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- Air Safety | Brazil | Lawsuit | pilot error
Gol Goes On and On
According to Brazil’s Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, critics are “playing politics” when they disparage the state of Brazil’s aviation industry, in which occured in the past year, the crash of a Gol jetliner over the Amazon in which 154 people died, and July’s disaster when an Airbus crashed into a warehouse in Sao Paulo killing 199 people.
Nevertheless, during a seminar in the United States, the President of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers, Marc Baumgartner criticized the Brazilian Air Force which oversees Brazil’s air traffic control system for trying to punish the controllers. “The Brazilian Air Force invested lots of energy to arrest and prosecute its own workers but none to fix its (air traffic control) system.” He also said that “it’s a question of time before a new air accident happens again in Brazil.”
So far, a military court has declined to indict five Brazilian air traffic controllers for the GOL crash. Two American pilots face charges in a civilian criminal court in connection with the same crash. A Congressional commission report supports the indictment of pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino.
- Air Safety | Brazil | politics
Chairman Resigns!
At a press conference Oct 31 in BrasÃlia, Board Chairman Milton Zuanazzi, the last remaining member of ANAC’s former board of directors of the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) announced his resignation from the board.
Zuanazz based his decision on claims that the National Civil Aviation Agency was the “scapegoat†for Brazil’s current air crisis.
He said publicly that he “would not like to work†with Defense Minister Nelson Jobim, a position which is certainly understandable since Jobim has been trying to remove him since July.
He delayed his resignation to the current time to allow Jobim to find new directors. Zuanazzi says that Jobim is not well-informed about Brazil’s aviation system, and classifies some of his proposals as “reckless.” The last straw was Defense Minister Nelson Jobim’s proposal to increase the required distance between airplane seats. Doing so would force carriers to raise fares, Zuanazzi said.
One wonders how raising the distance between airplane seats will increase the safety factor, which is at the root of the whole aviation problem in Brazil.
Zuanazz recommends Civil Aviation Secretary Solange Paiva Vieira to be his replacement.
- Air Safety | Brazil | update
Pilots Notorious from GOL Case Find Four Year Sentence Commuted
Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino were sentenced to four years and four days in prison in the Amazon plane collision case when the Legacy 600 jet they were piloting made physical contact with a Gol Airlines Boeing 737. All 154 passengers and crew of the Boeing 737 were killed.
Their sentence was commuted to being banned from flying for four years, and also community service to be carried out in the US. The sentence accuses the pilots of being imprudent and inexperienced, and contends that they turned off the transponder, which the pilots deny.
The Gol jet collided over the Amazon rain forest with an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet owned by ExcelAire Service Inc. of New York. The GOL InvestigatIon alleges that the pilots of the New York-based executive jet had placed the transponder and collision avoidance system on standby before colliding with the Boeing 737 operated by GOL Linhaus Aereas Inteligentes SA on Sept. 29, 2006.
The Legacy landed safely but everyone on the GOL jet died.
Flight controllers failed to alert pilots that they were on a collision course and also did not notice the transponder was off; in fact they deny turning it off.
On September 29, 2006, at approximately 4:57 pm, Brasilia standard time, a midair collision occurred over the Brazilian Amazon jungle, between a Boeing 737-800 (PR-GTD) operated by Gol Airlines of Brazil, and an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet (N600XL) owned and operated by Excelaire of Long Island, New York.
The accident investigation is being conducted under the authority of the Brazilian Aeronautical Accident Prevention and Investigation Center (DIPAA). Under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13, the United States, as state of registry and operator of the Excelaire Legacy, and state of manufacture of the Boeing 737 and Honeywell avionics equipment in both airplanes, has provided an accredited representative and technical advisors for the investigation. The U.S. team included the accredited representative from the major aviation accident investigations division of the NTSB, as well as technical advisors in operations, systems, air traffic control, flight recorders, and aircraft performance. Additional technical advisors from Boeing, Excelaire, Honeywell, and FAA have also been included.
If the transponder is off in either one of two approaching each other aircraft, the T Cast anti collision avoidance system will not work for either. We know there was no aural
warning in either plane to “pull up. Pull up.” Or vice versa.So for sure the transponder was off in at least one of the planes, and that was probably the Legacy. However, in this Honeywell transponder, it is relatively easy for the
transponder to go off without the crew knowing that (due to design flaws.)ATC put both aircraft coming at each other from oppostive directions at the same altitude, FL 370, and failed to track and warn, even though they had to know that for some reason the transponder in the exec jet was not working properly.
And who should we look for accountability to if the pilots are being held responsible for a Honeywell issue?
Gulfstream International Airlines Fined
Gulfstream International Airlines is being fined by the FAA for improper scheduling of flight crew duty, installation of unapproved air conditioner compressors and improperly maintained vent blowers on the airline’s fleet of 27 BE-1900-D aircraft.
See the press release:
Washington Headquarters Press Release
For Immediate Release
May 21, 2009
Contact: Laura Brown
Phone: (202) 267-3883FAA Proposes $1.3 Million Civil Penalty for Gulfstream International Airlines
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed a $1.3 million civil penalty from Florida-based Gulfstream International Airlines, Inc. for violations of the Federal Aviation Regulations.
The alleged violations include improper scheduling of flight crew duty time, and the installation of unapproved air conditioner compressors and improperly maintained vent blowers on the airline’s fleet of 27 BE-1900-D aircraft.
An FAA review of the airline’s electronic record-keeping system for tracking crew duty and rest time revealed that Gulfstream International did not accurately input the proper data from its manually generated hard-copy aircraft logbook records into the electronic system. The discrepancies resulted in scheduling crew members in excess of daily and weekly flight time limitations.
During a June 2008 inspection, the FAA determined that the airline had installed unapproved automotive air conditioner compressors on its aircraft between September 2006 and May 2008. Following the FAA inspection, the airline grounded all of the affected aircraft and replaced the units with approved aircraft air conditioner compressors.
In the course of a July 2008 inspection of Gulfstream International avionics and component shops in Fort Lauderdale, the FAA discovered that the airline had installed improperly maintained vent blowers on six planes between January 2008 and June 2008. Following that inspection, the airline replaced the blowers with properly maintained units.
Gulfstream International Airlines has 30 days from the receipt of the civil penalty letter to respond to the FAA.
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(end of release)George’s Point of View
Gulfstream is a former employer of the Captain Marvin Renslow of the ill-fated Continental Connection 3407 flight. If Gulfstream had kept proper records, trained and maintained according to accepted protocol, the Buffalo NY tragedy may never have happened.
- Air Safety | EASA | News
EASA Proposes Fatigue Across the Board
New European rules ‘harmonizing’ the workload limits across 27 member states could allow pilots to fly aircraft for 22 hours without sleep, increasing a pilot’s work day from 16 hours 15 minutes to 20 hours, and the maximum shift time for a long haul flight with two pilots from 12 to 14 hours, as well as eliminating the need of a third pilot on long-haol flights.
The proposals have raised the attention of BALPA, The British Airline Pilots Association.
The seventeen percent increase in workload will result in a 5.5% higher chance of an accident.
It is inconceivable how EASA can call “flying farther with less rest-time, more frequently (7 starts in a row), no back up crew and more fatigue” bringing standards “up” when it is actually leveling down safety standards. Such a workload flies in the face of the constructs of human biology.
But the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) “has said they have no fundamental problem with the rules.”
Aero Friedrichshafen
Global Airshow for General Aviation
April 8-11 2010Friedrichshafen, Germany –
Over the past 30 years, AERO, a former aerial sports and leisure fair, has developed into an international communication platform for the businessoriented General Aviation industry.We would show more of the 2010 Press Releases but they aren’t up yet.
This page will have the hall, exhibitors, products, aircraft, novelties and contact information “Starting in spring 2010.
The show’s brochure will be available approx. 4 weeks prior to the show.
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