NTSB urges new safety rules for jets on slippery runways

Federal accident investigators have called on jet makers and the FAA to devise tougher safeguards against one of commercial aviation’s most common safety threats: planes careening off slippery runways during landings. The NTSB issued the nonbinding recommendations on Tuesday, responding to a March 2015 accident at New York’s LaGuardia Airport in which a Delta Air Lines McDonnell Douglas MD-88 jet veered off a snowy strip, slid uncontrollably for thousands of feet and slammed into an embankment after touching down in stormy weather. There were no fatalities among the 132 people on board, and investigators determined the probable cause was pilot error. But by urging more-stringent landing rules for certain jet models and calling for development of possible new equipment intended to give all cockpit crews real-time data about braking conditions, the safety board inserted itself into a long-simmering dispute over runway safety between the world’s two largest airplane manufacturers. Boeing and Airbus Group are at loggerheads about a fundamental point when it comes to preventing landing planes from rolling off the sides or ends of runways: the need for joint US-European technical standards to combat this type of accident, partly by mandating ways to enhance pilot awareness about the dangers of such events.<br/>