28 SEP 2009 _______________________________________ *NTSB Investigating Crash Of Fatal Heli-Med Flight *Feds: No sign of pre-crash 'copter failure, damage *Engine problems for Singapore Airlines jet *Passenger Jet Makes Emergency Landing After Losing Cabin Pressure *Pilots report more than 900 laser contacts in 2008 *Airlines to keep restricting carry-on liquids *Naverus gets FAA approval to design new U.S. airline flight paths *3 unruly passengers divert flight to SFO **************************************** NTSB Investigating Crash Of Fatal Heli-Med Flight AS350B2 Accident Kills Three In South Carolina A Friday evening medical helicopter crash has claimed the lives of three people, all crew persons associated with Omniflight Helicopters, operating locally as Carolina Lifecare. Omniflight has released the names of the crew members on board the American Eurocopter AS350B2 helicopter, which took off from the Charleston, SC, airport at approximately 2308 PM, ET on Friday, September 25, 2009, and crashed shortly after takeoff 63 miles southwest of Conway, SC. IFR conditions were reported at a near by airport when the aircraft diverted just prior to the crash. A patient had been onboard the aircraft earlier and dropped off prior to the accident. All three people on board were fatally injured in the tragic accident including Patrick Walters, 45, pilot; Diana Conner, 42, flight nurse; and Randolph Claxton Dove, 39, flight paramedic. The aircraft was headed to Conway, S.C. (where the aircraft is based) and was reported missing shortly after take-off from the Charleston, S.C. airport. A search was initiated shortly after the aircraft failed to report in to Omniflight's communications center. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) representatives are at the scene where company officials are also present. The company is working closely with the NTSB as they conduct a full investigation. Omniflight has issued a statement in which it reports that it, "is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of its crew members and wishes to express its deepest regrets and sincerest condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives." NTSB Statement The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash of a medical emergency services helicopter near Georgetown, South Carolina. The Eurocopter AS-350 B2 (N417AE) helicopter crashed at about 11:30 p.m. ET on Friday during a positioning flight after dropping off a patient in Charleston about two hours earlier. All three people on board were fatally injured. NTSB Air Safety Investigator Todd Gunther has been designated as Investigator-in-Charge and is traveling to the scene. NTSB Board Member Robert Sumwalt will serve as principal spokesman during the on-scene investigation. FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.omniflight.com aero-news.net *************** Feds: No sign of pre-crash 'copter failure, damage GEORGETOWN, S.C.(AP) - Nothing indicates that a medical helicopter malfunctioned before it crashed in coastal South Carolina, killing all three crew members on board, a federal official said Sunday. National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said all major portions of the aircraft were accounted for, and that none of those parts showed anything was wrong before it went down Friday night. The engine seemed to have been working at the time of impact and the recovered tail rotor showed no signs it failed, Sumwalt said. "If there had been damage, it might indicate that it had frozen up in flight," he said. "But at this point, it is completely free-moving. So it would indicate that it was turning as it should have been at the time of the crash." The helicopter had just dropped off a patient at a hospital in Charleston and was flying to Conway, about 90 miles to the northeast, when it crashed about 11:30 p.m. in Georgetown County, said Peter Knudson, an NTSB spokesman. Omniflight, a Texas-based company which operated the helicopter, identified the crew members killed as: pilot Patrick Walters, 45, of Murrells Inlet; flight nurse Diana Conner, 42, of Florence; and paramedic Randolph Claxton Dove, 39, of Bladenboro, N.C. The helicopter went down about 20 to 30 feet off a logging road in the midst of some pine trees in a sparsely populated area. Sumwalt described the crash site as small. The crash left a 3-foot crater in the soft ground. While all three rotor blades were recovered, one of the blades was buried about 2 feet. Wreckage was laid on a couple of tarps adjacent to the crash site. Sumwalt said the helicopter had flown between two intense thunderstorms and it was raining when it crashed. He could not say if the conditions were a factor. "We will certainly be looking at weather as it may have related to this accident," he said. "But we're looking at a lot of factors." Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said Saturday that the pilot last radioed air traffic control at 11:05 p.m., saying the crew was about four miles from an airport near Charleston and had it in sight. Investigators will probably be able to finish their work in the next several days, Sumwalt said. The wreckage will be moved to a salvage facility, and officials will go over maintenance records and pilot training records. A preliminary report could be issued in the next 10 to 12 days, with all information available in about six months. The crash occurred more than seven months after a four-day public hearing into the safety of air ambulance flights. One day before the crash, the NTSB issued 21 recommendations to help improve safety. NTSB records show there were nine fatal helicopter ambulance accidents between December 2007 and October 2008, killing 35 people. "We don't want to see any more accidents like this," Sumwalt said. **************** Engine problems for Singapore Airlines jet SINGAPORE (AFP)- A Singapore Airlines plane carrying 444 passengers from Paris to Singapore was forced to return to the French capital at the weekend because of engine problems, the carrier said Monday. The problem on the Airbus A380 jet was detected around two and a half hours into flight SQ333 out of Paris on Sunday afternoon, it said. "An engine message was reported in the cockpit and following checklist procedures, the affected engine was shut down," an airline spokesman told AFP. "While the aircraft is able to operate with three engines, the pilots decided to return to Paris as a precaution due to the long flight." It said the plane was set to undergo an engine change in Paris and that stranded passengers would be put on other flights. Singapore Airlines was the first carrier to use the A380. It flies the world's biggest passenger jet from its home base in Singapore to Melbourne, Sydney, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, as well as Paris. The so-called superjumbo can carry up to 853 passengers but Singapore Airlines has chosen a setup with a maximum 471 seats. **************** Passenger Jet Makes Emergency Landing After Losing Cabin Pressure OMAHA, Neb. - A Continental Airlines flight from Houston landed safely at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Neb., after the pilot reported losing cabin pressure. The Embraer regional jet left George Bush Intercontinental Airport around 2:40 p.m. Thursday and was about 20 minutes from Omaha when it started having problems. The plane continued to Eppley, where it landed on time, around 4:45 p.m. A spokeswoman for Houston-based Continental referred questions to Express Jet, which was contracted to operate Flight 2278. Express Jet spokeswoman Kristy Nicholas said Friday that the plane's automatic pressurization system failed and oxygen masks were released for passengers' use. The three-person crew manually activated an emergency pressurization system. Nicholas said the plane wouldn't have lost altitude in such a situation, but the 49 passengers on board likely felt popping in their ears. One woman suffered bleeding from her ears and was treated at the airport, she said. Express Jet is investigating the cause of the problem. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,555660,00.html *************** Pilots report more than 900 laser contacts in 2008 Pilots flying over Massachusetts reported seeing laser beams flashed in their direction eight times during 2008, with the rays hitting everything from commercial airliners landing at Logan International Airport to a State Police helicopter to the blimp floating over a Red Sox playoff game, according to a review of Federal Aviation Administration data. The FAA takes all such incidents very seriously, officials said, because of the potential that pilots might be temporarily blinded by the beams. "Lasers can temporarily impair pilots' vision while they are in the critical landing or takeoff phases of flight," said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the FAA's western region, an area that has seen a large number of laser contacts. Nationwide, during 2008, there were more than 900 reports by pilots of laser beams illuminating their planes, according to an FAA database obtained by the Globe. The Transportation Department announced in January 2005, after a rash of such incidents, that it was requiring pilots to immediately report laser contacts to air traffic controllers, who would then notify law enforcement. "You don't want a pilot to be incapacitated," said FAA national office spokeswoman Laura Brown. "The message is: Do not shine laser lights at airplanes. You face federal prosecution and time in jail if you're caught doing this." In several cases, pilots have reported being temporarily visually impaired and, in some instances, they have had to turn control over to a co-pilot or abort their landing. There have been no accidents or permanent injuries from the laser contacts, however, the officials said. Gregor said he didn't know why people point lasers at airplanes, but he noted that some of those arrested in the incidents had been consuming alcohol and others were teenagers. He said some contacts could also be accidents caused by amateur astronomers who use lasers to help them aim their telescopes or to point out constellations. Laser contact reports have been on the rise nationally recently, he said, with more than 730 reported through July of this year, though it's not clear if more pilots are reporting or if more people are actually pointing lasers into the sky. California was the leader in laser contact reports in 2008, with 276. Massachusetts was near the middle of the pack. In Alaska, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and West Virginia, there was only one report listed on the database. The vast majority of the pilots reported seeing green lasers. Gregor said green lasers can typically be seen at a greater distance than red lasers and their price has gone down in recent years. The Massachusetts cases included several incidents in which people pointed lasers at planes at Boston's Logan International Airport. Someone also pointed a laser at a State Police helicopter flying over the Six Flags theme park on July 14, 2008, and someone shone a laser at a blimp about a quarter-mile west of Fenway Park during an American League Championship series game on Oct. 13, 2008. In March of this year, someone also beamed a laser at an American Airlines jet that was taxiing after landing at Logan in March. A Medford man was charged after allegedly shining a laser into a State Police helicopter that was escorting a liquefied natural gas tanker into Boston Harbor in December 2007. "I don't know whether people who engage in this kind of irresponsible behavior are ignorant or malicious or both," said Gregor. "People have been arrested all over the country for shining lasers at aircraft." http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/09/planes_report_m.html **************** Airlines to keep restricting carry-on liquids Air travelers counting down the days to the end of rules restricting carry-on liquids - the ones that force you to carry everything in little bottles - will need to keep counting for a while. Although airline safety officials had hoped to relieve passengers of the onus of putting their liquids in little bottles this year, it looks like it will be a while longer. Last October, the chief of the Transportation Security Administration cheerfully predicted that "within a year" the agency would have installed new technology in scanning machines that would allow it to drop the 3-year-old rules. And TSA spokesman Christopher White was widely quoted last fall as saying, "We're confident it's going to happen in 2009." Well, it's been a year, and the TSA has backed away from former administrator Kip Hawley's statement. The TSA now has no timeline set for when the rules will go away, said spokeswoman Andrea McCauley. The problem is the complex algorithm that the enhanced machines will use to look at liquids. The plan was to have the machines set to be able to distinguish explosives from normal liquids and gels. The agency continues to tweak the computers to be able to make the process work. But it's slow going to get everything right so it can be rolled out around the system, McCauley said. If the TSA gets the system working, passengers would be allowed to bring liquids of any size through security checkpoints, though initially passengers still would be required to remove the liquids from their bags to be scanned separately from other items. Later, the TSA envisioned that passengers would be able to keep the liquids in their carry-on bags, perhaps as soon as 2010. As of today, the rules limit liquids, aerosols and gels to 3.4 ounces (it's a metric system conversion used to conform with the way other countries measure liquid volumes) for carry-on luggage. The TSA wants the containers in clear, plastic bags. The rules have been in place since August 2006 after British terrorism officials thwarted what they said was a plan to use liquid explosives to take down airliners, though some reports since then have questioned how strong a threat existed from liquid bombs. Passengers have gotten pretty good at the liquids drill, TSA's McCauley said. At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the TSA has free clear plastic bags at some checkpoints to help passengers, though the rules still trip up infrequent fliers. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-TSA_28bus.ART.Sta te.Edition1.3cf5cc5.html *************** Naverus gets FAA approval to design new U.S. airline flight paths Kent-based Naverus received Federal Aviation Administration approval Friday to design and validate flight paths for use by airlines at U.S. airports. Kent-based Naverus, a pioneer in developing new satellite-based airplane navigation technology used to guide aircraft and streamline air traffic patterns around airports, received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval Friday to design and validate flight paths for use by airlines at U.S. airports. The company has already developed flight paths for specific airlines and aircraft, known as "private use" of the technology, in the U.S. Elsewhere in the world - including China, Australia and Central and South America - Naverus has developed more widely used procedures. With the approval, which follows a two-year process of developing oversight rules, Naverus can develop U.S. airport procedures for use by any airplane equipped with the latest navigation technology. It will allow the company to play a role in accelerating the FAA's proposed modernization of the U.S. air traffic system, known as NextGen. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009943488_webnaver us25.html **************** 3 unruly passengers divert flight to SFO San Francisco -- An American Airlines flight headed to Tokyo was diverted to San Francisco International Airport this afternoon after three passengers became "unruly," airport officials said. Flight 61, which took off from Dallas Forth Worth International Airport at 12:20 p.m., landed at SFO around 3:30, airport duty manager Jeff Littlefield said. Crew members decided to divert the Tokyo Narita International Airport-bound flight after three passengers "engaged in unruly behavior," according to Littlefield. "They were pulled off and the flight continued on its way," he said. The three problem passengers were questioned by the FBI and local police, he added. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/26/BAD419TC7L.DTL&t sp=1 *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC