15 AUG 2008 _______________________________________ *Obama plane crash scare was serious *Small panel falls off Qantas jet en route to Singapore *Faulty GPS units lethal for pilots, Dick Smith tells transport minister *Australia's air safety authority backs Qantas safety systems *Anti-terrorism police arrest two men at airport *FAA announces runway safety improvements at Metro Airport *Paris-bound Air France flight returned to Seattle **************************************** Obama plane crash scare was serious WASHINGTON: The pilot of Barack Obama's chartered campaign plane declared an emergency and requested crash equipment at the site of an unscheduled landing last month. Control tower tapes reveal that the July 7 incident, which ended safely, was more serious than previously thought. The Democratic White House hopeful and 50 others including campaign staff and journalists were aboard the twin-engined Midwest Airlines MD-81 when its pilot detected problems with pitch controls, which keep the aircraft level in flight. The plane had just departed Chicago en route to North Carolina but was forced to make an unscheduled landing in the midwestern city of St Louis, Missouri due to the mechanical problems. At the time, the pilot told passengers they were never in danger, and the Federal Aviation Administration said no emergency had been declared. But according to the tapes, 41 seconds after discovering he no longer had full control of the plane, the pilot told an air traffic controller, "at this time we would like to declare an emergency, and also have CFR (crash equipment) standing by in St Louis," ABC News said. Asked which runway he wanted to use, the pilot replied, "Well, which one is the longest?" then added, "We have Senator Obama on board the aircraft and his campaign." Over the plane intercom system the pilot told passengers there was "a little bit of controllability issue, in terms of our ability to control the aircraft in the pitch, which is the nose up and nose down mode," according to ABC. However, after a rapid descent from 32,000 feet, the pilot suddenly regained pitch control at 10,000 feet, ABC said. An inspection on the ground revealed that the rear emergency evacuation slide had deployed inside the tail cone during flight, the National Transportation Safety Board said at the time. It is still investigating the incident. After the plane landed safely, Senator Obama said that everything had "seemed under control, the pilots knew what they were doing". "Anytime a pilot says that something's not working the way it's supposed to, then, you know, you make sure you tighten your seatbelt," he told reporters. The charter jet was reportedly filling in for senator Obama's larger campaign plane, which at the time was being refitted for the general election. AFP *************** Small panel falls off Qantas jet en route to Singapore SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's largest airline Qantas revealed a small body panel fell off a jet en route to Singapore Friday, the latest malfunction to beset the carrier in recent weeks. Routine checks on the Boeing 747-400 found the engine access panel was missing after it arrived at Singapore's Changi Airport, a Qantas spokeswoman said. "This had absolutely no flight safety implications," she told AFP. The non-structural panel, which measured 30 x 30 centimetres (12 x 12 inches), was replaced and the flight continued to London, she added. The incident comes after weeks of embarrassing malfunctions for the airline, including a mid-air blast, believed to be caused by an exploding oxygen bottle, which blew a hole into the fuselage of a plane last month and forced an emergency landing in Manila. On Wednesday, a B747-300 landed without incident despite the power in one of its four engines reducing to idle on approach into Auckland airport. The following day, a Qantas Boeing 767 experienced an hydraulic failure, which affected its steering as it landed at Sydney airport and left a trail of hydraulic fluid on the runway, forcing its temporary closure. Earlier this week, Qantas pulled six planes from service after it found that a maintenance procedure, reportedly designed to stop cracking in the forward pressure bulkhead, had been omitted. Qantas, which next month will take delivery of the first of its new 20 super-jumbo Airbus A380s, has said while recent events had hurt its reputation, it is probably still the safest airline in the world. Qantas, known as the "Flying Kangaroo," has never lost a jet plane to an accident. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), which is undertaking several reviews of Qantas' safety and maintenance, said Friday that if it found any problems it would require Qantas to take action. **************** Faulty GPS units lethal for pilots, Dick Smith tells transport minister AVIATOR Dick Smith has urged the federal Government to warn pilots that a GPS unit used in a fatal crash near Benalla, Victoria, in 2004 can default to the "dead reckoning", or simulator mode, if there is a problem with the aerial. Mr Smith said this was contrary to Australian Transport Safety Bureau findings that the GPS unit needed manual inputs for it to fly in the dead reckoning mode. "An experienced professional pilot, John Chew, has found that this is completely wrong," he said in a letter to Transport Minister Anthony Albanese. "In fact, the GPS will fly a complete approach in the dead reckoning mode, which (depending on the wind) will replicate exactly the approach made by the accident aircraft." Evidence given at an inquest into the crash last week suggested pilot Kerry Endicott was led by a malfunctioning GPS system to believe he was about to land at an airport when he crashed into a tree-lined ridge in heavy fog. Endicott, who died along with his five passengers, was also not warned by aircraft controllers he was about 30km off course. Timber company director Robert Henderson, his daughter Jacquie, her husband and RAAF helicopter pilot Alan Stark, friend Belinda Andrews and Qantas jumbo jet pilot Geoff Brockie were killed in the July 28 crash. Coroner Paresa Spanos heard it was likely that the satellite signals to the twin-engine plane's GPS had failed and the system went into "dead reckoning" and would have informed the pilot he was on course to land safely just before he crashed. Counsel assisting the coroner, John Langmead, told the court Endicott received "erroneous information" from his GPS but he should have also seen warnings from the system that it had lost satellite signals. The court heard the pilot had been flying off course since leaving Sydney's Bankstown Airport earlier that morning and air traffic controllers were notified of this divergence through a Route Adherence Monitoring alert system. But air traffic controllers failed to notify Endicott he was off course on the second and third of three occasions the alarm was set off during the flight. The Henderson family disputes assertions that Endicott would ignore warnings from a malfunctioning GPS and believes the inquiry should focus on the role of the air traffic controllers. Mr Smith, who was prevented from giving evidence, acknowledged that Airservices Australia had taken steps to issue an alert when an aircraft strayed from its track by a particular tolerance. But he said it had still not fixed "the vertical problem", when an aircraft descended from controlled to uncontrolled airspace below the lowest safe altitude. He said his experience with the Australian Advanced Australia Air Traffic System was that its software could be modified to give controllers an alarm when an aircraft descended below a safe altitude. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24181481-23349,00.html *************** Australia's air safety authority backs Qantas safety systems Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority says it has confidence in Qantas's safety systems following the cancellation of a flight this morning at Brisbane airport. Qantas confirmed an engineering problem grounded the flight but has refused to comment further. The plane was bound for Melbourne; passengers were ready for take-off before being told to get off the plane. CASA's Peter Gibson says the authority is reviewing Qantas after a series of incidents but he's pleased the problem was detected before the plane took off. "Obviously in a large fleet like Qantas you're going to have mechanical malfunctions pretty much every day. "Obviously you wouldn't want that to happen in an ideal world, but planes are machines. Things will go wrong, but the safety inspections are there to make sure those faults are picked up on the ground before flights begin." http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200808/s2337029.htm?tab=latest ************** Anti-terrorism police arrest two men at airport LONDON (Reuters) - Two men have been arrested at Manchester Airport on suspicion of terrorism offences, while a third was detained in a nearby town, police said on Friday. The men, who have not been named, were held after a joint operation between Lancashire Constabulary and the Greater Manchester Counter-Terrorism Unit. The third man was arrested in Accrington, Greater Manchester. Specialist officers have begun searching their houses in Blackburn. They were held under anti-terrorism laws on Thursday. Police gave no details of those held or why they were arrested. In a statement, Lancashire Constabulary's Chief Superintendent Andy Rhodes said: "(We) will investigate any information that is passed to us, and ensure it is accurate, before responding in a proportionate and measured way. "These arrests and subsequent searches of the nearby premises will be conducted with sensitivity and carried out as quickly as possible to ensure minimum impact on the three areas concerned. "However, these types of enquiries can be complex and may take time to resolve." The three men are Asian and aged in their early 20s, according to media reports. The airport's operations were not affected. No one was available to comment at Manchester Airport. http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKLF38436520080815 *************** FAA announces runway safety improvements at Metro Airport ROMULUS -- Federal Aviation Administration officials today announced that Detroit Metropolitan Airport is "at the top of the list" to advance modern runway safety technology. Metro Airport is the 13th airport in the nation so far to receive Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X or ASDE-X, a computer-based tool that projects traffic patterns and provides cautionary alerts. "The FAA has chosen Detroit Metro as one of the key locations to help advance modern runway safety technology," Robert A. Sturgell, acting administrator of the FAA said today. The system, which became operational at the end of June, is expected to help controllers see and avoid potential runway conflicts and will officially commission today, officials said. Detroit's will be the first airport to implement Precision Runway Monitor-Alternate -- a system that will enable controllers to use side-by-side approaches on three runways at once, during instrument meteorological conditions. The $20.2 million PRM-A system is expected to improve capacity and efficiency and is planned to be operational by spring 2009, FAA officials said. "This announcement today is not small news it's big news...it's the beginning of what will happen around the country," said U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg during the announcement at the airport. "This is important safety equipment installed in Detroit very early in the process." The FAA has spent more than $404 million to date on the technology system that's expected to be deployed to 35 airports nationwide by 2010. Other airport sites operating with the new safety system include Charlotte, Chicago O'Hare, Atlanta, Orlando, Seattle, Washington-Dulles, Houston, St. Louis, Connecticut, Milwaukee, Providence and Louisville. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/METRO/808130480/1 361 *************** Paris-bound Air France flight returned to Seattle An Air France flight that departed from Seattle at 2:03 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Paris tomorrow morning has returned to Seattle for nonemergency repairs. An Air France flight that departed from Seattle at 2:03 p.m. today and was scheduled to arrive in Paris Friday morning has returned to Seattle. The plane landed at Sea-Tac at 7 p.m., said Perry Cooper, spokesman for the airport. Flight 49 from Sea-Tac to Charles de Gaulle airport experienced a "technical incident," forcing a change in itinerary, according to the airline's Web site. "The pilot has not declared an emergency, and there was not an emergency landing," Cooper said. The plane was diverted when it was over Canada, several hours into the flight, he said. Cooper said earlier that he did not know details about the mechanical problem but that the plane may need to be towed to the gate once it lands. He said passengers will probably remain on the plane while repairs are made, unless the engineers find a bigger problem than anticipated. The flight will likely resume immediately after repairs, Cooper said. Air France could not be reached for comment. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008114892_webairfrance14m.h tml **************