04 SEP 2009 _______________________________________ *Black boxes from Yemenia Airways flight damaged *JetBlue Plane Is Evacuated in Bahamas *LifeGuard jet with patient blows tires during take-off *Air India flight grounded in Mumbai as engine catches fire *Superstructure Group signs Strategic Partnership Agreement with IATA *$15 million settlement in plane crash death *American Faces Escalating Dispute With FAA *CSSI wins $20M aviation safety contract *Mexico Lifts Ban on In-flight Mobile Phone Use *************************************** Black boxes from Yemenia Airways flight damaged PARIS (AP) - A Comoran investigator says the black boxes from a Yemenia Airways flight that crashed into the Indian Ocean in June are damaged. Mohamed Ali Abdou says investigators are still trying to recover the information held in the flight's black boxes. Experts began examining the boxes from the Airbus 310 plane on Monday. In a statement Friday, Ali Abdou says it is still unknown what caused the crash. Ali Abdou is assisting French experts from the BEA aviation accident agency. The French agency made no statement Friday. The boxes were fished out of deep waters northwest of Grand Comoros island late last month by underwater robots. Yemenia Flight 626 from Paris to Moroni, the capital of Comoros, plunged into the ocean June 30, killing 152 people. Only a teenage girl survived, plucked from the water after 13 hours. Many crash victims had been from France's Comoran community. *************** JetBlue Plane Is Evacuated in Bahamas A JetBlue aircraft with 93 people onboard caught fire on its left side as it was landing in the Caribbean Thursday afternoon, prompting an emergency evacuation on an airport taxiway, the airline said. The plane, an Embraer 190 - Flight 1781 - had taken off from Orlando International Airport in Florida at 12:34 p.m. and was due to land in Nassau about an hour later. But as the plane was touching down, flames were spotted near the lefthand engine, said Bryan Baldwin, a JetBlue spokesman. The plane landed safely and moved under its own power to a taxiway, where fire fighters quickly arrived and put out the fire. The plane's four crew members and 89 passengers - five of them infants - had to exit the plane on evacuation slides. No one was injured, and there was no visible damage to the plane. "The plane has been taken out of service and we will be conducting an investigation to figure out what happened," Mr. Baldwin said. Asked if there had been previous problems with the plane or engine fires in other JetBlue aircraft, Mr. Baldwin said he did not have specific data, but could not recall any incidents. A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday evening. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/world/americas/04plane.html?hp ************** LifeGuard jet with patient blows tires during take-off The tires of a medical airlift jet taking off at Ted Stevens International Airport blew out while accelerating Wednesday afternoon, spreading debris across the runway and forcing an aborted take-off, according to the Department of Transportation. The aircraft, a Learjet operated by LifeGuard, was moving down runway 32 shortly after noon when several of its tires blew out, DOT spokesman Roger Wetherell said. The pilot aborted the take-off with the help of a chute. There was a patient aboard the flight, which originated in Colorado and was stopping here for fuel before continuing to Seoul, South Korea, Wetherell said. There were no injuries and damage to the jet was confined to the wheel areas. The runway was closed for about 12 hours while crews cleared the debris -- mostly blown rubber -- and lightered fuel from the aircraft, Wetherell said. Air traffic was diverted onto other runways and was not affected, he said. http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/aviation/story/922085.html ************** Air India flight grounded in Mumbai as engine catches fire Mumbai: An engine of a Riyadh-bound Air India plane with 213 passengers on board caught fire when it was taxiing for take-off here today. The fire was immediately put off and all passengers were safely evacuated, a Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesperson said. The incident occurred this morning around 1015 hours. All the passengers on Air India flight AI 829 from Mumbai to Riyadh were evacuated through the emergency exit, the spokesperson said. The fire was immediately extinguished and all the stranded passengers are being sent by another aircraft to their destination, an Air India spokesperson said. http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_air-india-flight-grounded-in-mumbai-as -engine-catches-fire_1287555 *************** Superstructure Group signs Strategic Partnership Agreement with IATA IATA News Release Superstructure Group Limited: SMS software for the sharing of safety information The sharing of safety information has long been an ambition of the aviation industry. IATA has developed the Safety Trend Evaluation Analysis and Data Exchange System (STEADES), featuring a worldwide database of de-identified incident reports that provides a forum for the sharing of safety data and its global analysis with participating organisations. The success of such a programme is dependent on the quality of information received and on overcoming the barriers to the sharing of safety information. An IATA Strategic Partner and STEADES Preferred Partner, Superstructure Group is a global supplier of the Aviation Safety and Risk Management software, AQD. The AQD software facilitates the sharing of safety information by providing the means to capture and classify safety reports based on a standard classification system and to export de-identified safety information to STEADES. AQD ensures that the information sent electronically to STEADES is confidential, has been consistently classified, and can be reviewed without manual preparation. As a result, IATA STEADES contributors benefit from enhanced safety performance that can be benchmarked against industry trends. AQD also promotes safety reporting in the organisation, so the quality of the information supplied to STEADES is enhanced. An improved reporting culture means more information is available for analysis, delivering greater benefits to individual members. http://www.superstructuregroup.com/news_pressreleases_show.aspx?newsid=72 *************** $15 million settlement in plane crash death CHICAGO - A Cook County judge has approved a $15 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a Chicago restaurant executive killed in a private plane crash in 2006. Circuit Court Judge John A. Ward approved Thursday the settlement to the family of Michael Waugh, general manager of Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab Restaurant. Waugh was returning from Olathe, Kan., on Jan. 30, 2006, when the Cessna 421B piloted by Morgan Stanley senior financial advisor Mark Turek crashed just before landing at a Chicago-area airport. Turek, Waugh, and two other passengers were killed. The lawsuit against Turek's estate and Morgan Stanley alleged that the financial giant used aircraft flown by nonprofessional pilots. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-crashsettlement,0,3289670.story ***************** American Faces Escalating Dispute With FAA Agency Suspects That Plane Was Retired to Hide It From Government Inspectors; Handling of Repairs Is Probed By ANDY PASZTOR American Airlines faces an escalating dispute with the Federal Aviation Administration over allegedly improper repairs to at least 16 aircraft. FAA officials suspect that one of those planes was abruptly retired to get it out of sight of government inspectors, according to people familiar with the details. A probe has stirred concerns about American's willingness to properly disclose potential safety flaws. Above, MD-80 jets at Dallas-Fort Worth last year. The probe, which began several months ago, has raised red flags at the FAA about the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier's willingness to properly disclose potential safety problems, these people said. It follows a string of clashes between the FAA and American, a unit of AMR Corp., over maintenance issues ranging from faulty emergency slides to engine parts with the wrong coatings. Those enforcement cases are continuing. The latest case is viewed as particularly serious because some FAA inspectors think the circumstances under which the airline suddenly chose to mothball one plane show the move was part of an effort to hide the extent of suspected defects. The plane was ferried to the New Mexico desert in March for storage, according to people familiar with the probe and company documents, which were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. About three weeks earlier, American's engineering paperwork showed the plane was slated for repairs to return it to service. But American didn't explicitly tell the FAA of its change in plans, these people said, and FAA officials didn't learn of it until after the fact. Carriers aren't obliged to promptly report plane retirements, but inspectors felt in this case they should have been informed. FAA press officials confirmed that the investigation into the repairs is continuing, but declined to provide details. The probe could result in millions of dollars in proposed fines or penalties. American spokesman Tim Wagner said "the FAA has provided American the opportunity to respond to its investigation, and we are in the process of doing so." He declined to elaborate, adding "we believe conversations outside of that process are inconsistent with FAA regulations." Without commenting on specifics of the retired plane, Mr. Wagner said allegations of impropriety "misrepresent the facts," adding that the FAA "has complete access to retired airplanes -- and it exercises that access frequently." According to Mr. Wagner, "all airlines have the authority to make decisions regarding the retirement of individual aircraft based on economic and competitive factors." The FAA's probe focuses on allegations that incorrect fasteners, improperly drilled holes, related poor workmanship and other maintenance lapses afflict a portion of American's aging fleet of MD-80 series jets, which the carrier is gradually replacing with more fuel-efficient planes. According to preliminary findings of FAA inspectors, at least 16 of the twin-engine planes were operated for months, and sometimes years, with potentially substandard repairs to cracks around rear pressure bulkheads, key structural parts that can cause rapid cabin decompression if they rupture. American is in the process of responding to a formal FAA "letter of investigation" spelling out the allegations. American's situation recalls Southwest Airlines Co.'s in the spring of 2008, when lawmakers revealed that a year earlier Southwest knowingly continued to carry passengers on 46 aircraft without performing essential safety inspections. Southwest subsequently said it got approval to do so from local FAA officials. In American's case, the carrier pulled the 16 planes from service once it realized repairs were needed. But some FAA officials fault it for waiting too long and then hurriedly retiring a plane already under FAA scrutiny. After flying the affected planes in early February into its Dallas and Tulsa, Okla., maintenance facilities, American told the FAA that it planned to retire a handful of them. The airline then listed 11 remaining MD-80s slated for permanent repairs in Tulsa, spelling out the instructions on an internal work order dated Feb. 12. The plane identified as #279 was on that list. But by the time FAA inspectors were on hand to assess the planes' condition and review repair plans, #279 had dropped off the repair list, said people familiar with the details. Engineering orders on Feb. 28 and March 2 laid out the work to be done on the rest of the jets, but didn't mention #279. After the FAA learned of the fate of aircraft #279, an inspector went to Roswell, N.M., to take photos of the fuselage and sections around the rear bulkhead, said people familiar with the matter. Several other FAA inspectors have made trips in recent month to examine different parts of American's retired MD-80 planes. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125202217345485091.html ************** CSSI wins $20M aviation safety contract Engineering and information technology research firm CSSI Inc. has won a $20.5 million contract with the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Organization (ATO) to provide services under its Safety Management Services contract. Under terms of the award, the D.C.-based company will develop safety policies and perform risk management, audit and quality control services. CSSI also will support the federal aviation organization's safety promotion initiatives such as training and organizational culture programs. The contract covers one year with four one-year options to extend the work. The contract reaches a total of $20.5 million if those options are exercised. CSSI, a small, woman-owned business, has worked with ATO in the past to develop its Air Traffic Safety Action Program, a non-punitive safety reporting system for air traffic controllers that tracks trends and is used to identify and resolve issues to improve safety systems. http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/08/31/daily51.html *************** Mexico Lifts Ban on In-flight Mobile Phone Use Mexico is the latest nation to lift the ban of in-flight phone use The U.S. still prohibits the use of mobile phones during flights, but Mexico and other nations are re-thinking similar rules. Citing the use of new technology, using mobile phones and other electronics immediately after take off and prior to landing no longer interferes with the cockpit's navigation system. The Mexican Communications and Transportation Department decided to lift the eight-year-old ban after discussing the topic with flight safety experts, engineers, pilots and flight crews, and passengers. It's still illegal to use phones while in-flight on all U.S. flights, but the European Union and other nations have lifted the ban. Furthermore, some airlines, including Malaysia Airlines, now offer services that give passengers the ability to receive and make calls from their phones. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials said lifting the ban is a topic they're actively discussing, but warn passengers they shouldn't get their hopes up any time soon. Politicians who supported the "Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace Act" said that even though they are against voice communication while in the air, the growing ability to use the Internet means voice chatter is inevitable. "The public doesn't want to be subjected to people talking on their cell phones on an already overpacked airplane," according to Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who was a strong supporter of the bill. "However, with Internet access http://www.dailytech.com/Mexico+Lifts+Ban+on+Inflight+Mobile+Phone+Use/artic le16144c.htm *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC