11 DEC 2007_______________________________________*Commuter Jet and Boeing 747 in Near Miss *Pilot Error Said Caused Turkey Plane Crash*Man Who Shone Laser At Police Helo To Face Federal    Charges *Jet Airways buys five more A330-200s*New tests for foreign pilots in wake of Phuket crash*Sen. Schumer to meet FAA boss over airport    anti-collision technology*NTSB moves fire risk up the safety agenda*Cargo flight develops hydraulic problem; lands safely****************************************Commuter Jet and Boeing 747 in Near Miss By MATTHEW L. WALDA 37-seat commuter jet arriving at Kennedy Airportnearly collided with a Boeing 747 cargo jet on Sundayafternoon when the Boeing, which was supposed to landon a perpendicular runway, failed to do so andcontinued across the smaller jet’s path, controllersat the airport’s tower said yesterday. Skip to next paragraph MultimediaMap A Close Call Controllers were using the perpendicularrunways to keep up with the stream of arrivals. Therunways are separated by a few feet of grass, but theflight path from one leads directly across the other.“These airplanes hooked up as much as you could hookup without actually hooking up,” said Barrett Byrnes,the president of the Kennedy tower chapter of thecontrollers’ union, the National Air TrafficControllers Association.Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the Federal AviationAdministration, said yesterday that the agency wasreviewing radar data to see how close the airplaneswere, but was not immediately able to characterize thesituation. She said, “This was a controlledsituation,” with both planes given instructions afterthey aborted their approaches.A spokesman for American Airlines, the commuter jet’sowner, said the company’s crew members left at the endof their shift without filing any reports of anunusual event. But Senator Charles E. Schumer, inresponse to the news of the event, said he would meetwith the acting F.A.A. administrator to demand thatnew anticollision equipment be installed at theairport. Mr. Byrnes said the cargo plane, operated by EVA Airand arriving from Anchorage, had been assigned to landon Runway 13 Left, but touched down too far along therunway, so the pilot decided to take off again. Butthe commuter plane, American Eagle Flight 753,arriving from Montreal, was approaching Runway 22Left. Although the runways are perpendicular, thepavement is separated by several feet of grass and donot intersect.According to Mr. Byrnes, a controller in the towertold the American Eagle plane, an Embraer 135, thatthe 747 would be passing in front of it but that theAmerican Eagle plane was cleared to land. “Eagle comes back and says, ‘We’re going around,’” Mr.Byrnes said. He told the commuter jet that it wascleared, but the pilot said again that he would goaround. The plane made a tight turn to the right, topass behind the 747, Mr. Byrnes said. He said he did not know precisely how close the twoplanes came or how much clearance the commuter jetwould have had to land under the 747. The turbulentwake of the 747 would have been a concern at lowaltitude, Mr. Byrnes said. Kennedy is increasingly using perpendicular runways tomanage the flow of traffic, which, controllers argue,adds risk to its operations. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/nyregion/11miss.html***************Pilot Error Said Caused Turkey Plane CrashISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — An initial investigation showsthat pilot error caused the Nov. 30 crash of anAtlasjet plane that killed all 57 people on board,Turkish news media reported Tuesday.Officials have said there was no indication ofsabotage in the crash, which occurred in good weatherminutes before the plane, on a flight from Istanbul,was scheduled to land in Isparta, southwest Turkey.CNNTurk television and the Zaman newspaper reportedthat authorities say they believe the pilot becamedisoriented while preparing to land, but that furtherinvestigation was needed."The primary data suggests the pilot lost spatialconsciousness," Zaman quoted an unidentified civilaviation official as saying.The office of Ali Ariduru, head of Turkey's CivilAviation Authority, said he was not immediatelyavailable to comment on the reports. Atlasjet, theoperator of the flight, declined to comment.The Atlasjet MD-83 was flying from Istanbul to Ispartawhen it crashed early on the morning of Nov. 30,killing 50 passengers and seven crew members.Authorities said the plane was off its flight pathwhen it crashed. The wreckage was found seven milesfrom the airport, on a mountain around 5,000 feethigh.Atlasjet, a private airline established in 2001,operates regular flights inside Turkey and charteredflights to Europe and other foreign destinations.****************Man Who Shone Laser At Police Helo To Face FederalCharges Police Pinpoint Location, Man Found Minutes LaterAs the ANN staff works diligently to ready ourEnd-Of-Year coverage, one category of citizen hasrisen to the very top of our "Aero-Twerps" list for2007: bozos who shine laser pointers at flyingaircraft. And lo and behold, we have another one totell you about.A Medford, MA man will likely face federal charges,after he allegedly illuminated a State Policehelicopter with a portable laser beam device.The Boston Globe reports the light never actuallyshined in the pilots eyes, or interfered with theflight... and, as has become rote in such matters,officials add there was no link to a terrorist threat.The helicopter was flying on a mission to secure a gastanker that was leaking near the shore when the flightcrew noticed a laser light shinning on the aircraft.Police onboard the helicopter used equipment topinpoint and identify the origin of the laser beam inthe Medford-Somerville area.A search for the unidentified male ensued. Officersfrom the US Coast Guard -- as well as Medford,Somerville and state police -- searched the area, andarrested the suspect about 90 minutes later.The case has been turned over to federal officials,since illuminating aircraft in non-emergencies is afederal offense.Incidentally... a quick search of the ANN archivesrevealed at least 10 stories of similar occurencessince January 1 of this year. Sigh...FMI: www.medford.org/Pages/index, www.faa.gov,www.fbi.govaero-news.net***************Jet Airways buys five more A330-200sMUMBAI (Reuters) - Jet Airways India Ltd, thecountry's top private carrier, said on Tuesday it hadexercised an option to buy five additional AirbusA330-200 aircraft, as it replaces its fleet and addsnew routes.Jet had previously bought 10 A330-200 aircraft in2005. The five additional aircraft, which arescheduled for delivery from October 2009 to 2011, will"maintain and expand the company's domestic andinternational operations", it said.Jet introduced flights to the United States in Augustand is adding more routes to Europe and North America.It expects to get half its revenue from internationaloperations by 2009.*****************New tests for foreign pilots in wake of Phuket crash The One-Two-Go air tragedy at Phuket airport inSeptember has prompted the Civil Aviation Departmentto require that all foreign pilots working in Thailandcooperate better with their Thai co-pilots. Deputy director-general of the department WuthichaiSinghamanee said that after the crash which killed 90people in Phuket, officials observed One-Two-Go pilotsduring flights and found that the airline's manyforeign pilots did not cooperate well with their Thaico-pilots. The foreign pilots' working culture was different fromthat of the Thais, they said. Thai pilots had to get to know each other beforeworking well together, but foreigners did not need todo so, the official said. The department is about to issue a new regulationrequiring all foreign pilots working in Thailand topass a test on their ability to cooperate with theirfellow workers. The Crew Resource Management (CRM)test will focus on cooperation between pilots andco-pilots. However, Mr Wuthichai denied that poor cooperationbetween the pilots was a factor behind the Sept 16crash of the One-Two-Go flight, one of three budgetairlines operating in Thailand. Apart from the CRM test, the department will alsorequire all foreign pilots working in Thailand to betested on their knowledge of Thai aviation laws. TheCRM and the Thai aviation law tests will apply to allforeign pilots working in Thailand. At present, foreign pilots are only tested on flightsimulators. Mr Wuthichai added that aviation officials would alsoobserve pilots in-flight on all other Thai airlines. http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/11Dec2007_news03.php***************Sen. Schumer to meet FAA boss over airportanti-collision technologyNEW YORK (AP) - U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Mondayhe planned to meet with the acting head of the FederalAviation Administration to demand that the latesttechnology for averting plane collisions be installedimmediately at the region's three major airports. Schumer, D-N.Y., said next week he would tell ActingFAA Administrator Robert Sturgell to put LaGuardia,John F. Kennedy International and Newark (N.J.)Liberty International airports at the top of the listto receive the most advanced surface detectionequipment technology. The technology, known as ASDE-X,alerts air traffic controllers to potential collisionswithin 5 miles of an airport, including on runways. LaGuardia was scheduled to be among the last airportsto receive it in December 2010, Schumer said. Kennedyand Newark were scheduled to receive the new system inJuly of 2009, the FAA said. On Monday, Schumer said Kennedy had moved up on thelist and was to receive the system in August 2008. "How many times does the FAA have to hit the snoozebutton before they wake up and realize we need thebest equipment at our New York airports and weshouldn't be at the bottom of the list?" Schumer said.Since a plane taxied onto a runway where a plane wasabout to land at Newark on Thursday, Schumer begancalling for the FAA to expedite installing thetechnology, which he said was particularly helpful inbad weather and at night, at New York area airports,among the busiest in the nation. Also last week, a congressional report said there was"a high risk of a catastrophic runway collisionoccurring" in the country because of poor leadership,unreliable technology and overworked air trafficcontrollers. On Sunday at Kennedy, there was another near-collisionof two airplanes preparing to land, Schumer said. He said the air traffic controller at Kennedy, a25-year veteran, said it was "'the closest I have everseen two airplanes get together."' "That makes two near-collisions in New York airportsin four days and confirms fear that New York skies andrunways have become the wild west of Americanaviation," Schumer said. "The question looms: Whenwill the FAA wake up?" FAA spokesman Jim Peters disputed that Sunday'sincident was a near-collision, which the FAA calls anincursion. He said the FAA wasn't formallyinvestigating the incident but planned to meet withthe controller and review radar maps. "We have nothing to substantiate it at this point,"Peters said Monday. "There's nothing to indicate therewas a potential mid-air collision." New York's three airports already have groundsurveillance radar although it doesn't offer as muchdetail about an aircraft's whereabouts as the newtechnology, Peters said. Near misses at New York area airports increased fromsix in 2003 to 13 in 2006, Schumer said. Although the FAA decided in October 2003 that the newsystem was ready to be installed across the country,it is operating in 11 U.S. airports, Schumer said.Twenty-four more airports are scheduled to get it. An FAA spokesman had no comment on the plannedmeeting. The FAA has said the schedule to install thetechnology was based on factors including how busy anairport is and the complexity of an airport's runwayand taxiway infrastructure and procedures. The lack of the technology combined with understaffedair traffic controller towers at the region's threemajor airports create "a perfect storm for anaccident," Schumer said. The FAA was investigating the incident at Newark. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--runwaycollisions1210dec10,0,5904201.story**************NTSB moves fire risk up the safety agenda 11-Dec-2007 : FIRE suppression systems should bemandatory for US freight carriers, according to theNational Transport Safety Board, following theinvestigation of a fire that destroyed a UPS DC-8 atPhiladelphia Airport.The cause of the freighter fire on 7 February 2006,was not determined but investigators concluded itstarted in one of the three cargo containers.Inadequate certification test requirements for smokeand fire detection systems and the lack of an on-boardfire suppression system, contributed to the fire, saidthe report.Investigators found rechargeable lithium batteries inthe aircraft’s debris but could not connect them tothe cause of the fire. The NTSB has now called forresearch by the Hazardous Materials SafetyAdministration into the risks of transporting lithiumbatteries on board passenger and cargo aircraft.http://www.aircargonews.net/article.asp?art_id=2890***************Cargo flight develops hydraulic problem; lands safely Chennai (PTI): A Singapore Airlines Cargo flight onTuesday developed hydraulic problems minutes beforelanding at Chennai International Airport but managedto touch down safely, airport sources said. Airport sources said the pilot of the jumbo jetalerted airport authorities about the hydraulicproblem 10 minutes before landing, sending the airportofficials into emergency mode with fire service, CISFpersonnel and airport officials on standby to avertany mishap. However, the aircraft landed safely at 1255 p.m, thesources said. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200712111540.htm