Flight Safety Information

March 29, 2010  -  No. 062

In This Issue

Jet passengers safe after emergency landing
Qantas bosses accused of safety breach
Boeing completes crucial wing-bending test on 787
EU Makes Push for Real-Time Flight Data
FAA clears 747-8 for 747-400-sized runways and taxiways
EMS Crash Investigation Continues

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Jet passengers safe after emergency landing
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A Delta jetliner carrying 140 passengers made a safe emergency
landing amid concerns over its landing gear.

Albuquerque International Sunport officials say Delta flight 1022 had just taken
 off for Atlanta on Sunday when the crew noticed a light indicating a problem with
the landing gear.
Airport officials say the plane circled Albuquerque for about an hour to burn off
fuel before the emergency landing.
The plane touched down and the landing gear engaged without incident. Emergency 
crews were at the ready in case of a hard landing.

The passengers traveled back to Atlanta on aother aircraft.
Information from: KOB-TV, http://www.kob.com
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Qantas bosses accused of safety breach

Engineers say Qantas managers who replace them at night are taking shortcuts. Picture:
Aaron Francis
QANTAS engineers have called on the air safety regulator to investigate the airline
for safety breaches allegedly committed by managers during a long-running industrial
dispute.
The Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia claims
Qantas managers who replace them at night are taking shortcuts, hiding engineering
reports and lowering safety margins, The Australian reports.

They cite the example of a Boeing 737 aircraft allowed to fly with a cracked cockpit
window, increasing the risk of cabin decompression, and say there are other examples
of bad engineering decisions.
The union, which represents professional engineers who check Qantas faults and sign
off on repairs, says the Boeing 737-800 was incorrectly cleared to fly from Sydney
to Canberra and then from Canberra to Darwin and back before it was grounded. It
 estimates about 400 passengers were put at risk, and claims the flight breached
 airworthiness directives.
"We believe these poor engineering decisions have occurred due to those management
authorised persons having very little recent experience or day-to-day knowledge 
of the disciplines they are servicing, or the aircraft type they are supporting,''
association senior industrial officer Alison Rose says in a letter to Civil Aviation
Safety Authority boss John McCormick.
But Qantas rejected the accusation.
"We are very confident standards are being upheld and subject to regulatory engagement
and approval,'' a spokeswoman said.
"All our contingency arrangements are undertaken by certified engineers.''
APESMA members began the overtime ban in November.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/news/qantas-bosses-accused-of-safety-breach/story-e6frg8ro-1225846709689
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103243590794&s=6053&e=001rVTv8iwaZbaf7VN_mQTrparZNMWtWOclfsVxApP3zlOpNzK7giPTWkSiRX_qIJMcsvvGMIS1ywTl8_Vzlv9T7YeuAJD6-hh4r-Tv_IRkfxRsbq2tRZxJYYMVmahfiqFcossmOXGrMBcJF0MwPRfMpjnBjjGYkPmjC9Q0OXBjuM4i1KgpQS0xJrD9ltyuMuxr66EGTxWSe6Xs0vOVHny_egFk7I-cESsBN15T1npEzD4=]
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Boeing completes crucial wing-bending test on 787

Boeing reported positive initial results Sunday from a test in which engineers bent
the wings of a 787 Dreamliner ground test airplane until the load was more than 
one-and-a-half times anything the jet will experience in service.

Seattle Times business

Boeing Completes Ultimate-Load Wing Test on 787 K64913
In a carefully planned extreme test inside Boeing's Everett plant Sunday, engineers
bent the wings of a 787 Dreamliner ground-test airplane until the load was more 
than one-and-a-half times anything the jet will experience in service, the company
said.
Boeing said "the initial results ... are positive," but that it could take several
weeks of analysis before the test is declared a success.


The "ultimate load" wing stress test is a dramatic milestone in the process of obtaining
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification so the airplane can be used 
for passenger flights.
By the end of the test, the wing had deflected upward from the horizontal by about
25 feet, Boeing said in a statement.
Engineers had decided in advance not to continue to bend the wings until breaking
point, as they've done on past airplane programs.
The test was performed on one of two ground-test airplanes that will never fly.


The plane sits in a large framework inside the plant.
Measuring devices are positioned on the Dreamliner's airframe and cables run from
the structure to hanging weights that create the loads.


In the ultimate load test, the cables pulled the wing slowly upward, gradually building
over more than two hours toward the crucial 150 percent mark.
In a similar test in January 1995, Boeing bent the wings of the 777 beyond ultimate
load until they broke in an explosive burst at 154 percent of the anticipated in-service
maximum load, destroying the test plane.


Boeing spokeswoman Lori Gunter said Boeing this time would be satisfied with passing
the 150 percent certification threshold.
Unlike the 777 wings, which are traditional aluminum, the Dreamliner's wings are
 made of more flexible carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic and would be expected to 
keep bending without breakage far beyond the certification mark.


"We don't intend to break" the Dreamliner's wings, Gunter said.
"There is no requirement to (do so) and the loads required are quite high, so we
 don't intend to expose our people or equipment when it is not necessary."
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EU Makes Push for Real-Time Flight Data

In Wake of Crashes Where 'Black Boxes' Were Lost or Hard to Locate, Regulators Hope
Satellites Can Stream

By DAN MICHAELS And ANDY PASZTOR
Prompted by difficulties retrieving flight-data recorders after recent fatal airliner
crashes, European aviation regulators want to start using satellites to transmit
 critical safety information about accidents.
T
he idea of beaming real-time safety data from jetliners to the ground gained new
 impetus last June, when an Air France jetliner crashed into the Atlantic Ocean 
en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing all 228 people on board. The Airbus
A330's digital data and cockpit voice recorders, called "black boxes," still haven't
been located as investigators kick off their third search effort.
At a global aviation summit starting Monday in Montreal, the European Union and 
other European aviation organizations for the first time will call for streaming
 in-flight data about aircraft maneuvers and pilot commands via satellites. Representatives
of EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas will press officials from other countries
to support expanded use of satellite links to supplement data captured by traditional
black boxes, according to one of his top deputies.

The presentations before the International Civil Aviation Organization, an arm of
the United Nations, will mark the first official government endorsement of such 
data streaming.
A report prepared by a French-led group of international experts concluded that 
the concept of transmitting data during emergency situations "is becoming more robust
and accepted." The study also found it would be cost-effective if only essential
 data were sent.
Plans are at an early stage, with technical and economic hurdles still to be resolved.
Still, aviation safety officials from the U.S., other countries and global industry
groups endorse the idea in principle.

"It's smart to move in that direction," said Robert Francis, former vice chairman
of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
Andrew Sukawaty, chief executive of satellite-services provider Inmarsat PLC, said
the concept is "gaining enormous momentum" and "the industry is definitely moving
on this."
For many years, the idea of replacing onboard "black box" data recorders with satellite
feeds has been discussed and largely dismissed in aviation circles. Obstacles included
the cost of high-volume data transmissions, questions of where data would be stored
and privacy issues.
The biggest challenge has been overcoming the lack of perceived urgency.

Since the mid-1970s, missing or damaged black boxes have blocked investigators from
finding the probable cause in only a small number of major airliner crashes. Out
 of more than 3,000 accidents involving western-built commercial aircraft, fewer
 than a dozen cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders weren't found, according
to records of the International Air Transport Association, a global airline trade
group. And in most of those cases, enough wreckage was retrieved to piece together
a crash scenario, or air-traffic control tapes and other evidence helped investigators
determine what happened.

The crash of Air France flight 447 was the first in many years to leave almost no
trace, frustrating investigators and fueling public pressure for changes. Weeks 
later, when a Yemenia Airways Airbus A310 crashed in the Indian Ocean on landing
 in Comoros, recovery crews struggled to locate parts of its black boxes. And divers
searching for wreckage of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 that crashed in the Mediterranean
Sea on takeoff from Lebanon on January 25 also faced big problems recovering black-box
components.

Following this string of problems, proponents of satellite data transmissions say
that no opportunity should be lost to help get to the bottom of even one or two 
especially puzzling crashes. Flights over oceans and polar regions, where radar 
coverage is sparse, could gain significantly from data links, advocates say.
Among the only clues from the Air France crash was a series of routine maintenance
updates transmitted by the plane during its final minutes, which pointed to malfunctioning
airspeed indicators followed by cascading failures of flight-control computers and
other onboard equipment. Some 8,000 long-haul jets currently rely on the same satellite
links to inform maintenance bases about issues such as engine performance and components
that need attention.
Now, one leading idea for streaming safety data is to use these existing connections
to transmit a burst of information during emergencies.

Advocates propose programming onboard computers so that multiple problems signaling
an impending crash would automatically trigger a broadcast. The download would only
contain a fraction of the data recorded on today's digital black boxes. But even
 a few key facts that aren't routinely transmitted today-ranging from a plane's 
speed and heading to basic pilot activity-could prove vital in crash analysis.

"Experts agree that some small enhancements to the maintenance messages already 
transmitted by many commercial airliners could greatly aid accident investigators,"
said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation. Heads of the Federal 
Aviation Administration in the U.S., the European Aviation Safety Agency and ICAO
have agreed to back the initiative, according to industry officials.

The U.S. and EU are currently developing highly computerized air-traffic control
 networks relying on satellite data links, but they will take years to develop and
deploy. Industry officials want to move faster to safeguard crash data.

Before industry can make firm commitments, however, "we need two or three solutions
to be put on the table," according to Guenther Matschnigg, IATA's senior vice president
of safety.
Mr. Voss said simplicity will be vital. I hope "the industry doesn't allow the pursuit
of more elaborate solutions to get in the way of some real near-term progress," 
he said.

http://online.wsj.com/
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103243590794&s=6053&e=001rVTv8iwaZbbt4p32dVYvQcvs8HhU5CWRLs4weae90JjtKrP0iSTxbPKijBT-a6NKTl8h1UH5X74XjUJK6N0UFfd6FiyPIBe0]
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FAA clears 747-8 for 747-400-sized runways and taxiways


The US Federal Aviation Administration has cleared the Boeing 747-8 to operate at
airports with parallel runway and taxiway centreline distances identical to that
 of its smaller predecessor, the 747-400, despite it having a greater wingspan and
being slightly taller.
The FAA determined that the Boeing 747-8, which is classified as an Airport Design
Guidelines (ADG) category VI aircraft, can operate to the ADG V standard taxiway/runway
separation distances.
In a 12 March memorandum from the FAA's Airport Engineering Division, to Airports
Regional Division managers, the agency said the 747-8 can operate on ADG V parallel
runway and taxiway centreline distances, "as long as the tail height is within the
ADG V limit" of 20.1m (66ft).

At 19.5m, the 747-8's tail stands around 10cm higher than that of the 747-400, due
to the extra length of the fuselage on the stretched variant.

www.flightglobal.com [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103243590794&s=6053&e=001rVTv8iwaZbbZIkl7PijXf-650kMBJhP47zvr5wZkJhfkRuZb3f1yg6YhVtM_0FTkx60oq_YX2YMwRd6zcPkcgG7Ay9FZSKG6XCjWeSW10AasnVxl-ADkOw==]
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EMS Crash Investigation Continues


Investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are leading
the effort to figure out what caused a Hospital Wing-operated Eurocopter AS350 to
crash Thursday in Brownsville, Tenn. FAA officials and representatives from the 
hospital joined NTSB on Friday to assist with the inquiry, as well as personnel 
from the helicopter and engine manufacturers. Three people died in the crash-pilot
Doug Phillips and passengers Cindy Parker and Misty Brogden. They were on a return
flight after dropping off a passenger. According to reports, the helicopter went
 down in a wheat field and weather could have been a factor, as a line of thunderstorms
was reported around the time of the accident. It is the fourth EMS helicopter crash
in the past six months in the U.S. NTSB added increasing the safety of EMS flights
to its list of Most Wanted Safety Improvements in 2008.


http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/topstories/EMS-Crash-Investigation-Continues_67286.html
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Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP
CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC