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Tam Air Threatens Football’s Future

Fifa, football’s world governing body has awarded the 2014 tournament to Brazil–a brave move, considering that Brazil’s justice ministry has recorded 150 murders per day in Brazil, and the state of Brazil’s aviation industry is less than stellar.

Currently it only takes a brief thunderstorm in Sao Paulo to knock out Brazil’s domestic air system. Congonhas airport must shut during storms, which has a domino effect.

Two major crashes occurred in the past 13 months:

Gol-In September last year- 155 people died when a Boeing 737-800 operated by domestic company Gol collided with an executive jet

Tam-In July,- 187 people were killed when an Airbus A320 overshot the runway at Congonhas.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is quoted as saying “Our aviation system, in spite of the investments we have made in expansion and modernisation, is passing through difficulties.”

An overland journey from Rio de Janeiro to Manaus takes 60 hours on a bus to Belem, followed by several days on a boat down the Amazon river. There is no astrobus.

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    Dana Air Suspended-Unsuspended

    March 16, 2013, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority announced Dana Air’s temporary suspension again. Dana Air had been suspended last June after the MD-83 crash. In January flights were restored.

    After a March 16 flight in Abuja had safety issues, leading to a recently grounded flight, Dana Air was again (briefly) suspended.

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    NTSB: Prevent Aerodynamic Stalls at Low Altitude

    Avoid this often deadly scenario through timely recognition and appropriate responses.

    Many stall accidents that occur in VMC result when a pilot is momentarily distracted from the primary task of flying, such as while maneuvering in the airport traffic pattern, during an emergency, or when fixating on ground objects.

    See Full Alert

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    NTSB TO HOLD A PUBLIC FORUM


    Washington, DC – The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a safety forum on professionalism in aviation beginning Tuesday, May 18, 2010. The three-day, en-banc forum will be chaired by NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman.

    “NTSB’s investigations into the midair collision over the Hudson River last August, the crash of Colgan Air flight 3407 in February 2009, and the October 2009 Northwest pilots’ overflight of their intended airport provided the impetus for this forum because all of them clearly demonstrated the hazards to aviation safety when pilots and air traffic controllers depart from standard operating procedures and established best practices,” Hersman said. “During the forum, we will gather information on the screening, selection and training of pilots and controllers and methods to reinforce professionalism and excellence.”

    Panelists participating in the forum will represent industry, government agencies, labor, academia, and professional associations. A technical panel composed of NTSB staff from the Offices of Aviation Safety and Research and Engineering, and the NTSB Board Members, who will make up the Board of Inquiry, will question the panelists.

    Dr. Tony Kern, an internationally recognized human factors and pilot performance expert, is the forum’s keynote speaker. The names of the participating panelists and the agenda will be provided in early May.

    The forum, titled “Professionalism in Aviation: Ensuring Excellence in Pilot and Air Traffic Controller Performance,” will be held at the NTSB’s Board Room and Conference Center, located at 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C. The public can view the forum in person or by webcast on the NTSB’s web site.

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    Hawaii, Cleveland, etc…

    I should note at some point that every day there are dozens of small events that occur that we don’t talk about. For example, there was the event on the 7th when a 65 year old pilot beached his Cessna 310 (flying out of Monteray) in the ocean when he ran out of gas. He had notified authorities of his fuel situation, so the Coast Guard was on hand to rescue him…

    Or the fiasco 22 year old Jason Laurence Delta University student (Cleveland Mississippi) survived when the 1972 Cessna 150 he was flying failed, and flipped during an emergency landing in a groove in a cotton field, rolling end over end.

    Or the Piper PA-32 Saratoga went missing heading to Johnstown, Pa, and in which Michael Garrone of Allegheny Township, Pa., 52-year-old Chas Armitage Jr. of Parks Township, Pa., and his girlfriend, 49-year-old Laura Stettmier lost their lives when it crashed 12 miles southeast of the Grant County Airport in Petersburg.

    Or the United Express flight from Chicago to Omaha which landed in Des Moines on Friday with an undesignated engine problem.

    Or Thursday’s Pia birdstrike in Pakistan that ended with an engine shut down and a return to Islamabad.

    Or the fatal crash thursday of an experimental Rand Robinson KR-2 which took off from Mountain Empire Airport and killed the pilot a mile north of the airport at 1:10 pm.

    Or the experimental Quickie Q200 which crashed and burned when 60-year-old Gerald Brinkerhuff from Gobles was practicing touch and goes in Holland Michigan. Brinkerhuff did not survive.

    Every day there are numerous events that happen, and sometimes there’s just not enough detail available, or sometimes conflicting accounts make it difficult to determine what happened.

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    Emergency Airworthiness Directives issued by Transport Canada

    Inspection of Bombardier Q400 main landing gear has been ordered after line checks uncovered two cases of cam mechanism failure in the gear’s alternate extension system (AES). The cam mechanism operates the cable to open the main landing gear door and releases the MLG uplock in sequence. In cases where an operator must use the alternate extension system to deploy the MLG, the failure of the cam mechanism on one side will lead to an asymmetrical landing configuration.

    Bombardier (Boeing Canada/De Havilland) DHC-8 Series Aeroplanes


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    TAM AIRBUS Thrust Reverser ‘OFF’

    Tam Airlines admits a thrust reverser had been deactivated during maintenance checks.

    Tam Airlines insists the deactivation was in accordance with accepted procedures. Thrust reversers assist jets to slow down on landing.

    The Tam Airlines’ Airbus 320 overshot the runway at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport, hit buildings and exploded. Speculation continues but there is no confirmation on the crash’s cause. The same plane had problems landing at Congonhas a day prior the crash when it had barely managed to stop at the limit of the runway. The report said that the pilot told air traffic controllers it was very slippery.

    The right thrust reverser was “deactivated” at the time of the accident “in conditions stipulated by the maintenance of the manufacturer Airbus and approved by [Brazil’s] National Civil Aviation Agency” according to Tam Airlines. The Airbus’s manual says an inspection can be done up to 10 days after it is first detected and that the plane can continue to operate in the meantime.

    The crash occurred in wet conditions runway that has been criticized as being too short, and whose new surface had not yet been properly surfaced to handle rain.

    Video footage shows a few final moments of the Tam Airlines flight, and a similar plane that had arrived earlier. The Tam plane appears to be traveling at a higher than normal speed.The first aircraft apparently takes eleven seconds to travel along the visible section, while the plane that crashed covers the same distance in three. The Airbus 320 jet appears to continue speeding along the runway without slowing, before disappearing out of view. The flash of an explosion is then seen.

    The Brazilian air force believes the footage shows the plane was traveling at excessive speed, according to Globo TV. One theory speculates that the pilot tried to take off again. Instead, the aircraft crossed the road and ploughed into a Tam Airlines building.

    Brig Jorge Kersul Filho, director of the Air Force’s Centre for Investigation and Prevention of Air Accidents, said, “”That he jumped over the avenue was an indication he tried to take off. If he didn’t [try to take off] he would have gone nose down at the end of the runway.”

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