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Category: <span>update</span>

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Pulling A Slater, Round Two

The saga continues:

One thing that is coming out is that there’s more to the story, that the flight attendant’s problems started at the beginning of the flight with a couple of women who were fighting over bin space, that a woman (accidentally?) struck Slater on the head with her luggage, that a woman was enraged her checked luggage wasn’t handy.

The original story:

It’s being posted as news now that Steven Slater has been granted bail. Whether or not he can afford to pay it is questionable. Maybe one of his new media cubbies will start a fund.

Of course they have to grant him bail.

Are they going to lock him in jail and throw away the key for having a melt-down on his job?

Have the abusive passengers been charged with unruly behavior, or does Jet Blue not concern themselves with the safety and well being of their employees?


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NTSB BOARD MEMBERS TO MEET WMATA BOARD

NTSB Advisory
National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
August 8, 2010

The five Members of the National Transportation Safety Board will meet the board of directors of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) on Monday, August 9, at 2:30 p.m. at the WMATA headquarters building, 600 Fifth Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C.

The two groups will discuss the recently issued NTSB findings and safety recommendations related to the NTSB’s accident investigation of the June 2009 Red Line collision of two WMATA trains.

At the conclusion of the meeting, there will be a brief press availability with Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman in the WMATA board room.


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Air Blue Black Box Recovered

A six member committee will be investigating the crash of the Air Blue Airbus flight ED-202. 152 people on board the Airbus A321 aircraft were killed when it slammed into a hill on July 28. The black box and cockpit voice recorder which was in the tail of the plane was recovered in the wooded Margalla hills after a three day search by twenty rescuers who had been hampered by heavy rain and inaccessibility. Major accidents are investigated jointly by the international aviation community; and the box appears to be in adequate condition, soon to be decoded in either France or Germany.

The box holds crucial details which will help determine the cause of the crash, and will be examined by international experts.

Pilot Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry was 61 years old, and suffering from diabetes and hypertension, and possibly suffering fatigue if he had observed prayers of the holy day preceding the crash.


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LifeNet Frozen After Crash


Pictured: A LifeNet Eurocopter AS-350B-3 Ecureuil. The one in the crash is
registration # N509AM

Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer David J Transier

What: AirMethods American Eurocopter AS 350B3 Ecureuil en route from Marana to Southeast Arizona Medical Center
Where: Near Park and 1st Avenue, Tucson, Arizona
When: July 28, 2010, 2 pm
Who: pilot, flight nurse and paramedic
UPDATE: LifeNet flights have been halted but crews will return to service at an unspecified time after debriefing. Pilot Alex Kelley, paramedic Brenda French, and flight nurse Parker Summons died when theAS350 B3 Eurocopter “LifeNet 12” crashed in an Arizona neighborhood while returning from maintenance at Marana Regional Airport to Douglas.
Read More


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NTSB ADVISORY: NTSB TO MEET ON FINAL REPORT ON COLGAN AIR DASH-8 ACCIDENT NEAR BUFFALO, NEW YORK

************************************************************
NTSB ADVISORY
************************************************************

National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594

January 29, 2010

************************************************************

NTSB TO MEET ON FINAL REPORT ON COLGAN AIR DASH-8 ACCIDENT
NEAR BUFFALO, NEW YORK

************************************************************

The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a Board
meeting on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 9:30 a.m. in its
Board Room and Conference Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W.,
Washington, D.C. The Board will consider a final report on
the following investigation:

On February 12, 2009, a Colgan Air, Inc., Bombardier DHC-8-
400, N200WQ, operating as Continental Connection flight
3407, was on an instrument approach to Buffalo-Niagara
International Airport, Buffalo, New York, when it crashed
into a residence in Clarence Center, New York, about 5
nautical miles northeast of the airport. The 2 pilots, 2
flight attendants, and 45 passengers aboard the airplane
were killed, one person on the ground was killed, and the
airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a postcrash
fire. The flight was a 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Part 121 scheduled passenger flight from Newark, New Jersey.
Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the
time of the accident.

A live and archived webcast of the proceedings will be
available on the Board’s website at
http://www.ntsb.gov/events/Boardmeeting.htm. Technical
support details are available under “Board Meetings” on the
NTSB website. To report any problems, please call 703-993-
3100 and ask for Webcast Technical Support.

A summary of the Board’s final report, which will include
findings, probable cause and safety recommendations, will
appear on the website shortly after the conclusion of the
meeting. The entire report will appear on the website
several weeks later.

Verizon wireless cellular service is accessible in the Board
Room and Conference Center.

Directions to the NTSB Board Room: Front door located on
Lower 10th Street, directly below L’Enfant Plaza. From
Metrorail, exit L’Enfant Plaza station at 9th and D Streets
escalator, walk through shopping mall, at CVS store (on the
left), take escalator (on the right) down one level. The
Board Room will be to your left.

NTSB Media contact: Keith Holloway
202-314-6100
hollowk@ntsb.gov


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Ethiopian Crash Update

The wife to the French ambassador to Lebanon is confirmed to have been aboard Ethiopian Flight 409 that took off from Beirut and crashed within minutes in the Mediterranean sea. This BBC news report says 92 were aboard. Other sources claim 90. Reference in this video is made to people being pulled from the sea, but no survivors have been found.


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Garuda Conviction Overturned

Former Garuda pilot Captain Marwoto Komar ignored 15 automated warnings and his co-pilot when he crash-landed Garuda Flight 200 in March 2007, at 410 kph – almost twice the normal speed. The pilot’s decision to ignore the warnings is responsible for the 21 people killed, including 5 Australians, including diplomats, federal police officers and a journalist.

His conviction has been overturned, and he was freed by an Indonesian Court.

21 people lost their lives because the pilot ignored warnings.


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Overshooting Pilots Shoot back

Appealing the Federal Aviation Administration’s revocation of their pilots’ licenses, Northwest Airlines pilots Capt. Timothy Cheney, 54, of Gig Harbor, Wash., and First Officer Richard Cole, 54, of Salem, Ore., say air traffic controllers didn’t follow FAA rules and practices and didn’t coordinate effectively with Northwest dispatchers.

On Oct. 21, their out-of-contact plane carried 144 passengers more than 100 miles past their Minneapolis destination. Over Wisconsin, contact was reestablished between the pilots and ATC. Both pilots have extensive flying experience and told investigators they had had no previous incidents or violations. Cheney was hired by Northwest in 1985 and had about 20,000 hours of flying time, about half of it in the A320. Cole had about 11,000 hours of flight time, including 5,000 hours in the A320.

In the interim, several shift changes occurred with off duty controllers failing to inform incoming controller that the plane was out of radio contact.


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False Alarm in Fond du Lac


What: Alleged crash reported
Where: Mitchell Road area east of Highway 45.
When: 3:40 p.m
Who: no one
Why: A farmer reported a low-flying plane followed by a puff of smoke. Rescue rushed to the scene, including a medical evacuation helicopter, but the crisis turned out to be a pile of burning leaves. Two planes which had been flying in the area at the time were accounted for. No plane was involved.


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California Crash Update

The pilots of the mid air coastal collision were flying “see and avoid, ” i.e. during clear flying conditions, pilots are responsible for making sure their flight paths are clear.

So far, there is no information disseminated regarding potential reasons behind the California coastal collision of the C-130 Hercules transport plane and a Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobra. Two transports were on a training mission as 2 Cobras were also flying together, at the time of the crash.

The C-130s had been searching for a lost boater who is still lost; and the seven Coast Guard and two Marine Corps service members have not yet been recovered.


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Philippines: Douglas C-47B Test flight Crash Las Piñas


Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Jack Hannen

What: Victoria Air Douglas C-47B Skytrain freighter en route from Ninoy Aquino Int. Airport to Palawan/ Puerto Princesa, Philippines
Where: Villa Fidela subdivision in Las Pinas; abandoned warehouse
When: Oct 17th 2009

See Also


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NTSB Interview Pending

update
NTSB investigator Joshua Cawthra will be interviewing pilot Daniel McGregor, who was flying the Cessna when it crashed in Denali National Park. McGregor survived the crash, and—with serious burns—walked twenty miles for help. McGregor is currently in a Seattle hospital’s burn unit.

McGregor is a licensed commercial pilot with an instrument rating, a certified aviation mechanic and a very lucky man to have survived the crash which killed wolf biologist Gordon Haber, and burned his blue and white aluminum Cessna 185 to ashes.


What: White and blue Cessna 185
Where: Denali National Park
When: Wednesday October 14, 2009
Who: pilot Daniel McGregor and 67-year-old wolf biologist Gordon Haber.
Why: Biologist Gordon Haber was looking for wolf packs on the north side of Denali Park when the plane failed to return. Thursday the wreckage was discovered. The pilot hiked twenty miles, and encountered two campers who helped get him home. From his home, he called State Troopers and his family. Haber’s remains were in the plane.


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NTSB Investigation: Marlin Air 2007

George’s Point of View

Now held responsible for a fatal June 4, 2007 Cessna 550 crash, pilot Capt. William Serra, 59, had apparently falsified training records and had been convicted in 1987 of conspiracy to import Quaaludes when he piloted a plane with 2,100 pounds of the drug from Canada to the USA in 1981. In the 2007 he had been responsible for safety checks; and both he and the other pilot were unfamiliar with the Marlin Air plane, resulting in a crash in Lake Michigan, killing both pilots and four members of a University of Michigan lung transplant team.

The NTSB holds FAA inspectors responsible for allowing Serra to conduct pilot inspections and oversee safety.

Investigators included the NTSB, the FAA, Cessna Aircraft, Marlin Air, Pratt and Whitney and Honeywell.


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Tam: Musical Chairs

In SAO PAULO, on Nov 28 2007, (Reuters) told us that TAM, Brazil’s largest airline appointed David Barioni Neto as its chief executive, replacing Marco Antonio Bologna, who stepped down following disaster after disaster over the past year. Though Bologna resigned, he remains a special adviser to TAM’s controlling shareholders, the airline said in a statement.

TAM hired Barioni Neto in September from rival Gol Linhas Aereas

Now Tam has announced Neto is resigning and is being temporarily replaced by Current VP of Finance, Management and IT Libano Miranda Barroso.


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NY: Hudson River Crash Update


Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Tom Turner

What: Piper PA-32 registered to LCA Partnership in Fort Washington, Pa flying out of Teteboro Airport to Ocean City and a Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tour Eurocopter AS 350
Where: over the Hudson River between New York and Hoboken, New Jersey near West 14th Street
When: Sat Aug 8 2009
Who: Helicopter: 5 Italian tourists and a pilot;
plane: pilot and 2 passengers (including a child)
Why: The airplane flew into the helicopter. The impact (or rotors) severed off the plane’s wing. Both aircrafts are in the river. The helicopter is reported to have “dropped like a rock” when the aircrafts “clipped.”

All bodies have been recovered.

Though not necessarily considered directly responsible, two FAA employees (the plane’s air traffic controller and the ATC supervisor) have been put on administrative leave in connection with this crash. The ATC was engaged in inappropriate conversation, and the supervisor was not in the room as required.


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Indonesian Plane Found


Pictured: A Merpati Twin Otter plane
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact Photographer Vector Grafix

A search plane reported sighting the wreckage of the plane 20 nautical miles from Oksibil on a mountain at 9300 feet.
Update:
Fifteen bodies arrived at Sentani Airport, Jayapura on Thursday afternoon and taken to the Bhayangkara Kotaraja Police Hospital for autopsy. Two of the 12 passengers were babies.

What: Merpati Nusantara Airlines de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 en route from Jayapura to Oksibil Indonesia
Where: 20 nautical miles from Oksibil Indonesia
When: Aug 2nd 2009
Who: 13 passengers and 2 crew
Why: Initially the weather was reported to be foggy, but 2 hours after the flight, thunder storms were reported. The tower has not been contacted since 10:35 and although the flight was due at 11:05, it never arrived.

State owned PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines is sent out another twin-otter to search for the missing plane. The search was hampered by continued bad weather.

The flight was lost while passing through the Jayapura to Oksibil route


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Yemenia Air Under Scrutiny by Investigative Team

Yemenia Air Airbus 310 flight 626 en route from Yemen’s capital Sanaa to the Comoros Islands crashed on the second pass to land at the ill-equipped airport during heavy weather.

Westlake Village, California (Press Release) July 8, 2009 — A lawyer has contacted George Hatcher to dispatch a team of his consultant staff to work on the Yemenia Air crash. The latest development in this recent aviation disaster is that the thirteen bodies found by fishermen 500 miles away from the Comoros Islands may be victims who have drifted from the Yemenia Airbus crash. On its second pass at attempting a landing at the airport during a fearsome storm off the Comoros, the Yemenia Airlines Airbus flew into the ocean, killing 141 passengers and 11 crew members. This is the second Airbus lost at sea in a single month, and the crash points to an ominous trend toward a lessening of safety in aviation. Bahia’s survival and thirteen hour ordeal clutching at floating debris while suffering a broken collarbone, and too weak to climb into the rescue boat is one that clutches at our heartstrings, especially when we find out that her mother died in the crash. Bahia was flown back to her family in Marseilles. But that is not the end of the story.

Almost half of the dead were French citizens; and French citizens are up in arms over Yemenia Air. Having failed required criteria, the Airbus involved in the incident was under scrutiny, and not allowed to fly in French airspace; but the plane was allowed to regularly fly to Comoros, a poor island society with an ill-equipped airport. There is culpability to be assigned here, though it is all speculation until the black boxes are found. A 40 year veteran of litigation investigation and evaluation (including aviation,) George Hatcher explains that he was contacted by a lawyer working, “on behalf of some families, and we have dispatched a team there to assist.”

The thirteen bodies that were just found washed ashore on “Mafia Island,” some 500 miles from the site of the crash. A wing with “Airbus” scribed on it, and a plane seat were found in close proximity to the bodies. However, the black boxes have NOT been found yet; and the vast distance that the wreckage traveled bodes ill for the prospects of finding them.

There is already a group organized to protest the substandard plane accommodations. Spokesperson Farid Solihi of the protest group “SOS voyage aux Comores” has been an outspoken detractor of intolerable conditions aboard flights to and from Comoros. Hopefully the Hatcher team will be able to make contact with Solihi or some other “SOS voyage aux Comores” member.

About George Hatcher
George Hatcher is an independent generalist, a consultant dedicated to the support of the victims of aviation incidents or accidents. Known internationally, Hatcher works with well known lawyers, and develops crack teams to help support litigation, communication, and safety initiatives. To read further about the company, visit http://aircrashconsultants.com

Contact: george@georgehatcher.com
Aviation Consultants


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Comoran Update


View larger photo here
Contact photographer Iam Lim
What: Yemenia Air Airbus 310 flight 626 en route from Yemen’s capital Sanaa to Moroni
Where: Indian Ocean near the Comoros archipelago
When: Monday June 29, 2009
Who: 142 passengers, 11 crew ( 6 Yemenis, 2 Moroccans, 1 Indonesian, 1 Ethiopian and 1 Filipino). 66 on board were French Nationals. A young girl survived. 5 bodies were found.
Why: Airbus attributes the crash to bad weather. The crash occurred on the pilot’s second attempt to land. The first landing was aborted because of 50 mph winds. The plane had circled to make a 2nd attempt and was flying low and impacted the ocean. Earlier reports described a “u turn.”

The 19 year old plane has 51,900 flight hours. Two years ago, aviation officials reported problems with this plane. Fifty-one percent of the airline is owned by the Yemeni government. Forty-nine percent is owned by the Saudi Arabian government.

Its fleet includes two Airbus 330-200s, four Airbus 310-300s and four Boeing 737-800s, according to the company website.

Comorian President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi cut short his attendance at the AU summit in Libya to return to Moroni to “mourn alongside those who lost loved ones in the crash.” He expressed “condolences to the Comorian people and to the affected families.”


Yemin call center: for more info contact the call center at 00967 1250800 or the emergency No 00967 1 250833 or call center 00967 1 250800 #IY626

Gen. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy is the senior commander for French forces in the southern Indian Ocean. The islands are considered a French “department” and 80,000 immigrant Comorans are domiciled in Marseille. The general is quoted as saying that the Airbus 310 crashed 9 miles north of Comoros and 21 miles from the Moroni airport.

Reports of a toddler being found have not been verified; but when a young girl could not grasp the ring that had been tossed to her, Sgt. Said Abdilai jumped in the water and rescued her. The water was apparently too rough to recover more than five bodies. No other live victims have been found.

Comoros honorary consul in Marseille, Stephane Salord calls Yemenia’s planes “flying cattle trucks” and is quoted saying “This A310 is a plane that has posed problems for a long time, it is absolutely inadmissible that this airline Yemenia played with the lives of its passengers this way,” he said.

Stephane Salord (whom we were trying to reach to interview for this column) is on the presumed dead list.

The plane in question has been also referred to as “ancient, old, elderly, and geriatric.”

There are complaints about Yemenia Airlines:

Some people stand the whole way to Moroni,” said Mohamed Ali, a Comoran who went to Yemenia’s headquarters in Paris to try to get more information.
Thoue Djoumbe, a 28-year-old woman who lives in the French town of Fontainebleau, said she and others had complained about the airline for years.
“It’s a lottery when you travel to Comoros,” said Djoumbe. “We’ve organized boycotts, we’ve told the Comoran community not to fly on Yemenia airways because they make a lot of money off of us and meanwhile the conditions on the planes are disastrous.”

Safety breaches have put this area on a French “watch list.” A group called “SOS Voyage aux Comores” claims Yemenia Airlines is run by “cowboy operators.” They list complaints like:

  • The beating of passengers in transit.
  • Ill-treatment of Comoran victims,
  • Problems related to transit in Sana’a as Dzaoudzi,
  • Ticket prices escalating in price more than 60%,
  • Loss of employment in return for delay at work,
  • The flight duration up to 5 days without notice or explanation,
  • Lack of consideration of the Comorian clients,
  • Tickets prices inflate while oil price does not
  • Delays and baggage lost without explanation or apology,
  • Dates and times of departure / return not always respected or honored,
  • Ill-treatment and humiliation inflicted on the passengers,
  • Some mothers forced to carry their babies on their knees while their places were paid …

src: http://www.douniaweb.net/webradio/index.php?2008/09/06/248-sos-voyage-aux-comores-6-septembre-2008



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Airbus Engine Pulled from Hudson

Reuters provides a video of the Airbus 320’s submerged left engine being pulled from the Hudson river.

The Airbus 320A jet has been moved from Battery Park City to Weeks Marina in Jersey City.

The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered and the contents are being studied to determine details about what caused Flight 1549’s two engines to quit.

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