21 DEC 2009 _______________________________________ *Bahamian investigators search for jet wreckage *Threatening note prompts evacuation of AA jet at ABIA *Judge: Pilot negligence a factor in Comair crash *Head Of K-State Aviation Department Named UAA President-Elect *Flight Attendants To Sue FAA And WSI Over Injuries *Japan's ANA buying 10 Boeing planes *EC and FAA pledge to harmonize ATC development *China gives go-ahead for A380 to operate *************************************** Bahamian investigators search for jet wreckage NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — Bahamian investigators are searching for more wreckage of a small plane that crashed on the southernmost island of the archipelago. Two U.S. pilots were the only people aboard the small jet when it crashed Thursday night in an unpopulated area of Great Inagua shortly after taking off from the Dominican Republic en route to Miami, police inspector Dennis Brown said Saturday. The pilots are presumed dead but their bodies have not been found. Authorities in the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic have declined to disclose the pilots' identities or their hometowns. Small bits of debris from the Jet Falcon N-28 RK were found scattered about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the remote Bahamian island's only settlement, Matthew Town. Investigators plan to examine a sprawling area of dense vegetation on Sunday, Brown said. There was no communication from the small jet before it went down, according to Bahamian Civil Aviation Director Capt. Patrick Rolle. Witnesses said the plane exploded in the air. "It still had a lot of fuel on it, so the fuel ignited and that caused a pretty big fire around the airplane," Rolle said of the witness accounts. Dominican Civil Aviation spokesman Pedro Jimenez said the Jet Falcon was owned by the San Francisco, California-based Wells Fargo company. Wells Fargo spokeswoman Susan Stanley said Friday that the plane was owned by a trust for which the bank acts as trustee. She did not immediately respond to an e-mail Saturday seeking more details. ***** Status: Preliminary Date: 17 DEC 2009 Time: ca 19:30 Type: Dassault Falcon 20D Operator: FL Aviation Group Inc. Registration: N28RK C/n / msn: 206 First flight: Engines: 2 General Electric CF700-2D2 Crew: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0 Total: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 Airplane damage: Destroyed Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: 18 km (11.3 mls) E of Matthew Town, Great Inagua Island (Bahamas) Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: Unknown Departure airport: Higuero/La Isabela-Dr. Joaquín Balaguer Airport (JBQ/MDJB), Dominican Republic Destination airport: Fort Lauderdale-Executive Airport, FL (FXE/KFXE), United States of America Narrative: A Falcon 20D corporate jet, registered N28Rk, was destroyed when it crashed on Great Inagua Island, Bahamas. Both pilots were killed. The airplane departed Higuero/La Isabela-Dr. Joaquín Balaguer Airport (JBQ), Dominican Republic at 23:41 UTC, 19:41 local time. Planned destination was Fort Lauderdale-Executive Airport, FL (FXE). According to Flightaware.com tracking data the flight was en route at FL280, speed 360 kts when radar contact was lost near Great Inagua Island. Local time was about 19:30, some fifty minutes into the flight. Press reports indicate that small bits of debris were discovered in rough, bushy terrain. The airplane is premubaly operated by FL Aviation Group Inc. since the airplane, N28RK, is listed on their website. The company, just like the airplane, is based in Fort Lauderdale, FL. (aviation-safety.net) ************** Threatening note prompts evacuation of AA jet at ABIA Transportation Security Administration authorities say nothing suspicious was found after a sweep of an American Airlines jet Friday afternoon. The plane had pulled away from the gate at Austin Bergstrom International Airport when a passenger found a threatening note. About 129 people were on the flight, which was headed to Chicago. TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said passengers, their baggage and the aircraft were rescreened Friday with "no findings of any prohibited item." Airport officials say the note was discovered in a bathroom aboard the aircraft. Officials didn't divulge the content of the note. Passengers were questioned, rescreened, and then put back on the same airplane. McCauley said the FBI is investigating. http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=261609 *************** Judge: Pilot negligence a factor in Comair crash LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that the negligence of two pilots who took off on the wrong runway was a “substantial factor” in the August 2006 crash of a Comair regional jet in Lexington. U.S. District Judge Karl Forester’s ruling, issued Thursday evening in Lexington, arose in a case brought by the family of Bryan Keith Woodward, a Louisiana resident aboard the plane. The ruling now leaves a jury to decide if Comair committed “gross negligence” in the crash of Comair 5191, which the National Transportation Safety Board has blamed largely on errors by the two pilots who guided the aircraft to the wrong runway at Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport. The National Transportation Safety Board found that the pilots’ failed to notice clues they were on the wrong runway. According to the NTSB, investigators found that the pilots failed to notice clues they were on a general aviation strip too short for a commercial plane to execute a proper takeoff. “The possibility that other factors that may have also contributed to the crash does not preclude the conclusion that the pilots’ negligence was ’a substantial factor’ in producing the crash,” Forester wrote. A jury will be asked next year to determine if Comair — a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, Inc. — should pay punitive damages. Forty-nine people were killed in the crash. Co-pilot James Polehinke was the lone survivor. A jury previously awarded Woodward’s family $7.1 million in compensation and $750,000 for pain and suffering. David Rapoport, the attorney for Woodward’s family, said the ruling isn’t surprising, given the jury’s recent damage award. “Nevertheless the ruling is important because it is the first judicial determination that the negligence of Comair’s pilots was a substantial factor causing the crash, a ruling Comair may have avoided forever if Mr. Woodward’s family had chosen to settle like the rest of the passenger families,” Rapoport said. A message left with the Comair press office was not immediately returned Friday. Last year, jury selection in a massive case against Comair was called off when financial settlements were reached between Comair and all but two families of the 47 passengers who died. One of those settled a few weeks later, leaving only the Woodward case, filed by his wife, Jamie Hebert, and two daughters, Lauren Madison Hebert, 19, and Mattie-Kay Hebert, 15. Woodward, 39, and his family lived near Lafayette, La., where he was an electrician who often worked on offshore oil rigs. He was on his way to Atlanta for a connecting flight when the plane crashed. The Heberts, who run a convenience store, were always less interested in money than the principle of forcing Comair into taking blame for the crash, Rapoport said. The amounts of all settlements reached with the other passenger families were kept confidential. There are still legal matters pending with the families of the two pilots, Jeffrey Clay, who died in the crash, and Polehinke. http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x1153713909/Judge-Pilot-negligenc e-a-factor-in-Comair-crash **************** Head Of K-State Aviation Department Named UAA President-Elect Organization Represents Aviation Education To Government, Industry, And The Public Kurt Barnhart, professor and head of Kansas State University's Department of Aviation, has been elected president-elect of the University Aviation Association. He will serve a one-year term. The announcement was made at the UAA Fall Education Conference Awards Banquet in Wichita, KS. The UAA represents more than 525 members consisting of educators, students, high schools, two- and four-year collegiate institutions offering aviation degree programs, and organizations and industry representatives that support collegiate aviation. The UAA also serves as the voice of collegiate aviation education to government, industry organizations and the general public. Barnhart has an extensive background in aviation, having worked as a flight instructor, an A & P mechanic, a charter pilot, an R & D Engineering Test Inspector for Allison Engine Company, an Aircraft Systems Instructor for American Trans Air, and prior to coming to Kansas State University, he was an associate professor in the Aviation Program at Indiana State. Since arriving at K-State, he has worked to establish the K-State at Salina Applied Aviation Research Center, which he now directs. This center has attracted nearly $650,000 in grants to date, including a $380,240 grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research focused on mission planning for unmanned aerial vehicles. Barnhart has published extensively in refereed aviation journals such as the Collegiate Aviation Review, the Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education and Research, the Journal of Air Transportation and others, and serves as a consulting editor of the Journal of Air Transportation and the International Journal of Applied Aviation Studies. FMI: www.sal.ksu.edu aero-news.net ************** Flight Attendants To Sue FAA And WSI Over Injuries Blame It On The Weatherman? Suit Claims WX-Related Injuries Were Preventable Donna Dacko and Inga Isakson have filed a legal claim against both the FAA and Weather Service International (WSI) over injuries sustained when Alaska Airlines Flight 464 hit severe turbulence on the way into ONT midmorning on December 25, 2007. According to their attorney, Alisa Brodkowitz, the claim precedes the inevitable lawsuit and was filed to avoid a statute of limitations issue, on Dec 25. Dacko and Isakson were up doing final compliance checks during the incident. Isakson suffered a head injury with loss of consciousness and concussion while Dacko sustained multiple fractures to her ankle. No other crewmembers or passengers were injured. The claim lists WSI as negligent in accurately reporting the weather to the airline. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a SIGMET for occasional severe turbulence, but that information was allegedly not included in the report provided to the flight crew. CFR 121.601 requires the dispatcher to provide all weather reports and forecasts to the PIC. The claim against the FAA holds ATC responsible for not passing on the SIGMET to the inbound flight. The NTSB report shows that some aircraft did get the advisory, but flight 4646 "apparently... was not one of them." Lawyer and former Alaska Airlines pilot John Nance was quoted by the Seattle Times as saying that he has never heard of a case similar to this. "For a suit like this to be successful they are going to have to show the defendants, the FAA in particular, had evidence of turbulence and had a duty to transmit it to the crew and didn't do that," said Nance. "That's a steep mountain to climb." The NTSB report on the accident lists the probable cause of the incident to be: "The lack of turbulence forecasts available to the flight crew, which resulted in the flight attendants not being seated when the flight encountered severe terrain-induced turbulence. Contributing to the accident were the terrain-induced turbulence, the failure of the company that provided the flight's weather briefing to forecast severe turbulence, and the failure of the dispatcher to provide the National Weather Service severe turbulence forecast to the flight." The claim shows the flight attendants are seeking to have WSI pay for medical expenses, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and lost wages. FMI: www.NTSB.gov aero-news.net **************** Japan's ANA buying 10 Boeing planes TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's All Nippon Airways announced Monday an order for 10 Boeing airplanes worth a total of about two billion dollars at catalogue prices, in a boost to the troubled US aviation giant. ANA said it would buy five Boeing 777-200ER aircraft and five Boeing 767-300ER planes, for a total of 185.2 billion yen (1.95 billion dollars) excluding any discounts the Japanese carrier may have negotiated. Japanese airlines' fleets are dominated by US-made aircraft, to the frustration of European rival Airbus. ANA, Japan's second largest carrier, was the launch customer for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, which has been beset by a series of delays. The airline, which is bracing for a second straight year in the red, is shifting to more fuel-efficient planes as part of its efforts to return to profitability. *************** EC and FAA pledge to harmonize ATC development FAA and the European Commission (EC) today launched negotiations to create a memorandum of cooperation covering civil aviation research and development. The agreement is a response to requests for harmonization of NextGen air traffic modernization in the US and the Single European Sky ATM (SESAR) research in Europe. "With a view to guarantee interoperability between both future ATM systems and promote the development of international standards through ICAO, the memorandum is aimed at establishing a binding framework for fruitful technical cooperation relating to their development," says the EC in a statement. The commission states the two sides should complete negotiations by June of next year, followed by the firming up of the memorandum of cooperation in early 2011. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news **************** China gives go-ahead for A380 to operate The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has given the go-ahead for the Airbus A380 aircraft to be operated in China. It presented a "validation type certificate" for the A380 to Airbus in a ceremony in Beijing today. "The A380 has received the validation type certificate, which is a symbol of its airworthiness in China. This will pave the way for Chinese carriers to operate the aircraft," says CAAC. China Southern Airlines is the only Chinese carrier to have ordered the A380. It expects to receive the first of its five A380s in 2011, says the CAAC. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news **************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC