30 OCT 2009 _______________________________________ *Plane, helicopter collide off California coast; 9 missing *Search Is On For Mid-Air Collision Survivors In Calif. *Lockheed C130 Midair (California) *Cockpit distractions go beyond laptops *Cessna 208A Accident (Brazil) *************************************** Plane, helicopter collide off California coast; 9 missing (CNN) -- A search was on Thursday night for nine people left missing after a Coast Guard plane collided with a Marine helicopter over the Pacific Ocean near Southern California, officials said. Rescuers were combing the area where the collision occurred, aviation officials said. A pilot reported seeing a fireball about 7:10 p.m. near the crash site, which is about 25 miles east of San Clemente Island. FAA officials said a Coast Guard C-130 plane carrying seven people collided with a Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra helicopter carrying two people. U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Josh Nelson confirmed that the collision occurred and said a large rescue team from the Navy and Coast Guard were in the area "We are throwing everything we can at this right now. We are looking for survivors," Nelson said. "They have seen debris is in the water." Weather conditions were aiding the search, he added. "The winds are calm, the seas are calm and we are using night-vision goggles," Nelson said. "The search conditions are ideal." *************** Search Is On For Mid-Air Collision Survivors In Calif. (AP) The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said. The crash was reported at 7:10 p.m. Thursday, about 50 miles off the San Diego County coast and 15 miles east of San Clemente Island, Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Allyson Conroy said. A pilot reported seeing a fireball near where the aircraft collided, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said, and the Coast Guard informed the FAA that debris from a C-130 had been spotted. Seven people were on board the plane, a C-130, and two people were aboard the helicopter, he said. Cpl Michael Stevens, a spokesman for the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, said the AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter was on a training mission when it went down. The Cobra and its crew are part of Marine Aircraft Group 39, based at Camp Pendleton, and the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, which is headquartered at Miramar, Stevens said. The missing Coast Guard plane and its crew are from Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento, said Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Jetta Disco. Crews from the Sacramento Coast Guard station fly search-and-rescue, law enforcement and logistics missions, Disco said. The Coast Guard planned to search through the night, having sent three cutters and diverting an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter to the area to search for survivors. The Navy, meanwhile, sent four vessels and multiple helicopters. "The search condition are ideal for tonight," Lt. Josh Nelson of the Coast Guard told XETV in San Diego. "We've got a clear sky, the winds are calm, the seas are calm, and we have a lot of assets out there." San Clemente Island is the southernmost of the eight Channel Islands located 68 nautical miles west of San Diego. The Navy has owned and trained at San Clemente Island since 1934, according to the island's Web site. Naval Air Station, North Island is responsible for the island's administration. Earlier this week, it was an AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter that collided with a UH-1 helicopter over southern Afghanistan, killing four American troops and wounding two more, a Marine spokesman said. ************** Lockheed C130 Midair (California) Status: Preliminary Date: 29 OCT 2009 Time: 19:10 Type: Lockheed C-130 Hercules Operator: United States Coast Guard Registration: C/n / msn: First flight: Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: 7 Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants: 0 Total: Fatalities: / Occupants: 7 Airplane damage: Missing Location: 24 km (15 mls) E off San Clemente Island, CA (United States of America) Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: Military Departure airport: Sacramento-McClellan AFB, CA (MCC/KMCC), United States of America Destination airport: ? Narrative: Preliminary information indicates that a midair collision occurred off the California coast between a US Marine Corps Bell AH-1 Cobra and a US Coast Guard C-130 transport plane. There were seven people on board the C-130 and two on the helicopter, (aviation-safety.net) **************** Cockpit distractions go beyond laptops By Alan Levin, USA TODAY The laptops that triggered two Northwest Airlines pilots to fly 91 minutes without talking to the ground may be relatively new technology, but distractions in the cockpit have led to accidents and incidents since the dawn of aviation. As lawmakers and federal regulators called this week for banning laptops and certain other electronic devices in airline cockpits, experts who study why pilots make mistakes said the problem may be much more fundamental: People don't multitask very well. Distractions ranging from a disgruntled passenger to a burned-out light bulb have been behind scores of crashes, according to federal accident reports and researchers. "This has been recognized for decades now," said John Lauber, a former NASA researcher in human behavior who also served as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The pilots on Northwest Flight 188, which initially flew past its destination of Minneapolis on Oct. 21, told the NTSB that they were working on a new airline-issued computer program and didn't realize they had flown so far without talking to air-traffic controllers. Distractions have been involved in numerous other airline accidents. The distractions range from frivolous conversations to pilots becoming overwhelmed by regular duties. Examples: • On Dec. 28, 1978, 10 people died when a United Airlines jet ran out of fuel and crashed in Portland. The pilots were so focused on diagnosing a problem with the landing gear that they forgot to monitor their fuel, the NTSB found. • On Aug. 27, 2006, pilots on a Comair regional jet tried to take off from a dark, closed runway in Lexington, Ky. The runway was too short, and the jet hit trees and burst into flames, killing 49 of the 50 people aboard. The NTSB concluded that the pilots' conversation about seeking other jobs contributed to the error. Though he could not comment on the Northwest pilots, Key Dismukes, a NASA aviation researcher in human behavior, said that increasingly automated aircraft make distractions a potentially greater problem. Modern jets can fly for hours without any input from pilots, making distractions seem less critical. "It's not astonishing to me at all that people get absorbed in a task and lose track of time and where they are," Dismukes said. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-10-30-pilot-distractions_N.htm *************** Cessna 208A Accident (Brazil) Date: 29 OCT 2009 Time: ca 09:15 Type: Cessna 208A Caravan I (C-98) Operator: Força Aérea Brasileira Registration: FAB-2701 C/n / msn: 208-00052 First flight: Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: 4 Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants: 7 Total: Fatalities: / Occupants: 11 Airplane damage: Missing Location: between Cruzeiro do Sul, AC and Tabatinga, AM (Brazil) Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: Military Departure airport: Cruzeiro do Sul-Campo Internacional Airport, AC (CZS/SBCZ), Brazil Destination airport: Tabatinga Internacional Airport, AM (TBT/SBTT), Brazil Narrative: The Air Force Command announced that an aircraft C-98 Caravan disappeared during a flight between the cities of Cruzeiro do Sul (AC) and Tabatinga (AM). The aircraft had 11 people on board and was in support of the mission of vaccination of the Ministry of Health. (aviation-safety.net) *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC