02 FEB 2009 _______________________________________ *Helicopter Vs. Airplane Midair Injures Two *2009 NATCA Communicating for Safety Conference March 2-4 *Hearings to begin on safety of medical flights *Volcano alert: Air Force moves Alaska planes to Washington *Collision risks rise with bird populations *Reports show frequency of bird-airliner scrapes *1st Global Aviation Safety Conference for humanitarian air operations *Boeing hints at possible reassessment of 747-8 **************************************** Helicopter Vs. Airplane Midair Injures Two Pilots In R22 Suffer Minor Injuries, Plane Lands Safely A vintage World War II aircraft, believed to be a T-6 Texan (type shown at right), collided with a training helicopter at Weiser Airpark (EYQ) northwest of Houston on Saturday afternoon. The Houston Chronicle reports the plane's left wing struck the tail shaft of the helicopter, which crashed to the ground. The two persons aboard the helo suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and were transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital for treatment, Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Karl Pflughaupt said. The T-6 was reported to have been taking off at the time of the midair, and was able to circle around for a safe landing. The plane's left wing was damaged, as was the helicopter's rotor and landing gear, Pflughaupt said. The helicopter type has not been released, but photos show the wreckage of what appears to be a Robinson R22. Anything's Possible Aviation, a flight school based at EYQ, operate a fleet of Robinson R22s and R44s. The Federal Aviation Administration is conducting an investigation of the incident. FMI: www.weiserairpark.com, www.apaviationinc.com aero-news.net *************** 2009 NATCA Communicating for Safety Conference March 2-4 Join us for the 2009 "Communicating for Safety" conference which will feature panels focusing on pilot and controller training for a number of technical systems and new procedural implementations, as well as question and answer sessions with leaders from a variety of aviation organizations. The event is scheduled for March 2-4, 2009, at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. This years panels include an overview of the Air Traffic Safety Action Program (ATSAP), Aviation and the Environment, Industry Leaders Panel, Fatigue, Accident Investigations, and Operating UAS' in the NAS. Confirmed guest speakers include Dr. Scott Shappell, USC Professor Dr. Najmedin Meshkati, and Author Stephen Coonts. To register and view our preliminary agenda go to CFS.NATCA.NET; please check back often for an updated agenda. For questions please email Steve Hansen at shansen@natca.net. *************** Hearings to begin on safety of medical flights With air safety officials about to start four days of hearings into medical helicopter flights, Stacey Friedman of El Dorado Hills arrived in Washington D.C. on Sunday to take her place among the relatives of the dead. Those who loved the doctors, nurses, pilots and patients who died in flights that were intended to save lives are scheduled to meet with federal officials today, in advance of the National Transportation Safety Board hearings. Their goal: legislation that would make air medical transport safer. "We've just gone through the absolutely worst year in the history of this industry. For the first time we have families really unified for change," said Friedman. Friedman's sister Erin Reed, a nurse, died in an air helicopter crash into Puget Sound near Seattle in 2005. Since then, Friedman has helped create an informal coalition of husbands and wives, parents and siblings who want better equipment and tougher flight regulations to be part of future air medical flights. Such rules would affect not just people aboard air ambulances, but those who live under their flight paths or near busy helicopter landing pads. "If you have a mid-air collision over a populated area, you're going to have a lot of collateral damage - people and buildings and destruction," Friedman said. "No one wants that. We need to do a better job of dispatch, communication and coordination." In the Sacramento region, pilots have reported at least three incidents with air medical flights that worried them in 2008, including two that required evasive action. In May, a medical helicopter had to adjust its flight path to avoid a fire helicopter on a training flight near Sutter Roseville Medical Center. In August, a "near collision" indicator went off in a CHP helicopter as a medical helicopter came within a few hundred feet above a crash site on Highway 99 north of Sacramento. And in October, medical helicopters jammed up in and around UC Davis Medical Center in the aftermath of a casino bus crash in Colusa County. None of the episodes rose to the level of FAA-designated near misses, although each triggered anxious meetings afterward among helicopter operators and others. Meanwhile, the region's medical air capabilities are growing, with a helicopter landing pad opening this fall at Kaiser's new trauma center in south Sacramento. Another is scheduled to open in 2011 on the roof of an expanded Sutter medical complex at 29th and L streets in central Sacramento. Already, UC Davis Medical Center averages 45 to 50 emergency landings a month on a rooftop site southeast of downtown Sacramento, and sometimes has as many as 30 more monthly flights that aren't emergencies. To the north, Sutter Roseville averages about 44 helicopter landings a month. Both pilots and Friedman have said that in general, California air medical flights are safe, but more could be done to make them safer. Nationwide, 2008 was a perilous year for air ambulances, with crashes killing at least 25 people and prompting the NTSB hearings Tuesday. Friedman and other relatives are lobbying for changes that include: . Requiring "black box" recorders on all flights; . Requiring terrain awareness systems on both fixed-wing and helicopter medical flights; . Requiring flights made without patients on board to follow the same weather restrictions and other rules as flights carrying patients; . Formalizing the steps to be taken before any departure to ensure that weather and other conditions are safe enough for flight; . Improving dispatch and communications. Those provisions are already in a pending Senate measure that would re-authorize Federal Aviation Administration funding. But relatives of flight victims plan to work this week on getting similar legislation introduced in the House, to improve the chances of the legislation passing. In California, pilots have been working informally in the Sacramento region and beyond to try to iron out communications problems, according to Graham Pierce, vice chairman of the California Association of Air Medical Services. The air medical group has been urging hospitals to get more actively involved in tracking incoming and outgoing flights, and sharing that information with pilots. http://www.sacbee.com/273/story/1590978.html ***************** Volcano alert: Air Force moves Alaska planes to Washington TACOMA, Wash. - U.S. Air Force aircraft and personnel are being relocated from Alaska to McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma as a precautionary measure due to heightened activity at Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano. The relocation, while temporary, is expected to last two to four weeks at a minimum, said Master Sgt. Dean J. Miller, a spokesman for the McChord base. The aircraft and personnel are coming to McChord from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, which is located about 100 miles from the Redoubt volcano. The mountain began rumbling back to life several days ago, and activity has been increasing ever since. Gas and steam billowed from the mountain's flank over the weekend. Alaska volcanoes typically start with an explosion that can shoot ash 50,000 feet high and into the jet stream. The ash can damage or foul aircraft engines in the vicinity. The Redoubt volcano last erupted in 1989, when it sent out an ash cloud that flamed out the jet engines of a KLM flight carrying 231 passengers on its way to Anchorage. The jet dropped more than two miles before pilots were able to restart the engines and land safely. The volcano observatory a week ago detected a sharp increase in earthquake activity below the volcano and upgraded its alert level to orange, one stage below red for a full eruption. The Air Force sent three cargo aircraft from Elmendorf to McChord on Saturday and three more are expected Sunday night. Other aircraft may arrive within the next 24 to 48 hours. McChord's own C-17 strategic airlift mission makes the base ideally suited to host the relocated aircraft and allows the Elmendorf airmen to continue to meet mission and training requirements, said Col. Jeffrey Stephenson, McChord's 62nd Airlift Wing commander. "Our ability to quickly receive additional air power on short notice and continue to support the nation's worldwide strategic airlift requirements is a capability long-associated with McChord," Stephenson said. "We've supported evacuations in the past, and we will gladly support our fellow airmen from Elmendorf as long as they need us." If and when an eruption begins, it is expected to cause disruptions for civilian aircraft as well, officials said. http://www.komonews.com/news/local/38780882.html **************** Collision risks rise with bird populations STRIKES, BY SPECIES Large birds (over 4 pounds) involved in the most collisions with aircraft since 1990: Bird Collisions with aircraft Canada goose 1,152 Turkey vulture 354 Great blue heron 220 Bald eagle 111 Sandhill crane 77 Snow goose 75 Double-crested cormorant 60 Sources: U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Federal Aviation Administration By Alan Levin, USA TODAY Populations of large bird species like the one that struck US Airways Flight 1549 last month have grown dramatically in recent decades, prompting aviation experts to warn that the risk of catastrophic collisions with planes is rising. Successful environmental policies, reductions in hunting and improved bird habitats have allowed the numbers of geese and other large birds to swell, according to the National Audubon Society and government surveys. "The real concern that I have is that what happened (on the US Airways flight) is really an accident waiting to happen," says Richard Dolbeer, a retired biologist with the Department of Agriculture and an expert in birds' risk to aviation. "We've seen these large increases in population in the bird species such as the Canada goose." Some possible strategies for tackling the problem, according to Dolbeer and others: reducing bird populations, more rigorous bird controls around airports and better pilot training. Another possibility would be to make existing engines capable of withstanding larger bird impacts - but that's been opposed by the airplane manufacturing industry because it would be costly. The types of engines that power the A320 and other medium-sized jets were tested only with birds weighing up to 4 pounds. The engines do not have to continue running after ingesting a single 4-pound bird. They must merely stop without exploding or catching fire. FIND MORE STORIES IN: Boston | Canada | New York | National Transportation Safety Board | Great Lakes | Hudson | Department of Agriculture | National Audubon Society | Flight Safety Foundation | Greg Butcher In a 2003 paper, Dolbeer and Paul Eschenfelder, an airline captain who teaches airport wildlife management, identified 36 bird species with average weights above 4 pounds. Three-quarters of the species were growing in population, they found. >From 1990 through 2002, at least 294 planes suffered substantial damage after colliding with birds larger than 4 pounds, they said. "Our analysis clearly indicated that aviation regulatory and industry groups need to re-examine existing airworthiness standards with regard to bird-strike tolerances," they wrote. Bill Voss, president of the non-profit Flight Safety Foundation, said government and industry should review whether risks from birds have increased. Still, it's important to remember that the dangers are extremely low, he said. Birds have not caused an airline fatality since a 1960 crash in Boston killed 62 people. Preliminary evidence indicates that, shortly after takeoff Jan. 15, numerous birds struck US Airways Flight 1549 and heavily damaged both engines, forcing it to make a dramatic splashdown in the Hudson, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). All 155 people aboard escaped. The large, dark-brown birds that pilots reported seeing match the appearance of Canada geese, though investigators have not said what type of bird was involved. Non-migratory Canada geese - which have found plentiful food in areas such as New York as humans turn woods into golf courses and other open spaces - have grown from about 1 million in 1990 to 4 million in 2008, Dolbeer said. The species can reach more than 10 pounds. Other large bird populations have grown rapidly. Cormorants, a water-based bird that weigh about 5 pounds, was nearly wiped out by pesticides, said Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation with the National Audubon Society. A survey of nests in the Great Lakes in 1972 found about 100 cormorant nests. Today there are more than 100,000 nests on the lakes. The birds have caused significant damage to two airliners since 2002, according to the NTSB. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-02-01-birds_N.htm **************** Reports show frequency of bird-airliner scrapes Voluntary data from crews detail at least 26 since 2007. "Tip of the iceberg," an expert said. WASHINGTON (AP) - Commercial-airline crews have reported at least 26 emergency landings, aborted takeoffs, or other hair-raising incidents due to collisions with birds since January 2007, according to an Associated Press review of reports filed voluntarily with NASA's confidential Aviation Safety Reporting System. In some cases, the aircraft's brakes caught fire or cabins and cockpits filled with smoke and the stench of burning birds. Engines failed and fan blades broke. In one case, a bird strike left a 12-inch hole in a Boeing 757-200's wing. The most dramatic emergency occurred Jan. 15 when a US Airways jet ditched safely into the Hudson River, apparently after a run-in with birds took out both of its engines. To encourage reporting, the NASA database does not identify the crews, airlines and, in many cases, airports involved. "That's only touching the tip of the iceberg," said John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board. "Clearly, we don't have knowledge of the full width and breadth of this problem." >From 1990 to 2007, there were nearly 80,000 reports of birds striking nonmilitary aircraft, about one strike for every 10,000 flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Agriculture Department. In some cases reported to the NASA database, crews said they could smell birds burning in the engines - "a toxic smell like burning toast [or] popcorn," wrote a flight attendant on an MD-80 that had just taken off in March. After the aircraft returned to the airport for an emergency landing, a bird strike from a previous landing was discovered. Among other cases detailed in the NASA database: In June 2007, a Boeing 757-200 at Denver International Airport had to abort a takeoff while going between 150 m.p.h. and 160 m.p.h. after birds the size of grapefruit flew into its path. Birds were sucked into both engines, the pilot said. In July 2008, the pilot of a Boeing 737-300 in the midst of a 139-m.p.h. takeoff roll spotted a hawk with a four-foot wingspan on the runway. As the bird flew past the left side of the plane, the crew heard a "very loud bang," and there was engine surge. The pilot aborted the takeoff at great strain to the aircraft's brakes, which caught fire. Fire trucks doused the flames. No one was hurt. In May 2008, a pilot about to fly a regional airliner reported that its windshield was "covered in blood, guts and feathers from an obvious bird strike." When he complained to the airline's maintenance department, he said, he was told the previous flight crew was responsible for reporting the incident. Jim Hall, a former chairman of the NTSB, said the safety board had been warning for decades that birds "are a significant safety problem." The board sent a series of bird-related safety recommendations to the FAA in 1999, including required reporting of bird strikes by airlines and the development of a radar system that can detect birds near airports. A decade later, reporting is still voluntary. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said developing a reliable bird-detecting radar had proved difficult. Some of the systems tested by the agency picked up insects as well as birds. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090202_Reports_show_frequency_of_b ird-airliner_scrapes.html ************** UN World Food Programme to host 1st Global Aviation Safety Conference for humanitarian air operations The World Food Program is pleased to host the 1st Global Aviation Safety Conference for Humanitarian Aid Operations which will take place at Hilton Abu Dhabi Hotel from the 18th-19th of February 2009. United Arab Emirates: The two day conference will be a great place for attendees to discuss global aviation safety and security issues with outstanding aviation experts, and explore the future of humanitarian air operations. This conference will also provide excellent networking opportunities including one to one meetings with UN and WFP Aviation Officers to discuss practical details on humanitarian operations and social functions. The World Food Programme (WFP) is the United Nations frontline agency mandated to combat global hunger. WFP operations aim to deliver food in the right time in the right place to save refugees from man-made and natural disasters. Aviation safety is the number one priority for the global aviation community. In particular, humanitarian air operations are facing unique challenges to transport aid workers for emergency relief actions to the most difficult areas and to ensure the safety and security of their air travel. The United Nations World Food Programme will be supported by Maximus Air Cargo as the main sponsor and teamed up with other organizations such as AYR Group, Etihad Airways and Eastern SkyJets and will be committed to provide the highest possible support to attendees. This event will also represent continuing efforts to promote aviation safety in the humanitarian aviation community. Participating organizations for this conference will include; - International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) - Flight Safety Foundation - Civil Aviation Authorities from countries in Africa, Asia, USA, Canada, Europe, Middle East and GCC. - International humanitarian governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations namely ECHO, Red Cross (ICRC), MSF, MAF, ASF - The United Nations WFP and other UN Agencies - Passenger and cargo air operators and brokers - Local regional airlines and airports The conference will address issues and cover topics ranging from the role of civil aviation authorities, the role of independent safety organizations, foreign registered aircraft operations, safety management systems and aircraft aging to the nature of humanitarian emergencies, providing aviation services to UN and WFP and the future of humanitarian air services in safety standards, among others. http://www.ameinfo.com/183370.html *************** Boeing hints at possible reassessment of 747-8 Boeing has hinted that it might have to rethink its slow-selling and delayed 747-8 programme, amid the continuing failure to land a second airline for the passenger model, combined with a slowdown in demand for cargo aircraft. The airframer took a $685 million charge last year stemming from cost overruns and schedule delays on the 747-8 programme. While Boeing executives have restated their support for the commercial viability of the aircraft, chief executive Jim McNerney warns that the continuation of the programme should not be seen as a foregone conclusion: "We still see a viable business proposition here. Now obviously if we ever got to a point where we didn't, we'd have to work with our customers to come up with another answer." Boeing has 106 orders for the 747-8F and a further 28 for the 747-8 passenger model - 20 for Lufthansa and the remainder for VIP customers. But in November, deliveries of the first 747-8F were pushed back by at least six months to the third quarter of 2010, and of the 747-8 by at least four months to the second quarter of 2011. "Obviously, we have applied a judgement that says we have a very competitive airplane here that has already got a good start on orders," says McNerney. "If we didn't believe the revenues would outweigh the costs we wouldn't go forward with it." ATI understands that Boeing has studied various options for the programme, including terminating the 747-8 and running the 747-8F as a stand-alone. This would require the renegotiation of Lufthansa's launch order and compensation. But with no active sales campaigns ongoing for the 747-8, other than a potential long-term deal to replace Air Force One, Lufthansa faces the serious prospect of being the only airline customer for the passenger version, and this in itself could have financial implications for Boeing such as residual value guarantees. Despite its healthier order book, the 747-8F could also need re-examining. The cargo industry is in the middle of a slump because of the downturn, and industry sources say several 747-8F customers are seeking to delay deliveries. What McNerney's "other answer" to the 747-8 could be is unclear. Cargo industry sources say that near-term capacity could be provided by readily-available 747-400 freighters combined with Boeing-supplied conversions of ex-passenger -400s. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *****************