16 JUL 2009 _______________________________________ *Air disasters raises concerns on safety *Hazy details obscure circumstances of Caspian Tu-154 crash *Russian investigators to assist Caspian Tu-154 crash inquiry *2 black boxes from Iranian plane crash recovered *Black Boxes From Iranian Air Crash Found *Iran airline crash: What’s the Russian jet’s safety record? *Southwest Inspects Its Jets After Hole Forces Landing *NTSB: Boeing 737 Designed To Limit 'Tear' Damage *Inquiry into Southwest Airlines jet's hole may hinge on rule that carrier previously violated *Civilian Helicopter Reported Shot Down In Afghanistan *Plane lands safely after malfunction *France says it's allowing other countries to investigate crash *Indonesia works on getting remaining domestic carriers off EU's aviation blacklist *Tupolev Airliner in Iran Crash Trails 737, MD-80 Safety Records *Europe bans “unsafe” airlines from airspace of 27 member countries *Yemen airlines escapes EU aviation safety blacklist *Airbags for airliners: What will they cost you? *US government watchdog to study pilot fatigue *American CEO Arpey cites economic struggles with 757s *Crew dispute forces United flight diversion *US Senate proposes carve outs in foreign inspection requirements ***************************************** Air disasters raises concerns on safety A 10-YEAR LOOK This year, there have been 11 major accidents around the world involving commercial jets. Annual totals: 1998/ 22 1999/ 24 2000/ 17 2001/ 13 2002/ 19 2003/ 13 2004/ 13 2005/ 16 2006/ 11 2007/ 17 2008/ 19 Sources: Flight Safety Foundation, Ascend By Alan Levin, USA TODAY Commercial jet crashes around the world are climbing and a spate of recent air disasters threatens to push accident totals to levels not seen since the 1990s. The number of major crashes during the past five years is higher than recent five-year periods, a disturbing trend to aviation safety advocates who have seen steady and dramatic improvements in recent decades. "If we continue at this pace, we'll be turning the clock back 10 years on safety," said Bill Voss, president of the non-profit Flight Safety Foundation, which advocates around the world. "This ain't looking so good." This year, the foundation reports, there have been 11 major crashes worldwide, including Wednesday's crash in Iran that killed 168 people. In June alone, an Air France jet carrying 228 people disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean and a Yemenia Airways plane crashed while attempting to land in the Comoros Islands, killing all but one of the 153 people on board. If that rate continues, there could be 20 or more crashes this year, the most since 24 jets crashed in 1999. The foundation defines a major crash as one in which the plane was destroyed, multiple fatalities occurred or one person died and the jet suffered significant damage. Both 2007 and 2008, with 17 and 19 major crashes respectively, had totals higher than their preceding years. Voss said the trend toward fewer accidents had been going on for so long he could not find a five-year span in which total crashes increased. The trend holds true even when gradual increases in jet traffic is considered. Even with the recent uptick, flying on a commercial jet remains one of the safest forms of transportation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Arnold Barnett calculates that the odds of a passenger dying on a large jet in the U.S. are about one in 20 million. With plane crashes so rare, experts caution not to jump to conclusions when a handful occur within a month or two. Voss and others agree, however, that the upward trend has been going on long enough to raise concerns. There is no obvious connection between the recent crashes or a common cause, Voss said. Still, the increase is discouraging because new technology has succeeded in dramatically reducing certain types of crashes, such as midair collisions. Michael Barr, an instructor at the University of Southern California's Aviation Safety & Security Program, said he is concerned that the steadily decreasing accident rates of recent decades had bred a false sense of security. "The longer you go without accidents, the more complacent you get," Barr said. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-07-15-worldcrashes_N.htm *************** Hazy details obscure circumstances of Caspian Tu-154 crash Recovery teams in Iran have reportedly retrieved flight recorders from the wreckage of the Caspian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 which crashed near the city of Qazvin yesterday. There is still little confirmed information about the circumstances of the accident, which killed 168 occupants. A passenger manifest released by Caspian Airlines shows 156 passengers and 12 crew members were on board. Unconfirmed witness reports suggest the aircraft - which was operating the Tehran-Yerevan route as flight 7908 - was on fire, with its undercarriage lowered, before it struck open land and disintegrated. Senior Armenian civil aviation authority figures have been quoted as stating the crew was attempting an emergency landing after fire broke out in one of its three Soloviev D-30KU engines. But Iranian television, citing crisis management officials, says that the last contact with the pilot, three minutes before the accident, revealed no abnormality. The authority is said to have confirmed a departure time of 12:02 - although it is unclear whether this refers to Yerevan or Tehran local time, between which there is a 30min difference. It refers to a planned entry into Armenian airspace of 12:52, but says Iranian communications were received in Armenia just beforehand reporting that the aircraft was no longer on radar. There has been no formal confirmation of the airframe identity but the Tu-154 is widely believed to be the 22-year old EP-CPG, which was formerly operated by Afghanistan's flag-carrier Ariana. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news **************** Russian investigators to assist Caspian Tu-154 crash inquiry Russian investigators have sent a delegation to Iran to assist the investigation into today's loss of a Caspian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154M. No survivors have been found from the aircraft which crashed in the north of the country shortly after departing Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport for Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) has formed a group of specialists, headed by Georgi Yachmenev, to participate in the inquiry. Images from the scene of the accident, near Qazvin, indicate that the jet completely disintegrated. Only small fragments of wreckage remain and the impact apparently carved a deep elongated crater. Latest information from Iran's Government-controlled media says that 153 passengers and 15 crew were on board the aircraft. Authorities have yet to confirm the identity of the airframe involved. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ***************** 2 black boxes from Iranian plane crash recovered TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) – Investigators have recovered two of the three black boxes belonging to a Russian-made jetliner that crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran, Iran's state radio reported Thursday. All 168 people aboard the Caspian Airlines aircraft bound for Yerevan, Armenia, on Wednesday were killed. The radio's report quoted chief investigator Ahmad Majidi as saying one of the two recovered boxes was damaged. It said the boxes — the plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders — would likely be sent to the aircraft's Russian manufacturers for analysis. The search for the third black box was continuing, Majidi said. Bodies of the victims would be taken to Tehran later Thursday for identification, he added. Most of the passengers were Iranians, many of them from Iran's large ethnic Armenian community, as well as 11 members of Iran's national youth judo team. Five Armenian citizens were among the dead, Armenia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, along with two Georgians, including a staffer from the Caucasus nation's embassy in Yerevan. Armenia on Thursday announced a one-day national state of mourning to mark the death of its citizens in the crash, according to the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass. Reporting from Yerevan, the agency said flags would fly at half-mast on government buildings and Armenian embassies abroad. Local radio and TV have canceled entertainment programs in a show of respect, it said. The crash was the latest in a string of air disasters in recent years that have highlighted Iran's difficulties in maintaining its aging fleet of planes. Iranian airlines, including state-run ones, are chronically strapped for cash, and maintenance has suffered, experts say. U.S. sanctions prevent Iran from updating their 30-year-old American aircraft and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes. The country has come to rely on Russian aircraft, many of them Soviet-era planes that are harder to get parts for since the Soviet Union's fall. Witnesses said the plane's tail was on fire before it went down, plowing a deep, long trench into agricultural fields outside the village of Jannat Abad, and the aircraft was blasted to bits. Flaming wreckage, body parts and personal items were strewn over a 200-yard (meter) area. Firefighters put out blazes from the crash, but smoke smoldered from the pit for hours after as emergency workers searched for data recorders and other clues to the cause. Ali Akbar Hashemi, a 23-year-old, was laying gas pipes in a house by the field when he saw the stricken jet overhead. He said the plane was circling in the air, flames shooting from its tail section. "Then, I saw the plane crashing nose-down. It hit the ground causing a big explosion. The impact shook the ground like an earthquake," Hashemi told The Associated Press by phone. The Tu-154M jet had taken off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport. It crashed at 11:30 am, about 16 minutes after takeoff, outside Jannat Abad, near the city of Qazvin, around 75 miles northwest of Tehran, civil aviation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh told state media. At Yerevan's airport, Tina Karapetian, 45, sobbed and said she had been waiting for her sister and the sister's 6- and 11-year-old sons, who were due on the flight. "What will I do without them?" she cried before collapsing to the floor. The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Serob Karapetian, the chief of Yerevan airport's aviation security service, said the plane may have attempted an emergency landing, but reports that it caught fire in the air were "only one version." He did not elaborate. A police officer told Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency that several witnesses reported seeing the plane's tail on fire. The Tupolev's three engines are in its tail section. The flames there could indicate "an uncontained engine failure," said Patrick Smith, a pilot and the air travel and safety writer for Salon.com. But he said it's too early to tell. The crash's root cause could be elsewhere, and the flames a sign of a compressor stall caused when the plane went out of control, interrupting airflow through the engine, Smith said. The crash is Iran's worst since February 2003, when a Russian-made Ilyushin 76 carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people aboard. That crash was a sign of how maintenance problems have also affected Iran's military. Caspian Airlines is an Iranian-Russian private joint venture founded in 1993, with a fleet of Tu-154s built between 1989 and 1993. Russia produced 900 Tu-154s until production was halted in 1996. ***** Black Boxes From Iranian Air Crash Found BEIRUT, Lebanon — Investigators said Thursday they had found two of the three flight data recorders that were on board the Iranian passenger plane that crashed and exploded shortly after takeoff from Tehran on Wednesday. All 168 people aboard the Russian-built airliner were killed, Iran’s state news media said. The plane, leased by Tehran-based Caspian Airlines, had been bound for the Armenian capital of Yerevan. Ahmad Majidi, an official with the Iranian transportation ministry, told Press TV in Tehran on Thursday that the so-called black boxes had been damaged in the crash and Iranian experts were trying to retrieve the data from them. He said the black boxes, which record the crew’s conversations and the plane’s speed, altitude and heading, might have to be sent to Russia for repair. The crash is Iran’s worst air disaster in six years, and it underscored the country’s vulnerability to aviation disasters. Iran has been unable to adequately maintain its aging fleet of American-built aircraft for 30 years because of an embargo after the Islamic Revolution, and has increasingly relied on aircraft from Russian manufacturers, which have their own troubled safety history. The plane that crashed Wednesday, a Tupolev 154, was carrying 153 passengers, a crew of 15, and was loaded with fuel, Iranian news services said. It went down in a farm field near Qazvin, a city about 75 miles from Tehran, said the Qazvin police chief, Hussein Behzadpour, in comments to Iran’s English-language Press TV. Witnesses quoted by Press TV and other Iranian news agencies said that the tail and at least one of the tail engines were on fire as the plane plummeted, and that it exploded in flames on impact, creating a crater 30 feet deep and scattering body parts and wreckage. Television images from the scene showed smoking ruins and emergency workers rummaging through the wreckage. The spokesman for the Aviation Organization in Iran, Reza Jafarzadeh, said the plane, Flight 7908, crashed 16 minutes after departing from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran, according to Press TV. Sirous Saberi, deputy governor of Qazvin Province, said the plane had a technical problem shortly after takeoff and was trying to return to the airport in Tehran, according to the Mehr News Agency in Iran. Six Armenian citizens and two Georgian citizens were on the flight, and the rest were probably Iranians, The Associated Press reported, citing the deputy chairman of Armenia’s civil aviation authority in Yerevan. The passengers included eight members of Iran’s national youth judo team, two coaches and a delegation chief, en route to train with the Armenian judo team and attend a competition in Hungary in August, the semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency said. The leader of the disaster management center in Iran’s Health Ministry said that all aboard had been confirmed dead, state news agencies said. It was the first fatal accident for Caspian Airlines, which was founded in 1992. The airline operates a fleet of six TU-154 airliners, all dating from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. The aircraft that crashed Wednesday was built in 1986 and was leased to Caspian in 1998. It is believed to be owned by VARZ-400, a Russian aircraft maintenance and overhauling company, according to Ascend, an aviation industry consulting company based in London. The crash was Iran’s deadliest since February 2003, when a Russian-built Ilyushin plane carrying 289 Iranian soldiers slammed into a mountain in southeast Iran moments before it was to land. Many of Iran’s deadliest air disasters have involved its fleet of Russian planes designed and built during Soviet times. In 2006, a TU-154 operated by Iran Airtour burst into flames upon landing in Tehran, killing 29 of the 148 people aboard. Airtour, affiliated with Iran’s national carrier, also suffered a fatal accident in 2002, when a Tupolev jet plowed into a mountainside, killing all 119 aboard. Since entering service in 1971, the TU-154 has been in 54 crashes, resulting in the deaths of 2,602 passengers and 258 crew members, according to Ascend. In 2005, a Lockheed C-130 operated by the Iranian military rammed into a housing complex shortly after takeoff from Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, killing 115 people, including 21 on the ground. Caspian Airlines passed an operational safety audit in 2007 by the International Air Transport Association. The airline is scheduled to seek renewal of its safety certification by the end of November. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/world/middleeast/17plane.html ***************** Iran airline crash: What’s the Russian jet’s safety record? Ten percent of the 40 crashes by Russian-built Tupolev Tu-154s have been in Iran. But Russian experts say its a reliable jet. MOSCOW – The Iranian plane that crashed near Tehran Wednesday, reportedly killing all 168 people on board, was an aging, Russian-built Tupolev Tu-154. The ubiquitous Soviet-era passenger jet remains the chief workhorse of airlines throughout the former USSR. Almost 40 of the machines (out of some 1,000 produced) have been lost in fatal accidents since it was introduced in the early 1970’s, a record that Russian experts insist is equal to that of comparable Western aircraft, such as the Boeing 727 and 737. Four crashes in Iran But four of those Tu-154 accidents - a disproportionate 10 percent of them - have occurred in Iran over the past 16 years, killing almost 450 people and leading some experts to scratch their heads for an explanation. “They have a long experience with the Tu-154 in Iran,” says Oleg Panteleyev, editor of the Russian-language online aviation newspaper Aviaport.ru. “They have dozens of these aircraft in service, along with lots of highly qualified specialists and local servicing centers.” Though Iran has trouble purchasing new airliners due to international sanctions, Mr. Panteleyev says there is no difficulty in obtaining spare parts for the old Tupolev planes, which are not subject to any restrictions. Three of the Iranian accidents have occurred with planes flown by Iran Air Tours, a mainly domestic charter operator that lists ten Tu-154’s in its inventory. In 1993, one of the airline’s Tu-154’s collided with an Iranian airforce Sukhoi fighter jet, killing all 132 aboard. In 2002, another crashed into an Iranian mountainside in adverse weather conditions, with 118 fatalities. And three years ago, another of its Tu-154’s burst into flames after landing at Mashad airport, killing 28 passengers. Wednesday’s accident involved a Tu-154M - the plane’s latest variant - belonging to Caspian Airlines, a joint Russian-Iranian company, that was en route to the Armenian capital of Yerevan. The flight crashed shortly after takeoff, according to the Fars news agency. Witnesses told the Iranian news agency the plane was on fire when it hit the ground. Experts say it’s too soon to pinpoint the cause of that crash. No blacklisted aircraft Last month, the crash of a Yemenia Airways Airbus jet prompted questions of a double-standard because the 19-year old aircraft was blacklisted from French airspace due to unspecified safety “deficiencies” discovered by inspectors. Yesterday, the European Union released its annual aviation blacklist of some 200 commercial airlines. They are forbidden to land in Europe because of safety deficiencies. Neither Iran Air Tours or Caspian Airlines were on the list. Russian experts argue that the diverse causes of past accidents in Iran fits a larger pattern of Tu-154 crashes, which they say tend to come down to pilot error, poor maintenance, or just plain freak occurrences. In the past few years, several Tu-154’s flown by post-Soviet airlines have gone down due to a tragic bouquet of unique reasons, including terrorist attack, a bizarre air traffic mistake that led to mid-air collision over Germany, and an accidental shootdown by Ukrainian air defenses. These are old aircraft “The Tu-154 has been in service a long time, and is considered to be a really safe plane,” says Roman Gusarov, editor of Avia.ru, an industry information service. “Of course it’s old, and it doesn’t meet modern requirements for noise pollution, fuel consumption, and ecological standards,” which bars it from flying to most Western destinations nowadays. “But still about half of the commercial passenger planes in use in Russia are Tu-154’s, and they’ll probably be in use for quite awhile to come”. It might just come down to age. Most of the Tu-154’s that remain in service in the former USSR, and in dozens of airlines of developing countries around the world such as Iran, were produced in Soviet times. “The majority of these planes are 30 to 40 years old, and are working at the limits of their potential,” says Mr. Gusarov. “Everything has a lifespan.” http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/07/15/iran-airline-crash-whats-the-russian-jets-safety-record/ ***** Status: Preliminary Date: 15 JUL 2009 Time: 11:33 Type: Tupolev 154M Operator: Caspian Airlines Registration: EP-CPG C/n / msn: 87A-748 First flight: 1987 Engines: 3 Soloviev D-30KU-154-II Crew: Fatalities: 15 / Occupants: 15 Passengers: Fatalities: 153 / Occupants: 153 Total: Fatalities: 168 / Occupants: 168 Airplane damage: Destroyed Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: 12 km (7.5 mls) S of Qazvin (Iran) Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: International Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Tehran-Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKA/OIIE), Iran Destination airport: Yerevan Airport (EVN/UDYZ), Armenia Flightnumber: 7908 Narrative: A Caspian Airlines Tupolev 154M passenger plane was destroyed when it struck terrain near Qazvin, 16 minutes after takeoff. The airplane was en route from Tehran-Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKA), Iran to Yerevan Airport (EVN), Armenia. The airplane exploded on impact and disintegrated, creating a 10 m deep crater with small pieces of debris scattered around the impact area. The registration of the airplane is reported as EP-CPG in the Iranian aviation scene, but not yet confirmed by officials. **************** Southwest Inspects Its Jets After Hole Forces Landing By CHRISTINE NEGRONI Times Topics: Southwest Airlines CompanyThe spokeswoman, Marilee McInnis, said mechanics had inspected all of the airline’s 737-300 models, one-third of its all-737 fleet, inside and out overnight and had found “no concerns.” The airline operated normally on Tuesday morning, she said. Michael Cunningham, a passenger on Flight 2294 on Monday, said he was trying to nap about 30 minutes into the flight from Nashville to Baltimore when he heard a loud roar and looked up to see the hole, near an overhead storage bin not far from his head. Passengers remained calm as oxygen masks dropped, he said. “Everybody put their mask on,” Mr. Cunningham said Tuesday on the “Today” show on NBC. “A couple of people were asking other passengers and the flight crew: ‘Is the bag working? Is the mask working?’ ” The National Transportation Safety Board has sent an investigator to the airport in Charleston, W.Va., where the 15-year-old plane landed, to inspect it and determine what caused the failure in the fuselage at cruising altitude. Representatives from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration are helping in the investigation. None of the 131 people on the plane were injured, and passengers were placed on a later flight to Baltimore on Monday night. The event could have been catastrophic, and an F.A.A. spokesman, Les Dorr, said Southwest was being prudent to examine its airliners immediately. More sophisticated analysis will have to wait for details to emerge from the investigation, he said. “In the absence of any identified problem in the top of the airplane, that’s all you can do,” Mr. Dorr said. In March, the agency ordered Southwest to pay a $7.5 million fine for a series of safety violations in which its jets were flying with undiagnosed fatigue cracks. The investigation against the airline, based in Texas, also uncovered efforts by managers at the F.A.A. to cover up reports of maintenance problems at Southwest. “It was a serious infraction — the average person would have a hard time believing it’s O.K. to have a crack anytime in an airplane,” said Tom Brantley, national president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, the union representing F.A.A. inspectors. Two inspectors filed whistleblower complaints against the F.A.A. claiming they were threatened by superiors after warning that Southwest was flying planes too long between inspections. In March 2008, Southwest Airlines was found to have flown 46 airplanes a total of nearly 60,000 flights without required inspections for fuselage cracks. Small fractures were found on several jetliners Southwest operates. Investigators are likely to scrutinize the airline’s actions in relation to Monday’s emergency, according to several people familiar with Southwest’s operations. “It’s the same airplane type we’re talking about, and clearly a damaged section of the fuselage that blew out for some reason, so that has to be one’s primary inside theory,” said a Congressional staff member who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly. Ms. McInnis said it was too early to speculate about what had happened. “Once we know, we can determine what if any further actions need to be taken,” she said. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/us/15plane.html **************** NTSB: Boeing 737 Designed To Limit 'Tear' Damage Airliner That Depressurized 'Performed As Designed' The Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 which depressurized after a hole developed in its roof was designed to limit damage in such an accident, according to the NTSB. USA Today reports that NTSB Spokesman spokesman Peter Knudson said Federal regulations require jets to be able to experience a tear in the fuselage without the damage spreading. "This safety feature performed as designed," Knudson said. The flight, which originated in Nashville, TN was enroute to Baltimore when a 14-by-17-inch rectangle of the airplane's skin tore away, leaving a hole open to the sky near the rear of the aircraft. Passengers reported hearing a loud "Pop" about 30 minutes into the flight, and then the oxygen masks dropped from their compartments above the seats. The pilot made an emergency landing in West Virginia. Southwest Airlines spokesperson Beth Harbin said the airline inspected all of its Boeing 737-300 aircraft after Monday's incident, and no other problems were discovered. The plane that depressurized was delivered to Southwest in 1994. FMI: www.ntsb.gov aero-news.net *************** Inquiry into Southwest Airlines jet's hole may hinge on rule that carrier previously violated WASHINGTON – The investigation into what caused part of a Southwest Airlines jet to peel open this week may turn on whether the airline's maintenance complied with a 2004 regulation the carrier violated two years ago, according to federal investigators. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident, said Wednesday that the regulation applied to the Boeing 737 that developed a foot-wide hole as it flew over West Virginia on Monday. But the Federal Aviation Administration said the regulation didn't cover the part of the plane that failed, and Boeing said Southwest had satisfied the necessary inspections with a design improvement. "It looks like that would apply," Peter Knudson, an NTSB spokesman, said Wednesday. "We are going to look at the maintenance records and the maintenance practices, and we are going to want to know if all of these [regulations] were followed." The NTSB cautioned it doesn't know what caused the problem with Flight 2294, which made an emergency landing in Charleston, W.Va., after the rupture occurred. The hole that opened was 17 inches by 14 inches and caused a loss of cabin pressurization. Speculation about the cause has focused on metal fatigue, which starts when small cracks form on a plane's fuselage over time. The cracks are most likely to start in areas where two major skin panels are joined. In 2008, Southwest was fined after it was found to have violated a federal regulation by continuing to fly 46 jets that needed to be inspected for structural damage. Six jets were found to have cracks in them. The FAA proposed a $10.2 million fine for the violation. The carrier settled the case this year for $7.5 million. The regulation directs carriers flying certain Boeing models to conduct regular inspections of the "crown," or top, of the plane, where sections of the metal skin can be altered to be lighter in order to save weight, but could be more vulnerable to failure, according to aviation maintenance experts. "There are some old 737s in the air, not necessarily Southwest's, and you can see where they have boilerplate, where an additional piece of sheet metal is on top of the fuselage," said John Goglia, a former NTSB board member and maintenance expert. "That is to reinforce the skin because there was a problem." FAA officials said that a Boeing service bulletin, which formed the basis of the regulation, directed airlines to focus their inspections on areas where two major skin panels are joined, and didn't specify the need to check the long panels on top of the aircraft. "There are no applicable [regulations] or service bulletins that call for skin inspection in this area," said Sandy Angers, a Boeing spokeswoman. The NTSB also may look at whether sections of metal were damaged during repainting, a problem the FAA alerted airlines to in 2003. Some airline mechanics, not at Southwest, were found to have used knives and other sharp tools to scrape paint off the body of jets. Marilee McInnis, a Southwest spokeswoman, said Wednesday that regular inspections of the jet, which was placed in service in 1994, revealed no problems. She declined to comment about whether any jets were damaged during repainting, citing the NTSB's ongoing investigation. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-swaaccident_16bus.ART.State.Edition1.3cfb54b.html **************** Civilian Helicopter Reported Shot Down In Afghanistan Aircraft Was Carrying Humanitarian Aid An Mi-26 helicopter owned by the Moldovan air charter company Pecotox-Airi was shot down in the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand, an area known for its opium poppy cultivation and heavy fighting with the Taliban. 6 Ukranian crew members were reportedly killed in the incident. A 6-year-old child on the ground was also killed, according to Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Helmand governor. The Associated Press reports that the Modavian government says the helicopter was carrying humanitarian aid when it was shot down, however a Taliban website posted that it had fired on and brough down a helicopter carrying 37 British soldiers, a claim denied by both British and Modavian officials. The aircraft was shot down about a mile from a British military base. Thousands of Marines are conducting intense operations in the Sangin district of the province, their biggest offensive since the Taliban were removed from power in 2001. FMI: www.dod.mil aero-news.net **************** Plane lands safely after malfunction No one was injured after a Learjet landed safely at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport after malfunctioning landing gear forced the jet to land just after takeoff, according to the Eau Claire Fire Department. The Fire Department was notified after the plane's pilot reported instrumentation indicated the landing gear was not down and locked. The jet was heading to Lewis University Airport in Romeoville, Ill., when a warning light came on. The pilot decided to circle the airport to burn off fuel before returning to the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport. On the final circle the pilot indicated the instrumentation indicated the landing gear was down and secure, and the plane landed safely. http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-news_local.asp?id=BKJS4OCCL0Q **************** France says it's allowing other countries to investigate crash PARIS — France said Wednesday that it was not barring other countries from the investigation into the crash of a Yemeni airplane off the Comoros Islands. Yemen says its requests to join French investigators have not been answered and hundreds of Yemenia Airways employees protested on Tuesday to demand that their government be allowed to work with the French. “The Comoros authorities are in charge of the investigation and search” efforts, Frederic Desagneaux, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in an online briefing Wednesday. The island nation’s interior minister, meanwhile, said identifying the recovered bodies could take a month. Yemenia Airways flight 626 crashed June 30 on its way from San’a, Yemen, to Moroni, Comoros, killing all but one of the 153 people on board. The flight originated in Paris. Protesters in France have accused Yemenia Airways of using good planes on European routes and worse ones on the leg from Yemen to the Comoros. Strong ocean currents are believed to have carried debris from the plane and some bodies over 500 miles (800 kilometres) northwest to the shores of Tanzania. Yemen said investigators have found wreckage near the coasts of Tanzania and Kenya and said at least 20 dead bodies have been recovered. Yemenia officials say the bodies are in French custody and have not been handled by Yemeni authorities. Comoros’ Interior and Information Minister Bourhane Hamidou said it could take several weeks to identify the bodies found off the coast of Tanzania and check they are from the Yemenia crash. The minister added that investigators were waiting for French aquatic robots to help in the search for the plane’s black boxes, because they are believed to be too deep for divers to reach. The robots are expected to be in Comoros between July 17 and July 21, Hamidou said. The minister said that France, Comoros and Yemen have reduced their teams of divers and other rescue personnel because the search now requires specialized equipment and does not need as many people. http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/CanadaWorld/2009/07/15/10146616.html *************** Indonesia works on getting remaining domestic carriers off EU's aviation blacklist JAKARTA : The European Union has removed four Indonesian carriers - including Garuda Airlines - from its aviation blacklist, after meeting international safety standards. Indonesia is now working towards having the flight ban lifted for its remaining carriers. But they will first need to be certified, in accordance with a new and more stringent aviation law. The flight ban was implemented in 2007, following a series of fatal accidents involving Indonesian airlines. Over the past 12 months, aviation experts from the EU worked with their Indonesian counterparts to overcome more than 100 safety problems identified by the International Civil Aviation Authority. Early this year, the Indonesian government passed a new and stringent aviation law. "The EU Air Safety Committee has a trust in the new aviation law that the minister has passed some 7 months ago, and in the capacities of the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) to oversee the implementation of the new law on Indonesian airlines. So, it is a critical principal of trust that will allow the other airlines to be considered for lifting," said Julian Wilson, European Commission Ambassador to Indonesia. Indonesian authorities are now working towards getting the rest of its domestic airlines taken off the list. "We will, in stages, fully meet the schedule to get the AOC (air operator's certificate) for all our airlines under the new ruling," said Jusman Syafii Djamal, Indonesia's Transport Minister. The two-year ban dented Indonesia's tourism industry, as the EU warned its citizens against taking Indonesian carriers. And it looks like clear skies ahead for Indonesian carriers. It's believed that Garuda has started negotiations on opening new routes to several European destinations. And Amsterdam might just be the first to welcome the Indonesian national carrier. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/442560/1/.html **************** Tupolev Airliner in Iran Crash Trails 737, MD-80 Safety Records July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Tupolev Tu-154 airliners like the one that crashed in Iran yesterday, killing 168 people, are Soviet-era Russian workhorses whose safety record falls short of Western designs. The Tu-154, which first flew in 1968, has a fatal accident every 431,200 flights, according to London-based aviation consultant Ascend. Boeing Co.’s MD-80 has a fatality every 1.5 million flights and the 737, the world’s best-selling passenger plane, every 2.68 million, Ascend says. “The 154 is by a wide margin the most successful jet ever built by a communist economic system,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president at Teal Group, a Fairfax, Virginia-based consultant. “It was created at the height of the old Soviet Union’s ability to invent equipment that at least approximated the achievements of the West. The real problem is regulatory oversight in many of the regions where it’s used. Corruption and neglect almost guarantee trouble.” The latest crash was the eighth fatal incident involving a Tu-154 in 10 years, including one act of sabotage. The crash took the total number of losses for the type to 54 since it entered flight service in 1971, resulting in 2,860 deaths, according to Ascend data. The 23-year-old plane operated by Caspian Airlines came down 16 minutes after takeoff from Tehran en route to Armenia. The carrier refused to comment on the likely cause of the crash before an examination of the plane’s flight-data recorders, the Russian Interfax news service said. Sixth Fatal Crash The disaster was the sixth fatal accident involving a passenger flight this year and the first involving an eastern- built airliner. The crashes have claimed more than 600 lives. Of the 829 Tu-154s that have seen service with airlines, 208 -- one quarter -- are still in operation, according to Ascend. The three-engine model can carry 164 to 180 passengers, the Web site for Moscow-based Tupolev says. Caspian Airlines had five of the aircraft and hadn’t previously had a fatal incident. It had leased the crashed plane since 1998, Ascend said. While Tu-154 production collapsed with the end of the Soviet Union, planes continued to be constructed in small numbers and including one in 2007, said Paul Hayes, director of safety at Ascend, which tracks aviation data for clients including insurers. The fatal accident figures are a five-year average in Ascend’s Airline Loss Rate studies. Oil Prices Spare parts are still in good supply because of the Tu- 154’s high production run and oil prices have been the main reason for reduced operations in recent years, said Boris Rybak, head of Infomost Aviation Consulting Group in Moscow. Russian airlines began to ground the aircraft last year, leaving the Middle East, China and Africa as the biggest operators, he said. “Almost all Tu-154s still in service are with former Soviet and Third World airlines, particularly in closed or semi- closed markets that don’t like doing business with the West or can’t afford anything better,” said Teal’s Aboulafia. Iran’s aviation safety record is affected by maintenance issues, high-altitude airports and a hot climate that takes a toll on aircraft and flying conditions. In September 2006, an Iran Air Tours Tu-154 caught fire and crashed on landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad, killing about 30 people. Yesterday’s incident brings the number who have died in air disasters in the country to 1,610, according to safety data cited by the Mehr news agency. A U.S. trade ban on Iran means the country can’t buy spare parts for its aging fleet of American aircraft, purchased before the 1979 Islamic revolution, except on the secondary market. Russia and Iran signed an accord in 2008 for sales of 100 Tupolev Tu-204 and Tu-214 planes over a 10-year period. ‘Not Quite Comparable’ The Tu-154 is a generally reliable model, said David Learmount, a former U.K. Royal Air Force pilot and air-safety editor at Flight International magazine. “Its safety record is good but not quite comparable with that of a modern Airbus or Boeing,” Learmount said. “The pilot’s situational awareness is not up to what a modern cockpit can give you.” Learmount said it’s too early to speculate on whether the model’s age or characteristics played any part in yesterday’s disaster. The plane appeared to have come down about half-way into its climb, he said, with the nature of the impact suggesting a loss of control. Debris was scattered across an area stretching up to 15 kilometers (9 miles), Mehr reported, without citing anyone. “It would certainly help Iran to have access to modern Airbus and Boeing aircraft,” Learmount said. “With each successive generation of airplanes, safety has improved.” While Iran can buy modern planes on the second-hand market, “it’s very awkward to operate like that because you then need service backup and parts,” Learmount said. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=afwX0a3ATjSM **************** Europe bans “unsafe” airlines from airspace of 27 member countries With the rise in air tragedies in recent months, the eleventh update of the European Union’s list of airlines banned in the EU skies was timely yesterday. "We cannot afford any compromises in air safety, we have to remain vigilant; citizens have the right to fly safely every where in the world" said European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani and concluded that "we will not accept that airlines fly at different standards when they operate inside and outside Europe – it is high time that the international community rethinks its safety policy; those airlines which are unsafe should not be allowed to fly anywhere.” Calling for an international list, Tajani added, “This list has greatly contributed to making Europe's skies safer. We should gradually move towards an international strategy based on cooperation between countries around the world.” NEW LIST The EU’s list has 9 individual carriers whose operations are fully banned in the European Union – Air Koryo from the Democratic People Republic of Korea (DPRK), Air West from Sudan, Ariana Afghan Airlines from Afghanistan, Siem reap Airways International from Cambodia, Silverback Cargo Freighters from Rwanda, Motor Sich, Ukraine Cargo Airways, Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines and Volare from Ukraine; all carriers (246) from 12 countries - Angola, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, (with the exception of three carriers which operate under restrictions and conditions), Indonesia, Kazakhstan (with the exception of one carrier which operates under restrictions and conditions), the Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Zambia; 7 air carriers which are allowed to operate under restrictions and conditions - TAAG Angola Airlines, Air Astana from Kazakhstan, Gabon Airlines, Afrijet and SN2AG from Gabon, Air Bangladesh and Air Service Comores. The new list replaces the previous one and can already be consulted on the Commission’s website http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air-ban/pdf/list_en.pdf ADVANTAGES The EU in its statement highlighted the importance of the list saying the advantage of this latest update of the list are twofold: “the list acts a strong incentive to remedy safety deficiencies; withdrawal from the list is indeed possible, when the parties concerned put effectively in place sound corrective action to comply with all relevant safety standards; the concept of a Community list is increasingly proving to serve as a preventive rather than punitive instrument for safeguarding aviation safety. This is illustrated by the numerous instances where the Community has successfully addressed potential safety threats well ahead of resorting to the drastic measure of imposing restrictions.” FLYING OFF THE LIST There are also some airlines that managed to escape the wrath of the EU list as the EU recognized “significant improvements and accomplishments of the Indonesian civil aviation authority” in the area of safety. The EU statement clearing the earlier ban since July 2007 on four air carriers – Garuda Indonesia, Airfast Indonesia, Mandala Airlines and Premiair gave the reason as “because their authority ensures that they respect the international safety standards.” Moreover, the Thai carrier One Two Go has been removed from the list as its certificate has been revoked by the Thai aviation authorities. Progress made by the civil aviation authority of Angola and the air carrier TAAG Angola Airlines to resolve progressively any safety deficiencies are recognized. ROLE OF ICAO The European Commission stressed the positive effect of its blacklist with airlines getting strong incentives to improve their safety defects. Noting that the carriers which were taken off the list today, now meet standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The EU highlighted the importance of the role of ICAO saying ICAO plays a major role in the EU's blacklist policy. Kazakh airlines came to attention following a recent ICAO investigation that found serious problems. In 2006, the European Union banned 92 airlines, the vast majority of them from Africa. Declared unsafe according to international standards, they are not permitted to land at European airports. The EU created the blacklist in response to several fatal airline crashes in Greece, Italy, and Egypt in 2004 and 2005 and has since updated the list. http://www.examiner.com/x-16024-Europe-Policy-Examiner~y2009m7d15-Europe-bans-unsafe-airlines-from-airspace-of-27-member-countries **************** Yemen airlines escapes EU aviation safety blacklist BRUSSELS (AFP) — Yemen airline Yemenia was not included on a new European Union aviation blacklist released Tuesday, despite safety concerns raised since 152 people were killed when one of its jets crashed last month. "Work is still ongoing with Yemenia, with meetings planned, to understand what the situation is," said a transport spokesman at the European Commission, which manages the list. Safety deficiencies saw all airlines from Zambia and Kazakhstan added to the list, which contains some 200 airlines or firms which are either banned from operating in Europe or only allowed under restrictions. Only Kazakh air carrier Air Astana, whose operations into EU nations are frozen under strict restrictions, avoided a complete ban. EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said last week that an airline should only be placed on the list in response to concrete safety lapses and not on the basis of a single accident. "It's not one accident that determines whether or not an airline is on the blacklist," he said. "If it has to do with the weather, you can't put the sky on the blacklist." The commission was investigating safety standards at Yemenia Airways last year and almost put the company on blacklist then, according to an EU legal document. The document said that unspecified "deficiencies" had been noted during inspections on the company's aircraft in France, Germany and Italy. It showed that the commission had insisted that Yemenia provide an "action plan" to both it and the 27 EU member states so that they could assess whether the company had addressed safety concerns. "The commission considers that the corrective actions submitted by Yemenia must be fully implemented and closely monitored," said the text, a legal document from July 24, 2008 updating the blacklist. When asked about what had happened over the last year, a commission transport spokesman said that the company had complied with its obligations, without elaborating. The document also showed that Airbus and Yemenia had sealed a contract under which the plane manufacturer would train the company's pilots and engineers. Under the deal, Airbus was to monitor maintenance and engineering work as well as the operations of Yemenia's aircraft. The ill-fated Yemenia flight left Paris airport on June 29, when an Airbus A330-200 aircraft took off for the Yemeni capital Sanaa via Marseille. In Yemen, the passengers changed to an Airbus A310 and departed for the Comoros via Djibouti, but the twin engine aircraft crashed into rough waters in the Indian Ocean off the Comoros islands. A 12-year-old girl was the only survivor. The EU's blacklist is regularly updated. Most of the airlines targeted operate out of Africa, mainly in Angola, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Swaziland. Some of them do not operate in Europe but their inclusion is bad for business, according to industry experts. **************** Airbags for airliners: What will they cost you? ATLANTA—You may never need them at 35,000 feet, but you'll be glad they're around if you do. Defibrillators, medical kits and life vests are a few examples of the safety equipment the government requires airlines to put on passenger jets. Of course, each item comes with a cost—from hundreds to thousands of dollars to install and maintain. The equipment alone doesn't mean higher ticket prices, though some airlines say the cost of such equipment is factored into their total operating expenses and would be a factor in overall pricing strategy. The cost of fuel and market forces like competition from other carriers are key drivers of how airlines price their tickets and fees. The issue comes into play for consumers this fall when some airlines put another expensive safety device on new planes to comply with a federal rule related to how sturdy a seat must be—airbags. As of Oct. 27, all new commercial aircraft must have seats that are able to withstand a crash of 16 times the force of gravity. That's less force than in a 30 mph head-on car collision, according to Phoenix-based AmSafe Inc., the company that makes an airbag that fits inside the webbing of the seat belts it already provides in most U.S. airplanes. The rule will come into effect at a time when airlines are struggling financially, and adding fees left and right to cover the cost of things like carrying passengers' bags and taking their reservations over the phone. For airlines, the alternative to the airbag devices, which cost roughly $1,250 apiece, could be to remove some rows of seats, which means less revenue. Shawn David, director of fleet engineering for US Airways, sees an "advantage of doing it with airbags." Because the FAA rule has been on airlines' radar screens for years, most of today's new aircraft are already 16G compliant and sturdier than the previous 9G standard. The Air Transport Association, a trade group for U.S. airlines, said in 2003 that its members had installed more than 370,000 16G-compatible passenger seats in their airplanes in anticipation of the rule. But the rule also says that seats have to be designed so that a person won't be injured in a 16G crash by hitting the seat in front or a piece of the aircraft interior. Premium lie-flat seats and seats in exit rows, in the front of planes and near bulkheads and lavatories are hard to certify, making the airbag one solution. In a survivable impact, the airbag inflates in a fraction of a second, moving away from the passenger to protect the head and torso. "It's a no-brainer economic decision for the airlines," said AmSafe President Bill Hagan, who developed the airplane airbag and joined the company after spending years developing airbag technology at General Motors Corp. "The acceptance rate of this in the marketplace has been very high." AmSafe says its patented seat belt airbag is used on roughly 25,000 seats on more than 30 airlines worldwide, including US Airways Group Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp. Hagan said at least one major airline—he wouldn't say which—is considering putting the devices on all its seats on all its planes, even though the FAA's 16G rule is not retroactive to older planes. There are costs involved beyond the installation of the device. The battery it uses must have a diagnostic check every 4,000 flight hours, or roughly once a year. The airbag itself must be replaced after about 14 years. AirTran spokesman Christopher White said "operating costs generally are one of several factors in pricing." The ATA, in documents filed while the FAA rule was being discussed, addressed what it considered to be the "high cost of removing seats ... or adding new technology, like seat belt airbags." Southwest Airlines Co. won't be adding airbags, but to comply with the rule's head-impact criteria, it is adding a mechanism to its seats so that the back will safely release forward on impact. "We have not been forced to increase our ticket price in direct correlation to safety requirements," spokeswoman Brandy King said. "Of course, safety is part of our, or any, airline's core and is accounted for in our overall operating costs." American spokesman Tim Wagner said his airline put automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs, on all its aircraft in 1998, several years before the government mandated airlines put the devices and enhanced emergency medical kits on planes over a certain weight. The AEDs, like the seat belt airbags, aren't cheap. Philips, the maker of the defibrillators on American's planes, says the devices run $1,200 to $3,000 apiece. Spokesman Ian Race says ongoing maintenance costs include training, and replenishment of batteries (up to $250) and pads ($40). http://www.mercurynews.com/travel/ci_12843291 **************** US government watchdog to study pilot fatigue The US Office of Inspector General (OIG) will audit FAA regulations and domestic airline policies regarding crew rest and fatigue after a preliminary investigation into a fatal Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 crash raised concerns about pilot fatigue and training. Mainline and regional policies will be subject to the review, Lou Dixon, assistant inspector general for aviation and special programme audits, says in memorandum. Dixon notes that fatigue has been of concern to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for 19 years and has been associated with 250 carrier fatalities during the past 16 years, according to the NTSB. Objectives of the audit include: identifying how the location of pilot domicile and duty stations factor into current regulations and policies; determining how rest and fatigue regulations and policies are enforced; and assessing how FAA and operators update their policies and procedures to "address changing conditions within the aviation industry". The investigation will begin the week of 27 July and comes at the request of the US Senate commerce, science, and transportation committee and the Senate aviation subcommittee. On 12 February, a Colgan Q400 stalled and went out of control on approach to Buffalo, New York. The aircraft crashed into a house about 9km (5nm) from the airport. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** American CEO Arpey cites economic struggles with 757s American Airlines is giving serious consideration to the role its Boeing 757s will play in its long-term fleet plan as the carrier's chief executive says it faces challenges with the aircraft's economics. Carrier Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey today during an earning's call opted not to address a query about using the 737-900ER as a 757 replacement, although the carrier has mentioned some interest in the newer Boeing model in the past. But Arpey did highlight cost issues associated with its 757s. "It is fair to say we are struggling with the economics of the 757 fleet in light of some of the contractual issues we have with suppliers," he explains. Currently, American operates 124 757-200s. "We're trying to figure out the best plan forward in terms of our narrowbody footprint under our long-term fleet plan and trying to figure out exactly where the 757 is going to land," says Arpey. In June of this year American added eight aircraft to its overall 737-800 order, bringing total deliveries from 2009 to 2011 to 84 aircraft. The carrier says financing is in place for all those deliveries after it completed a $520 million public offering of enhanced equipment trust certificates during the second quarter. Arpey is giving no indication about the outcome of the 757 evaluation. "I don't know where we'll end up." However, taking another opportunity to highlight the challenges of the 757 Arpey says: "The cost per seat mile of that aircraft is troubling to us right now." Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ***************** Crew dispute forces United flight diversion United Airlines Flight 842 en route to Chicago O'Hare International airport from Sao Paulo was diverted to Miami on 14 July due to a dispute between the cabin and cockpit crew. The captain felt the matter needed to be resolved on the ground, an FAA spokesman says. The aircraft landed without incident in Miami and was on the ground for less than hour before departing to Chicago, he adds. An airline spokeswoman says, "The pilot chose to divert the flight due to a crew issue". Exact details of the incident have not been disclosed and United is investigating the matter to make sure that the decision to divert the aircraft was appropriate, the FAA spokesman says. At the same time, FAA is investigating the incident to ensure that all diversion procedures were followed, he says. Representatives for the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) chapters representing United flight attendants and pilots declined to comment as they did not have details about the incident. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ***************** US Senate proposes carve outs in foreign inspection requirements Members of the US Senate have offered a slightly different version of a controversial requirement covering inspection of foreign repair stations in its proposed FAA Reauthorization, allowing countries with safety bilaterals in place with the US to rely on local authorities to meet twice-yearly inspection requirements. The Senate Commerce and Transportation Committee introduced its version of FAA Reauthorization on 14 July that upholds a condition in the bill introduced by the House earlier this year requiring the twice-yearly inspections. However, language in the Senate version differs, stating the inspections are required "unless there is a bilateral aviation safety agreement in place that allows for comparable inspection by local authorities". EASA and FAA signed a safety bilateral in June 2008, and the agreement will officially take effect once diplomatic letters are exchanged between the two agencies. EASA has threatened retaliatory action if the House version of the inspection requirements appears in the final reauthorization bill passed by both chambers. The more than 1200 EASA-approved Part 145 repair stations operating in the US face huge cost hikes if the House version of FAA Reauthorization is finalized. More than half those stations employ 10-49 technicians. Previous estimates from the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) show fees for stations in that size range of €11,000 ($14,100) for an intial approval, and annually recurring surveillance fee of €8,000. Currently, initial approvals cost €1,500, with annual renewal of €750. Earlier this year, a spokesman for House aviation subcommittee chairman Jerry Costello said European Commission representatives contacted the committee directly about the inspection provision, and a mandate for drug and alcohol testing for individuals performing safety-sensitive functions at the foreign repair stations. At that time Costello's spokesman said the Congressman "was listening to a variety of positions". Costello's office was not immediately available to discuss the Senate reauthorization language. The full Senate could vote on its version of Reauthorization in August. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ***************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC