14 JAN 2010 _________________________________________ *Landing-Gear Door Malfunction Suspected in United Jet Incident *Nigeria to Put Air Marshals on US-Bound Flights *German regulator grounds Blue Wings again *FAA denies Embraer's request to withdraw E-170 rulemaking *Surface movement surveillance radar live at Melbourne *US regulators to probe industry on automation ***************************************** Landing-Gear Door Malfunction Suspected in United Jet Incident By ANDY PASZTOR Federal crash investigators suspect that a partially closed landing-gear door may have prevented part of the main wheels of a United Airlines jet from extending last weekend at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport, resulting in a harrowing but safe landing for 48 passengers and five crew members. Following an uneventful flight from Chicago and a normal descent toward the Newark airport Sunday morning, industry officials said, cockpit instruments indicated that the Airbus A319's landing gear hadn't locked into place. After circling for another approach and unsuccessfully trying emergency procedures to fully deploy the gear, the twin-engine jet landed on its nose gear and the left portion of its main gear, damaging its belly and scraping the right wing on the ground The right portion of the main gear didn't drop down. The jet slid to a halt on the runway's centerline. Nobody was seriously hurt as the passengers evacuated using emergency chutes. The crew was praised for its actions. Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board, these officials said Wednesday, are pursuing a theory that the emergency deployment didn't work because right panel of the main landing-gear door didn't fully open. The right main gear caught on the panel and couldn't extend. It isn't clear what caused the problem, or why the gear initially failed to extend. Also Wednesday, leaders of the United chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association scheduled and then abruptly cancelled a press conference slated for Thursday, at which the captain and co-pilot of Flight 634 were scheduled to recount the incident. Local union officials called the conference partly to generate some positive publicity, possibly hoping to influence ongoing labor negotiations with the carrier. But after discussions with company and national ALPA officials, the press conference was abruptly cancelled. It is unusual for pilots to make public statements during the course of an investigation. Dave Kelly, a spokesman for the United pilots' union, said Thursday night that the move was prompted by "scheduling conflicts." Press officials for the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration declined to comment on the investigation. UAL Corp.'s United unit also has declined to comment. Sunday's incident was unusual, according to safety experts, because the main landing gear of such a large commercial jet seldom fail to deploy when pilots resort to emergency procedures that basically rely on gravity. According to several safety experts, the last time a United plane experienced a similar problem may have been in 1990, when one of the carrier's Boeing 737 jets made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport. It turned out that a flashlight inadvertently left behind by a mechanic prevented extension of the jet's right main gear. Nose gear malfunctions have been seen more frequently, according to safety experts. A JetBlue Airways Corp. plane with a malfunctioning nose gear, for instance, sparked national cable-TV coverage in the fall of 2005, when it circled above Southern California for about three hours before touching down safely. Landing-gear issues also have afflicted smaller, regional aircraft. In 2007, a string of landing-gear malfunctions on Q400 turboprops manufactured by Canada's Bombardier Inc. led to the temporary grounding of some of the planes and resulted in various safety directives by aviation regulators around the globe. No one was seriously injured in any of those incidents, but they highlighted design and maintenance issues that resulted in the plane's checkered history of landing-gear problems. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703414504575001982246948938.ht ml?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news ************* Nigeria to Put Air Marshals on US-Bound Flights Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority Director Harold Demuren says the decision demonstrates Nigeria's commitment to aviation security Nigeria said it will soon deploy air marshals on its flights to the Untied States to increase security after the foiled Christmas day attack on a U.S. airliner by a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab. Nigerian Aviation Minister Babatunde Omotoba told reporters Wednesday that the United States approached Nigeria about putting air marshals on its U.S.-bound flights. Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority Director Harold Demuren said the decision demonstrates Nigeria's commitment to aviation security. "Definitely we believe that this is a demonstration that our country is completely committed to aviation security," he said. Since the Christmas day foiled attack on a U.S. airliner bound for the city of Detroit, the United States has moved to place Nigeria on a security watch list and invoked extra screening for passengers from Nigeria to the United States. Demuren said the Nigerian government has made known its displeasure with the new U.S. restrictions. "We are not happy that we are listed. We are very dissatisfied about this and we have made it very clear. We hope that this will be revisited very quickly," Demuren said. He said since the attempted airline bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner by Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, Nigeria has taken additional measures to enhance aviation security. "We have had 100 percent examination at our airports, we are introducing three-D full-body scanners, we are doing second screening of all hand luggage, we have met all ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) security directives," he said. Demuren said Nigeria has also passed U.S. Transportation Security Administration audit twice for Lagos and Abuja airports. He said the request to put air marshals on U.S.-bound flights came from the Obama administration and Nigeria consented. Demuren said Nigeria will ask the United States to help train air marshals. http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/butty-nigeria-us-air-marshals-14jan 10-81420597.html *************** German regulator grounds Blue Wings again German carrier Blue Wings has suspended operations with immediate effect, after the country's civil aviation regulator withdrew its licence. Civil aviation authority LBA has grounded the carrier, citing a "lack of evidence" that the airline has the legally-required adequate financial resources. "Blue Wings is therefore now no longer entitled to carry passengers, mail or cargo on commercial flights," it states. The Dusseldorf-based airline says that it halted services at 12:00. "Developments in recent weeks and the tight macro-economic situation in the airline have forced us to take this step," it adds. Blue Wings uses a small fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft, but has several more on order with the airframer. LBA grounded the carrier early last year over similar financial concerns but reinstated its licence several weeks later. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************** FAA denies Embraer's request to withdraw E-170 rulemaking The US FAA has denied a request by Embraer to withdraw a proposed airworthiness directive (AD) requiring operators of as many as 77 US-registered E-170 aircraft to make electrical systems changes aimed at preventing possible loss of aileron, spoiler and rudder control if the aircraft were to experience a rotor disk failure in the turbofan engine. The agency on 14 January will issue a final version of the directive, giving operators of certain aircraft 6,000 flight hours to make changes that may include modifying electrical wiring in overhead panels in the cockpit, changing power sources to air data probes and modular avionics units and modifying wiring to slat and flap actuator control electronics. The alterations, which the FAA says could cost as much as $5,628 per aircraft, were defined in three earlier Embraer service bulletins. Spawning the bulletins and AD was Embraer's "re-assessment" of the E-170, which revealed that a worst case rotor disk failure could possibly cause the "loss of electrical power supply to the following aircraft systems: air data systems, ailerons and multi-function spoilers and rudder, which results in the loss of aircraft pitch and yaw control", according to the FAA. During the comment phase after FAA proposed the rule in July, Embraer asked for its withdrawal based on "service experience". The Brazilian airframer believes the "probability of a rotor burst combined with the probability of a disk trajectory that hits the specific wiring bundle is extremely rare". Instead, Embraer suggested issuing a special airworthiness information bulletin (SAIB) to alleviate concerns. After consulting with Brazilian airworthiness authorities FAA determined that even if the risk is low for a catastrophic event stemming from a broken disk, aircraft certification requirements "do not permit the use of probability as a risk reduction", according to the AD. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ************** Surface movement surveillance radar live at Melbourne Melbourne airport in Australia has deployed surface movement surveillance radar developed by Sensis after a roughly two-year delay. The airport contracted Sensis to install its Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS) in July 2006 for an initial launch date of 2008. "For Melbourne, delays were incurred in the process of negotiating the lease of sites from third parties for the installation of multilateration sensors and the interface with airport-specific systems," a Sensis spokesman says. Sensis explains that deploying the A-SMGCS takes from 12 to 48 months, and entails a number steps that include surveying and securing sites for multilateration sensors and deploying new surface movement radar and multilateration sensors. Other steps necessary to complete the roll-out are fusing the data from the multiple sensors, optimization of the sensors to meet an airport's unique characteristics, training air traffic controllers and ultimately having the system certified for operation by a third party. A-SMGCS is expected to be operational at Sydney during the first quarter of 2010, he says. Brisbane and Perth, which were added to the contract in October 2008, are under deployment, the Sensis spokesman says, adding, "Sensis and Airservices Australia are working together to determine completion timeframes that are based on a number of variables, including the negotiation of approvals for the installation of multilateration sensors at third-party sites." Outside Australia, A-SMGCS is live or in the midst of deployment at 39 facilities including 35 US airports and airports in New Delhi, Hong Kong, Jeddah and Dammam, Saudi Arabia. A-SMGCS combines surveillance data received from Sensis multilateration, multistatic dependent surveillance, surface movement radar and Sensis VeeLo NextGen vehicle locators to provide the location and identity of all aircraft and vehicles in movement and non-movement areas. The system also features Sensis conflict detection and alerting technology that alerts controllers in advance of potential runway incursions. A-SMGCS also integrates data from the Airservices flight plan system and provides real-time surface traffic information to the enroute and terminal aerodrome automation system. Information is displayed for air traffic controllers on Sensis controller working positions and is recorded for future playback. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** US regulators to probe industry on automation US FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt says he will bring together airlines and human factors experts in April or possibly sooner to discuss the consequences of advanced automation as it applies to pilots, controllers and mechanics. The basic question that will be addressed at the meeting, says Babbitt, is "Have we automated to the point where the human is out of the loop?" The FAA chief was speaking to ATI and Flightglobal in Houston on 12 January after a kick-off event for initial operations of the FAA's automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast services (ADS-B) in the Gulf of Mexico. Babbitt, a former airline pilot and instructor who continues to fly light aircraft on occasion after becoming FAA Administrator in June 2009, says he initiated the effort in part after hearing from "several airlines" that they were changing operational procedures to call for "a little more hand flying". Pilots typically engage an aircraft's autopilot shortly after takeoff, returning to hand-flying mode shortly before landing. FAA rules require that all aircraft flying above 29,000ft (8,845m) in reduced vertical separation minima (RVSM) airspace be operated on autopilot for safety reasons due to the limited vertical separation between aircraft, but carriers have more leeway at lower altitudes. Autopilot use is largely determined by efficiency measures in those areas, a reality that would tend to signal increased automation and autopilot use as the FAA moves toward 4d navigation, where an aircraft must pass certain waypoints at a relatively precise time. The role of automation and training has been in the safety spotlight after several recent high profile accidents in 2009, including the stall-related crash of a Colgan Airways Q400 in Buffalo in February, the crash of a FedEx MD-11F during an otherwise normal landing at Tokyo Narita in March and the unexplained loss of an Air France A330 over the Atlantic in June. Flightglobal recently reported that during its Crew Management Conference in early December that experts are debating whether a seeming deterioration of pilot skills is the symptom of long term effects of operating highly automated aircraft. Babbitt says the impact of increased automation could also affect air traffic controllers and maintenance workers. "I've asked FAA's human factors experts to look at it," he says. "We have to make sure a human is the ultimate decision maker." A key goal of the upcoming meeting, he notes, is to get carriers to share what they've learned on the topic. "If a carrier has developed a good procedure, I want to tell others about it," says Babbitt. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** curt-lewis