Editorial

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    IATA Partnership Boosts SMS Development

    George’s Point of View

    SMS development is a good thing, but we shouldn’t abandon black boxes.

    Airbus wants to replace black boxes with “a more secure system” of real time satellite transmission.

    The thing is we HAVE black box technology now. We should keep using it.

    Aviation authorities should mandate the usage of both–keep what’s in place as a backup, and go for the real time data relay also. Not everything works as expected, all of the time, so all possible fail-safes should be employed. It’s not just that all that record-keeping keeps everyone honest; in the case of aviation, all those records will keep people alive.

    Real time is not fail-proof, but a FANTASTIC idea. The question of cockpit recordings that infringe on the pilots privacy is going to hang in the air unanswered for now while the real time system is tested and perfected.

    The privacy issue is an interesting factor. Some real time conversation in a cockpit is simple camaraderie–a workplace environment thing that makes a working environment comfortable. Plus it works better than coffee to keep the pilots awake and generally on task.

    No one likes to work with someone looking over their shoulder. Eventually this may become an issue as authorities will inevitably over-regulate the degree of cockpit conversation–bound to be a factor when one considers the Hudson river crash where air traffic control (not pilots) were discussing cat bbq rather than doing their jobs; and the Colgan Air/Pinnacle cockpit recordings that exposed training deficits just before the icing crash in Buffalo .

    The point is that we have the technology; we should use it. It will help save lives.

    The IATA is the sixty year old international trade body of aviation, which represents, leads and serves the airline industry in general and is made up of about 230 airlines (93% of international air traffic.) The Superstructure Group has become an IATA partner. The Superstructure Group is developing the STEADES exchange system, provides technology and consultancy services to meet information needs and is bringing realtime SMS software to the aviation industry.

    IATA Partners are listed here:
    http://www.iata.org/sp/partners_all.htm

  • Fast News; Slow Conclusions

    George’s Point of View

    On this blog here, we are in the practice of posting quick news as we find it–the who, what, where, when, why of it all. Details are compressed so that we can present that quick notification of what just happened; and frequently, even the (minimum of two) news sources behind our reports do not agree.

    Technically, the reality of any event could be compressed into such a quick format, because there is an ultimate truth which exists. But, it takes years for investigators to get to that ultimate truth. And when it does happen, the “why” is not going to be a single line or paragraph. It is going to be composed of hundreds of pages of documentation of all the facts that are revealed in the course of investigation.

    Investigation is a painstaking process at best even if the accidents occur with witnesses and are recorded on video tape and multiple media perspectives such as the the black boxes. (And many times those records do not exist or are lost.) The investigative teams look at the obvious records, and then they go through the wreckage with a fine-toothed comb, examining concrete evidence, and use this evidence to put together the most accurate reconstruction of events possible. And frequently there are opposing perspectives of how something happened. Sometimes of the actual facts of the incident, only a partial percentage of concrete evidence is found; and sometimes it takes months or years to surface. When a new piece of evidence does surface, the entire conclusion may end up revised. (Think of the of the Titanic disaster which occurred in 1912 whose initial investigation closed that same year; and whose rediscovery in 1985, lead to a reinvestigation which actually begun in 1994, and salvage beginning in 1995.) Thus the investigative process can take an indeterminate length of time.

    So we do apologize to our readers for putting anything at all in the “why” area of our records, because we well know that the why and how of what happened is simply not going to be concluded for a long, long time. We hope that it is understood that our presentation of the “why” is a cursory summary at best, but that the final conclusion that will be years in coming is the result of conscientious, painstaking, scrupulous investigation by seasoned experts.

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    Comoros Black boxes found


    View larger photo here
    Contact photographer Iam Lim
    What: Yemenia Air Airbus 310 flight 626 lost at sea en route to Moroni

    George’s Point of View

    What an amazing coincidence…that the news that the black boxes from the Comoros crash are recovered crosses the internet on practically the same day that they throw in the towel for the search for the Air France black boxes.

    But the news is out:

    They were detected on July 23rd and now, Comores Officials have reported on Aug 28th, that both black boxes have been recovered.

    I am delighted with the wonderful news and am as excited as everyone to learn what’s inside. Now maybe they can re-allocate their resources to recommence the search for the black boxes of Air France Flight 447.

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    American Airlines says Farewell to A300

    George’s Point of View

    Bravo to American Airlines which is (finally) putting their Airbus A300’s to bed. American’s spokesman Tim Smith announced “One, we are in the process of cutting capacity. Two, these airplanes are a likely candidate for retirement, in that they are older than most of the airplanes in our fleet, and three, the A300 requires different training and maintenance from the other airplanes in American’s fleet.” We should expect to see a greener, more responsible American AIrlines now. This is part of the fleet renewal effort introduced in American’s 2007 Environmental Responsibility Report when they began replacing their MD-80s with new 737-800s.

    I don’t know about being clean and green, environmentally renewed and downsized. I do know that these are 21 year old planes. They’re old enough to vote. (And –I am told–old enough to drive a pilot to drink.)

    Think about it…In 1987 when these planes were first introduced into American’s fleet, Charles and Diana had just separated; Jim Bakker got caught playing hanky panky with Jessica Hahn; Klaus Barbie was convicted of Nazi war crimes; Andy Warhol died; an earthquake in LA injured 100 and killed 6; and most unbelievable of all, the Cosby show and Cheers were still in their first run.

    I guess time flies when you’re flying deathtraps.

    As a frequent flyer who does not trust the A300, I applaud that decision–though it does seem to be a no brainer to retire 21 year old planes.

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    Taban Air Emergency Landing

    What: Taban Air Tupolev TU-154M en route from Mashhad to Kish Island in the Persian Gulf
    Where: emergency landing in Mashhad
    When: August 7 2009
    Who: 150 passengers
    Why: 40 minutes into the flight, the plane had a technical “glitch” (electrical problems affecting several systems) forcing the pilot to declare an emergency.

    George’s Point of View

    This incident follows the death of 17 and the injury of 30 in Mashhad on July 24, 2009. At that time, an Ilyushin jet with skidded off the runway and struck a wall.

    And a little more than a week before that, on Wednesday July 15 a Tu-154M went down 16 minutes after takeoff from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran.

    No airline named “Taban Air” is listed under the IATA membership website.

    Although this flight did land without death or injury, it appears that Tehran has some airline safety issues to work out.

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    Airbus Wingtip Grazes Congo Building


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact Photographers Daniel & Robert Fall

    What: Air France Airbus A330-200 en route from from Paris to Brazzaville Congo
    Where: Maya-Maya airport on the tarmac
    When:
    Who: Several dozen people were on board the plane,
    Why: While taxiing into a parking position, the right winglet (a small vertical section at the tip of the wing) brushed a building just after landing. Although maintenance moved fast to say the plane was fine, the plane will be flown back to France but is banned from taking off with any passengers.

    George’s Point of View

    I’m not picking on Airbus. Just to prove it, I am going to admit that in this case, the lousy taxi job is probably not due to an innate Airbus flaw (unless massive vehicle size can be construed as a design flaw directly related to the relative ease of negotiating turns on a runway. Maybe the pilot or ground crew was just a ham-handed driver. Come to think of it, parking the 1975 Cadillac Fleetwood was no piece of cake either. )

    No, I’m not picking on Airbus. With over 2,500 Airbus A320s flying around, (and who knows how many other Airbus models are still in service) incidents will happen.

    But.. look at these statistics:
    Airbus A300 – 17 crashes with a total of 1126 fatalities
    Airbus A310 – 9 crashes with a total of 825 fatalities
    Airbus A319/20/21 – 16 crashes with a total of 637 fatalities
    Airbus A330 – 3 with a total of 235 fatalities

    ——-*——-

    That’s a lot of fatalities. The number of deaths–almost 400 in June alone–this works out to a lot of misery spread around to a lot of families.

    I’m not picking on Air France, either. Air France isn’t responsible for the Yemenia Flight 626 that crashed June 30th 2009 with 152 fatalities and one miracle survivor.

    But even if I am not picking on Airbus, someone with lots of muscle (like all the citizens of France) should be doing just that.

    Enough deaths. It is past time to fix the problem.

  • Clunker Airlines

    George’s Point of View

    When times are hard, we drive clunkers. Our old cars get older and rattier, but they’re paid for. It takes more money and more maintenance to keep them going, but when we weigh the merits of getting a new car, the weight of the new car note comes along with it, along with more expensive insurance to cover a more expensive car. So, is it any wonder that we take a sigh over the new car commercial, even as we open the car door and climb into last year’s model? (Or for some of us, last decade’s model.) So what if the tires are maypops and the bumper is held on with twist ties and it takes more than rubbing compound to get the scratches out? It gets us down the road.

    The problem is that airlines are having the same issues.

    Profits are down, fuel costs are going up, and even airlines have to pay for new planes. And unlike this year’s Lexus, new planes cost millions, even billions. This wouldn’t be so bad if planes were like cars, and the likeliest outcome for a junker is an inevitable call to AAA for a tow. Because, obviously, airplanes don’t just stop rolling when they quit. They fall out of the sky. And of course there are the lesser things that happen. Pieces of the fuselage fall off, or magically sport holes the size of footballs. Landing gears fail. They get stuck open or shut. Windshields crack for no known reason. Mysterious electrical fires play hide and seek inside the myriad of separate systems inside the cabin.

    So many airlines struggling to stay afloat are pushing their older aircraft to their maximum life span, saving the expense of a new note–but that is balanced with the greater expense of maintaining older planes. The cost of everything is going up. (Consider that the new airbags by themselves are going to cost well over $1000 per seat.) Fortunately the FAA is working harder at monitoring maintenance guidelines, and policing the skies. The future of the industry in fact, may be riding on FAA Reauthorization Act. (Take a look at our sidebar where we have links to the FAA Reauthorization Act

  • July 17: Tam Day of Remembrance

    George’s Point of View

    Time goes by quickly but not quickly enough when you are dealing with grief and mourning a loved one. Was it only two years ago? In 2007, on July 17, 187 people in Porto Alegre boarded a Tam Airlines Airbus A320. For six of them, it was just another day at work. 187 of them had plans in São Paulo, Brazil. There were also a dozen others already in Sao Paulo who were going about what they thought would be a normal day–but it was the last day of their lives.

    On July 17, people filled out their date books, never knowing it would be for the last time. They made phone calls, packed suitcases, shook their heads over the rising cost of gasoline.

    On July 17, husbands and wives and children parted at their doors or at the airport, said their goodbyes, had hugs and kisses as they went off to work, on business trips or on vacation, never knowing that this kiss, this hug, this goodbye was the final goodbye.

    I know these families. I have sat in rooms with you, listening to your voices break as you recall those you lost. To many people, July 17 may be just a day, but as for you, I have seen on your face tears that will never dry. Those who were lost on that Tam flight will always be remembered on this sad day. President Lula may have ordered four days of mourning, after which the rest of the world moved on; but there are 199 families for whom the days of mourning will never end.

    For you, July 17 will always wear a face.

    What is there to say to those 199 lives that have left holes in the world?

    We remember you. We remember you. We remember you.

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    Southwest Airlines: Hole in fuselage


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact Photographer Tim Perkins

    What: Southwest Airlines 737 en route from Nashville to Baltimore
    Where: Charleston’s Yeager Airport
    When: 6:30 p.m Monday July 13
    Who: 126 passengers and five crew
    Why: While en route, the cabin depressurized when a hole (metal fatigue?) approximately the size of a football appeared in the fuselage. The plane managed to land safely in Charleston West Virginia. The NTSB is investigating.

    (News photos don’t look football sized, but it is sure big enough to see plenty of daylight through.)

    George’s Point of View

    The 737 is a true workhorse, built to land and takeoff almost without too much delay except to load and unload passengers.

    I fly Southwest to Las Vegas all the time. It’s a short hop.

    I must admit, that every time I fly in one of these planes I have begun to worry about the age and/or the fatigue of the structure. A trip like one from LA to Vegas, most times, is a beating on the passengers and the plane itself. My guess is that 4 out of 5 of these short trips encounter turbulence, sometimes bad turbulence. This beats up the plane. In this case, the plane being beaten up was manufactured in 1994. That’s a lot of years of turbulence abuse. Metal fatigue in these conditions is not surprising, and neither is it completely unexpected. An inspection on this plane last January revealed eight cracks in the frame that required repairs.

    I’m just glad it was a BOEING, and that the pilot remained in control of the aircraft. And of course, it’s a good thing that Southwest is now inspecting all of their planes for fatigue. Last year Southwest was fined $7.5 million for overdue inspections. I hope this is not going to be a repeat of last year. All the timely inspections in the world aren’t going to make this plane any younger. Maybe it’s time to put this particular plane out to pasture.

  • FAA Standards Tested

    George’s Point of View

    I hope that all of St George’s licensees have been retested.

    Anthony St. George was convicted and sentenced to prison on 15 counts of conspiracy and submitting false statements on Federal AviationAdministration (FAA) certifications. At the time, St. George was a designated mechanical examiner for St. George Aviation whose job was to administer FAA tests air-frame and powerplant tests to mechanics after mechanics took the prescribed class.Not only did St. George provide test answers, he skipped segments of the tests and issued certifications when the office was closed.

    See the Official Whistleblower Press Release

  • Blame Game Aviation-style

    George’s Point of View

    The latest in the Comorian aviation rumor mill is that sweet and gentle albeit elderly and perfectly innocent Yemenia Airbus 310 was shot down with a dastardly missile by the French Navy vessels performing maneuvers in the area of the accident a day before the plane crash. Nevermind that the plane was positively geriatric in plane years. Nevermind that it was already disallowed to fly in Europe. Nevermind that it was flying in weather so bad that rough winds had already fouled up the plane’s first pass at the runway.

    One tends to doubt that the French Navy was performing maneuvers in the area in the kind of weather that doomed the landing of the Yemenia airbus. Maybe the “missile” was suspended in the air for a whole day while waiting for the Airbus. (Does the French Navy normally fire at Mitsamouli, Djomani, Ouemani or Ouela?)

    Maybe if we focus our eyes on the French navy, no one will notice the state of Comorian aviation, airports, aviation safety measures and rescue procedures.

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    Yemenia Air Black Boxes heard

    George’s Point of View

    Twice now, within a month, Airbus equipment has failed in bad weather, for whatever reason.

    That is not supposed to happen. Planes aren’t supposed to fail. There is something wrong with the design of that plane, even my pool of expert pilots of Airbus quietly tell me this.

    And the fact-gathering news is still grim. The Air France flight 447 black boxes have not been found, and neither have the Yemenia Air black boxes. They have been “heard” — but the same thing was rumored about the Air France boxes, but that didn’t pan out.

    View Comoros in a larger map
    But Yemenia is suspending all flights from Marseille to Moroni. 61 of the victims were from Marseille.

    Yemenia Flight 626 crashed 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) south of Yemen, between Africa’s southeastern coast and the island of Madagascar. but the black boxes have been by a searching submarine.

    Some online opinions state that on the second pass attempting to land, the pilot simply flew into the sea while trying to negotiate the bad weather. There is apparently no radar at the airport where they were attempting to land.

    French and US ships are looking for debris and bodies; the BEA and Airbus are investigating.

    ILS Approach Runway 02 (Graphics: AIS ASECNA):

  • What Will EASA do?

    IF the European Aviation Safety Agency is going to uphold its own mission “to promote the highest common standards of safety and environmental protection in civil aviation,” it must take strong action when it receives the French Accident Investigators first results.

    There’s so much speculation out there regarding what this account will be that it just seems better to wait and see what it says before second-guessing it. Regardless of the details, you know the report is going to talk about 1. lightning and weather 2. pitot tubes; they may also talk about computer issues, composites and the stabilizer/tail fin/rudder also. I doubt they’ll tackle Airbus’s fly-by-wire technology.

    The only thing I don’t understand is why Airbus 330’s have not already been grounded pending the results of the investigation. With several recorded incidents of Airbus 330’s suffering near-disasterous incidents and generating data similar to what was received from the AF447 flight, it makes more sense to ground these planes now before another accident occurs. Why are they letting people fly around in a plane that is an accident waiting to happen?

    Or are paying passengers the world over just guinea pigs for Airbus to test their craft on until they get it right?

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    Airbus: Retire Fly By Wire

    George’s Point of View

    While we face a crisis of confidence in the latest evolution of air travel technology, it amazes me how many articles are out there that praise the Airbus. Hull loss statistics and disasters are staring us all in the face. The top criteria of plane design should still be safety.

    All of us–passengers and aviation professionals alike– are still subject to the flaws of performance, design, maintenance and safety standards. It’s hard to know where to start.

    I’m not even going to talk about fly-by-wire philosophy, even though it has contributed to fatal accidents, like the TAM crash where the fly-by-wire system failed to interpret how to cope with an Airbus’s disabled reverser on a slick runway in less than optimal conditions.

    I’m just going to say this because it needs to be said.

    Someone needs to stop defending Airbus, and turn an eye to all those hull losses.

    And all those deaths.

    We have stats that show 5,000+ planes have been manufactured. Thousands of deaths have been attributed to Airbus failure:
    A300 – 1449 deaths
    A310 678 deaths (plus today’s 146=824)
    A320-655 deaths
    A330-236 deaths

    (and this is not a complete list.)

    Just go to go to Aviation Safety Net and examine the hull loss statistics of the Airbus.

    It’s not just ONE problem. There are a lot of problems, especially if you follow some Airbus history.

    The investigation of a 2001 Airbus A300-600 crash led to the discovery that a panel on the tail fin can move beyond its safe limit, which can cause the tail fin to shear off and the plane to crash. Read about Flight 587 and Airbus’s history of non-disclosure of Airbus flaws.

    Historically, alleged problems with construction or computer systems have been instrumental in catastrophic vertical stabilizer or tail fin loss. “One of the 24 automatic messages sent from the plane minutes before it disappeared pointed to a problem in the ‘rudder limiter.”

    The tail fin fiasco has supposedly been improved upon. It’s now better because it’s plastic. ! ? ! In fact, a large percentage of the Airbus is composed of a carbon-fiber composite, which can be a problem, not only because composite parts can bend or twist unpredictably in flight, but also their tensile strength is questionable, AND so is the length of time they can perform before degrading.

    And of course, we’ve all heard about the pitot tubes. While there are other systems out there that seem to be viable, the THALES brand pitot tubes which are known to freeze up, and have not been replaced. Whether flawed readings causes a plane to slow down and fly into a stall or speed up and fly into a dive, either result is catastrophic.

    And then, of course, there’s the computer system which may have just gone haywire. As reported by the Northwest Airlines A330 that experienced problems similar to Flight 447, they ran into turbulence. “Their primary and standby airspeed indicators showed the plane had slowed dramatically. Other systems that automatically maintain speed and altitude also disengaged. The master warning and master caution indications flashed on the instrument panel for three minutes until the captain flew out of the weather.”

    So now we have a less than perfect aircraft, that is 19 years old, and getting decrepit. The public description of this plane makes it sound unbelievable–like the aviation equivalent of the bus to Cartagena in the movie “Romancing the Stone:” Babies on laps, no seatbelts, seats not even fastened down, and some passengers who fly standing up the whole way.

    Is there any surprise when a plane like this (that is banned from French airspace and shunted off to a poor area like Comoros) falls out of the sky and kills all but one passenger? The fact that a plane banned from European airspace is shunted off to serve the inhabitants of an impoverished nation is a failure of the operational practice of the aviation industry. Where are the criteria in place to protect those citizens?

    There ought to be a law.

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    Let’s Look at Some Airbus Stats, Shall we?

    On Flight 447. pilots contended with escalating failures in their flight control system while alarms were going off and no natural horizon was visible to orient or fly by; and they were completely dependent on electronic instrumentation that were providing faulty data.

    What went wrong?

    George’s Point of View

    5,717 aircraft have been manufactured by Airbus.
    5,100 are in use.
    23 have been involved in fatal crashes
    2,584 people have been killed by Airbuses.
    5 additional accidents have caused 21 injuries.
    Three Airbus crashes involved a separation of the composite vertical stabilizer from the fuselage.
    Airbus composite stabilizers, rudders and couplers have also been involved in additional accidents and incidents.
    25% of new Airbuses are made of composite material, including the plastic vertical stabilizer over 78 feet long
    There have been 10 recorded incidents when A300 tail fins were stressed beyond their capacity.

    Many pilots refuse to fly the Airbus. Maybe they have the right idea.

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    Continental Pilot Craig Lenell gone “Gentle Into That Good Night”

    George’s Point of View

    Continental Pilot Craig Lenell’s quiet but dramatic death is going to be all but overlooked in the media buzz over the Air France Airbus catastrophe. None of his passengers even knew he’d died. In an interview, his Lenell’s wife called him the “kindest, gentlest man” she ever knew. His last communication to her had been a promise to bring her chocolates.

    You never know what you’re going to get.

    The 32 year veteran of Continental Airlines was also an Vietnam vet who served in the Air Force.

    The first officer and (what is probably) the international relief officer took over when the captain became incapacitated. It was sheer luck that a cardiologist was on board. And even though he was unable to save the captain’s life, Dr. Julien Struyven’s accidental presence on that flight may be a comfort to the captain’s wife and family. At least they won’t be asking “what if a doctor had been on board? What if there had be a defib on board?” Because on this flight there was a doctor, and a defibrillator. Perhaps it was just the captain’s time.

    Maybe one man’s death aboard a flight that did not crash isn’t going to be a headline for more than a day, but you can bet that the people aboard that Continental Flight 61 from Brussels to Newark–those passengers who are alive now because Continental did something right–they won’t ever forget.

  • Channeling the Weather

    George’s Point of View

    So, it took the Air France Airbus Flight 447 flying into the eye of the storm and never coming out for storm alerts to come of age.

    The US FAA has had a system in development which is (as they term it) a “satellite-based upgrade of air-traffic management” which can send climate pictures through satellite access. This is a vast improvement of the current system, apparently. I have to take someone’s word on it since I just use the weather channel on tv, and haven’t spent a whole lot of time checking out cockpit weather access.

    It just seems like such a practical and obvious technology for aviation, I wonder why it has not been in place for years. Maybe it’s the $22 billion bill that is the stopping point, but sometimes you just have to pay the piper. Or in this case, ITT Corp, which is developing “NextGen.” The Next Generation Air Transportation System task force has meetings that are open to the public.

    I wonder if this is the same technology where they’re planning to live-stream aviation black box contents via satellite to air traffic control. That could save billions of dollars in searches such as the current hunt for the Air France Airbus black boxes, where they have a little more than a week to find a needle in the haystack…(black box in the Atlantic Ocean) before the “ping power” runs out.

    Who knows if this technology would have warned

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    Co-Pilots to the Rescue

    Capt. Lee Collins of the Coalition of Airline Pilots Association said pilots are prepared for emergencies in the air. The pilot of a transatlantic flight died over the Atlantic Ocean, but the jet landed safely.

    What: Continental Airlines Boeing 777-200 en route from Brussels Belgium to Newark, NJ
    Where: en route
    When: June 18th 2009
    Who: 247 passengers and 3 flight crew
    Why: Four hours into the flight, while over the Atlantic, the captain died. The two first officers took over and landed the plane safely in Newark.

    A doctor on board was called to the cockpit, and the on board defibrillator failed to revive the captain who apparently had died of a heart attack.

    George’s Point of View

    It’s a small world.

    Recently I’d been in a conversation with someone about the Colgan flight.

    Remember the Colgan flight? The one that crashed in Buffalo? The wings iced over, the captain was ill-trained, and the co-pilot was too inexperienced and too exhausted to know how to respond to the particular emergency. The combination resulted in disaster for everyone on board.

    So, I was in this conversation with someone about the Colgan flight, and the question came up about the value of the co-pilot’s experience. The rate of the co-pilot’s pay was released, ($11.00/hr) and that provoked me to write about co-pilots needing “professional” pay. What would happen, we speculated (in this conversation) if the pilot died? The copilot becomes the de facto pilot.

    Then, lo and behold, today a pilot dies of a heart attack. Luckily for Continental and everyone on board, there were two co-pilots on hand, and both of them apparently qualified enough to handle the flight. (Apparently so, since they did manage to finish the flight.)

    I just wasn’t expecting that speculative question to manifest itself in a headline today.

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    Man vs Wire

    George’s Point of View

    As opposed to Boeing, where the pilot always has the upper hand over the machine, the basic tenet of Airbus philosophy is machine knows best. That must be the case, because when all else fails, here comes the Airbus autopilot and the pilot can’t do anything. We’ve seen this bite pilots in the *** in a number of circumstances, but the first one that comes to mind, for me, is the big TAM crash in Sao Paulo. Not being a pilot, I’ve had to ask airbus pilots about this, and believe me, I’ve heard some horror stories that would curl your hair. Maybe that’s what is at the root of my negativity toward the Airbus. The other would be their tendency to crash and kill a lot of people at one time.

    Anyway, Airbus recently started production of the A320 series in China. They just did a maiden flight on the first plane. I like China very much but I don’t know about getting on China-made planes. It is bad enough that they are Airbus.

  • Continental Ships Minors to Wrong Destination. 2x

    George’s Point of View

    Oops. And Oops again.

    Taylor Williams of College Station got on a plane to go to Charlotte North Carolina. Only the plane ended up in Fayetteville, Ark., instead of Charlotte, N.C. She got to see a little more of the country than she’d bargained for. But then they figured out the mistake and sent her to Houston, and then to Charlotte, where she finally ended up with her father who was no doubt going crazy with worry.

    Did I mention she is eight years old?

    Then there’s Miriam Kamens. Miriam took off from Logan Airport in Boston to go to Cleveland to visit her grandparents. But SHE ended up in Newark NJ. And Miriam isn’t 8. She’s 10.

    Apparently Continental Airlines has a little problem getting unaccompanied minors to their exact destinations.

    There was a time when children flying alone on a plane had to do something really embarrassing, like wear a notebook sized placard around their neck with their destination written on it.

    Maybe they should start doing that again. On the other hand…there’s no actual proof that airline staff can actually read.

  • Caution: Volcano Crossing

    George’s Point of View

    A disaster not in California…

    From June 12 to June 15, the Sarychev Peak on the Russian Kuril Islands erupted, causing air traffic disruptions between Northern American and Japan. The ash clouds are reaching “estimated heights of 45,000 feet.” (Danger zone for aviation from from E152 to W155 over a distance of 2000nm and N40 to N48).

    The dust clouds are drifting east and dispersing.

    Alaska Volcano Observatory

  • Thoughts on Co-Pilot Salaries…

    George’s Point of View

    I came across this Safer skies article discussing Continental Express Flight 3407, and panning the Federal Aviation Administration for lack of supervision.

    The article mentions that “The co-pilot of the doomed flight in Buffalo lamented moments before the crash that she lacked flight experience in icy weather conditions? Does it care that she was making about $11/hour…” and goes on to pressure government agencies to better regulate pilot training, so that future pilots have the experience to fly the planes they are flying.

    I’d like to make a point here about being a pilot.

    Pilots are professionals. GOOD pilots have spent many hours learning their craft; and it is proper that they do so, because the lives of so many people rest on their shoulders. They SHOULD be expert if they have been given the control of the cockpit. Even co-pilots have spent significant time getting educated and up to speed, getting licensed.

    IF the FAA does its job and regulates pilot training, then co-pilots should be earning more than $11/hr. They’re not flipping burgers. They’re not selling footwear.

    Think about this: when you get into a taxi, you’re paying for someone who can drive the taxi. Whatever their vehicle, they are licensed to drive. Even the cheaper or shabbier taxi companies can not operate with drivers who are not licensed. They MUST be licensed if they are behind the wheel. To stay in business, even the funkiest, rattiest, cheesiest taxi company has drivers who are professionally qualified for their taxi licenses. I have no idea what they make for a living. But it is probably more than $11.00/hr. And if they wreck their taxis, they’re not going to fall 10,000 feet.

    When you get into a plane, as a passenger, you trust that your pilot and your copilot are highly paid, highly skilled professionals. If they aren’t highly skilled, they shouldn’t be at the wheel.

    So I would urge the FAA to step up to the plate and raise the bar on pilots; raise the bar on supervision; raise the bar on training. And with the professional standards well maintained–with adequate supervision–pilots and co-pilots should be paid wages that reflect their skill and professionalism.

    $11.00 an hour doesn’t cut it.

    Our pilots don’t need to ferry from one corner of the country to another, coming in to work exhausted, and flying planes on which they are not adequately trained. They should know the planes they fly, backwards and forwards, upside down, inside out and sideways. They should be paid commiserate to that degree of knowledge and skill. Or else, they should not be pilots at all.

    Imagine the responsibility of the pilot and co-pilot. All those lives on the plane are completely dependent on the pilot’s skill.

    What if the pilot has a heart attack? a bout of food poisoning as was recently in the news? or is otherwise unable to fly the plane? It’s like the co-pilot is the spare tire. You wouldn’t have a spare tire that was flat.

    That’s what the copilot is there for. Except the co-pilot is not a spare tire. The co-pilot is not some kind of sub-human or half-pilot, deserving of a half-pilot wage. In this case, they’re the expert who’s on hand in case of emergency.

    The co-pilot bears the responsibility of all those lives. The co-pilot shares the responsibility because they HAVE the responsibility. It’s their job. They should be prepared to do their jobs; and they should be paid a legitimate professional wage to do so.

  • |

    Air France Airbus Flight 447: Information Withheld

    George’s Point of View

    The next big question is whether or not information is withheld.

    That’s what some families are wondering, and that’s part of the reason why they’ve hired lawyers. Plaintiffs have access to more information; and they want to know what reason Air France has for not replacing a known Airbus problem, the pitot probes (airbus speed sensors.)

    What has been published is error messages based on inconsistent readings taken by the pitot probes.

  • | | |

    Massive Airbus Settlement Looks to be Unsettling

    George’s Point of View

    The insurance claim for the Air France crash promises to be huge; the cost of the aircraft alone will no doubt exceed a hundred million dollars. Between the international treaty that ensures aviation passenger’s rights, the legal system, insurers like AIG, AXA SA, Allianz SE, American International Group Inc., and the companies which are going to be liable (like Airbus and who ever manufactured those pitot tubes), the claims are going to be in the hundreds of millions.

    Spouses, children and parents will be receiving compensation from the insurance, and from companies whose exact degree of liability will be decided through the courts (if not in them.)

    IF it gets to the courts.

    In situations like this, the insurance companies swoop down before the victims’ families can arm themselves with lawyers; in fact, insurance companies are a little like lawyers. Or worse. They’re like salespeople. They want that signature on the dotted line, and they want to get it for as little as possible. They want that release. To get it, they try to offer victims’ families the smallest possible carrot.

    If they can induce families to sign a release, then the families sign away any future claims that might arise from product liability. When you sign that release, you waive the right to sue.

    So I’m hoping the families don’t jump the gun here, and rush in to negotiate with the insurance companies without legal counsel on their side. When they sign those release forms, they just might be signing away justice for their loved ones.

  • |

    Canadian Fowl Responsible for US Airways Incursion

    George’s Point of View

    Not much turns slower than the wheels of time during a plane investigation.

    Thorough research of every factor extends for years, even when the causes appear to be obvious. But it is a mark of how obvious the cause is that the Hudson River crash in which “Sully” Sullenberger became a household name has already been officially attributed to “Migratory Canada geese.” At this juncture, I should probably say something clever about
    1) green cards,
    2) carding migratory birds or
    3) Canadian Customs, but I am sure that Jay Leno already said it before he left the tonight show.

    Read the June 4, 2009 NTSB announcement below:

    NTSB Advisory
    National Transportation Safety Board
    Washington, DC 20594
    June 4, 2009

    UPDATE ON NTSB PUBLIC HEARING ON THE US AIRWAYS A-320 HUDSON RIVER DITCHING ACCIDENT

    The National Transportation Safety Board today released additional information about the Board’s scheduled public hearing on the January 2009 ditching of the US Airways A-320 into the Hudson River.

    The hearing, originally scheduled for two days, has been expanded to three. It will convene at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 9, 2009, and is expected to conclude mid-day on Thursday, June 11. It will be held at the NTSB’s Board Room and Conference Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C. The room is lighted for television and a mult box is provided for sound.

    On January 15, 2009, at approximately 3:27 p.m. EST, US Airways flight 1549, an Airbus Industrie A320 bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, incurred multiple bird strikes during its initial departure climb from New York’s La Guardia Airport (LGA). The airplane subsequently lost thrust to its engines and ditched in the Hudson River approximately three and a half minutes after striking the birds and about five minutes after leaving LGA. To date, of the five crewmembers and 150 passengers on board, five serious injuries have been reported.

    The Safety Board will also open the public docket at the start of the hearing. The public may view and download the docket contents on the web under the “FOIA Reading Room” at http://www.ntsb.gov/Info/foia_fri-dockets.htm at that time.

    The information being released is factual in nature and does not provide analysis or the probable cause of the accident. The docket will include investigative group factual reports, interview transcripts, Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) transcripts, Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data and other documents from the investigation. In addition, docket items that will be used as exhibits during the public hearing will be available on the website under “Public Hearings”

    The hearing, which is part of the Safety Board’s efforts to develop all appropriate facts for the investigation, will cover a wide range of safety issues including:

    Pilot training regarding ditching and forced landings on water.
    Bird detection and mitigation efforts. \ Certification standards regarding ditching and forced landings on water for transport-category airplanes.
    Cabin safety training, emergency procedures and equipment.
    Certification standards for bird ingestion into transport- category airplane engines.
    An agenda is posted on the Board’s website at http://www2.ntsb.gov/Weehawken-NJ/agenda.htm. A live webcast of the proceedings will be available on the Board’s website at http://www.ntsb.gov/events/hearing_sched.htm. Technical support details are available under “Board Meetings.” To report any problems, please call 703-993-3100 and ask for Webcast Technical Support.