01 SEP 2009 _______________________________________ *Southwest Airlines Must Replace Parts By Tuesday, Extension Sought From FAA *Southwest Suspends Vendor Over Faulty Part in 82 Jets *IS-BAO Receives European Standards Recognition *Boeing Names New Head of Passenger-Jet Unit *France seeks help with Airbus A330 crash search *African leaders, experts back integration in aviation sector *NTSB weighs safety options for EMS helicopters *Gulf Air puts A340 fleet on the market *************************************** Southwest Airlines Must Replace Parts By Tuesday, Extension Sought From FAA Unapproved Parts Found On 82 Airplanes, Contractor Suspended With a Tuesday deadline looming large, Southwest Airlines told federal regulators Monday that unapproved parts may have been installed on twice as many aircraft as originally thought. The airline has suspended the maintenance company who procured the unapproved parts from a subcontractor. The Associated Press is reporting that if the FAA does not grant Southwest an extension, it may be forced to ground some planes. The airline has already replaced the suspect parts in 25 aircraft, but says it need more time to find approved parts for the remaining aircraft. The FAA has said the parts do not pose an immediate safety hazard. They direct hot exhaust from the engines away from the wings of the airplanes. But the airline admits the parts were obtained from a company that is not approved for work by the FAA. Southwest originally thought 46 planes were affected, but spokeswoman Beth Harbin said Monday further checking boosted that number to 82. "Southwest did an exhaustive audit of the vendor, and are comfortable we've found all the parts at issue," she said. Without an extension of the Tuesday deadline, the FAA could require Southwest to ground the planes, making up about 10 percent of the airline's 373 fleet. When the problem was initially found August 22nd, Southwest cancelled 15 flights and experienced significant delays at many airports around the country. FMI: www.southwest.com aero-news.net ************** Southwest Suspends Vendor Over Faulty Part in 82 Jets Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Southwest Airlines Co., the largest low-fare carrier, suspended a maintenance vendor linked to the use of unauthorized parts in 82 Boeing Co. 737 aircraft. The airline and the Federal Aviation Administration failed to reach an agreement on resolving the issue today, said Beth Harbin, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Southwest. Lynn Lunsford, an FAA spokesman, said the agency expects to have an accord by its deadline of 5 p.m. Dallas time tomorrow. While the airline, the FAA and Boeing have said the parts don't present a safety risk, U.S. regulations prohibit planes from being flown with pieces made without federal certification. The components may have been on some aircraft as long as three years, according to Southwest. "They have, albeit potentially inadvertently, violated the regulations by using unauthorized parts," Jon Ash, president of consulting firm InterVistas-GA2 in Washington, said in an interview. "At the end of the day, I suspect they'll receive a fine. That is a given." Lunsford said that "Southwest has said all along it wants to be able to replace these parts while continuing to fly its airplanes. We are working to see if there's a way of making that happen and do it within the regulations." The FAA earlier let Southwest continue temporarily operating the planes, while the two sides began talks Aug. 22 on a schedule and method for replacing the parts. Southwest already has made the replacements on 30 jets. 'Still Optimistic' "We are still optimistic the FAA will agree that we have proposed an aggressive timeline to address the regulatory non- compliance in a safe manner," Harbin said. Without an agreement with the FAA, any Southwest jet flown with the unauthorized parts would violate a federal order and the airline may face a fine of as much as $25,000 a flight, Lunsford said earlier today. The problem was discovered Aug. 21, after an FAA inspector monitoring work at a Southwest maintenance subcontractor found irregularities in paperwork for some parts. The inspector determined the subcontractor made hinge fittings for a system that moves hot air away from flaps on the rear of wings when they're extended, work it wasn't authorized by the FAA to do. Southwest suspended D-Velco Aviation Services of Phoenix, the company that hired the subcontractor, as one of its maintenance vendors, Harbin said. The subcontractor that made the fittings has not been named. The 82 planes represent 15 percent of Southwest's 544-jet fleet. Earlier Fine The inquiry focuses more attention on aircraft at Southwest. The airline in March agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine, the largest penalty collected by the FAA, for flying jets without fuselage inspections in 2006 and 2007. In July, a foot- wide hole opened in the fuselage of a Southwest jet, forcing an emergency landing. AMR Corp.'s American Airlines scrubbed 3,300 flights and stranded 360,000 passengers last year after the FAA required wiring inspection and repairs on 300 Boeing MD-80s. American grounded almost half its fleet after the FAA found the airline hadn't secured wiring bundles in accordance with an agency directive. At Southwest, "the safety of the parts is not the issue," Harbin said. "What is at issue is that there is no established protocol to remedy a situation where you have perfectly safe parts, deemed so by the aircraft manufacturer, that have to be removed and replaced." Because the parts are no threat to the airline's safety, the FAA probably will give the company "a reasonable period of time" to replace the unauthorized parts, Ash said. The most recent issue shouldn't raise alarms about Southwest's safety, he said. With 544 planes, such incidents will occur "from time to time," Ash said. The FAA may decide that the parts need to be replaced immediately or that they can remain in use until the normal schedule for replacement, Lunsford said. It's too early to say whether Southwest might face fines over the components, he said. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a1aMRtvQeUIE ************** IS-BAO Receives European Standards Recognition Organization Will Be Recognized For EASA Rules Implementation Procedures The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) and European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) announced Friday that the IS-BAO - an International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations - has been granted official European recognition as an industry standard for business aircraft operations. The recognition was achieved through a CEN Workshop Agreement (CAW). CEN (European Committee for Standardization) is the official standards setting body of the European Union and CEN Workshop Agreements are one of their principle standards products. The IS-BAO CWA involved a 10-month open process that was managed by the Nederlands Normalisatie-instituut (NEN) and involved business aviation and regulatory authority representatives. This official endorsement will facilitate recognition of the IS-BAO in the upcoming EASA Implementing Rules. "EASA is pleased with the efforts that IBAC and EBAA made to have the IS-BAO recognized as a European Standard. This action will enable an operator's IS-BAO registration to be recognized within the proposed EASA Implementing Rules system," said Jules Kneepkens, EASA Rulemaking Director. It is anticipated that non-commercial operators of complex motor-powered aircraft will be able to use their IS-BAO registration in their declaration to the civil aviation authorities as the means they use to meet the regulatory requirements and their associated responsibilities. It is also anticipated that national regulatory authorities will take into account IS-BAO registration in their regulatory oversight of business aviation operators engaged in commercial operations. Brian Humphries, EBAA President and Chief Executive Officer commented, "The ISBAO was developed as a professional safety code of practice for business aviation operators and we encourage those operators to move forward with IS-BAO implementation so that they will be ready for the upcoming EASA Implementing Rules". Because a Safety Management System (SMS) will be required of all commercial operations and operators of complex motor-powered aircraft engaged in noncommercial operations, the IS-BAO includes an SMS Toolkit that can be use to develop an appropriate and effective safety management system. The SMS Toolkit is also available to commercial operators standalone and can likewise be requested through IBAC and its Member Associations. "An effective SMS enhances the safety, efficiency and effectiveness of flight operations, - it should save you money, not cost you money," said Don Spruston, IBAC Director General. FMI: www.ibac.org aero-news.net *************** Boeing Names New Head of Passenger-Jet Unit Boeing Co. said Monday that Scott Carson is retiring as head of its commercial aircraft business following a three-year tenure tainted by the persistent delays of its new 787. The aircraft business will be run from Sept. 1 by Jim Albaugh, head of Boeing's defense unit, who will have four months to rescue the company's credibility by making good on its pledge to have the 787 - commonly known as the Dreamliner -- fly for the first time by year end. Scott Carson .Mr. Carson, 63 years old, was widely expected to step down next year, and he is the highest-profile executive departure following the technical and labor problems that have cost billions of dollars and left the crucial 787 project two-and-a-half years late. Boeing Chairman and Chief Executive James McNerney said last week that the aircraft team was as strong as it had ever been as he announced the sixth delay to the 787. There was no mention of Mr. Carson's imminent departure. Boeing has been criticized by analysts and customers about its communications policy during the 787's troubled creation. Mr McNerney said on a conference call Monday that the decision to retire was Mr Carson's alone. Mr. Carson, a 38-year company veteran, took over Boeing Commercial Aircraft following the surprise departure of Alan Mullaly to run Ford Motor Co. The unit's former chief salesman was credited with reviving a sluggish sales performance earlier in the decade and successfully pushed more than 800 orders for the 787. Mr. Albaugh will be succeeded by Dennis Muilenburg as president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Both appointments are effective Tuesday. The new BCA chief, a 34-year company veteran, comes from Boeing's defense side, the latest in a line of engineering and personnel resources transferred to bolster the 787 program, including Pat Shanahan, who now oversees the project. A replacement for Mr. Muilenburg has yet to be named. Last week, Boeing said the 787 would make its first test flight by year end, and the first aircraft would be delivered by the end of 2010. But the string of delays has already strained Boeing's credibility with airline customers, and some have raised doubts about the timeline after repeated failures to meet targets. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125175092686873731.html ************** France seeks help with Airbus A330 crash search PARIS, Aug 31 (Reuters) - France wants to launch an expanded international effort to find the missing wreckage and flight recorders of the Air France (AIRF.PA) jet which crashed in the Atlantic in June, the country's top crash investigator said on Monday. Around a thousand fragments of the Airbus A330 which crashed on June 1, killing 228 people, have been examined but most of the aircraft is still missing and it is still too early to say definitely what caused the crash, he said. "We are going to see how we can optimise our search. We are going to expand it to other countries to bring in the maximum international dimension and seize every chance we can to avoid missing new clues," Paul-Louis Arslanian, director of France's BEA air crash investigation board, told journalists. European planemaker Airbus (EAD.PA) is expected to help fund the move, which could cost several tens of millions of euros, he said, adding an announcement could be made in the autumn. The United States, Brazil, Britain and Germany are among the nations likely to take part, he said at a specialist briefing. Authorities have been combing an expanse of ocean the size of Switzerland in a fruitless bid to find the voice and data recorders and the bulk of the plane, which plummeted some 30,000 feet (9,000 metres) in four minutes before crashing in an equatorial storm. After failing to pick up radio tracking signals that the recorders were designed to emit for around 30 days, investigators took up the search using a French survey vessel, sonars and submarine but the "black boxes" are still missing. The third phase would involve sending sonars or robots to the relatively unexplored seabed, up to 4,000 metres below the surface. Flight AF447 crashed near the equator while en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro. Authorities have found wreckage including the vertical tail and 51 bodies, but are unsure exactly where the crash happened because winds and currents quickly dispersed the debris. "The work is a bit like crossing Switzerland by foot, trying firstly to listen out for the noise of a cricket and now looking for debris with a pocket torch in the dark," Arslanian said. Speculation on the cause of the crash has focused on the aircraft's speed sensors after error messages suggested inconsistent data readings. But Arslanian said it was still too early to tell if the so-called "Pitot probes" were to blame. The full investigation could last over a year, he said. http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLV89335 *************** African leaders, experts back integration in aviation sector AFRICAN leaders and experts yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia were unanimous in their verdict that Africa was yet to do enough to transform its aviation sector. They noted that the issue of air safety in the region does not only need the total commitment of African states, but collaboration among all states to build adequate capacity to make the industry viable. At the take-off of a two-day African aviation summit in Hilton Hotel, Addis Ababa, with theme: "Air Transport in Africa; One Continent, One Strategy", the stakeholders proffered solutions to the myriads of problems facing the sector. They lamented the lack of liberalisation of air transport, otherwise known as the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD), decaying aviation infrastructure and the granting of frequencies to foreign airlines without reciprocity, which they admitted has stunted the growth of African carriers. Ethiopian President, Girma Wolde Giogis, who was represented by the country's Minister of Transport, Gateshew Mengistu; President, African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), Charles Wako; Nigeria 's Minister of Aviation, Babatunde Omotoba and Secretary-General of Africa Airlines Association (AFRAA), Dr. Christian Folly-Kossi, urged African leaders to work together for integration of Africa through air transportation. In his paper, Omotoba said Africa's vast airspace is still under-utilised as most of the Bilateral Air Services and Open-Skies agreements between African states and the developed economies are not being fully implemented. He was, however, confident that Africa has the prospects of becoming the centre of future global air transport business and development. According to him, geographically, Africa is almost at the centre of the world and is, therefore, naturally and strategically positioned as a focal-point for the next phase of air transport, especially as the ongoing economic recession in other regions and survival instincts could stir more airlines to extend their operations into this "fallow region" for sustenance. Omoba said that the Federal Government would continue to provide good leadership examples and foster cooperation at both bilateral and multilateral levels, on any programme that is aimed at raising the level of aviation safety and growth The minister added that one main area of safety and security which has posed a major challenge for most of African states is the provision of modern aviation infrastructure. Meanwhile, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, said the only way for African airlines to grow is to strategise and form a common front to compete with their foreign counterparts. He stated this yesterday at the 15th Aviation and Allied Business Leadership Conference in Addis Ababa According to Janneh, who was represented by the Director, Central Africa and Head of Air Transport, UNECA, Mr. Hachim Koumare, noted that the aviation industry has a vital role to play not just in the integration of African airlines' economic development. Janneh stated that for Africa to achieve the theme of the summit, it must implement the Yamoussoukro Declaration that would enable full liberalisation of the continent's airspace. "Integration in Africa is not optimum, people still travel to Europe before they can get to their African destination and this is not helpful; that is why the integration process is good," he said He called on civil aviation regulatory agencies to be granted full autonomy to develop the industry. The organiser of the conference and Publisher, Aviation and Allied Business Publication, Captain Edward Boyo, urged more strategies to guide the aviation sector to greater height. http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article04/indexn2_html?pdate=010909&ptit le=African%20leaders,%20experts%20back%20integration%20in%20aviation%20secto r *************** NTSB weighs safety options for EMS helicopters WASHINGTON - Occasionally emergency medical helicopters sent into action to save lives end up crashing, a tragic consequence that has federal officials weighing new safety recommendations. The National Transportation Safety Board is meeting Tuesday to vote on 19 proposals to make the transport of patients, medical crews and donated organs safer. The board has spent a year investigating the safety of what is known as the air ambulance industry. This was prompted by a spate of nine helicopter crashes between December 2007 and October 2008 that claimed 35 lives. The recommendations include better pilot training and the use of night vision imaging systems. A more thorough collection and analysis of flight, weather and safety data also is recommended **************** Gulf Air puts A340 fleet on the market Middle Eastern carrier Gulf Air is to remarket up to five Airbus A340-300 aircraft, the first major fleet decision since the airline came under new management. Gulf Air has handed a remarketing mandate to aircraft trading and placement company Avinco. The aircraft are being put up for sale or lease, says Avinco chief Francois Gautier. All five of the Gulf Air A340-300s covered by the agreement are owned by the carrier, but it also leases another four of the type. Flightglobal's ACAS database lists the owned A340s as bearing serial numbers 133, 103, 39, 40 and 97. All are between 13 and 15 years old. Bahrain-based Gulf Air has been intending to phase out its A340 fleet, originally in favour of leasing Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from Jet Airways. But the carrier, having operated the 777s for a few months, opted not to take the aircraft for the long-term dry-lease it had been considering. "Following our past success placing A340 aircraft, we are delighted to be working with Gulf Air to assist them with this sizeable project," says Gautier. Gulf Air's new chief, Samer Majali, recently stated that Gulf Air might have to adjust its backlog of aircraft on order as part of a wide-ranging review of the loss-making airline's operations. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC