23 FEB 2008 _______________________________________ *Venezuela passenger jet missing *Venezuelan passenger plane missing with 46 aboard *TIA Passenger Had Box Cutter In Hollowed-Out Book *NTSB Considers Drastic Measures To Locate Missing Turbofan Part *Airline suspends pilots who overshot Hawaii airport *Convictions Stand in Milan Airport Crash *Air Charter Safety Foundation Holds First Symposium *Korea, US Sign Aviation Safety Contract *************************************** Venezuela passenger jet missing The authorities in Venezuela say they fear a commercial plane with 46 people aboard has crashed. The plane took off from Merida in the west of the country and was destined for the capital, Caracas. The twin-engine aircraft was diverted because of poor weather, before losing contact with air traffic controllers. There is no confirmation that it has crashed, but rescue teams are preparing to search the area near Merida for wreckage and any survivors. Civil defence officials say operations will have to wait till daylight on Friday, because the rugged terrain makes it too difficult to search in the dark. Merida is located in a mountainous region, 680 km (422 miles) southwest of Caracas. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7258117.stm *************** Venezuelan passenger plane missing with 46 aboard CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan commercial plane with up to 46 people aboard went missing and may have crashed on Thursday soon after taking off from an Andean mountain city just before dusk, authorities said. The plane operated by local airline Santa Barbara flew outof the high-altitude city of Merida headed for the capitalCaracas roughly 300 miles (500 km) away. By late Thursday ithad been out of contact with air traffic controllers for hours. Mountain villagers reported hearing a huge noise, whichmight have been caused by the plane crashing, so search teamswere heading to the remote zone, Gerardo Rojas, a regionalcivil defence official chief, said in a telephone interview. The civil aviation authority said the plane was carrying 43passengers and three crew members, although other reports saidthere were 45 people on board. National Civil Defense chief Antonio Rivero said despiteteams scouring where the plane was suspected to have crashed,the aircraft was still officially listed only as missing. "This causes a lot of fear, a lot of pain," he said. The plane was an ATR 42-300, a turboprop plane built byFrench-Italian company ATR, the civil aviation authority saidin a statement. The ATR-42 series has been involved in at least 17accidents since the plane first flew in 1984, according to theAviation Safety Network, a private air safety monitoringagency. Thursday's was the second serious incident involving aVenezuelan passenger plane in Venezuela this year after a planecarrying 14 people, including eight Italians and one Swisspassenger, crashed into the sea close to a group of Venezuelanislands in January. There were no survivors. http://www.eleconomista.es/mundo/noticias/370870/02/08/Venezuelan-passenger- plane-missing-with-46-aboard.html ***************** TIA Passenger Had Box Cutter In Hollowed-Out Book TAMPA - A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said. Benjamin Baines Jr. If convicted, Baines faces up to 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine for a federal charge of attempting to board an airplane with a concealed dangerous weapon. He is currently serving a 30 day sentence after pleading guilty Monday to a state misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon. About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, airport security ran Benjamin Baines Jr.'s backpack through an X-ray machine and saw the image of a box cutter, according to a report from the Transportation Security Administration. When searching the backpack, a security officer found a book titled "Fear Itself." The book was hollowed out, and the box cutter was inside. After Baines was read his rights, he said his cousin had cut away the pages to make the hollow section in the book. Later, reports state, he said he had hollowed it out himself to hide money and marijuana from his roommates. Baines told officers he was moving to Las Vegas and forgot the cutter was in the book. Officers found books in the backpack titled "Muhammad in the Bible," "The Prophet's Prayer" and "The Noble Qur'an." He also had a copy of the Quran and the Bible. Several sheets of paper in the backpack included rap lyrics that referred to police, narcotics, weapons and killing. Baines told officers he is a rapper who writes his own lyrics and that rap music writers need to "play the part," the report states. Officers performed a background check and found no record of crimes or active warrants. He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and booked into Orient Road Jail. At his first appearance in court Monday, Baines pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, according to an employee with the Hillsborough County clerk of court. He remained in Orient Road Jail today. The U.S. Attorney's Office also filed a federal charge of attempting to board an aircraft with a concealed dangerous weapon. The federal charge against Baines was filed Sunday but was not announced until today, said Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa. Cole said Baines will be arrested by U.S. marshals upon his release from jail on the state charge. http://suncoastpinellas.tbo.com/content/2008/feb/20/man-airport-had-box-cutt er-hidden-book/ *************** NTSB Considers Drastic Measures To Locate Missing Turbofan Part Southwest 737's CFM56 Shed Spinners In November The National Transportation Safety Board is so concerned with finding a missing aircraft engine part in northeast Texas that it's reportedly considering a search on a scale normally reserved for missing pilots and passengers. As ANN reported, back on November 17, 2007 Southwest flight 438 was climbing out from Dallas Love Field when passengers heard what they called an "explosion" from the left engine at 25,000 feet. When the 737-300 returned to Love Field, it had a gaping hole in the engine cowling, and it was quickly determined the engine's fan blades had suffered a catastrophic, uncontained failure. Southwest was criticized in blogs by angry passengers for understating the engine failure as a "vibration" on takeoff, and for sending a letter to the flight's 133 passengers which explained, "The fan blades on the front of the engine were damaged, and rattled around the engine's intake area." Passengers countered neither that description -- nor the FAA's preliminary incident report -- adequately explained what happened. "It was not during takeoff. There was a lot of damage. There was no vibration. It doesn't say anything about an uncontained explosion at 25,000ft," said one passenger, only identified as "Joe." The engine in question is a CFM56-3B1, the most popular airliner powerplant currently flying. The engine is manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and Snecma, the latter now a division of the French aerospace company SAFRAN Group. If there's a problem which may affect more of these engines, it could represent a significant risk, due to the number of engines in service. The front and rear spinners were lost in the engine failure, and NTSB says finding the front spinner is critical to determining whether the spinner or the turbine fan blades failed first. The front spinner is a dome-shaped object about the size and shape of the top cover to a medium-sized barbecue grill. Based on the flight's speed and location and weather conditions at the time, investigators believe the spinner landed in a marshy, rural area of Hunt County, probably west of state Highway 50 and south of County Road 4403, according to KXAS-5. Investigators say this is the first time ever they've had to search for a spinner. They don't know whether it will be found intact, or may have been broken up into smaller pieces. The public has been alerted to look for the object, and Cattle rancher Mike Crowell, who owns most of the land in the area, says he's been keeping an eye out while working his ranch. But, Crowell says, he'd need lots of help to properly search his entire 300-acre property for the part. NTSB now says it may provide exactly that -- a full-scale search of Crowell's property, and may expand the search area. Crowell says the government investigators are welcome on his property, but tells the television station "If that plane part fell in certain areas, it might be years before somebody stumbled on it." FMI: www.southwest.com, www.cfm56.com aero-news.net **************** Airline suspends pilots who overshot Hawaii airport HONOLULU (AP) - Mesa Air Group says it has suspended two pilots of a go! airlines flight that overshot the runway in Hilo. The Federal Aviation Administration and the airline are investigating whether the pilots had fallen asleep during the incident last week. The morning flight from Honolulu turned back and landed safely after overshooting the Hilo airport by 15 miles. Officials said air traffic controllers tracking the plane by radar were unable to contract the cockpit for 25 minutes. Mesa has not released identity of the suspended pilots but a spokesman says the captain has had more than 15 years of flying experience. An airline internal memo says the company takes seriously any occurrence which has the potential of adversely affecting normal operations of a flight. ***************** Convictions Stand in Milan Airport Crash ROME (AP) - Italy's top criminal court on Wednesday upheld prison sentences for five aviation officials convicted in a 2001 runway collision of two aircraft that killed 118 people, Italian news agencies reported. The Court of Cassation upheld the convictions of manslaughter and negligence and confirmed sentences ranging from three to 6 1/2 years in jail, the ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported. The longest prison term belongs to Sandro Gualano, who stepped down as chief executive of Italy's air traffic agency ENAV after the Oct. 8, 2001, crash between an Scandinavian Airlines System airliner and a corporate jet at Milan's Linate airport, the agencies said. The crash happened on a foggy morning when the SAS MD-87, bound for Copenhagen, rolled down the tarmac for takeoff. The jetliner collided with a business plane with four people on board then careened into a baggage hangar, killing four ground workers and 110 people on the jetliner. Investigators have described the accident as avoidable, caused by a combination of human error and poorly followed safety procedures. The ground radar was out of operation. Investigators cited confusing runway signs, and the control tower failed to ask the smaller plane's pilot to read back his instructions, authorities said. Wednesday's ruling upheld the sentence of former ENAV director general Fabio Marzocca to four years and four months in jail. Three-year terms were also confirmed for Paolo Zacchetti - the controller on duty during the crash - and two other airport officials, ANSA reported. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hPPnkpZSWmOdKghrVuBE_5KFzXYQD8UUC8L81 ****************** Air Charter Safety Foundation Holds First Symposium Yesterday, the newly formed Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) concluded its inaugural Air Charter Safety Symposium, which was held at the NTSB Training Center in Ashburn, Va. The goal was to host 50 to 60 attendees, according to ACSF chairman and Priester Aviation chairman and CEO Charlie Priester, but more than 110 attendees filled the auditorium at the NTSB center. The charter industry's focus on safety through the ACSF, said Priester, "is essential; it needs to be done. I believe we're at a critical point in terms of public perception, complexity of operations and the pilot shortage." According to Preister, the ACSF is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization focused on charter safety, including the gathering of more accurate and useful statistics on industry safety and operational issues. The symposium focused on examinations of charter safety issues, safety management systems, operational issues and tools that operators can use to improve safety. Additionally, the ACSF announced that Jacque Rosser is the group's new executive director. Rosser was NATA's director of regulatory affairs. http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/air-charter-safety-fo undation-holds-first-symposium/?no_cache=1&cHash=52c0d4fa5b **************** Korea, US Sign Aviation Safety Contract Korea will be able to export aviation-related goods to the United States in line with a new aviation safety agreement (BASA) between the two nations. Officials from Korea's Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) signed a contract concerning comprehensive cooperation in aviation safety, in Singapore Tuesday. The agreement includes government certificates for aviation goods' airworthiness, aircraft maintenance, operation and training institutes. Companies wanting to export aviation goods are required to provide certificates concerning airworthiness from the importing countries' governments. The U.S. refuses to give out certificates to companies from countries with no BASA contract, so Korean firms had not been able to directly export their goods to the U.S. Following the agreement, Korean companies will be able to get FAA certification and export about 150 kinds of goods, including tires and black boxes, as their own brands. The export is likely to expand to other countries, as most other nations require FAA certificates for imports. ``The agreement showed Korea's aviation-related regulations and systems are at an equal level to those of the U.S., recognizing Korea's capacity in aviation safety,'' an official of the authority said. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/02/113_19218.html *****************