30 NOV 2009 _______________________________________ *MD-11 Down In China *NTSB Assists China In Aviation Accident Investigation *U.S. to Probe China Cargo Plane Crash *'Black box' found in Shanghai plane crash *Glitch forces super-jumbo to return to New York *FAA turned down Boeing 777 warnings: report *ALPA Welcomes House Committee Call to Regulate Lithium Battery Shipments *Pilots Were 'Distracted,' Transcripts Show *Updated EU blacklist adds all carriers from Djibouti, Congo and Sao Tome *Yemen airline not banned in EU despite crash *Transport Canada delays new airline-safety system *Report: FAA accused of 'gross mismanagement' at Newark airport *************************************** crash in shanghai MD-11 Down In China At Least Three Fatalities Reported On Freighter Current reports indicate that the aircraft was crewed by seven people and that four have survived the accident with injuries. The accident occurred on takeoff at 0816 local time, while departing from Shanghai Pudong International Airport's Runway 35R, bound for Kyrgyzstan. Flight Z3324 went off the end of the runway, with no reported injuries to those on the ground but has been "disintegrated in flames" and is considered a writeoff. The MD-11F is reported to be a new aircraft for Avient (reportedly registered as Z-BAV) and was only recently introduced to Avient's Boeing-centric fleet. The airframe was built in 1991 and was added in order to be an initial step in upgrading an aging fleet of DC-10s. This airframe also saw service for Korean Air and Varig. The Avient website reports that, "An Avient Aviation operated aircraft was involved in an accident at approximate 00:16 GMT today while the aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD11 Freighter, was operating a charter freight flight from Pudong International Airport in China. Preliminary information indicates that the accident occurred on takeoff from Pudong International Airport. The aircraft was carrying a crew of 7. At this time, the full resources of Avient's accident response team have been mobilized and will be devoted to cooperating with all authorities responding to the accident." Avient is a freight operation with headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe, and additional offices in the UK - operating a fleet of owned aircraft and trucks that provide operations in Africa, Asia and Europe. Operations reportedly encompass 34 different countries with over 55 branches and 130 reception points worldwide. The current aircraft fleet includes DC-10-30Fs, leased 727-200Fs and an IL-76. FMI: www.avient.aero aero-news.net ***** Status: Preliminary Date: 28 NOV 2009 Time: 08:14 Type: McDonnell Douglas MD-11F Operator: Avient Aviation Registration: Z-BAV C/n / msn: 48408/457 First flight: 1990 Engines: 3 Pratt & Whitney PW4460 Crew: Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 7 Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0 Total: Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 7 Airplane damage: Destroyed Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Shanghai-Pudong International Airport (PVG) (China) Phase: Takeoff (TOF) Nature: Cargo Departure airport: Shanghai-Pudong International Airport (PVG/ZSPD), China Destination airport: Bishkek-Manas International Airport (FRU/UAFM), Kyrgyzstan Flightnumber: 324 Narrative: A McDonnell Douglas MD-11F cargo plane, operated by Avient Aviation, was destroyed when crashed and burned on takeoff from Shanghai-Pudong International Airport (PVG), China. Three crew members were fatally injured and four survived the accident. Press reports indicate that the tail struck the runway before the airplane crashed past the runway end. Runway 17R/35L was briefly closed after the accident. Weather reported about the time of the accident (00:14 UTC / 08:14 local) was reported as: ZSPD 280000Z 36007MPS 9999 SCT020 12/07 Q1027 NOSIG= [Weather at 00:00 UTC; Wind 360 degrees at 13 knots; scattered clouds at 2000 feet; Temperature 12 degrees C, dew point 7 degrees C; QNH 1027 mb] (aviation-safety.net) **************** NTSB Assists China In Aviation Accident Investigation The National Transportation Safety Board is dispatching a team of investigators to assist the government of China in its investigation of Saturday's crash of a Boeing/McDonnell Douglas MD-11F, operated by Avient Air (registration Z-BAV). Saturday, at approximately 8:14 a.m. local time, the aircraft, flight #SMJ324, crashed on takeoff at Pudong Airport in Shanghai, China, under unknown circumstances. This cargo flight originated in Shanghai and its destination was Harare, Zimbabwe. Of the 7 crew members onboard, 3 are reported to have suffered fatal injuries and 4 have suffered serious injuries. NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman has designated senior investigator Bill English as the U.S. Accredited Representative. His team will include an NTSB structures specialist, as well as technical advisors from the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney. The investigation is being conducted by China's General Administration of Civil Aviation. Boeing Issues Statement Boeing has recently learned that an MD-11 freighter airplane crashed shortly after takeoff from Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Saturday morning (local time). All of us at Boeing wish to offer our condolences to the family and friends of those who lost their lives in the crash. We will keep the injured crew members and their families in our thoughts. At the invitation of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Boeing is providing technical assistance to the investigation in coordination with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. FMI: www.caac.gov.cn, www.avient.aero aero-news.net ************** U.S. to Probe China Cargo Plane Crash By JAMES T. AREDDY, ANDY PASZTOR and DAN MICHAELS SHANGHAI -- A Zimbabwe-registered cargo plane that crashed in flames on takeoff from Shanghai's international airport, killing three American crew members, wasn't carrying sensitive goods, a senior executive with the plane's operator said. The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter aircraft was carrying "general cargo, such as electronics," and "nothing of any sensitive nature," said Simon Clarke, chief operating officer of Zimbabwe-based Avient Ltd. China's official Xinhua news agency said the plane was bound for Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, when it crashed Saturday morning in relatively good weather. Early reports indicated the tail of the three-engine jet may have struck the ground before the crash. A team of U.S. investigators, led by an expert on engines, was preparing to head to China in the next two to three days. Cargo Plane Smashes into a Building 0:52 A cargo plane veered off the runway and smashed into a building during takeoff in Shanghai, killing three crew members. Video courtesy of Reuters. .Mr. Clarke said the plane had entered Avient's fleet only about a week before it crashed. But "the crew had all flown extensively on the type" of plane. "It remains very sketchy," he said. "We are obviously working with the Zimbabwe and Chinese civil aviation authorities to ascertain what went wrong." Mr. Clarke said the seven-person crew included Americans and people of other nationalities. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said three Americans were killed and one was injured. Xinhua identified the injured crew members as nationals of the U.S., Indonesia, Belgium and Zimbabwe. The survivors were in stable condition in Shanghai hospitals Sunday. Xinhua quoted Shanghai aviation authorities on Sunday as saying they had found the plane's flight data recorder. Shanghai television showed billows of black smoke rising high in the sky after the crash. Footage also showed the wrecked MD-11 fuselage lying in a wet field adjacent to the airport. Firefighters sprayed foam on the mangled wreckage. TV pictures showed a survivor, said to be an American co-pilot, on a hospital bed and breathing through a mask but alert enough to say "thank you." Avient, whose Web site says it was founded in 1993, has drawn scrutiny in the past because of accusations that it has supplied weapons to conflicts in Africa. A United Nations report in 2002 said Avient had been involved in illegal actitivies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The British government later investigated the charges but didn't find evidence supporting them. The company has since been accused of other illicit activities by think-tanks that investigate conflicts around the world. Mr. Clarke at Avient denied all accusations against the company. "We do not carry arms and ammunition," he said. Rescuers search the wreckage of a cargo plane that crashed during take-off at Pudong airport in Shanghai. .Avient said on its Web site that it operated the MD-11 and that "preliminary information indicates that the accident occurred on takeoff." Mr. Clarke said the plane was a chartered freight flight carrying "general consumer goods such as electronics and clothes." He said that, as with most cargo flights, the freight was arranged through brokers. He declined to name the company's clients. The aircraft's tail struck the ground on takeoff, graphics shown on Shanghai television suggested. One illustration of the incident on local TV showed the plane striking a building shortly after takeoff. Xinhua said the plane hit lighting structures on the ground. Local television and other local media said the accident closed runways at Shanghai Pudong International Airport and led to widespread flight delays. The accident is the second fatal crash of a cargo plane on takeoff within six weeks. On Oct. 21, an aging Boeing 707 operated by Sudan Airways crashed on departure from Sharjah Airport in the United Arab Emirates. All six people onboard were killed. The cause of the accident remains unclear. As is typical in any major accident involving a widely used jetliner, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board on Saturday said it was sending a team of government and industry crash investigators. Including experts on engines, structures and operations, the team will be led by veteran safety board investigator Bill English. United Technology Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney engine-making unit also will have a team representative. Mr. English has in the past two years participated in three high-profile airliner accidents on three continents, including the still-unresolved crash of an Air France Airbus A330 earlier this year en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro. Mr. English has a reputation as an engine expert; he participated in the probe of a British Airways jetliner than lost power in both engines and crashed short of London's Heathrow International Airport in early 2008. At the start of the Shanghai probe, investigators are bound to look at issues such as whether all three of the plane's engines were operating properly and if a possible shift of its cargo during the takeoff roll could have created a dangerous situation. Heavily loaded, wide-body jetliners such as the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 can smack their tail on the ground for a variety of reasons, including engine failure or inadequate thrust, or an unusually steep climb away from a runway. At the same time, the team also is expected to delve into more-complex factors dealing with the interplay of flight-control surfaces and pilot commands. A separate set of experts will look at weather and air-traffic control issues. Though the early reports of the crash didn't provide many details, the MD-11's history of crashes is one of the factors investigators are bound to consider. The plane is known among many pilots for having particularly sensitive flight-control systems, especially close to the ground, making it extra sensitive to sudden changes in speed or the angle of the nose and wings. Over the years, the U.S. safety board has repeatedly criticized the plane's design for being prone to upsets and vertical oscillations of flight-control systems as a result of relatively minor pilot mistakes. Most of those previous accidents, however, took place during landings. Whatever investigators ultimately determine, the results aren't likely to have a significant industrywide impact on passenger carriers. That's because MD-11 aircraft have largely been retired from passenger routes flown by U.S. and European airlines. In April 1999, an MD-11 cargo plane flown by Korean Airlines crashed shortly after takeoff from Shanghai, killing three crew members as well as five people on the ground. Chinese carriers' own safety record has improved notably since the 1990s, when the industry suffered a series of fatal accidents. Now, global aviation experts say, China's airlines are among the world's safest, despite sharp growth in the number of flights. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125946470073768131.html?mod=googlenews_wsj *************** 'Black box' found in Shanghai plane crash 3 Americans killed in China plane crash SHANGHAI, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Chinese officials say they have recovered the flight data recorder of a cargo plane that crashed Saturday in Shanghai, killing three Americans. Local aviation authorities told the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua that data recorded in the "black box" may not yield the cause of the crash at Shanghai's Pudong Airport. Three Americans died and four more were injured in the crash. The injured are from the United States, Indonesia, Belgium and Zimbabwe and have been listed in stable condition at the People's Hospital of Pudong, the news agency said. Runway lights that were destroyed in the crash are being replaced, after which local officials will check the runway's safety before reopening it, Xinhua reported. It said the crashed MD-ll plane was owned by Avient Aviation, a freight charter airline based in Zimbabwe, and was scheduled to fly from Shanghai to the Bishkek Manas International Airport in Kyrgyzstan. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/11/29/Black-box-found-in-Shanghai-plane- crash/UPI-10321259530029/ *************** Glitch forces super-jumbo to return to New York (AFP) - PARIS - An Air France A380 super-jumbo was forced to turn around and land in New York on Friday due to a computer glitch, a spokesman for the airline said. The A380 was forced to make a U-turn 90 minutes after take-off from New York and landed safely at Kennedy Airport in the early hours on Saturday. "The plane is new and is still getting into its stride. It was a minor computer problem that made navigation a little imprecise," he said. The world's largest civilian carrier completed its maiden flight for Air France 10 days ago, taking off from Paris with 538 passengers on board. Air France is the first European airline to use the super-jumbo, but it made its first test flight in April 2005 and has been in service for paying customers of Singapore Airlines since October 2007. *************** FAA turned down Boeing 777 warnings: report (Reuters) - The U.S. aviation regulator decided to allow over 130 Boeing Co (BA.N) 777 airplanes to continue flying international trips through early 2011, despite warnings about suspect parts that have caused rare shutdowns in midair, the Wall Street Journal reported. In July, the Federal Aviation Administration had asked Boeing to install redesigned cooling systems on some of its jets with Rolls Royce (RR.L) made engines by January 2011, to prevent the accumulation of ice inside the pipes of the fuel systems. The later regulatory deadline is due to the limited availability of replacement parts, the Journal said, citing industry officials. FAA did not immediately comment on the matter. The Journal said that according to the FAA, interim operational safeguards that were previously imposed provided an adequate safety margin to put off permanent hardware fixes until January 2011. FAA turned down recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board to order the replacement of parts on at least one of the two engines on each affected Boeing 777 aircraft, the paper said. Boeing could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours. **************** ALPA Welcomes House Committee Call to Regulate Lithium Battery Shipments ALPA Takes Stand on Battery Dangers ALPA ended this week with applause for the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee resistance of pressure from airlines and battery interests and for their issuing a strong mandate to fully regulate the shipment of lithium batteries on airliners in its recently passed version of the Hazardous Material Transportation Safety Act of 2009 (H.R.4016). "ALPA has long led the charge to regulate lithium battery shipments and warned of the dangers they pose to the traveling public if they are not treated as hazardous materials," said Capt. John Prater, ALPA's president. "It's gratifying that Congress has seized this opportunity to better protect airline passengers, crews, and cargo by calling for fully regulating lithium battery shipments on airliners. We commend Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar and Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello for their outstanding leadership." The committee vote to adopt the Hazardous Material Transportation Safety Act of 2009 with the language in support of regulatory action came on the heels of a U.S. House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials field hearing in Baltimore at which First Officer Mark Rogers, director of ALPA's Dangerous Goods Programs, testified on November 16. In addition, Prater sent a letter on November 18 to Congress pointing out the fire risk that damaged, defective, or improperly packaged battery shipments can pose. He called for regulating lithium batteries as a hazardous material and for enhanced requirements for marking, labeling, testing, packaging, and notifying the pilot-in-command. "While we anticipate the pressure will continue from the airlines, the battery industry, and others to strip out or weaken these crucial provisions, Congress must not waver from pressing for the regulations we know are desperately needed to protect the traveling public," said Rogers. The Hazardous Material Transportation Safety Act of 2009 is expected to be considered by the full U.S. House in the coming weeks. FMI: www.alpa.org aero-news.net *************** Pilots Were 'Distracted,' Transcripts Show WASHINGTON - After radio contact was finally re-established with the Northwest Airlines plane that flew 150 miles past its destination last month, a controller twice asked the pilots why they had stopped answering radio calls, according to transcripts and audio files released Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration. First Officer Richard I. Cole, shown at home in Oregon, and Capt. Timothy B. Cheney flew 150 miles past their destination. "Northwest 188, do you have time to give a brief explanation of what happened?" asked a controller at the Minneapolis Center, which was handling airspace over Eau Claire, Wis. "Just cockpit distractions, that's all I can say," said a crew member, according to the transcript, which puts an asterisk next to "just," indicating that transcription of the word is uncertain because of audio quality. Six and a half minutes later, after giving the crew instructions on which landing pattern to use, the controller asked, "Is there any way you can elaborate on the distraction?" "We're just dealing with some company issues here, and that's all I can tell you right now at this time," the pilot responded, with the F.A.A. again indicating that some of the transcript is uncertain. Such uncertainties are common in air-to-ground transcripts. The crew members - Capt. Timothy B. Cheney, 53, of Gig Harbor, Wash., and First Officer Richard I. Cole, 54, of Salem, Ore. - said later that they had been using their laptops to figure out how to use new software for submitting work schedule requests. Northwest was acquired by Delta Air Lines last year, and employees have been transferring to various Delta procedures; Mr. Cole was trying to explain the program to Mr. Cheney, they said. The transcript shows that the controller who initially made contact with the plane, after a 79-minute gap in communication, said, "I just have to verify that the cockpit is secure." "It is secure and we got distracted, we were, ah," said the pilot, followed by some unintelligible words and apparently the phrase, "never heard a call and we just ... " Another recording, made by the cockpit voice recorder, is with the National Transportation Safety Board, which has not said if it will release a transcript. A board spokeswoman, Bridget Serchak, said Friday that the board intended to publish a docket in the case by the end of the year, which would be unusually swift. The docket could include a transcript or a summary of the transcript. The board is investigating the event in a catch-all category of "other concerns." That is because the incident, while troubling from a safety standpoint, resulted in no injuries or damage beyond burning some extra jet fuel. The North American Aerospace Defense Command monitored the situation but did not launch fighters. The F.A.A. classified the incident as a "pilot deviation," the same classification used when a pilot flies at the wrong altitude. But the agency still revoked the pilot licenses of Mr. Cheney and Mr. Cole. The two have appealed; their case will be heard by an administrative law judge of the safety board, probably within the next few months. The safety board functions as an appeals court for F.A.A. decisions. It is not clear what information is on the cockpit voice recorder, since the model carried on that airplane, an Airbus A320, captures only the last 30 minutes of conversation, and that includes some time on the ground, before the engines are turned off. The first two controllers to talk to the plane after the long gap both asked about fuel. "We're good on fuel," a crew member responded. The plane was carrying more than two hours' worth of fuel, the crew said. The flight, from San Diego to Minneapolis on Oct. 21, carried 144 passengers and 3 flight attendants. Despite numerous efforts from the ground, documented in the transcripts released Friday, it was a flight attendant who finally caught the pilots' attention, by using the onboard phone system to ask when they would be descending. The transcripts and audio files released Friday do not change the outline of what occurred, but do give some feeling for the mood of those involved. Controllers in Minneapolis asked other Northwest flights in the vicinity of Flight 188 to tune their radios to the Denver frequency, the last one that Flight 188 had used, to ask the pilots to report in. All of this is interspersed with routine communications with other airplanes. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/us/28plane.html *************** Updated EU blacklist adds all carriers from Djibouti, Congo and Sao Tome The European Commission published the twelfth update of the Community's list of airlines banned in the European Union which comprises those of three additional countries following safety deficiencies highlighted by audits. With this update the ban imposed upon three airlines is lifted and one airline is allowed to resume operations under conditions given satisfactory improvements in safety. Three carriers licensed in Ukraine have been removed from the list: Ukraine Cargo Airways and Volare have both lost their Air Operator Certificates; following the receipt of certain information from the Ukrainian authorities, the carrier Motor Sich is also removed from the list. A fourth carrier, Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines is allowed to resume operations with one aircraft. This is the result of a successful visit lead by the European Aviation Safety Agency with the participation of two Member States in Ukraine to verify improvements achieved by the companies. In the same vein, the significant progress made by the civil aviation authority of Angola and the air carrier TAAG Angola Airlines to resolve progressively any safety deficiencies are recognised. TAAG is therefore allowed to increase the number of aircraft it uses for its flights to Portugal. This update also highlights the continuous dialogue with certain States regarding the safety of their carriers. Strengthened cooperation and progress was noted with Albania, Angola, Egypt, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. A number of audit visits have also been requested by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to evaluate the safety situation of authorities and companies in Albania, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan and Yemen. At the same time, the list was extended to include all air carriers certified in Djibouti, Republic of Congo and Sao Tome and Principe because of safety deficiencies identified in the system of oversight by the aviation authorities of these countries. (EU) EU Blacklist (aviation-safety.net) **************** Yemen airline not banned in EU despite crash A European Commission statement said the European Aviation Safety Agency had carried out a number of audits to check on the implementation of safety measures at the airline. Yemenia Flight 626 from Paris to Moroni, the capital of the Comoros Islands, plunged into the ocean June 30. Only a teenage girl survived, plucked from the water after 13 hours. Many crash victims had been from France's Comoran community. But the EU's updated airline blacklist, which is revised annually, now bans all airlines registered in the African nations of Sao Tome and Principe, Djibouti and the Republic of Congo due to safety deficiencies identified by the aviation authorities of these nations. In backing its decision, the EU cited evidence that airlines registered in Sao Tome and Principe suffered an unusually high level of accidents, and also that the nation was becoming a haven for dangerous airlines attempting to circumvent bans on their home countries. The ban on the Republic of Congo came after International Civil Aviation Organization raised safety concerns following the crash of a cargo aircraft in August, which killed all six occupants. The blacklist contains dozens of other carriers deemed not to meet international safety standards. But critics have noted that most of the notorious African fly-by-night cargo, charter and air taxi outfits still on the EU list have long since been shut down. "This update also highlights the continuous dialogue with certain states regarding the safety of their carriers," the EU statement said. It said progress on improved cooperation was noted with Albania, Angola, Egypt, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The EU also said that Angola's flag carrier TAAG will be permitted to increase the number of its flights to Portugal, despite it remaining on the EU blacklist. It said the Angolan aviation authority and the carrier have made progress in improving safety. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/11/27/yemen_airline_not_banned_ in_eu_despite_crash/ *************** Transport Canada delays new airline-safety system OTTAWA - Transport Canada is delaying the introduction of a controversial safety-inspection system at smaller commercial airlines after being inundated with concerns from its own staff about problems with the oversight regime, according to an internal memorandum. The approach, called safety management systems (SMS), puts more onus on carriers by requiring them to develop and oversee an in-house system of safety checks tailored to their operations. This regulatory system is a shift away from traditional oversight where government inspectors had a much more hands-on role in monitoring the safety operations. SMS has already been fully phased in at Canada's large commercial carriers, and was supposed to be in place at smaller operations within months. These include commuter planes carrying fewer than 50 passengers, regional airlines serving smaller communities and air ambulances. Now, Transport Canada's civil aviation division has decided to postpone the system's implementation at these smaller operations until at least 2011 after departmental experts expressed "common concerns." "Although I am only part way through my program of meeting staff in the regions and headquarters, it soon became clear that there were some common concerns coming up in the discussions," Martin Eley, Transport Canada's director general of civil aviation, wrote to staff on Nov. 13, 2009. As a result, "the management team has agreed to make adjustments to the safety management systems regulatory roll out schedule and refine the project plan accordingly. This will allow more time for the industry to prepare for SMS implementation, and for Civil Aviation to refine oversight tools and provide more training for front-line employees. "For air taxi and commuter operations, that means that the regulation will come into effect, at the earliest, in January 2011," Eley advised staff. The correspondence was obtained by the Canadian Federal Pilots Association. The union, which represent pilots working at Transport Canada, the Transportation Safety Board and Nav Canada, has been raising red flags about SMS since it was fully phased in at major carriers in 2005. The association says the implementation delay is good news, but raises "troubling questions" about the safety of major commercial airlines. "Transport Canada is to be commended for recognizing there are serious problems with its aviation SMS program. This postponement is absolutely the right thing to do. However, this decision acknowledges that SMS problems are undermining safety of the big airlines. We no longer have confidence the major carriers are compliant with safety regulations," said Daniel Slunder, head of the federal government's pilots union. After instituting SMS for rail transportation in 2001, the Liberal government at the time expanded the oversight system to civil aviation, to be phased in over time. Both Liberal and Conservative transport ministers have consistently argued SMS doesn't reduce government oversight but rather serves as a proactive tool to compliment the government's inspection regime. Government officials refer to SMS as an "extra layer of protection to help save lives," one that "expects the company to measure how well the system works." The transition to SMS in civil aviation has already resulted in the elimination of Transport Canada's national and regional auditing programs of air operations. "Aviation inspectors spend more time reviewing paper than airplanes under Transport Canada's SMS," said Slunder, adding surprise audits and inspections must be brought back immediately to ensure proper government oversight and "ensure safety of the major carriers." News of the postponement of SMS implementation at smaller air operations comes as the House of Commons transport committee on Monday holds hearings to examine Transport Canada's enforcement of air-safety regulations and the implementation of SMS for the aviation industry. NDP transport critic Dennis Bevington called for the review, to which the other parties agreed. The revelation also comes on the eve of a new regulation coming into effect Tuesday that critics say lays the foundation to extend SMS to Transport Canada's aircraft certification. Transport Canada in the past had to sign off on any aircraft design, repair or modification. The new regulation introduces the concept of third-party liability. A group of independent aeronautical engineers say such a step could be disastrous for aviation safety. "Transport Canada has said in the past, 'The only people who ever say that this modification or repair meets the regulation is Transport Canada.' What they want to do now is they want somebody else besides Transport Canada to sign a declaration that says, 'Yes, it does meet the regulatory requirements,'" said John Roberts, an engineer and member the Vancouver Design Approval Representatives. "This (regulation), from our perspective, is now the foundation for the next program, which will be Aircraft Certification Accountability Framework, otherwise known as ACAF, and ACAF is the next round of regulatory changes where they will be bringing in SMS to aircraft certification." http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Transport+Canada+delays+airline+safety+syst em/2283710/story.html *************** Report: FAA accused of 'gross mismanagement' at Newark airport NEWARK - A federal agency that handles whistle-blower complaints has accused the Federal Aviation Administration of endangering public safety by not changing landing procedures at Newark Liberty International Airport. In a Nov. 19 letter to White House counsel Gregory Craig, the Office of Special Counsel reported that it found "a substantial likelihood" that the actions of FAA officials constitute "gross mismanagement and a substantial and specific danger to public safety." The letter stems from a whistle-blower complaint filed last year by an air traffic controller that described safety issues with planes landing on intersecting runways at the Newark airport. Controller Raymond Adams contended that simultaneous arrivals on the runways often led to loss of separation between aircraft and increased the risk of midair collisions and runway incursions. The Department of Transportation's Office of the Inspector General agreed with the allegations in a report filed last month, and the FAA said it would make changes to the landing procedures by Oct. 26. The FAA reported 10 days later that it had done so when it actually hadn't, according to the OSC letter. An investigator told the OSC "the procedures have not been implemented and FAA has not completed critical steps that FAA represented it had accomplished," Associate Special Counsel William E. Reukauf wrote. One key change was to have controllers on Long Island stagger arrivals into Newark to relieve pressure on controllers to keep the aircraft out of each other's way. Another was to have controllers at Newark and on Long Island use software called Converging Runway Display Aid that creates a computer-generated "ghost target" to project where flight paths will cross. The CRDA was used temporarily but discontinued, Adams said. "FAA safety officers wanted to make absolutely sure employees were fully trained on the equipment and parameters and go-around procedures were in place before CRDA was used regularly," FAA spokesman Jim Peters said Wednesday. Peters said CRDA and flight staggering would be fully implemented by mid-December. The FAA has already terminated an approach that used two intersecting runways after the Inspector General's report found it had "the potential to create a lack of consistency and unnecessary flight hazards." Adams said controllers at Newark began raising issues about the intersecting runways in 2005. "I'm pleased that the Inspector General and the OSC validated my complaints and I'm encouraged by some of the steps that the FAA has taken, but I'm concerned by the fact that the agency cut corners on the CRDA procedure and now that procedure is not in place," he said. *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC