Flight Safety Information June 9, 2010 - No. 113 In This Issue Cathay, Air France Add Airbags as Crash Rules Tighten Stowaway survives flight next to jet landing gear Suit Against Bell From 2005 Accident Can Go Forward Russians accused of robbing Katyn jet victim U.S., Europe Hit Turbulence on Ash Issue Emirates Places $11.5 Bln Order For Additional 32 Airbus A380 Aircraft Etihad appoints VP of aviation security ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cathay, Air France Add Airbags as Crash Rules Tighten June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Air France-KLM Group have begun introducing seatbelt-mounted airbags in their economy-class cabins as authorities tighten regulations aimed at reducing the risk of fatalities in plane crashes. All aircraft built in the U.S. since October must conform to standards designed to keep passengers conscious through an impact involving deceleration at 16 times the force of gravity so that they can escape any subsequent fire. The same rules will be introduced in Europe by the end of next year, European Aviation Safety Agency spokesman Jeremie Teahan said. While many seats comply with the so-called 16g rule without needing airbags, which are installed in about 2 percent of seats, manufacturer AmSafe Inc. predicts they'll become standard by 2020 amid heightened awareness of safety issues. The devices cost about $1,200 apiece, versus $25 for a regular seatbelt. "The problem with our economy seats is that they have rigid shells and a head impact is more difficult to handle," Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Officer Tony Tyler said in an interview in Berlin. "Therefore we need airbags." About 80 percent of plane crashes are survivable, and a study of 25 impact-related accidents by the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in 2005 concluded that stronger seats and better restraints could have averted 62 fatalities. The world's airlines have a total capacity of 2.8 million seats, according to Dunstable, England-based OAG, which gathers statistics on the global aviation industry. Jumbo Exempt Safety rules for seats introduced in the U.S. in 1988 and Europe in 1992 applied only to new models, exempting planes including the Boeing Co. 747 jumbo jet and Airbus SAS A320 that were introduced earlier but are still in production today. Under the stricter rules, all new-build planes must be 16g compliant. AmSafe's airbags are stored in the seatbelt and inflate within 90 milliseconds of a crash, expanding up and away from the passenger to accommodate head movement in all directions. The Phoenix-based company, which also makes 95 percent of all aircraft seatbelts, introduced the technology in 2001 and says it has been sold to more than 50 carriers including Singapore Airlines Ltd., US Airways Group Inc., Emirates, Japan Airlines Corp. and Swiss International Air Lines AG. Airbags are required for standard berths where there is no seat in front to cushion against an impact, such as those facing bulkheads, galleys and lavatories, and for premium-class layouts where seats are angled to face into the aisle, Bill Hagan, the president of AmSafe's aviation unit, said in an interview. Fixed Back Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific became the first carrier to equip whole planes -- Airbus A340s and Boeing 777s -- with airbags, allowing it to use a "shell seat" design from BE Aerospace Inc. that didn't otherwise comply with regulations, Hagan said. The berth, introduced in coach class in July 2008, has a fixed back that doesn't move even when reclined, helping to protect personal space, according to the Cathay website. Air France-KLM, Europe's biggest airline, has fitted airbags after installing the same seats in the premium-economy cabins of its 777 jetliners, spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand said by telephone. About 2,200 berths are involved, Hagan said. Disadvantages Air France considered using airbags in the past but concluded that the potential disadvantages of accidental inflation outweighed the benefit of greater cushioning, according to CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon. Cathay Pacific closed down 2.8 percent at HK$15.40 in Hong Kong, reducing the stock's gain this year to 6.4 percent. Air France-KLM was trading 0.6 percent lower at 9.50 euros as of 10:48 a.m. in Paris and has declined 14 percent this year. Swiss International was also required to fit airbags in the business-class seats of its A330-300s, which entered service in April last year, spokeswoman Sonja Ptassek said. The unit of Deutsche Lufthansa AG will have 10 of the planes by March. Hagan says the client base for AmSafe's airbags has almost doubled from a year ago and that the company is in talks with "major North American carriers" on equipping entire planes with the product, with deals likely to close in 2011. "The real driver until now has been the premium segment," Hagan said. "But at a certain point you gain a critical footprint where airlines consider extending airbag use across the plane. I believe this point will be reached next year." Still, the International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines worldwide, says it isn't sure about the wider application of the technology beyond specific cases. "We're investigating whether airbags make sense," Guenther Matschnigg, IATA's senior vice president for safety, operations and infrastructure, said in an interview. "We need to have numbers before we take any stance." IATA will probably make recommendations to the European Aviation Safety Agency later this year, Matschnigg said in Berlin where, like Tyler and Gourgeon, he was attending the group's annual meeting. "If anyone can prove that airbags make a difference, we'll be the first to recommend them," he said. Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stowaway survives flight next to jet landing gear VIENNA (AP) - Austrian police say a man hid himself next to the landing gear of a jet parked at Vienna's airport and survived a flight to London. Schwechat police chief Leo Lauber says the man, a 20-year-old Romanian, told British authorities that he crawled under the wire of the fence surrounding the airport and climbed into the undercarriage of the jumbo jet that was parked near a construction site. Lauber says the jet belonged to a high-ranking sheik from the United Arab Emirates and took off from the Austrian capital Sunday night. After landing at Heathrow, Lauber said the man - who said he was looking for work - apparently fell out of the gear's cavity and was apprehended by local police. Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Suit Against Bell From 2005 Accident Can Go Forward Pilot Claims Her Bell 47D1 Manual Contained Improper Instructions Yet another lawsuit has figured out how to circumvent the Produict Liability reforms that were supposed to provide some sense of relief from legal actions against products with significant histrories... like the Bell 47. And so, a lawsuit stemming from the 2005 crash of a Bell 47D1 in Rancho Murieta, CA can go forward, a California appeals court has ruled. Alika Rogers survived the crash of the 52-year-old helicopter when it went down. She claims that the maintenance manual contained outdated instructions for balancing the aircraft's tail rotor blades. Courthouse News Service reports that the last manual update had been in 1975. A trial court had initally agreed with Bell, who held that the manual is part of the aircraft and therefore cannot be used as evidence. But the 3rd Court of Appeal in Sacremento disagreed, saying that the manual was not part of the aircraft, and so was admissible. In returning the case to trial court, Justice Ronald Robie wrote: "Federal regulations do not require a maintenance manual to be onboard the aircraft ... and unlike a flight manual that is unique to the aircraft, used by the pilot, and necessary to operate the aircraft, a maintenance manual applies to different aircraft models, is used by the mechanic, and only for troubleshooting and repairing the aircraft." Rogers is seeking (of course) unspecified damages from Bell. FMI: www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/courtsofappeal/3rdDistrict, www.bellhelicopter.com Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Russians accused of robbing Katyn jet victim WARSAW (AFP): Four Russian soldiers have been arrested on suspicion of defrauding the bank account of a victim of the jet crash in which the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, and 95 others died. ''One hour and 20 minutes after the catastrophe, the first fraudulent withdrawal was made using one of two bank cards belonging to Andrzej Przewoznik,'' Monika Lewandowska, a spokeswoman for the Warsaw regional prosecutor's office, said on Monday. ''During the three days after the catastrophe, from April 10 to 12, there were a total of 11 withdrawals for the total sum of 6000 zloty [$2100].'' Mr Przewoznik, who headed Poland's committee in charge of national war memorials, was part of the delegation going to Katyn, near the western Russian city of Smolensk, for a ceremony marking the massacre of thousands of Polish Army officers in 1940 on the orders of the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin. The Russian soldiers suspected of defrauding his bank account after his death in the April 10 crash - which killed all on board the presidential jet - have been arrested, a Polish government spokesman, Pawel Gras, said on Monday. ''The authors of this ignoble act have already been arrested in Russia,'' Mr Gras said. ''They are four Russian soldiers, not officials from the OMON [Russian anti-riot militia] as indicated by error on Sunday. I made this error as I thought that only OMON militiamen were at the crash site, but other units were also there.'' Prosecutors investigating the case said the fraudulent withdrawals were made by four soldiers from one of the units in Smolensk. ''Polish justice authorities have asked their Russian counterparts for judicial aid, notably to provide information on videos monitoring bank machines where the withdrawals were made,'' Ms Lewandowska said. ''We have not received any response to our demand for the moment,'' she added. ''The soldiers also made six failed attempts to withdraw cash with a different bank card belonging to Mr Przewoznik.'' The Polish president's Tupolev Tu-154 crashed while trying to land at Smolensk in thick fog. Russian authorities quickly sealed the area of the accident and the wreckage debris was then transported to the airport. Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ U.S., Europe Hit Turbulence on Ash Issue By ANDY PASZTOR NEW ORLEANS-U.S. and European aviation regulators clashed Tuesday over the hazards of airliners flying through low-level concentrations of ash, with Federal Aviation Administration officials reiterating that such plumes should be avoided under nearly all circumstances. Speaking at a safety conference here less than two months after the eruption of an Icelandic volcano temporarily shut down much of Europe's airspace and cost the region's airlines an estimated $1.7 billion in lost revenue, senior regulators from the two sides of the Atlantic laid out dramatically different approaches to the problem. Without directly attacking European decisions to permit flights once ash levels had dropped below a certain limit, FAA policy makers stressed that U.S. safety rules consider even trace volcanic ash potentially as dangerous as violent thunderstorms-and therefore to be avoided if at all possible. David Grizzle, the FAA's general counsel and acting deputy administrator, gave an opening speech highlighting the FAA's policy of staying out of day-today decisions about authorizing flights. "We did not want to convey the impression that somehow we knew how to do things better than" European regulators, Mr. Grizzle said. But the FAA, he told the conference, remains convinced the correct option is to tell pilots to avoid ash, provide them with the best possible forecasts and then let individual airlines "make the fly or no-fly decisions." Carriers are "better able to integrate the risks" than government bureaucrats, Mr. Grizzle said, and Europe's efforts amounted to a "different response from what we would have done." John Allen, head of the FAA's flight standards office, later said the agency expects pilots to avoid all volcanic clouds because "right now, we're afraid of what we don't know" about potential damage to engines and other systems. "We have the tools [and] we have the procedures" to avoid flying through adverse weather systems, Mr. Allen said "That's the best way . . . to safely avoid ash." In an interview, Patrick Goudou, head of the European Aviation Safety Agency, said he didn't consider the FAA comments to be attacks on European policies. "I didn't hear any criticism." Still, Mr. Godou is pressing for development of global safety standards for flights in areas that have low levels of volcanic ash. He indicated that long-standing international rules about avoiding ash altogether no longer were viable given the political and economic stresses prompted by April's eruption. "It changes everything in my mind." Initially, European regulators and aviation authorities from various countries imposed strict prohibitions against flying through ash residue. As the financial toll and public outcry grew, however, they relented and approved resumption of flights through areas with low-level concentrations of ash. But sometimes, there was no coordination between countries. In his remarks on Tuesday, Mr. Goudou acknowledged that in the midst of the crisis, European safety officials realized they had "absolutely no data about how engines [were] reacting to ash." According to the EASA chief, "the only possibility in the European system is to have a better model" to predict the movement and concentration of ash particles. "Our priority is to certainly improve what we have done so far." Some pilot union leaders and other safety experts remain