Air Safety

Air Safety

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    Trooper Lands Cessna after Geese Strike


    What: Iowa State Patrol en route from Sioux City to Atlantic
    Where: Denison airport
    When: Mar 6 2012
    Who: Pilot Trooper Scott Pigsley
    Why: Scott Pigsley was returning from searching for a woman when his plane struck geese. At the time, he knew something had happened, but wasn’t sure what it was until after he landed and saw the damage to the single engine Cessna he was flying. The goose or geese left dents on the wings, a broken wheel cover and blood on the Cessna, but the problems Pigsley had encountered involved the engine.

    Read more: http://www.kcci.com/news/30621488/detail.html#ixzz1oRKeY6S8

    The missing woman had already been found.

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    Volcanic Ash Manual Now Available from ICAO


    MONTRÉAL, 5 March 2012 ? Air transport operators now have a scientific basis for decision making in the event of a volcanic eruption thanks to a manual published by ICAO and endorsed by industry partners*.

    Entitled Flight Safety and Volcanic Ash (Doc 9974), the manual provides guidance which States may recommend to aircraft operators when there is forecast volcanic ash contamination, placing the responsibility for such operations on the operator, under the oversight of the State regulatory authority.

    The manual is based primarily on the work of the ICAO International Volcanic Ash Task Force (IVATF), set up by the organization and the aviation community following the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökul Volcano in Iceland which caused enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe.

    “The impact on air travel of the Eyjafjallajökul eruption was unprecedented. It forced us to align our guidance material with the latest technological and scientific developments. The new approach, while ensuring the safety of flight operations, provides more flexibility and recommends that the decision to operate a flight in airspace containing volcanic ash rest with airlines, under the supervision of State regulatory authorities,” said Raymond Benjamin, Secretary General of ICAO.

    To ensure that the safety-critical information is readily available to Member States and the industry, the manual is now accessible in English at www.icao.int/publications/Pages/doc-series.aspx.

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    NTSB Safety Recommendation A-12-7


    The National Transportation Safety Board makes the following recommendation to the Federal Aviation Administration:

    Require repetitive inspection of Engine Components, Inc. cylinder assemblies produced between May 2003 and October 2009 (serial numbers 7709 through 52884) installed on Teledyne Continental Motors model 520 and 550 engines and removal of these cylinder assemblies once they reach the engine manufacturer’s recommended normal time (hours) in service between overhauls. (A-12-7)

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    EASA Proposes Fatigue Across the Board

    New European rules ‘harmonizing’ the workload limits across 27 member states could allow pilots to fly aircraft for 22 hours without sleep, increasing a pilot’s work day from 16 hours 15 minutes to 20 hours, and the maximum shift time for a long haul flight with two pilots from 12 to 14 hours, as well as eliminating the need of a third pilot on long-haol flights.

    The proposals have raised the attention of BALPA, The British Airline Pilots Association.

    The seventeen percent increase in workload will result in a 5.5% higher chance of an accident.

    It is inconceivable how EASA can call “flying farther with less rest-time, more frequently (7 starts in a row), no back up crew and more fatigue” bringing standards “up” when it is actually leveling down safety standards. Such a workload flies in the face of the constructs of human biology.

    But the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) “has said they have no fundamental problem with the rules.”

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    Cracked Wing Brackets Allegedly Under Control According to Airbus Top Brass

    The SINGAPORE AIRSHOW AVIATION LEADERSHIP SUMMIT, held in conjunction with the Singapore Airshow, is a collaborative effort by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), Experia Events Pte Ltd, International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Ministry of Transport (MOT).

    The airshow brings together aviation stakeholders, including Airbus CEO Tom Enders, who had damage control on his mind. Airbus is under fire for the wing cracks found on Airbus A380 jets. Between inspection and repairs, the cost is anticipated to be $1.23 million per aircraft, for up to $32 million euros.

    Qantas Airways grounded one A380 for a week after finding 36 separate cracks in wing parts. Other A380s have demonstrated similar cracking above and beyond the normal degradation and microfissures that inspections often find as a result of heavy usage.

    Tom Anders of Airbus told airshow attendees that “…we will fix it (wing problem) as quickly as possible. This is unfortunate, this is us. We screwed that up. Whatever the cost, we will fix it”

    They have to fix it. EASA has ordered Airbus to check all A380 superjumbo planes. Meanwhile, Airbus is trying to turn media attention to their ramped-up assembly line.

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    Fatigue or not-fatigue? That is the Question


    After the crash of the Colgan Air flight in Buffalo, the new fatigue regulations hold the promise of increased safety for commercial pilots now that they are scheduled travel time plus 8 hours of sleep time (ten hours) sandwiched between flights.

    But the fatigue regulations do not apply to cargo pilots.

    The discrepancy has to do with the expense of insurance covering the lives of hundreds of passengers vs. the lives of a couple of pilots on a cargo flight; but the NTSB isn’t buying it. Cargo pilots, many of whom fly at night, are just as likely to get fatigued as commercial pilots.

    Should cargo pilots, who fly largely at night and who don’t have to maintain the same kind of scheduling as commercial passenger airlines be entitled to the same kind of fatigue protections?

    What do you think?

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    Updating the Brazilian Statistics on the body count/recovery

    Of the 58 Brazilians aboard the notorious Rio-Paris Air France Flight 447, 18 have been found and identified.

    Of the 153 victims, 74 reside on the ocean floor. Some of those may be the 40 lost Brazilians.

    During the recovery process, some families chose not to disturb the remains. Some of the bodies were simply lost at sea.

    There is still a lot of finger-pointing going on. Whatever the cause, Air France Flight 447 stalled and crashed in bad weather, killing 153.

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    Wildlife Outreach by FAA

    The FAA recently launched a wildlife poster outreach campaign for the general aviation (GA) community — pilots, airport sponsors, mechanics, engine manufacturers, students at aviation schools, and aviation organizations — to increase wildlife strike reporting among this important segment of aviation. For the last 50 years, the FAA has worked to reduce wildlife strikes at airports and periodically conducts studies to gauge the effectiveness of its program. The latest study shows that the general aviation population accounts for only six percent of the total strikes reported, which is more than 100,000 reports. Through increased and concentrated educational outreach, the FAA hopes to close the reporting gap between the more than 2,000 GA airports and certificated airports that operate with an increased level of safety and oversight.
    This year’s poster “Report Wildlife Strikes” depicts a caution sign with a bird inside and the simple message to report wildlife strikes. Copies of the poster have been delivered to the general aviation community and are designed to be placed in highly-used areas such as training rooms and break rooms.
    The FAA wants to hear from airport sponsors why reporting is low and encourage them to work with the FAA to increase reporting and reduce wildlife strikes. The strike information will tell the airport sponsors and the FAA what types of wildlife are involved, the amount of damage to the aircraft, and how many strikes occur at general aviation airports annually. This information will allow the FAA to help airport sponsors develop wildlife mitigation plans to reduce wildlife strikes.
    In addition to the poster outreach, the FAA encourages GA airports to conduct a wildlife hazard assessment to help airport sponsors understand and determine the wildlife hazards on their airports. The FAA may support GA airports by making Airport Improvement Program grants available to conduct an assessment.

    The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Wildlife Hazard Mitigation Program

    Background
    The FAA’s wildlife hazardmanagement program has been in place for more than 50 years and focuses on mitigating wildlife hazards on or near airports through habitat modification, harassment technology, and research.
    FAA Wildlife Hazard Mitigation Efforts
    The FAA has a number of initiatives underway.
    Wildlife Strike Awareness Posters
    Toencourage and increase wildlife strike reporting in the general aviation (GA) community, the FAA’s Office of Airports developed a “Report Wildlife Strikes” awareness poster 2011. As part of the outreach effort, the FAA printed and distributed approximately 12,000 posters to general aviation airports, aviation schools, other organizations and associations, and Part 139 certificated airports that receive an operating certificate from the FAA because they operate with an increased level of oversight and safety.
    Wildlife Hazards at General Aviation Airports
    As an additional part of the outreach effort, the Office of Airports encourages GA airports to conduct Wildlife Hazard Assessments to determine what, if any, wildlife mitigation is needed. The FAA may support GA airports by making Airport Improvement Program grants available to conduct an assessment.
    Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Reports
    The FAA provided funding and expertise for two Airport Cooperative Research Program reports, Bird Harassment, Repellent, and Deterrent Techniques for Use on and Near Airports (2011) and Guidebook for Addressing Aircraft/Wildlife Hazards at General Aviation Airports (2010). The reports are available on http://wildlife.faa.gov.
    National Wildlife Strike Database Goes Public
    On April 24, 2009, the FAA made its entire bird strike database available to the public. Over the last three years the FAA has received, 27,979 strike reports – 10,735 in 2009; 10,890 in 2010; and 6,354 through August 2011.
    Wildlife Hazard Assessments
    The FAA initiated rulemaking in June 2009 to make assessments mandatory whether or not an airport has had a triggering event. The FAA will publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking later this year for certificated airports.
    Level of Reporting and Mandatory Reporting
    Dr. Richard Dolbeer, wildlife hazard mitigation expert and former USDA National Coordinator for the Airport Wildlife Hazards Program, conducted a study on behalf of the FAA and issued a report in December 2009 that estimated that the number of reported strikes has increased from 20 percent during the period from 1990-1994 to 39 percent from 2004-2008 at certificated airports. Although the number of reports has increased, the number of damaging strikes has not. Dolbeer attributed this to the implementation of professionally-run wildlife hazard programs. Dolbeer determined the current level of reporting (39 percent) is statistically valid and is sufficient for the FAA to develop national trends and mitigation policies, making mandatory reporting unnecessary. However, Dolbeer noted that there is a reporting gap among GA airports. The FAA is working with the GA community, through educational outreach, to emphasize the importance of reporting strikes and to close the reporting gap.
    Redesigned Web Site
    The FAA redesigned the wildlife hazard web site to make it more user-friendly and to allow more advanced data mining. The site, http://wildlife.faa.gov, has search fields that enable users to find data on specific airports.
    Online Strike Reporting
    The FAA developed mobile application software to make strike reporting easier. The FAA also placed a Quick Response (QR) code scanner on the bottom of the 2011 “Report Wildlife Strikes” for smart phone users who have the QR application. Now, anyone can report a wildlife strike via the web or their personal data device.
    Continuing Wildlife Hazard Efforts
    Avian or Bird Radar Technology
    In 2006, the FAA tasked the Center of Excellence for Airport Technology (CEAT) at the University of Illinois to develop and execute a performance assessment for commercially available avian radar. The FAA deployed the initial avian radar systems at Seattle-Tacoma and Whidbey Island Naval Station in 2007, Chicago O’Hare in 2009, and John F. Kennedy and Dallas-Fort Worth in 2010. The performance assessments will continue at these airports over the next two years. A new research effort will begin at the end of 2011 to examine the feasibility and practicality of pilots and air traffic controllers using bird radar data. The FAA published Advisory Circular 150/5220-25 Airport Avian Radar Systems in November 2010 as a performance specification that airports can use to competitively purchase bird radar systems.
    FAA-Smithsonian Interagency Agreement
    The Smithsonian identifies the bird species from remains after a strike. Bird identification helps airfield personnel implement habitat management programs and provides information so aircraft manufacturers can better design engines and aircraft to withstand the impact of likely bird collisions. The FAA provides financial support to the Smithsonian to identify bird remains from civil aviation bird strikes as a free-of-charge service to any U.S. registered aircraft, regardless of where the strike occurred, and foreign carriers if the strike occurred at a U.S. airport.
    United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
    The FAA and the USDA collaborate on research to make airports safer by reducing the risks of aircraft-wildlife collisions. The research efforts include:
    Methods for making airport habitats less attractive to species that are the most dangerous in terms of aircraft collisions.
    Technologies for harassing and deterring hazardous species.
    Ongoing research projects include the compatibility of growing biofuel crops on airport property, assessing the movement behavior of large birds using satellite telemetry, studying the response of geese to approaching objects, and reviewing deterrent technology such as loud acoustical devices to deter birds.
    FAA Partnerships and Outreach
    Bird Strike Committee USA
    The FAA co-sponsors the Bird Strike Committee-USA as part of its continued public outreach and education effort to increase awareness within the aviation community about wildlife hazards.

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    British Airways: Take This Class and Please Don’t Die on Our Plane

    Take This Class and Please Don’t Die on Our Plane. That will be £125. Thank you for not dying on British Airways.

    British Airways has a problem.

    It seems that they developed a class for British Petroleum. You see, BP sends their staff to remote locations which are only served by airlines on the EU banned list. As we described it on the last article the last time we talked about it, these poor BA employees ended up on flights on planes that skydivers wouldn’t touch with a ten foot parachute.

    Anyway, this class they worked up must now be like a friday night paycheck burning a hole in their pocket. You see, they keep trying to market this class as a product. Like the guy who gets stuck with a warehouse full of Widgets. The first time we heard this, the class was being offered for purchase, and the purpose of the class was to teach aviation safety and how to behave during a crash to increase your likelihood of not dying on their plane.

    We think the whole thing is kind of fishy, since the plane is not supposed to crash. Landing safety is the airline’s responsibility, not an option. I wouldn’t keep writing about this but I keep getting notices about this class.

    So they’re now looking for a new market, and they’ve found it. They announced that the£125 four hour class on how to survive a plane crash will be available for FREE. Or actually, only free to passengers who want to pay in mileage points, i.e. rich people. So. Rich people can pay in points (or perks) to get a lesson on how not to die. If anyone else wants to be safe, you’re going to have to ante up the cash.

    We are not really arguing against the class, if they want to provide it. Maybe it will make some people feel safer. (Though probably not. Why would you take a course in how to crash if you thought you were going to land safely? It’s probably going to be full of white-knuckled flyers anyway.) We just believe that, since arriving safely is the responsibility of the airline, that the class should be for free. After all, we don’t charge school students for fire drills.

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    The Guam Question: What Happened on Flight 001?


    United/Continental flights to Guam have been laden with issues. Landing gear problems and other issues abound; and it happened again on Sunday, the fifth time in a month.

    This was aother emergency landing, although officially they are saying there was no incident. There was a nose gear problem reported, however; and the safe landing was made in spite of it.

    Airport rescue services were on hand when the flight landed, prepared to handle the Landing gear malfunction, which turned out to be a landing gear indicator malfunction.

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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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    Selling Safety Classes for Sitting Ducks


    In George’s Point of View


    When I get on a plane, I plan on being safe. I don’t fly “unsafe” airways.

    If I didn’t believe I was going to be safe on a plane, I wouldn’t get on it. It should go without saying. Most people probably feel that way, except for the ones stuck in countries whose airlines are on the EU banned list.

    But apparently, British Airways isn’t so confident. They are offering a four hour class in how to crash. That is, they are going to charge passengers to teach them how they want passengers to behave in a crash, to increase their likelihood of survival.

    Excuse me? This is not like a Drunk Driving class where the driver, the one in control of the vehicle, is being taught something. These are passengers, stuck in a flying sardine can, strapped into their seats. There’s not a whole lot passengers can do but sit there. Beyond that little sideshow performance by the attendants before every flight, other than avoiding hysteria, what else can passengers do? Flap their wings?

    I am on the fence about whether or not such a course is a good idea. On one hand, I can picture a poll taken by airline patrons who have written in their own question, asking what to do in case of a crash.

    Pray.

    Maybe flight attendants just get tired of answering that question, “What can we really do to survive, if we crash?” They probably hear it frequently. Maybe someone asked Sully, and Sully said, “Be calm.”

    In most cases who survives a plane crash has a lot to do with age. When there is one single survivor, it is usually a child, and I don’t think there’s anything that a class offered by British Airways can teach to make anyone younger. There are seats that may be marginally safer depending on how the plane crashes, but everyone can’t sit in them. That would cause a plane crash. (It reminds me of a recent crash of a plane where some smuggled creatures escaped their confines, scared everyone from one side of a small plane to the other, and of course, it got off balance and crashed.)

    I can also picture a boardroom with a bunch of accounting types trying to figure out new revenue streams. They ask themselves what do passengers want?

    The answer? To get to their destination in one piece.

    But they’re already selling them tickets. What else can they do to squeeze the market? I mean, what else can they do to make the passengers happy?

    “Eureka!” one of them shouts, “Let’s offer plane crash safety classes.” Maybe this one means well at the time. Maybe when he suggests it, he thinks it should be free. Or maybe he is just hoping his shiftless out-of-work brother-in-law could get hired by British Airlines to teach the classes, so he’ll move out of the spare bedroom.

    So in that imaginary planning meeting I referenced before, the British Airways guy with the calculator says “And charge them for it!”

    Their documentation says that British Airways believes a class will “make passengers safer…by giving additional skills and information.”

    Does this mean they are withholding information that would make passengers safer?

    If there’s something new or special that should be taught about living through a flight, (people, consider that I am writing this article while ON a slow plane from China,) then this is something EVERY passenger must know, and it must be included in the price of the ticket.

    The whole scheme of this class seems problematic to me. We passengers are already buying your tickets. Charging us to make us safer on your flight…that seems not only hypocritical, it seems like the ultimate in avariciousness.

    What are you going to do next if a plane crashes? Make the people who didn’t take the class leave the plane last? Do they get to die first?

    The announcement indicates that this program was developed for BP staff who regularly end up on EU banned list flights on planes that skydivers wouldn’t touch with a ten foot parachute. Maybe the class really just scares people off of those banned airlines, and onto British Airways planes, which are more expensive but a heck of a lot more likely to get you there intact than an airline that doesn’t pass the EU safety criteria.

    Anyway, British Airways, if you’re listening, this is not just a product that you got stuck with to make some money from. This is something you should be offering to all your passengers, for free. Have some stars (Tom Cruise reprising his Top Gun role, Meg Ryan reprising her aerophobic character in French Kiss, or maybe the cast of that new Pan Am series.)

    Record the class. Give it out as a DVD with the tickets. Sometimes you have to put away the calculator.

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    500 Practice Airbus Crash


    The FAA requires airports have a practice drill very three years. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport had a disaster drill last week, practicing saving the 129 passengers and 5 crew (including 100 volunteers and 500 participants) of a simulated Airbus 320 crash.

    Emergency responders in the drill included Red Cross, Medical workers from ten hospitals, Police from from Hebron and Elsmere and airport personnel. A triage area was set up, just like in an actual event.

    Photos of the 2008 at the airport are published at http://coroners.ky.gov/Incident+Response+Team.htm

    The scenario presented an Airbus 320 involved in an accident, forced to land.

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    Cerritos: Aeromexico Shattered Lives

    In George’s Point of View

    It is a strange, sad phenomenon how tragedies live on.

    On August 31, 1986, a Piper and a Douglas DC-9-32 collided over Cerritos California. The Piper, carrying the pilot and two passengers was going from Torrence to Big Bear. They departed Torrence at 11:46. The DC-9 from Mexico City was approaching Los Angeles with 58 passengers and 6 crew aboard. At 11:52 am, the DC-9’s left horizontal stabilizer sheared through the Piper’s cockpit like a can-opener.

    The Piper crashed in the Cerritos Elementary School playground; the DC-9 in a Cerritos neighborhood destroying five houses, damaging seven more and killing an additional 15 on the ground.

    Descriptions of the collision still fill me with horror.

    The accident predates some of the precautionary measures we have now. Now, the Piper would have a Mode C transponder, which would indicate that it was too high, breeching LAX Terminal Control area; LAX was not at that time equipped with automatic warning systems.

    It has been twenty-five years since that accident happened. A memorial ceremony now is being held commemorating the tragedy in the Cerritos Sculpture Garden, and another in Loreto, Mexico. The tragedy is being remembered by at least 30 US families, 20 Mexican families, in at least one home in Colombia, and one in El Salvador. It is being remembered in the neighborhood the wreckage demolished, where families neither need nor want a plaque to remind them of their loss.

    There is a reminder of this crash in every light plane, and every jet. In fact, everyone who flies now, everyone who has flown and not died in a crash owes a debt to the victims of this senseless tragedy, because this was the event that spurred the FAA to require “Mode C” transponders that could report three-dimensional positioning on light aircraft. This was the event that spurred the FAA to require TCAS on airliners.

    I still live to breathe the smoggy air of Los Angeles. And as long as I still have the breath of life, I will remember the day when these 82 souls breathed their last.

    Aviation tragedies shatters lives like broken glass, and there is no lawsuit, no settlement, no “all the kings horses, nor all the kings men” who can ever put families back together again.

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    Air India In-fighting


    Management of Air India ignored safety warnings regarding their fleet.

    Now some of the crew Air India pays to fly on those unsafe planes are now considering suing Air India management.

    If permission is granted to file the suit, a “Public Interest Litigation” may end up with enforcement arresting management officials for endangering the lives of passengers and crew of Air India flights where safety procedures have been consistently violated. The safety violations by Captain AS Soman and RS Pal, two to be named in the suit, include comprising flight operations with insufficient crew, assigning excessive flight duty, and denying board rest. Punishment includes fines and imprisonment.

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    Russia Bans AN- 12 planes For Safety non-compliance

    The Federal Service for Transport Supervision of Russia, aka Rostransnadzor has posted on its website that “it decided to suspend flight operations on all An-12 aircraft operated by airlines in the Russian Federation, until the airlines take priority measures to lower the risk of operating a fleet of An-12 aircraft in accordance with established safety management systems.”

    In the Russian Federation, 6 airlines operate 12 active AN- 12 planes. The safety issue came to the forefront with the recent flight shown below:
    Avis Amur AN12 AN-12 en route from Magadan to Keperveyem

    The notice was posted Here


    Pictured: A KNAAPO Antonov An-12BP like the one that crashed

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

    What: Avis Amur AN12 AN-12 en route from Magadan to Keperveyem
    Where: Magadan
    When: Aug 9th 2011
    Who: 11 crew
    Why: While en route, the plane developed an engine fire and radioed that they would be returning to Magadan. The fire is being attributed to a fuel leak. The flight crashed on the way back, disappearing from radar. Fog and adverse weather prevented rescue teams from being able to fly in. The 9 crew and 2 attendants have been reported missing. The plane was carrying 16 tons of food.

    The cargo plane was being leased from KnAAPO. Rescuers took a ground route to the area of the crash. The emergency beacon went off 10 kilometers from the Omsukchan village. No survivors were found.

    Avis-Amur is being investigated for a maintenance of safety violations, and there may be criminal charges pending.

    From (sic) http://www.mchs.gov.ru/rc/detail.php?rc_id=fareast&ID=466941

    At 21:13 (NBC) 08/09/2011 from Khabarovsk to Magadan flew the plane of the Be-200ES Aviation Rescue Emergency Center of Russia, who will take part in the search for the missing in the Magadan region of the AN-12. Search operation in the area proposed for finding the plane continues. Capacity is being gang. Information about the found wreckage of the missing in the Magadan region of the AN-12 was not confirmed.

    At the present time to organizing and conducting a search operation involved more than 120 people, including the Russian Emergencies Ministry specialists, aviation group, representatives of various agencies and organizations.

    Of the villages Omsukchan, Dukat, as well as mine, “Juliet” in the direction of possible location of the missing aircraft sent several teams, including lifeguards, firefighters and mountain rescue specialists parts. When they have all necessary equipment for rescue and first aid. Aerial reconnaissance in the search area extends airplane AN-26. However, due to low clouds, complex mountainous terrain and the coming of darkness work to locate the missing aircraft’s location is much more complicated.

    Conducted asking circumstances of the accident. To gather information and coordinate the search operation in the Main Russian Emergencies Ministry in the Magadan region and the Far Eastern regional center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations are working operational headquarters. In Kamchatka, in readiness for departure is the Mi-8 Russian Emergencies Ministry.

    As previously reported, the day 09.08.2011 at Center for Crisis Management MES of Russia Magadan region, it was reported that a cargo plane AN-12, emitted by a 14.37 time in Khabarovsk city of Magadan in the Chukchi village Keperveym, an hour after take-off experiencing technical difficulties. The crew commander decided to return the aircraft to the airport of Magadan to perform an emergency landing. To meet the emergency board in airport moved all the online services of the city. But after a while contact with the aircraft was lost.

    On board the plane, presumably, there were 11 people, and about 17 tons of cargo. The aircraft belonged to a private organization and has committed a commercial flight.

    In Omsukchan district of Magadan region, which lost contact with air, was organized by the search operation. The first search began AN-26 aircraft from Magadan and Mi-8 helicopter of subsection Seymchan, who spent several hours aerial reconnaissance. However, the search produced no results.

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    Easa Proposes Airworthiness Directive for Airbus

    Angle of Attack (AoA) Probes Faulty:

    Testing shows that data from two different Airbus planes were found inaccurate.

    Investigation conducted by Airbus and Thales on the removed probes revealed oil residue between the stator and the rotor parts of the AoA vane position resolvers. This oil residue was the result of incorrect removal of machining oil during the manufacturing process of the AoA resolvers. At low temperatures, this oil residue becomes viscous (typically in cruise), causing delayed and/or reduced AoA vane movement. Multiple AOA probes could be simultaneously affected, providing incorrect indications of the AoA of the
    aeroplane. If not corrected, this could lead to erroneous AOA information and consequent delayed or non-activation of the AoA protection systems which, if during flight at a high angle of attack, could result in reduced control of the aeroplane.

    View the proposed Directive here in PDF

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    Protestations of Bias in Official BEA Report

    In George’s Point of View


    Like the pilot association, we wonder how blaming the victims will improve the state of aviation.

    The pilots of Air France Flight 447 had already lost valid data before the Airbus A330 stalled. Fell for three minutes down into the Atlantic in June of 2009, carrying the 228 people aboard to their death. Fell, with pilots flying blind. Fell, with only erroneous data available. Fell with the warning system squawking confused messages. Yet the Bea report says this was was the pilot’s fault.

    We want to know if this investigation will turn out to be deliberate persecution of the pilots instead of legitimate prosecution of Airbus flawed design?

    It is no wonder that the families of the victims are crying foul that the report criticizes pilot performance but not the faulty stall alarms.
    It is no wonder that pilot associations all over the world are protesting.
    It is no wonder that the BEA is being accused of protecting Airbus.

    Why would the recommendation to improve the warning system be removed from the report?
    Why, if not to protect Airbus, scheming to avoid the legal and financial consequences of the crash?

    Pilots say that the stall alarm tends to sound while simultaneously messaging the pilots to ignore the “superfluous” warning. Airbus denies this ever happens.

    How valid can the report be if it is being skewed to protect Airbus and blame the pilots? Should the BEA be placed under criminal investigation alongside with Air France and Airbus?

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    Airblue Flight 202 Candlelight Vigil

    Near Fawara Chowk, some family members of the tragic Airblue Flight 202 flight commemorated their losses with candles, and photos of their loved ones.

    Dissatisfied with the way the investigation is being handled, the family members are refusing to suffer in silence. They want transparency, and they want the investigation to continue. The family members have formed the Airblue Crash Victim’s Affectee Group, to give the 152 families the opportunity to join together and speak in one voice.

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    FAA Shutdown

    All air traffic controllers and safety inspectors continue to work at full capacity during the shutdown, however:
    4,000 FAA employees are still furloughed
    70,000 construction workers commissioned for aviation-related projects out of a job.

    FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt has come out in support of a long-term reauthorization bill recognizing the safety priorities of the FAA. “We’re not going to budget safety.”

    219 STOP WORK ORDERS have been issued.

    A Press Release was submitted July 27, 2011 titled What They’re Saying: We Need an FAA Bill Extension

    Contractors have been told to stop work on critical airport modernization projects around the country after Congress failed to pass legislation giving the FAA the authority necessary for work to continue by last Friday’s deadline. Dozens of “stop work orders” have been issued for major projects designed to build and modernize control towers and other aviation infrastructure from coast to coast. Construction workers, engineers and planners were told not to come to worksites across the country after the FAA was forced to issue stop work orders on projects ranging from the construction of new air traffic control towers to the rehabilitation and modernization of air traffic facilities. Nearly 4,000 FAA personnel, many needed to oversee various aspects of these projects, were furloughed on Saturday. Stopping work on these projects could significantly increase the ultimate costs of construction for taxpayers. Affected contractors, airport managers, and local officials across America are calling for action.

    “This is no way to run the best aviation system in the world.”
    -Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, Portland Press Herald, July 26, 2011

    “Unless Congress acts quickly, more work on projects critical to our nation’s aviation system will come to a halt.”
    -Randy Babbitt, FAA Administrator, My Fox News Chicago, July 25, 2011

    “So for them [construction workers] this is like running into a brick wall, and they’re asking me, ‘How do we explain this to our families?’ I don’t know what to say to them.”
    – Lucca Toscano, Vice President Paul J. Scariano construction firm, Fast Lane, July 25, 2011

    “I got a telephone call Friday about noon that said the job was going to go into suspension effective midnight Friday…Disappointment for the most part. Most don’t really understand what’s going on and why something like that there is affecting what’s going on here on their everyday job.”
    –Ken Hengst, project manager for EAS Contracting, KRIV-FOX Houston, July 26, 2011

    “It’s never a good way to run a construction project just to randomly tell people just to stop work.”
    -Paul Bradbury, Jetport Director, Portland Daily Sun, July 26, 2011

    “I’ve been doing this for 19 years, 7 here at this airport. I’ve never seen anything quite like this… As you can tell, if this project stopped right now, we’d literally have a torn-up ramp. The busiest ramp here at the airport, having this kind of hole in it.”
    – Brian Kulpin, Reno-Tahoe International Representative, KTVN Nevada, July 25, 2011

    “It’s depressing, you got a site [McCarran Control Tower] that was flourishing with activity and there’s nothing going on right now.”
    –Sasha Milosavljevich of Archer-Western Contractors, CBS News, July 26, 2011

    “The economy has devastated construction in Las Vegas in the last couple years and we were really excited to get this going…It’s disheartening we’re in this position now and our people have to stay home while Congress works this out.”
    –Darren Enns, secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council, Las Vegas Sun, July 26, 2011

    “It’s very frustrating. It puts about 50 construction workers out of a job. But about 200 people are involved in this some way—designers, engineers, vendors, delivery folks. It’s going to be a hardship on them.”
    – Kevin Klein, Cherry Capital Airport Director, Associated Press, July 26, 2011

    “The longer it goes on, the worse it affects us.”
    – Bob Graf, contractor for Palm Springs International Airport, Desert Sun, July 26, 2011

    “We were informed Friday to stop all construction activity… The scary portion for us is the indefinite nature of all this”
    – Dan Anello, project manager at Oakland International Airport, San Francisco Chronicle , July 26, 2011
    “The shutdown affected all airport divisions…The folks I normally deal with have been furloughed. Any questions or things we have to do are on hold until this is resolved.”
    – Rich Nuttall, Denver Airport Manager, Telluride News, July 26, 2011

    “We had already bidded and awarded the contract and most of that cash would have stayed in the local economy, so there is an economic impact.”
    – Cindi Martin, Glacier Park International Airport Director, Daily Inter Lake, July 26, 2011

    “Our airports are not only our most important resources for moving goods and people, they are critical to creating jobs and putting Americans back to work…we need Congress to pass extension legislation for the FAA now.”
    -Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, Our Weekly, July 25, 2011

    “We seem to be being hijacked by a completely ego-driven and frankly ridiculous fight in Washington,”
    – Annise Parker, Houston Mayor, KHOU 11 News, July 26, 2011.

    “It’s inaction like this that’s hurting our economy that everyone is working so hard to improve. Laying all these employees off, stopping this project, delaying grant money that’s already been awarded, it only trickles down to hurt our economy even more.”
    -Luzerne County Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla, Citizen’s Voice, July 27, 2011

    “It’s very important that the people in Washington get back to work and get this bill passed so the tower is completed and the working-class people get back to work.”
    – Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton, Citizen’s Voice, July 27, 2011

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    Southwest In the News

    Click to see video
    Southwest just reported that El Paso-Phoenix jet that landed at 9:30 p.m. in Phoenix with one engine did so because of an engine exhaust problem. Good for them for catching it.

    This was certainly less of an issue that the April 1 2011 surprise, the fuselage rupture in the roof of the Southwest Phoenex-Sacramento flight. That fifteen year old plane lost pressure (kind of a given, one would think, with a huge hole in the roof) and had to make an emergency landing in Yuma, 150 miles southwest of Phoenix. There were no injuries except to Southwest’s reputation.

    On April 4, the FAA sent out a letter mandating operators of specific early Boeing 737 models to conduct initial and repetitive electromagnetic inspections for fatigue damage.

    The NTSB is investigating. And all of the onus is not on Southwest–it’s also on Boeing, as they examine that

    Southwest is a busy airline operator. The stats of take offs and landing every 24 hours must be staggering. Their 737s are renowned workhorses that don’t tire, but they have to be taking a beating.

    Let’s not wait for something terrible to happen. Let’s double on maintenance. Let’s do the footwork to prevent another metal fatigue occurrence to happen again, busting a hole in the fuselage at 36,000 feet.

    Audio, Documents Detailing Southwest Emergency Released: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

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    Never Forget

    Lives have been shattered by the events I record.

    I know you could drive a mid-seventies Cadillac Fleetwood through the gaps in these records, but that is partly because I generally write about an event only once, partly because my content is based on a couple of randomly gathered secondhand observations, partly because I do not follow up, and partly because I am not an expert. (I never claim to be an expert in anything but my own life experience.) How could I be? The actual investigations take years, and are based on combined expert opinions of a whole boatload of bona fide experts. I am only a bystander, a bystander of second-hand bystanders, in fact. The reporters who inform me frequently misstate, interpret or misinterpret the facts, or add little imaginary flourishes. I still do my best to get the facts out as accurately as I can.

    Official final reports are the result of the combined knowledge and experience of experts (some of whom have agendas and bias) in “air traffic control, operations, meteorology, human performance, structures, systems, powerplants, maintenance records, survival factors, aircraft performance, cockpit voice recorder, flight data recorder, and material factors,” interviewers, rescue observers and specialists as needed. Sometimes the reports are obfuscated by agenda, bias or politics.

    I am just another pair of eyes, and untrained eyes, at that.

    I never, or hardly ever, write about what happens in the seats. Ironically, this is what I write now as I sit in one of those seats myself. Picture me in the cabin of a flight to Argentina. A young family is also on this flight, with hyperactive children running up and down the aisle whenever possible. Picture an infant or two, their safety seats empty as their mothers rock them to still their tears, to the relief of the couple across the aisle, and the irritation of one of the flight attendants. Picture a couple of newlyweds off on their honeymoon, and another couple of newlyweds returning from their honeymoon. Students flying home for the holidays, others returning after. Vacationers in Hawaiianwear. Nearer to me, an assortment of business people in summer suits appropriate for Argentina in July. This accidental ensemble of humankind is engaged in various activities: thumbing through magazines, cloud gazing through the windows, watching movies, listening to music, reading, studying paperwork, connecting intimately in intense whispers (or avoiding) a seatmate, sleeping.

    Just as all around me are engaged in making it through the flight, in a moment precisely like this one, other lives were interrupted. Maybe it was an instant, maybe a four minute fall. Maybe there was no time to process what was happening, or enough time to feel horrible bone-deep terror, and to endure for long moments the fight-flight reflex while belted into a seat. The detail of each event through individual eyes is simultaneously unique and identical.

    I don’t write about these moments. It is too horrible to contemplate except in cases like when Chesley Burnett Sullenberger is making a miracle happen.

    Out of the generous experiences of the decades of a whole, full life, families want to remember their loved ones in their entirety. They don’t want or need to be haunted by the torment of that single moment of horror, a final dark exclamation point.

    So when I write about these terrible crashes, I talk about system failures, or spatial disorientation, ATC schedules, fumes, pressurization, sleepy pilots, malfunctioning radar, stick shakers or a couple hundred other possible causes I have seen frequently enough for them to become familiar even to a layman like me.
    But it is not about the machine. It is about those who boarded that flight in perfect trust, expecting to disembark and fill more decades with passion and life. It is always and only about the passenger.

    I don’t mention them.

    But not an article is written, not a character is typed that I forget that the only matter is the passenger and the family.

  • |

    Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority Files No Fly Order for Tiger Airways Australia


    The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is to seek to extend the suspension of Tiger Airways Australia Pty Ltd.

    An application will be made to the Federal Court which will have the effect of continuing the suspension.

    CASA is seeking a continuation of the suspension until 1 August 2011.

    The application will be lodged at the Federal Court in Melbourne.

    If CASA completes its investigations and determinations before 1 August 2011 and is satisfied Tiger Airways Australia no longer poses a serious and imminent risk to air safety it may be possible for it to resume operations earlier.

    The suspension of Tiger Airways Australia’s operations remains in place until either the Federal Court refuses CASA’s application or CASA withdraws it.

    CASA is making the application to the Court because investigations into Tiger Airways Australia will not be completed by the end of the initial five working day suspension period.

    CASA will continue to work in a constructive and co-operative manner with Tiger Airways Australia during the investigation.

    CASA suspended Tiger Airways Australia’s operations on 2 July 2011 because it believed permitting the airline to continue to fly posed a serious and imminent risk to air safety.

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    FAA Updates Lightning Protection Airworthiness Standards


    The Federal Register

    The Federal Aviation Administration is amending the lightning protection airworthiness standards.

    New lightning protection regulations are beibg estabkusged for electrical and electronic systems installed on aircraft certificated under parts 23, 27, and 29.

    Revised lightning protection regulations are also established for electrical and electronic systems installed on airplanes certificated under part 25.

    Two levels of lightning protection for aircraft systems based on consequences of system function failure will be established by this rule.

    1.) Catastrophic consequences which would prevent continued safe flight and landing;
    2.) Hazardous or major consequences which would reduce the capability of the aircraft or the ability of the flightcrew to respond to an adverse operating condition.

    Lightning protection for aircraft systems are to be established according to the aircraft’s potential for lightning exposure. Airworthiness standards establish consistent lightning protection requirements for both aircraft electrical and electronic systems.