27 MAY 2009 _______________________________________ * News Focus: Indonesia optimistic EU flight ban will be lifted in June * Sheikh Saud opened aviation safety seminar * GPS Backup Issue Heating Up * International Air Transport Association says test flights prove biofuels work; "could have a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels" * Emergency Response Disaster Drill Held * ALPA Issues Remain in Forefront Following NTSB Hearing * DOT IG Criticizes ASAP *********************************** News Focus: Indonesia optimistic EU flight ban will be lifted in June May 26, 2009 2:09 pm JAKARTA, May 26 - Indonesia was optimistic that the European Union will lift its flight ban in June, 2009, thus enabling the national flight carriers to enter European air space again. Such optimism could be seen from the information obtained from the transportation ministry which was believed the European Union in June would lift the ban preventing Indonesian aircraft from entering European airspace and clouding Indonesia`s airline services since 2007. Following Indonesia`s bad aviation safety record as marked with many air accidents, the Commission in 2007 banned all Indonesian airlines from flying to European air space. Harry Bhakti, the ministry`s directorate general, said here on Friday, his side had received a letter on May 18 from the European Commission signaling a positive response in relation to the lifting of the flight ban. According to him, the letter was a reply to a long distance conversation between the ministry and the commission, regarding the findings of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), tempointeraktif.com, reported. The ministry stated that the six remaining requirements stipulated by the ICAO had been fulfilled. The ICAO, however, had yet to inspect first-hand three of the six points, covering the carrier`s operation and supervision, and the installation of flight safety equipment. "ICAO plans to conduct an inspection in Jakarta on June 15," Harry said. The three other points already approved by the ICAO cover licensing, the addition of inspectors and the establishment of a National Air Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT). "So, we have complied with their requests," Harry said. The results of Indonesia`s work to improve its air safety system will be presented to a European Commission Conference in Brussels, Belgium, late in June. In the meantime, an expert on international law, Said Nizar who is a lecture at the Hassanuddin University of Makassar said that it was time for Indonesia to breath fresh air of European air space into which Indonesian aircraft's are banned from entering. The EU flight ban on Indonesia had been several times extended since late 2007 and therefore the government should show serious attention to efforts to prevent air accidents from happening to civilian flights. A series of air accidents in the country was believed to be the reason for EU to extend its flight ban on Indonesian airlines, Nizar said. "We should make the necessary corrections and improvements to secure flight safety. The EU needs to be informed about this, that we are responsible for the improvement of flight safety and security," he said. Better communication and consultation were aimed at making the European Union know that Indonesia is serious in improving and maintaining its domestic flight safety and security. "The flight operators need to devote more attention to flight safety. Therefore the regulators should not be lax and permissive in this case, if there is a deviation that may risk flight safety," he said. "Drawing a lesson from many accidents in the past ten years regardless of the EU ban, we have to make all out efforts to improve transportation safety," Nizar said. Last November, a five expert member team of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) led by Frederico Grandini last November to audit and verify the condition of Indonesian airline companies including their regulators and operators predicted that the flight ban would likely be lifted at the end of 2007. In fact, the European Union (EU) prolonged its flight ban despite such improvement already made by the government of this largest archipelagic country. The result of their work as they noticed that improvements had been made in the skills of the pilots and crew members, maintenance and others, both hardware and software really made Indonesian Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal satisfied. The team, comprising Jean-Luis Ammeloot of EASA (Germany), Declan Fitzpatrick (EASA, Ireland), Dick Nederlof (EASA, the Netherlands), Annette Ruge (EASA, Germany) and Auke Tjeerd Sebastian van der Weide (EASA, Germany), was satisfied with the current condition of the Indonesian airline companies. Regarding the regulators (based on their explanations to the transportation minister), Minister Jusman said the team noticed that several things, especially regulations, still needed improvement, although not fundamentally. On the EU team`s findings that needed improvement by the regulators and operators, Jusman said they had yet to make a final decision as they were only a team handling technical matters, and no decision makers. Actually, the European Union had praised the steps taken by Indonesian government, but still awaiting approval from the 26 European Union member countries that the improvements made by Indonesia were permanent. The transportation minister said the most important thing was that he had expressed the Indonesian government's wish for the lifting of the flight ban on 51 Indonesian airline companies since July 6, 2007. Even the team had noticed such improvement Indonesia had made in flight safety, but the UE was still reluctant to lift its ban on all Indonesia airline companies. "Isn`t that strange?", Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry Teuku Faizasyah said. What was hard to receive in the past was that Indonesia had done everything to improve the fligt safety in relations to the operator and regulators in the country`s airlines, but the country still could not get the appropriate response. In fact, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had reached 60 percent in improving flight safety and therefore it was quite logical for Indonesia to expect better results and assessment from the EU. "We also regret such unilateral ban imposed by the EU before consulting it first with Indonesia. The judgment made by the EU has yet to satisfy Indonesia," Teuku said. With the European Union`s refusal to lift its flight ban on all Indonesian airlines, this largest archipelagic country has been internationally mocked again, Bachrul Hakim, an aviation observer said. "Indonesia has really been mocked. This is a setback because our country continues to be considered a marginal one incapable of securing its flight safety," he said when contacted by phone. With the positive signal on the lifting of the flight ban on Indonesia air carriers, Bachrul said Indonesia should uphold flight safety by reducing flight accidents. (PNA/Antara) DCT/fom http://balita.ph/2009/05/26/news-focus-indonesia-optimistic-eu-flight-ban-wi ll-be-lifted-in-june/ *********************************** Sheikh Saud opened aviation safety seminar Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE HH Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, recently opened the four- day 'State Safety Programme for Air Operations' organised by the United Nations World Food Programme in cooperation with UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and RAK Department of Civil Aviation at Hotel Hilton. In his inaugural address, Sheikh Saud said, 'The tremendous progress achieved by the UAE and the region in the civil aviation sector calls for sustained and collective focus on effective implementation of aviation safety initiatives'. Sheikh Saud lauded the United Nations World Food Programme and the GCAA for organising the seminar and said that Ras Al Khaimah was glad to host the event which would provide a platform for all stakeholders in the aviation sector to discuss issues and share expertise on enhancing aviation safety. Aviation experts and civil aviation authorities from across GCC and countries like South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and delegations from Italy and Canada are participating in the programme which will discuss global aviation safety and security issues and explore the future of humanitarian air operations. Sheikh Salem bin Sultan Al Qasimi, chairman, Department of RAK Civil Aviation, said that UAE, and particularly the GCAA, have always been at the forefront in providing support and trust to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in their efforts to enhance aviation safety and security. He added that the establishment of two centers- the Gulf Centre for Aviation Studies (GCAS) in the UAE and the Global Aviation Security Training Network, which serves as a regional institution for aviation security awareness, training and research, are crowning achievements which are testimony to the successful partnership between ICAO and the GCAA. Saif Al Suwaidi, director general of the UAE GCAA said, 'Aviation safety cannot be fully achieved just by having newly bought aircrafts and new runways. Safety in aviation is essentially a state of mind that must penetrate everyone and every section in the industry'. Suwaidi added that the country is committed to the full implementation of safety management systems across all service providers and in the GCAA. Amer Daoudi, director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Logistics Division, said, 'Increased attention to better aviation safety measures is a priority for the WFP which is operating in 82 countries and works in the most challenging conditions around the world as UN's frontline agency in the fight against global hunger. More than 100 aircraft, operated by registered carriers on behalf of WFP Aviation, transport in excess of 300,000 passengers and 200,000 tonnes of cargo every year for both WFP and other humanitarian organisations, flying over 80,000 hours. 'The growing emphasis and support shown by both government and commercial aviation leaders highlight their commitment in offering the highest safety standards across the humanitarian aviation community,' concluded Daoudi. http://www.securityworldhotel.com/me/news.asp?id=45267 *********************************** GPS Backup Issue Heating Up Robert Poole May 26, 2009 In an ironic coincidence, the same day in May that the Government Accountability Office testified about its new report (GAO-09-325) warning of potential gaps in coverage by the GPS satellite-based positioning system, the Obama administration confirmed that it planned to cancel the officially approved backup system for GPS. The proposed budget zeroes out the legacy Loran-C, which the Coast Guard has been upgrading for several years into enhanced-Loran (eLoran), approved in early 2008 as the official backup system. What had been an obscure inside-the-beltway debate over GPS backup suddenly began receiving national attention. The NextGen revamp of the ATC system depends critically on precise position and timing signals from the constellation of 24 GPS satellites. That's true of ADS-B, RNAV, RNP, and a number of other critical tools. Yet it's well-known that GPS is vulnerable to intentional and unintentional interference. Plus, as the GAO has now pointed out, because of delays in Air Force procurement and launch of its next generation of GPS satellites, there is a non-trivial risk that the number of functioning satellites could decline from the needed 24 to as few as 18 by 2017, then slowly build back to 24 by 2022. While that is a worst-case scenario, it is even more serious if there is no GPS backup in place. After I last wrote about this issue, I got some flak from airline pilot readers telling me they already have backup capability, provided by triply-redundant on-board inertial navigation systems. Moreover, the FAA maintains a network of ground-based distance-measuring equipment (DME) stations that can assist planes not equipped with inertial nav. That's true but irrelevant, for two reasons. First, the need for GPS backup extends far beyond aviation: it includes 911 emergency response location, cell phone timing, electronic financial transactions, freight logistics tracking systems, maritime navigation, and (oh, yes) national defense. And that's not counting numerous individual uses. Second, in terms of DME, that is one of the costly-to-maintain legacy systems that NextGen was supposed to permit phasing out; that's part of the business case for Next Gen. These points were all addressed in a 2007 study commissioned jointly by the Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security to review the case for eLoran as the principal GPS backup. The Institute for Defense Analysis formed an Independent Assessment Team (IAT) for this purpose. They reviewed all prior studies on GPS backup, each of which considered only a single user-group's needs (such as aviation). Their conclusion: "The IAT unanimously recommends that the U.S. Government complete the eLoran upgrade and commit to eLoran as the national backup to GPS for 20 years." (italics in original) That finding led to an announcement by the Department of Homeland Security on Feb. 7, 2008 stating that as of that date, "[DHS] will begin implementing an independent national positioning, navigation, and timing system that complements" GPS and that this system would be eLoran. But sometime between then and now, I'm told by a well-informed source, a group within the Office of Management & Budget, which has been aiming to de-fund Loran-C for many years, evidently persuaded their higher-ups to zero out Loran in the President's budget proposal, taking eLoran with it. Everyone with a stake in GPS's ongoing viability should be speaking out and lobbying to reverse this decision. The amount of money is trivial; IAT's worst-case estimate of the cost is the current Coast Guard $37 million/year plus another $20 million/year for five to eight years to complete all upgrades, add new transmitters, and jump-start deferred maintenance. These costs should be split between DOT and DHS. You should read the IAT report yourself, to be well-armed for this debate. Until very recently, it was not available, but a Freedom of Information Act request succeeded in springing it loose, and you can find it at www.loran.org. http://reason.org/news/show/1007651.html *********************************** International Air Transport Association says test flights prove biofuels work; "could have a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels" In Denmark, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) confirmed the intent of the aviation industry to address climate change. "Air transport is a global industry with a good track record and ambitious targets for environmental performance. But to achieve them, we need governments to take a global approach," said IATA CEO Giovanni Bisignani at the World Business Summit on Climate Change. Bisignani said that aviation's emissions will fall 8% this year, 6% from the recession and 2% is directly related to IATA's four-pillar strategy". Referring to biofuels, Bisinginai said that "Four successful test flights in the last year prove that biofuels work. For the first time aviation could have a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. " http://biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2009/05/26/international-air-transport-assoc iation-says-test-flights-prove-biofuels-work-could-have-a-sustainable-altern ative-to-fossil-fuels/trackback/ *********************************** EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISASTER DRILL HELD. Tuesday, 26 May 2009 20:11 pjiae26052009 Top of Form Bottom of Form Philipsburg:---A full-scale emergency response disaster exercise was held yesterday at the Princess Juliana International Airport involving the Airport and the Island Government Emergency response agencies. This emergency exercise drill is a requirement of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN Specialized Agency. ICAO is the global forum for civil aviation. It works to achieve its vision of safe, secure and sustainable development of civil aviation through cooperation amongst its member States. The objective of the exercise was to assess the level of preparedness and coordination between the Princess Juliana International Airport Operating Company and the Island Emergency agencies in response to a simulated aircraft, and exercise the mass causality plan. The goals were to monitor: 1. Response to alarm notification 2. Response of fire fighting and rescue units 3. Medical response 4. Response of the government agencies and PJIAE 5. Command and control 6. Crash site security 7. Primary communication 8. Victim and family care Besides the Emergency Response Teams, there were other Government Sectors and Departments who took part as observers of the emergency drill. After the drill, there was a debriefing session, where several evaluators provided their analysis of the execution of the emergency exercise. There were evaluators from Curacao, Bonaire, Aruba, Anguilla, and the French side, who each gave short comments on the exercise in the areas of Operations, Medical, Rescue & Fire, Police and Security and Civil Aviation. Both President of PJIAE Drs. Eugene Holiday and Fire Department Chief Winston Salomon extended a heartfelt thanks to the volunteers, participants, and personnel. http://www.smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-martin-news/2173-emergency-response-di saster-drill-held.html *********************************** ALPA Issues Remain in Forefront Following NTSB Hearing As reported last week, the recent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Public Hearing investigating the Colgan Air Flight 3407 accident brought to light a number of critical safety issues of long-standing interest to the Association. Among these are fatigue and flight/duty time concerns, scheduling practices, and general working conditions prevalent in the regional airline industry. Although the NTSB investigation continues and ALPA's party status precludes the Association from commenting, ALPA representatives continue to work with major media outlets around the country to highlight safety concerns. They are also reaching out to legislators. On May 20, MEC Chairman Capt. Mark Segaloff and Government and Legislative Affairs Coordinator F/O Tom Cassidy accompanied ALPA Government Affairs Director Brendan Kenny and Engineering and Air Safety Director Keith Hagy to a meeting with Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio). Boccieri, who serves on the Aviation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, queried ALPA representatives about training and hiring requirements, pay rates, and work rules at Colgan as well as throughout the regional sector of the industry. The Ohio representative expressed his appreciation for ALPA's time in educating him about the broad differences between major and regional airline environments. In addition to his meeting with ALPA, Rep. Boccieri sent a letter (http://boccieri.house.gov/2009/05/boccieri-demands-answers-on-february-plan e-crash-near-buffalo.shtml) to Colgan management last week, inquiring about the airline's current policies and practices in response to information that came out of the Colgan Flight 3407 NTSB hearing. Other members of Congress have expressed interest in issues raised by the NTSB and have discussed possible public hearings. http://public.alpa.org/portals/alpa/fastread/2009/jumpstories/5-22-09story3. htm *********************************** DOT IG Criticizes ASAP The Department of Transportation's Office of the Inspector General believes the Federal Aviation Administration has mishandled the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP), which allows pilots, flight attendants and mechanics to report safety violations in exchange for immunity from punishment. The OIG says the FAA is not realizing the full benefits of the ASAP. The inspector general's report results from a complaint made three years ago by a former FAA safety inspector who oversaw Continental Airlines. The inspector questioned why the FAA granted immunity to Continental pilots involved in a fatal accident in El Paso, TX. http://www.aviationtoday.com/categories/commercial/DOT-IG-Criticizes-ASAP_32 390.html ********************************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC