20 SEP 2008 _______________________________________ *Four Dead In Learjet 60 Takeoff Downing *NTSB LAUNCHES TEAM TO INVESTIGATE BUSINESS JET CRASH IN SOUTH CAROLINA *FAA failed to act on runway safety problems *Emergency Landing At Salt Lake International Airport *Pilot who crashed last year hid heart problems from FAA *Fatal crash caused by wing failure, NTSB says *13 Chinese hurt in turbulence in China Airlines flight in Indonesia **************************************** Four Dead In Learjet 60 Takeoff Downing Survivors Include Former Blink-182 Drummer Details are sketchy about the circumstances surrounding the Friday night downing of a Learjet 60 business jet on takeoff from Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE) in South Carolina... but we do know that both of the business jet's pilots were lost in the accident, as were two of the four passengers onboard. The Learjet 60 (N999LJ) crashed on take-off at 2353 EDT, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The plane was registered to Inter Travel and Services of Irvine, CA, and was approximately two years old. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told The Associated Press controllers saw sparks as the plane rolled down the runway. The aircraft then departed the runway, and came to rest was departing shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers reporting seeing sparks. She says the plane went off the runway and crashed into a berm across the road from the airport. There is no record of an IFR flight plan filed for the accident flight. Bergen said the Lear's destination was Van Nuys, CA. The NTSB has dispatched a Go Team to investigate the accident. NTSB Senior Air Safety Investigator Bill English has been designated as Investigator-in-Charge. Board Member Debbie Hersman will serve as principal spokesman during the on-scene investigation; Hersman fulfilled the same role during the investigation of the August 2006 crash of Comair 191 from Lexington, KY. The Safety Board's 11-member team includes two representatives from the Office of Transportation Disaster Assistance. Peter Knudson will accompany the team as press officer. Both of the survivors were admitted to an Augusta, GA hospital with critical burns. MSNBC reports one of the survivors is Travis Barker, the former drummer for the rock band Blink 182. The second survivor has been tentatively identified as Adam Michael Goldstein, a popular club performer known as DJ AM. Both were believed to have performed Friday night at a downtown music event in South Carolina. The identities of the four others onboard have not been release as of yet. According to online flight tracking service FlightAware.com, the Lear arrived at CAE from Teterboro, NJ less than an hour before the accident. Records show that on September 12, the Lear diverted back to TEB shortly after takeoff, originally bound for to Tulsa, OK. The plane's next listed flight was on Thursday, a 47-minute circuit around Teterboro. That flight immediately preceded Friday's trip to CAE. ANN will update this story as more information becomes available. FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov aero-news.net ************** NTSB LAUNCHES TEAM TO INVESTIGATE BUSINESS JET CRASH IN SOUTH CAROLINA The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a Go Team to investigate the crash of a business jet at Columbia Metropolitan Airport in West Columbia, South Carolina. The Learjet 60 (N999LJ) crashed on take-off at 11:53 p.m. EDT on Friday. Of the six people on board, two crewmembers and two passengers were fatally injured. NTSB Senior Air Safety Investigator Bill English has been designated as Investigator-in-Charge. NTSB Board Member Debbie Hersman will serve as principal spokesman during the on-scene investigation. The Safety Board's 11-member team includes two representatives from the Office of Transportation Disaster Assistance. Peter Knudson will accompany the team as press officer. Mr. Knudson may be reached on his cell phone (202-557-1350) when he arrives in South Carolina this morning. NTSB Press Contacts: 202-557-1350 (Peter Knudson, on site in South Carolina) 202-314-6100 (Washington) ************** Orient Thai and One-Two-Go Airlines' grounding extended Orient Thai Airlines and its budget subsidiary One-Two-Go Airlines remain grounded. The Thai Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) extended the suspension of Orient Thai's operating licence for another 15 days. One-Two-Go's licence was suspended for a further 30 days. DCA deputy director-general Wuthichai Singhamanee said the two privately owned airlines had still not complied with the changes they were ordered to make to their organisational structure, internal auditing and quality controls. The two airlines however have been able to meet the main hurdle, safety standards. (Bangkok Post) (aviation-safety.net) ************** FAA failed to act on runway safety problems WASHINGTON (AP) - A government watchdog on Friday demanded an investigation of whistleblower complaints that federal aviation officials failed to fully pursue on runway safety problems brought to their attention. Special Counsel Scott Bloch said in three letters to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters that the Federal Aviation Administration did not adequately respond to complaints from air traffic controllers about the potential for collisions involving planes taking off and landing on intersecting runways at airports in Memphis, Tenn., and Newark, N.J. There is a ``substantial likelihood'' that conditions at the two airports ``create a substantial and specific danger to public safety,'' Bloch said in the letters, which were obtained by The Associated Press. Lynn Tierney, FAA assistant administrator for communications, said Bloch's letters represent ``old investigations'' and ``old allegations'' that ``have been thoroughly reviewed,'' but she acknowledged having misspoken earlier when she said the Transportation Department's inspector general had also investigated runway safety at the two airports. ``The safety data demonstrates that there are no safety issues associated with operations at these airports,'' said Tierney. ``... It is highly irresponsible of the special counsel to needlessly scare travelers simply to divert attention away from his significant legal issues.'' A group of current and former agency workers filed a complaint against Bloch in 2005, accusing him of using intimidation and involuntary transfers against those who opposed his policies. The workers also accused Bloch of refusing to protect federal workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation. The inspector general at the Office of Personnel Management is investigating the latter charges. In a statement, Bloch said Tierney's response to his letters ``is exactly the kind of blame the whistleblower and kill the messenger mentality that FAA has exhibited for years to escape responsibility and culpability for creating a culture of cover up and fraud.'' In an interview with AP, Bloch said he has created a special team within his office to investigate FAA whistleblower allegations of safety problems and coverups. He said he's received 38 whistleblower complaints involving FAA since March. ``In all areas that I know of that exist in FAA, we're seeing a pattern of coverups and suppression of safety investigations, inspections and groundings of aircraft,'' Bloch said. The whistleblower complaints in Bloch's letters involve the potential for collisions when an aircraft aborts an attempted landing and begins to climb for a ``go-around'' - another attempt at landing - bringing the plane into the flight path of a second plane in the process of a takeoff or landing on an intersecting runway. Air traffic controller Peter Nesbitt had reported safety issues at Memphis International Airport to Bloch's office nearly a year ago. FAA examined the complaints, but Nesbitt says problems continued, and a second Memphis whistleblower has brought more complaints to his office, Bloch said in the letters. The special counsel said he is ``not prepared to accept'' an FAA report on its resolution of the problems at Memphis ``as the final report in this matter.'' The department's inspector general, Calvin Scovel, has been investigating ``similar allegations involving intersecting runways at Detroit International Airport,'' Bloch said. He asked Peters to direct Scovel to look at ``these new disclosures'' from whistleblowers in Memphis and at Newark Liberty International Airport. Bloch said that at Scovel's recommendation, FAA previously agreed to complete a safety analysis by May 1 on ways to reduce go-arounds at Newark, and to implement any needed changes by July 1. But Ray Adams, a whistleblower at Newark, ``contends that, to date, FAA has not completed the safety analysis or implemented any changes'' involving the runways, Bloch's letter said. ``I am pleased that my complaint has been deemed valid by the Office of Special Counsel and that FAA management officials at Newark Airport may finally be held accountable for their disregard for the public safety,'' Adams told AP on Friday. Bloch also said he is reluctant to accept an internal FAA investigation of the runway problems since FAA officials were found to have covered up safety problems at Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport a second time after the agency had been investigated by Scovel. ``We have had some concern in other referrals to (the Transportation Department) involving FAA conduct or facilities that there exists an inherent conflict of interest when an FAA component conducts an investigation of allegations of its own misconduct,'' Bloch's letter said. The vast majority of go-arounds are routine and are caused by congested airspace around major airports. At some airports, though, air traffic controllers have warned about potentially dangerous procedures that point planes executing go-arounds into the path of planes taking off from intersecting runways. In one incident at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport in 2006, a United Airlines jet executing a go-around narrowly missed an American Airlines jet that was taking off from an intersecting runway. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the near-collision on ``deficient FAA procedures for separation of aircraft using converging runways.'' **************** Emergency Landing At Salt Lake International Airport US Airways Plane Makes Emergency Landing In Salt Lake City (CBS NEWS) A US Airways jet is waiting for repairs at Salt Lake International Airport, after making an emergency landing Friday morning. The Bombardier CRJ900 regional jet was diverted to Salt Lake City because of a crack in the front windshield. The flight was headed from Edmonton, Canada, to Phoenix, Arizona. The aircraft made the emergency landing at 10:20 in the morning. Salt Lake City International Airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann said it is not known what caused the crack. 86 passengers and three crew members were on board the plane. No one was injured. The passengers were put on other flights to Phoenix. http://www.kutv.com/content/news/topnews/story.aspx?content_id=beed1873-66d1 -4bec-95d7-7984b0cdee11 ************** Pilot who crashed last year hid heart problems from FAA Jan Wildbergh, who flew for the Geico Skytypers, died when the vintage World War II SNJ-2 plan crashed near the runway during a pre show practice. (WVEC Sky 13 photo) The 74-year-old GEICO Skytypers pilot who crashed and died last year at the Oceana Air Show had heart problems that he withheld from the FAA and that likely would have disqualified him from flying, according to a federal report and a regional FAA medical examiner. Jan Wildbergh was flying a World War II-era plane on Sept. 7, 2007, during a practice run at Oceana Naval Air Station. In a final maneuver, four other Skytyper planes broke from formation and peeled toward the runways, but Wildbergh's plane kept going in a shallow descent until it hit the ground and burst into flames, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report. On his applications for medical certificates in 2003, 2004 and 2005, Wildbergh denied a history of heart problems, the report said. Episodes of shortness of breath, chest tightness and ventricular tachycardia "were not documented in records submitted to the FAA," it said. Dr. Kevin P. Murray, a Norfolk physician who is a regional FAA medical examiner, said that had the agency known about some of Wildbergh's reports, he likely would not have been flying. "This business about chest tightness, that's a concern," Murray said. "That ventricular tachycardia, that would have disqualified him." Ventricular tachycardia is an abnormally fast heart rhythm that can lead to sudden death. Murray is certified to evaluate "second class" pilots, those like Wildbergh who make a living as pilots but don't fly commercial airliners. He said that while there are frequent medical check s for such pilots, the system also relies on pilots to report a medical condition if one develops. "They're duty-bound to disqualify themselves if something like this comes up," Murray said. Wildbergh didn't do that, or at least omitted significant information, according to the NTSB report. In December 2005, the FAA denied Wildbergh's medical application because of his "history of falsification of multiple previous FAA examinations." Wildbergh responded the following month: "Because I had had many tests, felt well, and my cardiologist told me that he saw no reason why I couldn't fly, I foolishly exercised poor judgment when completing my medical form." However, a letter from Wildbergh's cardiologist to his primary care physician earlier that year said that he might need "to give up recreational flying, particularly given his aggressive style and performance in air shows." Wildbergh's most recent application for a second-class medical certificate, dated November 2006, was approved by a physician who flew in air shows with Wildbergh, the safety board reported. That application noted that Wildbergh was taking warfarin, to prevent blood clots, and metoprolol, a drug that Murray said would aim to slow the heart rate. Toxicology testing performed on Wildbergh after the crash detected both drugs in his blood, the safety board report said. Wildbergh's health was being evaluated frequently in the months leading up to the accident. Three months earlier, an echocardiogram found that he had a new condition: pulmonary hypertension. Just three days before the accident, he was examined for multiple episodes of fatigue and shortness of breath that lasted from a few hours to more than a day and a half, the report said. At that time, his cardiologist wrote that he might "need to consider discontinuing his activity as a pilot." Two employees of the Skytypers provided written statements to the safety board for its report about the moments leading up to his final flight. Both said Wildbergh looked pale, and one wrote that he had been nodding off during the preflight briefing. "I suspect the FAA are going to be investigating really carefully," Murray said, "because I think there are some things here that don't meet the eye." http://hamptonroads.com/2008/09/pilot-who-crashed-last-year-hid-heart-proble ms-faa *************** Fatal crash caused by wing failure, NTSB says Corrosion was the culprit in the wreck that killed 4 men last year. Wing failure caused a floatplane crash that killed four men in the Katmai National Park and Preserve last year, according to a federal accident report. For months, the crash puzzled investigators. Though there were clues that the plane had suffered a structural failure -- its rapid descent caused ground scars -- there were no obvious signs that a wing had broken off. When it crashed, the Helio Courier was carrying two Canadian businessmen, a Homer fishing guide and a Wasilla pilot who had just ended a day of fly-fishing at a remote lake. The floatplane hurtled into trees and tundra about 10 miles from its destination, the Royal Wolf Lodge, killing them all. The co-owner of the lodge, Chris Branham, discovered the wreckage after an aerial search that afternoon. "That kind of accident never leaves you," Branham said in a satellite phone call from the lodge on Friday. He said he flies over the crash site nearly every day of the summer and still doesn't understand what went wrong. The victims: Wasilla pilot Bruce Stephens, Homer fishing guide Tom Beatty, and brothers Greg and Sean Brophy of Ontario. Greg Brophy was the founder and chief executive of an international information security firm, Securit. Investigators found the wings next to the wreckage. Usually, a failed wing would be found much farther away, said Clint Johnson, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator. But after the wings were taken apart, laboratory tests showed corrosion in a spot where a wing attaches to the plane. The corrosion weakened the connection. Fractures on a massive bolt -- about 1 inch in diameter -- showed the stress was emanating from the corroded area, according to the NTSB report. ALERT As a result of those findings, the Federal Aviation Administration sent a special bulletin on Sept. 9 to all Helio operators, asking them to look for corrosion in the fittings for the plane's forward wings. The corrosion might be hard to spot. Someone would have to take the wings off the plane -- an intensive and complicated process -- in order to see the amount of corrosion discovered during the NTSB investigation, Johnson said. "That is one of the things to wrestle with: how to inspect without taking the wings off," he said. But if there's corrosion on the outside of the fittings, there's probably corrosion on the inside, he said. It's hard to say for sure when corrosion became a problem on this plane, he said. A BEEFY PLANE Branham said he bought the plane from legendary Bush pilot Lowell Thomas in the 1980s, and his lodge uses three other Helio Couriers. The reason his company chose this type of plane for the lodge was its reputation as one of the safest in the world, he said. It's hard to accept that a plane of that caliber would have a structural failure, he said: It's so strong. "All the pilots I've talked to have said, 'Gee, that must have been an isolated incident.' " But this was not the first time the Helio Courier has had a problem with wing separation. In the 1980s, federal officials required owners of Helio planes to install new fittings where the wing attaches to the fuselage, Branham said. Also, this particular plane was flying on salvaged wings. In 2000, the plane lost power and had a hard landing near Port Alsworth. The salvage dealer told the NTSB the replacement wings were undamaged before they were sold to the Branhams, according to the report. After last year's fatal crash, Branham removed the wings from the three remaining Helio planes used at the lodge for a thorough inspection. He said he noticed a small amount of corrosion on the replacement fittings where the wing attaches to the fuselage and he thinks it's because they were improperly machined in the 1980s. But he said the corrosion appeared to be minor. He's not sure what to make of the NTSB's findings. "I think they've done their very best," he said. "But to me, there are still questions." http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/531775.html **************** 13 Chinese hurt in turbulence in China Airlines flight in Indonesia JAKARTA, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Thirteen Chinese were hurt when a plane operated by China Airlines was struck by turbulence on its route from Taipei to Bali of Indonesia on Saturday, a doctor said. Guning Atmajaya, the doctor who treated eight of the hurt passengers at the Sanglah Hospital, said that six of them were seriously injured and needed an intensive medical care. "All of the 13 injured passengers are Chinese. Six of them need special medical treatment as they suffered from serious broken bones," he told Xinhua on telephone from the hospital. The plane with the flight number CI-687 and 400 passengers on board was hit by the turbulence around 14:00 Bali time, which caused the plane swaying, head of the Indonesian health ministry crisis center Rustam Pakaya said. "The turbulence strongly hit the plane and hurt 13 people, six of them suffering from broken bones," he told Xinhua. The plane landed at 14:10 Bali time, said Pakaya. Security officer at the Ngurah Rai international airport in BaliMade Sugiarta told Xinhua that the plane was on its route from Taipei of China to Bali of Indonesia. ****************