The Mystery of Flight 427 by Bill Adair

Author:Bill Adair [Adair, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-58834-402-1
Publisher: Smithsonian
Published: 2013-12-03T05:00:00+00:00

Jim Hall, the NTSB’s new chairman, had just replaced the retiring Carl Vogt. A short man with sandy hair and a mild Tennessee drawl, Hall was a Vietnam veteran, a longtime Democratic activist, and a friend of fellow Tennessean Al Gore Jr. When he was nominated for the job in 1993, Washington Post columnist Al Kamen called Hall “a politically connected white male Democrat whose only transportation experience apparently is a driver’s license.”

Hall appeared to be a lightweight because he didn’t talk like an engineer. He used folksy Tennessee phrases and often sounded like Andy Griffith on Matlock. While other people were talking about dual concentric servo valves, Hall would be recounting something his mother had taught him. It didn’t help that he had a dog named Trixie in his office.

A friendly brown-and-white Welsh Corgi, Trixie belonged to Hall’s special assistant, Jamie Finch. Hall was an animal lover, but his three dogs and four cats were back home with his family in Tennessee. So he was glad to have Trixie around, even though she occasionally pooped on his carpet. He would throw tennis balls for her and reach down and pat her during meetings. At Christmas, he and Trixie walked through the office wearing matching Santa hats. She even had her own NTSB badge that said her title was “Safety Dog.”

The truth was that Hall was not a lightweight at all. He was a savvy political operator who knew how Washington worked. He was a loyal soldier in the Clinton-Gore crusade to make government more responsive to taxpayers. He was well connected at the White House and in Congress, so he had the clout to get the money and staff that the NTSB needed. But he also had an outsider’s perspective and would fuss at the NTSB engineers to make sure that they explained their findings in everyday English. In the NTSB’s ongoing fights with the FAA, he used his political skills behind the scenes and then, if that didn’t work, he would offer a few choice comments to the media.

Before Hall arrived, the safety board had not paid much attention to victims’ families. Investigators would politely answer questions, but they thought their job was to find out why planes crashed, not to provide grief counseling. When Hall heard that the families were unhappy and had formed a support group, however, he told the NTSB staff to help them. In his view, helping the families was exactly what the Clinton-Gore approach called for. He asked the NTSB staff to set aside reserved seats in the ballroom for the families and arranged a meeting with them one night after the testimony. He had Haueter come along to answer questions.

About a hundred family members came to the meeting room on the mezzanine level. Hall opened the session by explaining the NTSB’s role and the purpose of the hearing. Haueter updated the families on the investigation and went through the plans for the remainder of the hearing. Then it was time for questions. The 737 sure seemed to have lots of rudder problems, someone said.

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