29 DEC 2009 _______________________________________ *Pilots reportedly imprisoned for Itek 737 crash *Former president of the Jamaica Airline Pilots Association speaks out on American Airlines crash in Jamaica *Pilots warned against flying close to Mayon (Volcano) *US investigates why jet bomb suspect still had visa *Security Flaws Highlighted In Bombing Attempt *Netherlands Announces New Airport Body Scanners *More Recommendations From BEA Expected Regarding Data Recorders *SD Airlink struggles as 14 aircraft suspended *TAM officially names Barroso as president **************************************** Pilots reportedly imprisoned for Itek 737 crash Aircraft similar to the one which crashed (Boeing 737-219) Two pilots have reportedly each been sentenced to at least five years' imprisonment for the fatal Boeing 737-200 crash outside Bishkek last year. The captain of the Itek Air aircraft has been sentenced to serve five years and two months in a penal colony, while the co-pilot will serve five years, state local Kyrgyz media. Shortly after departing Bishkek for Tehran as flight 6895 on 24 August 2008 the aircraft attempted to return to the airport following a technical problem. But while it was trying to stabilise its approach to the airport, the jet failed to maintain height and crashed into a field, killing 64 of the 90 occupants. In its final report into the accident, released in May, Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee concluded that the crew had failed to follow standard operating procedures. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** Former president of the Jamaica Airline Pilots Association speaks out on American Airlines crash in Jamaica MIAMI - Wesley Sampson, a former president of the Jamaica Airline Pilots Association (JALPA) has sent an open letter to both Spirit and American Airlines advising of the high potential for disaster, and requested that they exercise extreme care when dispatching flights into Jamaica in marginal weather and not use Jamaican airports as alternates under any circumstances until the NTSB report is final. Wesley Sampson and his organization, Mayday Air Jamaica (http://www.maydayairjamaica.com) had earlier month on Nov 19 09, in an open letter to Spirit re; their bid to purchase Air Jamaica, had expressed grave concerns over the safety of the international travelling public into Jamaica, and the callous attitude of the Jamaican authorities in this regard. “We note where the FAA had previously downgraded the islands airports, which status although reinstated remains questionable, where emergency equipment and facilities are concerned, as this accident shows. It is not reasonable to assume or expect that two experienced American Airlines pilots, trained to the highest standards of aviation safety, simply flew into Jamaica and crashed landed in routine operations” said Sampson Mayday Air Jamaica, strongly advises the travelling public not to use foreign carriers in inclement weather conditions, to await the findings of the NTSB and the supervised implementation by the Jamaican government of the recommended corrective procedures. http://sflcn.com/story.php?id=7655 ************** Pilots warned against flying close to Mayon (Volcano) VOLCANO PICTURES: Philippines' Mayon About to Blow? MANILA, Philippines – Pilots should not fly close to Mayon volcano as the ash it continues to spew might be dangerous to their aircraft, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has warned. “Civil aviation authorities must advise pilots to avoid flying close to the volcano's summit as ejected ash and volcanic fragments from sudden explosions may pose hazards to aircrafts,” the agency said in a bulletin issued Tuesday morning. The bulletin also said a total of nine ash explosions were recorded from Mayon Volcano on Monday with the explosions reaching two kilometers above the summit. The agency said seismic activity in Mayon remained high with a total of 38 volcanic earthquakes and 171 rock fall events. Rock falls are related to the detachment of lava fragments on the volcano’s upper slopes which can cause dangerous pyroclastic flows. Emission of sulfur dioxide on Monday yielded an average value of 3,416 tons per day. “Red hot lava continued to flow down along the Bonga-Buyuan, Miisi and Lidong gullies. At present, the lava front at Buyuan channel is approximately 5.8 kilometers downslope from the summit crater. From time to time, rolling down of incandescent lava fragments coming from the crater was observed.” Phivolcs is maintaining its Alert Level 4 status on Mayon. It also reiterated that the eight-kilometer extended danger zone (EDZ) from the summit on the southern sector of the volcano and seven kilometers on the northern sector should be free from human activity. “Areas just outside of this EDZ should prepare for evacuation in the event hazardous eruptions intensify.” Phivolcs also said active river channels and those perennially identified as lahar prone in the southern sector should also be avoided especially during bad weather conditions or when there would be heavy and prolonged rainfall. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20091229-244503/Pilots-warned-against-flying-close-to-Mayon ***************** US investigates why jet bomb suspect still had visa Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is from a wealthy Nigerian family The US homeland security secretary has demanded to know how the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a jet had a visa despite being on a watch list. "We all want to know the answer to that question," Janet Napolitano said. She also appeared to backtrack on a widely criticised assertion that the aviation security system had worked. A group called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed it was responsible for the failed attack in a statement on an Islamist website late on Monday. The Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was arrested after he allegedly tried to set off an explosive device on board a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit on Friday. A hearing before a federal judge in the city scheduled for Monday, at which prosecutors were to seek permission to obtain a DNA sample from Mr Abdulmutallab, has been cancelled. No reason was given. The 23-year-old was earlier moved from a hospital, where he was being treated for burns, to a federal prison. Mr Abdulmutallab's family has described his recent behaviour as completely out of character. They said he had never caused them concern until he stopped communicating with them earlier this year. 'Extensive review' His father, a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official, warned the US embassy in Abuja in October that his son had developed radical views and might have travelled to Yemen. Bomb suspect 'should not have got on plane' But officials did not revoke his two-year multiple-entry visa, which was issued in June 2008. Instead, Mr Abdulmutallab's file was marked for a full investigation should he ever reapply for a visa. His name was also added to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (Tide) watch list, which contains the details of around 550,000 people with suspected connections to terrorism but does not prevent them from flying internationally. Our system did not work in this instance - no-one is happy or satisfied with that On Sunday, President Barack Obama ordered a review of the creation of watch lists and the use of detection equipment at airport checkpoints, which failed to spot the powerful explosive, pentaerythritol (PETN), allegedly hidden on Mr Abdulmutallab's body. Ms Napolitano meanwhile said the aviation security system had worked "very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days", prompting widespread criticism from members of Congress and counter-terrorism experts. But in interviews with US media on Monday, the homeland security secretary said her comment had been taken out of context and that she had instead been referring to the system of notifying other flights as well as law enforcement on the ground about the incident. Profile: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab "Our system did not work in this instance," she told NBC. "No-one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way. "And that's why we are asking - how did this individual get on the plane? Why wasn't the explosive material detected? What do we need to do to change?" Ms Napolitano told CNN that something had gone "awry" when someone like Mr Abdulmutallab did not have his visa revoked and was allowed to fly. "We want to fix that problem," she said, adding that the authorities were convinced that the additional screening procedures and on-board security measures put in place since meant air travel was safe. Earlier, the UK said Mr Abdulmutallab had been placed on its security watch list because he had been refused a visa in 2008 after applying to study at a bogus college. His name was not passed on to the US. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8432934.stm *************** Security Flaws Highlighted In Bombing Attempt Eight years after the 9/11 terrorist acts prompted the U.S. to spend billions on airport bomb detection equipment, an attempt to detonate PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) aboard a Northwest flight Dec. 25 demonstrates the vulnerabilities that still lie in security watch lists and passenger screening. As an extensive review of security is underway by order of President Obama, airline passengers are now coping with even longer wait times due to new personal search measures instituted by the Transportation Security Administration following Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s action. “Our system did not work in this instance,” said Homeland Security Dept. Secretary Janet Napolitano, appearing Dec. 28 on the NBC Today show. It clearly did not; the suspected bomber appears on a U.S. watch list and has a U.S. visa. He attempted to detonate PETN, which authorities believe was concealed in his underwear, during Delta/Northwest Flight 253’s approach to Detroit. The powerful explosive is the same type used by Richard Reid, the so-called “shoe bomber” who in December 2001 tried to detonate PETN hidden in his sneakers. Reid’s attempt also failed, as did Abdulmutallab’s, thanks to the swift intervention of crew and passengers. The chemical, according to the U.S. Navy’s Seals.com Web site, is a favorite of terrorists who used the chemical for bombings on airplanes in the 1970s and 1980s. Jerusalem-based IDenta Corp. CEO Yaacov Shoham says that PETN is a stronger explosive than TNT, with 0.60 kg. of PETN equivalent to one 1 kg. of TNT. Following the Dec. 25 event, the DHS immediately put additional security measures in place for domestic and international flights—measures that Napolitano said passengers should regard as “unpredictable,” meaning that air travelers should not expect consistency in the type of screenings employed at airports. As of Dec. 28, the TSA said passengers traveling from abroad to the U.S. would see additional gate screening including pat-downs and bag searches. In addition, passengers would be asked to stow personal items, turn off electronic equipment and remain seated during “certain portions of flight.” The TSA today did not refer to its initial screening measure requiring passengers to remain seated for one-hour prior to landing. These measures would be implemented at last point of departure for international flights to the U.S. Security checkpoint requirements for passengers departing U.S. airports remain the same, according to the TSA. But passengers traveling within the U.S. should allow extra time for check-in and those booked on international flights to U.S. destinations should plan on arriving an additional hour earlier. Check tsa.gov for continued updates. The major question is how the suspected bomber managed to get through security at Amsterdam with explosives on his person. Abdulmutallab boarded a KLM aircraft at Lagos, Nigeria, and changed planes in Amsterdam for the final leg to the U.S. According to initial and unconfirmed reports, Nigerian airport authorities said his passport was checked twice in Lagos and that Abdulmutallab had passed through a metal detector and had his hand luggage searched. Metal detectors that passengers are required to pass through do not detect explosives. However, millimeter-wave technology used in full-body scanning equipment would detect concealed explosives. Beams of radio frequency energy in the millimeter-wave spectrum are projected over a person’s clothed body at high speed from two antennas. A three-dimensional image (with facial features blurred) is displayed on a remote monitor for analysis by security personnel located in another room. The equipment scans and identifies objects such as hidden weapons or explosives. According to the Navy Seals site, the Amsterdam airport is equipped with a body scanner, and the U.S. installed four body scanners at four Nigerian airports in 2008. However, Abdulmutallab was not asked to go through scanners either at Nigeria or Amsterdam. As of April 2009, the technology was in use at 20 U.S. airports, and the TSA was weighing installation at additional sites. Although sensitive areas of the body are blurred, and the security scanner is in another room and cannot see a person being screened, the technology has raised serious privacy concerns worldwide. And the European Commission in 2008 was preparing legislation that would allow use of full-body scanners for airport security checks in the European Union in 2010. The IDenta Corp. manufactures a dependable and inexpensive chemical explosive and illicit drugs identifier kit as backup for the more extensive electronic devices used to detect explosives at airports. According to Shoham, airports in France will be first to use the identifiers. Bomb-sniffing dogs as well as “puffer” machines, or explosives trace detection portals, also would have been effective. The latter equipment blow puffs of air on a passenger to detect explosives particles on a person or clothing. The portals, however, proved extremely sensitive to dirt and humidity in an airport environment. And with maintenance costs high, the TSA in May ended its five-year, $30 million experiment with “puffers,” moving to whole-body imagers as replacement technology. What took place on the Dec. 25 Flight 253 also underlined the Achilles’ heel of terrorists’ watch lists. As the Business Travel Coalition (BTC) pointed out in a Dec. 27 statement, Abdulmutallab’s father had warned the U.S. months ago of his growing concern about his son’s extreme religious views. BTC also noted that Abdulmutallab’s name appears on the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center’s TIDE or Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database of 550,000 people. While Abdulmutallab does not appear on the “selectee list” of 14,000 people or the 4,000 on the no-fly list, BTC echoed the question of the day: “Should not some of our scarce security dollars have been used to ensure that he was placed on the selectee list, questioned and subjected to extra searching prior to being allowed to board the Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam?” On Dec. 27, Abdulmutallab was transferred to a Milan, Mich., prison near Detroit from a hospital where he was treated for third-degree burns from the fire that resulted when he tried to detonate the PETN. http://www.aviationweek.com **************** Netherlands Announces New Airport Body Scanners Schiphol airport demonstrated yesterday its newly-improved full body scanner after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded a flight to Detroit on Christmas Day, allegedly with explosive powder and a syringe of chemicals hidden in his underwear. He’s charged with attempting to blow up the plane, Northwest Flight 253, just outside of Detroit. The airport will make the new microwave detectors compulsory pending approval from European authorities. The European parliament last year voted against using body scanners at airports with one leading Member of Parliament describing them as "strip search body scanners," because the computer image of the passengers made them look virtually naked. No airport in the European Union with a scanner can force a passenger to walk through it and they remain voluntary. The European lawmakers are concerned the scanners invaded people's privacy and are indecent, almost pornographic. Several airports world-wide already have scanners of which there are three different types: the millimeter wave, the backscatter and the t-ray. Schiphol Group chief operating officer Ad Rutten says the new computer is better as it’s not operated by a human being, is more discreet, and projects an image to the computer that’s more representative of the body. "We don't need a controller anymore who looks at the pictures, who analyses the pictures. The computer can analyze the picture. So, by taking out the human interface, we think that the parliament in the next round will approve the body scanners." Schiphol Group says the airport could implement the new scanners within one year. However, Rutten warns that no system is foolproof, even if it was an improvement on current technology. The U.S. government has also stepped up security measures. Several airlines say they had been ordered by the United States to implement the new policy. Passengers are limited to one personal carry-on bag on many international flights destined for the U.S., and asked to check other bags and packages. On U.S.-bound international flights, passengers had to go through a second round of security checks at the gate, including manual bag searches and a pat down body search. http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_europe/2009-12-29/350767590571.html *************** More Recommendations From BEA Expected Regarding Data Recorders BEA, the French air accident investigation office, hopes the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will start acting on its recommendation to upgrade cockpit voice and flight data recorders on airliners next year. BEA officials also said more recommendations could be forthcoming as a result of their probe into the June crash of Air France Flight 447, in which all 228 on board died. In November, BEA already presented ICAO with data on the value of having recorders that could be ejected from an aircraft in case of an accident. The agency is struggling to figure out the cause of the crash of AF447 in the absence of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, and last week issued a recommendation in its second interim report to use devices that can be ejected — it also urged the use of longer-life beacons and the installation of an additional one, attached to the aircraft. BEA Director Jean-Paul Traodec said the preference is for such an approach, although others haven’t been ruled out. However, he said transmitting the data via satellite, as some have proposed, would be difficult. The 1,300 parameters a flight data recorder collects would saturate links, he said. Besides improving the retrieval of vital flight data, the latest BEA report also called for an update of certification standards for pitot tubes and a closer examination of what happens in the extreme environmental conditions where several pitot tube failures have been detected.The research findings could trigger other recommendations, including modifications to engine inlets, he suggests. However, a second BEA official noted that an engine inlet change request at this point is only theoretical, and that the nature of ice crystals and other phenomena need to be better understood. The main Air France pilots union expressed some frustration that the BEA did not go further in its second interim report. For instance, it argued a recommendation should be made to provide weather data to pilots in flight to avoid some of the treacherous conditions AF447 flew through. The BEA plans to launch a third search phase for AF447’s A330-200 wreckage and “black boxes” in February. First, experts have been asked to refine the search zone to about a fifth or sixth of the original search area to improve the chances of detecting wreckage. Sonar specialists will be among those put on contract to conduct the search. The €10 million effort is being financed in part by Air France and Airbus, but Traodec insists that the BEA remain firmly in control. The investigators hope to provide a final report by the end of next year, although they concede the ability to find a definite cause will hinge largely on finding the recorders. http://www.aviationweek.com **************** SD Airlink struggles as 14 aircraft suspended image SA Airlink's Jetstream 41 plane is part of SA Airlink's fleet that was suspended by SACAA SWAZILAND Airlink is struggling to stick to its schedule following the suspension of about 14 of its aircraft by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) due to safety concerns. The company is a franchise of SA Airlink, some of whose fleet of aircraft have been involved in accidents or near accidents over the past few months, prompting SACAA to suspend the airline company’s Jetstream 41 fleet pending attendance to mechanical and other problems. News 24 reported yesterday that SACAA took the decision to ground the planes after a plane in the fleet had to abort take-off in Nelspruit last Wednesday due to low oil pressure and smoke coming out of its left-hand engine. This was said to be the second incident involving Airlink flights after another in Durban (September) resulted in one fatality. Swaziland Airlink General Manager Teddy Mavuso said although this was a difficult situation, especially for customers, they still managed to keep some of their flights in the air. He said as far as he knew there were 13 aircraft grounded, as opposed to the 14 reported by News 24. “We are still able to operate, except for the fact that our schedule is continuously being disturbed. We are able to service our Manzini-Johannesburg route quite well, although not by as much as we normally operate,” he said. Mavuso said the effect of the suspension was to the extent that they were now forced to operate on half their normal schedule. He said consumers would indeed be affected, but urged patience as well as regular communication with his office. “We cannot operate on full capacity given the status quo, but passengers must rest assured that the situation will return to normal as soon as possible,” he said. A statement carried by News 24 from SACAA was to the effect that the organisation decided to suspend SA Airlink’s Jetstream 41 aircraft after it resolved that the safety and airworthiness of this particular fleet could no longer be guaranteed. The airline’s spokesperson, Karin Murray told News 24 that she could not give the exact number of passengers affected by the grounding, but said "a few hundred" had been part of the reshuffling. "There will be some inconveniences," she added. http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=10024 **************** TAM officially names Barroso as president Brazilian TAM Airlines' First 777-300ER (Neg#: K64515-02) Brazilian carrier TAM has named interim chief and VP of finance Libano Miranda Barroso as president. Barroso succeeds David Barioni Neto, who resigned abruptly from his post in October of this year. After Neto's departure Barroso was appointed in the interim role. Last month during an earnings call Barroso stated that TAM would name a replacement for Neto by the end of December. Barroso joined TAM in 2004, and just prior to his move to the carrier he was director of finance and investor relations for Companhia de Concessoes Rodoviarias. Maria Claudia Amaro, president of the company's board says Barroso "is the right president at the right time. He has recognized experience in the area of finance, and, as a manager, he is significantly focused on costs. He is exactly what the company needs at this moment when excellent prospects for growth have been forecast". Source: Air Transport Intelligence news **************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC