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FAA: September/October 2010 issue of FAA Safety Briefing,


Come Fly with Me

September 14–The September/October 2010 issue of FAA Safety Briefing, which focuses on proficiency and its absolute importance for pilots and aviation maintenance technicians, also includes a must-read article for pilots. FAA’s Paul Greer writes about the complicated subject of receiving compensation for your flying. He says, “Flying and getting paid for it has been a dream that most pilots have had at one time or another. It’s been done by generations of pilots, but it’s also an area ripe with opportunities for new (and even older) pilots to run afoul of the regulations.” Read all about it on page 12 of the September/October 2010 issue.

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    JFK BAY RUNWAY PROJECT

    JFK is tackling delays with the reconstruction of Bay Runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Once completed, this project will reduce delays overall by an estimated 10,500 hours per year.

    Beginning March 1, 2010 one of the four runways at JFK will be closed for construction for 120 days; however this project should not impact travel significantly. The Port Authority in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the airlines began in 2006 we have worked closely minimize the impact on airport operations when the runway is closed.

    The new concrete runway will have an anticipated life of more than 40 years, compared to an 8-year service life for asphalt. The project willl upgrade JFK’s airside infrastructure, widen and replace nearly three miles of runway. A central component of the Bay Runway reconstruction is the widening of the runway from 150 to 200 feet to make way for new delay-reduction taxiways. The new taxiways will improve aircraft queuing and enable swifter departures; and easier access from taxiways to terminal gates, saving time on the ground for every passenger at JFK.

    During the 120-day closure of the Bay Runway, three remaining runways will remain.

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    Slovakia Plants Explosive on Dublin-bound Flight


    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Diego Ruiz De Vargas

    What: Danube Wings Boeing 737-400 en route from Poprad/Tatry Slovakia to Dublin
    Where: The entire flight
    When: Jan 2nd 2010
    Who: Number aboard not released
    Why: A Slovakian agency decided to test their security by slipping 9 packages of explosives into innocent passengers’ luggage. Eight of those packages were found.

    George’s Point of View

    ONE of those packages—85 grams of RDX plastic explosive— made it all the way to the innocent Slovakian-Irish passenger’s HOUSE, where suddenly Irish forces evacuate their entire neighborhood (reportedly evacuating several apartment buildings and shutting down a couple of intersections) to retrieve that one package of live explosive from his apartment on Dorset Street. Stefan Gonda, a 49-year-old Slovak electrician working in Ireland, must have been really surprised at that knock on the door. On the other hand, maybe not, since he’s from Slovakia and may be used to such thoughtless, stupid, ridiculous, dangerous, psychotic behavior from his government.

    How do they justify endangering a plane full of innocent passengers on a commercial jet? RDX is considered unstable–it can light without a detonator. What if there had been turbulence? What if the temperature had dropped to make the compound even more unstable?

    One head has already rolled for this. The head of the Slovak border and foreign police Tibor Mako resigned. Was he the one responsible or did he throw himself on his sword? Is there more to this?

    I find it difficult to believe that anyone would use real passengers as guinea pigs, put real explosives on an actual international flight. If Ireland has a legal chip on its shoulder the same way the US does, there’d be an International lawsuit pending.

    The Slovokian ministry claims no one was endangered.

    Excuse me?

    85 grams of RDX plastic explosive aboard a plane. Irish forces evacuated the neighborhood to retrieve it…but hey, on a volatile oxygen pumped package like an airplane, no problem.

    It’s hard to believe they call that branch of government “intelligence.” Talk about an oxymoron.

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    David Disiere Southlake Aviation Awarded $32-Million Damages in Congo Gold Smuggling Case

    In a civil trial that sounded like a real life James Bond spy novel, a Dallas County Jury awarded Southlake Aviation, owned by Dallas business executive David Disiere, $32.4 million in damages against Houston based oil company, CAMAC International, its subsidiary CAMAC Aviation, and Mickey Lawal CAMAC’s Vice President of African Operations.
    The case stemmed from a scheme in which CAMAC International and its officers used a Gulfstream V jet leased from David Disiere’s Southlake Aviation to try to spirit more than ten thousands pounds of gold bullion out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with help from General Bosco Ntaganda, a notorious Congolese warlord.

    Following the verdict, Southlake Aviation’s President, David Disiere praised the jury’s decision, “twelve citizens saw through a smoke-and- mirrors defense put on by the CAMAC’s attorneys and clearly found that CAMAC caused my company to loose a $43 million dollar aircraft in a greedy scheme that violated the U.S. Trading With The Enemy Act.”
    The jury heard riveting testimony from a diamond trader involved in the scheme describing how CAMAC executives Kase Lawal, Mickey Lawal, and Kamoru Lawal arranged to exchange two-oversized suitcases stuffed with six-and-half million dollars in cash for ten boxes of gold delivered by General Bosco Ntaganda’s armed forces.

    An investigation of the smuggling incident by the United Nations Security Council found that CAMAC and its three top executives, Kase Lawal, Mickey Lawal, and Kamoru Lawal were dealing with “individuals operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and committing serious violations of international law involving the targeting of children or women in situations of armed conflict.”

    Kase Lawal, Mickey Lawal, and Kamoru Lawal who are Nigerian American brothers invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination hundreds of times during their testimony in the case.

    Houston energy executive, Kase Lawal the former CEO of CAMAC International and the current CEO of the publically traded CAMAC Energy Inc. was appointed to a White House Trade Advisory position by President Obama and serves on the boards of the Houston Port and Airport Authorities.

    David Disiere, the Dallas business executive and owner of Southlake Aviation, told the jury how he was shocked to get a call in the dead of night informing him that his company’s 43-million dollar Gulfstream V jet aircraft loaded with ten boxes of gold had been confiscated in Goma by authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on February 5, 2011. The jury’s verdict also included compensation of more than 535-thousand dollars for repairing damage done the to the aircraft’s interior passenger compartment during the loading of the gold.

    Because Southlake Aviation’s aircraft was confiscated in the Congo, VFS Financing a subsidiary of General Electric, automatically placed Southlake Aviation’s loan to purchase the Gulfstream V in default, accelerated the entire balance, and repossessed the aircraft.

    Testimony in the case and the investigation by the United Nations also indicated that former Houston Rocket’s basketball star Dikembe Mutombo acted as an intermediary in the gold smuggling scheme.

    Testimony in the case showed that David Disiere had never met the Lawal brothers. Disiere testified that CAMAC had signed a three-year lease for Southlake’s Gulfstream V jet and claiming it would use the jet was to travel between its Houston headquarters and oil operations in Nigeria.

    The jury agreed with David Disiere’s testimony that CAMAC and its officers violated the terms of the aircraft’s lease by using it in an outlaw region of Africa.

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  • FAA Mayday

    Next time you fly on a US airline, you should think about those 9 U.S. airlines that outsource most of their aircraft maintenance. You’d think you wouldn’t have to worry about it because we all trust on that national resource, the FAA. The FAA is primarily responsible for the advancement, safety and regulation of civil aviation, as well as overseeing the development of the air traffic control system and commercial space travel.

    But it’s time to supervise the supervisors. A government report on the FAA has turned up some unhappy details.
    The FAA is behind on their supervision.

    25% of that outsourced maintenance is farmed out to overseas contractors.The Federal Aviation Administration is supposed to track who and where maintenance is outsourced to. The responsibility for maintenance falls to hundreds of repair companies all over the world.

    Currently the government is investigating the outsourcing practices of AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, America West Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines.

    However, unlike the aforementioned airlines,American Airlines handles most of its maintenance in-house.

    Repair facilities are subject to yearly government inspection at least once a year. One of the problems is that inspections are not up to standard, and not conducted by qualified inspectors; and the inspections have been as much as five years apart.

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    ASTRONAUT JOSE HERNANDEZ LEAVES NASA

    HOUSTON — After a decade working in various roles, astronaut Jose Hernandez has left NASA for a position in the aerospace industry.

    “Jose’s talent and dedication have contributed greatly to the agency, and he is an inspiration to many,” said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We wish him all the best with this new phase of his career.”

    The son of Mexican migrant farm workers, he joined NASA in 2001 as a materials research engineer at Johnson. He was promoted to the Materials and Processes Branch chief in 2002 and served there until he was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2004.

    During the STS-128 shuttle mission in 2009, he managed the transfer of more than 18,000 pounds of supplies and equipment between the shuttle and International Space Station and assisted with robotics operations. He also served as a flight engineer in the shuttle’s cockpit during launch and landing.

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