15 AUG 2008 _______________________________________ *American Airlines fined $7M for safety problems *FAA Seeks $7.1 Million Penalty Against American Airlines *Air investigators 'set priorities to maximize safety improvements *Calif. fire airplane makes emergency landing *American Airlines Orders 26 More 737-800 Airplanes From Boeing *Aviation safety authority acknowledges Qantas nose-cone problem *FAA Mandates Special Training For Pilots In D.C. Area *FAA proposes replacement of P&W 4000-series electronic engine controls **************************************** American Airlines fined $7M for safety problems WASHINGTON - The Federal Aviation Administration has accused American Airlines of safety and drug-testing violations. The agency says the Texas-based airlines returned two aircraft into service after pilots reported safety problems. The FAA says two MD-83 airliners were flown 58 times in violation of federal safety regulations. The FAA also cited the airline for deficiencies in its drug and alcohol testing programs. The agency is seeking more than $7 million in penalties from the airline. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080814/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/american_airlines_fine *************** FAA Seeks $7.1 Million Penalty Against American Airlines Goes After Carrier For Deferred Maintenance, Other Violations The Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday actions totaling $7.1 million in civil penalties against American Airlines for improperly deferring maintenance on safety-related equipment and deficiencies with its drug and alcohol testing programs and exit lighting inspections. The FAA asserts that in December 2007, American used the wrong provisions of its Minimum Equipment List (MEL) to return two MD-83 aircraft to service after pilots had reported problems, and flew the planes 58 times in violation of FAA regulations. The MEL contains components and systems without which the aircraft may operate safely under specific limitations, as proven by the operator or manufacturer. On December 11 and 12, American operated the first MD-83 on eight flights in airspace it should have been restricted from after maintenance on part of the autopilot system was improperly deferred. An FAA inspector discovered the improper deferral and informed the airline, however American flew the plane on 10 more revenue flights until the problem was fixed on December 17. In another incident, the autopilot disconnected during a landing by the same aircraft on December 21. American technicians did not check for the actual problem, and instead deferred maintenance using an inappropriate MEL item. The plane flew another 36 passenger-carrying flights during December 21-31. Airline maintenance later discovered the fault was in a radio altimeter - not the autopilot. For the violations involving this MD-83, the FAA is proposing a $4.1 million civil penalty. A different MD-83 experienced an autopilot disconnect on December 27. Although American mechanics correctly diagnosed the problem, they again deferred maintenance under the wrong item of the MEL. As a result, the aircraft operated on four revenue flights without a fully functioning autopilot. The FAA is proposing a $325,000 civil penalty in this instance. The FAA believes the large total amount of the fine for these violations is appropriate because American Airlines was aware that appropriate repairs were needed, and instead deferred maintenance. In intentionally continuing to fly the aircraft, the carrier did not follow important safety regulations intended to protect passengers and crew. Also, in May of this year the FAA proposed civil penalties in the amount of $2.7 million in civil penalties against American for alleged past deficiencies in its drug and alcohol testing programs and for allegedly operating aircraft in past years without timely inspections of emergency escape path lighting systems. The amount included $1.7 million civil penalty for the testing program violations and $1 million for the lighting inspection violations. As reported in April, American cancelled over 3,300 flights served by MD-80 airliners when FAA inspectors found needed inspections to wiring bundles in the jets' maingear wells -- checks American maintained had already been done -- still had not been performed. American Airlines will have the opportunity to respond to the latest proposed civil penalties, the FAA said. FMI: www.faa.gov, www.aa.com aero-news.net **************** Air investigators 'set priorities to maximise safety improvements' AIR safety investigators receive 8000 reports each year on accidents and incidents among aircraft flying in, to or from Australia. But unlike the media, which often assumes every technical problem is a safety breach, Australian Transport Safety Bureau staff must sift through and decide which reports are worthy of investigations. A quick look at the bureau's weekly summaries shows how daunting a task this can be. The summary for the week ending August 1 is 15 pages long and includes everything from malfunctioning autopilots on jumbo jets, lightning strikes to 737s, to defective landing gear and bird strikes on small aircraft. "Everything that gets reported to us is basically assessed against the Act and regulations in terms of whether it meets the definition of a transport safety matter," ATSB aviation safety investigation director Julian Walsh said this week. "Everything is recorded in our database ... If it's in our weekly summary, it's something we've assessed as being an accident or incident. In rough terms last year, I think we had about 8000 of those." Mr Walsh said ATSB prioritised and made judgments about which investigations would be most valuable from a safety viewpoint. He said the board narrowed down the number of investigations to about 80 each year. Priorities included fare-paying passenger operations and fatal accidents. "There's a hierarchy of what we investigate starting with high-capacity regular public transport to low-capacity RPT, charter, and it works down the list to No7 or eight, which is sport and high-risk recreation activity," he said. "I don't say we never investigate (that category) but we're less likely to do those." Not on the ATSB's agenda are minor technical failures, even in big aircraft. This explains why some "safety" breaches reported by the media in the past two weeks are not under investigation. "Those sorts of things are reported to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority," he said. "If there's some sort of maintenance defect, or a component that's got some sort of failure, that all gets reported through their system." A recent hydraulic failure on a Manila-bound Boeing 767 had come under this category. The failure involved a cracked component that had been quickly replaced and the aircraft returned to service. "When we're only resourced to do the 80 investigations, how much real safety value are we going to get out of doing an investigation of that nature?" he said. "The reality is we're not going to enhance the system significantly by looking at those sorts of things. I wouldn't want to underplay any sort of occurrence, but these sorts of technical things do happen and you would expect these minor things to be happening, with the level of airline activity around the world." http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24181430-23349,00.html *************** Calif. fire airplane makes emergency landing REDDING, Calif. (AP) -A firefighting airplane under contract to the U.S. Forest Service made an emergency landing at the Redding airport when its landing gear failed. The Forest Service says there were no injuries. A pilot and a Forest Service firefighting coordinator were on board the twin-engine Aero Commander owned by Utah-based Kolob Canyons Air Service. The pilot discovered the nose landing gear had not retracted after takeoff Wednesday afternoon. The plane's nose struck the tarmac as it landed. The Forest Service is assessing the damage and investigating the incident. The plane was assigned to fighting wildfires west of Redding. The incident comes after nine fire personnel died and four were injured in an Aug. 5 helicopter crash near another complex of blazes west of Redding. http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10203694 *************** American Airlines Orders 26 More 737-800 Airplanes From Boeing (RTTNews) - Airplane maker Boeing Co. (BA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and American Airlines, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of AMR Corp. (AMR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), Thursday revealed an order for an additional 26 Next-Generation 737-800 airplanes, expected to help the carrier accelerate its fleet renewal plan. In a separate statement, Boeing said it recently completed work on the first BBJ 3, a new, larger business jet based on the Boeing Next-Generation 737-900ER extended range. Twenty of the new orders are exercised options. The other six are incremental to American Airlines' 2009-2010 fleet plan announced earlier this year. With the latest announcement, American has ordered 36 Boeing 737-800s in 2008. Apart from the new orders booked this year, American is accelerating deliveries of airplanes booked in prior years. The Boeing 737-800 is the best-selling version of the Next-Generation 737 family. To date, 117 customers have ordered for nearly 5,000 Next-Generation 737s. Unfilled orders for the Next-Generation 737 exceed 2,200 airplanes, valued at over $160 billion at list prices. In an effort to accelerate its fleet renewal plan, American announced Wednesday that it would take delivery of another six Boeing 737-800 aircraft in 2010, taking total of 737-800s to be delivered to the carrier in 2009-2010 to 76 aircraft. The company is making efforts to replace its aging MD-80s. Commenting on the decision to buy more planes, Tom Horton, AMR's executive vice president of Finance and Planning and chief financial officer said, "American Airlines continues to execute its fleet renewal plan to control costs while prudently reinvesting in the travel experience for customers. Replacing MD-80s with 737s at current fuel prices provides financial benefits while enhancing the customer experience." Separately, Boeing said the BBJ 3 is now at DeCrane Aircraft in Georgetown, Delaware, where it would receive its long-range auxiliary fuel system and a Head-up Display. The plane has 1,120 square feet of floor space and provides 35% more interior space and 89% more luggage space than the BBJ 2. The BBJ 3's range is between 5,435 nmi and 4,725 nmi depending on the number of passengers flown. All BBJs are equipped with Blended Winglets, which reduce community noise, lower emissions and increase the airplane's range. The unnamed customer will receive the completed airplane in 2009. BA is currently trading at $64.78, up $0.52 or 0.81%, on 5.01 million shares. For the past year, the stock trended in the range of $60.77-$107.15. ************** Aviation safety authority acknowledges Qantas nose-cone problem AUSTRALIA'S air safety regulator cannot explain why six Qantas jets continued to fly despite an order to rectify their nose cone bulkheads. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority acknowledged yesterday it was not able to inspect and approve every modification made to Australian-registered passenger aircraft. CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said CASA inspectors only sampled airworthiness audits and it was "pretty unlikely" for the missing work to have been detected during routine maintenance. "We do sample airworthiness bulletins when we do maintenance audits, but we can only sample them," Mr Gibson told the Herald Sun. "Qantas would have at any time in excess of 2000 airworthiness bulletins current for its fleet," he said. "So, there is no way we can audit every AD ( Airworthiness Directive) they currently have". Asked if CASA knew how the rectifications came to be missed, Mr Gibson replied: "That's still being looked at. Obviously some part of the translation of the Boeing service bulletin into the material the engineers were using that bit was left out. That's only my guess." Steve Purvinas, federal secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Association, blamed Qantas cost cutting for the problems. "There has been too much cost cutting and not enough attention to quality," he said. Mr Gibson's comments to the Herald Sun yesterday came after Monday's grounding of six Qantas Boeings. The 737-400 jetliners, part of a fleet of 25 older model Boeings, continued to fly after the compliance order was issued for the work to be carried out. Qantas says much of the work CASA ordered was complied with, and that only one step in a process to reinforce the nose cone bulkhead was missed. Both CASA and the airline maintain that at no stage were passengers or the aircraft endangered. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24182955-662,00.html **************** FAA Mandates Special Training For Pilots In D.C. Area The FAA issued a final rule this week that requires "special awareness" training for any pilot who flies under VFR within a 60-nautical-mile radius of the Washington, D.C., VOR/DME. The training consists of an hour-long online course that focuses primarily on the procedures for flying in and around the DC Metropolitan Area Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) and the DC Metropolitan Area Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ). Since the ADIZ was created, in 2003, there have been over 3,000 incursions, the FAA says. The agency hopes the new rule will reduce the number of unauthorized flights into the ADIZ and FRZ by educating the pilot community. The free course will be available at FAASafety.gov, and pilots can print out a certificate of completion when they are done. That certificate would have to be presented upon request to authorized representatives of the FAA, NTSB, TSA, or any federal, state, or local law-enforcement officer. The final rule is effective on Feb. 9, 2009. "EAA and other general aviation organizations have voiced opposition to this mandatory training requirement," said EAA's Doug Macnair, vice president of government relations. "Like it or not, the mandatory awareness training is the least onerous intervention the government can take on incursions," he said. "And if incursions continue after this training requirement has been in place for a while, we'll have an even more difficult time opposing those who want to greatly increase restricted areas, so it's really up to us to become more vigilant about this." http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/FAAMandatesSpecialTrainingForPilotsInDC Area_198590-1.html ************** FAA proposes replacement of P&W 4000-series electronic engine controls The FAA is proposing that US operators of 730 PW4000-series engines with 94in (239cm) fan diameter inspect, identify and, over time, replace certain defective electronic engine controls (EEC) on each engine. Aircraft models powered by PW4000 engines with those diameters include Airbus A300s/A310s, and Boeing MD-11, 767-200s/300s and 747-400s. The proposed airworthiness directive, issued today, is the result of a May 2006 in-flight shutdown of a Pratt & Whitney PW4152 turbofan due to defective EEC pulse-width modulator (PWM) microcircuits that degraded over time, says the FAA. Investigators determined that the dual redundant circuits were defective when built and both failed over time due to thermal cycling within the certified operating temperature range of the engines. "Based on a risk analysis provided by P&W which we reviewed and concurred, this condition, if not corrected, could result in uncommanded in-flight engine shutdowns, which could result in loss of thrust and prevent continued safe flight or landing," says FAA. The FAA says the defective PWMs "are the result of a change from the original PWM design introduced by a single microcircuit supplier before 1993", adding that the manufacturer returned to the previous, correct designs between 1993 and 1994. The FAA estimates the work will take one work-hour per engine to inspect, categorize, and mark each of the 730 EECs, and one work-hour per engine to replace as many 730 EECs over a period of one to six years, depending on the results of the inspections. Estimated total cost to U.S. operators of $467,200. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ****************