Avoid this often deadly scenario through timely recognition and appropriate responses.
Many stall accidents that occur in VMC result when a pilot is momentarily distracted from the primary task of flying, such as while maneuvering in the airport traffic pattern, during an emergency, or when fixating on ground objects.
WASHINGTON – Deborah Hersman was officially sworn in today for a second two-year term as NTSB chairman. She became chairman on July 28, 2009. She was nominated for the second term by President Barack Obama on June 28, 2011, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 2, 2011.
“I am deeply honored to continue serving as chairman of the NTSB,” Hersman said. “It has been a privilege to lead this remarkable organization with its dedicated and professional employees. I look forward to continuing to work with my fellow board members and the staff to make transportation safer for our citizens.”
Her term as chairman ends on August 3, 2013. She is concurrently serving a second five-year term as board member, which runs through December 31, 2013.
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.
Flight attendants made the news this weekend with one flight attendant bringing her gun to work even though it was not Bring Your GUn to Work day. (Note: It is NEVER bring your gun to work day for a flight attendant, even if you have a valid Chester County permit to carry a concealed weapon as Republic Airlines FA Jaclyn Luby did.) The .38 caliber Smith and Wesson Airweight was in her purse. After it was confiscated when it showed up at checkpoint, a police officer was attempting to unload it and discharged it into the wall. Oops. I guess the wall was judged guilty, and it didn’t away. Bad wall. The Flight Attendant is being charged with disorderly conduct, and the police officer is on desk duty.
There’s also Horizon Air flight attendant Wendy Ronelle Dye who said that a passenger brought her an iPad he found on a seat, and she never used it, honest, even though the owner used an ap to track it to her house, and police say they found some of her personal information on it.
To phone or not to phone, that is the question. Or to update it a little:
Do radio signals from cell phones disrupt key airplane functions?
OR
Are current U.S. cell phone bans outdated and useless at promoting air safety?
That is today’s question.
In U.S. air space, cell phones are banned, but all European carriers do not ban cell phone use.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration says cell phones may emit signals that can affect aircraft communications, navigation, and flight control.
There’s some piggyback legislation in the FAA reauthorization bill that would prohibit cell phone use on planes by anyone other than flight crews or law enforcement. Currently once planes reaches 10,000 feet it is up to the carrier to allow or disallow passengers to turn on most portable electronic devices except cell phones.
Boeing, for example, prohibits the use.
PRESS RELEASE-Safety bulletin 12 February 2010–IFALPA has been notified by its Spanish Member Association SEPLA that the negotiation of a new labour agreement between Spanish controllers and AENA (the ATM service provider) has taken an unexpected twist after the approval by the Spanish government of a “Urgent Royal Decree” which changes the previous agreement.
The Federation has no position on the state of the negotiations or the tactics employed in the dispute. However, the dispute does raise some safety concerns. Consequences may include increased tension in the controller’s work place, economic worries of ATC staff, unanticipated shortage of ATCOs and unexpected delays throughout Spanish airspace.
SEPLA recommend that aircrews exercise extreme caution when flying within the Spanish FIRs (this includes the Spanish mainland, Balearic and Canary Islands as well as delegated airspace) and to consider the following safety recommendations:
Indian pilots can be looking forward to better hours. The Indian Pilots Guild, the Indian Commercial Pilot Association, the Society for Welfare of Pilots ( Jet Airways) and the Federation of Indian Pilots sent the (Indian) government a list of suggestions to minimise pilot error due to fatigue.
Collisions and near collisions are attributed to long hours, unreasonable work scheduling and pilot fatigue.
