Flight Safety Information November 24,2010 No. 243 In This Issue FAA Rules Out Bird Strike In JFK Emergency Landing Law enforcement officer left loaded gun magazine on plane NTSB recommends changes after deadly copter crash China's C919 to challenge Western dominance of aircraft market FAA issues new PW4000 directive to prevent potential engine failures FAA Rules Out Bird Strike In JFK Emergency Landing Federal Aviation Administration officials say there is no evidence that a bird strike is to blame for an engine failure that forced a Moscow-bound flight to make an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday. The Delta jet was forced to dump fuel and turn around shortly after taking off from JFK, with the crew reporting engine problems and other pilots saying they had seen a flash coming from the Boeing 767. FAA investigators found no evidence of "snarge," which is the aviation term for the feathers and other debris left after a bird is sucked into a plane's engine. Passengers, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio, were put on a later evening flight to Moscow. DiCaprio was traveling to St. Petersburg, Russia to attend a conference on protecting tigers. In a statement issued through his publicist, he commended the pilot and flight crew for safely landing the plane. http://www.ny1.com/ Back to Top Law enforcement officer left loaded gun magazine on plane (CNN) -- A federal law enforcement officer mistakenly left a loaded gun magazine that was found Tuesday on a Southwest Airlines plane, officials said. The discovery was made after the flight from Burbank, California, to Phoenix, Arizona, landed, a member of a CNN crew aboard the plane said. The head of the Transportation Security Administration said the unnamed law officer will be given remedial training. "It belonged to a member of federal law enforcement," John Pistole said of the magazine, adding it was not believed to belong to a federal air marshal. "The full magazine was found in a back seat pocket," a TSA official told CNN. "We believe it was left by a law enforcement officer on a flight that originated in San Jose (California) and landed in Burbank. The officer was not an air marshal and we are trying to establish contact with the agent." "The item was immediately turned over to the crew working the flight, who called in the local authorities to handle the investigation," a Southwest Airlines statement said. "The passengers who were remaining on that flight were rescreened and the plane was thoroughly inspected before returning to service." The officer followed the proper protocols to get the gun on the plane and authorities were in the process of returning the misplaced clip to the officer, said Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King. "We were just taken by surprise," said CNN photographer Gregg Canes, who was headed to Phoenix along with producer Sara Weisfeldt to cover former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's book signing. He said that after the plane had landed, a child behind them, who had been seated on his mother's lap, was crawling across the other seats on the row toward the window when his foot knocked something onto the floor. A flight attendant picked it up, he said, and he could see it was a gun magazine. Canes said the flight attendant would not let them take pictures of it. "It was actually almost funny, given the amount of scrutiny that we've been paying to the [Transportation Security Administration] and personal security. It seemed almost funny to see a magazine with bullets in it just sort of lying on the floor of a commercial jetliner," Canes said. Passengers were allowed to deplane, he said. Back to Top NTSB recommends changes after deadly copter crash NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday recommended redesign and modification of some elements of the Sikorsky S-76C model helicopter, the type that was involved in the 2009 helicopter crash that killed both pilots and six of seven passengers aboard. The NTSB sent 12 safety recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration as part of its report on the Jan. 4, 2009 crash of the dual-engine helicopter, operated by PHI, Inc., that was en route to an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Investigators suspect a bird struck the helicopter when it was about 850 feet above ground. They found the remains of a Red-tailed hawk on the remnants of the pilot's side windshield. They also found bird feathers under a windscreen seal and in an engine. A cockpit voice recorder captured a bang and a loud air noise about 17 seconds before the crash. The NTSB recommended that the FAA prohibit operators of helicopters with installed bird-strike resistant windshields from replacing those windshields with ones that have not been tested to withstand such strikes. It also suggested that the company redesign the model to ensure that fire extinguishers do not inadvertently dislodge due to any external force on the canopy or windshields. The board recommended evaluating other helicopter models with engine control quadrant designs similar to the S-76C model and requiring modifications as necessary. Other recommendations include: - evaluating the feasibility of retrofitting helicopters manufactured before 1996 - and requiring manufacturers to equip new helicopters built under the old certification requirements - with windshields that meet the current bird-strike requirements. - requiring manufacturers to develop helicopter-specific guidance that will help pilots devise precautionary strategies for minimizing the severity of helicopter damage sustained during a bird strike, should one occur. - requiring Stratford, Conn.-based Sikorsky to design an audible alarm system and master warning light that will alert the flight crew when there are low rotor revolutions per minute. The PHI pilots killed in the crash were: Thomas Ballenger, 63, of Eufaula, Ala.; and Vyarl Martin, 46, of Hurst, Texas. The passengers were: Andrew Moricio and Ezequiel Cantu of Morgan City, La.; Randy Tarpley of Jonesville, La.; Charles W. Nelson of Pensacola, Fla.; Allen Boudreaux Jr. of Amelia, La.; and Jorey A. Rivero of Bridge City, La. Steve Yelton, of Floresville, Texas, was the only survivor. Back to Top China's C919 to challenge Western dominance of aircraft market At the opening day of Zhuhai Airshow 2010, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China singed 100 initial orders for its 160-seat C919 aircraft with four major Chinese carriers - Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Hainan Airlines - as well as the airplane leasing company General Electric Capital Aviation Services of the United States and a Chinese leasing firm. C919, the single-aisle commercial aircraft, will go head to head with industry leaders Boeing and Airbus, said Chen Jin, marketing head of the company. The "ABC" pattern will be formed Because the aviation industry has been dominated for many years by giants Airbus and Boeing, the situation on the market is known as the "AB" pattern. But with the development of C919, the global "ABC" competition will come into being. Detailed design of the C919 is scheduled to be completed in 2012; the maiden flight will be made in 2014; and it will go onto the market after receiving airworthiness certification in 2014. Compared with other similar aircraft, C919 has many advantages. Technically, it operates on a new-generation of engine and body material. It is environmentally sound because the fuel consumption of the C919 is less than 12 percent to 15 percent of that of similar planes, and the carbon emissions will be reduced by 50 percent, Chen said. These advantages make C919 a star in Zhuhai Airshow. "The C919 is a good thing and there is room for competition," said James Simon, vice- president of Boeing China commercial-airplane sales. "It makes all of us do our job better and build more efficient aircraft." China's aviation market, represented by large aircraft, will transfer from meeting the basic demands of national defense to become the country's economic pillar industry. Despite the fact that China's large aircraft project has achieved remarkable fruits, engine development still lags behind. So C919 will use the LEAP-X engine provided by the CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aviation, a division of General Electric of the United States and Snecma, a division of Safran of France, according to Wu Guanghui, chief designer of C919 and deputy general manager of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China. AVIC Commercial Aircraft Engine Co., Ltd., which is shouldering the mission of developing engines for large domestic aircrafts, announced during the Zhuhai Airshow that the overall blueprint for engines of domestic aircrafts is expected to be released in 2011. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ Back to Top FAA issues new PW4000 directive to prevent potential engine failures Regulators from the US FAA are requiring operators of Pratt & Whitney PW4000 powerplants to inspect engines with certain "number three bearing oil pressure tubes" for cracks or repairs to prevent oil fires, failure of high pressure turbine discs, uncontained engine failures and general aircraft damage. The agency states in a new airworthiness directive the action was prompted from one report of a bearing that cracked and caused an engine in-flight shutdown, one incidence of a test cell event and seven reports since 2007 of the repaired number three bearing oil pressure tubes cracking, which led to unscheduled engine removals. Estimates offered by FAA show that 973 engines installed on US aircraft would need the one-time, "ten minute" visual inspections. FAA calculates once the tube is removed, required parts should costs roughly $9,154, and labour rates would average $85 per hour. Overall, complying with the new rulemaking would cost US operators $8.9 million. Operators are required to perform the inspection for either cracks or repairs, and remove any number three bearing that has been repaired. After the rule's 28 December effective date operators are prohibited from installing the affected number three bearing oil pressure tubes into any engine. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC