1634830 - Who's Minding the Skies?

Abstract: On May 30, 2008, TACA Flight 390, departed El Salvador's International Airport en route to Miami, making an interim stop at Honduras's Toncontin Airport -- one of the most dangerous airports in the world, at that time. My brother, Captain Cesare D'Antonio, was the pilot. The region was under attack by Tropical Storm Alma, visibility was compromised due to heavy fog, and the well-documented short runway was rain-soaked. While attempting to land, the jumbo jet overshot the runway, hit an embankment, and broke apart. My brother and four other people died. Within hours of the crash--before any investigation, before any reports, before anyone dug into the culture of TACA Airlines, the conditions on the ground that morning, the conflicting information from the tower, or the conversation in the cockpit-- the media and political figures speculated and concluded pilot error. They always conclude pilot error; in fact, despite many well-known underlying conditions, 70 percent of airplane accidents are determined to be pilot error. 
     Fueled by my determination to protect my brother's professional reputation, I set out in search of the truth. As I embarked on this quest to find answers to what really happened that day, I explore parallelisms with other aviation incidents and operational issues in the aviation industry that highlight cracks in the complex system. This session will highlight a trust breakdown by Boeing due to the 737 MAX debacle and Airbus's prior knowledge of faulty pitot tubes that brought down Air France 447 -- both a dereliction of duty that resulted in hundreds of deaths. The session will also describe the current day issues that have resulted in an uptick of near misses as reported by the NY Times, 46 just in July 2023, all as a result of the lack of stable FAA leadership, inadequate workforce staffing, and crumbling infrastructure. As transportation professionals and traveling consumers, we should all be concerned about who is truly minding the skies.