18 JUN 2009 _______________________________________ *Autopsy results suggest midair breakup of jet *Update on the Air France crash *Regulators Zero in on Risks of Airbus Sensors *Crash victims' families call for air safety upgrades *RAA forms safety advisory board to review Colgan crash factors *Senators doubt FAA's diligence for safety *Air France crash sparks black box debate *FAA Safety Alert Focuses On Tire Pressure *FAA Budget Request $15.9 Billion FY 2010 *India, France to jointly work on aviation safety issues *FAA starts review of Israeli progress on air safety **************************************** Autopsy results suggest midair breakup of jet Medical examiners have found fractures in the legs, hips, and arms of Air France crash victims. SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Autopsies have revealed fractures in the legs, hips, and arms of Air France disaster victims, injuries that - coupled with the large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic - strongly suggest the plane broke up in the air, experts said yesterday. With more than 400 bits of debris recovered, the top French investigator voiced optimism about determining what brought down Flight 447, but he also called the conditions - far from land in deep waters - "one of the worst situations ever known in an accident investigation." French investigators are beginning to form "an image that is progressively less fuzzy," Paul-Louis Arslanian, who runs the French air accident investigation agency BEA, said at a news conference outside Paris. A spokesman for Brazilian medical examiners said yesterday that fractures were found in autopsies on an undisclosed number of the 50 bodies recovered so far. The official spoke on the condition that he not be named, because of department rules. "Typically, if you see intact bodies and multiple fractures - arm, leg, hip fractures - it's a good indicator of a midflight breakup," said Frank Ciacco, a former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board forensic expert. "Especially if you're seeing large pieces of aircraft as well." The pattern of fractures was first reported by Brazil's O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, which cited unnamed investigators. It also reported that some victims were found with little or no clothing, and had no signs of burns. That lack of clothing could be significant, said Jack Casey, an aviation safety consultant in Washington and former accident investigator. "In an in-air breakup like we are supposing here, the clothes are just torn away." Casey also said multiple fractures were consistent with a midair breakup of the Airbus A330-200, which was cruising at about 34,500 feet, with 228 people aboard, when it went down May 31 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. "Getting ejected into that kind of windstream is like hitting a brick wall - even if they stay in their seats, it is a crushing effect," Casey said. "Most of them were long dead before they hit the water, would be my guess." When a jet crashes into water mostly intact - such as the Egypt Air plane that hit the Atlantic after taking off from New York in 1999 - debris and bodies are generally broken into small pieces, Ciacco said. "When you've had impact in the water, there is a lot more fragmentation of the bodies." Searchers from Brazil, France, the United States, and other countries are methodically scanning the surface and depths of the Atlantic for signs of the plane. Brazilian Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz said several body parts, as well as pieces of the plane and luggage, had been found by the French amphibian ship Mistral. He did not provide further details. The plane's flight-data and voice recorders are still missing. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090618_Autopsy_results_suggest_mid air_breakup_of_jet.html ************** Update on the Air France crash We haven't updated reports on the Air France crash lately, so let's do a recap of the unpleasant details: 1. Reports are giving evidence that the airplane broke up in flight rather than crashed intact in the ocean or exploded. A. The bodies recovered so far have no evidence of burns, an indication that there was no explosion. B. The bodies were not clothed, indicating that they were exposed to the rush of air during the descent. C. Their lungs had no water, indicating they were not alive when they went into the water. D. There was two trails of bodies "more than 50 miles apart," indicating that the airplane split apart in the air. http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/06/update-on-the-air-france -crash.html *************** Regulators Zero in on Risks of Airbus Sensors LE BOURGET, FRANCE — After the deadly crash of an Air France jet this month, Europe’s main air safety regulator is expected to decide by Friday whether to require all airlines to replace the air-speed sensors on Airbus A330 planes, a spokesman for the agency said Wednesday. Times Topics: Air France Flight 447If regulators issue the mandatory order, known as an airworthiness directive, it would signal that they believe that a series of speed-sensor malfunctions since 2007 involving several Airbus planes are a legitimate safety concern. Investigators say they still have no hard evidence that would explain why Air France Flight 447, an A330-200 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, crashed on June 1, killing all 228 people aboard. But they have been looking closely at whether inconsistent speed measurements could have played a role. “I would expect that toward the end of the week, we will have a pretty clear idea of whether we go down the A.D. route or not,” Daniel Höltgen, a spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency, said Wednesday, using an abbreviation for airworthiness directive. Asked whether such a directive was likely, Mr. Höltgen said, “It cannot be excluded.” His comments followed a briefing by French officials investigating the crash, at which they said they had recovered more than 400 pieces of debris from the plane but nothing yet that allows them to draw conclusions about the cause of the crash. A spokesman for Brazilian medical examiners told The Associated Press on Wednesday that autopsies on the bodies of victims recovered so far showed that they had multiple fractures of legs, hips and arms. And a forensic expert who once worked at the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Frank Ciacco, said those injuries could mean that the plane broke apart in air. Recovered large chunks of the plane are another clue, Mr. Ciacco said, explaining that bodies and debris would be severely fragmented if the jet crashed intact. Officials of the European agency, known as E.A.S.A., have been in regular discussions with Airbus and Air France since the accident, trying to determine the seriousness of the safety threat posed by a speed-sensor malfunction. Agency representatives are scheduled to meet again Thursday with Airbus representatives to discuss the matter. Maggie Bergsma, a spokeswoman for Airbus, declined to comment on the meeting with regulators. Any mandatory order by the agency to replace the speed sensors would automatically trigger similar orders by regulators in other countries, including the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. There are currently about 600 Airbus A330 jets in service, operated by 72 airlines. After Flight 447, many carriers, including Air France, have already opted to replace the speed sensors as a precaution. The speed-sensing system includes what is known as a Pitot tube, the part Airbus had recommended replacing on some of its planes. The tubes are vulnerable to icing in high-altitude storms, the type of weather the plane may have encountered four hours into the flight. “From the discussions we have had so far, it already seems clear that a simple technical replacement will not be sufficient in itself,” Mr. Höltgen said. “It would have to be accompanied by additional operational and possibly training measures so that pilots are prepared for the possibility of a failure of these systems. “The one lesson we can already draw from this is that incident reporting — at least in Europe, between the operators, manufacturers and the air safety authorities — needs to be improved.” Airbus has said that it issued a recommendation to operators of its smaller, A320 planes in 2007 to replace the speed sensors, made by the French company Thales, because better-performing sensors had become available. The company stressed that the recommendation was not because of any safety concerns. The recommendation was extended to the A330 family of jets in 2008 after pilots reported a series of cases in which icing of the sensors had caused them to malfunction. At that time, neither E.A.S.A. nor the U.S. agency considered the risks posed by Pitot tube icing to be significant enough to justify making replacement of the sensors mandatory. At the briefing Wednesday, Paul Louis Arslanian, who is directing the investigation, said searchers were working day and night to find the beacon that would indicate where in the ocean the voice and data recorders ended up. “Given the work that has been done and what we’ve got, we are getting a little closer to our goal,” Mr. Arslanian said. “It doesn’t mean I can guarantee more than I could a few days ago that we can recover the recorders or the data that are supposed to be in those recorders,” he added. “We are doing our best, and hopefully it will lead to good news as soon as possible.” So far, 50 bodies have been recovered from the sea, along with the debris, some of it just foam from the aircraft’s seats. The biggest item found in the northward wreckage drift was the tail of the aircraft, numbered 170 on a map of the ocean on which the investigating agency is pinpointing every find. Olivier Ferrente, who is leading the team looking into the crash, said the search zone had been narrowed considerably from the original area that centered on the aircraft’s last known coordinates — 2.98 degrees north, 30.59 degrees west. He declined to specify the size of the search zone, however. The area has been divided into a grid with intervals of 10 nautical miles to ensure that it is thoroughly searched, Mr. Ferrente said. Mr. Arslanian said: “If we limit our search too much, we risk being overoptimistic and missing it; if we search too widely, we risk running out of time.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/world/europe/18iht-plane.html?ref=global-h ome *************** Crash victims' families call for air safety upgrades By Alan Levin, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — Families of victims in February's regional airline crash near Buffalo urged Congress Wednesday to order safety improvements at the nation's smaller carriers. Several family members, including one who testified during a Senate Aviation Subcommittee hearing on regional airline safety, said actions promised this week at a summit of federal regulators, airlines and unions are mostly voluntary and don't go far enough to ensure improvements. "Unfortunately, meetings of this magnitude had been done before, resulting in little change," testified Scott Maurer, whose daughter Lorin, 30, died in the crash. "To break down the bureaucratic logjam, the families of Flight 3407 have been forced to call for Congress to act." Maurer called previous attempts to upgrade safety on regional airlines "woefully inadequate." Regional airlines fly under the name of larger carriers but pay pilots less and, in some cases, have less sophisticated safety programs. They have come under scrutiny since a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing last month into the crash of a turboprop near Buffalo that killed 50 people Feb. 12. The Colgan Air flight crashed after a pilot pulled it into a steep climb. The NTSB has raised questions about pilot training, fatigue and qualifications. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Randy Babbitt has said he is troubled by what he has learned about regional airlines, and he pushed for action in a one-day summit Monday. The FAA, industry and unions agreed to several voluntary improvements, such as studying how to upgrade training and pushing smaller airlines to adopt safety monitoring programs used at large airlines. Babbitt also vowed to minimize pilot fatigue by rewriting decades-old rules about how long pilots can fly per day. Family members said they welcomed the involvement of Babbitt and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who discussed safety issues with the group by phone Tuesday. They said, however, that improvements must be mandatory, not voluntary. "The standards are too low," said Susan Bourque, whose sister, Beverly Eckert, died on the Buffalo flight. The Regional Airline Association, the Air Transport Association, which represents large carriers, and the Air Line Pilots Association have said they welcome efforts to improve safety. But the groups have clashed on such issues as limiting how long pilots can work. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-06-17-pilots_N.htm *************** RAA forms safety advisory board to review Colgan crash factors The Regional Airline Association (RAA) has embarked on a new safety initiative with the formation of a new safety advisory board as US Congressional hearings on regional aviation safety continue in the aftermath of the fatal Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 crash. The RAA says it will form a task force comprised of safety directors and operations directors from its 31 member carriers to review current safety procedures and any accident contributing factors identified by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). RAA will also commission a study on the impact of fatigue and other human factors on pilot performance and create a fatigue awareness management program for its member airlines. "There is a lot of new fatigue science," RAA president Roger Cohen said today during a subcommittee hearing of the Senate commerce, science and transportation committee. It was the second Senate hearing on the Q400 crash and regional airline safety in two weeks. Senator Amy Klobuchar appears to prefer more immediate action regarding current fatigue rules versus conducting another study. There already is a lot of knowledge about the impact of sleep deprivation on job performance, she says. Klobuchar adds that while she is not opposed to more research, she is pleased that FAA administrator Randy Babbitt has said he would like to introduce new fatigue rules in coming months. As fatigue was one subject of the NTSB investigation of the Colgan crash - both the captain and first officer involved in the crash commuted to work from out of state - the RAA highlighted the possibility of airlines conducting random fatigue tests similar to the required random drug and alcohol testing of pilots. In addition, the trade group suggest Congress examine commuting, "including the possibility of limiting commuting time prior to beginning a work assignment," Cohen says in his written testimony. Commuting limitations may face opposition from labour groups. "We have to take a close look at the system that has created this," says Capt John Prater, president of the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA), explaining that commuting is sometimes the result of airlines closing and opening domiciles on a regular basis. Other RAA recommendations to Congress include that FAA maintain a single, integrated database of pilot records to improve the pilot hiring and training process and that the required records review period be extended from five years to 10 years. One current advisory circular suggests that carriers ask a job applicant to sign a consent form to grant airlines access to the prospective hire's entire airman certification file, including notices of disapproval for flight checks for certificates and ratings. However, the review of FAA records is not mandatory and the Pilot Records Improvement Act (PRIA) of 1996 only requires any company hiring a pilot for air transportation to request and receive records from employers from the past five years. Prater says PRIA can be improved upon as pilot history and performance records are necessary "but don't look at that as the entire story. We're constantly going through training." The captain involved in the Colgan crash had three FAA certificate disapprovals involving flight checks conducted before his employment with Colgan but he disclosed only one on his Colgan job application. He was also hired before the FAA issued the current records advisory circular. As has been suggested by Colgan since the crash, RAA has proposed using cockpit voice recordings (CVRs) for more than accident investigation tools. "If there is a tool out there that can be used to help prevent accidents, and we are not even touching it, that is a real tragedy," Cohen says. CVR review is currently limited to accident investigations and ALPA has expressed reservations about extending CVR use. "We're talking Band-Aids here. We need to look at the system," Prater says. Prater's and Cohen's remarks come as Senator Byron Dorgan says he would like to hold a safety hearing with representatives from regional airlines as no individual carrier participated in today's event or last week's Senate hearing. Colgan vice president of safety and regulatory compliance Dan Morgan did speak at last week's House aviation subcommittee hearing. The hearings follow a 12 February Colgan accident in which a turboprop stalled and went out of control on approach to Buffalo, New York. The aircraft crashed into a house about 9km (5nm) from the airport, killing all 49 on board and one person on the ground. Cockpit discipline, pilot records, training, fatigue and low pilot salaries have been among the targets of the Congressional hearings. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************* Senators doubt FAA's diligence for safety Washington (AP) —- The nation's top aviation regulator faced another fiery round of questioning Thursday from lawmakers worried that his agency may be quicker to fix problems of public relations than those of public safety. The Federal Aviation Administration's cozy regulatory climate with airlines led to the suppression of whistle-blower complaints against Southwest Airlines that, once uncovered, led to stepped-up inspection efforts of all carriers' maintenance records and hundreds of planes being grounded in recent weeks. "We need an FAA that actually fixes problems as they are found rather than one that rushes into a public relations campaign to assure everyone that there isn't a problem," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), during the fourth hearing here this month focused on aviation safety. The agency, under Acting FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell, last month took the rare step of ordering the audit of maintenance records at all domestic airlines, after reports of missed safety inspections at Southwest. The Dallas-based airline was hit with a record $10.2 million fine for continuing to fly dozens of Boeing 737s, which carried an estimated 145,000 passengers, that hadn't been inspected for cracks in their fuselages. Southwest has said it will appeal the penalty. "When I first heard of his plan, I questioned why the agency needed to double-check its work," said Murray, chairwoman of the Senate subcommittee on transportation, housing and urban development. "The taxpayers and this subcommittee paid for full compliance the first time." Sturgell said he sympathized with the hundreds of thousands of air travelers inconvenienced last week alone by the stepped-up inspection work, and apologized for his agency's role in causing the situation. Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III on Thursday repeated his findings about the inspection office responsible for Southwest Airlines having "developed an overly collaborative relationship" with the carrier. "The balance tipped too heavily" from oversight to collaboration, Scovel said. The FAA announced a new reporting system this month designed to make it easier for inspectors to voice concerns and said it was strengthening ethics policies to thwart potential conflicts of interest. Sturgell also said the government will be meeting with Boeing Co. and other aircraft makers to improve compliance when maintenance safety orders are issued. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2008/04/18/airsafety0418.ht ml **************** Air France crash sparks black box debate PARIS, June 18 (Reuters) - While search teams scour the Atlantic ocean for the black boxes of Air France flight AF447 before their signals die out, aviation experts are considering satellite data streaming to collect vital flight data in future. An airliner's black box -- which is made up of a flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder -- is designed to withstand a crash and emit a signal for about 30 days afterwards. If it is not found by then, the data is unlikely to be recovered. Many military aircraft already use data streaming, sending flight information real-time via satellite to ground stations. But the massive bandwidth and sophisticated infrastructure needed to manage and process data from tens of thousands of commercial flights per day could make it prohibitively expensive. "There have been studies on this for years. There are arguments both for and against, and also there are costs," Paul-Louis Arslanian, France's chief air disaster investigator said, after reporting that the search was progressing, but hampered by difficult search conditions. "Data streaming is currently technologically possible, but technologically impractical," Dan Elwell, Vice President Civil Aviation of the U.S.-based Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) industry group, told Reuters at the Paris Air Show. "There are opportunities there to improve the data stream and how we get it on and off the aircraft," said Bob Smith, Vice President for Advanced Technology at Honeywell, which made the black box that was on the Air France aircraft. Bruce Coffey, President of the Aviation Recorders division of L-3 Communications -- the world's largest supplier of crash-survivable recording units -- told Reuters the use of data streaming in conjunction with traditional recording units could provide a "belt and suspenders" approach. However, only one of L-3's black boxes has ever been lost after a crash -- from the American Airlines flight that ploughed into the World Trade Center on September 11 2001. CRUCIAL INFORMATION Richard Hayden, President of Canada's Aeromechanical Services Ltd, thinks he has an answer to the question of cost. The company's automated flight information recording system compresses data, allowing it to send 10 times more from an aircraft in the same bandwidth than with a standard satellite communication, dramatically cutting the cost to the operator. Hayden said the system can be programmed to start transmitting data non-stop as soon as there's a problem on board, and that this could have sent crucial information about the June 1 Air France crash that killed all 228 people on board. "Today we have a situation where there's a possibility, if not a probability, that the FDR won't be recovered. All we have left is a very small set of messages," Hayden said, referring to the automated maintenance messages the A330-200 sent in its final moments, charting problems in all onboard systems. Data streaming may be able to supplement black boxes, but not replace them, L-3's Coffey said. "If you're not able to recover the black boxes, there are going to be a lot of questions that remain unanswered, that should be answered." But industry specialists want guarantees that the highly sensitive data -- in particular the cockpit conversations -- will be properly protected, and pilots' privacy preserved. "There is a huge sensitivity among pilots at the thought of every utterance being recorded and transmitted to some faraway place," said AIA's Elwell. http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLH122558 *************** FAA Safety Alert Focuses On Tire Pressure Basic Item May Have Caused A Fatal Crash While this particular Safety Alert For Operators stemmed from a fatal accident involving a Learjet Model 60, it's good advice for us all. And it's more critical than improving gas mileage. This SAFO emphasizes the necessity for operators of all aircraft, and especially the Learjet Model 60, to maintain the correct tire pressure. This is done by checking cold tire pressure at the intervals recommended by the manufacturer. On September 19 of last year, a Learjet Model 60 departing the Columbia South Carolina Airport overran the runway when the crew attempted to reject the takeoff. The two crewmembers and two of the four passengers were fatally injured, the other two passengers suffered serious injuries. The aircraft was destroyed by extensive post-crash fire. The initial investigation revealed tire debris and portions of the airplane’s components on the runway. It is possible that low tire pressure could have led to a tire failure. The tires on the Lear Model 60 are designed to carry heavy loads at high speeds. Problems caused by incorrect tire pressure can lead to catastrophic failure of the tire(s). Over inflation of a tire can cause uneven tread wear, reduced traction, make the tread more susceptible to cutting, and can increase the stress on aircraft wheels. Under inflation of a tire can cause uneven tire wear and greatly increases stress and flex heating in the tire, which shortens tire life and can lead to tire blowouts. It is imperative pilots understand the dangers of improperly inflated tires. Pressure checks of tires are most meaningful at ambient temperature when tires have been at rest for at least two hours since their last use. When tire pressure is checked with a gauge, the gauge must be calibrated. The FAA recommends all pilots become familiar with this SAFO, and be sure to check tire pressure as recommended. In other words, don't just "kick the tires and light the fires." FMI: www.faa.gov aero-news.net ************** FAA Budget Request $15.9 Billion FY 2010 Babbitt Testimony Before House Transportation Subcommittee FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt testified Tuesday before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, requesting nearly $16 billion for the agency next fiscal year. In his first congressional testimony as Administrator, Babbitt told the committee, "Because aviation safety is my primary duty and I do not take that charge lightly: let me start by saying that this is a budget that enables the FAA to pursue our paramount mission — advancing operational safety throughout the National Airspace System." That being said, I am aware that you don't have to turn too many pages in the newspaper to see that we find ourselves in complicated financial times. So I also want to stress that this is a fiscally responsible request that will help us deliver on all of our performance goals." Of the $15.9 billion dollar request, $7.3 billion is for Air Traffic Control, and $1.2 billion for "aviation safety," Babbitt said. There is also a healthy appropriation for commercialization of space. He also talked about the promise of NextGen navigation. "The equation is simple: run the system safely and look to the future through NextGen and commercial space investment. You'll be pleased to know that the budget funds the hiring of additional air traffic controllers, aviation safety staff, and NextGen staff as well." In the budget request, NextGen transformational programs, such as ADS-B, System Wide Information Management , Data Communications, and NAS Voice Switch are funded at $372 million. Approximately $392 million is provided for NextGen demonstrations, system development, and "enabling" activities. The budget also requests $3.5 billion for safety projects at the nation's airports, including runway safety area improvements, runway incursion reduction, aviation safety management, and improving infrastructure conditions. FMI: www.faa.gov aero-news.net *************** India, France to jointly work on aviation safety issues New Delhi (PTI): India and France on Wednesday decided that air safety regulators of both countries will work together on civil aviation safety issues in a bid to standardise regulations and practices. This was decided at the meeting that Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had with French Transport Minister Dominique Brussereau in Paris on the sidelines of the ongoing airshow there. The French Minister assured Patel that he would take up the issue of "discriminatory treatment" meted out to Indian nationals in transit at the Charles de Gaulle Airport by the Interior Ministry, an official spokesperson said. The two governments decided to work closely on air safety programme with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and its French counterpart DGAC coordinating on issues relating to civil aviation practices, she said. France has also agreed to be a partner country in India Aviation Airshow to be held in March 2010 at Hyderabad. Patel has gone to Paris to attend the airshow and met several top officials of major aviation companies, including Airbus, Eurocopter, Bombardier, Augusta Westland, Rolls Royce and Air France, with all of them expressing willingness in partnerships in different ventures and to invest in India. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200906171923.htm *************** FAA starts review of Israeli progress on air safety The US Federal Aviation Administration downgraded Israel's air safety rating last year. A team from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun the first stage of the audit of Israel's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), with a view to restoring Israel to its highest air safety rating. At the end of 2008, the FAA lowered Israel's flight safety rating from Category 1 to Category 2, because of safety deficiencies discovered in the standard of control of civil aviation in Israel. Following the downgrade, CAA director-general Giora Romm set up an administration to coordinate all activity directed towards restoring Israel to Category 1. Yesterday, CAA staff made a first presentation to the US team of progress in fixing the deficiencies, in accordance with a work program agreed between the CAA and FAA. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/DocView.asp?did=1000459333&fid=1725 **************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC