06 MAR 2008 _______________________________________ *NTSB Issues Recommendations On GE CF34-3B1 Turbofans *American Takes Heat For Flying 777 To London With Five Passengers *Cessna 500 Accident (Oklahoma) *Laser ban urged after pilots targeted *Woman gets prison for San Antonio airplane bomb hoax *Philippines establishes CAA to win back Category 1 *UK CAA warns of escape slide safety risk *Southwest may be fined by U.S. regulators *Investigation: More Than 100 FAA Badges Unaccounted For *************************************** NTSB Issues Recommendations On GE CF34-3B1 Turbofans Cites Two Recent Blade Failures On CRJ200s The National Transportation Safety Board issued recommendations Wednesday to the Federal Aviation Administration to address a safety concern raised by two engine failures on Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-200 aircraft. The Board states a flaw during the manufacturing process for fan blades led to the two engine failures, and the Board wants procedures set up to remove these blades before another incident occurs. A companion recommendation was sent to the Canadian government. In both instances -- a July 27, 2006 engine failure on an Air Nostrum CRJ shortly after takeoff from Barcelona, Spain, and a May 24, 2007 engine failure on an Atlantic Southeast airlines CRJ while in cruise flight from Syracuse to Atlanta -- a fan blade on a General Electric CF34-3B1 turbofan engine fractured, causing a loud bang, severe vibration and in one case an engine fire. Both flight crews declared emergencies and landed safely with no injuries. Examination of the blades showed that they failed due to a material defect introduced during the manufacturing process, according to NTSB investigators. The fan blades were manufactured by Teleflex Aerospace Manufacturing Group, located in Mexico. Teleflex has manufactured more than 28,000 of these blades. "We are issuing this recommendation because we consider the safety risk associated with this condition to be unacceptably high," NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said. The ASA fan blade failed after 4,717 cycles and 5,845 hours, which is very early in a blade's service life, the Board said. The Board issued six recommendations to the FAA, including that it require GE Aviation to define a reasonable maximum time frame below 4,717 cycles since new for these Teleflex fan blades and require that the blades be removed from service before that limit is exceeded, to require GE to include additional testing in the manufacturing process for those blades, and to require GE to make modifications in its CF34-1/-3 engine design to ensure that high engine vibrations (such as can happen when a fan blade fractures) will not cause the engine to catch fire. The Board also issued a recommendation to Transport Canada, that country's equivalent to the Department of Transportation, to require Bombardier to redesign the retention feature of the CRJ 100/-200 engine throttle gearbox to ensure that it can withstand the loads generated by a fan blade separation or similar event. aero-news.net *************** American Takes Heat For Flying 777 To London With Five Passengers Alternative Would Have Been To Deadhead, Spokesman Says It was probably a great flight for the passengers... but at least one environmental group is up in arms over the news American Airlines recently flew a Boeing 777 from Chicago to London, with only five paying customers onboard. London's Daily Telegraph reports the February 9 trip accommodated passengers bumped from a cancelled flight. The airline was able to arrange alternate travel plans for all but five of the customers from that plane, one of four daily routes American operates from Chicago to London. So American put those passengers on their own 777. The Telegraph notes the airline also upgraded them to "business class." A spokesman for American noted there was no alternative. Had American put the passengers on other flights, the airline still would have had to deadhead an empty 777 to London, in order to handle the return flight from Heathrow. "With such a small passenger load we did consider whether we could cancel the flight and re-accommodate the five remaining passengers on other flights," the unidentified spokesman said. "However, this would have left a plane load of west-bound passengers stranded in London Heathrow who were due to fly back to the US on the same aircraft. "We sought alternative flights for the west-bound passengers but heavy loads out of London that day meant that this was not possible," the spokesman said, adding American lost £30,000 -- about $60,000 -- on the flight. That explanation didn't placate the environmentalist group Friends of the Earth, however -- which noted each passenger on the flight produced 43 tons of carbon monoxide, and consumed fuel equivalent to driving a small family sedan around the world five times. "Flying virtually empty planes is an obscene waste of fuel," said group representative Richard Dyer. "Through no fault of their own , each passenger's carbon footprint for this flight is about 45 times what it would have been if the plane had been full. "Governments must stop granting the aviation industry the unfair privileges that allow this to happen by taxing aviation fuel and including emissions from aviation in international," he added. In any case, we encourage our readers NOT to think of this story, the next time you're stuck in a coach-class middle seat from New York to Paris. FMI: www.aa.com, www.foe.org/ aero-news.net ***************** Cessna 500 Accident (Oklahoma) Status: Preliminary Date: 04 MAR 2008 Time: 15:15 Type: Cessna 500 Citation I Operator: Southwest Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Clinic Registration: N113SH C/n / msn: 500-0285 First flight: 1975 Crew: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 Passengers: Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 Total: Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5 Airplane damage: Destroyed Location: 6,5 km (4.1 mls) SW of Oklahoma City-Wiley Post Airport, OK (PWA) (United States of America) Phase: En route Nature: Executive Departure airport: Oklahoma City-Wiley Post Airport, OK (PWA/KPWA), United States of America Destination airport: Mankato Municipal Airport, MN (MKT/KMKT), United States of America Narrative: The Cesna Citation crashed into a wooded area shortly after takeoff. (aviation-safety.net) ***************** Laser ban urged after pilots targeted TORONTO -- York Regional police are calling for a ban on high-powered laser pointers after two incidents in which their chopper pilots, like several others across the country, were struck by blinding beams while in flight. "There's really no need for someone to have a laser like that," Staff-Sgt. Doug Conley said yesterday, referring to a hand-held laser confiscated from a 16-year-old boy who shone it into the eyes of a police helicopter pilot last October. Since 2005, there have been 33 incidents reported of pilots seeing "a light" in their cockpits. Several of the incidents occurred on approach, with some pilots briefly blinded. http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2008/03/06/4923296-sun.html ***************** Sickness forces Canadian aircraft to make Fort Lauderdale stop 17 hours ago OTTAWA (AFP) — An Air Transat flight from the Dominican Republic to Canada was redirected Wednesday to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, overnight after several passengers fell ill, a spokesman said Wednesday. "We redirected the aircraft to Fort Lauderdale for medical reasons," Air Transat spokesman Jean-Michel Laberge told AFP. "We don't know what made them sick. It's eight members of the same family that stayed at the same hotel." "The passengers were taken to hospital upon arrival," he added, while the plane carrying 250 passengers and nine crew was briefly quarantined. After a four-hour stopover, the vacation charter Flight 477 from Punta Cana then continued on to Edmonton in western Canada, he said. The Canadian airline specializes in scheduled and charter flights from Canada to vacation destinations in the Caribbean, United States and Europe. ****************** Woman gets prison for San Antonio airplane bomb hoax SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A woman authorities say called in bomb threats to San Antonio International Airport in an attempt to break up with her boyfriend -- is going to prison. Prosecutors today announced 36-year-old April Wormley of Hobbs, New Mexico, has been sentenced to two years behind bars. Wormley also must pay nearly $20,000 in restitution. The feds say Wormly admitted calling the airport last April 21st to claim there was a bomb on a Southwest Airlines jet bound for Dallas. 5 of the 36 phone calls were recorded. The plane was diverted and its 120 passengers evacuated. No explosives were found. Wormley told investigators she was trying to end the relationship with her boyfriend, who was a passenger on the flight. Prosecutors say the woman believed he would to leave her alone -- after finding out she made the calls. ****************** Philippines establishes CAA to win back Category 1 aviation safety rating Philippine president Gloria Arroyo has approved the establishment of a new aviation safety oversight body, in line with the country's efforts to reclaim a Category 1 safety rating from the US Federal Aviation Administration. Arroyo has signed into law the Civil Aviation Authority Act of 2008, which will see the existing Air Transportation Office replaced by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). The Philippine Information Agency says the CAAP is to be set up in the coming months and it will be "an independent regulatory body with quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative powers with corporate attributes". The authority is intended to be more independent and accountable than the ATO to "strengthen the international framework of the country's civil aviation industry and meet the standards set" by ICAO, the agency adds. Importantly, the new body will be entitled to retain its revenue and use it to improve industry standards, rather than hand it over to the government as the ATO currently does. The government hopes the establishment of the CAAP will help it win back a Category 1 aviation safety rating. The country's safety rating was downgraded to Category 2 under the FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment programme in January. The FAA said at the time that it had "serious concerns" about the ATO's oversight of the local industry. Days after the downgrade Arroyo replaced the head of the ATO and ordered his replacement to improve the country's safety standards within three months. The government had for some time been planning to establish the CAAP but there had been delays related in part to the drafting of legislation. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/03/05/222005/philippines-establish es-caa-to-win-back-category-1-aviation-safety-rating.html ***************** UK CAA warns of escape slide safety risk Faulty aircraft escape slides frequently put the lives of passengers at risk, according to the findings of a UK study into the main causes of maintenance-related incidents on aircraft. "Although these are rarely a direct hazard to the aircraft, these items can pose a direct threat to survivability in the event of an accident," says the UK Civil Aviation Authority in its Aircraft Maintenance Incident Analysis. It proposes a more in-depth study of escape slide upkeep, recommending that efforts to solve persistent problems should focus on airlines that have few problems, as a source of best practice. Published late last year, the study analysed a selection of maintenance-related incidents on jet aircraft above 5,700kg (12,560lb) maximum take-off weight, logged under the requirements of the CAA's Mandatory Occurrence Reporting (MOR) scheme in an effort to identify common causes or factors. Meanwhile, a US survey of maintenance human factors regimes worldwide reveals a general "inconsistency between belief and action" in preventing technicians making mistakes through fatigue. Over half those surveyed by the US Federal Aviation Administration indicated that managing fatigue was an important ele­ment of their safety management system, but only a quarter admitted actually having a fatigue management system. "The inconsistency between belief and action was further evident in that only 36% reported that their organisation provided training on fatigue management," says the FAA. The CAA's Safety Regulation Group says its analysis would help it focus on areas there was still work to reduce the number of maintenance errors. "The CAA will continue to analyse maintenance incident occurrence reports to monitor trends and to work closely with groups like the Royal Aeronautical Society's HF-Engineering group, UK Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Scheme's MEMS Group and the European Aviation Safety Agency's HF Maintenance Focus Group to understand why maintenance errors occur and what can be done to reduce the number of occurrences," it says. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/03/06/222013/uk-caa-warns-of-escap e-slide-safety-risk.html ***************** Southwest may be fined by U.S. regulators NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. aviation regulators are seeking a penalty of at least $3 million from Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for failing properly to inspect more than 40 older planes for structural cracks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the details. The paper reported that the U.S. Department of Transportation and a congressional committee are examining why the Federal Aviation Administration did not ground the planes last March after learning of the missing inspections. A Southwest spokeswoman said the airline had not been contacted by the Federal Aviation Administration. "We're very surprised by this report, we've not been issued a fine and believed the case was closed." http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN0613654620080306 ***************** Investigation: More Than 100 FAA Badges Unaccounted For DALLAS -- Dozens of federal inspector credentials giving access to airports have gone missing, an NBC 5 investigation revealed. According to the investigation, 122 Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector badges have been stolen or lost in the past five years. The credentials are one of the few forms of identification that give complete and unfettered access to airport facilities, including the cockpits of planes in flight. "The FAA badge is probably of all the badges just as dangerous if not more so than any other," aviation expert Denny Kelly said. Kelly, a former commercial pilot and a private investigator, said the badge can give a person free access to nearly every secure area of an airport. "The FAA badge allows you not only on one airline, plus getting through security, it allows you to get on any airline, any airplane, anyplace," he said. The FAA said it is concerned but insisted the public is not in danger. The agency is taking an aggressive stance to prevent the loss of those badges in the future, the FAA said. The agency refused NBC 5's request for an on-camera interview. Over the phone, a spokesman could not guarantee that FAA badge holders always go through security checkpoints. "A guy walks up with that badge and says, you know, 'I'm an FAA guy, here's my badge,' there's nothing they do about it. 'OK, fine, go through,'" Kelly said. One traveler said the idea of more than 100 FAA badges floating around made her uneasy. "To think that anybody has access to a cockpit on a plane is particularly scary," Alison Bock said. The FAA has stopped sending badges through the mail and forbids inspectors from leaving them in their vehicles, where most were stolen. http://www.nbc5i.com/travelgetaways/15508460/detail.html *****************