14 NOV 2008 _______________________________________ *Military: Civilian cargo plane crashes in Iraq *Officials say FAA covered up safety errors at Texas airport *Regional jet runs into luggage tug at Detroit airport *Shanghai-bound Qantas jet turns back *Qantas Airbus Incident Inquiry Focus On Faulty Computers *Final Approach Runway Occupancy Signal (FAROS) Operational Evaluation Underway at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport (DFW) ************************************** Military: Civilian cargo plane crashes in Iraq BAGHDAD (AP) - A cargo plane chartered by FedEx crashed Thursday west of Baghdad after reporting a malfunction, the U.S. military said. It ruled out hostile fire and said the crew was presumed dead. The Russian-made An-12 plane with up to seven crewmembers - none of them American - was flying from al-Asad air base to Baghdad International Airport when it lost radio contact and crashed around 11:35 a.m., the military said. The crash happened south of Fallujah, where insurgents once held sway. The military said mechanical failure or pilot error was the likely cause, but declined to elaborate. The military also secured the crash site. "It looks like everybody was lost but I can't confirm that. The investigation will determine that," U.S. military spokesman Capt. Charles Calio said. Iraqi police in Fallujah said no shooting was reported at the time of the crash. FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iraq | Christianity | Mosul | Fallujah | United Arab Emirates | Dubai | Baghdad International Airport | FedEx Express | Al-Asad | Staffan de Mistura In a statement, FedEx said it was aware that an aircraft operated by one of its contractors to carry FedEx Express cargo could not be located on radar and had been out of radio contact since 10:45 a.m. "FedEx is closely monitoring the situation and is working with the contractor to investigate the situation," the statement said. "Our foremost priority is the safety and welfare of the pilot and crew." The U.S. logistics company said the aircraft had originally come from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Also Thursday, the main U.N. envoy in Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, in a statement condemned the killing of two Christian sisters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Iraqi police say the two women were killed Wednesday as they were waiting in front of their house for a ride to work. Their mother was wounded in the attack. The U.S. military has confirmed the killings and says the Christian family's house was then destroyed by bombs planted inside. The attack came after about 13,000 Christians fled Mosul last month in the face of threats and attacks from extremists. De Mistura noted that the killings followed a report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees that some recently displaced Christian families were starting to return as the security situation in Mosul showed signs of improvement. He also called on Iraqi authorities at the national and local level to protect Christians and other minorities in Iraq and to ensure those behind the attacks "are swiftly brought to justice." Tensions are running high in Mosul, where U.S. and Iraqi troops have been trying since last spring to rout insurgents from Iraq's third largest city. On Wednesday, an Iraqi soldier opened fire on a group of U.S. soldiers at an Iraqi military base in Mosul, killing two of them and wounding six others before dying in a hail of bullets, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. The attack remained under investigation. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-11-13-iraq-thursday_N.htm?loc=i nterstitialskip ************** Officials say FAA covered up safety errors at Texas airport WASHINGTON - A Transportation Department investigation has concluded that Federal Aviation Administration officials covered up safety errors at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the second such admonishment in the past three years. A spokeswoman for the department's inspector general said a report of the investigation's findings should be released Friday. She confirmed the general findings as outlined in documents released late Thursday by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. The report was requested by the special counsel's office, which is tasked with protecting government whistle-blowers. That office said in a statement that between November 2005 and July 2007 FAA managers intentionally misclassified 62 events as safety errors by pilots in an attempt to shift blame away from air traffic controllers at the Texas airport. The inspector general previously had confirmed a similar underreporting of safety errors at the airport in 2004. After that incident, FAA officials promised to take steps to fix the problem. Acting Special Counsel William Reukauf, in a letter Thursday to President George W. Bush, said increased "scrutiny of FAA and its implementation of the corrective measures proposed to resolve the continued misconduct and mismanagement is critical." According the special counsel, the inspector general's report recommends 10 corrective measures be taken in response to the coverup, including a reorganization of air traffic control management at Dallas-Fort Worth and a comprehensive top-to-bottom review of FAA's overall air traffic safety management. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency already has implemented all of the inspector general's recommendations that don't relate to personnel matters, which she is prohibited from discussing. "I can tell you we take them very seriously, and we're taking appropriate action on those as well," Brown said. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has said previously that safety errors by controllers increased because airport towers and other radar control facilities are understaffed and experienced controllers are leaving the FAA. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/reports/2008-11-13-faa-coverup_N.htm?loc =interstitialskip ************* Regional jet runs into luggage tug at Detroit airport ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) - A spokesman for Detroit Metropolitan Airport says a regional jet has collided with a small vehicle carrying luggage in a taxi lane. The driver of the luggage tug suffered minor injuries after the collision with the Northwest Airlink jet, operated by Pinnacle Airlines. Airport spokesman Mike Conway says no one on the plane was hurt in the accident, shortly before 6 a.m. Thursday. Conway says the plane carrying 21 passengers and three crewmembers was taxiing to the gate. Conway says the plane had some damage. A message seeking detail was left with Pinnacle. Northwest Airlink is part of Northwest Airlines, which recently was acquired by Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-11-13-jet-hits-truck_N.htm ************* Shanghai-bound Qantas jet turns back A Qantas jet on its way to Shanghai from Sydney on Thursday turned back after a weather radar malfunction on board. Qantas said flight QF129 with 278 passengers on board landed safely and the radar was inspected by engineers. A replacement aircraft for the Airbus A330-300 was put into action and it took off at around 7pm (AEDT) on Thursday. It's the latest in a series of incidents involving Qantas aircraft. Last month, the crew of a Qantas jumbo was forced to rely on weather reports from an Air New Zealand aircraft when its own radar broke down. In August, an oxygen tank exploded mid-air, ripping a hole in the plane's hull and forcing an emergency landing. Last month, 44 people were injured when an Airbus suddenly plunged hundreds of metres over the West Australian coast. http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/2308920 **************** Qantas Airbus Incident Inquiry Focus On Faulty Computers CANBERRA -(Dow Jones)- Australia's air safety investigator said Friday a fault in a flight computer system will be its main focus as it investigates an incident a month ago involving a Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN.AU) Airbus A330 aircraft over the Indian Ocean. "There was a fault in a flight computer system component known as the air data inertial reference unit number 1, which resulted in a number of spurious spikes in ADIRU parameter values," according to a statement issued by the government's Australian Transport Safety Bureau. "Further spurious parameter spikes continued to influence a number of system failure indications throughout the flight, resulting in frequent failure messages being provided to the crew," according to the bureau's preliminary factual report on the incident. The ADIRU unit was supplied by U.S. defense and technology company Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC). Kerryn Macaulay, the bureau's director of strategy and capability, told reporters, "the most appropriate path," for the investigation to follow is the examination of the ADIRU unit. The aircraft which was manufactured in 2003 and been operated by Qantas since, was enroute to Perth from Singapore when it twice violently lurched hundreds of feet downwards, injuring dozens of people before making an emergency landing at remote Learmonth Air Force Base in northwest Australia. *************** Final Approach Runway Occupancy Signal (FAROS) Operational Evaluation Underway at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport (DFW) EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., Nov 13, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Wouldn't you want to be alerted if you were about to land on a runway that was occupied by another aircraft or vehicle? Such is the purpose behind the Final Approach Runway Occupancy Signal, commonly referred to as FAROS, a runway safety concept pioneered by ATCorp. FAROS began Operational Evaluation at Dallas/Forth Worth (DFW) airport on six runways on September 30, 2008. FAROS "flashes" the Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) lights, an existing system installed at many airports around the world, to warn pilots approaching the runway that the runway is occupied. Pilots observing the flashing signal are expected to contact the control tower to resolve the situation or perform a go-around, if necessary, to avoid a potential high-energy collision. The FAROS idea arose from a 1991 accident at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) which resulted in the death of 34 people and was brought to ATCorp's attention by Bruce Landsberg, Executive Director of AOPA's Air Safety Foundation. To date, the system at Dallas/Fort Worth is performing properly, providing an extra layer of safety while not impacting the efficient flow of air traffic at the high-density facility. ATCorp designed and installed the necessary modifications to the existing Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) lights, developed and installed a system to communicate with and monitor the status of the PAPIs, and conducted certification and maintenance training of DFW maintenance personnel. ATCorp engineers supported integration testing with the MIT Lincoln Laboratory-developed Runway Status Light System (RWSL). FAROS: -- Provides pilots a direct, immediate warning of a potentially dangerous situation -- Requires no additional equipage in the cockpit -- Reduces installation costs by utilizing existing equipment For more information about FAROS, see http://faros.faa.gov. Architecture Technology Corporation (ATC) is an established advanced technology company which provides software intensive solutions for complex problems to various commercial and government organizations. For additional information about ATCorp and its products and services, see http://www.atcorp.com. Contact - Press Information: Paul O'Neill, Direct Channel Voice: (508) 588-4448 pauloneill@directchannel.com This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com. SOURCE Architecture Technology Corporation http://www.atcorp.com **************