13 MAR 2009 _______________________________________ *Jet lands safely after hitting birds near Atlanta *Search Continues For Survivors Of North Atlantic S-92 Downing *NTSB To Assist With Investigation Of Helicopter Crash Off Newfoundland Coast *NTSB Issues Urgent Recommendation Affecting Trent 800 *Maintenance Was Overdue on Jet Engine Article *SADC contracts ICAO to establish flight safety Certification and Inspection (Swaziland) *FAA Publishes NVG Advisory *Slide loss on Zimbabwe 767 probably due to latching: AAIB *************************************** Jet lands safely after hitting birds near Atlanta ATLANTA - A passenger plane has landed safely after passengers were told it struck two birds taking off from Atlanta. The Delta flight, operated by regional carrier ASA, was on its way to Mobile, Ala., when passengers said they heard a loud thud. The pilot told passengers the plane would circle over northwest Georgia to burn off fuel before returning to Atlanta. ASA spokeswoman Allison Baker says the 50-seat CRJ-100 hit what officials believe were two birds, but their species has not been determined. Passenger Sarah Burch, the wife of the executive producer of WKRG-TV in Mobile, told the station she could see damage on the plane's nose and right wing after leaving the plane. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090313/ap_on_re_us/plane_bird_collision ************** Search Continues For Survivors Of North Atlantic S-92 Downing One Survivor Found, One Body Recovered ANN REALTIME UPDATE 03.12.09 1430 EDT (UPDATED 2230 EDT): One person has been rescued and another presumed lost following Thursday morning's downing of a Sikorsky S-92 in the North Atlantic. The search continues for signs of the other 16 persons reported onboard the helicopter, which was bound for two offshore oil rigs off the coast of Newfoundland. Rick Burt, general manager of operator Cougar Helicopters, told Bloomberg the pilot reported engine problems while enroute to the rigs. He pilot had turned back towards St. Johns when the aircraft ditched in the ocean, about 31 miles off the coast. Search crews have employed a number of fixed and rotary-wing aircraft to search for other survivors. All people onboard were wearing survival suits, which experts say should allow them to survive in the frigid waters for about 30 hours. First responders to the accident site reported wreckage strewn on the water. They found two liferafts, though only one carried survivor onboard. Robert Decker remained in critical condition as of Thursday night, reports the New York Times. Crews also pulled one body from the water, which has not been identified. "This is a very difficult time for Cougar, our colleagues, our customers and the families," Burt said Thursday afternoon. "We are doing our best to support the rescue effort and to provide information and assistance to the families." The US National Transportation Safety Board announced it will assist with the crash investigation, under the authority of the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada. Original Report 1100 EDT: A Sikorsky S-92 bound for offshore oil platforms off the Newfoundland coast ditched in the North Atlantic Thursday morning, and efforts are now underway to rescue the people onboard. A spokeswoman with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax told The St. John's Telegram the helo, with 16 passengers and two pilots onboard, appears to have made a controlled ditching about 47 nm southeast of St. John's. The rotorcraft (type shown above), operated by Cougar Helicopters, was transporting workers to the Hibernia and White Rose oil fields when it went down at approximately 9:20 am local time. At least one person has been rescued so far, said spokeswoman Jeri Grychowski. "There's a Cougar [S-]61 on scene and they've recovered one person and they're en route to St. John's (hospital) with the individual. I've just been told that one person has been taken aboard the Cougar and was being taken to the Health Sciences Centre. I don't know about whether they pulled out a second person." Local hospitals have activated emergency plans to handle what officials hope will be an influx of survivors. "We're trying to clear emergency rooms as best we can to prepare for these people," said Elizabeth Strange with Eastern Health, the Newfoundland hospital board. Cougar Helicopters has not yet commented publicly on the accident. According to the company's Web site, all persons flying aboard Cougar rotorcraft are issued survival suits before boarding, which include integrated life vests and personal locator beacons. FMI: www.cougar.ca, www.jrcchalifax.forces.gc.ca/JRCC_home_E.htm aero-news.net **************** NTSB To Assist With Investigation Of Helicopter Crash Off Newfoundland Coast The National Transportation Safety Board is assisting with the investigation of the crash of a helicopter in the North Atlantic today. At 8:25 AM EDT, a Sikorsky S-92A heavy-lift helicopter, (Canadian registry C-GZCH), operated by Cougar Helicopters, ditched in the North Atlantic about 31 miles east of St. John's, Newfoundland. The accident investigation is being conducted by the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada. NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker has designated senior air safety investigator Jim Silliman as the U.S. Accredited Representative. The U.S. team will also include technical advisors from the Federal Aviation Administration, Sikorsky and General Electric. Information on the progress of the investigation will be released by the TSB (800-387-3557). http://www.verticalmag.com/control/news/templates/?a=10295 *************** NTSB Issues Urgent Recommendation Affecting Trent 800 Rolls-Royce Says Redesigned Component Is Under Development Following two engine thrust rollback events on Boeing 777 aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce engines, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a pair of urgent safety recommendations Wednesday to the FAA and EASA, calling for the redesign of a Rolls-Royce engine component -- said to already be in development -- and the prompt installation of that redesigned part once it is approved. Specifically, the NTSB recommends the FAA require Rolls-Royce redesign the RB211 Trent 800 series engine fuel/oil heat exchanger (FOHE) such that ice accumulation on the face of the FOHE will not restrict fuel flow to the extent that the ability to achieve commanded thrust is reduced. Once the fuel/oil heat exchanger (FOHE) is redesigned and approved by certification authorities, NTSB says the FAA should require operators of Boeing 777-200 airplanes powered by Rolls Royce RB211 Trent 800 series engines install the redesigned FOHE at the next scheduled maintenance opportunity or within 6 months after the revised FOHE design has been certificated, whichever comes first. These recommendations are being issued in response to the findings in two investigations -- an accident and an incident -- involving engine thrust rollbacks on Boeing 777-200ER airplanes powered by Rolls-Royce RB211 Trent 800 Series engines. In both cases, a build-up of ice (from water normally present in all jet fuel) on the fuel/oil heat exchanger (FOHE) restricted the flow of fuel to the engine, resulting in an uncommanded engine rollback. The first event, which is still being investigated by the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch, occurred on January 17, 2008, when a Boeing 777 experienced a dual engine rollback on final approach and crashed short of the runway at London's Heathrow International Airport. One passenger was seriously injured, eight passengers and four of the flight crew sustained minor injuries; the airplane was substantially damaged. The second event occurred on November 26, 2008, when a Delta Air Lines Boeing 777 experienced a single engine rollback during cruise flight over Montana while en route from Shanghai to Atlanta. Normal operations resumed after the flight crew followed Boeing's published procedure to recover engine performance; the airplane landed safely in Atlanta. Testing in support of the UK accident investigation led Boeing to develop procedures to help prevent ice accumulation, and to recover thrust in cases of ice blockage. As more information from the Delta rollback event was developed, Boeing modified the procedures, which became the basis of an airworthiness directive issued by the Federal Aviation Administration last week. The NTSB says while those procedures may reduce the risk of a rollback in one or both engines due to FOHE ice blockage, they add complexity to flight crew operations, and the level of risk reduction is not well established. And because the recovery procedure requires a descent, the aircraft may be exposed to other risks such as rising terrain or hazardous weather, or the inability to achieve maximum thrust during a critical phase of flight, such as during a missed approach. Because of these hazards, the Safety Board determined the only acceptable solution to this safety vulnerability is a redesigned FOHE that would eliminate the potential of ice build-up. On February 23, 2009, Rolls-Royce indicated that a redesign of the FOHE was underway, and that they anticipated the redesign to be tested, certified and ready for installation within 12 months. "With two of these rollback events occurring within a year, we believe that there is a high probability of something similar happening again," said NTSB Acting Chairman Mark Rosenker. "We are encouraged to see that Rolls-Royce is already working on a redesign, and we are confident that with the FAA and EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) overseeing the process, this flight safety issue -- even one as complex as this -- will be successfully and expeditiously resolved." aero-news.net *************** Maintenance Was Overdue on Jet Engine Article By ANDY PASZTOR An American Airlines jet that suffered an engine failure and made an emergency landing Wednesday morning at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport had a history of engine problems and hadn't received maintenance checks slated to occur days before the incident, according to people familiar with the details. The twin-engine jetliner, a McDonnel Douglas MD-80 series aircraft, was climbing through about 1,300 feet after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport on its way to Chicago when its right engine suffered a major turbine failure and the pilots opted to divert. None of the 88 passengers and five crew members sustained injuries. According to American's maintenance records, these people said, the plane was written up by mechanics a few days ago and scheduled for follow-up work because of a string of earlier engine troubles. Over several weeks, pilots reported at least four separate engine problems or discrepancies in fuel usage between the engines, these people said. Parts were ordered last weekend, according to one person familiar with the details, but for various reasons the work was delayed and the engine checks weren't done prior to Wednesday's incident. A spokesman for American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp., said the carrier was investigating and intended to get to the bottom of the incident, but he declined to comment on specific maintenance issues. "We don't typically get into individual maintenance history" of airplanes involved in such incidents, he said. The engine failure is likely to prompt scrutiny by both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, partly because internal pieces of the right engine pierced its outer cover and some metal fragments were found embedded around the plane's tail. The emergency landing was the second time in less than a month that an American jet suffered a sudden engine failure shortly after takeoff. On Feb. 15, minutes after an American Boeing 757 left Southern California's John Wayne Airport bound for Chicago, the pilots reported serious problems with one of their two engines. The plane made a turn over the Pacific Ocean and came in to land safely at nearby Los Angeles International Airport. Before that February incident, according to people familiar with the details, the same engine suffered at least two so-called compressor stalls -- or brief outages -- but was inspected and declared fit for flight. In the case of the aircraft that ran into trouble leaving LaGuardia, the previous maintenance write-ups suggested the engine wasn't operating efficiently because some internal pressures were outside normal bounds, according to one person familiar with the details. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123682601646404111.html?mod=googlenews_wsj *************** SADC contracts ICAO to establish flight safety Certification and Inspection (Swaziland) THE SADC Secretariat has contracted ICAO to establish a Flight Safety Certification and Inspection through a cooperative agreement among member states. The technical unit is aimed at enhancing the safety of air transport operations. A regional core of flight safety inspectors would be established for carrying out the whole range of certification and surveillance functions on behalf of member states. The programme, Cooperative development of Operational Safety Continuing Airworthiness Programme (COSCAP) has already been implemented elsewhere among the ICAO member states under the supervision and guidance of of ICAO. kick The project commenced in April 2008 and there were supposed to be donor funds available to kick start the process. This would have augmented approximately E8 million that SADC has spent out of the budget. Member states would be expected to make a good shortfall if no donor funds are forthcoming. Once it becomes operationaly the SADC Aviation Safety Organisation (SASO) would levy charges for its services such as inspections, examinations and aircraft operators would be expected to pay. emphasises The report further emphasises on the importance of preparing for an additional expenditure to be incurred over a period of 3.5 years with effect from April 2010. This is a requirement in terms of the SADC Protocol on Transport, Communications and Meteorology. As a result, SADC has had a representative on the ICAO council. The arrangement is that a country is nominated as a candidate for elections at the ICAO Assembly held once every three years. Namibia was successfully elected in 2007 and Swaziland is next in line. http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=2474 **************** FAA Publishes NVG Advisory A Flight Safety Flash was issued in 2008 by the Canadian Air Force's Directorate of Flight Safety, which identified some red obstruction lighting systems that were clearly visible to the naked eye but not visible to NVGs. These lighting systems employ LEDs instead of traditional incandescent sources. The use of LEDs is becoming more common for almost all lighting. Aviation Red light ranges from about 610 to 700 nanometers (nm), and NVGs approved for civil aviation (having a Class B Minus Blue Filter) are only sensitive to energy ranging from 665 to about 930 nm. Because LEDs have a relatively narrow emission band and do not emit infrared energy like incandescent lights, it is possible for them to meet FAA requirements for Aviation Red but be below the range in which NVGs are sensitive. http://www.amtonline.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=7667 ***************** Slide loss on Zimbabwe 767 probably due to latching: AAIB UK investigators have concluded that the likely cause of an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767 escape-slide separation was poor latching rather than in-flight inflation. The incident occurred last August, as the 20-year old 767-200 (Z-WPE) was on final approach from Harare to London Gatwick, when the overwing inflatable slide came out of the exterior fuselage compartment. Neither the latch or door actuators had fired but, as the slide exited the compartment, the inflation cylinder had discharged. Following an otherwise-normal landing at Gatwick, the crew saw that the compartment for the right overwing escape slide was open and the slide missing. The actuating mechanism was hanging from the compartment and had caused slight dents and perforations in the adjacent fuselage skin. The slide was found a few days later under the Gatwick approach path, by which time the 767 had been repaired and dispatched without a detailed inspection to determine the cause of the slide compartment's opening. Boeing has recorded a number of similar incidents, involving either 'in-compartment inflation' - which forces the compartment door open - or a combination of incomplete latching and worn components. The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch has concluded that the latter circumstances led to the Air Zimbabwe incident. In its report the AAIB says the most recent maintenance on the system had taken place on 7 July, a month before the 3 August incident. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news **************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC