20 OCT 2008 _______________________________________ *NTSB Notes Shortcomings In FAA's Revised Flight Recorder Rule *FAA Gives Three More Airlines Funding For EFBs *Regional Jet, Maintenance Truck Collide At ORD; 3 Injured *FAA Expands Runway Status Lights Program Nationwide *German Charter Flight Forced into Emergency Landing *Airplane maker EADS to build air academy in Oman *FAAN laments N4bn debt, closes Maiduguri airport (Nigeria) *Air Medical Transport Conference (AMTC) To Focus on Industry Safety *Robertson R44 Helicopter Wire Strike Accident (South Africa) *Voluntary safety reporting program suspended at American *US safety board repeats calls for more robust flight recorders *Passengers treated after Iberia turbulence incident *Still ignoring those flight-attendant safety lectures? **************************************** NTSB Notes Shortcomings In FAA's Revised Flight Recorder Rule But Praises Enhancements Overall The National Transportation Safety Board has told the Federal Aviation Administration that many elements of its new rule dealing with aircraft flight recorders comply with previous NTSB recommendations... but noted that some of its recommendations were not adopted. The FAA issued a final rule, titled "Revisions to Cockpit Voice Recorder and Digital Flight Data Recorder Regulations," in March 2008 as ANN reported. After reviewing the rule, the NTSB this week classified several recommendations referenced in the rule. The Board was pleased to see that all larger passenger airliners will be required to carry 2-hour cockpit voice recorders (CVRs), greatly expanding the current 30-minute requirement. But the rule stopped short by not requiring that older 30-minute CVRs be replaced on existing commuter and corporate jet aircraft. The FAA did require that newly manufactured commuter and corporate jets come equipped with 2-hour CVRs. Recommendation A-96-171 was closed "Acceptable Action." The Board had asked that airliners be retrofitted with CVRs that had an emergency 10-minute power supply in case of an electrical interruption, such as occurred on ValuJet flight 592 in 1996 and Swiss Air flight 111 in 1998. The FAA agreed that newly manufactured airliners be so equipped but declined to require retrofits. The Board acknowledged that a retrofit rule might have posed a roadblock for regulatory approval for the rule, so classified recommendation A-99-16 "Closed - Acceptable Alternative Action." The Board closed as unacceptable action A-96-89, which called for certain configurations of microphones and dedicated channels in airliner cockpits, and A-99-17, which called for dual combination recorders, one in the front and one in the back of the plane. "Flight recorders have proven themselves invaluable in providing crucial information during accident and incident investigations," NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said. "While I am happy to see that some of the enhancements we've been advocating for years are being adopted by the FAA, I again urge the FAA to act on the Board's recommendations for cockpit image recorders, which were not addressed in the new rule." The new rule calls for increased flight control position sampling rates on flight recorders, which should improve the quality of data available to investigators. Improvements in flight recorders has been on the Board's list of Most Wanted Transportation Safety Improvements since 1999. FMI: www.ntsb.gov aero-news.net *************** FAA Gives Three More Airlines Funding For EFBs CommutAir, Shuttle America Also Equip Planes With Aural Alerts The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Friday it has reached agreements with three additional US airlines to fund in-cockpit runway safety systems in exchange for critical operational data. The data will help the FAA evaluate the safety impact of this technology and is expected to accelerate key safety capabilities necessary for the transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System. Atlas Air Inc. received $510,000 to equip 17 aircraft with electronic flight bags (EFBs), CommutAir received $544,000 to equip 16 aircraft with EFBs and Aural Alerting Systems, and Shuttle America received $680,000 to equip 20 aircraft with EFBs and Aural Alerting Systems. The surface moving maps with own-ship position and aural alert systems will be used on flights to or from 21 testbed airports, as well as other airports. The safety technology provides greater situational awareness for pilots to help them avoid unsafe operations on the airport surface. In September, the FAA provided $600,000 each to SkyWest, Piedmont, US Airways and Southwest Airlines to install the cockpit safety equipment. "This technology is on every pilot’s wish list," said Robert A. Sturgell, the FAA's acting administrator. "It's going to be a big boost for runway safety. As a former airline pilot myself, I can tell you putting these systems in the cockpit will raise situational awareness considerably." The technology will be installed in aircraft at each airline by September 2009. By that time the agency also expects initial results from the data analysis. Each agreement will remain in effect through September 2011. The FAA continues to review other proposals to deploy the surface moving map or an approved aural runway safety alerting system and expects to announce other awards. Twenty-two airlines responded to the FAA's request for proposals to invest in the two runway safety technologies. The test bed airports were selected because they had a history of runway incursions or runway safety issues. They are: Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago (O'Hare), Newark, Cleveland, Ft. Lauderdale, Houston (Hobby), Anchorage, San Francisco, Las Vegas McCarran, Charlotte, Miami, Philadelphia, Albuquerque, Daytona Beach, Phoenix, Dallas-Ft. Worth, New York (JFK and LaGuardia), Atlanta and Seattle. FMI: www.faa.gov aero-news.net **************** Regional Jet, Maintenance Truck Collide At ORD; 3 Injured Two Reported In "Good" Condition, One "Critical" A pre-dawn collision of a regional jet and a maintenance truck on a runway at Chicago O'Hare International Airport has left three people hospitalized. The Associated Press reports two mechanics and no passengers were aboard the United Express jet, operated by SkyWest Airlines. Chicago Fire Department Chief Joe Roccasalva said the plane was traveling from a hangar to a gate at O'Hare with it collided with the truck around 5 a.m. The driver of the truck was extricated from the city vehicle and transported in critical condition to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. The two mechanics from the plane were transported in good condition to Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, Roccasalva said. Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride said a runway at O'Hare was closed for almost two hours due to the incident, but flight operations were not affected. United Airlines spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said United planned to work with SkyWest to determine what caused the collision. "We will conduct a full investigation," she said. Officials reviewed United surveillance footage, but due to the morning darkness and lights on the runway, they "could not find who was responsible for the accident," SkyWest spokeswoman Nicole Drew said. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were also investigating the incident, she added. FMI: www.ohare.com, www.skywest.com aero-news.net ************* FAA Expands Runway Status Lights Program Nationwide To Be Installed At Airports To Complement ASDE-X The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded a contract this week to Sensis Corp. of Syracuse, NY to install runway status lights at 22 major US airports. Runway status lights are designed to improve runway safety at busy airports by warning pilots when it is unsafe to cross or enter a runway. "These lights are designed with the pilot in mind," said Robert A. Sturgell, the FAA's acting administrator. "It's a big step for safety on the runway. We're expecting to see positive results right from the start." The initial award is a three-year contract valued at $131 million to install the lights. There are two one-year options to install the lights at additional airports, for a total contract value of $215 million. Sensis Corp. is responsible for developing the software, testing and installing the lights. When runway status light prototypes at Dallas-Fort Worth and San Diego International airports proved effective in helping avoid potential runway conflicts, the FAA decided to install the lights at the same airports where the Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X (ASDE-X) systems are being installed, said Sturgell. The runway status lights will use the ASDE-X surveillance data to operate. As part of the initial contract, runway status lights will be deployed at Atlanta; Baltimore Washington International; Boston; Charlotte, NC; Chicago O’Hare; Dallas-Fort Worth; Denver; Detroit; Washington Dulles; Fort Lauderdale; Houston Intercontinental; New York John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Newark, NJ; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia; Phoenix; San Diego; and Seattle airports. Installing runway status lights is just one of the FAA's initiatives to improve safety at US airports. The FAA also recently reached agreements with four US airlines to fund in-cockpit runway safety systems in exchange for critical operational data. The data will help the FAA evaluate the safety impact of the technology and is expected to accelerate key safety capabilities necessary for the transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System. The FAA earlier announced it will provide $600,000 each to Skywest, Piedmont, US Airways and Southwest Airlines to invest in surface moving maps that show the pilot where the aircraft is on the runway for flights to or from 21 test bed airports. The safety technology provides greater situational awareness for pilots to help them avoid unsafe operations on the airport surface. FMI: www.faa.gov, www.sensis.com aero-news.net ************* German Charter Flight Forced into Emergency Landing Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The XL Boeing 737-800, like this one from Gol Airlines, had to land with engine trouble The German air carrier XL Airways has confirmed that one of its aircraft had to make an emergency landing Saturday, Oct. 18 in Belgrade. The Frankfurt-based firm said its Boeing 737-800 with 188 passengers and crew landed following a warning of an unspecified "engine problem" in the cockpit, spokesman Asger Schubert told the DPA news agency. Schubert denied Serbian media reports claiming that one of the plane's engines caught fire. Smoke was seen coming from one of the plane's two engines and firefighters doused the aircraft with foam when it landed, he added. The pilot reported engine failure before entering Serbian airspace and asked for permission to land in Belgrade, the spokesman said. "Passengers were safely evacuated and nobody was injured," a spokesperson for Belgrade airport said. The aircraft was flying from Frankfurt to Antalya in Turkey. Passengers were to be transferred to Turkey with another engine during the day. XL was founded two years ago. It charters planes to travel agencies, mostly for destinations in the Mediterranean basin. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3723384,00.html ************** Airplane maker EADS to build air academy in Oman MUSCAT, October 19 (Reuters) - EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the European maker of the Airbus family of commercial jets, plans to open an air academy in the Gulf Arab state, to train both local and foreign pilots, project officials said on Sunday. "EADS has proposed the academy and we have accepted," Mohammed Sakr al-Amry, Undersecretary of Civil Aviation, told Reuters. An EADS project official said the academy would be built in the industrial city of Sohar, which is slated to see a new airport completed in 2012. "The academy will be fully funded by EADS and is proposed to be built at the new airport in Sohar," said Xavier Azan, managing director of Dubai-based Offset Development Company. http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSLJ1552 020081019 ************** FAAN laments N4bn debt, closes Maiduguri airport (Nigeria) The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has lamented the over N4bn debt owed it by airline operators and some government agencies. This is coming just as FAAN announced that it would on Tuesday close the Maiduguri airport to effect an emergency repair of its failed portions. The repair, which has been approved by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, will last one week. According to a statement by the General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr. Akin Olukunle, on Sunday, the amount was accruing from the various services rendered by the authority to the airlines and agencies. The Managing Director, FAAN, Mr. Richard Aisuebeogun, reiterated the commitment of the agency administration to the development of the nation’s airports with the ongoing rehabilitation of infrastructure. He said, “Our main problem now is the non-payment of debts by the airlines and some government agencies. The airlines currently owe over N4bn for services we have rendered to them. If they really want us to meet up with the challenges at the airports, they should encourage us by paying their debts.” Aisuebeogun, who said that his administration had adopted a pragmatic approach in the management of the nation’s airports, stated that the maintenance of facilities was constantly being facilitated by his management with its limited resources. He said, “With our financial constraints, we make all efforts to release maintenance allocations to all the airports. http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200810203372657 *************** Air Medical Transport Conference (AMTC) To Focus on Industry Safety The Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS) will hold its annual Air Medical Transport Conference (AMTC) in Minneapolis, Minn, at the Minneapolis Convention Center on October 20 – 22nd. The AMTC is an internationally recognized educational conference and trade show that provides air medical transport professionals a venue to present and exchange information on the latest developments and advancements in the air medical transport industry. In light of the accident rate experienced by the air medical community in the past 12 months, this annual conference will put a specific focus on safety in air medicine in Minneapolis. The conference will feature: Two aviation flight simulators on the exhibit floor Booth 1045 – Flight Safety International will be featuring the first ever aviation flight simulator for a Eurocopter AS 350. Booth 112 – Mayo Medical Transport System will be featuring its own flight simulator produced in concert with Aero Simulators. Many safety related products and consulting services on the exhibit floor including Safety Technologies (i.e NVG’s, TAWS, Weather Reporting), Risk Assessment Programs and Safety Training Programs A program on FAA Accident Investigations with Hooper Harris, Manager of the FAA’s Accident Investigations Division, on Monday morning. The National Association of Communications Specialists (NAACS) is offering certification courses: Certified Flight Communicator and Advanced Flight Communicator. The National EMS Pilots Association (NEMSPA) is offering a Helicopter ATP Preparation course all day Sunday. The Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS) is offering a special pre-conference workshop entitled, “360 Degrees of Safety” on Sunday afternoon. The Commission on Accreditation of Air Medical Transport Services (CAMTS) is offering a course on “Creating a Culture of Quality and Safety” on Sunday afternoon. Research presentations will be given on several safety topics all day on Monday. Tuesday’s General Session will feature ABC World News Aviation Analyst John Nance A wide selection of courses on safety topics including but not limited to: o Special IFR in EMS 4.0 o Multiple Aircraft Incidents o Utilization of Night Vision Goggles in HEMS Operations o Post Accident Incident Plan (PAIP) – A Community Affair o Aviation Roundtable o Air Traffic Control in an EMS Environment o A Co-Pilot in the Communications Center: A Novel Approach to Staff Development. o Hospital Helipads o Decisions, Decisions, Decisions – Critical Thinking and Decision-Making in Air Medical and Critical Care Transport o Air Medical Resource Management (AMRM) for ACS o Simulation Based Training for Aeromedical Critical Care o Family Assistance following Aviation Accidents o Fatigue o Learning through Technology: Integrating Simulation into Air Medical Education o The REACH Preflight Risk Assessment Program o Presentation on recent study on HEMS accident statistics being conducted by Dr. Ira Blumen o National Standards for the Communication Center o The Development of a Quality Program for the Communication Center o Report of the ASTNA Safety Survey o A Safe Ride to a Soft Bed o Systems Approach to Procedural Safeguards in the Communication Center o Aviation Safety Action Program o FAA Update o Integrating Risk Management Principles into Your Transport Program About AAMS The Association of Air Medical Services (AAMS) is the only international trade association serving the entire air and ground medical transport community. AAMS strives to enhance the medical transport industry by promoting the highest level of industry safety; promoting quality patient care; inspiring commitment to the industry’s work, causes, and viability; and providing superior service to its members. For additional information, visit the AAMS’ web site at http://www.aams.org/. *************** Robertson R44 Helicopter Wire Strike Accident (South Africa) Date: 18-OCT-2008 Time: ±13:00 Type: Robinson R44 Operator: Registration: ZS- C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Mountain Range between Lydenburg and Ohrigstad, Mpumalanga - South Africa Phase: En route Nature: Private Departure airport: Destination airport: Narrative: Helicopter became entangled in electrical wires near the Sambrech Mine outside Lydenburg, crashed onto rocks and caught fire. (aviation-safety.net) ************** Voluntary safety reporting program suspended at American Pilot union leaders at American Airlines have informed members that a voluntary program that allows for the reporting of safety incidents has been suspended due to what the union characterizes as unreasonable demands by management. The Allied Pilots Association adopted the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) in 1994. FAA grants carriers approval to establish ASAP programs for pilots, mechanics, dispatchers and flight attendants. Those carriers are generally free from penalties related to the given incident. APA tells its members in an update that during the ASAP renewal process American management supplied a proposal that increases a pilot's risk for discipline and would leave pilots "dangerously exposed". American explains it is disappointed by APA's action, but stresses that the safety of its operations will not be affected by ASAP's expiration. "The APA's willingness to discard a 14-year program that has done so much for our pilots, our airline and our industry is impossible to understand," a company spokeswoman says. The carrier says it is supplying pilots with a confidential hotline and online reporting systems to express concerns directly to its safety department. But APA is discouraging the use those outlets by American's pilots. "Do not use the Flight Department's 'confidential' safety reporting hotline," says APA, adding, "You have the right to remain silent." Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************** US safety board repeats calls for more robust flight recorders US safety officials are asking the FAA to bolster its March 2008 final rule requiring enhanced flight data recorders for new and existing commercial, commuter and business aviation aircraft. In a letter to FAA, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) acting chairman Mark Rosenker says that after reviewing the new rule, officials were "pleased" that all larger passenger airliners will now be required to carry 2h cockpit voice recorders (CVRs), up from the current 30min minimum, but he is urging FAA to revisit the need for video recorders in the cockpit, a reconstruction tool the NTSB has previously recommended. Other weaknesses in the rule, says the NTSB, include not requiring the older 30min CVRs in commuter and corporate jet aircraft be upgraded to 2h units, though the FAA will require 2h recorders for newly manufactured commuter and corporate aircraft. The new units will also feature higher sampling rates for flight control positions, providing more accurate accident and incident investigations. The Board had also asked that all airliners be equipped with emergency power pack to add 10min of recorder operations after an electrical interruption, a feature that would have helped with accidents like ValuJet Flight 592 in 1996 and Swiss Air 111 in 1998. FAA is requiring new aircraft to have the feature, but is not asking for retrofits. NTSB is also unhappy that its requests for certain configurations of microphones and dedicated channels, as well as for a recorder for the back of the plane, were not heeded. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************* Passengers treated after Iberia turbulence incident A number of passengers were treated by airport doctors and one passenger taken to hospital with a suspected broken bone after an Iberia Airbus A340-600-operated flight to the Peruvian capital Lima hit turbulence yesterday. Iberia flight IB6653 from Madrid to Lima was carrying 356 passengers onboard. "The flight suffered some turbulence yesterday and as a consequence some passengers had to be treated by doctors at the airport of Lima," says an Iberia spokesperson. The carrier says all the passengers left the airport by their own means, apart from one who was taken to hospital for treatment on a broken toe. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** Still ignoring those flight-attendant safety lectures? The pilot is displeased, and presents a refresher course in awful airplane crashes, in the water and on the land. Mar 19, 2004 | I'd like to begin by doing something I don't normally do, per common sense and editorial prescription, which is recycle an old Q&A subject. I'm doing it because of the shocking frequency -- to me anyway -- with which this topic appears, week after week, in my mailbox. I'm speaking of the proverbial "water landing." Ditchings. Anything and everything to do with life rafts, seat cushions, and the idea of an airplane coming into inadvertent contact with lake, river or sea. There seems to be a consensus that the rarity of such instances invalidates the point and purpose of the pre-departure cabin briefing. The bulk of your letters are sarcastically incredulous: "Come on, has anybody ever used a floatation device to survive? Come on." And so on. Floatation devices? Why bother? In the movie "Airport '77," a Boeing 747 crashes into the ocean and sinks to the bottom intact, the passengers still alive and encased inside a sort of inside-out aquarium. Guess I can't blame you, in a way, for finding the whole notion silly. Statistics argue the extreme improbability of going down over water while, just in case, Hollywood paints its usual cartoonish and completely non-believable picture of what might happen. So the next time the crew is going through that campy vest drill, best to roll your eyes and ignore it, correct? Wrong. "Water landing" is a snarky contradiction, but over the decades a handful of airliners have found themselves, through one mishap or another, floating. At least two of these -- the 1970 ditching of a DC-9 in the Caribbean, and a 1963 Aeroflot splashdown near Leningrad, were controlled impacts with many survivors. But, you'll argue, why waste our time when a flight is over land the whole way? Well, keep in mind that planes have overshot, undershot, or otherwise parted company with runways and ended up in the harbor at a coastal airport, sometimes without leaving the ground. If you're flying from New York to Phoenix and you're smirking as the attendant blows into that plastic tube, remember that twice since the late 1980s jets went off the end of a runway at La Guardia and ended up in the bay. Both crashes left people very much alive and very much swimming. In December 2002, in a discussion of "the realities of air safety," The Economist, normally among the most factually credible magazines in the world, quoted a Mr. Jackson of "Jane's All the World's Aircraft" who stated: "No large airliner has ever made an emergency landing on water." While you can argue the definition of "large," or "landing," this is untrue. The Economist continued, "So the life jackets, with their little whistles and lights that come on when in contact with water, have little purpose other than to make passengers feel better." The various accoutrements of the onboard floatation devices might indeed be a bit of overkill (the larger rafts contain everything from signal mirrors to fishing line and hooks), but this unctuous remark also is false. In the above cases and others, vests and rafts were put to good use by passengers who needed them. I'd bet the house, if I had one, that it won't ever happen, but if you're in such an accident and have, as will be the case, not paid attention to the briefing, do not inflate your vest while still inside the plane, despite the temptation to do so. When an Ethiopian Airlines 767 ditched off the Comoros Islands after a skyjacking in 1996, several people who'd pre-inflated their vests were unable to move freely and escape the rising water. The devices are designed to provide buoyancy around the neck even if punctured, so if you're unconscious and haven't yet discharged the little cylinder, you'll still float with your head above the surface. There's an essential difference between a plummeting, disintegrative crash, and a controlled ditching. Alas, the ones that stick in our minds and make the most memorable headlines tend to fall in the former category. Most recently, this past January, was the yet unsolved crash of Flash Airlines Flight 504 -- an Egyptian charter flight that plunged into the Red Sea after takeoff from the Sinai resort town of Sharm-el-Sheik. It's curious how the Flash accident, which killed 148 people, was able to garner such widespread press coverage, while a similar and equally deadly crash went more or less unnoticed. I'm speaking of a 727 that barreled into the surf near the West African port of Cotonou, Benin, last Christmas Day, a week before the Flash disaster. Bound for Beirut, Lebanon, and transporting mainly Lebanese expatriates, the plane went down only seconds after takeoff killing more than 130 people (the exact count is disupted). Among the dead were 15 U.N. peacekeepers from Bangladesh who'd been serving in nearby Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as the airline owner's wife and son. Roughly 20 people survived, though judging from the photos there wasn't much use for vests or rafts, as the Boeing broke into dozens of large -- and thousands of smaller -- pieces just off the beach. Among the survivors were the airline owner himself and, as news reports, such as they were, continually put it, "the pilot." (We assume this means the captain; a 727 requires a cockpit crew of three, but which crewman survived isn't clear.) Witnesses say the jet was overloaded, though, as we've talked about, such claims are best discounted until investigations have run their course. Here we go, maybe, into the controversy of whether the Egyptian plane's Eurocentric manifest -- the passengers were French tourists -- made it more newsworthy than a charter of Lebanese expats headed to the Middle East from a country most Americans have never heard of. Either way, it's not the first time a serious accident was abruptly consigned to the annals of history. The 727 in Benin was operated by a Guinean company called UTA -- Union des Transports Africains. While the acronym is eerily coincidental, this is not the same UTA involved in perhaps the most notorious Lost Accident of them all, the bombing of UTA 772 over the Sahara in 1989. That UTA -- Union de Transport Aèriens, eventually absorbed into Air France -- was a storied airline specializing in routes to former French colonies and territories. Its network -- across West Africa and deep into the South Pacific -- was among the world's most exotic and far-flung. In September of '89, only nine months after the far more famous Lockerbie catastrophe, flight 772 was blown up by terrorists on a flight from Brazzaville, Congo, to Paris. A hundred and seventy people from 17 countries (seven Americans) were killed when a bomb went off, Lockerbie style, in the forward luggage hold of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. The wreckage fell into the Tenere region of the Sahara, in northern Niger, one of the planet's most remote areas. A news photograph of the DC-10's crushed forward fuselage -- the blue and white paint so incongruously stark against the dun-colored emptiness, is one of the more evocatively gruesome images you'll see. Viewing this picture, it's impossible not to recall the iconic photo of the Pan Am 747's cockpit lying in the grass near Lockerbie. Blue and white, again. If this all sounds vaguely familiar, that's probably because the 772 disaster has been back in the news of late. In another Lockerbie parallel, it was widely assumed that the Libyan government had orchestrated the bombing, and eventually a French court convicted six in absentia, including the brother in law of that wily and wackiest of Bedouins, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi. Gadhafi has since agreed to blood money settlements for Libya's hand in both bombings. The UTA agreement doles out a million dollars to each of the families of the 170 victims. More than 2.7 billion, meanwhile, has been promised to the Lockerbie next of kin. In January, a U.S. government delegation touched down in Tripoli for the first time in three decades, eager to mend relations with the suddenly apologist -- or maybe "scared" is the operative word -- Gadhafi. So it goes in global politics, of course, but not everybody is apt to forgive the wayward Colonel. http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/col/smith/2004/03/19/askthepilot71/index1.ht ml **************