19 OCT 2009 _______________________________________ *India forces US jet to land *Michigan Pilot's Family Rejects Federal Findings in 2007 Crash *South Africa: Safety Steps Credited for Drop in Air Accidents *To Cut Costs, Airlines Send Repairs Abroad *Report: FAA expands American Airlines repair probe *$14 million settlement reached in case stemming from EMS copter crash *TSA may lift liquid ban next year *Gear failures under investigation **************************************** India forces US jet to land The chartered US military plane was cleared to resume its flight to Bangkok [EPA] Indian authorities have forced a US plane with more than 200 US marines on board to land in Mumbai for allegedly violating its airspace. The chartered North American Airlines jet was diverted to Mumbai's main airport while flying in Indian airspace on its way to Bangkok, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said, and only had civilian clearance from Indian authorities. The Indian air force after an investigation allowed the Boeing 767 to take-off and resume its journey. A US embassy official who declined to be named said he was aware of the situation and that the grounding was a "routine matter". "We are pleased that we were able to resolve this procedural matter in an expeditious fashion, and appreciate the assistance and cooperation of Indian authorities," said the official, who did not give details on the confusion. Pilots use a call sign to identify themselves and confirm that they are authorised to enter a country's airspace. The PTI news agency said the chartered plane came from the Middle East with 205 marine commandos, all of whom stayed on the aircraft pending official clearance. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/10/200910192134221459.html ************** Michigan Pilot's Family Rejects Federal Findings in 2007 Crash The wife of the pilot of a 2007 medical flight that crashed into Lake Michigan, killing all six aboard, said that the family has rejected the National Transportation Safety Board's findings on the crash and will launch its own investigation. The NTSB last week said Capt. Bill Serra, who was flying the twin-engine Cessna from Milwaukee to Michigan, mishandled an unusual flight situation and was unable to properly coordinate with his first officer. But Debbie Serra told The Associated Press that the family believes mechanical and design problems caused the crash, and that the NTSB was searching for scapegoats. "It's not ended. The NTSB has just finished their investigation. Our's begins now,'' said Serra, of Macomb Township, about 25 miles northeast of Detroit. She said the family has retained an attorney and will seek to question some of the same people interviewed by the NTSB. Serra and her family earlier had released a statement outlining its position on the federal probe. The statement was first provided to The Detroit News. Keith Holloway, an NTSB spokesman, said the board had no comment on the family's statement but stood by its findings. A four-member medical crew affiliated with the University of Michigan was on board, as well as human organs for transplant. Bill Serra was a pilot for more than 30 years and earned the respect of passengers and other pilots, his widow said. "I just can't believe they speak so badly about these pilots,'' Debbie Serra said. She said allegations that her husband did something wrong were not backed up by sworn testimony, and that favorable statements about him from other company pilots were not presented at this week's hearing. Besides faulting Serra and first officer Dennis Hoyes, the NTSB said that a culture of lax security by flight operator Marlin Air contributed to the crash. The board also cited the failure of the Federal Aviation Administration to detect and correct deficiencies of the company. A telephone listing for Marlin Air's offices in Michigan wasn't working Friday. The safety board cited the checkered history of Serra, and faulted Marlin Air for not being aware that in two separate incidents, Serra's pilot's license was temporarily revoked. He had been convicted of using a plane to smuggle drugs into the United States. In response, the pilot's family noted the NTSB was aware Serra was allowed to re-earn his pilot's license. "Capt. Serra's legal troubles occurred almost 30 years ago and were the tragic result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,'' the family's statement said. "He chose not to mount an aggressive defense after his wife and children received specific death threats related to his cooperation with the prosecution.'' http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/midwest/2009/10/19/104601.htm **************** South Africa: Safety Steps Credited for Drop in Air Accidents Johannesburg - THE number of aircraft accidents reported this year has dropped significantly since last year when 23 people died in a spate of accidents in September and October. The drop was largely the result of the past year's intervention by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and other industry bodies to improve safety . T his year only a little more than 80 accidents have been recorded, two of which involved large aircraft. Last year more than 140 accidents were reported, 13 involving large aircraft. Colin Jordaan, CEO and commissioner of the CAA, speaking at the third n ational s afety s eminar held in Kempton Park on Friday, praised the industry for taking up the challenge and instituting numerous initiatives to control the number of accidents. These included the general aviation strategic initiative committee that was set up to respond to the findings of accident investigations. In probing the cause of accidents, delegate after delegate agreed that human error played a major role. Gaoussou Konate, regional director of safety operations and infrastructure at the International Air Transport Association, said 50% of accidents were related to aircraft handling errors followed by procedural errors (45%), communication errors ( 18%) and incapacitation or fatigue ( less than 5%). Veteran airline pilot Scully Levin said many accidents are attributable to human factors. "Poor decision- making by pilots is often the cause. Moreover, poor judg ment chains are not recognised and then broken timeously. "In addition, single pilot operations depend on one lone pilot to manage risk, thus increasing the level of risk." Levin said one way to address this was to provide more training and supervision for general aviation pilots. "There is not the same support that you get in the South African Air Force or in the airlines." Rennie van Zyl, the CAA's acting executive of accident and incident investigations, said that there were no new causes of accidents but a global repetition of causes. "What we have observed is that it is only the circumstances that may vary." In a bid to strengthen and assert its independence from the CAA, the Department of Transport would soon begin setting up a separate aviation accident investigation unit. The unit would appoint a chairman later this year to head the board. http://allafrica.com/stories/200910190106.html ************** To Cut Costs, Airlines Send Repairs Abroad Shortly before sunrise on Jan. 23, 2009, passengers on US Airways Flight 518, who were flying from Omaha to Phoenix, were startled by a terrifying shriek. The pressure seal around the main cabin door was failing, and that shriek was the sound of air leaking through. The plane diverted to Denver. Everybody was safe. But that and other recent malfunctions affecting US Airways planes, which NPR is reporting for the first time, raise questions about a controversial and growing practice at most U.S. airlines: The industry is sending 1 of every 5 planes to developing countries, from Central America to Asia, when the planes need to be overhauled and repaired. In the weeks before the door seal started to fail, US Airways had sent that Boeing 737 to be overhauled at Aeroman, a repair company in El Salvador. And mechanics installed a key part on the door - a "snubber" - backward. Mechanics at Aeroman first told NPR about the incident. David Seymour, a senior vice president at US Airways, later confirmed the details. He says the plane made the unscheduled landing merely as "a precautionary" measure - but he acknowledges that the Federal Aviation Administration issued violations against both Aeroman and US Airways for lapses in maintenance and oversight. "US Airways takes safety as our top priority," Seymour says. "It's first and foremost in anything that we do, and we never sacrifice safety in any way, shape or form." Aircraft Maintenance Beyond U.S. Borders Outsourcing Maintenance The globalization of airline maintenance is a remarkable reversal. Until just a few years ago, America's airlines maintained most of their own planes. The FAA requires airlines to overhaul every plane roughly every two years or less, and small armies of mostly union mechanics at the airlines did the work. But that was before 2002 - when US Airways filed for bankruptcy, American Airlines slashed flights, and other airlines teetered at the brink. Since then, airlines have been trying to survive by cutting back on any expenses they can control - including the little bags of peanuts. One of the biggest areas airlines can cut costs is maintenance. Consider this: If an airline fixes its own planes in the U.S., it spends up to $100 per hour for every union mechanic, including overhead and other expenses, according to industry analysts. The airline spends roughly half as much at an independent, non-union shop in America. And it spends only a third as much in a developing country, such as El Salvador. Outsourcing Aircraft Maintenance Nine major air carriers reviewed by the FAA's inspector general sent 71 percent of their heavy airframe maintenance checks to outside repair stations in 2007, up from 34 percent in 2003. Foreign repair stations got 19 percent of these major maintenance jobs in 2007. The work includes complete teardowns of aircraft. Source: FAA Inspector General, Aeronautical Repair Station Association Since the airline crisis hit seven years ago, the statistics have flip-flopped: The industry is now sending most of its planes to be overhauled and fixed at private repair shops both in the U.S. and overseas. And roughly 20 percent of planes are going to facilities in developing countries, according to industry surveys. The Mechanics Of Repair Industry analysts say there are roughly 700 FAA-approved repair companies in other countries - including repair shops in Argentina, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Kenya, China and Indonesia. The Aeroman company in El Salvador is becoming one of the more popular, drawing business from US Airways, JetBlue, Frontier, Southwest and other U.S. airlines. The way the system works, the airlines fly empty planes needing an overhaul to Aeroman's hangars at the international airport near the capital, San Salvador. Salvadoran mechanics strip the inside of the plane down to the bare metal. They fix cracks and rust and bad wiring. Then they put everything back together, and the plane is flown back to the U.S. When people hear that U.S. airlines are getting their planes fixed in developing countries, they often raise their eyebrows and ask, "Should I worry?" Industry analysts say there's no reason for concern because Aeroman and other foreign companies are doing a great job. "Over the last 10 years, we've seen a significant growth" in the use of foreign repair companies, says Kevin Michaels, director of consulting firm AeroStrategy. "At the same time, air travel has become significantly safer. If this were compromising safety, I suspect we would have seen it by now." The last time a U.S. airliner crashed because of maintenance mistakes was in 2003 - and that plane had been maintained in the U.S. Questioning The FAA's Oversight Investigating Airline Repairs This 2008 report by the inspector general at the Department of Transportation warned that FAA and industry inspectors are not monitoring airplane maintenance work properly. Air Carriers' Outsourcing Of Aircraft Maintenance(PDF)Peggy Gilligan, the FAA's associate administrator for aviation safety, says one reason there hasn't been a crash since then is "that there are lots of eyes looking at work that's done on aircraft, and lots of checks and balances to see that the work is being completed properly." When a U.S. airline sends planes to a repair shop, whether in the U.S. or another country, the work is supposed to be supervised by FAA-certified mechanics, and then checked by inspectors with the repair company, the airline and the FAA. But the inspector general at the Department of Transportation has investigated those checks and balances, and has repeatedly warned over the past six years that FAA and industry inspectors are not monitoring the work the way they should. His reports are written in the dry bureaucratic language of Washington, D.C., but they add up to a scathing critique of the way the FAA monitors the foreign repair industry - or fails to. For instance, his 2008 report declared: "FAA still does not have comprehensive data on how much and where outsourced maintenance is performed." Translation: The FAA does not require airlines to report exactly where they send their aircraft for which kinds of repairs. So, FAA inspectors are not sure which of the roughly 700 foreign repair shops they should inspect. "There is no standard for all FAA offices regarding initial inspector visits, which can cause safety issues to go unchecked." Translation: The FAA's inspectors didn't even show up at some foreign repair stations to monitor their work for as long as three to five years. "Problems existed [at foreign repair stations that the inspector general investigated], such as untrained mechanics, lack of required tools and unsafe storage of aircraft parts." FAA officials told the inspector general they would correct those problems. "He has made recommendations that FAA improve its oversight, and we take those recommendations seriously," says Gilligan of the FAA. But so far, FAA officials have not put those changes in place. "These findings are very, very disturbing," says John Goglia, a former presidential appointee on the National Transportation Safety Board. "We don't know what's going on in those facilities [foreign repair companies]. If we're not monitoring them properly, how do we know it's safe?" Goglia says the fact that there have been so few crashes in recent years masks a troubling trend that the public can't see as airlines have been slashing costs. "The margin of safety is getting thinner," he says. "The absence of an accident doesn't mean you're safe. We should be monitoring and doing our job before there's an accident, not after." http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113877784 **************** Report: FAA expands American Airlines repair probe (AP) The Federal Aviation Administration may be expanding its investigation into suspected structural problems found in a small portion of American Airlines jets, according to the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper reported Saturday that at least one of the Fort Worth-based airline's McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series jets was believed to be in such poor shape that it was ferried without passengers to a maintenance base at low altitudes to avoid stressing the fuselage by pressurizing it. It cited unnamed people familiar with the matter. American Airlines officials could not be reached by phone or by e-mail for comment Saturday afternoon by The Associated Press. But American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner told the newspaper the carrier has responded to the agency's formal "letter of investigation." Wagner also told the Journal that any actions or precautions taken earlier this year "whether airplane movements or repairs, were done with the highest level of safety in mind." American, a unit of AMR Corp., is slowly replacing the MD-80s with new, more fuel-efficient planes while it reduces capacity, or the number of flights, to deal with a decline in air travel. Last month, an FAA official said regulators were investigating repairs to the rear bulkhead of aircraft in the aging fleet. The Journal also reported Saturday that preliminary FAA findings showed as many as 16 jets that were operated for months despite substandard repairs. Airplanes expand and contract as the cabin is pressurized for flight and then depressurized. That can lead to metal fatigue that requires close monitoring and sometimes repairs, especially around the rear bulkhead. As of May, American had 270 MD-80 series jets, or 44 percent of its fleet, according to the company's Web site. *************** $14 million settlement reached in case stemming from EMS copter crash BROWNSVILLE - A multimillion-dollar settlement has been reached with family members of a flight nurse and a paramedic who died last year when an emergency medical services helicopter crashed into the Laguna Madre, an Austin-area law firm announced. The $14 million settlement resolves a lawsuit that family members of Raul Garcia, 40, and Michael Sanchez, 39, filed against Metro Aviation Inc., the company that operated the Eurocopter AS350, and South Texas Emergency Care Foundation, according to a statement released Friday by the Rosenthal & Watson, a law firm representing the families of Garcia and Sanchez. Representatives of Metro Aviation, which was operating out of Harlingen as Valley AirCare, and South Texas Emergency Care Foundation could not be reached for comment. The Harlingen-based foundation is a community-owned nonprofit organization that provides emergency medical services in the Harlingen area. Valley AirCare is its air medical division. The helicopter crashed in the Laguna Madre near South Padre Island the night of Feb. 5, 2008, killing Garcia, Sanchez and pilot Robert Goss, 55. Investigators recovered the aircraft's fuselage three days after the crash, about 2.5 miles west of the South Padre Island Convention Centre. "No amount of money will ever fairly compensate the Garcia and Sanchez families for their devastating losses," lead plaintiff's attorney Marc Rosenthal said in his firm's statement. "The families wanted full disclosure of the errors that resulted in the deaths of these local heroes and full accountability for the persons and companies responsible." The National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause as "the pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control resulting in the helicopter impacting the water. "Factors contributing to the accident were the pilot's inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological conditions, and the low ceiling, dark night conditions, and the pilot's lack of recent instrument flying experience." According to National Weather Service reports, sustained winds ranged from 25 to 30 mph on the night of the crash, with gusts up to 40 mph. A fog bank over the lagoon near the landing zone also hampered visibility, according to the law firm. Aviation expert Arthur B. Childers, of Aviation Safety and Analysis, testified in a deposition that the pilot experienced spatial disorientation after encountering low clouds near the landing area. According to Rosenthal & Watson, Goss had little experience operating a helicopter using instruments as a means of navigation rather than sight, even though Metro Aviation had a policy requiring monthly instrument training sessions. "Despite this policy requiring instrument proficiency . Harlingen was one of the only three Metro Aviation Bases that had no monthly instrument proficiency training program," Rosenthal said. "Harlingen was the only Metro Aviation base that employed seasonal pilots. Harlingen did not have night-vision goggles for its pilots. All of these played a role in the crash of Air Care One." As a result of the crash, the law firm says, Metro Aviation implemented changes to enhance safety when conducting operations in the South Padre Island area. The changes included improved instrument proficiency training and the requirement that night-vision goggles be provided to all pilots. The company has also forbidden open-water approaches, requiring all pilots to follow the Queen Isabella Memorial Bridge to enhance visual reference, and pilots have been instructed to turn down flights if weather conditions, ceilings or visibility are at minimum safety thresholds, the news release states. http://www.themonitor.com/articles/million-31667-brownsville-reached.html **************** TSA may lift liquid ban next year The US Transport Security Administration's (TSA) restriction on liquids in hand-carry bags may be lifted as early next year. TSA director global policy and programmes Ann Zipser told the ALTA 2009 Airline Leaders Forum in Cartagena that the agency aims to have a technology "sometime next year" that can detect what's inside every liquid. She says once the new technology is introduced, TSA's ban on liquids that can't fit in containers of 3oz or less "will go away". "The solution will be technology quite frankly," Zipser told the forum's customer experience panel. The panel, which also included a representative of Airports Council International, debated the best solutions for reducing customer queues at check-in, security and immigration. They also discussed why security rules varied so widely across the Americas, confusing passengers. "There is a big movement to harmonize security," Zipser promised. "It's not going to happen tomorrow. We're working on it." She adds: "It has to be standardized. There has to be harmonization between countries. It's an effort that's ongoing." Source: Air Transport Intelligence news **************** Gear failures under investigation The US NTSB continues to investigate two landing gear failures that occurred on commercial aircraft in September, one on a Southwest 737-300 (N670SW) on 8 September and the other on a Continental 767-400 (N66051) on 17 September. In a preliminary report issued Wednesday, the NTSB revealed that the Continental jet, which was preparing to depart Newark for Frankfurt with 235 passengers and crew on board, experienced a "circumferential fracture" on the truck beam of the left main landing gear. Passengers were deplaned using air stairs on the taxiway after the engines were shut down. Investigators say the beam "had broken into two large sections" and there was evidence that its aft drain hole was clogged, raising the possibility that trapped water had frozen and expanded on previous flights, initiating the failure. The landing gear was 9.1 years old and had accumulated 6,062 cycles since new, according to the report. The other landing gear incident involved a Southwest 737 that was landing in Los Angeles after a flight from Las Vegas with 144 passengers and crew on board. According to the preliminary report, the twin-jet's inboard axle on the right main landing gear fractured during the landing, causing the inboard wheel and brake to separate from the aircraft along the runway. Pilots taxied the plane from the main runway and deplaned the passengers using air stairs on the taxiway. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news **************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC