Probe of Delta Over Safety Issues Studied

The Federal Aviation Administration is considering a systemwide investigation of Delta Air Lines following at least 10 safety-related incidents involving the carrier in recent weeks, a highly placed source in the agency said Tuesday.

In the latest of these mishaps, reported Tuesday, a Delta jetliner landed on the wrong runway in Boston and two Delta planes had to return to Cincinnati because of equipment failures.

The FAA source would not elaborate and other FAA officials declined to comment Tuesday on the probablity of a systemwide probe of the Atlanta-based airline. The officials restricted their comments to the individual incidents and said there is no preliminary evidence that the mishaps are linked by a “common thread.”

The FAA said Delta has an “excellent” safety record and a reputation as one of the best-run companies in the business.

“These incidents were aberrations,” said Jim Ewing, a Delta representative in Atlanta. “Each one of these damned things stands on its own hook. They’re not related. . . .

“But we don’t minimize these incidents,” he said. “Everything is being looked at with a fine-tooth comb. When we get through, the action will be swift and decisive.”

Delta spokesmen said there is no indication that ticket-buyers were deserting the popular airline because of the incidents.

The mishaps reported include a Delta L-1011 involved in a narrow miss and a close pass with other airplanes off Newfoundland, a Delta Boeing 737 that mistakenly landed at the wrong airport in Kentucky and a Delta 767 that plunged to within 600 feet of the ocean off Los Angeles when the pilot accidentally cut off fuel to both engines.

The latest incidents occurred Sunday.

Evasive Action

FAA investigators said that one of Delta’s wide-body jets, a Boeing 767, landed on a runway at Boston’s Logan Airport that was 1,500 feet from the runway that had been assigned. The mix-up forced a taxiing Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 to brake sharply to avoid the Delta plane, but there were no reports of damage or injury, according to the FAA.

Delta spokesman Dick Jones said the Delta flight crew was relieved of duty to permit its full participation in an investigation of the incident. Ewing said it is still too early to “point any fingers” in the mishap.

A few hours earlier, two other Delta 767s were forced to return to the Greater Cincinnati International Airport in Florence, Ky.

One flight, headed to New York with 69 passengers aboard, turned back 10 minutes after takeoff when an oil pressure warning light prompted the pilot to shut down one of the plane’s two engines. The other flight, carrying 113 passengers to San Francisco--among them several major league ballplayers headed for Tuesday night’s All-Star baseball game in Oakland--turned back after takeoff when the pilot discovered a malfunction in the automatic pilot.

The New York flight was canceled and the plane with the oil pressure problem was flown back to Atlanta for maintenance. The other plane was repaired quickly at the Cincinnati facility and used for the postponed flight to San Francisco.

The rash of Delta incidents began June 18 in Nashville, Tenn., when a Delta jetliner began taxiing down a runway where another plane had been cleared for takeoff. The takeoff was aborted and there were no reports of damage or injury. Ewing said the incident is under investigation.

Object in Sky

On June 20, the pilot of a Delta flight carrying 60 people from Pittsburgh to Atlanta reported narrowly missing an airborne object at about 29,500 feet over Charleston, W. Va. The pilot of the Boeing 737 said he thought the object was a rocket or missile about four feet long, but an Atlanta swimming pool marketer said it probably was a blimp-shaped balloon that escaped from one of his sales promotions.

On June 30, a veteran Delta captain, reacting to an amber warning light telling him of a fuel-flow problem, pulled two round knobs cutting off fuel to his jetliner’s two engines instead of pushing square buttons two inches away that would have corrected the problem.

As the Boeing 767--which had taken off moments earlier from Los Angeles International Airport--plummeted toward the Pacific, the pilot warned terrified passengers to don life jackets and prepare for a crash.

The plane, carrying 194 passengers and a crew of eight, plunged 1,000 feet to an altitude of about 600 feet in the minute it took the pilot to restart the engines.

A spokeswoman for Boeing said later she was at a loss to explain how the pilot made the mistake. Ewing said Tuesday that the co-pilot has been exonerated, but the pilot has been suspended while the investigation continues.

The FAA and Great Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority have ordered airlines to install plastic guards over the fuel cutoff knobs to prevent repetitions of the Delta pilot’s error.

On July 5, a Delta jet with 113 passengers aboard slammed into a van while taxiing up to the terminal at National Airport in Washington. The van was knocked over, but there were no reports of injury. An investigation is continuing.

Missed by 19 Miles

The next day, a Delta flight crew set down their Boeing 737 at Frankfort, Ky., after being cleared by air traffic controllers to land at Lexington, Ky., 19 miles away.

“The pilot stated he was on the ground, but he didn’t know where,” an FAA spokesman said.

Ewing said the crew apparently became disoriented while detouring around some thunderstorms and simply made a mistake. “There’s not much we can say,” he added.

The pilot and the co-pilot of the plane, which was carrying 27 passengers on a flight from Lexington, Ky., were suspended until the investigation is complete.

On July 8, a Delta L-1011 that reportedly was about 60 miles off course in Canadian airspace over the Atlantic narrowly missed a Continental Airlines Boeing 747, according to the Continental crew. The incident was followed by news reports published two days later that the Delta crew had urged the Continental crew via radio not to report the incident.

Tapes from the cockpit voice recorders of both aircraft have been handed over to the Canadian Aviation Safety Board. The Delta crew has been relieved of flight duties pending the outcome of the Canadian investigation.

The Delta plane was carrying 153 passengers on a flight from London to Cincinnati and the Continental plane was carrying 399 passengers on a flight from London to Newark, N.J., when the incident occurred about 31,000 feet over the ocean, investigators said.

The Canadian Safety Board announced Tuesday that a few minutes after the narrow miss with the Continental plane, the Delta L-1011 strayed into the path of a British Airways jet headed from London to Toronto. The board said that instead of maintaining the required 10 miles’ separation, the Delta plane closed to within seven miles. That incident, too, remains under investigation.

Company Confident

Ewing said Tuesday that despite the multiple incidents, “We at Delta remain convinced that we are running the safest airline in the business. . . .

“We are proud of our pilots,” he said. “We are proud of our maintenance.”

According to Helane Becker, an analyst with the Shearson Lehman Brothers investment firm, one of Delta’s principal strengths is its “relatively young, modern fleet.”

Becker said Delta’s planes have an average age of 8.6 years, about half the age of some of the oldest fleets in the industry.

The last major air crash involving a Delta plane occurred Aug. 2, 1985, when one of the fleet’s L-1011s crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 127 people. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the crash on the flight crew’s decision to land during a violent, wind-swept thunderstorm.

Times staff writer Robert E. Dallos in New York contributed to this article.