19 AUG 2009 _______________________________________ *AEA Wants Input On FAA's Proposed Safety Management Systems *Fugitive Still Licensed to Fly by the F.A.A. *Hawaiian Airlines hires 100 workers, plans to add 170 more *Baltia Air Lines Executes Aircraft Purchase Agreement for Boeing 747 *Sierra launches new Cessna aircraft-modifications program *Embraer's Phenom 300 Jet Continues On Target For Certification *FAA Data-Sharing Work Saves Millions *New Brazilian airports chief outlines modernization strategy *FAA aims to bolster wildlife regulation for airports **************************************** AEA Wants Input On FAA's Proposed Safety Management Systems Comments Due To FAA October 21st The FAA is soliciting public comments regarding a potential rulemaking requiring repair stations, air carriers and manufacturers to develop and implement safety management systems (SMS). According to the FAA, a safety management system is a structured, risk-based approach to managing safety. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has defined SMS as a "systematic approach to managing safety, including the necessary organizational structures, accountabilities, policies and procedures." An SMS would provide a set of decision-making processes and procedures that AEA members would use to plan, organize, direct and control their normal, day-to-day business processes. According to the agency, these FAA-approved decision-making processes would enhance safety and ensure compliance with regulatory standards. AN SMS requires a proactive approach to discovering and correcting problems before there are safety consequences. An SMS also includes processes that seek to identify potential organizational breakdowns and necessary process improvements, allowing management to address a safety issue before a noncompliant or unsafe condition results. In a news release, The Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) says using an SMS is not a substitute for compliance with FAA regulations or FAA oversight activities. In the opinion of the AEA, the FAA makes it clear its proposed rulemaking is a significant administrative and operational burden, which will not substitute for compliance with FAA regulations or FAA oversight activities. Therefore, the FAA is proposing a significant additional burden without any financial, administration or administrative benefit to AEA members. Clear, concise and focused answers to the FAA's questions in its advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) must be generated to ensure this proposal is not simply an additional burden. The AEA will be thoroughly reviewing and discussing this ANPRM during its AEA East and AEA Central regional meetings. Comments are due Oct. 21, 2009. FMI: www.aea.net, www.faa.gov aero-news.net *************** Fugitive Still Licensed to Fly by the F.A.A. WASHINGTON - The Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a $50,000 reward for a Seattle man it says is a domestic terrorist. But that has not kept him from keeping his pilot's license or from trying to sell his airplane online, apparently because the Transportation Security Administration has not compared the F.B.I.'s wanted list with the Federal Aviation Administration's list of licensed pilots. 6 Considered Threats Kept Licenses for Aviation (June 26, 2009) The pilot, Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 31, was indicted with 10 other people in January 2006, in Eugene, Ore., on charges that they committed arson, destroyed an electric tower and other acts of domestic terrorism. Credit for those acts and others were claimed by two groups, the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front. The F.B.I. says Mr. Dibee may have fled to Syria. According to F.A.A. records, Mr. Dibee still owns a single-engine airplane, a 1977 Grumman/American Cheetah. He is also trying to sell the plane on the Internet for $39,000. The New York Times learned that Mr. Dibee still has his license and his plane from a database processing company, Safe Banking Systems, which in June released the names of six other people with F.A.A. licenses who had been charged or convicted of terrorism crimes or otherwise were considered a threat to national security. After the names were released, the Transportation Security Administration suspended the six licenses and said it would take steps to weed out other pilots who posed security risks from among the nearly four million names in the F.A.A.'s public database. Last week, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee and its aviation subcommittee sent a letter to the Transportation Security Administration and the F. A. A. asking whether the two agencies were reconsidering which lists to use to match against the list of pilots. The letter referred to "apparent weaknesses in the existing vetting system." The Transportation Security Administration did not provide details on whether it is doing anything different since the disclosure of the six cases. Laura J. Brown, a spokeswoman for the F.A.A., which rescinds licenses when told to by the Transportation Security Administration, said her agency had, in fact, revoked "several" licenses since June, though she declined to say how many. The Transportation Security Administration has been hampered in identifying some individuals because of variations in how their names were transliterated from Arabic. For example, the list that Safe Banking Services published in June included the man in prison for blowing up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. The man, who at the time was a licensed aircraft dispatcher, was listed on his F.B.I. wanted poster as Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi, but by the F.A.A. as Abdelbaset Ali Elmegrahi. But Mr. Dibee was born in Seattle, and the F.B.I. poster and F.A.A. records spelled his name the same way and had the same birthday for him, Nov. 10, 1967. With such a straightforward match, David M. Schiffer, president of Safe Banking Systems, said it was "highly unlikely" that, despite assurances in June, the Transportation Security Administration was matching the publicly available F.B.I. list with the publicly available F.A.A. list. Through Ms. Brown, the F.A.A. spokeswoman, the Transportation Security Administration said it could not comment on specific cases because it might "jeopardize ongoing investigations and/or violate the privacy rights of the individual." Ms. Brown did not elaborate. The Transportation Security Administration said that while it did not routinely consult the F.B.I. wanted list, it used "a more robust list that incorporates the F.B.I. list, as well as many other lists." The agency said that it "continuously assesses vetting performance and adjusts its vetting engines accordingly." Congress created the Transportation Security Administration, making it part of the Homeland Security Department and responsible for reviewing the list of people holding F.A.A. licenses, after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when the F.A.A. was stripped of most security responsibility. The four senators who sent a letter to the Transportation Security Administration and the F.A.A. last Friday were John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the Commerce Committee; Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the committee's ranking Republican member; Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota and chairman of the aviation subcommittee; and Jim DeMint of South Carolina, the subcommittee's ranking Republican member. The letter said the two agencies had agreed to a 90-day plan to improve their performance. According to officials familiar with current procedure, the F.A.A. checks daily for changes to the Transportation Security Administration's No-Fly List and Selectee Flight List, and matches that against the list of licensed pilots; and once a week, the names of new student pilots are checked against those lists. But the quality of those lists is not clear. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/us/19license.html?hp *************** Hawaiian Airlines hires 100 workers, plans to add 170 more Hawaiian Airlines said it will add 170 jobs by early next year to staff the first of its new Airbus A330-200 jets. Hawaiian also said that it has hired 100 aircraft mechanics, service representatives, ramp agents and maintenance workers in recent months in preparation for the ambitious expansion. The new jobs, coming at a time when many in the airline industry are downsizing, are part of a $4.4 billion, 15-year fleet makeover, in which Hawaiian aims to add as many as 27 new long-range Airbus aircraft. "Everyone at Hawaiian has worked hard to keep our company in the enviable position of pursuing our growth strategy," said Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian's president and CEO. "We're delighted to be doing our part in helping the state's economy by welcoming these new employees and the many more that will be joining us in the months ahead." Hawaiian, the state's largest airline, currently employs 3,756 employees. According to Dunkerley, the airline could add as many as 1,000 new jobs over the next 15 years to staff its expanding fleet. The new hirings are a welcome sign for Hawaii's economy, which has lost more than 20,000 jobs during the past year. Since May 2008, the statewide unemployment rate has more than doubled to 7.4%. The local airline industry has been especially hard-hit by the economic downturn. The March 2008 shutdown of Aloha Airlines, the Isles' second-largest carrier, resulted in the loss of more than 1,900 jobs, in the largest-ever mass layoff in Hawaii. According to Dunkerley, Hawaiian has hired more than 403 former Aloha employees since last year. That figure could increase with the addition of the new Airbus jets. Hawaiian embarked on its expansion in February 2008 when it signed a purchase agreement with Airbus of France to acquire the first of six wide-body A330-200 aircraft and six A350XWB-800 extra wide-body jets. The airline has an option for 12 additional Airbus aircraft and has signed lease agreements for three more A330s. The Airbus jets are larger, more fuel efficient than Hawaiian's current trans-Pacific fleet of 18 Boeing 767-300 planes and have a range of more than 6,000 nautical miles, allowing the company to expand its services throughout North America and Asia. The first of the Airbus A330 will arrive in April. In the long-term, Hawaiian said it's considering a number of new international routes but is waiting for economic conditions to improve before making a decision on the new destinations. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-08-18-hawaiian-airlines-growth_N .htm ************** Baltia Air Lines Executes Aircraft Purchase Agreement for Boeing 747 JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, JAMAICA, N.Y., Aug. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Baltia Air Lines, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BLTA) announced today that they have executed the final Aircraft Purchase Agreement for its first Boeing 747. About Baltia Baltia Air Lines, Inc. is a New York corporation with base of operations in Terminal 4 at JFK International Airport in New York. Today, after JetBlue and Virgin America, Baltia Air Lines is the only new start-up United States Part 121 (heavy jet operator) airline in existence that has received Department of Transportation approval. Baltia's goal is to become the leading U.S. airline in the trans-Atlantic market between the major U.S. cities and capital cities of Eastern Europe, including Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Baltia intends to provide high quality three-class passenger service, and reliable cargo and mail transportation. Baltia plans to begin their foreign scheduled air transportation as the only U.S. airline, connecting directly, two of the world's most prominent cities -- New York and St. Petersburg. For more information on Baltia visit the company web site at: www.Baltia.com http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/st ory/08-19-2009/0005079849&EDATE= *************** Sierra launches new Cessna aircraft-modifications program Sierra Industries has developed a new program that is designed to modify and upgrade Cessna Aircraft Corp.'s fleet of Centurion aircraft. Uvalde, Texas-based Sierra is an aircraft maintenance and modifications company. Under this new Sierra Super Centurion program, the local company will add a state-of-the-art avionics system and other enhancements to Cessna 210, T210 or P210K aircraft. The avionics upgrade replaces the Centurion's original analog instrumentation with modern digital units that gives the pilot better visuals when watching for position, speed and altitude. The systems upgrade also includes the option of adding XM Satellite Weather and Traffic Information Services alerts, an intercom and music inputs. In addition to the avionics upgrade, Sierra can perform modifications to the cockpit and airframe, complete paint and interior refurbishments and Federal Aviation Administration-certified inspection and repair services to Cessna aircraft. www.sijet.com *************** Embraer's Phenom 300 Jet Continues On Target For Certification Aircraft With Completed Interior Exhibited At LABACE 2009 In Brazil Embraer's light jet program achieved an important milestone toward certification on August 8 with the first flight of the fifth Phenom 300 aircraft, tail number PP-XVM. This aircraft, the first with a completed interior, was exhibited at the Latin American Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (LABACE) at Congonhas Airport, in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil last week. The airplane will now be used for function and reliability tests and the maturity campaign, when important functions and features such as its single point refueling, externally serviced lavatory (unique in the category) and low cabin altitude are evaluated and refined. "The current fleet of four prototypes has accumulated over 850 test flight hours," said Mauricio Almeida, Embraer Vice President, Programs - Executive Jets. "With this fifth aircraft, we will validate the robustness of the Phenom 300 under normal operating conditions and the superior comfort of its interior, which was designed in partnership with BMW Group DesignworksUSA." The first prototype (PP-XVI) has been used for flight quality and performance evaluation. To the present time, the aircraft has performed ground vibration, anti-icing system and undrainable fuel tests, as well as stall, crosswind takeoff and landing, flutter and high-speed tests. The airplane was also used for the aerodynamic configuration finalization. The anti-icing system was verified under natural ice conditions and the airframe is currently being evaluated under simulated icing conditions. The second prototype (PP-XVJ) performed water spray and engine fire detection tests. It was also used for the expansion of the Vmo (maximum operating limit speed) envelope and testing external noise and engine controllability, engine fire extinguishing, in-flight start, fuel system, external lighting, and autopilot - which is in the final test stages. The aircraft is now in Bolivia, performing high-altitude takeoff tests. The airplane was also used to collect data for the full flight simulator, which will be certified for pilot training. The third prototype (PP-XVK) has completed flight control tests and is currently performing all tests necessary for determining takeoff and landing performance, including the evaluation of minimum control speeds in the air and on the ground. The fourth prototype (PP-XVL) successfully completed HIRF (High Intensity Radiated Field), lightning, cold soak, and external noise tests. The airplane was also used to validate the maintenance plan and is now dedicated to internal noise tests, among others. Phenom 300 Flight Tests Besides the four aircraft in the flight test campaign, Embraer is presently performing groundbased structural tests with dedicated test specimens. Equipped with swept wings and high performance winglets, the Phenom 300 is designed to cruise 450 knots (KTAS) with a range 1,800 nautical miles, carrying six occupants and adequate fuel for IFR reserves. FMI: www.embraer.com aero-news.net **************** FAA Data-Sharing Work Saves Millions The U.S. FAA has saved up to $200 million by developing an in-house replacement for a data-sharing system, rather than contracting the work out. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood praised the team from the FAA's Technical Center in Atlantic City that developed the replacement for the national airspace data interchange network (NADIN). Estimates from outside contractors ranged from $90 million to $240 million over a 10-year service life. Based on cost and risk assessments, FAA decided to build the NADIN message switch rehost (NMR) itself. The FAA team replaced the system for about $10 million, with an estimated 10-year service cost of $38 million. The NADIN and the NMR are used to exchanging critical information such as flight plans, oceanic position reports, weather forecasts, and notices to airmen. Many agencies access this network, including FAA, the Defense, Interior, and Homeland Security depts., the National Weather Service, airlines, and airline data-service providers. The replacement work required the migration of more than 2,000 domestic and international users to the new system, LaHood noted. Midway through the development stage, an important messaging system became unsupportable. The FAA team added a replacement messaging system to its list of requirements, without delaying the timetable. http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=comm&id=new s/NADIN081809.xml&headline=FAA%20Data-Sharing%20Work%20Saves%20Millions *************** New Brazilian airports chief outlines modernisation strategy Brazilian airport operator Infraero's newly-appointed chief, Murilo Marques Barbosa, plans to modernise the country's airport network before the World Cup 2014 football tournament. Marques takes the helm of Infraero just as approval of the legal framework for privatisation of Infraero-operated airports becomes imminent. But in his first public declaration Marques says that potential airport privatisations are "a political decision", while his task is "technical management" of Brazil's airport system. Rio de Janeiro's Galeao International Airport will be revamped ahead of the 2014 World Cup. But Marques' priorities also include improvement of Viracopos' Campinas Airport to turn it into a third major facility for Sao Paulo. The airport, which is the base of start-up Azul, will receive funds from Brazil's infrastructure development 'acceleration fund' PAC. "Viracopos has the capacity to absorb the growing demand in the region," says Marques, given the saturation of Sao Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport and the downtown Congonhas Airport, Although Marques declines to speak about the privatisation of Brazilian airports, Sao Paulo Guarulhos is earmarked to be one of the first recipients, with a concession planned for a new privately-constructed and -operated passenger terminal. However, the Government is behind schedule with the privatisation strategy. It had previously planned to approve the regulatory framework for private airport operations before 31 July. A source familiar with the process says that the internal decision-making process is "more complex than anticipated", although the political will to liberalise the management of airports remains unchanged. "Foreign investors will be allowed to participate in the operation of Brazilian airports," adds the source, although this could require "some legal adjustments" to the process. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************** FAA aims to bolster wildlife regulation for airports All commercial airports with scheduled passenger service in the US will have to create wildlife hazard management schemes if FAA revises regulation as planned following the forced Hudson River landing in January of US Airways flight 1549 due to a strike involving Canada geese. Current regulation-14CFR139.337-only requires Part 139 certificated airports to create wildlife hazard management plans after an aircraft experiences multiple strikes from a flock of birds or if an aircraft experiences damage or structural failure from a strike. Engine ingestion of wildlife would also require the creation of a wildlife hazard management plan, as would the observation of wildlife on airport grounds that are capable of causing a strike. But regulators intend to make the plans mandatory even if a trigger event has not occurred at the facility, FAA staff wildlife biologist John Weller said during a recent presentation in Washington, DC "After 1549 we are living in a different world," he says. About 298 of the roughly 563 Part 139 certificated airports in the US had FAA-approved wildlife hazard management schemes or were in the process of having a plan written or submitted to the agency as of this June, the latest data available, an FAA spokeswoman says. She adds that airports typically conduct wildlife hazard mitigation, such as reducing wildlife attractants, even if they do not have a wildlife hazard management plan. Weller is leading the effort to update all airport guidance regarding wildlife-such as hiring criteria for wildlife biologists employed by airports-as he took on his current post shortly after the US Airways Airbus A320 strike, making him the third staff wildlife biologist at the agency since the FAA created the position in the 1980s. However, changing regulation will be at least a three-year process, he says. Nonetheless, revised regulation is needed as airports play a critical role in strike prevention, Weller says. He notes that most strikes-92%-occur below 3,000ft during takeoffs and landings. Weller would also like to streamline the strike reporting process, which currently can be done electronically or on paper "We get pretty good information from airports but you want information from the ground crew, maintenance crew and the manufacturers," he says. Weller says FAA is investigating how airline maintenance reports about wildlife strikes could be automatically sent to the FAA National Wildlife Strike Database. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news **************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC