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| Tuesday, April 10 |
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| Iowa cut costs by cutting out co-pilots on flights By Tom Farrey ESPN.com | |||
Even the company that provided the charters to the Iowa women's basketball team was uncomfortable with the way the Hawkeyes traveled. At least in one respect.
Dave Gilbertson, director of operations for the Iowa City Flying Service, said the school was advised "all the time" to hire co-pilots for its team trips. Pilot error is a common cause of accidents, so flying with just one pilot is widely considered less safe.
The school declined to pay the extra $250 a day for each co-pilot in order to keep costs down, he said.
"If I wasn't a pilot, I wouldn't get in a plane of that kind without two pilots," Gilbertson said.
The team typically traveled to games in a pair of older piston-engine Navajo airplanes and a King Air 200 turboprop built in the late 1970s. Occasionally, a small Citation jet carried several members of the team. The planes each cost between $2,000 and $3,000 per trip.
In February 2000, the King Air had a minor mechanical difficulty when the landing gear became jammed and pilots had to manually lower the gear, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. The problem was later fixed.
In 1998, the FAA fined Iowa City Flying Service $5,000 for violating various maintenance regulations. Gilbertson said one of the Navajos that flew the women's team had been using a propeller that the manufacturer considered too old at the time.
"Just a clerical miss," Gilbertson said. "Those things do happen, but they're rare."
The FAA database lists one incident for the company's King Air -- a collision with birds when Gilbertson was returning from a hunting trip. The plane last July hit four geese, collapsing the edge of one wing. The plane was landed safely and repaired.
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ALSO SEE Title IX debate goes airborne Just plane scary At what cost safety? Comparing travel budgets for men's, women's basketball teams AUDIO/VIDEO   Iowa AD Bob Bowlsby says the FAA does not require more than one pilot on those planes.wav: 48 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 Iowa player Lindsey Meder worried about flying with no co-pilot.wav: 64 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 | |
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