09 NOV 2007 _______________________________________ *NTSB makes curbing controller fatigue a priority *NTSB Issues Series Of Recommendations To Grand Canyon Tour Operators *FAA Mandates New Wiring Safety Measures For Airliners *Bomb Threat Forces Evacuation Of AAL Flight At LaGuardia *Antonov 12 Accident (Sudan) *TAG Aviation Agrees to Settle with FAA over Control Matter *Aircraft Icing an Ongoing Concern *Terror in the sky: Engine falls off plane *El Al plane from N.Y. hits flower crates at B-G Airport *Near misses at overcrowded airports top safety concern *************************************** NTSB makes curbing controller fatigue a priority USA TODAY WASHINGTON — Fatigued air-traffic controllers were added Thursday to the National Transportation Safety Board's list of the nation's most pressing transportation safety problems. The NTSB, which investigates accidents and makes recommendations, has long advocated for stricter rules regarding fatigue among pilots and flight mechanics. Better regulations for preventing exhaustion among air controllers are among the latest proposals to be included on the agency's newly released list of "most wanted" improvements. USA TODAY ANALYSIS: Fatigue key to mistakes among pilots "Our aviation system requires that everyone be vigilant, that everyone be alert," board member Deborah Hersman said. "With respect to controllers, we know that fatigue is the enemy of good judgment, and what we need most from our controllers is good judgment. We need them to be well rested." Other high-priority safety fixes on Thursday's list included steps to reduce icy conditions threatening airplanes, crack down on companies that let unqualified drivers operate trucks and prevent near-collisions on runways. In most cases, the NTSB said the federal agencies that oversee transportation safety have made little progress fixing them, despite years of urging. FIND MORE STORIES IN: Federal Aviation Administration | National Transportation Safety Board | Comair NTSB investigators concluded this year that controller fatigue may have played a role in an August 2006 airline crash in Lexington, Ky., that killed 49 people. Its probe of the crash found that a Comair jet took off from the wrong runway, and that the air-traffic controller on duty at the time was working with only two hours of sleep. NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker called fatigue "insidious" and said it could lead to "catastrophic results" if the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) doesn't move quickly to ensure controllers aren't working exhausted. A spokeswoman for the FAA, Laura Brown, said the agency plans to change controllers' schedules to prevent fatigue. "We've got an incredibly safe system right now, and we're always looking for ways to make it safer," she said. The NTSB started calling for tougher limits on pilots' hours two decades ago and has blamed pilot fatigue in 10 commercial aviation accidents since 1993. A USA TODAY analysis of records collected by NASA found Wednesday that hundreds of pilots, mechanics and others have reported that fatigue led to lapses on the job, including six unidentified airline pilots who fell asleep in midflight. The NTSB also raised concerns about fatigue by railroad crews and pipeline workers. The agency said fatigue was a probable cause of 16 major railroad accidents over the past 23 years. Most of the fatigue cases involve freight trains, but the NTSB also has said it contributed to accidents involving passenger trains. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-08-ntsb_N.htm *************** NTSB Issues Series Of Recommendations To Grand Canyon Tour Operators Says FAA, TOPS Need To More-Closely Monitor Tours Spurred on by two separate accidents involving helicopters conducting air tour operations over the Grand Canyon, on Thursday the National Transportation Safety Board issued recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Tour Operators Program of Safety geared towards weeding out problem pilots, before they can cause accidents. The Board cites the September 2003 downing of a Sundance Helicopters AS350 A-Star in Descent Canyon, as well as an accident two years before involving an AS350 flying for Papillon Airways, as reasons for the recommendations. Over the course of its investigations, the NTSB found the pilots involved in both accidents had received complaints from passengers on previous flights, stating they had flown recklessly. Both pilots received complaints they had flown too closely to canyon walls; in the case of the Papillon pilot, passengers described incidents where the pilot would deliberately fly towards a wall, with his head turned to talk with passengers in the back, "until the passengers screamed for him to turn around" -- as well as descending steeply "to show passengers what it was like to drive a car off a cliff." The NTSB also found those complaints were not addressed by the respective companies. Both Sundance and Papillon are enrolled in the Tour Operators Program of Safety (TOPS). The companies receive independent safety audits under the program, which also governs flight operations within strict criteria. The NTSB recommended the Federal Aviation Administration: Require periodic en route surveillance of all repetitively flown commercial air tour routes in the Grand Canyon area, including those routes located outside of the Special Federal Aviation Regulations No. 50-2 airspace. (A-07-89) Require all commercial air tour operators to maintain records of all safety-related complaints and complaint correspondence regarding pilot performance, document what actions the company took to address each complaint, and make the records available to the principal operations inspector for periodic review. (A-07-90) Require all commercial air tour operators to maintain the names and contact information of all passengers, along with the respective flight's identification number, for at least 30 days following the flights. (A-07-91) Encourage commercial air tour operators to establish a structured flight operations monitoring program that incorporates routine reviews of all available sources of information to ensure that pilots are conducting flights in accordance with company operating practices. (A-07-92) In addition, the Board also recommended the Tour Operators Program of Safety: Expand the safety audit program to include a review of records of all safety-related complaints and complaint correspondence regarding pilot performance. (A-07-93) Expand the safety audit program to include en route surveillance of all repetitively flown commercial air tour routes in the Grand Canyon area. (A-07-94) Revise the safety audit program guidance materials to include a clear definition of "air tour flight" to ensure that auditors and members effectively implement en route surveillance of all air tour flight routes. (A-07-95) FMI: Read The Full Recommendations(.pdfs) http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2007/A07_89_92.pdf aero-news.net **************** FAA Mandates New Wiring Safety Measures For Airliners Aimed At Preventing Damage Caused During Maintenance The Federal Aviation Administration has mandated that US airlines take additional measures to protect wiring in aircraft from damage during maintenance. "This is a big safety step," said FAA spokesman Les Dorr, a spokesman for the Washington-based agency. "The surprise issue is that maintenance was causing damage to the wiring bundles." Bloomberg reports the FAA will give Boeing, Airbus and other manufacturers two years to develop new maintenance and inspection procedures, and three years for the airlines to implement them. "We encourage the FAA to adopt this collaborative approach in upcoming rules," said Victoria Day, a spokeswoman for the Air Transport Association. Modern airliners have flight systems and customer amenities which can require more than 100 miles of wires bundled throughout the aircraft. Aging, and handling during maintenance, can cause insulation to fail, with potentially catastrophic results. Transport Canada concluded a fire on board Swissair Flight 111 near Nova Scotia in 1998 was likely caused by faulty wiring in a video entertainment system on the plane. The subsequent crash into the Atlantic Ocean claimed 229 lives. TWA Flight 800 exploded over the Atlantic near New York in 1996, killing 230 people. The National Transportation safety Board determined the explosion in a fuel tank was likely ignited by a wiring short. FMI: www.faa.gov, www.airlines.org aero-news.net ************** Bomb Threat Forces Evacuation Of AAL Flight At LaGuardia Plane Had Just Arrived From Chicago Some tense moments at New York's LaGuardia Airport Thursday morning, as officials quarantined an arriving flight from Chicago when a bomb threat was reported against the plane. The Associated Press reports an unidentified person called the New York Police Department, saying he had seen information on the internet claiming there was a bomb onboard American Airlines Flight 382. "The Port Authority in New York alerted us to a security issue after the plane landed," said American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan. Authorities quickly met the MD82, which arrived at the airport just after 1130 EST, and moved the plane from the gate to an isolated area of the airport. The 122 persons onboard were evacuated, before personnel moved in with bomb-sniffing dogs. Nothing was found. FMI: www.aa.com, www.panynj.com aero-news.net *************** Antonov 12 Accident (Sudan) Status: Preliminary Date: 08 NOV 2007 Type: Antonov 12 Operator: Juba Air Cargo Registration: C/n / msn: First flight: Crew: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Airplane damage: Written off Location: Khartoum-Civil Airport (KRT) (Sudan) Phase: Landing Nature: Cagro Departure airport: Khartoum-Civil Airport (KRT/HSSS), Sudan Destination airport: Juba Airport (JUB/HSSJ), Sudan Narrative: The An-12 cargo plane returned to Kahartoum shortly after takeoff due to technical problems. The airplane crash-landed and caught fire. (aviation-safety.net) ************** TAG Aviation Agrees to Settle with FAA over Control Matter Settlement acknowledges that no wrongdoing was admitted by business aviation leader GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TAG Aviation Holding and its TAG Aviation USA subsidiary today agreed to a settlement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), resolving FAA concerns over TAG USA’s relationship with FAA regulated aircraft operators. Terms of the settlement, in which the FAA will receive $10 million, include FAA acknowledgement that neither company admits to any wrongdoing. “This settlement will allow TAG Aviation Holding to continue with the divestiture of TAG Aviation USA business interests,” said Robert Wells, CEO of Geneva-based TAG Aviation Holding. “We are disappointed in the unprecedented settlement amount demanded by the FAA, but felt it was in TAG USA’s and their clients’ best interests to put this matter to rest. TAG Aviation Holding remains proud of its nearly decade-long relationship with the TAG USA organization and their record of safe and successful business aviation activity in the U.S.” Signing the settlement fully resolves all matters related to a recent FAA investigation of TAG Aviation USA’s relationship with AMI Jet Charter. TAG acted as a charter broker for AMI flights and owned a 49% equity interest in the company. Two payments amounting to the total settlement cost are to be paid by TAG by the end of this year. For its part, the FAA has agreed not to delay consideration of requests to transfer aircraft currently under TAG USA’s management or previously operated by AMI Jet Charter to other certificated air carriers, as envisioned in the sale to Sentient. TAG Aviation Holding’s non-US subsidiaries have not been affected by today’s settlement with the FAA. Beginning in 1998, TAG USA and AMI Jet Charter have each built a well-deserved reputation for the highest levels of excellence, with a primary focus on safety and regulatory compliance from both companies. In 2006, AMI was given the highest safety designation by a top industry research firm. It has never had an accident or incident in the nine years since it was founded. About TAG Aviation Holding and TAG Aviation USA TAG Aviation is a network of companies providing worldwide personal air travel solutions. TAG Aviation USA, TAG Aviation SA, TAG Aviation (UK) Ltd., TAG Aviation Espana, TAG Farnborough Airport (UK) and TAG Aviation Asia are subsidiaries of TAG Aviation Holding S.A., a privately held company based in Geneva, Switzerland. More information is available at www.tagaviation.com. *************** Aircraft Icing an Ongoing Concern, FAA Warns Pilots The FAA today released a new fact sheet, “Safer Flying in Icing Conditions,” to remind operators that aircraft icing is a “continuing concern in all parts of aviation, from small planes to jumbo jets.” To combat icing-related accidents, the FAA is employing a multi-pronged approach to icing issues, using immediate safety actions and longer-term rule changes. Since 1994 it has issued more than 100 Airworthiness Directives to address icing safety issues on more than 50 specific aircraft types–most notably the ATR 42, Mitsubishi MU-2 and Cessna Caravan. Earlier this decade, the FAA addressed myths surrounding activation of pneumatic de-icing boots by requiring activation of boots at the first sign of ice accumulation. In April the agency proposed a rule that would require an effective way to detect ice buildup or let pilots know that icing conditions exist, and produce timely activation of the ice-protection system. And three months ago the FAA published a final rule outlining new airworthiness standards for the performance and handling characteristics of transport airplanes in icing conditions. NASA also recently introduced a free online in-flight icing training course. http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/aircraft-icing-an-ong oing-concern-faa-warns-pilots/?no_cache=1&cHash=d4bf48159e ***************** Terror in the sky: Engine falls off plane, pilot flies to safety Nationwide Airlines pilot dumped fuel until he landed plane Wednesday (CNN) -- Brendon Pelser said he saw pure terror in the faces of his fellow passengers after an engine fell from a wing as it took off from Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday. Men were sweating profusely, women were crying. "There was fear on their faces," Pelser said. "Everyone started panicking." But the pilot of Nationwide Airlines' Boeing 737 Flight CE723 was able to fly long enough to dump fuel and make an emergency landing at Cape Town International Airport. Including crew, 100 hundred people were on the plane that departed at 3:50 p.m. on an hourlong flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. No one was injured. The jet had only been in the air about 10 minutes before the engine fell. "We heard something crash and bang, the plane veering left and right. A person on the right side said the engine was missing -- had broken clean off," said Pelser. Watch Pelser describe how the flight crew told passengers to "prepare for the worst" » "They flew us in very slowly. We were all prepared for the worst. We went into the fetal position, head between the legs," he said. "Then we hit the runway." "I did kind of pray. I didn't want to die. I'm not really ready to die," the 33-year-old said. An object had been sucked into the engine as the nose wheel lifted from the ground and officials are trying to identify it. The engine-to-wing supporting structure is designed to release an engine "when extreme forces are applied," to prevent structural damage to the wing, Nationwide said on its Web site. The airline described the incident as a "catastrophic engine failure." As the nose wheel lifted from the ground, "the captain heard a loud noise immediately followed by a yaw of the aircraft (sideways slippage) to the right," the airline said in a news release. The flight instruments showed the No. 2 engine on the right side had failed, it said. Pelser said he spent the night in Cape Town, then flew back to Johannesburg where he lives, on the same airline. Nationwide said the engine had undergone a major overhaul in March 2005 at "an approved Federal Aviation Authority facility in the U.S.A." and had flown only 3,806 hours since then. "These engines typically achieve 10,000 hours between major overhauls," Nationwide Airlines' press release stated. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/11/08/emergency.landing/?iref=mpsto ryview ***************** El Al plane from N.Y. hits flower crates at B-G Airport; no injuries An El Al airplane carrying approximately 450 passengers from New York was involved in a ground accident at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Thursday, causing no damage. The Boeing 747-700 brushed against crates of flowers which were positioned too close to its parking bay. No passengers were hurt in the incident, and all disembarked without hindrance. Yitzhak Raz from the Israel Aviation Authority's accident department was investigating the incident. According to Raz the flowers were simply placed too close to the airplane's motor in its parking bay, and it brushed against them. "In this case, no danger was posed to passengers. All that happened was a slight scrape of the motor's exterior," he said. Deputy Manager of Operations at El Al, Captain Lior Yavor said the airplane was not damaged in the incident. The accident was the most recent in a string of dangerous incidents at Ben Gurion airport. The International Civil Aviation Organization conducted a probe in Israel in January, finding severe safety breaches in almost all of the country's air facilities. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922026.html *************** Near misses at overcrowded airports top safety concern, experts warn BRUSSELS, Belgium - As global air traffic expands at record rates, experts warn that near misses on the ground at overcrowded airports are becoming one of the most serious safety concerns in civil aviation. The danger arises when airports try to alleviate bottlenecks by adding runways. That leads to more taxiways intersecting the runways, raising the risk of accidental incursions - where an aircraft or vehicle becomes a collision hazard by venturing onto a runway being used for takeoffs and landings. "Runway incursions are right at the top of our agenda," said Gideon Ewers, spokesman for the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations. "They are happening more and more frequently as air traffic increases and older airport designs struggle to cope. Of course most incursions pass without incident, but when they do occur the results are very bad indeed," Ewers said. The deadliest disaster in aviation history occurred 30 years ago as a result of such an encroachment. The ground collision in 1977 between two fully loaded Boeing 747s in Spain's Canary Islands killed 583 people. Since then, numerous such accidents have ended in tragedy and experts are now racing to develop systems to prevent even deadlier disasters. According to Eurocontrol, an average of two incursions take place each day at Europe's 600 civil airports. And in the United States - where reporting standards are different - 182 incidents have been recorded so far in 2007, compared to 158 last year. The most serious recent accident occurred on Oct. 8, 2001, when a Scandinavian Airline System MD-87 on takeoff smashed into a Cessna Citation which had encroached onto the runway. A total of 118 people died. More frequent are close calls like one in July at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where two jets missed each other by less than 10 metres. A United flight with 133 passengers on board missed a turn on the taxiway and entered an active runway where a Delta jet was about to land with 167 passengers. "In an ideal world you'd have no runway crossings at all," said Paul Wilson, head of Airport Operations at Eurocontrol, Europe's air navigation agency. "But the reality is that as an airport becomes busier, it also introduces more sophisticated guidance systems and procedures to prevent runway incursions." A Federal Aviation Administration study found that the well-designed Washington Dulles airport in the United States had only four incursions during the period from 1997 to 2000, compared to Los Angeles Airport with a complex layout of multiple intersecting runways and taxiways - which had 29 incursions. Experts say that when the volume of traffic - projected to double over the next 10-15 years - is taken into account, the potential for near misses and fatal accidents is growing fast. "It is a problem that affects just about every airport," Wilson said. The international pilots' union blames poorly designed airports as the primary cause of incursions. High traffic density, complicated operational procedures, nonstandard markings, and poor comprehension of English among cockpit crew add to the risks. Although low proficiency in English - the standard language of aviation - plays a major role, foreign pilots also complain that air traffic controllers in the United States contribute to the problem by using confusing abbreviations or long and complex instructions. As a result, the FAA now requires U.S. controllers to provide clear and explicit taxiing instructions to pilots, including the exact route to their designated runway and not merely which runway to use. In order to minimize future risks, Eurocontrol, FAA and other national air safety agencies are looking into using advanced runway incursion alert systems that detect potential collisions on runways and give advance warning to controllers and pilots. One such system developed by the National Aerospace Laboratory in the Netherlands and used at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport alerts controllers to potential collisions by flashing labels on their radar screens together with audio signals. All aircraft and vehicle movements are depicted in real time on an airport map, unlike conventional radar which has a lag of several seconds. And when Schiphol added a new, sixth runway, multiple runway crossings were specifically avoided, said Bert Ruitenberg, the airport's operational safety expert. Instead, taxiways to the new runway were built around the perimeter of existing runways. In addition, red lights embedded in the tarmac prevent planes from entering an active runway. Ruitenberg said such stop lights should become standard airport equipment. http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hOxd8PyHxyxLuLdLhIfD52qNwS1w ******************* Curt Lewis, PE, CSP WEB: www.fsinfo.org