13 MAR 2008 _______________________________________ *Ten Believed Lost In Peruvian Helicopter Downing *Breakthrough in simulation of aircraft wake turbulence *Indonesia warns to ground its air carrier after accident *Air Jamaica commended for safety *Plane Flies Too Close to Capitol in D.C. *Woman Stopped With Skeleton at Airport *No more fog disruptions with new system at Dubai airport *American Airlines and Virgin America promise in-flight broadband *************************************** Ten Believed Lost In Peruvian Helicopter Downing Bell 412 Was Transporting Copper Mine Workers Officials in Peru are holding out hope for survivors following the Tuesday downing of a Bell 412B helicopter in the Andes, though it's unlikely anyone survived the accident. According to news reports, the helicopter (type shown above) was ferrying workers from the La Granja mine, owned by the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto group. Eight employees and two pilots were believed to be onboard. Search crews spotted the wreckage near the northern Andean city of Cajamarca, but as of Wednesday evening rescuers had not been able to reach the crash site. The helicopter was destroyed in the accident, according to Santa Cruz police chief Jesus Tapia. In a statement following the accident, Rio Tinto said the helicopter, owned by Helinka-Evergreen, left the mine at 10 am Tuesday morning for the northern Pacific coast city of Chiclayo. It was reported missing 12 minutes after departure. FMI: www.riotinto.com aero-news.net *************** Breakthrough in simulation of aircraft wake turbulence Researchers made a breakthrough in the simulation of aircraft wake turbulence. Post-docs Philippe Chatelain and Michael Bergdorf, doctoral student Diego Rossinelli, Petros Koumoutsakos, Professor at the Institute of Computational Science of ETH Zurich, and Alessandro Curioni and Wanda Andreoni of the Department of Computational Sciences at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon used high-resolution calculations to simulate, with an accuracy two to three orders of magnitude higher than previously, the vortexes generated when an aircraft takes off or lands. The simulation also visibly revealed how the wake turbulence vortexes become unstable. (ETHZ) (aviation-safety.net) *************** Indonesia warns to ground its air carrier after accident JAKARTA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian transport ministry warned the air carrier Adam Air to boost its safety standard or it would be grounded following the skidding off of its plane on Monday that hurt five people, transport minister Jusman Syafii Djamal said here Tuesday. The accident is the third suffered by the carrier in the last two years. Last year its plane with 102 people on board plunged into the waters of central Indonesia on New Year's Day. And several weeks later, the fuselage of another plane of the carrier was torn into half after a hard landing. Djamal said that the warning was aimed at pushing the carrier to have an improvement on flight safety. "We give an early warning to make the carrier improve its safety," he told reporters at his office here. Indonesia has been struggling to lift the European Union (EU) air travel ban on 51 of its airliners from entering the group territory imposed on July 6 last year after a rampant air accident hat killed hundreds of people. The country now is under the monitoring of the group for the possibility of the air ban revocation. The aviation authorities from Indonesia and the EU have agreed to cooperate for accomplishment of the flight safety standard in Indonesia after the group authorities said in January that a lot of work should be done by Indonesia to fully meet with the air safety standard. The EU extended its ban on Indonesia's air carriers on Nov. 28,2007, but ended its ban on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and on Blue Wing Airlines of Surinam. **************** Air Jamaica commended for safety Air Jamaica has been commended by the Inter-national Air Transport Association's (IATA) international operational safety audit (IOSA) programme, for maintaining its safety record. The audit, performed every two years, will replace the yearly audit performed by other firms. Peter Cerda, director of safety operations and infrastructure for the Americas and Atlantic, presented Air Jamaica Chairman Shirley Williams with the certificate of registration during a ceremony held at the Terra Nova All Suite Hotel in St Andrew. Patrick Cousins, director of safety compliance and quality at the airline, said yesterday that since Air Jamaica's inaugural flight 39 years ago, it has maintained its priority focus on safety. In addressing the audience, Cousins said the airline's operations have adopted a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to preventing potential disasters. "We are using a proactive approach, by trying to identify risks and isolate them before they happen," he said. After a rigorous assessment that took two years, the safety audit was completed in November of last year. As one of the 188 members of IOSA which have met the 942 safety standards, Cousins said: "This is a coveted award. IATA has become the yardstick whereby the airlines of the world are measured." Financial benefit Williams said the company would seek to benefit financially from the IOSA programme, saving the airline, as well as the aviation industry, millions of dollars through the elimination of yearly audits. The IOSA programme was approved by the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority and the Federal Aviation Authority, which were consulted in the development. According to Cerda, since IOSA's inception five years ago, more than 470 airlines have been audited by the programme with 194 included in the registry. http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080313/lead/lead8.html *************** Plane Flies Too Close to Capitol in D.C. WASHINGTON (AP) - A single-engine airplane violated restricted airspace around the nation's capital Wednesday and got to within six miles of the U.S. Capitol building before being diverted, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The airspace violation prompted security officials to temporarily raise the threat level from yellow to orange and order personnel in the Capitol building to prepare to evacuate, but the incident was resolved before an evacuation was ordered. A propeller-driven Cessna 177, which had taken off from Carroll County airport in north-central Maryland, entered restricted airspace 30 miles north of Washington at 12:12 p.m. EDT at 1,800 feet with no radio, FAA spokesman Hank Price said. The intruding aircraft reached a point six miles northwest of the Capitol building before being diverted and escorted by interceptor aircraft to Leesburg, Va., airport where it landed at 12:44 p.m., Price added. Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said the pilot was being interviewed at the Leesburg facility. Michael Kucharek, a spokesman with North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said two F-16s were scrambled to intercept the plane as it headed south from Maryland. A Coast Guard helicopter also was involved in the intercept and escort of the Cessna, according to Lt. Gene Maestas, spokesman for the guard's Mid-Atlantic region. NORAD also used a laser system that visually warns pilots they are in a restricted area, Kucharek said. The pilot turned west and landed at an airport in suburban Leesburg, Va., while under escort from the fighter jets. The Capitol was not evacuated, but tourists were turned away for a time. The threat level was soon returned to yellow, or elevated and later, green - or low threat - according to police and other officials. White House press secretary Dana Perino said the White House was notified. ``There was an aircraft that entered into the airspace that there was some concern about, but the aircraft turned around,'' she said. ``We are at normal security levels here at the White House.'' http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7379296 *************** Woman Stopped With Skeleton at Airport MUNICH, Germany (AP) — A woman was stopped at Munich airport after baggage control handlers found the skeleton of her brother sealed in a plastic bag in her luggage, police said Wednesday. The 62-year-old woman and her 63-year-old friend, who both live in Italy, were hauled in by airport police Tuesday after a scan of the bag showed a human skull and other bones. The women were traveling to Italy from Brazil. It turned out that the woman was trying to fulfill the last wish of her brother — who died 11 years ago in Sao Paulo, Brazil — to be buried in Italy. The travelers produced the appropriate papers from Brazilian authorities for the unusual transport, and were allowed to carry on their way to Naples — bones and all. **************** No more fog disruptions with new system at Dubai airport Dubai (PTI): A new category of Instrument Landing System has become fully operational at the international airport here, making flight delays due to fog a thing of the past. The newly certified CAT IIIA Instrument Landing System (ILS) enables a pilot to land even with visibility as low as 200 metres, a major upgrade over the Cat I and Cat II systems which were used earlier. "We have been using the system for some time now; as a prerequisite for the certification from the federal authority we have tested it for 6,000 hours," Mohammed Ahli, Director General of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) and CEO of Air Traffic Services (ATS) said. Dubai International airport is the first CAT IIIA compliant airport in the region, including the Indian subcontinent, said a press statement here on Wednesday. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), and Chairman of Dubai Airports, said "Disruption or diversion of flights due to low visibility is an inconvenience for passengers and a logistical challenge for the airports. The new system will translate into great benefits for the passengers, airlines and Dubai International airport by enabling low visibility operations." Dubai International was the world's fastest growing airport in 2007 in terms of international passengers (among airports with 20 million passengers or over). **************** American Airlines and Virgin America promise in-flight broadband In-flight broadband is coming soon for travelers on some American Airlines and Virgin America flights. But will the companies hit the right price point to attract customers? Aircell, a company that sells air-to-ground telecommunications equipment to airlines, said this week that its in-flight broadband system will be used on some Virgin America and American Airlines flights originating from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York and Miami. American Airlines will initially enable 15 of its 767s with broadband, and eventually it will offer Internet connectivity on 500 planes. Virgin plans to provide broadband on all its planes, according to a blog posted on GigaOm Tuesday. The new service, called Gogo, will cost $12.95 for cross-country flights and $9.95 for flights lasting three hours or less. Airlines have been talking about offering in-flight broadband for years. But so far the service hasn't really gotten off the ground (forgive the pun, I couldn't resist). Boeing was the first to come up with a service, called Connexion, which debuted in 2004 on a few international carriers including, Lufthansa, SAS, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, and Singapore Airlines. But the service was canceled in 2006 when the company was unable to find business among domestic airlines. A big problem with Connexion was that the entire system was bulky and weighed around 400 pounds, making it nearly impossible for it to be used on smaller domestic planes. Other companies, such as Aircell, which uses a network of some 92 antenna towers across the country to transmit wireless signals to planes flying above, and Row44, which provides in-flight Internet service via satellite, have been pushing forward despite Connexion's failure. Both of these companies use Wi-Fi routers inside planes to provide broadband access to passengers. Several carriers, including American Airlines, Virgin America, Alaska Airlines, and Southwest, have already said they would test broadband service on their planes using one of these two service providers. And in December, JetBlue demonstrated its in-flight broadband on a flight from New York to San Francisco. Finally, American Airlines and Virgin America are offering a commercial in-flight broadband service. How much are people willing to pay? Now, the true test will be whether passengers actually use the service. And that will depend on several factors. The first is price. How much are people willing to pay for in-flight broadband? Judging from the in-flight phone business, not that much. In 2006, Verizon Communications exited the in-flight telephone service business, which it had inherited from GTE. The service had been operational for more than 20 years. The reason Verizon got out of the in-flight phone business was simple. People weren't using the service because it was too expensive. Verizon charged non-Verizon customers $3.99 to connect domestic calls and $4.99 for each additional minute. International calls required a connection fee of $5.99 and $5.99 for each minute of calling. Aircell's service is priced much more reasonably. At $10 and $13, the price point could appeal to business travelers. After all, many travelers pay Boingo $9.95 for Internet access in airports. If Aircell could strike a deal with Boingo or some other aggregator like T-Mobile, it could make the service even more compelling in terms of price. The second major factor is ensuring the quality and speed of the service. If people are paying for Internet access, the network better work and it better work well. Unfortunately, I'm a little skeptical that the service on these planes will work as expected. My colleague Caroline McCarthy, who was onboard JetBlue's New York to San Francisco Wi-Fi test flight, wasn't impressed with the Internet service. "If BetaBlue's connection were my home ISP, I'd ask them to cancel my subscription," she writes. "It was hardly ultra-reliable, and the instant-messaging application took quite a bit of time to boot up." She had trouble connecting to the network and was only able to access "light" versions of services like Yahoo Mail. I mention this because JetBlue also uses Aircell's ground-to-air radio system. I'm not sure if the issues she experienced were because the network was overloaded or because there was something wrong with the Wi-Fi router configuration on the plane. Or perhaps there wasn't enough broadband capacity being piped into the plane. All of these things could impact performance and could ultimately affect whether people are willing to pay the additional $10 or $13 to access the Internet on their flights. So, I am interested to see the initial real-world user response to these services. But I have to admit that I secretly hope they are a disappointment. Even though I know having broadband access on a plane could make me much more productive when I travel between New York and San Francisco, where CNET is headquartered, airplanes have been the last bastion of solitude for me as a business traveler. I don't have to check e-mail, file stories, or post blogs from 45,000 feet. I can kick back, watch a movie, read a magazine, or take a snooze. And of course, without broadband or cell phone service on planes, I also don't have to be subjected to listening to my seat-mate's annoying phone conversations. Let me know what you think about in-flight broadband in the "TalkBack" section below this story. Is $13 too much for you to pay? http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9892384-7.html ***************