FAA proposes $77,000 fine against National Cargo Group

The FAA has proposed a $77,000 fine against the National Air Cargo Group for failing to comply with requirements for loading and securing heavy cargo.

At issue are seven flights between March and April 2013, including the accident flight that crashed in Kandahar, that operated with improperly secured MRAP vehicles on board.

The FAA claims they didn't comply with limitations in the flight manual, which allowed for the vehicles to shift in flight. On the accident flight, several securing chains were found broken, and it's believed that one vehicle broke loose and shifted aft, resulting in the aircraft stalling immediately after takeoff.

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a reply to: Zaphod58

Seventy-seven thousand seems a tad bit on the low side for such an egregious error. One that resulted in deaths.

a reply to: seagull

Mostly because they're cargo only. Cargo tends to run lower on penalties since there are so few lives at risk. If this was a commercial airline the penalty would run in the millions.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Here's a query.

Any air accident which results in deaths which were avoidable, in this case due to a failure to follow regulations with regard to securing cargo, is clearly the fault of the company. Therefore, is it not a reasonable thing to put in place a regulation which states that if your company is ever found to be responsible for the downing of an aircraft and the death of its occupants, whether the flight is cargo or passenger carrying, that the company be immediately bankrupted by the scale of any fine?

That would get the people on the ground and the people in the boardroom paying attention to the only thing that matters in that business, not profits, not numbers, but safety. Why is this not a rule? Its pretty simple, if a company or manager within that company ever screws up to the point where someone dies, the whole company gets fined its entire net worth. Seems fair to me!

a reply to: TrueBrit

The issue becomes proving that it was the fault of the company. It could have been as simple as the crew moving a decimal point, getting the weight wrong and not putting enough chains to secure the load properly.

If the FAA dig deeper into the paperwork and see if its a recurring trend in flight logs and pilot diaries things will get interesting.

a reply to: Blackfinger

Yeah it will. And I'm sure they're looking at more records.