02 SEP 2008 _______________________________________ *SAS laying off oldest pilots *CASA rules Qantas maintenance below par *Humanitarian aircraft goes missing in Congo-U.N. *Firefighting plane crashes near Reno airport *NTSB to investigate medical chopper crash *Three South Floridians Die In Ohio Plane Crash *ERAU Graduate Student Survey *************************************** SAS laying off oldest pilots Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), faced with needed cost-cutting and conflicts in their cockpits, has decided to lay off 50 of its most senior pilots. SAS has recently been caught in conflict, yet again. The layoffs will come in conjunction with SAS' decision to withdraw 18 aircraft from service during the winter months. Another 40 veteran pilots will be laid off during 2009. SAS spokesman Claus Sonberg told website takeoff.dk on Monday that the airline had reached agreement with the pilots' union on the looming layoffs. "We have agreed that the layoffs will affect those who would soon be retiring regardless, instead of the young pilots," Sonberg said. That may bring an end, if bitter, to an ongoing conflict between new and veteran pilots within their own labour organization. Pilots over age 60 who have chosen to keep working, despite union guidelines that they retire, have complained that they've been bullied by their younger colleagues. Civil aviation authorities worried that the bullying was affecting flight safety. SAS disagreed, but is obliged to address the authorities' concerns. Last week came news that SAS planned to lay off 110 pilots. Those with the most seniority usually are the last to go, but now SAS is radically altering traditional practice. http://www.aftenposten.no/english/business/article2629923.ece *************** CASA rules Qantas maintenance below par The air safety regulator has found evidence of emerging problems with Qantas's maintenance and performance, and ordered the airline to fix the problems quickly. An independent safety audit of the airline by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority found the airline's maintenance performance had fallen below the airline's own high benchmarks. But CASA found there was no evidence of systemic safety problems, nor any links between a string of in-flight incidents in the past 14 months and an increase in the rate of safety incidents. International pilots and unions said yesterday the findings were ''a wake-up call'' for Qantas, which had been plagued for more than 12 months by stalled pay talks with its licensed aircraft maintenance engineers. These were finally resolved a month ago. Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said yesterday the carrier would work closely with CASA to implement its recommendations. Mr Dixon said, ''These issues are not about safety or compliance and we are working to bring our network performance back to the standards which have earned us a reputation as one of the best and most reliable airlines in the world. These difficulties, while improving, will continue for a few weeks yet as our policy of safety before schedule is sacrosanct.'' In releasing the safety review findings, CASA's deputy chief executive officer operations, Mick Quinn, said the regulator had found no direct link between recent safety incidents among them the explosion of an oxygen bottle on a 747-400 near Manila in July. Mr Quinn said, ''We believe these are random events, the sort of events that would happen on any airline, on any given day, in any part of the world. ''Qantas is a safe airline and CASA has no doubt about that.'' Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese told Parliament the actions ordered by CASA had sent a signal to the public and the industry that Qantas was serious about maintaining its high safety standards. Mr Albanese said, ''Australia can indeed be proud that we have a rigorous, world's-best- practice safety regime and that Qantas is rightly regarded as an airline with a reputation for safety that is second to none.'' Opposition transport spokesman Warren Truss said he expected the CASA review to help Qantas improve its maintenance and performance systems. CASA has ordered the airline to produce a plan to tackle deficiencies in its maintenance performance. That plan would include a full maintenance audit of one of each major type of aircraft in the Qantas fleet. It has ordered a second audit of Qantas maintenance systems in response to CASA airworthiness directives and how recent failures to comply with directives have been handled. ''CASA has looked carefully at the Qantas maintenance systems and performance and uncovered signs of emerging problems,'' Mr Quinn said. ''The review found maintenance performance within Qantas is showing some adverse trends and is now below the airline's own benchmarks.'' The general manager of the Australian International Pilots Association, Peter Somerville, said the review uncovered issues that had been raised by pilots and engineers for some time. ''The ball is well and truly in Qantas's court now ... There's a real wake-up call in this for all involved.'' http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/casa-rules-qantas-ma intenance-below-par/1259946.aspx ************ Humanitarian aircraft goes missing in Congo-U.N. KINSHASA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - A humanitarian plane went missing during a storm in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday, U.N. humanitarian coordinator OCHA said. "We have a missing plane. We don't know if it's landed or crashed," Christophe Illemassene, spokesman in Congo for the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told Reuters. "We don't have the manifest so we don't really know how many people were on board," he said. The plane was on its way from the city of Kisangani to the town of Bukavu, on Congo's eastern border with Rwanda, when it lost contact with ground control. "The last contact that we had was as they were approaching Bukavu ... Apparently the weather was pretty nasty in Bukavu," Illemassene said. He said the 19-seat Beechcraft was operated by Air Serv International, a not-for-profit organisation which provides air transport services to humanitarian operations around the world. "We know it didn't land at any other airport in the area," he said. "There is not really much we can do right now. There will be a search at dawn." Air Serv is one of several entities and private contractors which service Congo's large community of humanitarian workers. Most humanitarian organisations operating in the country restrict travel by their personnel on commercial flights in Congo due to local airlines' abysmal safety record and frequent crashes. http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSL112992._CH_.2400 ************** Firefighting plane crashes near Reno airport RENO, CA (AP) -- A firefighting air tanker making one last run to drop retardant on a blaze in the Sierra Nevada Monday evening crashed on takeoff from an airfield just north of Reno, killing all three crew members on board. The twin-engine P2V air tanker owned by Neptune Aviation of Missoula, Mont., had been fighting a wildfire earlier in the day that had forced evacuations over the weekend in California's Alpine County near Hope Valley south of Lake Tahoe, Reno fire spokesman Steve Frady said Monday night. Names of the three confirmed dead in the crash. had not been released, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Preliminary reports from witnesses suggested the tanker lost a piece of its engine or a wing after its 6:11 p.m. takeoff from Reno-Stead Airport before it caught fire and went down about a half-mile away, he said. The crash started a small brush fire that local crews extinguished, Frady said. He said the debris field from the crash covered approximately 5 square miles northwest of the airport northeast of U.S. Highway 395. "It was full of fuel and retardant and had been on the Hope Valley fire and apparently was headed back to make one last drop," Frady told The Associated Press. **************** NTSB to investigate medical chopper crash The NTSB has joined the investigation into a deadly medical helicopter crash on Sunday. DECATUR COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) - The National Transportation Safety Board joined the investigation into a deadly medical helicopter crash in Decatur County. All three aboard were killed when the Air Evac chopper crashed and exploded on Sunday. Pilot Roger Warren, Nurse Sandra Pearson, and Paramedic Wade Weston had just left a fundraiser for a Decatur County Fire Department when the chopper crashed into a cornfield. Investigators are searching the field for parts of the helicopter and any clues that might solve this mystery. Meanwhile, I-Team 8 learned that Air Evac, a Missouri based company had another fatal crash in Alabama late last year. Again, a pilot, nurse and paramedic were all killed. The NTSB has yet to rule on that. And the company has also confirmed there is an open FBI investigation into what it calls the company's billing and health care compliance matters. The justice department has been working that case more than a year. Monday, the CEO of Rush Memorial Hospital where Air Evac has had a base since February sent us a statement which in part reads: Numerous lives were saved in Rush County by the people who lost their lives in Sunday's crash. They were like family to us and will be missed in so many ways by so many people. For now, Air Evac has temporarily suspended patient flights at three other bases around Indiana. http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8933475&nav=menu35_2 ************* Three South Floridians Die In Ohio Plane Crash COLUMBUS, OH (CBS) ¯ Three people have died in a plane crash in Ohio. All three of them were from South Florida. The twin engine cargo plane went down in a field near Rickenbacker Airport in Columbus. The plane had just taken off when it crashed. According to officers on the scene, the pilot radioed the airport just before the crash to ask for a landing strip, but did not request emergency equipment. The victims have been identified as 57-year-old James Monahan of Plantation, 41-year-old Sean Gardiner and Urs Andereeg of Miami. Monahan's friends heard the news and spoke to CBS4 about their friend. "It's a heck of a loss. A loss for the family, a loss for the community... a loss for his friends," said Jim Archer. Monahan's friends say he was a very experienced and cautious pilot. Monahan was the father of two and had one grandchild. According to family members, he'd been flying since 1970. The cause of the crash is under investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration is trying to determine which of the three was piloting the plane at the time. ***** Status: Preliminary Date: 01 SEP 2008 Time: ca 12:10 Type: Convair CV-580 Operator: Air Tahoma Registration: N587X ? C/n / msn: 361 First flight: 1956 Crew: Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0 Total: Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 Airplane damage: Written off Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: SE of Columbus-Rickenbacker International Airport, OH (LCK) (United States of America) Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: Unknown Departure airport: Columbus-Rickenbacker International Airport, OH (LCK/KLCK), United States of America Destination airport: Mansfield-Lahm Municipal Airport, OH (MFD/KMFD), United States of America Narrative: The CV-580 took off from Columbus-Rickenbacker Airport (LCK) at 12:05 on a flight to Mansfield (MFD). According to the Pickaway County Sheriff the pilot radioed that he was returning to the airport. The airplane crashed in a cornfield and caught fire. Weather the time of departure (ca 16:00Z) was reported as: KLCK 011557Z AUTO 08003KT 7SM CLR 28/18 A3018 RMK AO2= (aviation-safety.net) ************* ERAU Graduate Student Survey An Embry-Riddle Graduate student has posted a short survey (less than 5 minutes) on the internet at Survey Monkee which deals with flight simulators. It is anonymous and the link below will take it directly there. Your voluntary participation would aid him on gathering data for the research project. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=vyGADiZBFfaYn7ctJPCGXA_3d_3d **************