Flight Safety Information December 15, 2010 - No. 256 In This Issue EASA Broadens Trent AD To Update Software Continental Motors Sold to China's Avic Air India doesn't know left hand from right, says minister news 1960 plane collision over NYC spurred improvements Final Flight As Iconic Harrier Jet Bows Out Teen Likely Fell From Airplane U.S. FAA overhauls its recordkeeping on planes Survivor of Medevac crash files $50M suit Safety Management Systems (SMS) EASA Broadens Trent AD To Update Software The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is requiring airlines to update the electronic engine controller software on Rolls-Royce Trent 900s in the latest remedial action arising from the uncontained engine failure on Qantas Flight QF32. The move follows the engine maker's actions to develop a software patch to provide an intermediate-pressure (IP) turbine overspeed protection system. The airworthiness directive takes effect Dec. 27. The oil failure in the engine that malfunctioned on the Qantas Airbus A380 led to an oil fire that caused the IP turbine drive arm failure and then an overspeed and burst disc. EASA notes that "this condition, if not detected and corrected, could lead to additional uncontained engine failures, possibly resulting in damage to the [A380] and injury to persons on the ground." Rolls' response to the engine problem caused consternation at Airbus. Nevertheless, John Leahy, Airbus chief operating office for customers, says he expects the engine maker to fix the shortcoming. There is nothing "fundamentally wrong with these engines," he says, pointing to the assumption that a manufacturing flaw is at fault. Currently, Qantas is operating its Trent 900s at lower thrust setting than the 72,000 lb. of thrust used previously, leading to reduced performance. But Leahy believes that is a temporary situation. One reason Rolls will need to fix the problem is for later upgrades to the A380. Leahy notes that the stretched -900 and an A380 freighter would require higher thrust, giving Rolls an impetus to deal with the Trent 900 problem. Airbus has not launched the -900 or revived the freighter it canceled several years ago, but Leahy says that will eventually happen. The timing remains uncertain, however, given Airbus's busy development agenda with the A350 twin-widebody, the A400M military airlifter and A320NEO re-engining program. One reason the Trent 900 situation is worrisome to Airbus is that it could cause the aircraft maker to miss its target of delivering 20 A380s this year. So far, 17 have gone to customers, with an 18th planned to be handed over Dec. 14. Two more are due to an airline this year, but it is uncertain if sufficient Trent 900s will be available. Singapore has deferred one A380 because of seat availability concerns. http://www.aviationweek.com/ Back to Top Continental Motors Sold to China's Avic China's AVIC International is to buy U.S. general-aviation engine manufacturer Continental Motors from Teledyne Technologies for $186 million in cash. Anticipated growth in the Chinese general aviation market is cited as reason for the purchase. The acquisition of Mobile, Ala.-based Continental and its service centers requires U.S. government anti-trust and foreign-investment clearance as well as Chinese government approval, but is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011, says Teledyne. AVIC is expected to retain Continental's senior management and its headquarters in Mobile, where the manufacturer employs some 400 people, and to invest in upgrades to operations and increased research and development, according to Teledyne. Continental has launched development of the TD-300 diesel aero-engine, aiming for certification in 2011. Burning Jet-A fuel, the 230-250 hp. engine is aimed at international markets where Jet-A fuel is more readily available that leaded avgas. Continental provides engines for a range of piston singles and twins including Cessna's Corvalis 350/400, the Cirrus SR20/22, Beechcraft Bonanza and Baron, and Diamond DA20, as well as Liberty, Mooney and Piper models. With the downturn in U.S. piston sales, the international market grew to more than 45% of Continental's engine deliveries in 2009. There are only 900 GA aircraft registered in China, Teledyne says, but company projects the potential market at anywhere from almost 100,000 to more than 600,000 units. In April, a Chinese-owned company acquired the assets of bankrupt Oregon-based Epic Aircraft with the intent of restarting kitplane production and pursuing certification of the single-turboprop Epic LT. http://www.aviationweek.com/ Back to Top Air India doesn't know left hand from right, says minister news Air India's bailout package of Rs1200 crore from the government may be virtually in the bag, but civil aviation Minister Praful Patel made it clear that the national carrier needed to streamline its act, saying that sometimes its left hand didn't know what its right hand was doing. Speaking to NDTV, he said Air India's systems hadn't changed with the changing times. ''The real issue for Air India is, and which I feel sometimes that pains, is that we have not been able to, I mean we as I say the entire system of Air India the people of Air India have not been able to change according to the times and that is what sometimes you know. It's sometimes unfortunate that left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.'' Ahead of the crucial cabinet meeting on refinancing Air India, Patel on Tuesday met Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia amid indications that the government will release an additional equity of Rs1,200 crore soon to Air India. This will be the second tranche of equity infusion after Rs800 crore was released in the last financial year. Patel, who was accompanied by civil aviation secretary S N A Zaidi and Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav at the meeting that lasted over 30 minutes, refused to divulge what transpired. http://www.domain-b.com/aero/aero_general/20101215_left_hand.html Back to Top 1960 plane collision over NYC spurred improvements NEW YORK (AP) - Fifty years ago, two commercial airliners collided one mile above New York City, raining down destruction on a busy Brooklyn neighborhood. Victims' remains bloodied the snow after one jet hit the street at 200 mph, killing everyone aboard and six people on the ground. The Dec. 16, 1960, crash of a United jet and a TWA propeller plane was the worst aviation disaster to date, killing 134 people, including 128 people on both planes. In its wake it left a legacy of improved air safety; it was first crash in which investigators made extensive use of so-called black boxes and it spurred a revamping of the air traffic control system to prevent future tragedies. Photos of the crash show the broken United Air Lines DC-8 resting on Seventh Avenue, the main commercial strip of Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood. At least 10 buildings were destroyed including a funeral home, a laundry and the Pillar of Fire Church. The dead included a garbage collector and two men selling Christmas trees. Hopes were raised in Brooklyn when a young passenger was found alive, then dashed when he died. "What was in many of our hearts was that God let him survive that horrible fall," said Eileen Bonner, a nursing supervisor at the hospital where 11-year-old Stephen Baltz was treated. "It just seemed like God wanted him to live. And then he didn't." The other plane, a TWA Constellation, crashed into a military air base on Staten Island. The United flight was en route from Chicago to Idlewild Airport, now Kennedy Airport; the TWA flight was en route from Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, to LaGuardia. Thirty-seven-year-old Paul Dotzenroth, of Wayzata, Minn., was on the United flight. His wife, Gloria, learned of the crash from TV. "They announced the flight number and I knew he was on that flight because I'd talked to his secretary," said Gloria Dotzenroth, now 85. "You just don't believe what you're seeing." Gloria Dotzenroth said her husband, president of an engineering firm, "was a very innovative and inventive engineer" who developed products for the packaging industry. The couple had met in college and had three small children; she never remarried. George M. Walsh was in first grade at a private school near the Brooklyn crash scene. He "felt a thump, more of a concussion than sharp noise or explosion," recalled Walsh, now an Associated Press newsman in Albany, N.Y. The children were escorted to the gym, and Walsh's mother picked Walsh and his sister up after a "panicky" drive from Flatbush. It was Stephen Baltz, a few years older than Walsh, who captured the nation's attention. Stephen, from Wilmette, Ill., was found alive but badly burned in a snowbank and rushed to nearby Methodist Hospital. Bonner, then Methodist's director of nursing service, remembers that doctors and nurses rushed to the crash site hoping to treat survivors, but everyone was dead - except Stephen. "We put Stephen on an empty floor in the maternity building," said Bonner, who is 82 and still lives in Brooklyn. "He was the nicest, nicest child you'd ever want to meet. Just as sweet as he could be." Stephen's parents arrived separately and were whisked through side doors to their son's bedside because the hospital "was crawling with reporters." But Stephen could not survive his injuries, including severe smoke inhalation. He died the next morning. His father, William, an Admiral Corp. vice president, told reporters: "We thought he would have been a tremendous and outstanding man, but we were not privileged to see him grow into manhood." Stephen's parents have died, but his brother William Baltz and sister Randee Kadziel keep his memory alive. Kadziel, who is 59 and a schoolteacher in Park City, Utah, said Stephen loved to play outdoors on a rope swing and build model airplanes. He and a friend started a business raising hamsters, though Kadziel guesses they mainly gave the animals away rather than selling them. Kadziel was with her mother when they learned that Stephen had survived a plane crash. "I didn't see the extent of his burns," she said. "I was not allowed to go in there." She suffered for years after Stephen's death. "My mother was the strong one and would find me in the closet crying," she said. As he left the hospital, the father put a handful of dimes and nickels from Stephen's pocket into a donation box. The coins are affixed to a plaque in the chapel of what is now New York Methodist Hospital. "Our Tribute to a Brave Little Boy," it reads. There is no memorial at the crash scene 13 blocks to the north. The 50 years since the disaster have seen Park Slope transformed from a blue-collar neighborhood to the prototypical yuppie enclave. A vacant lot at the crash scene was replaced in 2007 by a five-story condo building. All bodies were recovered, but some unidentified remains are buried at a gravesite at Brooklyn's historic Green-Wood Cemetery - the final resting place of abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, conductor Leonard Bernstein and mobster Joey Gallo. The cemetery will unveil an 8-foot granite monument commemorating the crash victims on Thursday, the anniversary of the collision. If the 1960 crash has been erased from the physical landscape, its place in aviation history is secure. The collision was the first air disaster in which flight recorders - the planes' so-called black boxes - provided extensive details for investigators. Air traffic controllers had instructed the DC-8 to enter an oval-shaped holding pattern upon reaching a certain point - near New York. Instead the DC-8 flew 11 miles past the holding point, possibly because one of its navigational radios was not working, and crashed into the Constellation as the other airplane was lining up to land at LaGuardia. Following the crash, the Federal Aviation Agency - later renamed the Federal Aviation Administration - instituted new rules to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy. One new regulation required that pilots operating under instrument flight rules report all malfunctions of navigation or communication equipment. Another set a 250-knot speed limit near airports. The United plane was traveling at 301 knots. In the longer term, the FAA said in a news release marking the crash anniversary, the collision spurred the agency to modernize the air traffic control system through a task force that reported to President Kennedy. "It's a shame that disaster is what sparks progress, but that's what happens," said Marc S Moller, a lawyer who has spent his career litigating plane crashes. "Disaster becomes the catalyst for improvements." Back to Top Final Flight As Iconic Harrier Jet Bows Out The RAF's Harrier jets will set off on their final flight today after 30 years of military service. The Harrier jet is the only plane capable of a vertical take-off and landing The 16 decommissioned jets will leave RAF Cottesmore in Rutland and make their last appearance over seven military bases and local towns. The aircrafts' future was decided as part of the coalition's Strategic Defence and Security Review. It was claimed more money could be saved by scrapping the Harriers and keeping the fleet of Tornados. Despite protests from the highest levels of the Army, the Royal Navy and the RAF, the move to scrap the jets in order to save £100m remained in place. The Government insisted it was a "military judgment" and not just about costs. The Harrier was first brought into action in the 1960s with its key feature being the ability to take off and land vertically. The plane was designed as close air support with the take-off and landing abilities allowing it to fly in and out of areas close to battlefields - something conventional aircraft such as the Tornado cannot do. The Harrier is a true icon and stands testament to the innovation and excellence of British design and engineering and the skill and courage of our airmen. Air Vice-Marshal Greg Bagwell The iconic aircraft was considered to be instrumental in Britain winning the Falklands War against Argentina in 1982. Air Vice-Marshal Greg Bagwell said: "The Harrier is a true icon and stands testament to the innovation and excellence of British design and engineering and the skill and courage of our airmen. "It has had a truly distinguished service with both the RAF and the Royal Navy, from the South Atlantic to the skies over Afghanistan. "It now takes its place in history as one of aviation's greats." Group Captain Gary Waterfall becomes the Harriers' last force commander. "Without doubt this is an emotional day for all those who have been fortunate to be involved with one of the true icons of aviation, alongside Concorde and Spitfire," he said. "Life goes on and it is always important to look forward not back. "Right now are thoughts are with everybody involved with Harrier over the years as we bid a fond farewell to a truly remarkable aircraft." http://news.sky.com/skynews/ Back to Top Teen Likely Fell From Airplane - Delvonte Tisdale was Hiding Inside the Wheel Well - How did he Dodge Security? A teen likely fell from an airplane after he had unsuccessfully attempted to hide inside the wheel well of the plane. The teen, Delvonte Tisdale, was last seen at home by a sibling. Tisdale was in the Air Force ROTC program. His body was found last month, mutilated, near a Boston suburb. Evidence indicates the teen had fallen from a great height. Norfolk District Attorney William Keating said all evidence points to the fact the teen fell from an airplane. Tisdale's hand print was found on the wheel well, his clothes were strewn along the plant's flight path. An autopsy also revealed the teen fell "from a significant height." What a terrible tragedy for the family of Delvonte Tisdale! Apparently, the family had moved to North Carolina from Boston so Tisdale could join the Air Force ROTC program. However, Tisdale wanted to return to Boston. That may have caused him to sneak into the wheel well on the left side of a Boeing 737 when it took off from Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, on November 15th. The teen was hiding in the wheel well when the plane took off, but apparently fell from the airplane after it went up in the air. The question now is, how did he pass security? If Tisdale, a teen, could bypass security and hide inside a wheel well, what could someone with another motive do? Delvonte Tisdale's family thought he had adjusted to the new life in North Carolina. If only Tisdale had expressed his unhappiness to his parents, he would probably have been able to go back and visit Boston instead of taking such extreme measures. Tisdale probably thought he could continue hiding in the wheel well until the plane landed. It's unlikely he fell from the airplane on purpose. http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978790382 Back to Top U.S. FAA overhauls its recordkeeping on planes * Information on a third of 357,000 planes inacurate- FAA * Owners will have to re-register planes every three years * Record-keeping on airlines up to date, accurate-FAA WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an effort to sort out aircraft recordkeeping, saying that ownership information for nearly a third of the 357,000 planes on its registry is inaccurate. The agency is notifying owners and pilots about changes to federal rules finalized in July on re-registering their planes every three years. Previous, mainly voluntary measures were open-ended, and asked owners to report the sale or destruction of a plane or any change in ownership contact information. "The agency is moving to a mandatory re-registration system like the ones most states use to register automobiles, so we have more current and complete registration information in our database," the FAA said on Friday. "The data is necessary for important safety reasons, including product recalls, safety directives and locating an overdue flight," it said in a statement. Law enforcement and other agencies asked the FAA to correct inaccuracies in its vast database, which mainly covers small private planes. The FAA said the registry covering thousands of jetliners and other planes maintained by U.S. airlines is up to date and accurately maintained. Back to Top Survivor of Medevac crash files $50M suit The lone survivor of a 2008 Maryland State Police helicopter crash in District Heights has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration, alleging negligence on the part of air traffic controllers, the Gazette reports. Jordan Wells, 20, of Waldorf filed the suit Dec. 7 in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Greenbelt. The suit alleges that prior to the Sept. 27, 2008, crash, the FAA traffic controllers who were based at Joint Base Andrews gave Maryland State Police pilot Stephen J. Bunker dated information on weather conditions, failed to guide him in the Trooper 2 helicopter to a safe landing as navigation equipment began to falter and did not alert paramedics to the scene of the crash. Wells's lawsuit is the third related to the crash. Kenneth Mallard, husband of Tonya Mallard, filed a $7 million suit against the FAA on July 21 in federal court that also claims the FAA did not ensure Trooper 2's safe landing. Mickey Lippy's widow, Christina P. Lippy of Westminster, sued the FAA in March in federal court for $15 million on behalf of her husband. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC