FAA says it will investigate accident at Vienna aviation school

Staff report

VIENNA

The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate Wednesday’s accident at the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics that injured two students, one of them critically, two FAA officials said Saturday.

Elizabeth Isham Cory, an FAA spokeswoman for the Great Lakes Region, explained in an email aviation schools must have an active certification from the FAA in order to operate and must comply with FAA regulations. She said the FAA oversees the curriculum.

“The FAA’s aviation safety inspectors will conduct the investigation,” she said.

FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro added in a separate email the FAA Flight Standards District Office in Cleveland clarified if a student is injured working on an aircraft engine in a shop area at an aviation mechanic school, the “FAA would look into it for safety reasons – the adequacy of the equipment/tools and equipment being used.”

“We have an inspector dispatched to the school to check out the details of the incident,” Molinaro said. “Also, we are assigning an FAA manager to give a safety briefing on shop safety.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Vienna police Chief Bob Ludt told reporters he had checked with the FAA and other agencies to see whether any of them would be investigating it.

The FAA said it did not have jurisdiction because the accident did not involve an aircraft, Ludt said.

A Poland man, 20, suffered serious head injuries when the propeller on an aircraft engine on a stand struck him. A New Castle, Pa., man, 28, suffered broken bones in his hand from also being struck by the propeller. Both were taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

A Vienna police report said the students were turning the propeller to move the oil in the motor, causing the motor to to start running momentarily. The man struck in the head was unconscious when police arrived.

The school has been operating in a hangar just north of the terminal at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport since 2006.