New International Civil Aviation Organization Safety Database

International Civil Aviation Organization is recommending a global safety information exchange accessible to travelers so they can make informed data-driven decisions. This database is to be developed by the ICAO, the US Federal Aviation Administration, the Commission of the European Union and the International Air Transport Association.

The database will take advantage of the organizations’ number crunching abilities. By joining their vision, the ATA, ICAO, the FAA and the EU will add a more effective vision of events in the name of developing safety with a common goal of “zero accidents and zero fatalities.”

The goal is to complete the database in a about a year to year and a half from now.

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  • Flying Electronics 2011 and Beyond

    The extent of how harmful electronic devices are to aviation safety has been discussed time and again, and will continue to be brought to the forefront as new technologies are developed, and as additional companies join forces to find alternative ways to channel and network passenger devices in a way that is not detrimental to flight electronics.

    Officially risks are associated with electromagnetic interference from devices, the use of which is prohibited by the FAA at lower altitudes. As devices proliferate, frequent flyers are less and less willing to abandon use of their phones, blackberries, ipads and blueberries, even though their use, and especially their use in concert, (i.e. imagine the potential impact of 200 people aboard a leaky old jet all using their devices at the same time) has been deemed less than optimal, interfering with the plane’s avionics.

    So we can look forward to various accommodations: either passengers will have to stop using their devices on board altogether, to accommodate whatever stricter guidelines may eventually occur after the next big aviation tragedy is blamed on a rogue cell phone; or airlines will accommodate passengers electronic addictions, finding new, better, hopefully safer and doubtlessly more expensive ways to channel their devices while at 10,000 feet.

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    NTSB TO HOLD A PUBLIC FORUM


    Washington, DC – The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a safety forum on professionalism in aviation beginning Tuesday, May 18, 2010. The three-day, en-banc forum will be chaired by NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman.

    “NTSB’s investigations into the midair collision over the Hudson River last August, the crash of Colgan Air flight 3407 in February 2009, and the October 2009 Northwest pilots’ overflight of their intended airport provided the impetus for this forum because all of them clearly demonstrated the hazards to aviation safety when pilots and air traffic controllers depart from standard operating procedures and established best practices,” Hersman said. “During the forum, we will gather information on the screening, selection and training of pilots and controllers and methods to reinforce professionalism and excellence.”

    Panelists participating in the forum will represent industry, government agencies, labor, academia, and professional associations. A technical panel composed of NTSB staff from the Offices of Aviation Safety and Research and Engineering, and the NTSB Board Members, who will make up the Board of Inquiry, will question the panelists.

    Dr. Tony Kern, an internationally recognized human factors and pilot performance expert, is the forum’s keynote speaker. The names of the participating panelists and the agenda will be provided in early May.

    The forum, titled “Professionalism in Aviation: Ensuring Excellence in Pilot and Air Traffic Controller Performance,” will be held at the NTSB’s Board Room and Conference Center, located at 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C. The public can view the forum in person or by webcast on the NTSB’s web site.

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  • | |

    Passi Probe Nabs Top of DGCA Heap

    After allegations of attaining a pilot license under “extraordinary circumstances,” Garima Passi came to public attention.

    The flight school where Garima Passi had trained observed a hard landing, and determined that Passi had a disabling fear of aircrafts. Although the American Sabeena Training Centre she attended says that Passi “lacks basic aircraft control and she does not complete the gap between knowing and applying,” five days after attending a Uttrakhand training school, Passi was cleared to fly.

    (We do not know if she attended the full course.)

    Garima Passi quit SpiceJet airlines last month.

    So how did she get a license in the first place, and how was she flying for Spicejet? It helped that her father is (or was) Director of Air Safety Northern Command?

    RS Passi, the joint director of DGCA has been relieved of his duties pending probe into his role into his daughter procuring a fake pilot license.

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    MCAS At the forefront of Boeing 737 MAX Controversy


    Everything that is essential to a plane’s operation should be included in pilot training. The pilot must know his tools backward and forward. What happens when that training is curtailed?

    On March 19th, the US Department of Transportation announced that its inspector general will audit the 737 Max 8’s certification process. Some pilots say they know how to address problems with the 737 Max 8’s maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) system. Pilots say the MCAS software system can (apparently) be disabled by hitting the trim switch on the control column. Difference training is required for pilots who fly the Max, but apparently (MCAS) explanations, operations, procedures related to the differences were left out of the manual. The flight manual of Boeing’s 737 Max 8 planes mentions MCAS computer system only once. If MCAS information was cut from the manual to prevent the MCAS from having to be included in 737 Max transition training, whoever cut it considered only that it would save 737 Max operators training costs, but not what it would cost in terms of human lives.

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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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    Door Locks Out Air India Captain


    On May 13/14, 2013 the cockpit door of one of Air India’s planes locked the captain out while he was using the toilet. The co-pilot and trainee pilot had to land the plane in Bhopal for ground maintenance engineers to fix the problem.

    On May 13, the flight took off from Delhi for Bangalore.

    Air India’s official statement was that the captain couldn’t return to the cockpit because the door was locked and that all efforts to open it, even from inside, failed during Tuesday’s flight from New Delhi to the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

    The airline claims that no one was endangered during the “unscheduled landing.” No doubt the passengers watching the pilot attempting–and failing–to open the cockpit door would disagree. Apparently there was some degree of panic among the passengers. This is just one in a long series of air safety issues from Air India.

    After the plane landed at 5.55pm, ground maintenance engineers did fix the door. The flight continued to Bangalore at 8.45 pm, and made a safe landing at at 8.45 pm.

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