18 JAN 2008 _______________________________________ *British Airways 777 Lands Short At Heathrow *'Hero' pilot hailed as Heathrow crash landing probe opens *NTSB Assisting In B-777 Landing Accident In London *TSB: final report on Cessna 208 engine failure accident *Navy seeking cause of helicopter crash near Corpus Christi *Error by traffic controller leads to close call for Phoenix airplane *Vietnam seizes live snakes smuggled on flight from Bangkok *Eclipse Aviation Receives Level D Simulator Certification on First Attempt *Finalist named to run Denver International Airport *Correction **************************************** British Airways 777 Lands Short At Heathrow Passengers Evacuated; Minor Injuries Reported Thankfully, only minor injuries are reported following a Friday morning accident at London Heathrow Airport, involving a Boeing 777 that landed short of the airport's south runway. BBC news reports the British Airways airliner touched down several hundred meters short of the runway. At least one of the aircraft's main landing gear legs were shorn off, and the airliner's port wing and engine nacelle were severely damaged. Citing an unidentified airport worker, BBC reports the pilot told authorities the aircraft's electronics failed. It is unclear what the nature of that failure was, or what role it may have played in the accident. All 136 passengers and 16 crewmembers onboard Flight 38, inbound from Beijing, were hurriedly evacuated from the stricken airliner. At least 17 people were transported to area hospitals with minor injuries. One passenger onboard the flight, Paul Venter, told UK Press Association the plane's flight crew struggled to bring the aircraft safely over surrounding homes. "The wheels came out and went for touchdown, and the next moment we just dropped. I couldn't tell you how far," he said. Neil Jones witnessed the scene from the ground, and said the 777 made a "very, very unusual approach" to the airport. He added the aircraft's engines were louder than is usually the case while on approach to land. "You could see the pilot was desperate, trying to get the plane down," Jones told PA. "The aircraft hit the grass and there was a lot of dirt. The pilot was struggling to keep the plane straight. I think he did a great job." FMI: www.ba.com aero-news.net ************** 'Hero' pilot hailed as Heathrow crash landing probe opens LONDON (AFP) - The pilot of a British Airways jet that crash landed at London's Heathrow airport with more than 150 people on board was hailed as a hero Friday as investigators began their probe into the incident. All 136 passengers and 16 crew on the Boeing 777 from Beijing escaped without serious injury when the aircraft was forced to land short of the runway Thursday after apparently losing power during its final approach. "Give him a medal as big as a frying pan," was the Daily Mirror tabloid's headline verdict on pilot Captain Peter Burkill's efforts in guiding the striken jet to safety. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose party was at Heathrow and witnessed the aftermath of the crash ahead of an official visit to China, was also effusive in his praise. "I think it is right to pay tribute to the calmness and professionalism of the British Airways staff and the captain and what he achieved in landing the aircraft," Brown said after arriving in Beijing. "It's at times like these you remember you are in the hands of staff who do a remarkable job," he added. A total of 18 people received treatment for minor injuries following the crash at 12:42 pm. Air accident investigators were expected to make an initial report Saturday, with some experts suggesting the crash could be linked to a bird strike or even the plane running out of fuel. Heathrow struggled with cancellations and delays in the aftermath of the incident and airport operators BAA said 12 flights had already been cancelled Friday. British Airways shorthaul flights have been particularly hit. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said an initial report would be available within 48 hours, but Chief Inspector of Air Accidents David King warned that it could take more than a month for the full report to be produced. All those on board the plane from Beijing will be questioned by the AAIB, and the airliner's "black box" and cockpit voice recorders will also be checked. British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh, who said he was "very proud" of the crew's actions, said the airline would cooperate fully with the probe, adding that the aircraft in question was six years old. Brown's flight was delayed briefly by the crash landing, which left the undercarriage of the plane wrecked, with the back end and the engines touching the ground. Television pictures showed skidmarks carving up the grass ahead of the runway used by flight BA38. Passengers poured out of the emergency slides while firefighters sprayed safety foam around the jet. One passenger, Fernando Prado, told BBC television by telephone that all the passengers had been evacuated within two or three minutes, adding of his escape: "I won the lottery today." ***************** NTSB Assisting In B-777 Landing Accident In London The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team of investigators to assist the government of the United Kingdom in its investigation of Thursday's accident in which a Boeing 777-300 landed short of runway 27 Left at Heathrow International Airport in London, England. The accident occurred at 12:42 p.m. local time. The passengers deplaned via the emergency slides; minor injuries were reported. NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker has designated investigator Bill English as the U.S. Accredited Representative. An aviation systems technical specialist and a powerplants technical specialist will accompany him. The Federal Aviation Administration and the Boeing Aircraft Company are also sending investigators as part of the team. The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) is leading the investigation and will release all information on its progress. FMI: www.ntsb.gov aero-news.net *************** TSB: final report on Cessna 208 engine failure accident The Canadian TSB issued the final report of their investigation into the January 2006 accident of a Cessna 208B aircraft near Port lberni. It was en route at 9000 feet above sea level, from Tofino, British Columbia, to Vancouver International Airport, British Columbia, when the engine failed. The pilot began a glide in the direction of the Port Alberni Regional Airport before attempting an emergency landing on a logging road. The aircraft struck trees during a steep right-hand turn and crashed. Five passengers survived with serious injuries; the pilot and the other two passengers were fatally injured. It was concluded that the engine lost power when a compressor turbine blade failed as a result of the overstress extension of a fatigue-generated crack. The fracture initiated at a metallurgical anomaly in the parent blade material and progressed, eventually resulting in blade failure due to overstress rupture. The combination of aircraft position at the time of the engine failure, the lack of equipment enabling the pilot to locate and identify high terrain, and the resultant manoeuvring required to avoid entering instrument flight conditions likely prevented the pilot from attempting to glide to the nearest airfield. (TSB) TSB Report Number A06P0010: http://www.tsb.gc.ca/en/reports/air/2006/a06p0010/a06p0010.asp (aviation-safety.net) ************** Navy seeking cause of helicopter crash near Corpus Christi 3 crew members died and another was hospitalized The last thing J.D. Batten expected on his nightly walk Wednesday was seeing a red fireball and hearing the "boom" when a Navy helicopter crashed 60 yards from him. "I was listening to the helicopter, and then all of a sudden I saw this giant fireball," said Batten, 60. "Two seconds later, I heard a giant boom, and then I didn't hear the helicopter anymore." Three crew members died when the green MH-53 Sea Dragon crashed into a plowed field four miles south of Corpus Christi. Another was taken to Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial. Navy officials have yet to determine the cause or identify the dead or injured. The injured crew member was listed in critical condition Wednesday night but officials had no update on his condition Thursday. An investigation board has been convened to determine the cause of the crash, said Mike Maus, deputy public affairs officer for the Naval Air Force Atlantic. It was the Navy's first helicopter crash of 2008, he said. It occurred at about 8:15 p.m. on a routine training mission of the Helicopter Mine Counter-measures Squadron 15, based at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Maus said. A Sea Dragon's primary mission is to locate and destroy mines, he added. The helicopter hit the 1,000-foot transmitting antenna of the local public television station. Maus couldn't give the exact altitude of the aircraft at the time of the crash, but officials at KEDT said it hit their antenna at about 950 feet. The crash disrupted the station's Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio broadcasts until 10 a.m. Thursday, said Don Dunlap, president and general manager. The tower's red flashing beacons were functioning at the time of the crash, he said. Batten said the mushroom-like fireball was visible for about 10 seconds. He said he rushed to the crash site with his camera, filming the yellow flames and black smoke gushing from the wreckage. Officials found one body shortly after 8:30 p.m., Batten said, and the others were found six hours later. Naval personnel were at the scene all night. Batten speculated that fog contributed to the crash. Navy spokesmen could not comment on the weather's possible effect on the crash, but National Weather Service meteorologists confirmed that shallow and patchy fog began to form around 8 p.m. Wednesday. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5465298.html *************** Error by traffic controller leads to close call for Phoenix airplane NEWARK, N.J. (AP)- Federal aviation officials are investigating an error by an air traffic controller on Wednesday that put two planes landing at Newark Liberty International Airport much closer to each other than is allowed under federal guidelines. The incident occurred at 2:10 p.m. and involved a Boeing 737 operated as Continental Flight 536 arriving from Phoenix and an Embraer 145 operated as Continental Express Flight 2614 arriving from Halifax, Nova Scotia. According to FAA spokesman Jim Peters, the error occurred at the New York Terminal Radar Approach (TRACON) center on Long Island, which guides planes landing at New York metropolitan airports as they descend from 17,000 feet to 3,000 feet before turning them over to the towers at the individual airports. An air traffic controller at TRACON mistakenly gave the Continental Express crew the wrong frequency for the Newark tower and instead gave them the frequency for the tower at nearby Teterboro Airport, Peters said. "We're investigating it as an operational error," he said. As a result, the Newark tower was temporarily unable to contact the crew as both planes approached Newark. They eventually were separated by 1 1/4 horizontal miles, or less than half the three-mile nose-to-tail requirement set by the FAA for planes landing at the airport, Peters said. In addition, the planes' respective altitudes were 600 feet apart, which is far closer than the minimum required vertical separation of 1,000 feet. "This was a very difficult and dangerous situation," said Ray Adams, vice president of the air traffic controllers union at the Newark airport. Both planes landed safely and arrived at the gate about 15 minutes apart, according to Continental. Adams rejected the FAA's preliminary conclusion and instead attributed the incident to the FAA's procedures for landings at Newark. "We're disputing the fact that the controller made an error," Adams said. The incident was the second recent close call at Newark Liberty to trigger an FAA investigation. In December, a plane landing on a runway that runs northeast-to-southwest had to adjust its landing to fly over a plane that had taxied into its path as it prepared to take off on a separate runway. The two planes came within about 300 feet of each other. ************** Vietnam seizes live snakes smuggled on flight from Bangkok HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Authorities in Vietnam seized more than a ton of live snakes that were smuggled in on an airplane from Thailand, officials said Friday. Thousands of nonvenomous rat snakes were shipped as cargo in 60 boxes on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Bangkok to Hanoi's Noi Bai airport Thursday, said airline spokesman Trinh Ngoc Thanh. Thanh said the shipment had been declared as live fish. Many of the snakes, which were surrounded by plastic filled with ice water, have died, said Nguyen Ba Oanh, director of the Wild Animal Rescue Center near Hanoi where the snakes were taken. The reptiles each weighed between 200 grams (.44 pounds) to 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds). The official Vietnam News Agency reported Friday that the snakes, which are protected animals, may have been en route to another country. Last month, Vietnamese authorities also found some 700 kilograms (1,540 pounds) of dead snakes on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok. "Obviously, there was some problems with cargo inspection at the Bangkok airport," Thanh said "We plan to send a letter to the Bangkok airport authorities urging them to enhance inspection to avoid this incident from happening again." ************* Eclipse Aviation Receives Level D Simulator Certification on First Attempt VLJ Leader To Provide Full Motion Simulator Training For Customers Eclipse Aviation, manufacturer of the world's first very light jet (VLJ), has announced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has certified its first flight simulator, manufactured by OPINICUS, as a Level D Full Motion Device. Obtaining this level of certification on the first attempt is unprecedented for a new manufacturer of a new aircraft. Level D is the highest qualification the FAA grants for simulators, and this certification will allow Eclipse Aviation to type certify student pilots without having to train in an aircraft. Immediately after achieving Level D certification, Eclipse initiated the certification process for its Part 142 syllabus and integration of the simulators and learning environment. This second part of the certification is scheduled to conclude in late January with an official Part 142 certificate from the FAA. The certification was the result of a successful partnership between Eclipse Aviation, OPINICUS of Lutz, FL, Higher Power Aviation (HPA) of Dallas, TX, and Flight Simulation Company (FSC) of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. "It is quite a feat for a new manufacturer to be granted this level of flight simulator certification on the first try, and particularly so with an aircraft as innovative as the Eclipse 500," said Vern Raburn, president and CEO of Eclipse Aviation. "These simulators will play a major role in our progressive training program, and this milestone reflects our commitment to bring only the highest-quality training devices and instruction to our customers." Eclipse's training capacity is accelerating with each new certified device. The company expects to have three Full Motion Level D simulators in customer operation by April 2008, with the second device slated to receive certification in February, and the third in March 2008. Eclipse continues to use a Flight Training Device (FTD) for cockpit procedures training, flight skills assessment, and to augment training and improve proficiency. Eclipse expects to have all four full motion simulators in operation by late 2008. Following official Part 142 approval, Eclipse will begin its first simulator training class for customers in late January, 2008 with subsequent classes beginning in February 2008. FMI: www.eclipseaviation.com aero-news.net ************** Finalist named to run Denver International Airport Kim Day was named Thursday as the finalist to take over running Denver International Airport for the city. Day, an aviation consultant and former executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, would succeed Turner West as Denver's manager of aviation. West announced his retirement last year, but intends to remain on the job through March 31 to help with the transition. The final stage of the selection process involves bringing Day to Denver later this month to meet employees of DIA. "We have every expectation that Kim will become our next aviation manager," said Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. "However, we feel it is very important to first allow our Aviation employees and our community a chance to meet her, and to give her the opportunity to connect with them." During her stint at Los Angeles World Airports, Day was responsible for overseeing Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Palmdale Regional and Van Nuys General Aviation airports. http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2008/01/14/daily56.html *************** Correction It has been reported to me: The title of a posting, " NTSB Releases Factual Report on Fatal 2006 UND IFR Accident" is very misleading, if not inaccurate. While two University of North Dakota (UND) students died tragically in an aircraft accident, the fatal flight was not a UND aircraft nor was the flight sanctioned by the University of North Dakota. *************