27 JUL 2009 _______________________________________ *Southwest plane makes emergency landing *Iran suspends license of Aria Air *Excessive speed cited as Aria Il-62 crash inquiry begins *Arson Investigators Probe Airliner Fire *Qantas Jet loses Pressurization *Jumbo jet badly damaged in maintenance mistake **************************************** Southwest plane makes emergency landing (CNN) - A Southwest Airlines plane on Sunday made an emergency landing in Long Island, New York after a report of possible smoke in the cabin. Southwest Airlines Flight 693 left Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut at 7:09 a.m., en route to Orlando, Florida, when a flight attendant reported having trouble breathing from the smell of smoke in the cabin, according to Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Mainz. The plane was re-routed to the airport at Islip, Long Island and landed at 8:02 a.m. Mainz said the 131 passengers and five crew deplaned in Long Island, and were boarding another aircraft to resume their flight to Orlando. Mainz was not aware of any other passengers or personnel who had breathing issues. **************** Iran suspends license of Aria Air The Iranian Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) suspended the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) of Aria Air following a fatal accident on July 24. The license is suspended until the accident investigation is completed. (IRIB) (aviation-safety.net) ***************** Excessive speed cited as Aria Il-62 crash inquiry begins Investigators in Iran are considering whether high landing speed contributed to yesterday's fatal Ilyushin Il-62M accident in Mashhad. Flight recorders from the Aria Air aircraft have been retrieved, according to the Mashhad Airport operating agency. The Il-62 had been operating a service from Tehran. Iranian Civil Aviation Organisation suggests the aircraft was travelling at high speed during the landing - unconfirmed reports claim 200kt - but adds that the reason remains unclear. The aircraft apparently overran the runway by about 1km (3,300ft), striking a wall and coming to rest in rough scrubland, close to agricultural terrain. About 40ft of its forward fuselage - including the cockpit and several rows of the passenger cabin - was completely destroyed. Surrounding debris includes several passenger seats. The remainder of the airframe stayed largely intact. Images of the wreckage show the landing-gear and flaps deployed, as well as partial deployment of the thrust reversers on the outer pair of engines. The Il-62's inboard starboard flaps are detached and the leading edge of the left wing appears to show impact damage along its length. Kazakh carrier Deta Air confirms that it leased the aircraft to Aria Air for a two-year period which was due to expire in December 2010. Deta says the aircraft was leased in a condition compliant with ICAO requirements. It says that "all the crew members" on board the aircraft were killed. Sixteen fatalities in total have been reported, three of them passengers, with the managing director of Aria Air among the victims. Iranian authorities have reportedly suspended the operating permit of Aria Air while the inquiry proceeds. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************** Arson Investigators Probe Airliner Fire By ANDY PASZTOR Federal arson investigators have been called in to help determine the source of a fire inside the cabin of an American Airlines jet last month en route to Zurich from New York, according to U.S. government and industry officials. The Boeing 767 aircraft made an emergency landing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, roughly an hour into the trip, after flight attendants used several fire extinguishers to put out a lavatory blaze, without any injuries. More than six weeks later, air-safety investigators and law-enforcement officials are still trying to determine the cause. It isn't clear whether foul play was involved, and investigators are declining to comment on the specifics. But the conduct of the investigation -- particularly the emphasis on safeguarding evidence -- highlights the sensitivity of the probe and early suspicions about possible wrongdoing. The probe is unusual and has created a stir among air-safety experts, these officials said, because the airline initially asked U.S. law enforcement to get involved when mechanics failed to find the source of the flames. Accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives haven't pinpointed the likely ignition source on the June 9 flight. After some tussles, the safety board ended up in control of the investigation. From the moment the jet was ferried back to a U.S. maintenance base, it wasn't treated as a run-of-the-mill electrical short. Because there were no obvious signs of malfunctions and it was "something we had never seen before," American alerted law-enforcement officials. To safeguard possible evidence, the airline wanted arson investigators with "the expertise to come in and look at it," an airline spokesman said Friday. American mechanics didn't find any indications of problems with circuit breakers or other electrical or mechanical parts, according to the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration. As a result, American, a unit of AMR Corp., contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which then handed over that part of the probe to arson investigators from the ATF. Under U.S. law, the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies have authority to take over airline accident or incident investigations only if the Justice Department determines there is probable cause a crime has been committed. The twin-engine Boeing 767 remained grounded for several weeks while investigators inspected the damage, shipped off some parts for lab analysis and then mechanics replaced large portions of the lavatory. The water heater, for example, "didn't show any obvious signs of failure" when mechanics checked it and was sent to the manufacturer for further analysis, an FAA spokesman said last week. American said those findings are pending. ATF officials declined to comment. A spokesman for the safety board said, "We aren't prepared at this time to discuss a probable cause...but hope to have something to say later this summer." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124864732403082173.html ************** Qantas Jet loses Pressurization SYDNEY (Reuters) - A Qantas jet flying from New Zealand to Australia was forced to turn around when the cabin started to lose air pressure, the airline said in a statement. The Australian carrier has an excellent safety record but has come under scrutiny over the past year after its aircraft experienced a series of technical problems in flight. Qantas said Saturday's incident involved a Boeing 737-400 ascending out of Auckland en route to Brisbane. At 25,000 feet it developed a "subtle pressurisation problem," the airline said. The aircraft landed and all 91 passengers disembarked safely. The plane is being examined by engineers. "The cabin was depressurizing at a controlled rate but certainly not rapidly or noticeably to passengers. There was never any imminent threat to passengers, the crew or the aircraft," the airline said in the statement. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE56P01Y20090726 *************** Jumbo jet badly damaged in maintenance mistake The Boeing 767-300's nose gear suddenly folded up, as it would if the plane was in the air, while the plane was undergoing tests. An embarrassing incident at an American Airlines maintenance base in Fort Worth left a plane badly damaged, after the landing gear retracted, sending the nose of the jumbo jet crashing to the ground. The Boeing 767-300 was undergoing a heavy maintenance check at the company's Alliance Airport hangar, when the nose gear suddenly folded up, as it would if the plane was in the air. At the time, mechanics were running the aircraft through a series of functional tests, according to Tim Wagner, a spokesman for the airline. Amazingly, no workers were injured when the gear collapsed. During ground tests, mechanics often sit in the cockpit or stand near the belly of the plane. The plane has been out of service since the July 15 incident. The airline was trying to determine the extent of the damage, Wagner said Thursday. The company plans to conduct an internal investigation to determine how the accident happened, he said. An airline source who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation said that the damage may be severe. According to Boeing, the 2008 list price on a 767-300 was between $144 to $161 million. http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Major-Oops-Could-Cost-Airlne-Big-Money.html **************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC