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Hot Volcanoes Cool Air Travel

Nabro

Nabro volcano, Eritrea sends ash plume more than 13.5 kilometres into the sky and disrupting air traffic across eastern Africa.
Nasa photo
Volcano Nabro in Eritrea


Volcano Nabro erupted today throwing ash clouds up to 13.5 kilometres.The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) said Monday that the 5,331 ft volcano has resulted in a large ash plume of up to 13.5 kilometres (8 miles) high. The scale of the eruption, compared to the ongoing eruption in Chile and 2010?s eruption at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, remains unclear. Ash is falling on the northern Ethiopian town of Mekele. The ash advisory issued by the VAAC (see below graphics) is predicting that the Ash plume will spread towards the Middle East Monday night.

Puyehue

Puyehue Volcano in Lago Ranco, Río Bueno and Puyehue Chile
Puyehue Volcano in Lago Ranco, Río Bueno and Puyehue Chile
The Puyehue Volcano in the Andes
The Puyehue eruption began June 4th, 2011 when 3,500 people were evacuated. First the local airport was closed, then cancellation of hundreds of flights have continued this last week and a half. As of Friday, the cloud spread causing cancellations across South America towards Uruguay and into Brazil.

*Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa.

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    NTSB RELEASES 2009 AVIATION ACCIDENT STATISTICS

    ON-DEMAND ACCIDENTS AT LOWEST LEVEL IN LAST 20 YEARS

    Washington, D.C. – The National Transportation Safety Board
    today released preliminary aviation accident statistics for
    2009 showing an overall decrease in U. S. civil aviation
    accidents that includes general aviation and on-demand Part
    135 operations. In fact, on-demand Part 135 operations had
    the lowest number of accidents and fatal accidents for that
    type of air operation in the last 2 decades.

    The total number of U.S. civil aviation accidents decreased
    from 1,658 in 2008 to 1,551 in 2009. Total fatalities also
    showed a decrease from 566 to 534. The majority of these
    fatalities occurred in general aviation and scheduled Part
    121 operations.

    General aviation accidents decreased from 1,566 in 2008 to
    1,474 in 2009. There were 272 fatal general aviation
    accidents, down from 275 the year before. However, the
    accident rate increased to 7.20 per 100,000 flight hours in
    2009 from 6.86 in 2008, due to the decrease in the number
    total of flight hours. Although fatalities decreased from
    494 to 474, the fatal accident rate increased to from 1.21
    to 1.33.

    Last year, one fatal accident occurred involving a scheduled
    Part 121 operator. On February 12, 2009, a Colgan Air,
    Inc., Bombardier DHC-8- 400, operating as Continental
    Connection flight 3407, crashed outside of Buffalo , New
    York, resulting in 50 fatalities.

    On-demand Part 135 operations reported 47 accidents in 2009,
    a decrease from 58 in 2008. Fatalities also decreased from
    69 in 2008 to 17 in 2009. The accident rate decreased to
    1.63 per 100,000 flight hours in 2009 from 1.81 in 2008.

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    Arik Air Undergoing Re-Certification

    Arik Chairman, Sir Joseph Arumemi Ikhide has announced that their airline is successfully going through the certification process. “Although the journey was long, tedious, hard and expensive, it was worth it.”

    Striving to meet the global standards of the ICAO and TSA, Arik Air has also been re-certified by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Six of eight US FAA criteria have been satisfied. Arik Air must satisfy a preliminary (mock) audit by the FAA prior to moving on to the final steps of certification.

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    Maggots Delay Plane


    Pictured: Interior cabin of a US Airways Airbus A330-243
    Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
    Contact photographer Peter Van Dyke

    An Atlanta to N. Carolina US Airways jet was delayed today due to falling maggots.

    Maggots were falling from an overhead compartment inside the plane. When the compartment was examined, the source appeared to be a container of meat that had been in the plane since Monday.

    The plane returned to the gate and the bin was cleaned before the flight continued on to NC. In NC, the plane was taken into maintenance and fumigated.

    George’s Point of View

    How is it that the meat was overlooked for two days? Doesn’t the flight crew and maintenance check the bins? Do you have any idea how rancid meat would get in two days during hot summer days in the south, in hundred degree weather? Even if they didn’t see it, surely they smelled it…And who is to say that the meat has been there since Monday? Maybe its been there even longer? If they’re not inspecting it every day, how can they have any idea HOW long it was there?

    I am surprised that a plane is not fully inspected on a daily basis–in fact, between each flight–in search of something more dangerous than rotting meat.

    How far does security extend? Passengers go through security. You’d think that compartments aboard a plane that carries passengers would undergo a thorough search after every flight.

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    Trigana Air Flight 267 Crash: Black Box to be Sent to France after Unsuccessful Data Retrieval Attempts

    Trigana AirAccording to a preliminary report released by Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), the black box from Trigana Air jet that crashed in August will be sent to France for data retrieval.

    The flight TGN267 crashed after it lost contact with the ATC during a flight from Sentani airport, Jayapura, to Oksibi, Papua. There were 54 people aboard at the time; all of them were killed.

    The report released on October 7 said, “The downloading process to retrieve data from the FDR was unsuccessful. For further examination, the FDR data will be downloaded at BEA facility in Paris, France.”

    The report further said that the cockpit voice recorder had a 2-hour recording but it did not give any clue as to what caused the crash.

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    LionAir Flight Updated


    On the flight prior the LionAir accident flight on the Boeing Max registered as PK-LQP, an off-duty fully-qualified Boeing 737-MAX 8 pilot was traveling home on flight JT-43. The plane encountered problems similar to the next flight that crashed it (i.e. the LionAir accident flight from Denpasar to Jakarta.) The crew aboard the earlier flight managed to land the aircraft at the destination. Based on the crew’s entry in the AFML, the engineer at Jakarta flushed the left Pitot Air Data Module (ADM) and static ADM to rectify the reported IAS and ALT disagree and cleaned the electrical connector plug of the elevator feel computer. The aircraft was subsequently released to carry out flight JT610.(A different crew manned the fatal flight.) The pilot was interviewed by the Kantor Komite Nasional Keselamatan Transportasi–Ministry of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia (KNKT). The KNKT committee is responsible for investigating and reporting air transportation system accidents, serious incidents and safety deficiencies involving air transportation system operations in Indonesia.

    The KNKT estimates that the release of the final report for Lion B38M in August or September 2019.

    The KNKT is cooperating with Ethiopian Authorities but will make no official comment. News media reports suggest that on the earlier LionAir flight, a third pilot had occupied the observer’s seat in the cockpit of flight JT-43 and that this pilot identified the automatic trim runaway issue at hand and initiated that the trim cut out switches be used.

    The preliminary report on the LionAir crash is located HERE.

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    SAFO: Embraer ERJ-190 Series Thrust Reverser Cowling Safety

    http://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviation_industry/airline_operators/airline_safety/safo
    A SAFO contains important safety information and may include recommended action. SAFO content should be especially valuable to air carriers in meeting their statutory duty to provide service with the highest possible degree of safety in the public interest. Besides the specific action recommended in a SAFO, an alternative action may be as effective in addressing the safety issue named in the SAFO.

    Subject: Embraer ERJ-190 Series Thrust Reverser Cowling Safety Purpose: This SAFO notifies maintenance personnel of a potentially hazardous situation which
    can cause serious injury while working on or around the EMB 190 thrust reversers.

    Background: During a visit to Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Service (EAMS), a Maintenance Repair Organization (MRO), technicians reported that instances have occurred where the thrust reverser power door opening (PDO) actuator failed. Also, during high wind conditions, with the thrust reverser cowl open, the cowling can flex sufficiently enough to displace the locking feature of the PDO actuator. The failure of the PDO actuator can cause the thrust reverser cowl- door to come down on personnel, causing serious injury. As a precautionary safety means, and an interim option, EAMS installed the trust reverser hold-open-jib which is part of the engine- change boot-strap-kit. The jib is utilized to provide additional support to the PDO thrust reverser cowling-door in the event of a PDO failure. Embraer is evaluating the development of a tool to support the thrust reverser cowling while opened. However, until this tool is available, extreme caution is recommended during maintenance of the thrust reverser.

    Recommended Action: It is recommended that air carriers who operate this type of equipment, immediately alert maintenance to exercise extreme caution working around the area with the thrust reverser cowling opened, especially during high wind conditions. In addition, it is recommended that maintenance personnel utilize the thrust reverser hold-open-jib which is part of the engine change boot-strap-kit, to secure the door. The jib is utilized to provide additional support to the PDO thrust reverser cowling door in the event of a PDO failure.

    Contact: Questions or comments regarding this SAFO should be directed to Aircraft Maintenance Division, AFS-300, at (202) 385-6422.
    Distributed by: AFS-200 OPR: AFS-300

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