10 SEP 2008 _______________________________________ *FAA mandates engine fastener check MD-90s *Authorities reportedly hold Itek Air 737 crash pilot *First Flight Of 787 Jeopardized By Strike *Air Canada Latest Carrier to Provide Inflight Internet *TSA Issues Veiled Threat To Airlines Over Watchlist *Continental Cuts Pilots *EU transport chief pledges to beef up airline safety *Alaska Air to Put Runway-Collision Alerts in All Jets *When a Tragedy Becomes a Crime: Prosecutors Probe Air Disasters *************************************** FAA mandates engine fastener check MD-90s The US FAA has issued a final airworthiness directive (AD) calling for checks of the aft left and right engine mount support fittings on MD-90-30 aircraft after receiving reports of "loose, cracked or missing fasteners" on "several" aircraft. The agency says the faulty conditions, found on MD-90s that had accumulated between 18.767 and 25,400 total flight hours and between 15,841 and 27,000 flight cycles, could ultimately lead to separation of the support fitting from the pylon, which could then result in separation of the engine from the airplane. According to Flight's ACAS database, there are 15 US-registered MD-90-30s, all belonging to Delta Air Lines. Inspections, which must be carried out within 703 flight cycles after 24 September effective date of the AD, include visual assessment of the fasteners, a gap check for certain washers and fasteners and a torque test of fastener nuts, solutions called out in a 1 August service bulletin issued by Boeing. The FAA says the AD is to be a considered an interim "until a final action is identified." Delta was not immediately available for comment. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************** Authorities reportedly hold Itek Air 737 crash pilot Authorities have reportedly taken into custody a pilot of the Itek Air Boeing 737-200 that crashed fatally near Bishkek, Kyrgystan, on 24 August. He is expected to be charged with breaching safety regulations, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti, but it does not specify which regulations. The first officer, according to a passenger manifest released after the accident, was the only one of the two pilots to survive. Russia and the CIS states' Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK), which is helping the Kyrgyz authorities with the investigation, has stated that the cockpit voice recorder was not operating during the crash flight. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** First Flight Of 787 Jeopardized By Strike The first flight of Boeing's 787, targeted for the fourth quarter, is in jeopardy due to a strike now in its fourth day by the International Association of Machinists and Aerosapce Workers (IAM). Boeing had nearly completed the assembly of test aircraft ZA001, and was on track to hold to its fourth quarter milestone, when the machinists walked out Sept. 6. No significant near-term activity is planned on the first flight test aircraft or the three others in the 787 factory in Bldg. 40-26 in Everett, Wash. "We were on track for a fourth quarter first flight," a Boeing official said today. "But we don't know how long the strike is going to last, so we don't know the impact on our schedule." Before the strike, speculation on exactly when first flight would be has centered on late October or early November. At the Farnborough Air Show in mid-July, 787 General Manager Pat Shanahan said the target was November. ZA001 was essentially complete and was in the midst of extensive functional systems testing to meet that deadline when the strike began. The first flight test equipment was already being installed in the cabin. Aircraft ZA002 and 003 were also substantially structurally complete, while final assembly of ZA004 is underway. All four of the first flight test aircraft are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. General Electric GEnx power plants will be used on the last two test aircraft, ZA005 and 006. Some major sub-assemblies of ZA005 have arrived in Everett--wings from Japan are on the assembly floor--and await introduction into the line as soon as ZA001 is moved into the adjacent 40-24 assembly bay. Bldg. 40-24 is the 767 assembly facility, but it has extra room and is sometimes used for spillover from other widebody programs. That move was expected by the end of September, pending the transfer of the fatigue test article to the outdoor rig on the far side of the Everett site. But it is unclear if this can be achieved on time, given the disruption already caused by the strike. However, other test work was continuing as of Sept. 8 at the suite of laboratories in the integrated aircraft systems lab facility near Boeing Field in Seattle. That's where the company is dramatically ramping up its pre-flight systems ground test activity in the face of continuing software problems. Flight test teams are now working in at least three unique labs there, including the aircraft integration lab (AIL), integrated test vehicle (ITV) - the "iron bird" -- and the engineering cab facility, which includes two fixed-based flight decks. Until the eve of the strike, work was focused on tests of the latest software loads for the GE Aviation Common Core System (CCS), the all-important avionics system that hosts up to 100 applications, including Honeywell's flight management system software and Rockwell Collins' crew alerting and display management system. Although Boeing acknowledged in July that it faced a potential schedule hurdle because of software development issues with the brakes, the company has not specified any other major problem areas. The CCS, which includes the common data network and remote data concentrators, is believed to be heavily involved in the test rush. It plays a big role because it controls numerous aircraft systems, including electrical power, environmental control, hydraulics and landing gear. Tests of the latest CCS software loads continued through the strike weekend, indicating that work was likely to be possible at the facility despite the strike that was affecting production and assembly work elsewhere. http://www.aviationweek.com ************** Air Canada Latest Carrier to Provide Inflight Internet Air Canada has become the latest North American carrier to sign up for Aircell's wireless inflight broadband system Gogo. Under an agreement announced today at the World Airline Entertainment Association's annual conference and exhibition in Long Beach, Calif., the airline will begin an "initial phase" in spring 2009 on two Airbus A319s. This initial deployment will be operated on services from the airline's hubs in Montreal and Toronto to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Air Canada's VP Marketing Charles McKee tells AviationWeek the duration of flights on these city pairs is optimal for research into passenger usage. These routes also take advantage of a "bleed of 200 miles" from Aircell's current air-to-ground system, which is still operating only in the U.S. An Aircell spokeswoman notes that this access provides sufficient coverage for Air Canada's transborder flights from both Montreal and Toronto . According to Air Canada's McKee, the carrier has provisional plans to deploy Aircell's Gogo system across its Airbus narrowbody and Embraer 190 fleets - those aircraft that operate the longest flights within Canada and into the U.S. - although this is dependent on the expansion of Aircell's ATG network. This criterion could be satisfied within six to 10 months, says Aircell's spokeswoman, noting that the provider has already applied for a license to install ground stations in Canada. Transoceanic broadband is also being discussed, although this is not currently offered by Aircell. Air Canada is the first Canadian carrier to sign to the Gogo network, and joins U.S. carriers American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Virgin America, which have also contracted Aircell to provide wireless inflight broadband. http://www.aviationweek.com *************** TSA Issues Veiled Threat To Airlines Over Watchlist The Transportation Security Administration could fine airlines if their employees misinform passengers about whether they are on a terrorist watchlist. In written testimony prepared for a House Homeland Security Committee hearing yesterday, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley says the agency is concerned about what airlines are telling passengers with names similar to those on watchlists, but who are not actually suspected wrongdoers. While the agency wants to work with carriers to ease misunderstandings and delays, "TSA has authority to impose penalties up to $25,000 per infraction," Hawley's statement says. http://www.aviationweek.com *************** Continental Cuts Pilots Continental Airlines, trying to counter high fuel costs, will lose 363 pilots, or 7.3 percent, through layoffs, early retirements and leaves, the Air Line Pilots Association said. Continental furloughed 148 pilots. An additional 151 will retire early and 64 will accept leaves, Amy Flanagan, a union spokeswoman, said. About 136 jobs were saved when pilots agreed to fly fewer hours each month. The pilot furloughs complete job cuts in all employee groups at Continental to trim operating costs and stem losses from jet- fuel prices that reached a record $4.36 a gallon July 3. The airline last month said 2,800 hourly employees, managers and clerks had agreed to leaves or retirement, negating the need for involuntary layoffs in other groups. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/business/10air.html *************** EU transport chief pledges to beef up airline safety Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani yesterday (9 September) told MEPs that he plans to tighten checks on Europe's airlines following the SpanAir crash in Madrid on 20 August, which killed over 150 people. Speaking to the Parliament's transport committee, Tajani said the Commission's services were working with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on a proposal aimed at introducing a minimum number of inspections each year in every member state. Beefed-up safety inspections could lead to the inclusion of European airlines on the EU's famed "blacklist" - first established in March 2006 to enable citizens to identify which companies are safe to fly with and which are not. Up till now, no EU carrier has been included on the list, although there have been some close calls, notably for the Cypriot airline Ajet (EurActiv 13/10/06). But Tajani said the air safety committee in charge of updating the list was due to meet on 3-5 November, adding that "the Commission will closely examine certain European operators". "There will be no favouritism," he added. The commissioner also announced that he would be making proposals in the course of 2009 to revise existing EU legislation on aviation safety. Two pieces of legislation - a 1994 directive establishing fundamental principles governing the investigation of civil aviation accidents and incidents and a 2003 directive on accident and incident reporting in civil aviation - in particular would need updating, he said. The main aim of the review would be to allow EASA - the independent body in charge of aviation safety in the EU - to participate in investigations and reinforce the legal framework around these. EASA's competences are already due to be enlarged following the presentation of Commission proposals for a 'Single European Sky' in June. While the agency currently only deals with the certification and safety of airlines, Brussels wants to hand over responsibilities for aerodromes, air traffic management and air navigation services to the agency so as to counter the rising safety risk related to increased traffic. Tajani urged member states to give their backing to these proposals. http://www.euractiv.com/en/transport/eu-transport-chief-pledges-beef-airline -safety/article-175237 **************** Alaska Air to Put Runway-Collision Alerts in All Jets Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Alaska Airlines said it will equip its entire fleet with a crash-alert system from Honeywell International Inc. designed to help prevent collisions on runways and taxiways. The Alaska Air Group Inc. unit began installing the software on Boeing Co. 737s in July and expects to have it in all planes by the end of this month, according to a statement today. Morris Township, New Jersey-based Honeywell started developing the system in 2003 and has installed it on planes for AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Emirates. ``Our pilots will be assured of an additional layer of safety while on the nation's runways,'' Gregg Saretsky, an executive vice president at the airline, said in the statement. Alaska Airlines has a fleet of about 100 planes. The $20,000 software gives voice warnings identifying runways and taxiways as a pilot approaches, and even counts down distance to the end of the strip. ``We have roughly a near-miss on a runway situation about once a day,'' said Bob Smith, vice president of advanced technology for Honeywell, referring to incident rates in the U.S. ``You have literally a dozen or more a year that are going to be serious.'' The program is an upgrade to a Honeywell system already used by Alaska Airlines that warns pilots if they're flying too close to the ground or man-made structures. The airline's parent, which also owns Horizon Air, is based in Seattle. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aFpuxEBVGLZk&refer=us *************** When a Tragedy Becomes a Crime: Prosecutors Probe Air Disasters As investigators search for clues to the crash of Spanair SA Flight 5022 in Madrid last month, families of the 153 victims demand to know who is to blame. Another critical question: whether that will be determined in civil or criminal court. For six decades, aviation regulators have sought the causes behind and responsibility for plane accidents. Victims' families have sued for damages with civil suits. Lately, however, public prosecutors are seeking criminal accountability for mistakes that lead to air disasters, raising a thorny legal and moral question: When does human error become a crime? "It's a Nobel Prize question, figuring out how to coordinate civil and criminal law enforcement," says Harvard Law School professor David Rosenberg. While it isn't yet clear whether the Spanair crash will prompt criminal charges, several air accidents in Europe this decade have. One of the latest cases stems from the Air France Concorde crash in 2000 that killed 113 people. (That was before the carrier became Air France-KLM SA.) French prosecutors have charged five people and Continental Airlines Inc. with voluntary manslaughter. Among the defendants are three engineers who designed and certified the supersonic plane more than 30 years earlier. Continental and two of its employees are included because a piece of metal that crash investigators believe dropped from one of its planes is suspected of initiating the crash. All the defendants deny the charges. National justice systems draw the line between civil and criminal cases differently. The U.S. has a range of civil penalties -- such as fines and punitive damages against individuals and companies -- that don't exist in many European legal codes, says Anthony Sebok, a professor at New York's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. In general, countries try to set a high bar for pressing criminal charges. The U.S. usually demands evidence of reckless behavior or gross negligence. In the wake of a 2003 Staten Island ferry crash that killed 11 people, for example, federal prosecutors won prison sentences for the captain, who had passed out on painkillers, and his boss, for failing to enforce rules requiring two pilots in the wheelhouse. "Most courts require much more than ordinary negligence or a slip-up," says Kenneth Simons, a professor at Boston University School of Law. The problem, he says, is to define a "slip-up" in medicine, aviation and other complex fields. American doctors, for various reasons, face the threat of huge financial liability in civil court but rarely face criminal prosecutions. Few plane crashes are caused by an individual pilot, engineer or mechanic. "You're never going to get rid of human error, so the system needs to be able to deal with human fallibility," says Gerard Forlin, a British barrister who has represented both victims and accused in crash cases. "The consequences of failing to do so are sometimes the criminal responsibility of managements and boards." Some in aviation are sounding the alarm that the pursuit of punishment could prompt people to hide problems, for fear of being held responsible for them. "There's a fundamental disconnect between how aviation investigators look at an accident and how prosecutors look at one," says David Rimmer, executive vice president at ExcelAire of Ronkonkoma, N.Y. Two ExcelAire pilots have been charged by Brazilian prosecutors following a 2006 midair collision in Brazil that killed 154 people. "Investigators look for causes and ways to avoid repeats, while the goal of law enforcement is to find somebody to blame." Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation, a global nonprofit group in Alexandria, Va., says gross negligence or law-breaking merits criminal investigation but that "overzealous prosecutions threaten to dry up vital sources of information and jeopardize safety." Prosecutors say the issue is one for the courts to decide and that holding people responsible should ultimately improve safety. Since the mid-1990s, the aviation industry in most developed countries has followed a "no blame" approach. Confidential reporting systems allow pilots, engineers, managers and others to anonymously flag potential safety concerns without fear of grounding or demotion. A pilot who makes a nonfatal mistake, for example, might get extra training, but could also provide valuable insights that instructors apply to improve their teaching. Aviation officials say the approach has helped improve air safety. There were 0.03 fatalities per million air passengers carried in North America in 2007, almost 85% fewer than the rate of 0.17 in 1997. Some safety specialists say the aviation industry's reporting methods could serve as a model for other businesses, ranging from crane operators to nuclear-power generators. American medicine could benefit, too, some say, from less litigation and more transparency. But criminal conviction has an emotional component, too, offering victims' families both a sense of finality and hope that the forceful finding can help prevent similar disasters. For the past seven years, families of the victims of a 2001 crash at Milan's Linate Airport that killed 118 people had been awaiting a final verdict in a criminal case against officials of Italy's aviation authorities. The convictions came earlier this year. Paolo Pettinaroli, head of a group of victims' families, wrote on the association's Web site: "It is over." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122090744818111657.html?mod=googlenews_wsj ****************