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Maintenance Key to Nigerian Air Safety

During a seminar on aeronautics and astronautics organised by the College of Engineering and Technology (CET), KWASU, aviation experts Leo Daniel and Christopher Odetunde said that Nigerian Aircraft are not maintained well.

Odetunde’s speech “World View of Aviation: A case for better Nigerian Aviation Policies”, Odetunde said that Nigeria has adequate laws in place to secure airspace, but the laws were barely enforced, that crashes will continue until the country starts following the protocol, making sure that everybody that is involved, all the laws are followed.

Leo, who must be a man after my own heart, spoke on “Technological Readiness Level of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Nigeria.” He said that “the cause of crashes is maintenance.”

How long have I been saying “Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance?” Long time. Glad to see the experts agree. A plane can be perfect when it arrives at an airline’s doorstep. But how well that plane fares, whether or not it is originally in good shape, depends entirely on how well it is maintained over time. Those of us with cars know, for example, how an engine can seize if one does not keep up with oil changes, or how it will burn up if one does not attend to the radiator. Think of how much more complex a plane’s systems are, and it is easy to see how important it is to maintain, maintain, maintain all the systems.

Hopefully the words of two professors of Aviation will be able help to move Nigerian Aviation into a safer place.

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    Purdue University Opening New Aviation Engine Testing Facility

    WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University will operate a new federally funded facility to test aircraft engines and develop alternative fuels in work that also aims to reduce the nation’s reliance on imported oil.
    The National Test Facility for Fuels and Propulsion is funded with a $1.35 million grant from the U.S. Air Force and will be housed in the Niswonger Aviation Technology Building at the Purdue Airport.

    “The aerospace industry now has an unprecedented interest in developing green aircraft using biofuels,” said David L. Stanley, an associate professor of aeronautical engineering technology at Purdue and principal investigator of the facility. “Testing will be conducted while fuels are being researched for development. This means input will be provided during the development phase, not after the fuel has been developed, which helps to ensure the best results possible.”

    The facility, expected to open in late 2010 or early 2011, will test aerospace hardware in engines and aircraft and provide data related to fuel-sustainability and emissions goals and for economic assessments.

    “This is a multidisciplinary research approach that begins with growing crops, developing fuels from those crops in the laboratory and then testing those fuels in engines,” said Denver Lopp, a professor of aviation technology and one of two co-principal investigators.

    The other co-principal investigator is J. Mark Thom, a professor of aviation technology.

    Work will focus on jet engines but will include some testing related to piston engines.

    “The project involves faculty members in the colleges of Agriculture, Engineering, Science and Technology to develop a well-rounded and capable research team for fuels research, with particular focus on aviation and aerospace,” Lopp said. “Purdue is strong in each of these areas, and having an airport also enhances these strengths.”

    The researchers will work with the Air Force, industry and government agencies to develop the fuels.

    “Roughly 17 billion gallons of turbine fuel are burned annually in the United States, and clearly a portion of this could be saved by blending alternative fuels,” Stanley said. “The U.S. Air Force intends to be able to operate its fleet on blends of these fuels.”

    The work will tackle four major bottlenecks to aerospace progress: access to hardware testing; development of control logic and systems permitting flex-fuel operation and realization of improved efficiencies; sustainability of biofuels related to crop productivity, as well as bio and synthetic fuels’ ability to meet both near- and long-term aerospace requirements; and regulatory compliance.

    “The overall goal is to update and maintain a multifaceted national testing facility with dedicated administration to support development and testing of alternative energy sources for aerospace equipment,” Lopp said. “This facility will address all energy sources and will not be an advocate of any particular fuel.”

    Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu

    Sources: David Stanley, 765-494-6266, stanledl@purdue.edu

    Denver Lopp, 765-494-6387, denver@purdue.edu

    Purdue News Service: ( 765 ) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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    NTSB TO HOLD SYMPOSIUM ON AIRLINE CODE-SHARING ARRANGEMENTS AND THEIR ROLE IN AVIATION SAFETY

    National Transportation Safety Board
    Washington, DC 20594
    August 16, 2010

    The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a two-day symposium on the role that airline code-sharing arrangements play in aviation safety. The event, chaired by NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman, will be held on October 26-27, 2010, in Washington, DC.

    Code-sharing is a marketing arrangement in which one airline places its designator code on a flight operated by another airline, then sells and issues tickets for that flight.

    Recent NTSB investigations of accident flights operated under code-sharing arrangements include the February 2009 accident near Buffalo, New York, in which a Colgan Air flight was operated as Continental Connection; a 2007 accident in Traverse City, Michigan, in which a Pinnacle Airlines flight was operated as Northwest Airlink; a 2007 accident in Cleveland, Ohio, in which a Shuttle America flight was operated as Delta Connection; and a 2006 accident in Lexington, Kentucky, in which a Comair flight was operated as Delta Connection.

    Today, most airlines participate in some type of code- sharing arrangement, either with domestic or international partners. More than half of passenger enplanements in the U.S. this year are on regional airlines, almost all of which are involved in code-sharing arrangements.

    “In the past twenty years, code-sharing arrangements have so proliferated within commercial aviation that today the vast majority of airlines are involved in what are often complex business and operational arrangements.” said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. “We have investigated many accidents in which passengers bought tickets on a major carrier and flew all or part of their trip on a different carrier – one that may have been operating to different safety standards than the carrier that issued the ticket. While all carriers are required to meet minimum standards, a clearer picture and deeper understanding of the best safety practices for code-sharing arrangements are the goals of this symposium.”

    The symposium will be organized to elicit information on the following three issue areas: (1) structures, practices, and oversight of domestic and international code-sharing arrangements; (2) best practices regarding the sharing of safety information between airlines and their code-sharing partners; and (3) the role that a major airline would have in the family disaster assistance response for an accident involving a code-sharing partner.

    These areas will be explored through presentations from major and regional airlines, industry organizations, and representatives of the traveling public.

    The symposium, “Airline Code-Sharing Arrangements and Their Role in Aviation Safety” will be held at the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center, located at 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, DC. A detailed agenda will be released closer to the date of the event.

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    EU Banned List updated: Official Press Release

    Commission updates the list of airlines banned from the European airspace
    The European Commission has adopted the thirteenth update of the Community’s list of airlines banned in the European Union to include all air carriers of two additional countries: Sudan and the Philippines, on the basis of safety assessments by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). With this update, restrictions placed on Air Koryo from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and TAAG from Angola are partially lifted under certain conditions, while the operations of Iran Air will be restricted.

    Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for Transport, said: “Safety comes first. We are ready to support countries that need to build up technical and administrative capacity to guarantee the necessary standards in civil aviation. But we cannot accept that airlines fly into the EU if they do not fully comply with international safety standards.”

    With this update, the Air Koryo licensed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, subject to an operating ban since March 2006, is allowed to resume operations into the EU with two aircraft which are fitted with the necessary equipment to comply with mandatory international standards and following appropriate oversight by its authority. The rest of its fleet remains barred from operating into the EU.

    The Commission recognises the improvements in the operations of TAAG Angola Airlines by allowing the air carrier to operate under certain strict conditions with specific aircraft to all destinations in the EU, not only to Lisbon.

    The civil aviation authority of Angola is urged to intensify its oversight in relation to all carriers and continue the recertification of the other Angolan air carriers which remain banned from operating into the EU.

    The Commission imposes an operating ban on all operations of Sudanese air carriers, due to a poor safety performance of the civil aviation authority of Sudan resulting from persistent non-compliance with international standards in the area of oversight.

    The Commission acknowledges the recent efforts launched by the competent authorities to reform the civil aviation system in the Philippines and steps taken to address safety deficiencies reported by the FAA and ICAO and measures taken by two carriers – Philippines Airlines and Cebu Airlines – to ensure safety of operations. It is ready to support the Philippines to overcome serious safety deficiencies.

    In view of the significant safety concerns identified by ICAO in relation to the authorities, the Commission with the unanimous support of the Air Safety Committee is forced to follow the principle of precaution and impose an operating ban on all air carriers licensed in the Philippines. The Commission is ready to support the Philippine authorities and conduct a visit to the country.

    Following an examination of the safety of Iran Air’s operations into the EU through ramp checks of its aircraft in the Community, evidence of serious incidents and accidents suffered by the carrier and insufficient oversight from the authority over the past year, the Air Safety Committee concluded unanimously that the operations of Iran Air to the EU should be restricted. The carrier will only be allowed to use certain aircraft for flights to Europe. The Commission will visit Iran over the next months to verify the oversight of the Iranian civil aviation organisation and the safety situation of Iran Air.

    The results of a recent visit by the European Aviation Safety Agency to Albania indicate that the competent authority needs to strengthen its capabilities to ensure the oversight of the air carriers it licences. The authorities have been urged by the Commission to take prompt action to address these issues. The Commission will closely monitor the situation.

    The Commission follows closely the performance of Egyptian air carriers. A visit to Egypt to verify the oversight functions of the civil aviation authority and the performance of certain air carriers showed that this authority is carrying out its responsibilities correctly. The Commission will continue to cooperate closely with this authority to ensure that proposed improvements can be implemented.

    Today, the Community’s list has three carriers whose operations are fully banned in the European Union – Ariana Afghan Airlines from Afghanistan, Siem reap Airways International from Cambodia and Silverback Cargo Freighters from Rwanda.

    All carriers from 17 countries – 278 companies in total – are banned: Angola, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, (with the exception of three carriers which operate under restrictions and conditions), Indonesia, Kazakhstan (with the exception of one carrier which operates under restrictions and conditions), the Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Philippines, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, Sudan, Swaziland and Zambia. 10 air carriers are allowed to operate under restrictions and conditions – Air Koryo from the Democratic People Republic of Korea, TAAG Angola Airlines, Air Astana from Kazakhstan, Iran Air from Iran Gabon Airlines, Afrijet and SN2AG from Gabon, Air Bangladesh, Air Service Comores and Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines from Ukraine.

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    NTSB ASSISTS GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES IN AVIATION ACCIDENT

    National Transportation Safety Board
    Washington, DC 20594

    September 3, 2010

    The National Transportation Safety Board will dispatch an aviation investigator to assist the government of United Arab Emirates in its investigation of the crash of a United Parcel Service (UPS)-operated cargo plane, a Boeing 747-400.

    On September 3, the aircraft, en route to Cologne, Germany, crashed near the international airport in the emirate of Dubai shortly after takeoff.

    NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman has designated senior air safety investigator Bill English as the U.S. Accredited Representative. His team will include NTSB specialists in
    the areas of human performance, fire, operations, and systems. The team will also include technical advisors from the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, UPS, GE and
    Independent Pilots Association.

    The investigation is being conducted by the General Civil Aviation Authority of the United Arab Emirates, which will release all information on the progress of the investigation. The agency’s phone number in Abu Dhabi is (971) 2 405-4501/4445 and the agency’s email address is:
    accid@gcaa.ae.

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    As famílias da TAM, três anos depois.

    As famílias da TAM, três anos depois.

    Às famílias que agora rememoram a tragédia com o voo JJ 3054 da TAM Linhas Aéreas – o Airbus A320 que se chocou ao pousar em uma noite chuvosa, em uma pista com problemas de pavimentação, em 17 de julho de 2007…

    Às famílias, muitas das quais são amigas minhas…

    Este mês de julho não pode passar sem que relembremos. Assim como cada primavera faz lembrar o inverno, e cada noite faz lembrar o dia, em17 de julho, nós lembramos.

    Espero que, a essa altura, vocês tenham criado algum tipo de tradição que ajude a família a se reunir e lembrar.

    É um privilégio recordar toda a virtude de suas vidas – quer visitando seu túmulo, acendendo uma vela, plantando uma árvore ou realizando atos de bondade em sua memória.

    Vela alguma brilha o suficiente ou por tempo o bastante; arvore alguma se ergue suficientemente alta ou dá sombra o bastante; nenhum ato de caridade é suficientemente generoso. Mas, ainda assim, fazer algo a cada ano que nos ajude a realmente lembrá-los traz em si um ato de vida. Fazê-lo traz a chama da lembrança, entrelaçando o ontem ao presente e ao amanhã.

    Um ritual que, a princípio, pode funcionar como uma muleta emocional, mas tarde dá asas à nossa alma. Um ritual que nos faz lembrar que cada vida é como uma pedra em um monumento, um alicerce que sustenta a todos nós que seguimos em frente.

    Que a perda não seja em vão.

    Lágrimas não nos podem devolver o ser amado, mas espero que o tempo tenha trazido cura e alívio para a dor, deixando apenas a ternura da lembrança.

    Amigos e amigas, celebrem a memória.

    George Hatcher

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  • Foreign Aviation Tragedies, Thoughts on Compensation

    Lives have value. It doesn’t matter if a man makes $10,000 a day, or 10 cents. If he dies in a plane crash, he’s irreplaceable. Maybe his boss can put a dollar figure on what it would cost him to lose that worker; maybe his banker can come up a specific value to subtract from the family’s credit rating.

    But to his wife
    to his son
    to his daughter
    to his parents
    to his friends
    to all those his life touched daily—
    he’s irreplaceable.

    His loss leaves a hole in a family that money can never fill.

    And then the attorneys for insurance companies will “try” to get by with compensation offers that are equal amounts for each passenger, that in some cases, equal to “peanuts” — I don’t see that too much, but ‘they’ try, especially if the laws in the country have established maximum low-values for the loss of life in aviation accidents. Even with Warsaw and Montreal the compensation I’ve seen is seldom governed by the caps provided for in these treaties.

    Instead, the compensation is based on the profile of the decedent. Age, Occupation, Family, etc. With this said, each seat on that plane is occupied by an individual and the family of the victim should be compensated accordingly, and in addition, the family should be paid non-pecuniary damages for pain and suffering, etc. In a perfect case, that’s how it works.

    Whether he makes $10,000 a day, or 10 cents will not affect a man’s pain and suffering. In fact, his pain may be worse, knowing his ten cents is all that lies between his family and ruin.

    PEANUTS is not acceptable.

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