08 SEP 2008 _______________________________________ *United Express jet off San Antonio runway *Wing failure focus of FAA crash probe *JetBlue flight diverted after fight breaks out *FAA Flight Data System 'Upgraded' *FAA AD audit: overall compliance rate of 98 percent *Nigerian airlines acquire more new aircraft *Qantas flight forced back to Brisbane *China Eastern says considering merger with Shanghai Airlines *Hot air balloon burns near Philadelphia, kills 1 *Jury rules San Diego Gas & Electric negligent in helicopter crash *Electrical issue keeps Emirates A380 out of service *No trace of crash flight on Itek 737 cockpit recorder *End of FAA compliance audit triggers some carrier scrutiny *************************************** United Express jet off San Antonio runway SAN ANTONIO - A United Express jet ran off a runway at San Antonio International Airport after landing on a flight from Los Angeles. United Airlines spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said none of the 52 passengers and four crew members on the flight were injured. They were bused to the terminal. McCarthy told The Associated Press that United would work with SkyWest Airlines, the operator of the regional jet, to try to determine what caused the jet to leave the runway. San Antonio airport spokesman David Hebert said in a story on the San Antonio Express-News Web site that the plane appeared to be having some mechanical difficulties. The accident closed the primary runway at the airport for about two hours. The other runway was already closed for construction. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5989196.html ************* Wing failure focus of FAA crash probe An investigation into Saturday's fatal crash of a pilot practicing in a home-built aircraft for the Reno National Championship Air Races will focus on why the wings came off, a federal official said Sunday. Formula One racer Erica Simpson, 32, of Phillipsburg, N.J., was killed about 9 a.m. while preparing for her second year of competition at Reno Stead Airport. "She went into a roll. She was demonstrating a roll, and the wings came off," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said. "That is what the investigation will center on." Simpson, a commercial pilot raised in Port Wing, Wis., competed in the biplane class in 2006. She was flying a single-engine Cassult IIIM on Saturday. Three pilots were killed in competition during last year's air races. There have been 19 fatalities in the 45-year history of the event. The danger will prompt FAA officials to take extra precautions before the races begin Wednesday. "An (FAA) inspector will deliver a safety briefing to race pilots at the beginning of the air races," Gregor said. "Additionally, inspectors will take an even closer look than normal to ensure that any aircraft modifications are authorized and properly documented. "They do such monitoring regularly, but will be paying even more attention to this matter during this year's event. And finally, we'll be taking an even closer look at pilot records than we normally do." Four FAA safety officials were present when the crash occurred Saturday, Gregor said. A tribute to Simpson is planned during the opening ceremonies, organizers said. Crashes that have plagued the Reno Air Races recently might turn out to be similar to Saturday's accident, Gregor said. "The National Transportation Safety Board determined that pilot error was a factor in two of the three accidents that occurred during last year's races and that wake turbulence caused the third," he said. http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080908/NEWS04/809080331/1321 /NEWS *************** JetBlue flight diverted after fight breaks out Witnesses said fight broke out after someone was smoking in bathroom One person taken into custody at Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, airport Witness: "I saw the guy holding his head with the blood coming out" Plane held two hours in North Carolina while FBI interviewed passengers (CNN) -- A JetBlue flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was diverted Saturday when a fight broke out after someone was smoking in the bathroom, federal officials said. A JetBlue plane was held in North Carolina for two hours while passengers were interviewed. One passenger aboard JetBlue Flight 455 was taken into custody at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina after the plane landed about 5:45 p.m. A federal Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said one person was injured in the face by what may have been a punch. She said the fight involved three people who are thought to be related. According to the airline, there were 88 people and four crew members aboard the jet. The flight had been scheduled to leave Boston at 1 p.m. but did not take off until 3:11 p.m., spokeswoman Alison Eshelman said. Eyewitnesses said the scuffle was between two brothers, one of whom was angry that his brother had smoked on a plane. One passenger interviewed by CNN affiliate WFOR said the fight left one of the men bloody. "I saw the guy holding his head with the blood coming out," Mike Rocha said. The jet was held at the North Carolina airport for about two hours while FBI investigators interviewed passengers. *************** FAA Flight Data System 'Upgraded' The FAA claims that modernization of a computer system responsible for the processing of essential flight data is near completion. An outage in the National Airspace Data Interchange Network (NADIN) last week caused hundreds of air traffic delays. However, the FAA claims that important upgrades to the system are just months from being finished. NADIN supports the critical exchange of flight plan data, weather information, Notices to Airmen and other flight safety-related messages. It's also an important link between the FAA and countries belonging to the International Civil Aviation Organization. As well as FAA, system users include other U.S. government agencies such as the National Weather Service and Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. Commercial aviation interests access the system, including the airlines. Soon, all of these users will benefit from a major upgrade. NADIN can be broadly viewed as two networks. One network provides a data distribution capability, while the other collects it. The collection capability is the part getting an upgrade. That network was commissioned in 1988 and now processes more than 1.5 million messages a day. It has central message switches at facilities in Atlanta and Salt Lake City, which serve as backups to each other in the event that one should fail. Data is also collected in "concentrators" located at each of the FAA's En Route Centers, which control high-altitude air traffic. Currently, these concentrators are very sensitive to network problems and have a tendency to lock up. New high-speed servers are replacing the collection switches at the FAA's two primary NADIN facilities in Atlanta and Salt Lake City, as well as the antiquated concentrators in each En Route Center. In addition, system gateway upgrades have already been completed at En Route Centers in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Fort Worth. When that deployment is finished in early 2009, NADIN will have increased storage and dramatically improved processing speed, which will alleviate the bottlenecks the FAA has seen in the past. An example of one such bottleneck occurred last week when the NADIN database in Atlanta was corrupted. All of the Atlanta's data had to be switched to Salt Lake City, which was soon overwhelmed with a huge surge of information. And flight delays ensued. With the upgrades in place, that FAA says that "such bottlenecks will be a thing of the past." We shall see... FMI: www.faa.gov aero-news.net *************** FAA AD audit: overall compliance rate of 98 percent U.S. FAA inspectors found an overall compliance rate of 98 percent in more than 5,600 audits of Airworthiness Directives (ADs) at U.S. air carriers, Acting Administrator Robert A. Sturgell announced today. In the remaining 2 percent of the audits, the carriers resolved the issues of noncompliance before the airplanes flew again. Alleged noncompliance in the audits fell into five categories: instances where the air carrier could not show compliance with the AD; cases where additional records were needed to prove compliance; cases where the air carrier did the work, but had to apply for an alternate means of compliance approval; situations where the AD work was not done, but the airplane was not flying; other minor discrepancies not involving ADs. All noncompliance issues were corrected before the airplanes flew again, and the FAA is investigating to determine if enforcement actions are warranted. (FAA) (aviation-safety.net) ******************* Nigerian airlines acquire more new aircraft With the expected delivery this month of the first batch of the 24 new Embraer aircraft ordered last year by Virgin Nigeria Airways; the delivery of Aero's Boeing 737-500; Dana's MD83 and Afrijet's MD83 recently the Nigerian airlines have brought a new spirit of healthy competition into the industry, with customer satisfaction as ultimate in the last one year. Investigation by the Business Travel Weekly indicates that in the last two months, Nigerian airlines which boast of over 50 aircraft as at today have brought in five new aircraft to boost their operations. Boeing aircraft manufacturers got all the patronage of the five aircraft as Arik Air brought in a B737-700 to grow the number of its fleet to 19; Aero brought in a Boeing737-500, the first in Nigeria to bring its fleet to 10; Dana brought in two MD83 aircraft with its inaugural flight on Lagos-Abuja route planned for this month and Afrijet brought in one MD83 aircraft. The Brazil-based Embraer aircraft manufacturer will have the opportunity of having a share of the market as its starts the delivery of the first batch of 24 aircraft ordered by Virgin Nigeria Airways, which currently has nine aircraft in its fleet, with over 80 per cent from the Boeing manufacturers, BTW said. Also patronising the Embraer is the Capital Airlines that is expecting the delivery of an Embraer 120 aircraft this month as well. Recently, the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Dr. Harold Demuren said the acquisitions were facilitated by the Cape Town Convention to which Nigeria is a signatory. It allows Nigerian registered airlines to lease mobile equipment. The airlines are intensifying their efforts to bring in more new aircraft with Aero pushing for seven more aircraft between the last quarter of this year and first quarter of 2009; Dana with two more MD83 aircraft before the end of the year, with five more before 2009; Arik with 50 more aircraft in the next 10 to 15 years; Afrijet with one more before the end of this quarter and Bellview with 15 before the end of 2010. http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200809081233240 ************** Qantas flight forced back to Brisbane A Qantas flight from Brisbane to Sydney last night became the latest to be affected by mechanical failures, with the service turned around mid-flight due to faulty air-conditioners. QF555 took off from Brisbane Airport's domestic terminal about 8pm last night, but was forced to return just before it reached the halfway point, passengers told brisbanetimes.com.au today. A Sydney man, who did not wish to be named, said just after the plane reached cruising altitude the pilot told passengers that one of the air-conditioners had been shut off before take-off because it was malfunctioning. He said he was forced to return to Brisbane because the second unit began showing faults. The passenger said the 200-odd people on-board the Boeing 767 arrived back in Brisbane about 9.30pm and were forced to line up as two Qantas staff began organising overnight accommodation. "I've been flying Qantas for years but these days they are always late and they've got the worst record," he said. "I'm at the point where I'm thinking I'm going to fly with someone else. "A plane needs to fall out of the sky before they will fix anything as far as I am concerned." Another passenger, Chelsea Peard, saying she feared for her safety. "Obviously they do not just turn around a plane for no reason, so I was concerned," she said. "There are two air-conditioners on a plane and I'm guessing they are quite important." Another air-conditioning malfunction was also blamed for a Qantas domestic flight carrying 111 passengers pulling out of a take-off at Melbourne Airport yesterday. Noises were heard coming from the undercarriage and the Canberra-bound 737 jet returned to the terminal before passengers were loaded onto another plane. However, the spate of problems for Australia's national airline started last month when an explosion ripped a hole in the fuselage of a Qantas jet en route from Hong Kong to Melbourne, forcing an emergency landing at Manila. Then on August 2, a Qantas Boeing 767 flight turned back to make an emergency landing at Sydney airport after a hydraulic fluid leak was discovered. And last week, a domestic flight was forced to return to Adelaide after a wheel bay door failed to close, and a jet was grounded for almost three hours after a technical fault was discovered in a pre-flight inspection at Sydney airport. Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon admitted this week that the airline's reputation had been tainted by the incidents and said Qantas had to work hard to retrieve its good name. Comment is being sought from Qantas about last night's incident with QF555. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4685558a12.html ************* China Eastern says considering merger with Shanghai Airlines SHANGHAI (AFP) - The president of China Eastern Airlines said the nation's third largest carrier was considering a merger with Shanghai Airlines but still eyeing a tie-up with Singapore Airlines. State regulators in control of the two carriers were holding the discussions of a possible merger, China Eastern President Cao Jianxiong said Sunday, according to Dow Jones Newswires. "The potential merger is being discussed only at the government level at this point," Cao was quoted as saying. Cao's comments came after state media reported in July that the Chinese government was discussing a possible merger of the two airlines as part of its efforts to consolidate the nation's aviation industry. Both airlines issued statements at the time denying having merger talks. Cao said the government planned to first inject capital into Shanghai-based China Eastern and then to merge it with Shanghai Airlines. The combined companies would then consider a potential stake sale to Singapore Airlines. "Both (deals), with Shanghai Airlines and Singapore Airlines, are possible," Cao was quoted as saying by Dow Jones Newswires. "But for sure, the merger with Shanghai Airlines will take place before a possible stake sale with Singapore Airlines." A preliminary deal that would have seen China Eastern sell a 24 percent stake to Singapore and government-linked investment firm Temasek expired in August. But the carrier said it would continue to seek strategic investors "of world renown." China Eastern officials would not confirm the report immediately when contacted by AFP on Monday. Shanghai-listed shares of China Eastern tumbled 3.81 percent in late morning session while Shanghai Airlines lost 1.69 percent, compared with a 1.60 percent fall in the benchmark index. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jsY9sbbFmOjYikESFLFBGFJkvZmg ************** Hot air balloon burns near Philadelphia, kills 1 CHESTER SPRINGS, Pa. (AP) - A hot air balloon made an unscheduled landing and burst into flames in suburban Philadelphia Sunday evening, killing its pilot and injuring seven passengers. The balloon carrying eight people was making an hourlong flight, but descended early into a field about two miles from the liftoff site, said Deputy Chief Chuck Fields of the Kimberton Fire Co. "It was an unscheduled landing, but it came down making a normal landing," Fields said. "It did not fall from the sky on fire." When the basket landed shortly before 6:40 p.m., a fuel hose dislodged. The venting propane was ignited by the flame used to heat the air for flight and set fire to the balloon and basket, Fields said. The pilot was unable to get out of the basket and died at the scene, West Vincent Township Police Chief Michael Swininger said. Passengers jumped from the basket but were burned, some seriously, Fields said. They were assisted by nearby residents until fire department and ambulance workers arrived. Two victims were flown to Temple University Hospital and were being treated in the burn unit, said a spokeswoman who declined to comment on their condition. Three others were taken to Chester Crozier Medical Center, where hospital officials said one was in guarded condition and two were stable. Two passengers were treated at an area and released. Authorities do not know why the balloon landed before the end of the scheduled flight, Fields said. The crash will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration, he said. Air Ventures Hot Air Balloon Flights, operator of the balloon, could not be reached for comment Sunday night. ************** Jury rules San Diego Gas & Electric negligent in helicopter crash SAN DIEGO (AP) - A jury Wednesday found San Diego Gas & Electric negligent in the deaths of four Marines who were killed when their helicopter hit an unlit utility tower at Camp Pendleton in 2004. Jurors awarded more than $15 million in economic damages in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the families of the Marines. The jury found the utility failed to install safety lights to prevent accidents and that two of SDG&E's representatives acted with malice by not ordering the installation of lights or markers on the tower. The jury determined that the parents of all four Marines should receive $2.125 million in damages in the wrongful-death case. Jurors also found the wife of one the Marines, 1st Lt. Michael S. Lawlor, was entitled to $6.7 million. The accident occurred Jan. 22, 2004, when two helicopter crews were practicing nighttime maneuvers. The crews were using night-vision goggles. Killed when one helicopter struck the 135-foot utility tower were Lawlor, 26; Capt. Adam E. Miller, 19; Staff Sgt. Lori A. Privette, 27; and Cpl. Joshua D. Harris, 21. During the trial, attorneys for the families told jurors the accident would not have happened if lights or other markers had been installed on the tower. They said the utility company was negligent for operating under a policy where lights were only used on structures 200 feet or higher, even though company officials knew most collisions occurred at lower altitudes. But attorneys for SDG&E argued the crash was a result of pilot error, not negligence. They told the jurors that Marines involved in the training knew the area and had been briefed about the power lines. SDG&E attorney Larry Davis contended the Marine Corps bore the blame because it was obligated to notify the utility of any hazardous obstacles. Jurors were scheduled later Wednesday to hear testimony related to possible punitive damages against SDG&E. http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10407151 ************** Electrical issue keeps Emirates A380 out of service Middle Eastern carrier Emirates has yet to clarify the nature of an electrical matter which is keeping its first Airbus A380 from returning to service while it undergoes engineering work. The Dubai-based airline is not expecting to return the aircraft to flight operations until at least 12 September. Engineers are working on an "electrical issue", says a spokesperson for the carrier, which was "noticed at the end of a training mission when the aircraft was parked in front of the hangars". The aircraft remains parked in Dubai. The A380, delivered to Emirates at the end of July, has been used for training purposes in between twice-weekly flights on the Dubai-New York JFK route. Emirates admitted last week that it had suspended A380 services, initially stating simply that planned engineering work had overrun. The airline says its next scheduled commercial flight with the 489-seat aircraft is 12 September. In the interim period it is using Boeing 777-300ER twin-jets twice-daily on the JFK route. The carrier states that it is working to minimise any inconvenience to passengers. Emirates is acquiring 58 A380s in total but delivery of its second, due this month, has been delayed - although there is no indication that this is linked to the engineering work on the first aircraft. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** No trace of crash flight on Itek 737 cockpit recorder Russian investigators have discovered that the cockpit-voice recorder from the crashed Itek Air Boeing 737-200 contains no trace of the ill-fated jet's final flight. The 737 came down outside of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek shortly after departing the city for Tehran on 24 August. Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK), assisted by the US National Transportation Safety Board, has completed an initial reading of the data from the aircraft's two recorders. But MAK says preliminary information shows the cockpit-voice recorder only contains a record of a previous flight on the Moscow-Bishkek sector. "The record of the flight with the emergency is absent," it states. MAK adds that the quality of the flight-data recorder information is "unsatisfactory" because of partial thermal damage to its magnetic tape, caused by the intense fire which followed the crash. The available data will be synchronised with radar-track information and recordings from the air traffic control service. "Restoration of the information will take a long time," says MAK. Sixty-five of the 90 passengers and crew members on board the aircraft were killed in the accident. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** End of FAA compliance audit triggers some carrier scrutiny Although the FAA has determined US carriers have a 98% compliance rate to airworthiness directives, the agency is conducting routine investigations of airlines whose adherence to those regulations is questionable. In the aftermath of imposing a $10.2 million fine against Southwest Airlines for failure to complete inspections of 46 aircraft FAA launched an audit examining carrier methods of complying with airworthiness directives (ADs) issued by the agency. The review was conducted in two phases, with the first audit completed in March after an examination of compliance with 10 ADs per fleet at 117 carriers. Of the 2,392 examinations completed, FAA questioned carrier compliance in 34 of those instances. FAA determined 27 of the 34 questionable occurrences were resolvable, and deemed the remaining seven instances as areas of noncompliance. As a result of those events FAA launched an investigation of four carriers. Phase two of the audit ended on 30 June and triggered a review of 11 carriers after FAA uncovered 17 instances of non-compliance. The agency reviewed 10% of ADs applicable to a given carrier, which resulted 3,236 additional audits and an overall questioning of compliance in 88 cases. In one-third of those audits FAA conducted visual inspections of aircraft. FAA stresses that all discrepancies were resolved before the aircraft were allowed to operate. Its investigations will determine the number of aircraft that flew prior to the discovery of those inconsistencies. The agency is conducting routine investigations of the carriers involved in the noncompliance events. But FAA Acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell told reporters today "going back to Southwest, I don't know of any issues [from the investigation] that show willful non-compliance". Most of the cases of noncompliance stemmed from improper record keeping or using procedures without proper approval, FAA explains. Sturgell says through the audit FAA learned it can improve the AD process in a variety of ways including monitoring compliance while the work is being performed instead of after the fact. "That is one great benefit of our comprehensive review," says Sturgell, who notes going forward issues can be addressed "proactively instead of reactively". Source: Air Transport Intelligence news **************