20 FEB 2009 _______________________________________ *NTSB To Hold Public Hearing On US Airways 1549 Ditching *Colgan Air Defends Training Procedures In Response To News Reports *Pilots' Union Calls Buffalo Airport Landing System Flawed *Crash experts focus on sharp rise of plane's nose *45 hurt as US-bound plane hits turbulence over Japan *More air accidents but fewer die in 2008-IATA *Ukrainian airplane crashed in Egypt *New York City's JFK Airport to Close Longest Runway *Helicopter goes down near California nuclear plant *RTCA Task Force Assisting FAA on NextGen Rollout **************************************** NTSB To Hold Public Hearing On US Airways 1549 Ditching Rosenker Says There Are Lessons To Be Learned The National Transportation Safety Board announced Thursday it will hold a two-day public hearing as part of its ongoing investigation into the ditching of a US Airways Airbus A320 into the Hudson River in New York City in January. The hearing, which will be held at the NTSB's Board Room and Conference Center in Washington, DC, is expected to be scheduled for late spring or early summer; the exact dates will be announced within the next few weeks. "Based on what we have learned so far about this accident, we know that many things went right," said NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker. "But no matter how many things go right, we've found that each accident presents safety issues that we can learn from -- both to further our investigation, and ultimately, to make the skies even safer. This hearing will move us closer toward those goals." At about 3:30 pm, EST on January 15, 2009, an Airbus A320 operated as US Airways flight 1549 on a scheduled flight from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, NC ditched into the Hudson River shortly after the aircraft struck Canada geese, resulting in an immediate loss of thrust in both engines. While there were no fatalities among the 155 passengers and crew, two individuals were seriously injured. The public hearing will focus on the training of crew members on emergency procedures, as well as the certification requirements for the Airbus A320 related to the structural integrity of the airframe during ditching. The Board will also scrutinize bird ingestion certification standards for transport-category turbofan engines; look at new and developing technologies for detection of large groups of birds; and procedures to avoid conflicts with birds in the general vicinity of airports. FMI: www.ntsb.gov aero-news.net **************** Colgan Air Defends Training Procedures In Response To News Reports Pilot Error, ILS Problems Among New Theories In Flight 3407 Downing Following revelations by the National Transportation Safety Board about the last few seconds of Continental Connection Flight 3407's failed instrument approach into Buffalo last week, Colgan Air is defending the training and experience of the accident pilot, Capt. Marvin Renslow. The Associated Press reports Colgan Air, the subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines operating the flight, issued a statement Wednesday declaring the airline's crew training programs "meet or exceed the regulatory requirements for all major airlines. "Colgan has instilled a systemic culture of safety throughout our organization that is rooted in significant investment in crew training, systems, leadership and equipment," the airline added. Those comments came following news reports this week calling into question the actions of the Q400's flight crew in the final moments before the regional aircraft impacted a home in Clarence Center, NY, killing all 49 persons onboard the plane and one on the ground. Early speculation has focused on the possibility icing contributed to the accident. In a story Wednesday titled "Pilot Action May Have Led To Crash," however, the Wall Street Journal -- citing unnamed sources said to be familiar with the NTSB's ongoing investigation -- reported data from the accident aircraft's flight data recorder shows Renslow pulled back on the yoke and throttled the engines up when the aircraft stalled, instead of pushing the nose forward to build speed. The WSJ article also notes the relatively low amount of time -- said to be just over 100 hours -- Renslow had in the left seat of the Q400. A 3,379-hour Captain with Colgan, Renslow had just upgraded to the Q400 in December; First Officer Rebecca Shaw had lower cumulative hours, but 774 in type. Some of the focus on potential pilot error was diverted Thursday, when reports surfaced Southwest Airlines issued an advisory to its pilots in the weeks before the Colgan crash that an earthen dam off the end of Runway 23 at Buffalo Niagara International Airport has been known to interfere with the ILS, in a way that could cause autopilots to command a sudden nose-up attitude... similar to what preliminary data suggests occurred onboard Flight 3407. "Pilots who are preparing to configure and land have the potential to experience abrupt pitch up, slow airspeed, and approach to stall if conditions present themselves in a certain manner," the advisory reads. CNN reports Southwest reissued the warning February 11, one day before the Colgan crash. As ANN reported last week, the Q400 impacted in the vicinity of the KLUMP Initial Approach Fix, 4.4 nautical miles from the threshold of Runway 23 at BUF. In the moments after the plane disappeared off radar, an air traffic controller asked other pilots in the area if they had noticed any discrepancies with the localizer, after a Delta jet in trail of the Colgan plane reported fluctuations at around 1,500 feet. No error indications with the localizer were noted by the tower. Radar data shows the Colgan flight encountered problems within moments after the landing gear was extended, and the flight crew lowered the first 15 degrees of flaps. Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Linda Rutherford would not say whether any Southwest planes had encountered problems flying the ILS down to 23 at Buffalo. The NTSB says it is aware of the report... but the Board has also noted that leaving the autopilot on during approach during significant icing went against both FAA recommendations and Colgan policy. The NTSB has been pressuring the FAA for years to make tuning off the autopilot mandatory in such conditions. The NTSB's official report on probable cause is expected to take at least a year. FMI: www.colganair.com, www.ntsb.gov aero-news.net **************** Pilots' Union Calls Buffalo Airport Landing System Flawed A problem with the instrument landing system at the Buffalo airport can cause airplanes to move suddenly to a nose-up position, a pilots' union warned on Thursday, but the flaw seems unlikely to have played a role in the crash of a plane during its approach there on Feb. 12. The union, the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association, said it had described the problem to the crash investigators. The runway at Buffalo Niagara International Airport is the same one that Continental Connection Flight 3407 was approaching before it crashed, but the problem occurs when making a right turn to line up with Runway 23; the Continental plane was turning left. The phenomenon is drawing attention partly because the Continental plane's nose pointed up 31 degrees just before it crashed. But that pitch-up, investigators say, appeared to have been caused by pilot action, after the autopilot disengaged. The problem described by the Southwest pilots occurs when a plane is on autopilot. It has happened to Southwest planes twice within the past three months, the pilots' association said. The union called it a "potentially significant hazard," and said that "if conditions present themselves in a certain manner," they could put a plane near a condition called stall, when airflow over the wings, given their angle and the plane's speed, is insufficient to sustain flight. The plane that crashed was in such an aerodynamic stall. A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, Laura J. Brown, said the problem had been noted for years on aeronautical charts and resulted from uneven terrain near the Buffalo airport. Planes flying over a small valley were prone to receiving "anomalous altitude readings" that caused the problem, she said. Ms. Brown said that the problem was not unique to Buffalo and that other airports around the country have similar problems. She said the F.A.A. did not consider it a hazard. The part of the Buffalo instrument landing system involved, called the glide slope, was checked on Thursday and showed "no anomalies," she said. Only Southwest has complained, she said, and the F.A.A. has responded by routing Southwest planes to that runway with a left turn instead of a right turn, so they do not fly over the troublesome terrain. That is the approach the Continental plane was using. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/nyregion/20beacon.html?ref=nyregion **************** Crash experts focus on sharp rise of plane's nose By Alan Levin, USA TODAY Investigators trying to solve the week-old crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 near Buffalo are hoping to find clues that will explain the mystery of why the plane's nose inexplicably shot up during a seemingly normal landing. Understanding what the crew was thinking in the final moments could help explain why the plane's nose rose 31 degrees before quickly losing control and plummeting to the ground. The Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 had been in a normal approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport in icy weather when the nose suddenly shot upward, according to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Steven Chealander. That maneuver, well beyond the degree of a normal climb, is being looked at as the reason the plane plummeted to the ground. All 49 people aboard died, along with a man on the ground. Teams from the NTSB are also studying computer plots, running aerodynamic simulations and picking over charred wreckage in search of mechanical problems. FIND MORE STORIES IN: New York | Pittsburgh | National Transportation Safety Board | Queens of the Stone Age | US Airways | Buffalo Niagara International Airport | Continental Connection Flight | Steven Chealander | Bombardier Dash | Peter Goelz Determining why pilots act the way they do is among the most difficult tasks that the NTSB undertakes, safety experts and former investigators say. The crash-proof cockpit voice recorders often leave few clues other than clipped comments and grunts. Even the most sophisticated data recorders do not say whether a pilot flicked a switch intentionally or accidentally. "It's an old, old issue in accident investigation," said John Lauber, a former NTSB board member who studied pilot performance at NASA. "The technology does not exist that allows you to capture the intent. You always have to infer the intent." Investigators will interview the pilots' co-workers, study their training and search for clues in their personalities. They will also listen carefully to the cockpit recording. "It's extraordinarily difficult and it's emotionally draining," said Peter Goelz, who served as managing director of the NTSB. "It means you have to listen very, very carefully to the sounds and activities of the last moments of an airplane. It's terrible." The NTSB will spend months studying the pilots' performance, spokesman Keith Holloway said. In several major cases during the past 15 years, NTSB investigations have revolved as much on psychology as engineering: . When a US Airways jet crashed near Pittsburgh in 1994, killing 132 people, investigators concluded that a flaw in the jet's rudder brought it down. Malcolm Brenner, an NTSB specialist in human performance, concluded that the pilots' grunts were likely reactions to a rudder problem. . A co-pilot at the controls of an American Airlines Airbus A300 on Nov. 12, 2001, tore the jet's tail off by making several sharp movements of the rudder. The plane crashed in Queens, N.Y., killing 265 people. The NTSB found the airline's training had improperly emphasized rudder use and that the design of the jet led to overuse of the rudder. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-02-19-crash_N.htm *************** 45 hurt as US-bound plane hits turbulence over Japan TOKYO (AFP) - Forty-five people were injured, at least three seriously, when a Northwest Airlines Boeing 747 hit turbulence on the Manila-Tokyo leg of a US-bound flight, according to airport officials. Ambulances took the injured to local hospitals after the jet with 408 passengers and 14 crew landed at Narita International Airport outside Tokyo at 12:19 pm local time (0319 GMT) on Friday, an airport official said. The flight had been set to continue on to Los Angeles after a stopover. "The latest information we have is that 39 passengers were injured in addition to six crew members," said Toshiaki Nohara, a spokesman for Narita Airport Authority, which runs the airport. A middle-aged woman passenger, speaking in accented Japanese, told the TBS television network: "The person in front of me flew up to the ceiling. The person behind me collapsed and looked unconscious." A young man, also speaking in halting Japanese, said: "I was really scared. I thought I would die. The plane shook so much, and my whole body hovered up in the air. Inside the cabin, everybody was screaming loudly." Northwest Airlines spokesman Masashi Takahashi said: "Air turbulence is believed to be the cause. The turbulence occurred 25 to 30 minutes before landing, when the seat belt light was on." "During the flight, we received a message from the pilot saying two or three people were injured. But (the pilot) probably assessed that an emergency landing was not necessary," Takahashi told AFP. "It is possible that the people injured did not have their seatbelts on, otherwise all of the 422 (people aboard) would have been injured as well." Television images in Japan showed medical workers carrying two passengers off the plane, one on a stretcher and one in a wheelchair, while one young girl could be seen wearing a bandage around her head. Among the most seriously injured were three Philippine nationals, two men and one women, Jiji news agency reported, quoting local police. A 55-year-old US passenger said he heard screams when the plane suddenly descended before rising again, some 30 minutes before landing, the Kyodo news agency reported without naming the man. Some people who did not have their seatbelts fastened hit their heads on the ceiling and injured their necks, he reportedly said. The accident occurred while the Boeing 747-400 aircraft was circling over waters off Japan's Chiba Prefecture awaiting permission to land at Narita airport, officials said. ***** Date: 20-FEB-2009 Time: Type: Boeing 747-400 Operator: Northwest Airlines Registration: C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 422 Airplane damage: None Location: near Tokyo - Japan Phase: En route Nature: International Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Manila-MNL Destination airport: Tokyo-NRT Narrative: About 30 people were injured when a Northwest Airlines flight from Manila to Tokyo hit turbulence. (aviation-safety.net) **************** More air accidents but fewer die in 2008-IATA GENEVA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - More than 500 people died in air crashes on Western-built jets in 2008 and safety lapses at airlines contributed to nearly a third of accidents, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said. The toll of 502 was down from 2007, when 692 died, but the number of crashes rose slightly. The 2008 industry-wide accident rate, measured in hull losses per million flights, was 0.81, or one accident every 1.2 million flights. This compared with 0.75 in 2007. "Runway excursions", when an aircraft left the runway on take-off or landing, accounted for one-quarter of accidents last year and ground damage was reported in another 17 percent, according to IATA on Thursday. There was $4 billion worth of damage to aircraft and equipment on the ground, IATA said. Thirty percent of the accidents had "deficient safety management at the airline level as a contributing factor", according to the Geneva-based group which represents 230 carriers including British Airways (BAY.L), Cathay Pacific (0293.HK) and United Airlines (UAUA.O). Regionally, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had the worst measured accident rate, at 6.43. But the relatively small fleet of Western-built jet aircraft operated there meant the three accidents skewed the numbers considerably, IATA said. Last September an Aeroflot-Nord flight crashed as it tried to land in the Ural mountains' city of Perm, killing all 88 people on board. Russian investigators said last week the chief pilot of the airliner had alcohol in his blood but the primary cause of the crash was poor training. Africa had an accident rate of 2.12 although there was only one hull loss, according to IATA. The safety record of the Middle East and North Africa region was rated at 1.89 and Latin America had a hull loss rate of 2.55. "Addressing infrastructure issues remains a top priority," IATA said of the Latin American region. North America (0.58), Europe (0.42) and Asia (0.58) all performed better than the global average. A Spanair plane crashed at Madrid airport in August, killing 154 people in Spain's worst aviation disaster since 1983. "Our record on safety is impressive. But the accident in Buffalo last week and all the 502 fatalities in air accidents in 2008 are human tragedies reminding airlines, regulators and industry partners everywhere that safety is a constant challenge and we must alwys strive to do better," said IATA director-general Giovanni Bisignani. "Our target is zero accidents and zero fatalities. Nothing less is an acceptable result." A commuter plane operated by Colgan Air for Continental Airlines (CAL.N) crashed last week, killing 50 people. The world's leading aircraft makers include Bombardier (BBDb.TO), Airbus (EAD.PA) and Boeing (BA.N). http://uk.reuters.com/article/UK_SMALLCAPSRPT/idUKLJ53207420090219?pageNumbe r=2&virtualBrandChannel=0 **************** Ukrainian airplane crashed in Egypt Ukrainian cargo airplane An-12 crashed at take-off from Luxor airport on the south of Egypt today. 5 members of a crew died, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the chairman of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority Emad Salem as saying. According to him, Ukrainian plane was coming from Entebbe airport in Uganda and stopped in Luxor airport to refuel. After it the crew tried to take off, but it fell down 700 meters up from the runaway. The fire did not affect regular flights at Luxor. A special technical team rushed to the site in order to find the reasons of the accident. 11:05 a.m. According to Ukraine's Foreign Ministry's press service, airplane An-12 (S9SVN registration number, LFT 1015 flight) belonged to Aerolift airline (Republic of South Africa) going from Uganda to Ukraine. The pilots' remains are taken to Luxor International Hospital and General Hospital in Luxor city, UNIAN reports. Now Ukraine's embassy to Egypt specifies the citizenship of the dead. http://mignews.com.ua/en/categ186/articles/340794.html *************** New York City's JFK Airport to Close Longest Runway Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The longest runway at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport will be closed for four months next year during a $367 million repaving project, part of a plan to reduce delays at the area's busiest airport. The board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the region's international airports, today approved a plan to shut the 2.8-mile (4.4-kilometer) runway, which handles more than half of all departures. Airlines are adjusting their schedules and operations to minimize delays, and the three remaining runways will be used to full capacity when the repaving takes place between March 1 and June 29, 2010, the Port Authority said in a statement today. Other work to reduce delays at JFK will be done simultaneously, including building additional access points for planes on nearby taxiways and creating new routes to allow for faster departures. Kennedy had the fourth-worst on-time arrival rate of U.S. airports in 2008. Only Chicago's O'Hare, New York's LaGuardia and Newark, New Jersey's Liberty airports fared worse. The repaving project involves milling 6 inches of existing asphalt on the runway and overlaying 18 inches of concrete, which has a lifespan of as much as 40 years, or about five times that of asphalt, the agency said in a statement. The runway will be widened to 200 feet from 150 feet to accommodate the largest commercial aircraft. New lighting and electronic equipment will also be installed, the authority said. The airport is the busiest in the New York City region, handling about 440,000 flights in 2008, according to the Port Authority. It was the sixth-busiest airport in the U.S. in 2007, with Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport handling the most flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aPGKSKQy5RyI&refer=us *************** Helicopter goes down near California nuclear plant U.S. Border Patrol helicopter crashes near San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Helicopter was headed to airport in San Diego Three people on helicopter were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A U.S. Border Patrol helicopter went down Thursday night near the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The McDonald Douglas 600N made a forced landing due to engine trouble, authorities said. Three people on board were able to exit the helicopter on their own and were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said. Aerial images showed the helicopter sitting on the edge of the surf, just north of the nuclear plant. The aircraft was significantly damaged, authorities said. The helicopter was going from the airport in Long Beach, California, to the Brown Field airport in San Diego, said Vince Bond, the Border Patrol's public information officer. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the case. ****************** RTCA Task Force Assisting FAA on NextGen Rollout An FAA-requested RTCA NextGen implementation task force is seeking answers to fundamental questions about the future ATC system. It expects to report its findings by August. Specifically, RTCA, a nonprofit federal advisory committee, is tasked with finding what the system will look like in 2018, the FAA's current target date to implement NextGen; benefits gained in the mid-term (2012 to 2018); aircraft avionics needs through 2018; what the FAA can deploy in the near term that makes the most of existing resources; and what activities are under way to support future capabilities. Members of the task force represent 24 organizations, of which only the FAA, NASA and DOD are government agencies. NBAA is counted among the 21 non-governmental groups. The first task force meeting was held last week, and NBAA air traffic services director Bob Lamond and Northwest Airlines' Lorne Cass presented their review of the FAA's plan. "NBAA is excited about participating in this effort to increase capacity, efficiency and safety in the NAS," Lamond told AIN. "Our focus will be on recommending capabilities providing the greatest benefit in airspace and airport access. http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/rtca-task-force-assis ting-faa-on-nextgen-rollout/ ***************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC