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TSA Draws a Zero Tolerance Line in the Sand

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    Cracked Window Sends Plane Back to Airport

    What: Bulgaria Air Boeing 737-300 en route from Tel Aviv to the Bulgarian city of Burgas on the Black Sea.
    Where: Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv
    When: May 14
    Who: 146 passengers
    Why: When a crack was discovered in a window, the plane returned to Tel Aviv. There were no injuries. Passengers were provided replacement transportation.

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    Safeland Technology

    U.S. carriers including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines Inc are testing Aviation Safety Technologies LLC’s SafeLand concept, a new technology which is designed to provide numerical scores relaying accurate information about conditions on the tarmac. The system is still in development.

    The website touts AST’s SafeLand software as “the first-ever technology designed to leverage the availability of real time data to monitor and measure aircraft systems such as speed brakes, spoilers, flaps and hydraulic and mechanical braking systems and many physical parameters such as speed, deceleration, temperature, pressure and wind in order to accurately report true aircraft runway surface characteristics, true braking friction, cornering friction and tire and brake wear.”


    Click to view the Information Flow Diagram on AST’s website

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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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    Buffalo: Haunting Questions

    George’s Point of View

    When it is all over, after the crash, after the investigation, after the finger-pointing, after all the intangible blame has been assigned to corporeal cause, and the reproachable have been reproached, it is important to remember that one of the objectives of a crash investigation is prevention.

    Accidents happen. It is a fact of life. Because accidents happen no matter what we do, it is crucial that we do everything possible to reduce their likelihood. When we hear contributing factors of the Buffalo New York crash included that one pilot’s training lacked the procedure of how to handle the particular crisis (how to “respond to a warning system designed to prevent the plane from going into a stall”), and that the co-pilot was sick, we need to look at every factor. We should recognize opportunities to make procedural changes that reduce the accident factor.

    I am sure that inclusion of this training is going to be the most obvious solution.

    Regardless of training, is anyone is considering that sending those pilots flying under the weather conditions of that night is a reckless policy that dumps administrative blame on pilots who can no longer defend themselves, and whose jobs are simply to follow orders?

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    Updating the Brazilian Statistics on the body count/recovery

    Of the 58 Brazilians aboard the notorious Rio-Paris Air France Flight 447, 18 have been found and identified.

    Of the 153 victims, 74 reside on the ocean floor. Some of those may be the 40 lost Brazilians.

    During the recovery process, some families chose not to disturb the remains. Some of the bodies were simply lost at sea.

    There is still a lot of finger-pointing going on. Whatever the cause, Air France Flight 447 stalled and crashed in bad weather, killing 153.

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    Blown Lap Joints and Other Points of Fatigue

    The older 737’s which ruptured their five-foot tops (at the lap joints) are just a drop in the proverbial bucket. Or, if you will, the canary in the cave. Because they are a sign of what is to come, if Boeing, and in fact ALL plane makers, don’t step up the inspection guidelines for metal fatigue in 15 year old planes. The FAA is mandating initial and repetitive electromagnetic inspections “to detect cracking in a specific part of the aircraft that cannot be spotted with visual inspection.” The FAA Emergency Airworthiness Directive pdf can be found here.

    Sure, since the fuselage crack on the Southwest 737 on April 1, older model 737’s have demonstrated a propensity toward metal fatigue. On that particular plane, in March, eight instances were found of cracking in the frame and six cracked stringer clips which hold the skin. To be sure, Southwest did the right thing by grounding its 80 737s and checking them all because it turned out that five of those inspected had cracks in the same location. Those 18-inch roof sections are being repaired according to the recommendations of Boeing and the NTSB with a large aluminum patch

    But what about 15 year old 757s? They should put all the older planes of comparable cycles—let’s not limit this to Boeing!— What about 15 year old Airbuses? —under scrutiny for metal fatigue. Are they not just as likely to blow as a 737?


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