwest Airlines were thinking.

The union contends she was using the only equipment Northwest provided to do the job. Union officials say Northwest had just one pushback tug, and that only one of the two tow bars would fit the DC-9 plane at the gate.

"She had no choice to make," said Bob Bennek , safety and health director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Air Transport District 143. He added that even if the other tow bar did fit the plane, it was shorter than the one Bogucki used....

"This is the worst publication I’ve ever seen the NTSB put out," Bennek said. "They’re misstating the facts… I don’t get it. It very much upsets me."

***

Bogucki was trying to do a job alone that many in the industry say takes two to do safely.

Before she died, Northwest workers had complained that staffing cutbacks were jeopardizing safety. Staffing was not mentioned in the federal report.

Virginia OSHA probably didn't think much of the NTSB's conclusion either:

The Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Northwest $6,300 for a "serious" violation of workplace safety laws. The maximum penalty for that violation was $7,000.

State safety officials wrote that Northwest failed to provide a work environment that was “free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” They also stated that employees “were exposed to crushing hazards while conducting aircraft pushback operations.”

Northwest Airlines, which is contesting the OSHA penalty, made no statement about the NTSB report. But actions speak louder than words:

Shortly after the accident, Northwest began requiring two people for pushbacks. The airline also replaced the open-air tug at Norfolk with a vehicle with an enclosed driver’s cab that offers more protection.

Machinists leader Bennek said

he had hoped the NTSB findings would be strong enough to spur an industry-wide movement for eliminating open-air tugs and standardizing the length of tow bars.

"We were hoping to have a detailed finding to help the whole industry prevent this from ever happening again," he said.

That would have been nice.