14 MAY 2009 _______________________________________ *Pilots Set Up for Fatigue, Officials Say *NTSB to hear from regulators on NY state air crash *Colgan seeks to add CVR data to FOQA program after crash *Colgan revises Q400 simulator training following crash *AIA/Blakey To Senate: Accelerate NextGen *Jet pilot ejects in Afghanistan *Woman tried to open aircraft door **************************************** Pilots Set Up for Fatigue, Officials Say WASHINGTON - The head of the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday told executives of Colgan Air, whose plane crashed outside Buffalo in February, that paying new pilots very low wages without taking into account that some would commute across the country to their jobs constituted "winking and nodding" at safety policy. Members of the board said that the crew of the twin-engine turboprop that crashed, killing all 49 people on board and one on the ground, was set up for fatigue and inattention before they even took off, partly because of the structure of the commuter airline business. In the crash, the first officer, Rebecca L. Shaw, 24, a Colgan employee for about a year, apparently pulled an all-nighter to get a free transcontinental trip to work. She was living near Seattle and commuting to her job at Colgan's operation in Newark, according to board investigators. She flew from Seattle to Memphis in a spare seat on one FedEx jet, and to Newark on another, planning to sleep in a crew lounge, investigators said. The airline said Wednesday evening that her rate of pay, for a minimum of 75 hours a month, was $23,900 a year. The captain, Marvin D. Renslow, 47, who had been with Colgan since September 2005, had flown to Newark from his Florida home the previous evening. He was logged on to a computer at 3 a.m.; investigators are not sure where he slept, but he was known to have sometimes used the crew lounge at Newark, even though the airline had threatened to fire pilots who used it for overnight stays. The average salary for a captain is $67,000, Colgan said. The board on Wednesday held its second of three days of hearings on the Feb. 12 crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air. The turboprop plummeted to the ground during its approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. While a final report is months away, broad recommendations seem likely, especially concerning fatigue. A Federal Aviation Administration scientist, Tom Nesthus, testified that sleepy pilots were generally unable to judge the extent of their impairment, and likely to have trouble concentrating and following multiple sources of information. In the crash, the crew lost track of their deteriorating airspeed, and when a warning system activated, Captain Renslow reacted wrongly, pulling up the nose of the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, instead of pushing it down, to regain airspeed and improve the angle of the wings. The plane went into a stall, meaning the combination of angle and speed left the wings unable to generate lift. The acting chairman of the board, Mark V. Rosenker, said the company was "winking and nodding" about its pilots' commuting practices. Another board member, Kathryn O. Higgins, said, "When you put together the commuting patterns, the pay levels, the fact that your crew rooms that aren't supposed to be used, are being used, I think it's a recipe for an accident." Board investigators found that the crew lounge was, in fact, used inappropriately, and the airline recognized the problem with the practice. "It's not quality rest," Harry Mitchel, Colgan's vice president for flight operations, testified. "There's a lot of activity in our crew rooms." A safety board member, Deborah A. P. Hersman, said Wednesday that Ms. Shaw had told one FedEx pilot that there was a "couch with my name on it" in the Colgan pilot's lounge in Newark where she would sleep. But Daniel Morgan, vice president for safety and regulatory performance at Colgan Air, said the airline had abided strictly by rules on how many hours a pilot could work in a shift, and how many hours were given between shifts, and could not control employees' off-hours behavior. "You're adults, you're professionals, use the time we've given you to rest," he said. Pilots could share apartments near the base, he said. Both pilots can be heard yawning on the cockpit voice recorder. Investigators found that Colgan's pilots frequently live hundreds or thousands of miles from their crew base, and board members were openly skeptical that the two pilots were atypical. Mr. Rosenker, the acting chairman, said during a break in the hearing that he and his colleagues had not surveyed commuting practices at other commuter airlines but that it might be revealing for the F.A.A., which licenses pilots and airlines, to do so. At the hearing, Ms. Higgins asked, "What's the nexus between commuting and fatigue?" "Boy, that's difficult," Mr. Mitchel answered, adding that the answer would depend on the individual. Over two days of hearings, the airline has varied between protesting its blamelessness and asking for help. The company said it was trying to make sure pilots complied with its fatigue policy - including a requirement not to commute in by plane on the day a duty shift begins. On Tuesday it said Captain Renslow had lied on his job application by listing only one of the three times that he had failed a hands-on proficiency exam, called a check ride, and that the airline was hampered by insufficiencies in a federal law intended to help carriers gather information like that on job applicants. One company witness asked the board for help in getting Congress to change the laws. But Colgan had not taken the step that some safety board experts pointed out, asking pilots to sign privacy waivers so the Federal Aviation Administration could divulge their records to the company. After Colgan hired Captain Renslow, he failed two more check rides, but eventually was certified to fly the Dash 8, the plane that crashed. Colgan, like other commuter airlines, often has a high turnover in which employees spend only a year or two in low-paying entry-level jobs, a disincentive to live near the airline's hub. "We look at it as a steppingstone," said Mary Colgan Finnigan, the company's vice president for administration, referring to a job at the company. After the crash, the airline said it was also reviewing its sick leave policy. Ms. Shaw could be heard sneezing on the cockpit voice recorder, and at one point suggested to Captain Renslow that they seek permission from air traffic control to descend early because that would be more comfortable for her ears, which were stuffed. Pilots earn sick time at the rate of half a day a month, but calling in sick can often mean missing more than one day of work, since they are often assigned to two- or three-day trips. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/nyregion/14pilot.html?hp *************** NTSB to hear from regulators on NY state air crash WASHINGTON (AP) - Fatigue. Cockpit distractions. Commuting long distances. Pilot training and hiring. The National Transportation Safety Board will be hearing from federal regulators about how they plan to address these safety issues and others to prevent accidents like the February crash of a commuter airliner in upstate New York that killed 50. Thursday is the last day of an unusual three-day hearing on safety issues that have arisen in the investigation into the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 on Feb. 12. The twin-engine turboprop was nearing Buffalo Niagara International Airport at night in wintry conditions when it suffered an aerodynamic stall, rocked back and forth, then plunged into a house below, killing all 49 aboard and a man on the ground. Issues the board was expected to raise with Federal Aviation Administration officials included whether better regulation is needed to prevent pilot fatigue, including possible restrictions on long-distance commuting by pilots who are based at airports hundreds or even thousands of miles from their home. The Flight 3407 co-pilot, Rebecca Shaw, lived near Seattle with her parents, but worked out of Newark, N.J., where the flight originated. The captain, Marvin Renslow, was commuting to Newark from his home near Tampa, Fla. The flight was operated for Continental by Colgan Air of Manassas, Va., a regional carrier. Pilot training and hiring are also at issue. Renslow failed several training check rides before being hired by Colgan but didn't disclose that information to the company. The accident was the worst U.S. air crash in more than seven years. **************** Colgan seeks to add CVR data to FOQA programme after crash US regional Colgan Air has proposed adding cockpit voice recorder (CVR) data to its flight operations quality assurance (FOQA) programme in the aftermath of a fatal Colgan Bombardier Q400 crash in Buffalo, New York that has turned attention to the crew's breech of sterile cockpit procedures. On day two of a three-day National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) inquiry that is also focusing on the pilots' training, scheduling, low pay and level of fatigue, Colgan VP of safety Daniel Morgan noted that the CVR proposal "is in its infancy". However, Colgan has already requested that its pilots union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), review the feasibility of using CVR recordings as part of an enhanced FOQA programme. In a recent letter to Mark Segaloff, chairman of the Colgan unit of ALPA, company VP flight operations Harry Mitchel wrote: "Today's FOQA data deals only with the FDR [flight data recorder] information. This is excellent data that provides powerful safety enhancements - but has certain limitations, only a visual representation. "If one could overlay the recording from the CVR to provide sound, not only for flight deck communications, but also for the numerous other sounds generated within the flight deck, SMS would immediately move to much higher level of safety. The power of data cannot be over emphasized." Sterile cockpit rules require pilots to refrain from non-essential activities during critical phases of flight. A transcript of the crashed Q400's CVR indicates that for a large portion of the flight, the pilots chatted casually about life on the line. During the last three minutes of the 12 February flight, with ice building up on the aircraft, the crew discussed their lack of prior experience during icy conditions, NTSB member Lorenda Ward pointed out. At 22:12:05 of the transcript, first officer Rebecca Shaw admitted: "I've never seen icing conditions. I've never de-iced. ... I've never experienced any of that. I don't want to have to experience that and make those kinds of calls. You know I'd've freaked out. I'd have, like, seen this much ice and thought, oh my gosh, we were going to crash." Shortly thereafter, the crew received a stick shaker stall warning. Captain Marvin Renslow reacted as if startled and failed to respond appropriately, according to Colgan executives. "That crew was not ready to respond to the stall warning," says Colgan manager of flight standards Dean Bandavanis. The aircraft stalled and went out of control on approach to Buffalo's Runway 23 and crashed into a house about 9km (5nm) from the airport at 22.17, killing all 49 on board and one person on the ground. During today's hearing, NTSB members repeatedly questioned whether the combination of low pay, long commutes and fatigue created a recipe for disaster. Crew training also continued to be in the spotlight, as captain Renslow had failed check rates in his records. Colgan executives present at the hearing - and in a statement released late today - say the carrier's FAA-approved training programme provides comprehensive training on the stall warning system during initial Q400 ground school as well as annual recurrent ground school. Seeking to clarify reports to the contrary, they say a pilot receives hands-on experience in the flight simulator on the proper response to stick shaker activation. "Captain Renslow and first officer Shaw did know what to do, had repeatedly demonstrated they knew what to do, but did not do it. We cannot speculate on why they did not use their training in dealing with the situation they faced," says Colgan. Colgan's Mitchel says that, not long after the accident, the carrier's standardization department "put a full blitz out" though its check airmen to reinforce pilots on sterile cockpit procedures. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** Colgan revises Q400 simulator training following crash US regional Colgan Air has begun offering pilots stick pusher simulator training for Bombardier Q400 aircraft following the fatal crash of a Colgan Q400 on 12 February. The crew's reaction to stick shaker stall warning has been a focus of the crash investigation after the aircraft stalled and went out of control during an instrument landing system approach to Buffalo Niagara International airport and crashed into a house about 9km (5nm) from the airport at 22.17, killing all 49 on board and one person on the ground. Stick pusher training was only discussed for Q400s during ground school prior to the crash, Colgan Q400 simulator instructor Paul Pryor said during a US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing today in Washington DC. The Colgan captain involved in the crash was given stick pusher training for Saab 340 aircraft, however. Pryor says a FAA-approved syllabus had been used for Colgan's new training procedure. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** AIA/Blakey To Senate: Accelerate NextGen AIA has just finished weighing in on the current hearings surrounding a next-generatuion Air Trafic Control System. 'The administration's commitment to recapitalize our nation's transportation infrastructure and FAA reauthorization is an opportunity to accelerate the Next Generation Air Transportation System,' AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey said Wednesday. "We should take advantage of our current economic situation to build the world's best air transportation system," Blakey said in testimony before the Senate Aviation Subcommittee. "NextGen will be a huge shot in the arm to the civil aviation sector and provide welcome relief to harried air travelers by reducing delays and shortening travel time." The three significant challenges ahead for accelerating NextGen are building infrastructure, publishing system-wide satellite-based procedures wherever possible and equipping aircraft to take advantage of NextGen benefits as soon as possible. Blakey stressed the importance of establishing a solid funding regime to support NextGen including long-term FAA authorization and increasing the annual contribution from the General Fund to the FAA. "Underlying the funding discussion is a basic question of whether the U.S. is committed to retaining its global leadership position in civil aviation or will cede the gold standard to the EU, Australia or Canada," said Blakey. FMI: www.aia-aerospace.org aero-news.net ************** Jet pilot ejects in Afghanistan The Harrier pilot was forced to eject at Kandahar airfield A British jet pilot has been injured after ejecting from his aircraft before it crashed in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the Harrier pilot was forced to eject while landing at Kandahar airfield. The RAF pilot is believed to have suffered minor injuries. The MoD said there was no suggestion the incident was caused by enemy action. The cause of the crash is not known but it is thought the Harrier's undercarriage may have failed to lower. The aircraft was badly damaged in the crash at about 1030 local time but no-one else was injured, the MoD spokesman said. He said: "Emergency services have been called to the scene and are assessing the damage." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8049470.stm ***************** Woman tried to open aircraft door The incident happened on an Air France flight to Edinburgh A suicidal passenger who tried to open an aeroplane door at 32,000ft could have caused a catastrophe, a court has heard. Ann Gilmour, 47, was spotted and restrained by cabin crew on the Air France flight from Paris to Edinburgh. At Edinburgh Sheriff Court, she pled guilty to recklessly and negligently endangering an aircraft and the people on board. Sentence was deferred for background reports. The court heard the flight left Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on the morning of 7 January with about 100 passengers, two pilots and two cabin crew on board. Fiscal Depute Alasdair MacLeod, prosecuting, said: "About 11.30am the aircraft was travelling at approximately 32,000 ft and was midway into the journey between Paris and Edinburgh. "At that time the cabin crew saw the accused standing near to the forward external door of the aircraft." Gilmour was staring at the door before she took hold of the door handle and turned it, Mr MacLeod said. She was pulled away by a female member of the cabin crew. It would have been possible for her to open the door as it was not locked. Mr MacLeod said a warning light had also appeared in the cockpit signalling that a door had been interfered with, and Captain Guillaume Charvieux contacted air traffic control when he heard what Gilmour had done. She was put in a window seat away from the doors and was not allowed to leave her seat for the rest of the flight. Similar incident Gilmour, from Glasgow, was crying when arrested on arrival at Edinburgh Airport, and told police officers she wanted to open the door so she could jump out and kill herself, and didn't care about the consequences for other passengers. Mr MacLeod said Captain Charvieux believed the cabin would have "explosively depressurized", causing a "catastrophe" as temperatures inside the cabin plunged to minus 50 degrees Celsius. Gilmour suffers from borderline personality disorder and was on medication for depression and anxiety at the time of the incident, but psychiatrists said she was sane and fit to plead in court. She has been remanded in custody at Cornton Vale and will be sentenced later this month. Gilmour's defence advocate Ronnie Renucci said a plane had landed safely after a similar incident in Canada last month, after a man opened a door and leapt out at 23,000 ft. Sheriff Isabella McColl asked for more information about whether the plane would have stayed in the air had the door been opened. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8047934.stm *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC