10 FEB 2009 _______________________________________ *Italians join NTSB in probe of bird collisions *A321 landed hard after 'uncomfortable' pilot forgot throttle *AAL Pilots In No Rush To Re-Start ASAP *Cockpit recorder recovered in Amazon plane crash *American Airlines checks rear emergency slides *Memphis airport runway to be rebuilt *Maine airport removes ducks for safety *Sea-Tac Airport inspection: no deficiencies *************************************** Italians join NTSB in probe of bird collisions By Alan Levin, USA TODAY U.S. and Italian accident investigators teamed up on Monday to probe a crash landing in Rome that happened after a jet struck a flock of birds, in an incident that had similarities to last month's "Miracle on the Hudson" in New York. Italian investigators had been looking at the crash landing at Rome's Ciampino Airport, which happened Nov. 10. National Transportation Safety Board officials familiar with the splashdown of a US Airways jet on Jan. 15 began looking at the Rome incident this week, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said. The two jets had the same engines. A flock of large birds destroyed both engines on US Airways Flight 1549 shortly after takeoff, forcing the pilots to ditch in the Hudson River. All 155 people aboard escaped. The case is prompting an NTSB review of the risks birds pose to aviation. In Rome, the Ryanair Boeing 737-800 struck a massive flock of starlings as it approached the airport for landing, reducing thrust in both engines, according to the airline and the ANSV, the Italian accident investigation agency. The six crewmembers and 166 passengers escaped. The Ryanair jet's engines are CFM-56s, the same model as those on the US Airways jet, the Italian investigation agency said. Determining whether there were any common factors in the two cases is of "essential importance," an agency release said. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-02-09-birds_N.htm **************** A321 landed hard after 'uncomfortable' pilot forgot throttle Investigation into a hard landing at Algiers by an Aigle Azur Airbus A321 have discovered that the pilot failed to retard the throttles, having earlier complained that he was uncomfortable flying the jet from the right-hand seat. France's Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses says the pilot - who had 1,200hr on type and 6,200hr in total - had never flown the A321 in the right-hand seat as a co-pilot, and expressed unease "several times" during the approach to runway 23. The auto-thrust was operating in the 'managed' regime. At 1,300ft the pilot disconnected the autopilot but kept auto-thrust engaged. Just after the jet started to flare, three automatic 'retard' call-outs sounded at a height of 20ft. But the aircraft's throttle levers were still in the 'climb' position when it touched down, at a descent rate of 600ft/min, and bounced. Its spoilers did not deploy and the thrust increased to 50% of N1. The A321 flew for about 3s, and rose to a height of 7ft, before the pilot reduced the throttles to 'idle' and the spoilers activated. Engine thrust reached 57% of N1 before dropping. As the aircraft descended, the pilot increased its pitch but the aircraft contacted the runway with a descent rate of 850ft/min and a 3.3g impact. About 1.5s after this second touchdown, the aircraft's pitch passed through the limit of 9.8° and the rear fuselage hit the runway. Nose-gear touchdown came 11s after the second main-gear contact. "Undoubtedly pre-occupied by his lack of ease with right-hand flying, the pilot forgot to set the thrust levers to 'idle'," says the BEA, in an inquiry report into the 8 January 2008 event. "The non-flying pilot did not notice this anomaly." It states that the failure by the non-flying pilot to mention deployment of the spoilers "did not alert" the flying pilot to the high descent rate that preceded the second touchdown. The BEA highlights the lack of recent experience of the pilot in right-hand seat flying, but points out that the non-flying pilot felt his colleague had "no particular difficulties" in handling the aircraft. As a result of the tail-strike, the aircraft suffered wear across 2m (6.5ft) of its fuselage underside, including damage to some of its frames. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************* AAL Pilots In No Rush To Re-Start ASAP New US Transportation Secretary Urges US Airways, American To Follow Delta's Lead At the urging of new US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, airlines and pilot unions that have let their Aviation Safety Action Program lapse are taking another look at changes in the language of the program to reach an agreement on terms. The Dallas Morning News reports American Airlines and US Airways are negotiating with their respective pilots unions, the Allied Pilots Association and US Airline Pilots Association, to restart ASAP. Of interest to both sides is the recent agreement between Delta Air Lines and the Air Line Pilots Union, reinstating their safety program after more than two years of bickering across the bargaining table. ASAP is a safety program that encourages pilots to report safety issues -- including mistakes they made -- so that they, other pilots, their airline and other carriers can learn from and avoid similar problems and mistakes. The fundamental disagreement over ASAP between pilot unions and the airlines has been two-sided: Unions say pilots need protection from reprisals stemming out of their safety reports, and the airlines say they need the authority to discipline pilots who deserve it. American allowed its participation in ASAP to lapse last October, as ANN reported. In a statement released last week, American Airlines announced inviting APA president Lloyd Hill "to join us in seeking FAA approval to reinstate" the original safety agreement. "Fifteen years ago, American Airlines and its pilots helped create ASAP, which now stands as a model for our industry, providing increased protection to our pilots and dramatically enhancing aviation safety," the carrier said. APA spokesman Sam Mayer indicated a revision of the previous agreement's language is mandatory. He is impressed with the Delta - ALPA agreement, which gives pilots increased protection in a side letter to the main agreement. "If they wanted to negotiate it like Delta in a side letter, I think we'd be fine with that," he said. "We don't care how we get there as long as we can develop those protections to the pilots." FMI: www.faa.gov/safety/programs_initiatives/aircraft_aviation/asap/ aero-news.net *************** Cockpit recorder recovered in Amazon plane crash SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — Investigators probing an Amazon plane crash that killed 24 people recovered the plane's cockpit recorder, Brazil's Air Force said Monday, as thousands of people packed a gymnasium to mourn the victims. A survivor who swam from the flooding plane said one of the twin turboprop's propellers stopped spinning ahead of Saturday's crash in the Manacapuru river. But an air force spokeswoman said further investigation, including an examination of the pilots' conversations, is necessary before a cause can be determined. "At this point we can't say what happened, if the plane was overloaded, if a propeller stopped in midair," said the spokeswoman, who under department policy was not allowed to be quoted by name. The Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante, owned by Manaus Aerotaxi Ltda., had 26 passengers and two pilots aboard despite a listed capacity for only 19 passengers plus the pilots. The pilot and co-pilot were among the dead. Passenger Ana Lucia Reis Laurea told Globo TV on Monday that she and others saw the propeller stop working when the plane was about 15 minutes from its destination, the jungle city of Manaus. Passengers had time to brace for impact before the crash, and the plane quickly flooded with water, Lauria said. She and the three other survivors escaped because they were sitting at the back of the plane and managed to open an emergency exit, she said. "I was guided by God," she said in a telephone interview with the TV station. Television broadcasts on Monday showed thousands of people attending a wake for the victims in a gymnasium in the small Amazon city of Coari ahead of their burials. All of the passengers who died were from the city of about 67,000 people, and they had chartered the plane for a surprise birthday party in Manaus, about an hour by plane from Coari. Most were members of the same extended family. The airline company's vice president, Fernando Pacheco Filho, told Brazilian news media that eight of the passengers were listed as children traveling on their parents' laps. Brazilian aviation rules allow children up to age 2 to travel on passengers' laps. Seven children died, and one of the survivors was a 9-year-old boy. The rest of the passengers' ages were not included on a list of the victims provided by the company. The pilot had contacted air controllers to report driving rain, but did not mention engine trouble, the air force said. It noted that the pilot appears to have attempted a rare water landing, such as one made by a commercial jet last month in New York's Hudson River that saved the lives of all 155 people on board. Brazilian news media, citing witnesses and local authorities, said the pilot may have been trying to make an unscheduled landing at the Manacapuru airport, less than 1.6 miles (1 kilometer) from the crash site. Three air force investigators were still at the crash site on Monday, combing through the fuselage and other wreckage that had been hauled ashore. They also were trying to recover samples of fuel residue for analysis. Brazilian authorities will attempt to analyze the voice recorder in coming days and will send it to the United States if unable to obtain results, the air force spokeswoman said. She did not say whether the plane was also carrying a flight data recorder. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hJZXD5j6vbSQ5qVmWe24cEe8gd zQD9685D3O0 **************** American Airlines checks rear emergency slides American Airlines Inc. hurriedly inspected its fleet of 272 MD-80s last week to make sure the emergency slides that release from the aircraft tail cones work properly. Even in MD-80s that showed wear of the rear emergency slide, American found that the slides worked. The inspections were prompted by an American mechanic who filed a safety report noting that the airline wasn't using the manufacturer-recommended tool to repack the slides, which deploy in an emergency to let passengers and crew exit the plane. The MD-80 is the only plane in American's fleet with that rear-deploying slide – and the slides are generally not even used during emergencies. The inspections were completed faster than American projected and didn't delay or cancel any flights, the Fort Worth-based carrier said. American also said the problem had no impact on passenger safety. However, the issue puts American's maintenance operations back in the spotlight less than a year after the carrier had run-ins with the Federal Aviation Administration over certain practices. That earlier episode differed because it involved how the airline followed – or didn't follow – an FAA airworthiness directive. American reported the slide concern itself to the FAA as part of its air safety awareness program. FAA spokesman Les Dorr said he couldn't comment on whether the disclosure was serious enough to warrant further investigation. 'Moving quickly' "The bottom line here is that American has told us they're going to inspect and repack the slides using the proper tool within 30 days," he said Monday. "It's fair to say American is moving very quickly on this." American declined to comment on whether it could face investigation by the FAA. The self-reporting program is used by a variety of airlines, and it typically protects the employee who files the report from punishment. "It's not a get-out-of-jail-free card for the airline," said maintenance consultant Douglas Clark of Expert Aviation Consulting LLC in Indianapolis. The FAA may still take action against carriers that self-report, depending on the problem's severity. The FAA has faced intense criticism from Congress after revelations last spring that its inspectors had allowed Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. to fly planes without required inspections and after American canceled 2,500 flights to repair wiring – twice in some cases – on its MD-80s. Downtime checks Unlike those inspections, the latest checks took place over Wednesday and Thursday night in routine night operations when the planes weren't flying, the airline said Monday. The latest inspections were first reported by the The Wall Street Journal. Of the planes inspected, 11 showed evidence of hose cracks or other wear and tear on the mechanism that helps inflate and deploy the slides. American said it deployed the slides of those 11 planes, and they all worked. The airline will use the manufacturer's tool to repack the slides in the tail cones, a spokesman said Monday. The special tool allows the repacking to occur without damaging the hosing. Typically, the slides are checked every 18 to 36 months, depending on how old the aircraft is. The MD-80s are among American's oldest planes, and the carrier is buying Boeing 737s to gradually replace them. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/industries/airlines/stories/ DN-slides_10bus.ART.State.Edition1.4c50dab.html *************** Memphis airport runway to be rebuilt MEMPHIS (AP) — Officials at Memphis International Airport have awarded a $47.9 million contract to rebuild its sole east-west runway. Ajax Paving Industries of Troy, Mich., won the contract with its low bid. The runway closest to the big FedEx hub will be closed for about nine months for its first complete overhaul since it opened as an Army Air Corps field in the 1940s. It should be open for FedEx's peak season in December. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-02-10-memphis-runway-rebuilt_N.h tm ************** Maine airport removes ducks for safety BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A few weeks after a flock of birds disabled a jetliner and forced it to make an emergency landing in New York City's Hudson River, Bangor International Airport has been taking steps to remove ducks that might pose a hazard to flights there. As part of an ongoing effort to make the airport safe, maintenance workers and state and federal wildlife biologists last week were trapping close to 200 ducks that had made a temporary home in a culvert near the runways. The ducks, which were relocated to southern Maine, were attracted to the culverts because the water is warm where it drains out from under the runways. Airport director Rebecca Hupp says the ducks have not caused any problems to date, but that it's important to keep aircraft and wildlife apart to prevent problems. **************** Sea-Tac Airport inspection: no deficiencies TACOMA, Wash.(AP) -- For the sixth time in the last 10 years, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has passed its annual Federal Aviation Administration inspection with no deficiencies. The News Tribune of Tacoma reports that the recent four-day inspection included all elements of the airport's training, safety and wildlife control programs, including the newly opened third runway. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_sea_tac_inspection.html ************* Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC