19 FEB 2009 _______________________________________ *FAA, NTSB feud over safety recommendations *EVS APPROVAL *Crash Probe Turns to Pilot Training *Helicopter crashes off Scotland, all on board safe *************************************** FAA, NTSB feud over safety recommendations WASHINGTON (AP) - A week after Continental Flight 3407 fell from the sky on an icy night near Buffalo, N.Y., the crash has exposed a long simmering rift in Washington between the two agencies responsible for air safety. The National Transportation Safety Board's chairman says aviation officials have sat on his agency's advice about turboprop planes and ice. Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration complain the safety board is free to offer recommendations regardless of whether they are practicable, economical or even technologically possible. The board cannot force quick action it believes would save lives. The power to put in place new safety measures lies with the FAA, now under scrutiny after the Feb. 12 crash of the turboprop plane. The accident killed 49 people aboard and a man in the house. The Buffalo crash bears similarities to a Halloween 1994 crash of an American Eagle flight en route to Chicago in freezing rain. That plane went into a high-speed dive near Roselawn, Ind., killing all 68 people aboard. The NTSB blamed the crash partly on ice accumulated on the plane's wings. In 1996, the board recommended testing new and existing turboprop planes - commonly used by commuter airlines - for their ability to withstand such conditions. Those recommendations are among several that linger on the agency most wanted list. Current and past board members contend the FAA also has been slow to act on recommendations in other ice-related turboprop accidents in Monroe, Mich., in 1997, and Pueblo, Colo., in 2005. "I'm somewhat frustrated, along with my other colleagues on the board, that the process is taking so long," the NTSB's chairman, Mark Rosenker, said in an interview. "What I would like to see is a reasonable pace in the regulatory process that gets you to a solution in a reasonable amount of time," Rosenker said. "Clearly when we talk about a decade or more, that is not a reasonable amount of time - that is an unreasonable amount of time." The FAA says it has worked hard on the issue of ice and turboprop planes. Spokeswoman Laura Brown pointed out that the agency has issued more than 100 safety directives since 1994 requiring specific actions related to icing for existing aircraft. "We've chosen to take other steps first that we think will give us safety improvements while we work on rule-making," Brown said. An aviation policy expert, David Primo, cited the FAA's "glacial pace at everything they do, from modernizing air traffic control to giving due consideration to the NTSB's recommendations." Primo, a professor at the University of Rochester in New York, added, "Wee would be much better served as a country in terms of regulations if the FAA would simply make decisions." A former NTSB chairman, Jim Hall, said the regulatory process was "certainly broken for the people who lost their lives in Buffalo." "Unfortunately, all you can think here is economic interests are trumping safety interests," Hall said. In 1998, the board recommended that the FAA require pilots not use the autopilot after they turn on their de-icing equipment. The board said the autopilot can mask changes in the handling quality of an airplane that may be a precursor to a stall or loss of control due to ice accumulation. The FAA agreed, in part. But it declined to put the recommendation in place. The FAA said there were some circumstances - particularly when there are many demands on a flight crew's attention - where using the autopilot in icy conditions is warranted. The board circled back in 2006 with a similar recommendation, with an exception for busy work periods in the cockpit. To date, FAA has not replied to the recommendation except for a letter acknowledging receiving it. The FAA has advised airlines and pilots not to use the autopilot in icy conditions, but doesn't believe requiring that is appropriate, Brown said. "It's not an area where there is a single solution for every situation," Brown said. A 2007 recommendation on the NTSB's most wanted list urges turboprop pilots to turn on their de-icing equipment when the plane enters icing conditions, rather than waiting for ice to begin to accumulate. The board was concerned enough to issue a safety alert in December warning "thin amounts of ice, as little as 1/4 inch, can be deadly." The alert also urges pilots to turn off or limit the use of the autopilot "in order to better 'feel' changes in the handling qualities of the airplane." Brown noted that the FAA proposed a rule two years ago that would require airplane manufacturers to provide a way to detect ice and ensure de-icing equipment is turned on right away. She said the rule is in its final stage of review. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hWRrLvF7ruc4FHQ8pQDiRS7vvK 1AD96EB2KO1 *************** EVS APPROVAL Bombardier has received approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency for lower enhanced vision system approaches. The validation paves the way for operators of Global business jets equipped with Bombardier's EVS to obtain operational credit for continuing approaches to 100ft (30m). EU-Ops rule 1.430(h) requires pilots using instrument approach procedures to be able to see the approach lights and runway environment from a predetermined height to proceed with landing. With BEVS, that distance has been reduced, says the Canadian airframer. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/02/19/322666/business-aviation-in- brief.html ***************** Crash Probe Turns to Pilot Training By ANDY PASZTOR and J. LYNN LUNSFORD Federal investigators are examining cockpit training at Colgan Air Inc. in light of evidence suggesting that pilot commands likely sent one of its commuter airplanes into a dive that killed 50 people last week near Buffalo, N.Y., according to government and industry officials. The twin-engine Bombardier Q400 went out of control and bucked violently around 10:20 p.m. EST on Feb. 12, when it was a few miles out and descending toward the Buffalo airport. Within a few seconds, it entered a fatal dive. The turboprop plane was operated by Colgan, a unit of Pinnacle Airlines Inc., as a commuter flight for Continental Airlines Inc. Government investigators think the turboprop slowed to an unsafe speed and lost lift during the final minute as it approached the airport, according to people familiar with the probe. Onboard stall-warning systems alerted the pilots and automatically activated the "stick pusher," which pushes the control column forward to angle the nose of the plane down in order to regain speed, these people said. At that point, the captain pulled back sharply on the controls and added power, instead of following the proper procedure of pushing forward to lower the nose to get out of a typical stall, these people said. Investigators also haven't ruled out icing as a contributing factor in the accident. As crash experts dig deeper into the dive of Continental Connection Flight 3407, they are partly focusing on the training Colgan pilots receive about how to recover from a stall, these people said. Last week's crash is the second time in five years that a fatal accident has prompted federal air-safety experts to question the effectiveness of training programs -- and specifically maneuvers to escape from a stall -- at Pinnacle or one of its units. A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, which is heading the probe, confirmed Wednesday that investigators are examining whether the cockpit crew overreacted. He also confirmed that pilot commands may have initiated the fatal dive. The safety board, among other issues, is looking into why Colgan's training programs apparently stop short of allowing pilots in simulators to feel the stick-pusher activate, according to people familiar with the issue. The device is intended to automatically prevent the plane from going into a stall by pointing the nose down to regain speed. Safety experts worry that unless pilots understand and feel what happens when the stick-pusher goes into action in a simulator, they may not react properly when it activates during an in-flight emergency. In 2004, a Pinnacle commuter jet went out of control at a high altitude, both its engines shut down, and it ultimately crashed, killing both pilots. Among other mistakes, the pilots fought the stick-pusher. The accident prompted the safety board to criticize the rigor and effectiveness of the airline's pilot-training programs, as well as Pinnacle's overall safety oversight. In addition to several general recommendations to improve training for commuter pilots, the board specifically called for a blue-ribbon panel of experts to examine ways to make pilots more familiar and comfortable with the operation of stick-pusher systems. Colgan, Pinnacle and the safety board have declined to comment on the preliminary conclusions of investigators. In a statement, Colgan said its training programs "meet or exceed the regulatory requirements for all major airlines," adding that in the wake of the Buffalo crash, it has "specifically re-examined our procedures for this aircraft." The aerospace unit of Canada's Bombardier Inc., which manufactured the aircraft, declined to comment on the investigation or training issues. Flight Safety International, which provided simulators used to train Colgan pilots, said Wednesday that the airline used its own instructors and curriculum. Flight Safety's own training programs routinely require pilots to experience the impact of the stick-pusher, according to a spokesman. Investigators are also interested in learning more about the training of the captain of Flight 3407, who had recently moved up to the Q400 from a smaller type of aircraft, according to people familiar with the probe. They want to know whether he received training that would have outlined particular differences in how the Q400 performed in certain scenarios, such as an aerodynamic stall of the tail as a result of icing, compared with the previous aircraft he piloted. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123500459726218073.html?mod=googlenews_wsj ************** Helicopter crashes off Scotland, all on board safe LONDON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Rescuers plucked 18 people from the icy, dark waters of the North Sea on Wednesday after a helicopter ditched close to an oil and gas platform off the east coast of Scotland. "There are no serious injuries," Coastguard spokesman Fred Caygill said. "Some have minor injuries and some have no injuries at all apart from the trauma of the experience." The civilian helicopter came down about 500 metres (yards) from a platform owned by oil giant BP (BP.L) in an area of the North Sea know as the Eastern Trough Area Project, Caygill said. Fifteen of those on board were rescued by the platform's own lifeboat and the other three were airlifted to safety. Caygill likened the rescue to the incident last month when a pilot landed a damaged U.S. Airways jetliner on the Hudson River in New York, saving all 155 on board. "I suspect the pilot of this helicopter played a very major part in ensuring all the passengers and crew were alive when they were rescued," he said. "I would have been very difficult for the passengers not least because you're in an aircraft, you've gone into the water, you're in the dark and you have to get yourself to a life raft." Caygill said it was too early to say what had caused the incident and that it was unclear whether the helicopter had been landing at or taking off from the platform. Coastguards described the weather as moderate with seas of 2 to 3 metres but said visibility was limited to 0.5 nautical miles and that the cloudbase was below the nearby platform's helideck level at about 500 to 600 metres. The rescue mission, which included three military helicopters and a Nimrod aircraft, was also been hampered by darkness, the Coastguard said. The Super Puma helicopter went down about 125 miles (201 km) due east of the port city of Aberdeen and was on one of thousands of civilian helicopter flights a year that service the many oil and gas platforms in the North Sea. http://uk.reuters.com/article/UK_SMALLCAPSRPT/idUKLI1510877020090218?pageNum ber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0 *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC