28 AUG 2009 _______________________________________ *Comoros Crash Jet Black Boxes Recovered *Firefighting plane crashes in Greece, pilot dead *NTSB calls for new air traffic rules over Hudson River *MiG 29 intercepts Air France plane over Amritsar *Families of Comair crash victims urge safety steps *Jail for fake engineer who deceived Qantas *Boeing offers needed clarity for 787 development *NTSB Plans To Issue New HEMS Safety Recommendations *************************************** Comoros Crash Jet Black Boxes Recovered MORONI (Reuters) - Deep-water recovery specialists Friday retrieved the black boxes of a Yemeni jet that plunged into the Indian Ocean off the Comoros archipelago in June. "The flight data recorders of the Yemenia Airbus A310-300 has been recovered and brought on board the (recovery) vessel EDT ARES," chief investigator Mohamed Ali Abdou told Reuters. Only one person out of 153 on board, survived the crash which happened as the aircraft attempted to land in bad weather on the final leg of a trip from France to the Comoros. The black boxes should shed light on the cause of the crash which officials say remains unknown. ************* Firefighting plane crashes in Greece, pilot dead ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece mourned its first death Thursday from a string of devastating summer wildfires, when a small water-dropping plane crashed during an island firefighting operation, killing the pilot. The accident came a day after firefighters put out a massive blaze that had ravaged forests and communities just north of Athens, destroying or damaging nearly 300 buildings - most of them homes. The air force said the single-seat plane went down around noon on the western island of Kephalonia while trying to extinguish a small blaze near the village of Katelios. The 55-year-old pilot's body was recovered shortly afterward in the wreckage of his Polish-made PZL M18, very close to some of the village's outlying buildings. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but witnesses told Greek media the plane hit a power line while flying just 30 feet (10 meters) above the ground. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis expressed his "deep sadness and grief" at the accident. "(The pilot) lost his life while conducting his difficult mission with self-sacrifice," Karamanlis said. For six days, massive fires burned out of control on the northern outskirts of Athens, charring 80 square miles (210 square kilometers) of forest and hillside scrub - an area more than three times the size of Manhattan. They were put out Wednesday. Officials said Thursday that the blazes had destroyed a total of 101 buildings, including 65 homes. A further 143 homes suffered damage, as did as 40 stables, public buildings and churches. The cause of the fires is still unknown; residents in afflicted areas have said they suspect arson. The government, which has been severely criticized by environmental groups and opposition parties for its handling of the fires, has promised financial aid for owners of all legally built homes. The fires north of Athens were the worst in a series of devastating wildfires in Greece this year. Another two homes were destroyed during a smaller fire this week on the island of Evia, east of Athens. ************** NTSB calls for new air traffic rules over Hudson River WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The rules governing air traffic over New York's Hudson River need to be rewritten to prevent another mishap like this month's fatal collision of a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter, federal safety investigators said Thursday. The recommendation comes three weeks after nine people were killed when the two aircraft collided in the congested airspace bordering Manhattan. The recommendation is noteworthy both because of its sweeping nature and its timing. Ordinarily, the National Transportation Safety Board makes recommendations at the conclusion of its investigation, which typically take a year. But in a letter to FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said that based on preliminary findings, the safety board is concerned about the "safety of flight" over the Hudson River. She outlined a series of changes, among them requiring that helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft fly at different altitudes over the river. She made specific reference to "the performance of air traffic controllers" at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, who were monitoring the plane's flight during the August 8 collision. "The NTSB is concerned with the complacency and inattention to duty evidenced by the actions of the [Teterboro] controller and the supervisor during the events surrounding this accident," Hersman wrote. Hersman said the pilot of the aircraft requested permission to climb to 3,500 feet minutes before the crash. But because there was no coordination between controllers at Teterboro and Newark airports, controllers did not grant the request, increasing the risk of a collision in Hudson River low-altitude airspace known as the "exclusionary zone," she said. Pilots in the exclusionary zone are not separated by air traffic controllers, and instead use visual "see and avoid" tactics. The Teterboro controller was making a personal phone call and "was not fully engaged in his duties" in the minutes leading up to the accident, Hersman said. His supervisor, meanwhile, had left the building on a personal errand without informing the controller. The air traffic controller's inappropriate phone call "likely would not have been permitted" if the supervisor had been in the tower, Hersman said. The FAA on Thursday did not comment on the NTSB recommendation, but said a task force studying flight operations above the Hudson River will soon submit its findings. And the air traffic controllers union defended its member, saying he had handed off the plane's pilot to another radar tower before the helicopter appeared on his radar scope. "The NTSB again has rushed to wrongly blame the air traffic controller in this incident," said Patrick Forrey, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "The bottom line here is that the controller is not responsible for contributing to this tragic accident. ... We cannot provide traffic advisories to aircraft we are not talking to, cannot see on radar or are not a factor at all." Forrey said the NTSB "inexplicably" made its recommendations before the FAA task force had finished its job. "The task force is due to release its report next week. So why the rush?" Forrey said. In its letter, the NTSB asks the FAA to establish a special flight rules area, or SFRA, for the class B exclusion areas near New York City; require vertical separation between helicopters and airplanes in these SFRAs; require pilots to complete specific training on the SFRA requirements before flight within the area; and conduct a review of other airspace configurations where specific pilot training and familiarization would improve safety. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/27/hudson.river.air.rules/index.html *************** MiG 29 intercepts Air France plane over Amritsar Amritsar, Aug 27: An Air France plane was intercepted by an Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG 29 aircraft over Amritsar on Thursday morning as it crossed into Indian airspace. IAF radars picked up the aircraft, flying at a flight level of 37,000 feet, as it entered Indian airspace on an established border entry point on the ATS route. The aircraft was not in communication and also the secondary radar response code or the Squawk code of the aircraft, was not correct. The aircraft was then identified as `Unknown'. Immediately, an IAF MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to intercept and investigate the identity of the `unknown' aircraft. It was only later that the aircraft started transmitting correct secondary radar response code and was picked up and identified by AD radar as civil airliner (A-343) of Air France (AFR-164), which was on its from Paris to Bangkok. The MiG-29 fighter aircraft was given instructions to break off and return to base. A formal report of the incident has been forwarded to Airports Authority Of India (AAI). (ANI) http://www.topnews.in/mig-29-intercepts-air-france-plane-over-amritsar-22072 81 ************* Families of Comair crash victims urge safety steps WASHINGTON - Three years after the crash of Comair Flight 5191 in Lexington, families of the victims are urging the aviation industry and federal regulators to institute changes to prevent a similar tragedy. "All members of the aviation industry and the bodies who regulate them owe it to the victims of Flight 5191, and to the flying public at large, to give these matters their most serious attention," families of 29 of the 49 people killed said in a letter. The Comair jet crashed at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport in the predawn darkness of Aug. 27, 2006. Only the co-pilot, James Polehinke, survived. The plane took off from the wrong runway, one that was unlighted and too short to handle jets. The National Transportation Safety Board found that the flight crew failed to spot clues about their aircraft's location and did not double-check their location before takeoff. The crew also engaged in conversation unrelated to pre-flight procedures that contributed to their inattention, the board said. Families of the accident victims wrote the letter, dated Thursday - the third anniversary of the accident - urging safety changes to the NTSB, the Federal Aviation Administration, Comair and Delta Air Lines, the Air Line Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association. Among the changes needed, the families said, are the addition of runway verification procedures to cockpit checklists; a prohibition against takeoffs in the dark from runways without lights; additional training on cockpit discipline; installation of new aircraft equipment that shows a plane's location at an airport; and clearer notices to pilots about changes to the layouts of airports. "We recognize that the foregoing safety initiatives are not novel proposals," the families wrote. "Indeed, many were known to the aviation industry prior to the crash of Comair Flight 5191. . It is simply not enough for airlines to draft, and the FAA to approve, voluminous policies which appear appropriate on paper, but fail to be implemented in everyday line operations. Words on paper do not save lives." Kathryn Warnecke Ryan lost her husband, Michael, in the crash and is one of those who signed the letter. "We have seen other crashes," she said. "And until there is a culture developed by the players in the industry getting along and being on same page on these issues, the convergence of these mistakes will continue to occur, and we will continue to have instances where people will die." Laura Brown, spokeswoman for the FAA, said her agency and the industry are engaged in a safety "call to action" after the fatal crash of a regional airline flight in Buffalo earlier this year. "One of the reasons we convened the recent call to action with major airlines and regional airlines is to challenge the industry to raise the safety bar," Brown said. "What we have seen in a number of accidents is issues that raise questions about pilot professionalism, so that's one of the focuses of this call to action. . I think that broadly addresses some of the issues that they've raised in (the letter)." NTSB spokesman Terry Williams said the board would respond to the families' letter. "Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the loved ones of the victims of this tragic crash," he said. Reporter James R. Carroll can be reached at (202) 906-8141. "We have seen other crashes," she said. "And until there is a culture developed by the players in the industry getting along and being on same page on these issues, the convergence of these mistakes will continue to occur, and we will continue to have instances where people will die." Laura Brown, spokeswoman for the FAA, said her agency and the industry are engaged in a safety "call to action" after the fatal crash of a regional airline flight in Buffalo earlier this year. "One of the reasons we convened the recent call to action with major airlines and regional airlines is to challenge the industry to raise the safety bar," Brown said. "What we have seen in a number of accidents is issues that raise questions about pilot professionalism, so that's one of the focuses of this call to action. . I think that broadly addresses some of the issues that they've raised in (the letter)." NTSB spokesman Terry Williams said the board would respond to the families' letter. "Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the loved ones of the victims of this tragic crash," he said. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090827/NEWS01/908270355/Families+of +Comair+crash+victims+urge+safety+steps ************** Jail for fake engineer who deceived Qantas TIMOTHY McCORMACK was caught red-handed lying about his qualifications to perform maintenance checks on Qantas jets, but his capacity for outrageous chutzpah was undiminished. Facing the prospect of a lengthy jail term for falsifying his aircraft maintenance licence, he tried to persuade a judge that the airline would be less safe as a result of his employment being terminated - because it would be bereft of his fine eye for detail. Judge Mark Marien, who sentenced McCormack yesterday to a minimum of two years' jail, read out a fake character reference the former Qantas employee had forged in the name of one of his supervisors to receive a lighter punishment. "Having Tim fully certified for jets has not risked anyone's lives as has been portrayed," the reference said. "If anything, lives are more at risk now, not only because of the constant cost-cutting of management, but they are down an excellent engineer who did not take risks or cut corners with his maintenance practices." McCormack, 26, pleaded guilty in the District Court to 56 offences, including making false Commonwealth documents, possessing a false licence to perform aircraft maintenance and 30 counts of carrying out unauthorised maintenance checks on Australian passenger planes. The court heard he had been employed by Qantas as a maintenance engineer, but started wearing the uniform worn by licensed engineers and performing more senior tasks after lying to his managers that he had passed examinations set by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. When McCormack's manager became concerned that he was not getting paid enough for his work, he produced 10 fake documents that purported to be from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority certifying that he had passed his exams. His engineer's licence was forged. After pleading guilty to 42 charges, McCormack provided false character references to the court, each in the same font. Two were signed with the same pen and all of them were riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. Judge Marien said he was unable to believe McCormack's protestations of remorse after it became apparent that he had continued his pattern of deception by providing fake testimonials to the court. "The offender . set out on a deliberate and calculated course of deceit, masquerading as a licensed aircraft engineer and without being qualified carried out technical aircraft work of a licensed engineer, including certifying the work of others. "The potential consequences of that course of action may have been catastrophic." Qantas said it had since reviewed all its engineers' qualifications. "We welcome today's news," the airline said in a statement. http://www.smh.com.au/national/jail-for-fake-engineer-who-deceived-qantas-20 081217-70vw.html *************** Boeing offers needed clarity for 787 development Boeing ended more than two months of uncertainty on its 787 programme when the airframer unveiled the latest schedule revision of first flight and first delivery. The company says the 787 will fly by the end of 2009, with first delivery coming a year later in the fourth quarter of 2010. The latest schedule adds an additional six to nine months to almost two years of delays already incurred by Boeing's flagship product. First delivery to Japan's All Nippon Airways was originally planned for May 2008. Pat Shanahan, vice president of airplane programs says that ZA001, Boeing's first 787, is "functionally ready to fly on all accounts" aside from the side of body structural modifications that have grounded the 787 fleet since the disclosure of the issue on 23 June. Boeing CEO Jim McNerney says "the design details and implementation plan [for the modification] are nearly complete, and the team is preparing airplanes for modification and testing". Shanahan says that the company will install the side of body modification on the the static test aircraft and ZA001 concurrently, with full scale static testing to take place before 787 is cleared for flight. Boeing's revised schedule extends the flight test campaign "with the addition of several weeks of schedule margin to reduce flight test and certification risk". The flight test programme methodology remains unchanged, with the company still believing it can complete certification in 8 to 9 months, yet the fourth quarter target for first delivery provides Boeing up to a year if needed. The company also revised its production plan of meeting a rate of 10 787's per month, which will now be achieved by the end of 2013, one year later than previously planned. Scott Carson, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, says that without a second final assembly line, the company will only be able to produce seven 787s per month at its existing Everett, WA facility. Just days before the 27 August release of the revised schedule, the company announced it was filing permits in with the government of North Charleston, SC to remove any "administrative issue that stood in the way of the decision", says Carson. In addition, Boeing has declared that the first three of six flight test aircraft "have no commercial market value beyond the development effort due to the inordinate amount of rework and unique and extensive modifications made to those aircraft". As a result, the company has taken a write off of $2.5B as the three planes are shifted from inventory to research and development expenses. Boeing maintains that aircraft four through six remain viable and will likely go to VIP customers. The shift in schedule also slides the 787-9 entry into service with Air New Zealand from early 2013 to later the same year. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************* NTSB Plans To Issue New HEMS Safety Recommendations At a Sept. 1 board meeting in Washington, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) plans to propose 19 new safety recommendations aimed at minimizing the risks of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) operations. According to the safety board, the recommendations will address a wide range of safety improvements - including the development of a low-altitude airspace infrastructure, operators' adoption of safety management systems and data monitoring programs, and pilot use of new technologies such as night vision goggles. The new recommendations were developed following the NTSB's Feb. 3-6 hearing that evaluated factors that led to an increasing number of HEMS accidents. At that hearing, the board noted that from 2003 through 2008, 77 people died in 85 HEMS accidents. Last year was the deadliest on record for HEMS operations, with 29 fatalities in eight accidents - an increase from seven deaths in two accidents in 2007. At the February hearing, the NTSB heard testimony from some 41 witnesses. Topics under discussion included how the growth of HEMS operations might increase pressure to conduct flights, pilot training and use of flight simulators, and the use of safety-enhancing technologies, such as terrain awareness and warning systems (TAWS). Improving safety of EMS flights is on the NTSB's "Most Wanted List" of aviation safety improvements. The NTSB issued four recommendations Feb. 7, 2006, in conjunction with its Jan. 25, 2006, special investigative report on EMS safety. The following three recommendations are categorized as "open," with the FAA's response considered "unacceptable:" . Require that all flights with medical personnel on board be conducted in accordance with FAR Part 135 regulations. (Currently, positioning flights with medical personnel but with no passengers onboard may operate under less stringent provisions of Part 91.) . Develop and implement flight risk evaluation programs . Require the installation of TAWS on aircraft. The recommendation that would require formalized dispatch and flight following procedures including up-to-date weather information is categorized as "open," with the FAA's response "acceptable." http://www.aviationweek.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/publication/aviatio ndaily/loggedin/AvnowStoryDisplay.do?fromChannel=aviationdaily&pubKey=aviati ondaily&channel=aviationdaily&issueDate=2009-08-28&story=xml/aviationdaily_x ml/2009/08/28/18.xml&headline=NTSB+Plans+To+Issue+New+HEMS+Safety+Recommenda tions *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC