George Hatcher

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    Turbulence: Rough Ride on United Airlines

    United Boeing 737-700 #N23708 en route from Denver to Billings had 114 passengers and 5 crew when it encountered turbulence. The tower reported winds at “200 at 2-8 gust 3-6.”

    Fifteen minutes outside of landing, three crew and two passengers sustained injury. According to interviews, one flight attendant struck the ceiling, and also a passenger. An infant flew out of its parents arms and landed on a seat when it felt like the plane dropped. Passengers complained of inadequate feedback from the airline.

    Pilots declared an emergency; and after they landed safely with emergency services on standby, they taxied to the gate. The flight attendant who struck the ceiling knocked out a ceiling panel and suffered a bleeding wound for which “medical attention at the gate” was requested. One flight attendant is in intensive care.

    One passenger in the video below says it felt like the plane was “hit from the bottom.” At that point, loose items in the cabin were disturbed.

    In George’s Point of View

    We can only hope that one day they will have a fix for turbulence. This is terrible.

    See Videos Below


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    UPS Flight 1354 Agenda and Media Logistics for Investigative Hearing


    The National Transportation Safety Board today released the agenda for the investigative hearing on the ongoing investigation into the Aug. 14, 2013 crash of UPS Airlines flight 1354, an Airbus A300-600, on approach to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Ala.

    The hearing will be held February 20 at the NTSB’s Board Room and Conference Center at 429 L’Enfant Plaza SW in Washington and begins at 8:30 a.m.

    Hearing witnesses, including representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration, Airbus, UPS Airlines, Independent Pilots Association and the Transport Workers Union will testify and answer questions from NTSB Board members, technical staff, and parties about non-precision approaches, human factors and flight dispatch issues. The agenda, list of panel witnesses, biographies and other related information is available at the hearing event page at http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/2014/ups1354_hearing/index.html

    Investigative exhibits for the hearing will be placed in the electronic docket at the start of the hearing and will also be available on the hearing event page once the hearing begins.

    NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman will be available to answer questions from the media at the conclusion of the hearing. Additional details about the availability will be included in an advisory on Wednesday.

    Television coverage of the proceedings will be by network pool provided by CNN. Escorted cutaway for video media will be permitted for brief periods throughout the hearing. Still photographers will be permitted in the seating area of the Board Room and by escort to areas in front of the witness panels.

    Because of construction at and around L’Enfant Plaza, satellite and other media trucks will have to check in for parking and running cable through the construction zone. Please RSVP to eric.weiss@ntsb.gov by Feb. 19. Media access to the Board Room is available beginning at 7:30 a.m.

    A media room is also available with tables, chairs and an audio mult box. Generally-accepted media credentials will be required for access to the media room. In addition, a fully equipped overflow room has been established and will serve as a storage area for video equipment during the hearing.

    Seating for the general public in the Board Room is on a first-come, first-served basis. The hearing will be webcast live. Access to the webcast can be found at www.ntsb.gov.

    ===
    The National Transportation Safety Board has scheduled an investigative hearing on February 20 into the crash of a UPS Airbus A300-600 on approach to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Ala., on Aug. 14, 2013.

    The two flight crew members were killed and the airplane was destroyed when it impacted the ground less than a mile short of Runway 18. The cargo flight had originated from Louisville, Ky. Runway 18 was being used because the main runway at the airport was closed for repairs at the time of the airplane’s arrival.

    The one-day hearing will examine:

    Execution of non-precision approaches, including initial and recurrent training, adherence to standard operating procedures, and proficiency
    Human factors issues associated with effective crew coordination and resource management applicable to this accident, including decision-making, communication, fatigue and fitness for duty, as well as monitoring and cross-checking, policies, standard operating procedures, guidance, and training provided to UPS crewmembers.
    Dispatch procedures, including the training, evaluation, roles and responsibilities of UPS dispatchers and the limitations of dispatch-related software.
    The investigation is ongoing and this hearing will develop additional facts to support the investigation. The hearing will be held in the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center in Washington, D.C. A detailed agenda and a list of attendees will be forthcoming.

    Parties to the hearing will include the Federal Aviation Administration, UPS, Airbus, the Independent Pilots Association and the Transport Workers Union. The accredited representative from the French Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile (BEA) will participate on the technical panels.

    The determination of the probable cause of the crash will be released when the investigation is complete. Just prior to the start of the hearing, the public docket will be opened. Included in the docket are photographs, interview transcripts and other documents.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________________

    NTSB public events are also streamed live via webcast. Webcasts are archived for a period of three months from the time of the meeting. Webcast archives are generally available by the end of the event day for public Meetings, and by the end of the next day for Technical conferences.

    If you wish to obtain a copy of NTSB meetings, please contact the NTSB Records Management Division at (202) 314-6551 or 800-877-6799. You may also request this information from the NTSB web site or write the following: National Transportation Safety Board, Records Management Division (CIO-40), 490 L’Enfant Plaza, SW,Washington, DC 20594.

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    Telluride Crash kills three pilots


    At 11:20 a.m. Sunday, three pilots were en route from Telluride Regional Airport to Cortez, Colorado. After the Arizona Cloudbusters Inc Beechcraft 35-33 Debonair “disappeared,” the Civil Air Patrol instituted a search and found the wreckage a mile from the airport. Sherry Anderson, 57, and Sherman Anderson, 64, of Phoenix, and Eric Durban, 48, of Mesa, died in the single-engine plane crash. There was light snow, one mile visibility and light wind at the time of takeoff. Shortly after takeoff, the plane impacted mountainous terrain then caught fire.

    The Andersons were commercial pilots. Durban was a military pilot. They were members of Arizona Cloudbusters Flying Club.

    Their last communication was with Telluride airport on takeoff at 12:40p.m. which is when ATC instituted the search. The plane was spotted at 5:17 pm.

    An investigation is underway.

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    Wellington Florida Plane Crash


    A Sonex, a two-seat homebuilt kit plane crashed into a lake at Greenbriar Dog Park a mile from Wellington Aero Club, killing the one person aboard the plane. The pilot, Leonard “Link” McGarity had been practicing “touch and goes” The accident occurred on Feb 17 in the morning. By 12:55 rescue crews were on the scene but unable to assist as the pilot died at the scene. McGarity was a longtime professional pilot who flew for American Airlines and Marine helicopters, and had a residence at Wellington Aero Club.

    Prior to the crash, witnesses heard the plane sputter.

    The Wellington Aero Club is a community built around a runway. A neighbor who is a seasoned aviator was quoted saying of McGarity, “If this happened to him, it’s something wrong with the plane, not him. He knew what he was doing.”

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    Two Hawker Siddeley Accidents in one week

    A Hawker Siddeley 748 en route from Juba International Airport to Rubkona crashed in the Sudan. The plane had a crew of four and crashed while on a humanitarian mission.

    The cargo was a total loss. Reports are that there were fatalities and survivors in the crash but details haven’t been released.

    On Feb 12, another Hawker Siddeley HS-125-700B operated by Sirius-Aero with two crew flew out from Sheremetyevo to Vnukova Airport on a ferry flight. The pilots realized that the right hand main landing gear was not operating and notified ATC. They made a safe landing on foam. In that flight, neither pilot sustained injury but one wing of the plane sustained some damage.

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    Dulles Crew Finds Dead Stowaway

    A South African Airways Airbus A340 at Dulles International Airport flew from Johannesburg, South Africa to Dakar, Senegal to Virginia with an extra passenger. Crew discovered the body in the wheel well on Thursday. FBI, U.S. customs, border patrol, fire and rescue crews and Dulles police responded to the scene. Fairfax County Medical Examiner’s Office has custody of the body.

    See the Videos


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    Overland Suffers Smoke


    On Feb 8, 2013, an Overland Airways ATR-72 flight OJ1175 from Abuja to Ibadan, Nigeria, suffered engine issues with smoke pouring from one engine. Passengers saw the smoke which started a panic, and they evacuated through the emergency exit.

    There were no injuries reported.

    The passengers remained in Abuja awaiting a replacement plane.

    The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is investigating.

    This picture displays why the passengers were panicked. Words alone don’t do it justice, do they?

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    Pegasus “Sochi Olympics” Hijack Attempt


    On Feb 7 2014, on a Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-86J en route from Kharkov to Istanbul, the 45-year-old passenger seated in “2F” hollered “BOMB!” threatened there was a bomb in the baggage compartment and wanted to hijack the plane to go to the Sochi Olympics. His attempt to enter the cockpit was foiled. When pilots entered Turkish airspace, they informed authorities.

    An F-16 Turkish military fighter jet was called to provide an escort.

    The flight landed in Istanbul (on the Asian side of the airport where Pegasus has its hub) where the Ukrainian man was taken into custody.

    There was no bomb. None of the 110 passengers were hurt.

    The passenger was just intoxicated.

    Videos Below

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    AI Tires Blown

    On Feb 2, Air India Flight AI-191, a Boeing 777-337ER, en route from Ahmedabad to Mumbai blew three tires on landing. The crew was able to taxi to the gate with assistance. No injuries to the 260 passengers resulted from the blown tires, and there were no reports of injuries using the emergency exits.

    The AI flight’s eventual destination was the US. Passengers continuing their journey were provided an alternative Boeing 777.

    THere’s no indication if the tires blew do to the runway surface, tire quality, a hard landing or other reason. The incident is under investigation.

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    Disgruntled Ryanair Passengers

    A Rabat to Paris flight is usually two and a half hours long.

    But on a Ryanair flight from Rabat, Morocco, to Paris a passenger became sick and the crew diverted to Madrid. Because of noise restrictions, the crew had to land in Nantes instead of Paris, and had to overnight there.

    Somewhere between Rabat and Nantes, passengers angry at being in the plane for seven hours, took food and drinks and were hostile to the flight crew.

    Personnel in Nantes said the Ryanair passengers were behaving in an “animal and barbaric fashion.” Apparently police were called but nothing was done.

    A hotel was provided in Nantes. The passengers did finally make it to Paris via bus.

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    Viral Video Pilot’s Engagement Cut Short in Cachoeira do Sul


    Last month, Arthur Demetrio must have been full of hope and good news when he took his girlfriend Thays Pereira da Cruz flying, and asked her to marry him by having his parents hold up banners saying “Thays Marry me” in an airfield in Cachoeira do Sul Brazil.

    See the proposal here

    I wish this were the end of the story.

    This Wednesday, Demetrio spoke to his fiancée Thays on the phone.
    Later that day, his Cessna 140 aircraft was flying out of the airfield where he proposed.

    He crashed in Cachoeira do Sul.

    His student Darlan Kabata dos Santos, 31, and he both died. There was almost no warning, though Demetrio had time to tell ATC he was having plane trouble, something about the elevator, which controls the nose of the plane.

    Officials informed his fiancée; she was the first to know. The family is devastated.

    Arthur Demetrio will be buried in Santa Catarina, where he is from.

    The accident is under investigation.

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    Utility Crew Perish in Cable Connection

    The DBS Helicopters Bell 206L-3 LongRanger III helicopter in Silt, Colorado, that got tangled in power cables doing Holy Cross Energy powerline inspections crashed, killing the pilot and crew.

    The accident occurred at 11:20 a.m. where the shared Holy Cross and Xcel Energy power lines cross Dry Hollow Road about 1.6 miles south of Silt. There were witnesses who saw the accident and attempted to help.

    The poles that were being inspected were fifty feet high, and the helicopter was supposed to be flying thirty feet over that.

    The small fifty-foot debris field is on rough hilly terrain.

    Owner and chief pilot for DBS Helicopters, Doug Sheffer died in the accident. He had 22 years and 8,000 hours of flight time. Larry Shaffer who worked for Holy Cross Energy and Christopher Gaskill who worked for HotShot Infrared Inspections were also fatalities. They were filming the trouble spots along the route, and recording the locations on GPS.

    I do not want to diminish the tragedy of this accident by saying that helicopter accidents such as this are common, but I will say they happen too frequently, even when the pilot has significant experience flying in mountain terrain, and rescue.

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    Life Jacket with AirPocket Can Save Lives


    The Lifejacket Airpocket Plus (LAP) combined lifejacket and hybrid rebreather is a lifesaver. Imagine a life jacket that lets you breathe air. Genius, right? I’ve seen too many helicopter crashes to and from oil rigs. Some of those fatalities should be preventable. This hybrid life jacket would really come in handy to have on a Super Puma helicopter plunging into the North Sea, or the Gulf of Mexico. I hope I’m never in that situation, but if I am, you can bet I’ll be wearing one, and I’ll have read the directions.

    A couple of lives may not have been saved with it simply because of directions.

    A rebreather is an apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of exhaled breath to permit the recycling of available oxygen. The hybrid unit is a little something extra.

    The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) believes the instructions on how to use this device need to include the information that the rebreather has an air supply; so if someone is in the middle of drowning, they don’t have to be going down with a last breath of air. The rebreather already has some. It’s not like a scuba diving tank with loads of air, but hey, it’s a way to breathe if you’re submerged in a helicopter and don’t have gills. What if all you need is just enough air to keep you alive to get the seatbelt off, or to swim out of an opening? That’s some precious air, all right.

    So kudos to the revised pre-flight briefing material. Even if it is a knee-jerk reaction after another tragic helicopter crash, good idea AAIB.

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    Medical Plane Crash Leads to Resignations in Romania


    A medical rescue crew boarded a plane and left Bucharest for Oradea to pick up transplant organs from a patient who just passed away. But they became victims themselves.

    We have seen intensive searches for missing planes all over the globe; but here’s a medical rescue team aboard a BN-2A Islander who suffered tragedy in the accident when an inadequate search for their missing plane failed to reach the plane in time. Pilot Adrian Iovan and student Aurelia Ion died from severe injuries and cold. Authorities failed to find the site in the first six hours. The fallout from that failure has led to the resignation of political officials including Minister of Interior, Radu Stroe, Director General of Romatsa, Aleodor Frâncu and Chief of General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU), Ion Burlui. Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta dismissed state secretary Constantin Chiper, who was in charge of the rescue mission, and who should have coordinated the teams better.

    A doctor who survived Radu Zamfir said that he gave the emergency service his exact GPS location provided by a smartphone.

    Pilot Adrian Iovan died of internal bleeding and cold. AURELIA ION was an officer-student in the fifth year at the UMF Carol Davila, Military Medicine Institute in Bucharest and was also doing an internship at Fundeni Hospital.

    A ranger found the wreckage and initiated the rescue. Initially all aboard—four doctors, a nurse and two flight crew—were alive.

    Near Petreasa, Romania the airplane sustained substantial damage but the seven aboard initially survived. Near Poiana Horea, the plane had engine trouble. Pilot ADRIAN IOVAN tried to make an emergency landing, came down on a hillside in deep snow near Fântânele village near a lake.

    Video of Funeral: Romanian plane crash victim and medical student buried at Ghencea Military Cemetery in Bucharest

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    Experimental Crash in Brazil kills Deputy Mayor


    A small plane, an INPAER Explorer#PR-ZAL with three aboard was en route from Campos dos Amarais, Campinas to London but disappeared from radar while talking to ATC in Pirassununga Brazil at about ten on January 23rd. The experimental plane was registered but not certified, and barred from flying over populated areas.

    The Brazilian Air Force, Botucatu and São Manuel police forces were searching with a C-105 Amazonas, a H1 and an Eagle Helicopter, and found the remains of the passengers in dense forest, in a rugged area near Monte Alegre.

    The Squad of Campo Grande rescue team is on the scene.

    Locals who heard the failing engine, a roar and saw a flash of light in the woods notified authorities.

    The remains have been identified as:
    -Alderman and Deputy Mayor of Suzano (SP) Jessé Almeida,
    -Edson Geraldino, identified as owner of the plane.

    The identity of the third party, Rubens Geraldino, has not been confirmed by the family. The passengers (uncle and nephew) were from Mogi das Cruzes, SP, Brazil.

    Video Below

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    Blackhawk Lawsuit


    Photographer Clark Moody

    Benjamin Franklin-Poor Richard’s Almanac
    For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
    For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
    For want of a horse the rider was lost.
    For want of a rider the message was lost.
    For want of a message the battle was lost.
    For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
    And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

    I’m not a pilot or a helicopter designer. I’m not an aviation engineer, or an aviation mechanic. Not an Aeronautical Scientist, Aerospace Engineer or Aviation Safety Inspector.(Although I do have the resources of 500+ experts in my Anonymous Experts database. I don’t consider myself an expert but I quote the experts.) I’m not even a farrier who pounds nails into horses’ hooves. What I am is a guy who works with people who were in aviation crashes; and I haven’t a clue what a “yaw boost servo” is, but that’s what failed in a Black Hawk crash, injuring two people and killing two. The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk was owned by the US Army and crashed in Texas A&M College Station, TX.

    Someone in the Army performed a tedious and detailed technical readiness assessment to make the decision to purchase this Black Hawk in good faith.

    Someone was trusting that Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Sikorsky Support Services, United Technologies Corp., Parker-Hannifin Corp. and Parker Aerospace Group had all their ducks in a row, all the T’s crossed, all the i’s dotted. That is to say that all the helicopter designers, aviation engineers, aviation mechanics, Aeronautical Scientists, Aerospace Engineers and Aviation Safety Inspectors (and all the unnamed professionals of the aforementioned companies) who had brainstormed to create this marvel of engineering, then pushed it to its limits and found it to be without flaw. The helicopter was conceived by, designed by and built by companies who have convinced the world that they know helicopters better than anyone else alive. No one knows more than they how important those tests are.

    There were indications of problems long before the flight. I glanced online 2005 notices of the coast guard seeking sources for the servos repair—servos to be used on the Sikorsky H-60 class helicopter. One match does not a conflagration make, but I only looked online for about ten seconds.

    The short story: the crew took off in the helicopter, and then it spun to the left until it wrecked. Can you imagine how helpless the pilot and copilot felt? How helpless the two crew who could do nothing? There was that moment aboard when some of them or all of them realized the helicopter was probably going to kill them.

    So the “yaw boost servo” contributed to the pilots being unable to control the helicopter. The loss of control and crash were due to the failure of a part. It’s that old thing—kingdom lost for want of a nail.

    A couple of people on that helicopter survived. One of them, Matthew J. Smith filed a lawsuit Jan. 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas against Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Sikorsky Support Services, United Technologies Corp., Parker-Hannifin Corp. and Parker Aerospace Group, citing negligence, seeking damage over $100,000. That’s a lot of money for want of a nail. But our armed forces are risking their lives. They need the most reliable equipment—100,000 will not be nearly enough.

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    Parachute Flight Comes to Quick Halt


    On Jan 14, 2013, six people—pilot Marcelo Rodríguez, two instructors and three parachutists—were aboard a Cessna 205 during a parachute flight in Punta el Este, Uraguay.

    When the engine lost power, the pilot made a forced landing and flipped. No fatalities were reported. The injured include Uruguayans, two Argentine women and one other. The injured were treated on the scene by mobile emergency units and then transferred to medical centers in Maldonado and Punta del Este.

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    Southwest Flight Lands at Wrong Airport; Pilots Suspended

    The pilots who flew flight 4013 (Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700) and landed at the wrong airport nine miles from the correct airport on Sunday have been suspended. Yes, they landed safely but at the wrong airport. Hello. The PIC and copilot have a combined flight experience of twenty-six years. Guess they weren’t (as the video says) “paying attention.”

    Nothing for the passengers to worry their pretty little heads about.
    Please note the above line is sarcasm.

    Southwest Airlines said:

    “The Southwest Airlines Pilot in command of flight #4013 safely landed at (PLK) Taney County airport this evening. The Boeing 737-700 carried 124 Customers and a crew of five and was operating as a scheduled flight from Chicago Midway to Branson.

    Our ground crew from the Branson airport has arrived at the airport to take care of our Customers and their baggage. The landing was uneventful, and all Customers and Crew are safe.”

    The runway was half as long as normal, the plane stopping three hundred feet short of the drop off at the runway’s end.

    The PIC was cleared to land at Branson, right before it nailed the landing at M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport.

    So we’re all waiting for the investigation to hear the answers to why it happened, why the co-pilot didn’t catch the mistake (or maybe he did?), if confusion between Branson and Southwest is a common thing, and all those other questions that come up.

    See Videos Below

  • Getting Past Indifference

    In George’s Point of View

    When we are working on a case trying to get compensation for victims of a crash, we find that the court relies on friends and family to paint a picture of who the victim was, and how they used to fit in the world. Of course we all know that every human being is priceless; but it is the court’s duty oftentimes to put a numeric value on a person for the sake of compensation. Some courts can be remarkably indifferent to individuals. I was reminded of that truism when reading the word-pictures rendered by the boyfriend of one of the Kazan Airport Crash victims, Yana Baranova …” an incredibly focused and mature businesswoman. Her colleagues describe her as a “rising star” of their industry, and her drive would have doubtless carried her beyond her own expectations….” He barely glances over this description of her, but in his words, we do see the snapshot of a vital young woman lost in her prime.

    Yana’s boyfriend is unaccustomed to dealing with the Russian bureaucracy, and refers to “indifference and a lack of surprise boarding on apathy” and officials who write off that attitude with “This is Russia.” As this young man notes, my experience too has been that Russian courts that can be apathetic.

    It is true that the opposite of love is not hate; it is apathy. Elie Wiesel said that, and it is true. Apathy is the callus that has formed—like a healed blister over an injury— thickened, hardened, insensitive tissue formed over a wound to protect it. Over time, it may become expedient for an official not to stop and feel the pain, but it is a tragedy when that happens. Something of humanity is lost. When dealing with government and the courts, one has to remember that they have seen it all, not once but a hundred, a thousand times. Their souls are probably more blistered than your worst blistered feet in new shoes with no socks, worn day after day, in grueling conditions. No wonder they are calloused, insensitive, even hard. It is a grievous fact that too often robes of government, of jurisprudence, which should be worn to empower and embrace the rights of man and the rule of justice are often worn as shields and blades against the individual. For the law to work at its best, it should be objective, but never sacrifice sensitivity to the victims, or the families of the victims.

    Sometimes it is up to our lawyers to remind the courts that the best and brightest of the legal profession went into the field because they were idealists who love the law; who stepped into their professions because they wanted to spearhead change for good, rights of man; who probably had specific agendas where they wanted to affect change; who believed they would be more effective than they are; who ran into barrier after barrier and who may have given up; who may have substituted apathy for the appearance of objectivity.

    After consulting for forty years on a huge variety of cases, maybe I haven’t seen it all, but I’ve come pretty close. I can’t claim to have a crystal ball, but there’s not a whole lot that surprises me. I’ve developed a pretty good instinct about where and when courts go left instead of right.

    In the US, our “rights-based” ethics system means that we all have the right to be treated as equal to others. Other countries may have “utilitarian ethics based on “good outcomes” vs “bad outcomes”, often with the rights of the individual getting crunched somewhere under the wheels of the system.

    We can only hope to do our best to represent the individuals who were lost. We can only do our best to remind those who sit in judgement that underneath the armor and callouses we all wear to protect ourselves from being fragile in the face of all the storms of life, that we are all human, all deserving of hope, concern, and ethical treatment.

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    Mishaps of the day

    Some events that happened today:

    • December 16, 2013, on JetBlue Flight 836#N661JB, the Airbus A320 arrived at the gate at JFK airport, New York, and the left wing struck the jet bridge. There was only minor damage and no injuries reported.
    • In Farmington NY on December 17, 2013, a Piper PA28#N43080 engine caught fire when the plane started up. The fire was extinguished, with unknown damage.
    • December 16, 2013, a Lancair/235#N15TG landing at John’s Island Charleston SC, when the nose gear collapsed. Minor damage was reported.
    • December 16, 2013, a Cessna/172 #N421ER was taxiing when the wing struck a light pole. The accident occurred in Wickenburg Arizona. Minor damage was reported.
    • December 16, 2013, an experimental plane, a Zenith 601#N581SL crashed in Leakey Texas under unknown conditions.
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    Sikorsky Crash off Bintulu Coast

    On December 12, 2013 at 7L45 a.m., a MHS Aviation Sikorsky S-76C #9M-STE had eight aboard when the flight encountered bad weather. They were flying to identify oil and gas exploration sites when weather forced them to ditch in the sea 159 kilometers off the coast of Bintulu.

    The helicopter was leased from MHS Aviation by Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas.

    The two pilots and six oil workers aboard were rescued by a passing ship. Apparently there were no fatalities, and no specific reports of injury. They were hospitalized in Miri.

    The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) is investigating.

    The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) has not released whether or not the helicopter was recovered from the ocean.

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    Automated Cockpit Props up Undertrained Pilots

    The Asiana investigation continues.

    Back in July, the pilot who was insecure about making a visual approach in a 777 crashed at San Francisco International Airport on a visual approach in Asiana Flight 214’s Boeing 777. Specifically, he told NTSB investigators “it was very difficult to perform a visual approach with a heavy airplane.” The glideslope was not working at the San Francisco airport, and that was an instrument the (*undertrained) pilot was relying on. The plane came in so low the tail struck the seawall and broke off. The video below shows the plane rotate 360 degrees and catch fire by the runway.

    New Asiana Crash Video

    Video with news commentary

    Before impact, the relief pilot in the jump seat repeated several times “sink rate” trying to warn the pilots at the controls that the jet was too quickly losing altitude. One of the pilots said “It’s low.” Then there was a stick shaker alert (which occurs when the plane is about to stall from flying too slowly. I once had a pilot do a presentation that included the disturbing grinding of the stick shaker alarm as it violently vibrated the control yoke. It’s an alarming direction to the pilots to increase thrust.)

    When the stick shaker went off, the instructor called for a go around. It went off four seconds before impact. It was too late.

    Both the instructor and the captain were relying on the auto throttle, and both were unaware it was off.

    In George’s Point of View

    I do not know how anyone can watch the surveillance video of the Asiana crash and not marvel that of the three hundred and seven people aboard the plane, there were only three deaths.

    I’m not discounting the wounds of the injured, nor those three deaths, nor the tragedy of one of the teen victims being run over by an airport crash tender. (That’s a whole tragedy by itself—who knows if she might have survived but for being so obscured by foam that she was not visible to crash responders—through the firemen who carried her out surely must have known she was there.)

    A dozen critically injured, a hundred-sixty-nine injured, but only three deaths.

    It’s nothing short of a miracle. Especially on inspecting the condition of the burned out shell of the hull. Especially on reviewing the just-released surveillance video that shows the plane splintering after impacting the firewall, cartwheeling like a crippled gymnast down the runway and dissolving into a cloud of dust and flame. No jet fuel fire here——leaking oil ignited as it poured on to a hot engine.

    The Kazan crash (Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363) from November 17th is fresh in my mind. Everyone aboard–fifty people (forty-four passengers and six crew) all died. The plane just fell from the sky while landing at an impossible 75-degree-nose-down attitude, piloted by a pilot whose license is apparently fake. Everyone in that crash died. (Tatarstan surveillance below.)

    Of course one can see the physics—that everyone on the Tatarstan flight received the full direct impact, versus how the rolling of the Asiana plane dispersed some of the impact energy. Still, there is tremendous force in a crash.

    I know I should be talking about pilot training, because this is yet another crash that appears to be due to pilots becoming too dependent on technology. But I will focus on that another day. Right now, I am overwhelmed after looking at the crash tape.

    Asiana—Cartwheeling Catastrophe
    I am surprised that I have neither heard or seen choruses of amazement that all but three people survived the rolling catastrophe in San Francisco. Some credit should perhaps go to the rescue crew, quick actions of the cabin crew, performance of the emergency slides, and maybe even the aerodynamics of the 777 whose seats are required to withstand 16g of dynamic force.

    Sure, there was error involved in this crash, but when you look at the survival rate, some credit is due to the 5.5 billion Boeing put into research, development and safety of the 777.

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    Clutha Helicopter Crash


    The preliminary investigation of the Clutha helicopter crash revealed …

    • 95 liters left in the police helicopter
    • no evidence of engine failure
    • no evidence of gearbox failure
    • all significant components were present
    • all rotor grades were attached at the time of the crash
    • neither main blades nor tail blades were rotating

    Other than ruling out what is not the cause, investigators may be no closer to determining the reason the helicopter fell out of the air. The report says there was “no evidence of major mechanical disruption of either engine” of the Eurocopter EC135 as it returned from a police operation in Dalkeith, Midlothian, on the night of the crash.

    There were no flight recorders, but there is radar data and radio communications. The pilot had 5,500 hours, 646 in type.

    The wreckage is at AAIB’s headquarters, and the investigation continues.

    A fund has been opened for the victims. Donations can be made to the fund by calling 0141 287 7878 and paying by debit or credit card. Cash or cheques can be handed in to the council’s service desk at 45 John Street, Glasgow G1 1JE and bank payments can be made to Clutha Appeal Fund, sort code 83-44-00, account 10804129.

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    FAA Proposes $304,000 Civil Penalty Against Great Lakes Aviation


    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing a $304,000 civil penalty against Great Lakes Aviation of Cheyenne, Wyo., for allegedly conducting 19 flights with aircraft that were not in compliance with Federal Aviation Regulations.

    Great Lakes operated the aircraft in conditions in which the carrier could reasonably expect frost, snow or ice to adhere to the planes, the FAA alleges. The FAA maintains that Great Lakes flew Beech 1900 aircraft out of Hays, Kan., in January 2011 with deicing fluid that exceeded the maximum temperature of 180 degrees Fahrenheit. The Great Lakes deicing manual states that fluid heated to more than 180 degrees could damage the aircraft or the deicer.

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    Mozambique Crash Video


    DNA tests will be performed on the 31 bodies so far recovered from the Namibia’s Bwabwata National Park, site of the crash of Mozambique Airlines Flight 470, a Embraer ERJ 190-100 IGW (ERJ-190AR) with 33 aboard. The plane is a total wreck, Written off (damaged beyond repair), burnt wreckage scattered in a low impact crash, possibly the result of bad weather.

    The hundred-seat plane was only 1 / 3 full.

    Recently revealed facts

    • Only one body was found intact according to Theo Shilongo, investigation leader.
    • The pilot was in Botswanan airspace when the pilot notified ATC of problems, though it took Mozambiqan authorities 3 hours to inform Nambia that the plane was off radar.
    • The search was called off due to bad weather, but the next day locals called in reporting the crash.
    • The wreckage will be transported to Rundu for investigation.
    • The remains have been transported to Windhoek.
    • An Angolan Pop artist, Jose Pascoal Luvuala (AKA Action Nigga) is among the dead.
    • Angola Inspector General in the Ministry of Finance, Manuel John Landa and two colleagues are among the dead.

    Video of the Debris Field