Growing number of commercial jets leaves some uneasy

Some 7,000 small jets are now registered to fly either for hire from charter companies or as part of a corporation's own aircraft fleet

In this story: Boom in business jets Culture of business aviation Congestion and expansion RELATED STORIES, SITES

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A growing number of aircraft taking to the skies are not part of big airline fleets, but are owned by charter companies and businesses.

That trend is raising questions about the safety of those planes, which are under less regulatory oversight than larger commercial aircraft, and causing protests from communities around regional airports where the smaller planes are landing.

The plane crash last Saturday in Colorado that killed two Oklahoma State University basketball players and eight others was owned by a Reno, Nevada, charter company and provided to OSU by an Oklahoma City man, the university said.

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A spotlight was put on safety concerns after a chartered LearJet carrying golfer Payne Stewart crashed in South Dakota in 1999, killing Stewart and five others.

The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that the probable cause of the accident was the flight crews' incapacitation following the loss of cabin pressurization. But the NTSB has not been able to determine why the depressurization occurred in the first place, because the 23-year-old aircraft was not required to have a flight data recorder, as are large airliners.

"We ended up with what was a very important investigation without having the information available to the board to make recommendations to prevent an event like that from occurring," said NTSB acting chairman Jim Hall.

One NTSB report said crash investigators found that maintenance work performed on the pressurization system of the plane was not signed off by mechanics or inspectors and that the plane was flown on chartered trips despite the deferred maintenance on the system. The plane's owners, Sunjet Aviation, also failed to maintain records of pilot discrepancy reports, according to the investigation.

The board also quoted the FAA reporting that Sunjet Aviation surrendered its operating certificate and no enforcement action was planned against the company.

Boom in business jets

The number of planes registered to or leased by businesses doubled during the past 10 years to around 7,000, according to the NTSB. That growth spurt began in the early 1990s, when companies searched for ways to cut costs and found that it was cheaper to buy and maintain their own planes than to pay for commercial airfares.

The site in South Dakota where a chartered LearJet carrying golfer Payne Stewart crashed in 1999

But the federal aviation regulations that govern the large commercial airlines -- regulations on such things as pilot training and aircraft safety systems such as cockpit voice recorders -- don't always apply to the expanding corporate jet fleet.

"Training is an important issue in this area, and I think the board would like to see training get more attention and see an increased use of simulators on these types of aircraft, similar to what we see with the scheduled air service and the larger aircraft that are operating in that service in the United States," Hall said.

Business jet travel is no longer just for business magnates and top executives; about half of all passengers on business aircraft are now middle managers, according to the National Business Aviation Association.

Mark Cobza's construction company in Florida uses a business jet to transport engineers and executives to various sites.

"Performance in our business means everything," Cobza said. "It saves our executives time and saves our customers time and money."

Current safety records of business jets are roughly equal to -- or even better than -- the scheduled commercial airlines.

More and more companies are chipping in to buy a piece of a business jet in a practice called fractional ownership, which is often cheaper than chartering a jet. Those corporate-owned planes operate under less stringent rules than do charter flights for hire.

Culture of business aviation

But an FAA spokesman said it would be incorrect to draw any conclusion whether charter-plane rules are tougher than private-plane rules.

Air traffic is increasing at smaller airports

"The rules are a little different and don't have to do with maintaining and operating the airplane, but more about required equipment and some required training," said Paul Turk. However, he noted that charter aircraft are inspected on a regular basis.

There was an effort to get stronger regulations enacted in the late 1980s, but it was successfully lobbied against because passengers on business-owned jets were just a fraction of the numbers that commercial jets carried.

But some point out that there is more to safety than government regulations.

"It's also a culture. Business aviation -- the use of jet airplanes for business travel -- adopts a very stringent culture of training or maintenance," said Jack Olcott of the National Business Aviation Association.

Congestion and expansion

The new private fleets are not expected to add to the congestion at major airports such as those in Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Los Angeles, California; or Dallas, Texas, because the smaller planes are more likely to use "reliever airports."

"You're going from Dallas to Sioux City (Iowa) or Dallas to Casper (Wyoming) or Dallas to Albuquerque (New Mexico), where capacity is not an issue," said Turk. "There are more airplanes in the system, but they are not going hub to hub, where the real congestion exists."

But traffic is increasing at smaller airports.

"Most of our regional airports are growing; with very few exceptions, they're all growing," said Arlene Feldman of the FAA.

One such airport is MacArthur Airport in Islip, New York, which has gained a new anchor tenant -- Southwest Airlines -- a $13 million renovation paid for by passenger fees and a turnaround in the cash flow of the airport.

"I would say it took a million-dollar negative and made a million-dollar positive," said Islip Town Supervisor Pete McGowan.

Aviation officials say the increased air traffic at smaller airports does not mean a big increase in physical risk to surrounding neighborhoods.

"Accidents on or right next to airport property are not all that common," Turk said.

But some communities are unhappy about the expanding business at their airports, such as Burbank Airport near Los Angeles, California, which protesters say could double its number of passengers from 5 million a year to 10 million.

"If that happens, that would mean twice as many flights, twice as much traffic on the streets and all the congestion, pollution and all the noise," said Howard Rothenbach of ROAR (Restore Our Airport Rights.) It's just going to be a terrible impact on our community.

Those are issues that transportation watchdogs say must be considered.

"It's sort of like putting a mega-mall down in the middle of nowhere," said Janine Bauer of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, an alliance of public interest, transit advocacy, planning and environmental organizations. "Until some smart growth planning accompanies these regional airport expansions, the problem is going to get worse."

CNN Correspondents Charles Feldman and Frank Buckley contributed to this report.

Snow could hamper investigation of Colorado plane crash
January 28, 2001
Small plane crashes outside of Denver
January 27, 2001
Questions raised about valves on Stewart crash plane
October 26, 1999

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