Flight Safety Information May 27, 2010 - No. 105 In This Issue Polish Crash Probe Focuses on General Hersman Calls On Regional Airlines To Find New Solutions To Old Problems FAA Awards NextGen Engineering Contracts Worth Up To $4.4 Billion India Creates Air-Safety Council hay Pacific undergoes management change Boeing 787 in Colorado for high elevation tests NTSB expresses concern about sterile cockpit violations Too early to decide on new AF447 search: BEA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Polish Crash Probe Focuses on General Investigators Look at Impact of Air Force Chief's Cockpit Visit on Pilots in Air Disaster That Killed President, 95 Others WARSAW-The investigation into the April plane crash that killed Poland's president and 95 others is close to finished, with the remaining focus on whether the Polish air force chief's presence in the cockpit contributed to pilot error, said the top Polish official involved. Investigators have now confirmed that one of the passengers, Gen. Andrzej Blasik, was in the cockpit with the door open as the pilots approached the runway in thick fog around Smolensk, in western Russia. Investigators also say the crew of the presidential Tupolev-154 delayed trying to lift the plane for 13 seconds after an alarm warned them they were too close to the ground. Fatal Error How the Tupolev-154 carrying Poland's President Lech Kaczynski crashed. View chart "Pretty much everything is clear right now and nearly all evidence has been gathered," with just some background noise on the voice recordings still to be deciphered "if possible," said Edmund Klich, head of the Polish body that investigates civil-aviation disasters, in a phone interview from Moscow. The final report should be released within weeks, Mr. Klich said. President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and a high-level delegation were en route to commemorate the World War II Katyn forest massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Russian agents when their plane crashed April 10, killing everyone on board. Mr. Klich said those on board were subjected to forces of 100 times gravity on impact. The disaster wiped out Poland's top military command and sank the nation into mourning. Moscow's sensitive handling of the tragedy also boosted reconciliation between the two ancient rivals. The outcome of the joint Russian-Polish crash probe remains politically charged, however, with just weeks to go before Polish presidential elections, which are set for June 20. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the late president's twin, is running in his brother's place. Mr. Kaczynski is trailing his main opponent, Bronislaw Komorowski, in opinion polls. Mixed Record There has been persistent speculation in Poland and Russia that President Kaczynski may have pressured the pilots to land. In August 2008, during the war between Russia and Georgia, he gave orders to the military pilot flying his presidential aircraft to land in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. The pilot refused. One other passenger on the doomed Tupolev, still not identified, entered the cockpit 16 minutes before the crash, Mr. Klich said. Polish media have carried unconfirmed reports that the person was a presidential aide, asking if the crew would land on time for the president to make it to the commemoration. "There's no specific command to land on the record," said Mr. Klich. "Psychologists will have to assess the stress levels the pilots were subjected to." That review is a part of the investigation that remains to be completed, he said. The Tupolev's pilots ignored multiple warnings from the Smolensk control tower that visibility was poor and they should divert. Just four minutes from impact, another Polish flight crew already on the ground told the pilots that horizontal visibility at the airport was down to 200 meters, and vertical visibility was just 50 meters, according to details recently released by investigators in Moscow. The military airport wasn't equipped to work with the Tupolev's landing system, and the safety visibility threshold for landing was 1,000 meters, the investigators said. Unable to see, the pilots flew their Tupolev into a depression one kilometer from the airport. The plane was 15 meters below the elevation of the runway when its "terrain approaching" alarm went off, indicating the aircraft was less than 100 meters from the ground. Yet the pilots appear to have switched off the autopilot and sought to pull up only after the plane shuddered on hitting a 10.8-meter-high tree. That was 13 seconds after the alarm and just five seconds before impact. A five-meter-tall birch tree sheared off part of the left wing and sent the plane into a spin before it landed on its back and disintegrated, according to the investigation. Mr. Klich said there appeared to have been coordination problems among the crew in the cockpit, but didn't elaborate. He also said Poland's laws, which make the pilot of a military aircraft its commander-in-chief, should be toughened to rule out the possibility of a civilian influencing the pilot's decisions. The president is by law the supreme commander of the military even though he holds no military rank. Human factors in air disasters have been a central focus of aviation safety for at least 15 years. Specialists in the U.S., Western Europe and other highly developed aviation markets have worked to understand issues such as the stresses flight crews face and how well they interact, particularly in crisis situations. Big strides have been made in raising awareness of how important it is for crews to focus on key tasks. "On the face of it, 13 seconds appears a long delay to respond. You should react to a terrain warning immediately with full power and a pull-up," said Paul Hayes, director of safety at Ascend Ltd., an aviation consulting firm in London, who has reviewed the investigation materials released so far. Mr. Hayes also questioned the presence of Gen. Blasik in the cockpit. "You should have a sterile cockpit during final approach. You should just have the crew talking about the work at hand. But there's no indication yet whether the noncrew members were a distraction," he said. http://online.wsj.com/ [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103441014996&s=6053&e=001l_zzvlJfKEaLhHqyiYI4B_UNCFxX4Bnbx-ZPzbsHS16uY5NWNF9SmSj0L2D6D-uE5HOh5PI3ypG0qs8wfCebtYMr8bjlx129yLfhjiO8eygI6fTsQQePFg==] Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hersman Calls On Regional Airlines To Find New Solutions To Old Problems NTSB Chair's Remarks Came At The Regional Airline Association Meeting In Milwaukee National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman told the leaders of the nation's regional airlines Wednesday they need to find new methods to solve old problems. Speaking before the Regional Airline Association national convention in Milwaukee, WI, Hersman congratulated the regional airlines for eclipsing the mainline carriers by operating over half of scheduled airline departures in the nation. Hersman noted that, while regional airlines are becoming an increasingly important segment of the nation's airline industry, they also have come under increasing scrutiny. Although the rate of fatal accidents involving Part 121 carriers (encompassing virtually all scheduled airlines) today is half what it was just ten years ago, some recent high-profile accidents like the 2006 Lexington wrong runway takeoff crash and the 2009 crash on approach to the Buffalo airport have raised questions about minimum standards, professionalism, pilot training and qualifications. Beyond the overarching tragedy of the lives lost in those two crashes, Hersman noted that the entire industry rises or falls on its safety record. "This fact could not have been clearer after the [Buffalo] crash, when all regional airlines suffered in the court of public opinion." Hersman said that RAA member airlines need to explore new approaches to solve old problems like pilot fatigue, which has been on the Board's Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements for 20 years. As an example, she cited a trucking company that invested in sleep apnea screening, which resulted in a reduction in preventable crashes by 30 percent, and an incidental decline in monthly health care costs of almost $540. Hersman reminded her audience that the Safety Board will host a symposium in October to discuss issues related to code sharing agreements between major airlines and their regional partners. She closed by saying she is encouraged by the fact that, for the first time ever, RAA member airlines and their mainline counterparts are meeting this week to discuss better safety coordination. Invoking President Kennedy's quotation that a rising tide lifts all boats, Hersman said "Likewise, an airline industry that is safer tomorrow than it is today will lift all carriers to new heights." FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.raa.org Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FAA Awards NextGen Engineering Contracts Worth Up To $4.4 Billion Boeing, General Dynamics, And ITT To Produce Real-Time Demonstration Procedures The FAA awarded three separate Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) contracts Wednesday totaling up to $4.4 billion over 10 years. Under the contracts, the companies will perform work that will demonstrate NextGen procedures in real time on a large scale within the current air traffic system. "NextGen is an economic opportunity that will challenge innovative companies to expand their workforce and help us modernize our National Airspace System," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "Under NextGen, air travelers will be able to fly to their destinations safer and faster." Boeing, General Dynamics and ITT were awarded the contracts worth up to $4.4 billion. The three contracts, like one for $280 million awarded last month to CSSI, Inc., are part of System Engineering 2020 (SE2020). Two more contracts are expected under SE2020, which has a ceiling of $7 billion, making it the largest set of awards in FAA history. Boeing, General Dynamics and ITT will conduct large-scale demonstrations, including the use of aircraft as flying laboratories, to see how NextGen concepts, procedures and technologies can be integrated into the current system. "NextGen is an intricate network of systems that involves everything from air traffic control to weather," said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. "We need to have the right tools to make sure we integrate all these different components safely and smoothly." The FAA will work with these companies to develop and demonstrate new procedures in four dimensions, adding the element of time to the current three-dimensional profile of an aircraft's latitude, longitude and altitude. Introducing time to this profile means that under NextGen, pilots and controllers will know not only where an aircraft is with greater precision but when the aircraft is supposed to be there. Unlike the current system of "roads in the sky," 4-D operations will allow aircraft to fly from Point A to Point B more directly, while taking into consideration factors such as heavy traffic and bad weather. Other work to be performed by Boeing, General Dynamics and ITT includes the development and rollout of modernized weather services. NextGen weather imaging will allow pilots and controllers to see bad weather stratified by different altitudes, giving them a more detailed and accurate picture of severe weather conditions. The improved information also means that pilots and controllers won't have to interpret weather information, allowing them to plan safer routes. All of the SE2020 contracts are designed to encourage the participation of small businesses. Of the subcontractors that will team with Boeing, General Dynamics and ITT, 12 are small businesses, six are owned by women and two are owned by disabled veterans. SE2020 represents an innovative contracting vehicle that streamlines NextGen funding from across the FAA, allowing work to be completed in an efficient and cost effective manner. FMI: www.dot.gov, www.faa.gov Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ India Creates Air-Safety Council NEW DELH-India is creating a new advisory council to monitor aviation safety issues and investigate accidents, a move that comes after an Air India jetliner crash on May 22 that killed 158 people. Nasim Zaidi, director general of civil aviation within the country's Civil Aviation Ministry, said in an interview Thursday the proposed "Aviation Consulting Council" would include officials with broad expertise in areas such as aeronautics, flight operations, and safety. "There's wide expertise available in the country," Mr. Zaidi said. He said the government is putting together the aviation council now but declined to specify a timeframe for its launch. The council, which would be made up of about 15 to 20 people, would provide input to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which currently oversees all aviation regulatory matters in India, but would operate separately from it. The proposed council would provide recommendations to DGCA in areas such as air navigation, monitoring of flight operations, and critical airports-those with features that make safety issues more complex, Mr. Zaidi said. He said one key area will be to "gauge human performance and training of pilots, co-pilots and other crew members." The initiative to create the council was already underway before the crash on May 22 of an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 jet in the southern city of Mangalore, he said. The council will help investigate that accident. Indian and U.S. authorities are already working to find the reason for the crash after recovering the "black box" with crucial flight data. Aviation safety experts have urged India to beef up its policing of airlines and create a new body separate from the DGCA to evaluate the industry. The Indian airline sector expanded rapidly in recent years, with passenger air traffic more than doubling to 69 million between 2005 and 2009. During the boom years, many airlines were adding six or more aircraft per month. That rapid growth has made it difficult to maintain safety standards, expert say. Mohan Ranganathan, a Chennai-based aviation consultant, praised the government's creation of an aviation safety council. "The idea is to have people who are entirely dedicated to safety," he said. "They've woken up to the fact that there are a lot of changes required" after the Air India crash. Even before last weekend's tragedy, the DGCA was taking some steps to tighten regulations. On May 21, the day before the crash, the agency said it plans to begin investigating whether cash-strapped airline operators are compromising on safety to save money. Among other things, DGCA will look at whether training standards have decreased, maintenance of aircraft has been inadequate, and whether there have been significant lay-offs or turnover in personnel. The idea of investigating carriers' possibly cost-safety tradeoffs has been put out for public comments, which are due June 21. State-run Air India is suffering heavy losses as it deals with a bloated work force and the fallout of a complex merger with Indian Airlines, another public carrier. Air India's parent company, National Aviation Co. of India Ltd., is expected to post a loss of $1.2 billion in its most recent fiscal year, which ended March 31. The company is also dealing with significant labor issues. A strike this week by roughly 1,500 workers caused the airline to cancel at least 76 flights. The Delhi High Court ordered workers Wednesday to cease the strike. Air India spokesman Chandra Kumar said the company has sacked 58 employees. He said, "the cancelled flights have been restored. Operations will be fully normal by [this] afternoon." He said the loss to the carrier from the disruption in the past two days had been about $2 million. Last year, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration considered downgrading India's safety rating, from what it calls category one to category two, a move that would have harmed the international operations of big carriers like Air India and Jet Airways. The U.S. agency ultimately decided against the downgrade, after India addressed some key concerns by hiring more safety inspectors. Pilot training and schedules, which the new advisory council will study, remain top concerns for many aviation experts, even though there's no evidence to suggest that the pilots in the recent crash were unprepared. The captain, a British expatriate, had 9,000 hours of flying experience and had landed at the Mangalore's Bajpe airport 19 times. Air India has said it believes both the captain and co-pilot were well-rested. Still, a key issue for the industry, Mr. Ranganathan said, is the lack of training for aviators on smaller and mid-size aircraft, which leads to some co-pilots being put in the cockpits of big jetliners before they have enough experience. "If you're lucky, you might go directly from a Cessna to a 777 Boeing," he said. To actually command a jetliner, Indian pilots need 2,000 hours of flying experience and need to pass exams in subjects such as meteorology and navigation, a process that can take five to six years at major airlines like Air India, pilots say. Another concern is that Indian training institutes aren't modern. About 46% of the training aircraft at Indian flight schools are more than 20 years old, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. The government says it has begun updating a few key flight institutes around the country with better aircraft and flight simulators. http://online.wsj.com/ Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cathay Pacific undergoes management change Cathay Pacific Airways has announced director level changes in the senior management, effective second half of 2010. James Barrington, director of sales and marketing, will become director of corporate development. Rupert Hogg, will move from director of cargo to director of sales and marketing. Tomasz Smaczny, general manager of information management, will become director of information management replacing Edward Nicol. Richard Hall, will replace Nick Rhodes as the director of flight operations. Rhodes will become director of cargo. Ian Shiu, Cathay Pacific's director of corporate development, will become senior director of John Swire & Sons (HK) handling Hong Kong staff matters and strategic developments in mainland China and Taiwan. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103441014996&s=6053&e=001l_zzvlJfKEZybbyFTomCUcSj2lFM25MNZ5sUaD-PeV0IfppVPDOlKorlrjety6Hi0yAj7aw-BfTnIKB5NTOlNvo13uKtxKop] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Boeing 787 in Colorado for high elevation tests Boeing has stationed the fourth 787 Dreamliner, ZA004, in Colorado Springs for a series of high-field-elevation tests over several days. The tests, to be carried out an airport with a high elevation, follow tests on the same aircraft in Mesa, Arizona, conducted at a low-elevation airport in hot weather, says Boeing. "Earlier this month another 787 conducted touch-and-go manoeuvres in Colorado Springs," it adds. The 787 flight test fleet, comprising four aircraft, has logged more than 840 hours of flying in the last six months. Two more aircraft will join the fleet soon, says Boeing. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NTSB expresses concern about sterile cockpit violations Recent non-fatal accidents involving US carriers are causing the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to question if larger issues exist in the flight deck environment that require more scrutiny. Board chairman Deborah Hersman during a speech today at the Regional Airline Association convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin said while the Colgan Air flight 3407 crash of a Bombardier Q400 in February 2009 garnered significant attention, NTSB is seeing other incidents that are triggering questions about sterile cockpit rules being routinely violated. NTSB next month plans to consider a report examining one of those incidents, a runway excursion of a Continental Airlines Boeing 737 at Denver in 2008. "We'll have more to say on that after the Board adopts its finding and recommendations," says Hersman. She also is expressing concern about the American Airlines 737 crash last December in Jamaica. The aircraft landed long and ran off the end of the runway, braking into several parts. Stressing to the audience that lessons learned from the Colgan investigation apply to all air carriers, not just regional airlines, Hersman says accident investigations are not "the time for polite words". Hersman says she stands by a comment she made during the Colgan hearing that it felt like the movie "Groundhog Day". "What I meant was that the issues we discovered in our investigation were nothing new. We've long known about them, and in fact NSTB has long-standing recommendations on many of them," she explains. Hersman also acknowledges a big problem the industry faces is "the slowness and unpredictability of the regulatory processyou should be able to look to regulations for guidance on best practices, yet the fail time and again to keep pace". NTSB's chairman says she's "disappointed to hear that the flight and duty time notice of proposed rulemaking is now scheduled to be published in September". Noting industry is facing a third delay in the proposed rule's release in the USA Hersman says: "What started out of the blocks as a record-setting 200 metre dash has now begun to look more like a steeplechase event." Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Too early to decide on new AF447 search: BEA Latest efforts to locate the wreckage of Air France flight AF447 have ended without success, and no indication as to whether a new search will be undertaken. The vessel used in the hunt, Seabed Worker, is heading for Cape Verde after suspending the search on 24 May. France's Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses says the search - the third since the loss of the aircraft almost a year ago - covered "nearly" the whole area drawn up by investigators. The vessel was temporarily taken out of the primary search zone after analysis suggested a possible new location for the missing Airbus A330's flight recorders. Nothing was located, however, and a spokesman for BEA says it is "too early to say" whether a fourth search will be launched. "First they have to analyse the data collected since the beginning of the investigation," he adds. AF447 crashed in the South Atlantic on 1 June 2009 while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC