16 MAR 2008 _______________________________________ *Pilot killed in F-16 combat training *Southwest Adopts More Contrite Tone Over FAA Fine *Southwest Airlines drops plan to export maintenance *BA flies empty jet to pick up crew *Air France Offers to Buy Alitalia for EU747 Million *NTSB says man killed at airport didn't follow rules **************************************** Pilot killed in F-16 combat training Aircraft goes down 80 miles northwest of Phoenix, Arizona Student pilot was practicing air-to-air combat with another F-16 Rescuers find pilot's parachute and gear near impact crater PARKER, Arizona (AP) -- The pilot of an F-16C fighter jet that crashed in a rugged area of western Arizona was killed when his plane went down, Air Force officials confirmed Saturday. An F-16C similar to this one crashed Friday in western Arizona, killing the pilot. The student pilot was practicing air-to-air combat with another F-16 from Luke Air Force Base about noon Friday when his plane crashed, base spokeswoman Mary Jo May said. Aircraft from the Air Force, Marines, Civil Air Patrol and Arizona Department of Public Safety spent hours trying to find the wreckage, which was spotted late Friday in a remote area about 80 miles northwest of Phoenix. Rescuers could reach the site only by helicopter and arrived at daybreak Saturday, May said. They found the pilot's parachute and some of his gear about 150 feet from an impact crater. It took several hours for the Air Force to confirm that he had died in the crash. The pilot, whose identity hasn't been released pending notification of relatives, was part of the 62nd Fighter Squadron, one of eight squadrons at the base. The base is in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale and is the world's largest F-16 training base with about 185 F-16s. There have been 17 other crashes of Luke-based F-16s since 1998, and only one of those resulted in a fatality, May said. That crash happened in May 2004, when a pilot with the Singapore air force died after his jet went down during a training mission at an Air Force bombing range in southwest Arizona. The most recent crashes came in 2006. A pilot ejected safely from an F-16 in April 2006 after the lone engine on the jet exploded just after takeoff from the base. The aircraft came down in a cornfield. Nearly nine months later, a two-seat F-16 crashed during a training mission at the same range where the Singapore pilot died. The pilot and instructor bailed out safely. ************** Southwest Adopts More Contrite Tone Over FAA Fine CEO Hopes To Settle Proposed Penalty When news first surfaced last week of Southwest Airlines' failure to comply with mandatory safety inspections on dozens of its jets in 2007, the Dallas-based low-cost carrier adopted a measured, though defiant, tone in its statements to the press. The airline insisted it received permission from the FAA and Boeing to keep the planes flying, even as the deadline passed for surface fatigue tests... and pointedly noted the airline has an enviable safety record. Over the past three days, however, Southwest has changed its colors somewhat. As ANN reported, the carrier voluntarily pulled 38 of its planes from service Wednesday, after it failed to determine whether the fatigue tests had been performed; another five suspect planes were already in for maintenance. The checks in question focused on structural and skin fatigue along the cabin windows of older 737-300 and -500 models. As it turns out, four of those grounded aircraft required repairs, according to the airline. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly and other airline officials also stepped away from their earlier comments, criticizing the FAA for unfairly targeting his airline and exaggerating the safety concerns. On Wednesday, Kelly met with Acting FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell to discuss the issue... and he emerged from those talks much like a chastened child, walking back from the woodshed. "I am not satisfied we are as compliant" with maintenance requirements "or as safe as we could be," Kelly said following that meeting, reports The Rocky Mountain News. He also vowed Southwest would revamp its maintenance procedures; earlier this week, the airline placed three maintenance supervisors on paid leave. "We will certainly be very cooperative in working with the FAA," Kelly said. "I told them we were determined to do whatever was necessary," adding the agency "gave us very stern marching orders." Southwest hopes to reach a settlement agreement to the $10.2 million fine proposed by the FAA last week, officials added. "We apologized to the FAA. We acknowledged we can do better," Ron Ricks, executive vice president for law, airports and public affairs at Southwest, told The New York Times. In addition to (hopefully) avoiding further oversight ire, Southwest's very public acts of contrition are also intended to encourage Southwest passengers to have faith in the airline, and restore its vaunted reputation among customers. "There are some that have lost trust in Southwest Airlines," Kelly said. "We will have to regain that trust." FMI: www.southwest.com aero-news.net *************** Southwest Airlines drops plan to export maintenance The carrier ended talks with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association to shift some work to El Salvador, said Louie Key, the union's assistant national director. On March 6, Southwest was fined $10.2 million for possible maintenance violations. What they said: "They didn't want to expose themselves to any questions or concerns about foreign maintenance vendors," Key said. A spokeswoman for Southwest couldn't confirm that discussions had broken off. "Southwest knows that this issue is gaining visibility and gaining momentum," said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. "They probably wanted to avoid further scrutiny." http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat-brief1-southwestmar15,1,38969 20.story **************** BA flies empty jet to pick up crew KOLKATA: When British Airways flight BA 147 touched down at NSCBI Airport in the wee hours of Friday, it should have passed unnoticed. After all, the airline has been operating on the London-Kolkata sector for over half a century. Yet, it was a peculiar flight, perhaps the most bizarre one since the airline began operations to Kolkata as British Overseas Aviation Corporation in 1952. True, a BOAC de Havilland Comet jetliner that crashed after takeoff from Kolkata airport in 1953 was a bigger news. But Friday's flight was queer. The Boeing 777 aircraft had no passengers on board! All 274 seats on Flight BA 147 from Heathrow to NSCBI Airport were empty. Only the captain and the co-pilot were there. No passengers, steward or air hostess. "We could not fly passengers on the London-Kolkata sector due to shortage of crew following massive disruption in flight schedules during the week. Kolkata-bound passengers from London have been booked on alternative BA and other airline flights via Delhi and Mumbai," an airline spokesperson told TOI. Hundreds of short-haul flights from Heathrow and Gatwick have been cancelled since Monday as London was battered by the winter's fiercest storm. Though the airline did manage to operate a near capacity flight on Tuesday, it ran out of steam on Thursday with the crew rostering going completely haywire as the unpredictable weather continued through the week. International Civil Aviation Organisation mandate rest before flights. Faced with such a situation, most airlines would have cancelled the to and fro flight. But BA decided to do something very different. The Asia-Pacific team decided to fly the aircraft to Kolkata with only cargo in the belly so that it could pick up the crew that had reached the city on Wednesday and operate the return flight. Unfortunately, airline officials could allocate only four tonne of critical cargo in the empty aircraft that could have carried close to 50 tonne with ease on Thursday. With the strike by airport staff yet to be called off in Kolkata, they could not risk carrying more than was necessary. Hence, it was a ghost of a plane that took off from Heathrow at 10.15 am on Thursday with the only sign of activity and life in the cockpit. It was a funny journey with no cabin crew to demonstrate the pre-flight safety norms. In any case, there were no passengers to be told how to fasten seatbelts or what to do in an exigency. The captain, too, did not have to bother about signalling the frequent fasten-your-seatbelt sign. The plane made the 9,000-km journey and spent tonnes of aviation turbine fuel to finally reach Kolkata after 1 am on Friday. On the return leg though, it was back to normal with the 14 cabin crew members welcoming the 100-plus passengers on board. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kolkata/BA_flies_empty_jet_to_pick_up_cre w/articleshow/2867649.cms **************** Air France Offers to Buy Alitalia for EU747 Million March 16 (Bloomberg) --Air France-KLM Group, the world's largest airline by sales, offered to buy Alitalia SpA in a bid valued at 747 million euros ($1.17 billion) as part of the Italian government's plan to save the state-owned carrier from bankruptcy. Air France-KLM offered 1 of its shares for every 160 of Alitalia's, valuing the Italian airline at 139 million euros, or about 10 cents a share, less than a fifth of its closing price on March 14, Air France said in an e-mailed statement. Air France will also offer to buy convertible bonds for 608 million euros. Alitalia's board accepted the bid after meeting for more than 10 hours in Rome yesterday. ``Air France-KLM's offer, conditional on a number of elements, is based on an industrial plan providing for the restructuring and re-launch of Alitalia,'' the Paris-based carrier said. In buying Alitalia, Air France-KLM wins access to one of continental Europe's biggest passenger markets, with a population of some 58 million people, comparable to France, with 61 million people. It also gets airport bases, or hubs, in Rome and Milan, from which Air France KLM could tap passenger flows for flights internationally. Alitalia's unions and the government must agree to the offer for the sale to go ahead, Air France said. Once completed, Air France will raise 1 billion euros in new funds for Alitalia through a share sale to fund the ``the commercial re-launch of Alitalia,'' Air France said. Alitalia's main international hubs will now be in Rome, at Fiumicino airport. Milan's Malpensa airport will be used mainly for European routes and some selected long-haul destinations, Air France said. The Rome-based carrier should be able to return to operating profit as early as 2009, Air France said, and will then ``rapidly move' to operating margins levels in line with those of other big European airlines. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ay.CdNUWF0xk&refer=home ***************** NTSB says man killed at airport didn't follow rules Proper procedures were not followed two years ago during a maintenance check that resulted in the death of an airplane mechanic, who was sucked into a jet engine at the El Paso International Airport, a report states of a recently completed federal investigation into the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the death of El Pasoan Donald Gene Buchanan, 64, determined the "probable cause" of the accident was "the mechanic's failure to maintain proper clearance with the engine intake during a jet engine run, and the failure of contract maintenance personnel to follow written procedures and directives contained in the airline's general maintenance manual." The safety agency approved the final report summarizing the investigation about six weeks ago, two years after Buchanan's death. The morning of Jan. 16, 2006, Buchanan was performing service work for Continental as part of his job with Julie's Aircraft Service, when he was sucked into an engine of a Boeing 737. The Houston-bound plane, which was scheduled to carry 114 passengers and five crew members, was at the gate boarding passengers when the accident occurred. Officials with Julie's Aircraft in El Paso could not be reached for comment. Continental Airlines declined to comment. The report states that the airplane's first officer, while performing a preflight inspection of the airplane, noticed a puddle of fluid on the tarmac under the right engine. The first officer and the airplane's captain then reinspected the airplane and then requested a maintenance check. Three mechanics from Julie's Aircraft Service responded. "Both sides of the right engine fan cowl panels were opened for inspection, and the mechanics requested that the captain conduct an engine run to check for the oil leak," the report states. One mechanic positioned himself on the inboard side of the right engine and another on the outboard side of the same engine. The third mechanic, who was assigned to observe as part of his on-the-job training, was clear of the engine. The engine was started and run at idle for about three minutes while the oil-leak check was performed. One of the mechanics using the ground intercom system told the captain a "small leak had been detected" and then "requested that the captain increase the engine power to 70 percent for three minutes." Recordings from the cockpit voice recorder revealed that the captain asked the mechanic, before increasing the engine power, whether the area was clear, and the mechanic replied, "Yeah, we're all clear." The report states that "shortly after the engine power was increased, two witnesses on the ground (mechanics) and one witness in the airplane (passenger) observed the mechanic on the outboard side of the right engine stand up, step into the inlet hazard zone, and become ingested into the engine." The captain reported that about 90 seconds after increasing the engine power to 70 percent, he felt problems with the engine and he returned the power to idle. The captain immediately stopped the engine run after being informed by the first officer that something went into the engine. Investigators wrote that the airline's maintenance procedures required the mechanics to receive authorization from Continental Airlines Maintenance Control before performing any maintenance. "The investigation revealed that Julie's Aircraft Services did not make contact with Continental Airlines Maintenance Control to obtain the required maintenance approval and required documentation," the report states. Investigators say the mechanic, who had helped troubleshoot the engine, said he participated in the engine run-up with no maintenance procedures from the airline because "engine oil leaks were a common occurrence, and that he continued without instructions because of his past experience." Investigators found that the airline's general maintenance manual under engine-run rules includes a procedure stating, "Engines will not be operated above idle at terminal or gate positions for maintenance purposes, unless specifically authorized by the local airport authority." The report states that two other factors -- insufficient training provided to the contract mechanics by the airline and the failure of the airport to disseminate a policy prohibiting ground-engine runs above idle in the terminal area -- contributed to the accident. At the time of the accident, the airport and its control tower had a 1996 agreement restricting engine power to no more than idle to one engine at a time for a maximum of five minutes "while on any parking or service apron areas, including the terminal ramp." Investigators found that the control tower reiterated this policy through a memo sent to all personnel about three months before the accident. "However, the letter of agreement and priority memo had not been distributed to the airline's operations, the fixed-base operators, or any of the tenants at the airport," the report states. Pat Abeln, director of aviation for the airport, said that since the policy has been in place since 1996, "we make the assumption that the pilots will contact the tower before engaging or moving the aircraft." Abeln also said that because most pilots who work out of the airport don't live in El Paso, their contact with the airport is usually limited to exchanges with the airport control tower. He also said pilots must get permission from the tower before moving an aircraft. "You cannot move an aircraft without talking to the tower," Abeln said. He also said he and other airport officials would review the findings to see whether any changes were needed. The report states that after the accident, Continental Airlines enhanced safety measures, implemented of a series of checklists to better coordinate communication and documentation before performing any engine run, provided training highlighting the hazards of running engines, and bought more safety lanyards and reinforced procedures for their optional use. Investigators wrote that the airline had interviewed aircraft mechanics about safety lanyards and found that "nearly all the mechanics indicated they never used lanyards and expressed concerns with quick release and escape during an emergency." Buchanan, who had been a certified airplane mechanic for 40 years, was not wearing a lanyard while performing the maintenance check on the jet engine. http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_8580219 *****************