Robert A. Clifford, senior partner at Clifford Law Offices, has been out in front on the issue of low air speed alerters, a “focus of contention” now in light of the tragic Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco. As reported by San Francisco Chronicle reporter Demian Bulwa in a front-page story today (July 10, 2013), Clifford spoke about how the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been recommending systems on planes that would both visually and audibly warn pilots of big drops in airspeed. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has the authority to change these rules, has not yet acted. Tragically, a system like that in place may have prevented the fatal crash in San Francisco, aviation experts say.
Clifford told the Chronicle reporter that “a tone would not be enough and that the Asiana crew should have been warned by voice commands that their speed was falling off,” the story reports. Clifford has been asking the FAA to implement this change since the crash of a Colgan jet in Buffalo, New York, that claimed the lives of 49 people on board and one person on the ground in 2009. To read the entire story, click here. Clifford Law Offices represents four families of those who lost loved ones aboard that aircraft. Bob Clifford also spoke to New York Times reporter Matthew L. Wald on the Asiana crash in a story that appeared today. TO read the entire story, click here. In that story, Clifford pointed out that Chicago-based Boeing, the maker of the plane, may be responsible if mechanical failure is determined to play a part in the crash. “If the plane was unsafe,” he said, “the manufacturer could face suits,” the story reported.