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Rx for Safe Flying


Smart general aviation pilots won’t fly if they are taking a prescription that says Do not drive or operate machinery while taking this medication. But sometimes it’s not that clear cut. Other prescription drugs and even some over-the-counter medicines can affect a pilot’s performance.

That’s why Administrator Huerta and the heads of 11 aviation associations today sent a letter to all U.S.-registered pilots urging them to be more aware of the effect both prescribed medicines and non-prescription drugs containing antihistamines can have on their skills and judgment.

The letter tells pilots to read prescription labels carefully, talk with their doctors, and then decide if the drugs they’re taking could impair their performance in the cockpit. It also advises pilots to use a personal “IM SAFE” checklist to ensure they are not impaired by Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue or Emotion – any of which could affect their flying abilities. The letter counsels pilots who have recovered from an illness and have taken a medication with impairing side effects not to fly until at least five maximum dosage intervals have passed.

While the FAA works closely with many aviation advocacy groups, the letter represents an unprecedented joint effort. “In all of my years of practicing aerospace medicine, I am not aware of any time in which so many aviation organizations have collaborated to get out the same message at the same time,” said Dr. James Fraser, the FAA’s Deputy Federal Air Surgeon. “We hope this collaborative educational effort will put a dent in pilots’ usage of impairing medications and help lower the general aviation fatal accident rate.

Besides Administrator Huerta, signatories to the letter include executives from the Aircraft Electronics Association, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Experimental Aircraft Association, American Bonanza Association, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, Helicopter Association International, National Association of Flight Instructors, National Air Transport Association, National Business Aviation Association, Society of Aviation Flight Educators and the U.S. Parachute Association.

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    Temperature rising in Spanish ATC

    PRESS RELEASE-Safety bulletin 12 February 2010–IFALPA has been notified by its Spanish Member Association SEPLA that the negotiation of a new labour agreement between Spanish controllers and AENA (the ATM service provider) has taken an unexpected twist after the approval by the Spanish government of a “Urgent Royal Decree” which changes the previous agreement.

    The Federation has no position on the state of the negotiations or the tactics employed in the dispute. However, the dispute does raise some safety concerns. Consequences may include increased tension in the controller’s work place, economic worries of ATC staff, unanticipated shortage of ATCOs and unexpected delays throughout Spanish airspace.
    SEPLA recommend that aircrews exercise extreme caution when flying within the Spanish FIRs (this includes the Spanish mainland, Balearic and Canary Islands as well as delegated airspace) and to consider the following safety recommendations:

    • Increased vigilance of all ATC procedures
    • Adhere strictly to standard operating procedures, paying extra attention to communications mainly when entering congested
      airspace (TMAs for example)

    • Consider taking extra fuel for unexpected extended delays or diversions
    • Exercise special attention during all ground movements
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    Qantas A380 Engine Disintegration Far More Serious

    Rolls said in a statement that the failure was confined to a specific component in the turbine area of the engine. This caused an oil fire. The British company added that it would replace the faulty part. Safety continues to be Rolls-Royce’s highest priority. See their statement

    Qantas is grounding its Airbus A380 superjumbos until further notice, and Singapore Airlines is grounding 3 of its A380s. EASA is calling for inspections. See the directive.

    What Happened
    The cause of the Rolls Royce engine failure has been pinned down to a faulty bearing box, the underlying cause of the oil leak. The bearings allow the drive shaft to move. The leaking bearing box dripped oil into the QANTAS A380 whose engine exploded (uncontained) into the wing, and dropping its turbine onto a house in Batam. The wing damage included electrical cables and hydraulic lines inside the wing, so that pilots were dealing with hydraulic damage (inability to close the landing gear doors), and electrical damage (trouble shutting down the engine beside the damaged one.)

    The Qantas meltdown is one of at least five documented A380 engine malfunctions.

    • Qantas A388 near Singapore on Nov 4th 2010
    • Lufthansa A388 near Frankfurt on Aug 6th 2010, engine shut down in flight
    • Emirates A388 near Zurich on Jul 13th 2010, engine shut down in flight
    • Singapore A388 near Krakow on Sep 27th 2009, engine shut down in flight
    • Singapore A388 near London on May 25th 2009, engine failure

    Newer Trent 900 engines have a different bearing box. Although the new box promises to eliminate the problem, newer models also have system software to shut down the engine before the leak causes a meltdown similar to the QANTAS A380 event over Singapore.

    George’s Point of View

    Although one might say that regulators did not adequately check the engine before approving it for commercial use, I think of Boeing’s response to its recent 787 test flight, and I point out that no one made Boeing step back and pull the 787 back on to the drawing board for more tests and adjustments. Boeing did that, because such remediation is what testing is all about. It is part and parcel of the paradigm of safety in design. It is up to each manufacturer that every item off of their assembly lines be as well designed and as safe as humanly possible. This includes fixing design flaws as soon as they are known. So I wonder, if newer Trent 900 engines have an improved bearing box, this of course begs the question why the older ones were not replaced.

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    ICAO Press Release: Safety Conference

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    STRONG CONSENSUS REACHED AT ICAO SAFETY CONFERENCE ON WAYS TO REDUCE ACCIDENTS
    MONTREAL, 1 April 2010 – A High-Level Safety Conference which concluded today established a strong mandate for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to create a strategy to further reduce the global accident rate, through the sharing of safety-related information among Member States and the air transport industry.

    More than 600 participants at the four-day event, attended by Ministers and Directors General of Civil Aviation from 150 Member countries as well as industry representatives, recommended that ICAO create a global safety information exchange to enable analysis of key safety indicators. This will guide future strategic decisions related to the evolution of today’s air transportation system. The Conference called upon ICAO to facilitate the collection, analysis and dissemination of safety information provided by States and industry partners, throughout the international aviation community.

    The Conference further recommended that ICAO develop processes to give the general public access to relevant safety information, thereby allowing them to make an informed decision about the safety of air transportation and to further ensure that such information is used solely to improve aviation safety and not for retribution or the purpose of gaining economic advantage.

    “We have traditionally focused our efforts on accident reports as a means to improve safety. This new approach will help us to better identify and deal with safety threats before they result in accidents”, said Roberto Kobeh González, President of the Council of ICAO.

    “Regulators and industry must come to manage safety-critical information in the same way that they view accidents. Both must become triggers for action in preventing accidents,” he added.

    On Tuesday, ICAO, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (FAA), the Commission of the European Union (EC) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) signed a Declaration of Intent on the development of a global safety information exchange agreement.

    In the months to come, the parties will establish an operational framework for the information exchange. It will address technical, confidentiality, legal and policy implications, as well as the relevance and timing of information collected.

    “ICAO has long promoted the concept of information sharing on a global scale so as to connect the various databases of regulators and industry. The recommendation from the Conference and the Declaration of Intent represent a breakthrough in achieving our objective of better utilizing data to reduce the accident rate globally and in specific regions and States around the world,” Mr. Kobeh emphasized.

    On the question of black boxes, the Conference recommended that ICAO look into technical enhancements that would improve the ability to locate and recover the units, such as longer time periods for signals, better resistance to crashes and floatability.

    “While the electronic transmission of information during flights is progressively improving, black boxes will remain absolutely indispensable for years to come as the primary source of technical data in cases of accidents or incidents,” Mr. Kobeh said.

    The Conference also called on States and industry to ensure improved communication and surveillance of flights over oceanic and remote areas through the use of all available technologies.

    Reaffirming the fundamental mission of ICAO to ensure the safety of international civil aviation, the Conference endorsed the creation of a new Annex to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, one dedicated exclusively to safety management principles.

    Recommendations from the Conference will be submitted to the Council of ICAO for consideration in the coming weeks.

    – END –

    PIO.04.10.ENGLISH PIO.04.10.FRENCH PIO.04.10.SPANISH PIO.04.10.RUSSIAN PIO.04.10.ARABIC PIO.04.10.CHINESE

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    Sharing of Information highlight of second day of Safety Conference
    March 30, 2010 — oacicomm
    On the second day of the High-level safety Conference, the more than 600 participants from some 150 ICAO Member States and industry unequivocally endorsed the twin concepts of transparency and sharing of safety-related information among States and with major stakeholders within the global aviation community, as well as with the general public.

    There was agreement that ICAO should be the body charged with coordinating the integration of the safety information provided by the international community as well as for the dissemination of safety intelligence. To that end, ICAO would convene a group of experts to define and harmonize safety metrics, associated data requirements and analysis processes.

    ICAO would also develop a code of conduct on the sharing of safety information, so as to ensure that such information is used solely to improve aviation safety and not for retribution or the purpose of gaining economic advantage.

    Processes would be developed to provide the general public with access to relevant safety information which would allow them to make an informed decision about the safety of air transportation.

    Recommendations on these and other items will be reviewed and approved on the final day of the Conference, Thursday, 1 April. Recommendations will subsequently be submitted to the ICAO Council for consideration in the coming weeks.

    Earlier in the Conference, in line with the discussions on the sharing of information as a means to improve aviation safety levels around the world, ICAO and three other State and industry parties signed a Declaration of Intent on the Development of a Global Safety Information Exchange Agreement: the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (FAA); the Commission of the European Union (EC); and the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

    In the weeks to come, representatives of the signatories will produce a work plan incorporating the following activities and concepts: identification of the safety information gathered by the Participants that would be most relevant to the enhancement of risk reduction activities; identification of the legal or policy constraints, if any, on the ability of Participants to share this information among the parties and development of mechanisms to overcome these constraints; identification of the appropriate timing of that information sharing; development of an efficient mechanism to ensure that this information is used to generate safety intelligence and identify critical safety trends in a timely fashion; development of policies and procedures to safeguard proprietary, confidentially submitted, and/or personal information in line with relevant applicable privacy laws, data sharing policies and regulations standardization of aspects of the audit metrics, data taxonomies etc, to maximize effective utilization of the safety information gathered in this process; and determination of how to disseminate this information globally as appropriate.

    Tomorrow the conference will discuss the creation of a new Annex to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, one dedicated to safety processes.

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    NTSB INVESTIGATING NEAR COLLISION OF SOUTHWEST 737 AND NEWS HELICOPTER OVER HOUSTON HOBBY AIRPORT

    The NTSB has launched an investigation into the near collision of a Southwest Airlines jetliner and a news helicopter over a runway at Houston’s Hobby Airport last week.

    At about 12:25 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, April 28, a Southwest Airlines 737, flight 1322 (N242WN) and a Bell 207 news gathering helicopter (N6YJ), came within an estimated 125 feet vertically and 100 feet laterally from each other as both were departing the airport.

    The Baltimore-bound 737 with 135 passengers and a crew of five had been cleared to depart from runway 12R. At about the same time the helicopter was cleared to depart from another part of the airport. The near-collision occurred as the helicopter converged into the flight path of the 737 shortly after the jetliner lifted off from the runway. Both crews took evasive maneuvers to avoid colliding.

    NTSB investigator Betty Koschig, an air traffic control specialist based in Washington, is traveling to Houston tomorrow to begin the investigation.

    This is the second runway safety incident that the NTSB has investigated in the last two weeks. On April 19, a 737 and a small private plane came within about 200 feet of colliding over the airport in Burbank, Calif.

    Improving runway safety has been on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List of Safety Improvements since 1990:
    http://www.ntsb.gov/Recs/mostwanted/runways.htm

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  • NTSB TO RELEASE FACTUAL REPORTS ON FATAL 2009 HELICOPTER ACCIDENT IN LOUISIANA

    The National Transportation Safety Board will open its public docket Thursday on a January 2009 helicopter accident that killed 8 persons.

    On January 4, 2009, a Sikorsky S-76C++ helicopter (N748P), operated by PHI, Inc., crashed into swampy terrain just north of the Gulf of Mexico coastline near Morgan City, Louisiana. The aircraft was on a Part 135 revenue flight to an oil platform when it crashed about 7 minutes after takeoff. Eight of the nine persons aboard lost their lives.

    The docket will contain factual reports prepared by the investigative team, including reports on aircraft structures, aircraft systems, the transcript of the cockpit voice recorder, and toxicology reports. A comprehensive materials laboratory report on the windscreen structure and a report on the flight data recorder information will be added to the docket in the next several weeks.

    The docket will be published on the Board’s website at www.ntsb.gov, under “Accident Dockets” on the home page, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Thursday, January 7. No determination of cause will be rendered at this time. This is a factual release only; no interviews will be conducted by NTSB personnel.

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    FAA Proposes New Policy on Antidepressants for Pilots

    For Immediate Release
    April 2, 2010

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced that it will consider the special issuance of a medical certificate to pilots who are taking medication for mild to moderate depression, conditions that now bar them from all flying duties.

    On a case-by-case basis beginning April 5, pilots who take one of four antidepressant medications – Fluoxetine (Prozac), Sertraline (Zoloft), Citalopram (Celexa), or Escitalopram (Lexapro) – will be allowed to fly if they have been satisfactorily treated on the medication for at least 12 months. The FAA will not take civil enforcement action against pilots who take advantage of a six-month opportunity to share any previously non-disclosed diagnosis of depression or the use of these antidepressants.

    “I’m encouraging pilots who are suffering from depression or using antidepressants to report their medical condition to the FAA,” said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. “We need to change the culture and remove the stigma associated with depression. Pilots should be able to get the medical treatment they need so they can safely perform their duties.”

    The FAA’s policy is consistent with recommendations from the Aerospace Medical Association, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Air Line Pilots Association and the International Civil Aviation Organization. The Civil Aviation Authority of Australia, Transport Canada and the U.S Army already allow some pilots to fly using antidepressant medications.

    Psychiatrists and Aviation Medical Examiners who have specialized training under the Human Intervention and Motivation Study (HIMS) program will help the FAA evaluate and monitor pilots under this new policy. The HIMS program was established 40 years ago and has been highly effective for the assessment, treatment, and medical certification of pilots who need help with alcohol and drug issues.

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