concerned about potential hazards stemming from the European policies. For instance, critics say, it can be dangerous to fly over ash clouds because an engine failure could force a jetliner to lose altitude and it might end up cruising through heavy ash concentrations. Some say that improved computer modeling of ash dispersion through the atmosphere largely depends on more-accurate measurements of plumes as they emerge from volcanoes. But scientists are still working on ways to obtain such readings. Since April, both FAA officials and their European counterparts have ordered stepped-up inspections and maintenance of aircraft to identify potential ash damage. Mr. Goudou said the eruption also has triggered new reporting requirements for airlines to inform EASA, specifically about engine problems or premature wear caused by sucking in ash. Since strict avoidance historically was the standard, regulators haven't tested new airline models to see how well they are able withstand ash exposure. http://online.wsj.com/ [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103465976912&s=6053&e=0014I575mGuK_u_KfDYqTJBov3EBAj0jOElgGORA39-mNe_eT0Cz29scLUEZEEUsYHI2-oIYlO6_YoxLXDFZBWbxVdNHQkA1OxcO6wbwkeHuLaxv3lv3o5ucA==] Back to Top [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103465976912&s=6053&e=0014I575mGuK_uE8RWAjzNZ6Hk9WimaJJeQ00_pWyVPDSCUtuXM4_MxLOQYm-xbyNL3PP78JYHyZXx722xAFAqsFhrBpvbRGsOj] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Emirates Places $11.5 Bln Order For Additional 32 Airbus A380 Aircraft (RTTNews) - Dubai-based Emirates Airline said Tuesday that it placed an order with Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. N.V., or EADS, (EADSY.PK: News ,EADSF.PK: News ), for an additional 32 A380 aircraft. The order for the additional aircraft, which is the biggest single order for the superjumbo to date, is valued at US$11.5 billion. The latest order was announced by Emirates at the Berlin Air Show, taking the total firm order by the carrier for the aircraft to 90, or almost 40% of the 234 firm orders that Airbus has signed for the double-deck plane. The airline has already ordered 58 of the world's largest passenger plane. The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner. The A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines. "This latest order, adding to 58 A380s previously ordered, affirms Emirates' strategy to become a world leading carrier and to further establish Dubai as a central gateway to worldwide air travel. The A380 is our flagship in terms of passenger comfort, innovation, operating and environmental efficiency and revenue generation," said H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al- Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group. Emirates is currently serving eight international destinations with the A380 aircraft, including London Heathrow, Toronto, Paris, Jeddah, Bangkok, Seoul, Sydney and Auckland. The airline said it will start A380 services to Beijing from August 1, Manchester from September 1, and will return service to New York's John F. Kennedy airport on October 1. In addition to the orders placed today, Emirates has 48 Airbus 380s, 70 Airbus 350s, 18 Boeing 777-300s and 7 Boeing air freighters on order, totaling 143 wide-body aircraft worth more than US$48 billion. The Emirates deal enables Airbus overcome an order dearth for the world's largest passenger plane. The ambitious A380 program has been beset by numerous production and financial delays since it was first proposed in 2005. After originally hoping the superjumbo would be the company's salvation, Airbus is now targeting to break even by 2015 on the project. Airbus said that all Emirates' A380 aircraft will be powered by Engine Alliance GP7200 engines and delivered from Hamburg. In Germany, more than 30 major suppliers are directly feeding into the A380 program. Airbus noted that the A380 program alone adds an estimated 40,000 direct, indirect and induced German jobs. A380 firm orders now stand at 234 from 17 customers, the company said. Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Etihad appoints VP of aviation security Etihad Airways has appointed Salah Awadh Alfarjalla Al Ameri as vice president of aviation security and cadet pilot development. Al Ameri will be responsible for ensuring Etihad's compliance with international aviation rules and regulations as well as overseeing the cadet pilot training programme and developing career plans for Emirati pilots. He recently worked for Emirates as line captain on the Airbus A330 and A340 fleet. He was also a colonel in the UAE Air Force and Defence Force for over 21 years. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC