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Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council Postscript

Indian safety experts are worried now that the dissolution date of Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC), has passed.

CASAC, made up of senior pilots, air traffic managers, airfield experts, retired Air Force officials and aviation doctors has no future. CASAC members have disagreed with actions made by the DGCA, and the DGCA has dropped complaints by the CASAC such as when the CASAC registered a complaint against an airline operating without mandatory safety checks. See the safety program.

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    Air France, Airbus Playing “Hot Potato” with Responsibility

    Air France denies responsibility for the Air France Flight 447 crash, saying that they had raised concerns about the sensors before the crash.

    If they did so, it would seem the memorandum they presented indicates that they were aware of the problem, and therefore responsible. Though Air France “submitted a memorandum to show it had taken ‘all possible precautions” after a series of earlier sensor failures,’ ” it would seem the memorandum would indicate that they were aware of a problem, and should have cancelled flights until the problem was corrected. Certainly passengers were not made aware that there was a potentially serious issue.

    If Airbus had really been concerned, they would have installed the $50,000 backup system used by other carriers in the event of a multiple airspeed sensor failure.

    Watching Air France and Airbus (and Thales) shift blame for the crash back and forth is like watching a child’s game of “hot potato.” When they are finished passing the buck, who ever ends up officially responsible, the victims are still just as dead. Time for someone to “man up.”

    There are rumors that a request will be made to Transport Minister Thierry Mariani to continue the search for the black box. Three earlier searches failed, seeking the Airbus SAS A330, which crashed into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing all 228 people aboard. 6,700 square miles was searched for the acoustic pings, but the batteries are now dead, and searches changed to sonar imaging.

    The BEA claims that only the black boxes will tell the truth of what happened but drags its feet in continuing the search. On May 6th 2010, a French deputy minister told the public that the black boxes had been found (meaning, apparently, that their general location had been pinned down.) That report was withdrawn. That fact, combined with the BEA reluctance to continue searching, has led to persistent rumors of a cover-up.

    Private shareholders own 81.4% of Air France, 37% held by former Air France shareholders and 21% held by former KLM shareholders. The Government of France owns 18.6% of Air France—putting the BEA in the awkward position of heading an investigation where it has essentially owes 18.6% responsibility.

    Air France was fined €310 million this month for price fixing. Read about their response to the fine

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    UPS Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Mumbai

    UPS flight 5X-15 made an emergency landing in Mumbai, India, on March 8th.

    The Boeing 747-400 plane flying from Bangkok, Thailand, was descending toward Mumbai when the crew reported a hydraulic failure.

    The plane burst a tire during landing and became disabled on the runway.

    Everyone aboard remained unharmed.

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    FAA Issues Battery Statement. And Me Too…Attention, Boeing…

    My experts are telling me that it looks like Boeing is all alone on these 787 battery fires. The FAA issued 31 ‘Special Conditions’ (you can read that to mean that the FAA gave Boeing a whole lot of slack) but this battery problem is not getting a free ride, or any favors.

    SAFETY is the top priority. Make no mistake. The sooner the Dreamliner and its battery is grounded, the sooner the fix will be found and it will be safe to fly again. Well. While you’re at it fixing the battery problem, get that team of pilots who fly this thing to go over all areas of failure thus far, including the engines. Look at ALL of these…

    • Nov 6 2010: Boeing flight Texas: electrical problems in the aft electronics bay which disabled the primary flight displays in the cockpit.
    • Nov 6 2011: ANA Flight Okayama forced to deploy the landing gear using the alternate extension backup system, after an active warning light, which said that the wheels were not properly down.
    • July 28 2012: Boeing Flight Charleston: contained engine failure during a taxi test at Charleston International Airport PRE Delivery Taxi test. Debris fell from engine
    • Dec 4, 2012: United over Mississippi: “multiple messages” regarding flight-system errors, and diverted to New Orleans (KMSY). The problems occurred when one of the plane’s generators failed. Power was supplied to the aircraft with the five functioning generators.
    • Jan 7, 2013: JAL Boston: fire was discovered in a battery and electrical compartment of the aircraft.
    • Jan 8, 2013: JAL Boston: 40 gallons of fuel had spilled from one of its wing tanks at the gate. The plane was contacted before takeoff and it returned to the terminal without incident. Probably a case of overfilling the tank.
    • Jan 9, 2013: ANA Yamaguchi: Brake problems
    • Jan 16, 2013: ANA Takamatsu: instrument indications of smoke in the forward electrical compartment. No fire was found.

    Boeing? Are you listening? I fly everywhere, all over the world but at the moment, I’m not comfortable getting on this great plane that I really want to love for future travel. I’m am confident you can do it, even if all of these wrinkles are going to mean you need to bring in the really big iron. We need all the finders and fixers on this! The world has places to go and things to do, and you’re holding their safety in the palm of your hand.

    The Emergency Airworthiness Directive has been issued. Issued Jan 16, 2013
    and here is their announcement:

    As a result of an in-flight, Boeing 787 battery incident earlier today in Japan, the FAA will issue an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) to address a potential battery fire risk in the 787 and require operators to temporarily cease operations. Before further flight, operators of U.S.-registered, Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the batteries are safe.
    The FAA will work with the manufacturer and carriers to develop a corrective action plan to allow the U.S. 787 fleet to resume operations as quickly and safely as possible.
    The in-flight Japanese battery incident followed an earlier 787 battery incident that occurred on the ground in Boston on January 7, 2013. The AD is prompted by this second incident involving a lithium ion battery. The battery failures resulted in release of flammable electrolytes, heat damage, and smoke on two Model 787 airplanes. The root cause of these failures is currently under investigation. These conditions, if not corrected, could result in damage to critical systems and structures, and the potential for fire in the electrical compartment.

    Last Friday, the FAA announced a comprehensive review of the 787’s critical systems with the possibility of further action pending new data and information. In addition to the continuing review of the aircraft’s design, manufacture and assembly, the agency also will validate that 787 batteries and the battery system on the aircraft are in compliance with the special condition the agency issued as part of the aircraft’s certification.

    United Airlines is currently the only U.S. airline operating the 787, with six airplanes in service. When the FAA issues an airworthiness directive, it also alerts the international aviation community to the action so other civil aviation authorities can take parallel action to cover the fleets operating in their own countries.

    See Directive:

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    Foreign Airliner Leasing & Financing Un-Deserving Operators

    Arik Air Ltd., and Aero Contractors Co. of Nigeria Ltd., Nigeria’s top two airlines, have been banned from getting loans by Nigeria’s Central Bank due to the massive debt they have accrued. Arik Air owes Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria more than $534 million. Aero Contractors owes more than $203 million. A bank that loans money to these airlines will face “serious fines from the government.” Air Nigeria recently collapsed owing crew a debt of four months’ pay, in addition to $175 million in loans to Nicon Investments Ltd..

    Only three Nigerian airlines remain in operation. Arik Air has not published a date when it will resume flying.

    Officially, according to the BBC, the carrier resumed domestic flights on Sunday Sept 24. However we did get anonymous input from Monrovia that as of Saturday, Sept 22nd, Arik Air was flying.

    In George’s Point of View

    Before making a loan, banks need to look past the uncertainties in airline survival, aircraft value, interest rates and the airline’s credit worthiness.

    This is what the aircraft leasing companies should do:

    Stop leasing planes to operators that are careless in their maintenance and pilot training.

    Leasing companies should not look only at credit worthiness. Yes, that is one factor, but it is only part of the picture. Leasing companies must also make judgements based on the history of the airline operator performance, and maintenance.

    If credit and performance history all checks out, the oversight is not over. The leasing company should monitor every single plane they have leased out to foreign operators.

    If monitoring reveals any problems whatsoever, that pilots are not being trained, that they are not getting enough sleep, that the operator or aircraft goes on a black list, that the operator is shown to be negligent in any way, then the lessor should endeavor immediately to pickup/repossess that plane.

    Maintaining every aspect of the plane’s maintenance, flight operations, crew resource management, and crew training is as crucial to the contract agreement as payments. Failure to keep everything up to date is as much a breach of contract and cause for action as is failure to pay.

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    Wake Turbulence Found Guilty

    aircraft.jpg__atkinson_Preliminary investigation of the Indian Air Force Lockheed C-130J-30 Super Hercules that crashed on Friday March 28, 2014, killing five, indicates that the accident may have been the result of wake turbulence.

    The Hercules that crashed 72 miles from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh was in a twoship formation on a training mission when it flew into the wake turbulence of the lead aircraft. Because of the low altitude (300 feet), the crew could not establish control in order to avert the crash.

    The mission was flying from Agra-Kheria Air Force Station to Gwalior Airport, India.

    Although the findings reportedly rule out “technical error,” incidents resulting from wake turbulence (i.e. composed of wingtip vortices and jet wash) are generally considered pilot error. Jet wash gases from engines dissipate quickly, but vortices from the wings can last three minutes.

    Although most incidents resulting from a plane flying in another’s wake turbulence are reported in takeoff and landing situations at airstrips, it is also a hazard in formation flying, so that planes in the far position must concentrate on staying on or above leader’s glide path. Vortices sink at a rate of 90 to 150 meters/minute

    The ICAO has separation minima standards for take-off and landing.

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    Two Kathmandu-Bound Flights Grounded due to Bomb Threat

    Jet AirwaysTwo Kathmandu-bound flights were grounded just before takeoff from Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, on January 27.

    airindia2Authorities said the flights were grounded after the Jet Airways security office received a call saying there was a “bomb threat” to Jet Airways flight 9W 260 and Air India flight AI-215.

    There were 122 passengers and 7 crew members aboard Jet Airways flight while the Air India plane was carrying 121 passengers at the time.

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