Flight Safety Information December 22, 2010 - No. 261 In This Issue Airbus gives new warning on speed sensors Delta Resumes Codesharing on Aeroméxico Flights Fifth Qantas A380 to return to service Watchdog relaxes Rolls' engine checks Philippines aviation safety chief quits after row Small plane slides off Madison runway Boeing Says to Announce Soon 787 Test Flight Return Jackals endangering flight safety at Kolkata airport... Puerto Rico Air National Guard UH-72 Lakota Helicopter Goes Down Honda takes off as small business jet begins flight testing in NC with FAA approval in sights GE Exec: Business-Jet Financing Demand To Improve In 2011 FAA and IG differ on ATOS recommendations Airbus gives new warning on speed sensors (AP) Airbus is warning pilots about a dangerous potential malfunction of speed sensors on aircraft like the Air France A330 that crashed into the Atlantic last year, killing all 228 people aboard, including a Canadian. The European jet maker has sent the warning over Pitot tubes to the roughly 100 operators of its A330 and A340-200 and A340-300 long- range, widebody aircraft. Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon said Tuesday the warning advises pilots not to re-engage automatic pilot following false readings from airspeed indicators until they have double-checked the readings. Airbus has discovered that in some cases two Pitots can give matching, incorrect speed data, which could lead pilots to re-engage autopilot prematurely. Pitots are suspected of a role in the June 2009 Rio-to-Paris crash. The aircraft went down after running into thunderstorms and turbulence over the ocean. Air France received an automatic message from Flight 447 signalling an electrical circuit malfunction about four hours into the flight. The passengers who were killed included Canadian Brad Clemes, 49. The married father of two adult sons was originally from Guelph, Ont., but his family had been living in Belgium. Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/12/21/airbus- sensor-warning.html#ixzz18oYWDQnV Back to Top Delta Resumes Codesharing on Aeroméxico Flights Safety-Ranking Upgrade for Mexico Lets Its Airlines Add New U.S. Flights Airlines from Mexico are now able to launch new services to the United States following a finding by the Federal...FAA Finds Mexico Does Not Meet International Aviation Safety Standards The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has found that Mexico is not in compliance with international safety standards set by the...Volaris to Launch Daily Guadalajara-Chicago Service on December 13 Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris Airlines is launching daily service between Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco and Chicago Midway Airport...Six Tips to Help You Stay Safe in U.S. Hotels More than one billion travelers stay at U.S. hotels every year, according to ADT Security Services. Some fall victim to...Strategic Airlines' Parent Granted New Australian, European Operating Certificates Brisbane-based Strategic Aviation Group Pty Ltd has been granted new Air Operator Certificates (AOCs) in both the Australian and European...Delta Air Lines will reinstate codesharing on flights operated by SkyTeam-alliance partner Aeroméxico on December 29, following the Federal Aviation Administration's decision to upgrade to Category 1 the rating of Mexico's federal civil aviation authority under ICAO's International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program. The IASA Category 1 rating is required to allow codesharing by any U.S.-based airline on another international airline's flights. The codeshare flights will be available for purchase on December 26 through all Delta Air Lines ticketing channels. The reinstated codesharing will connect Delta customers between 20 Mexican and nine U.S. airports on more than 125 Aeroméxico and Aeroméxico Connect flights. Reinstated codeshare cities include Acapulco, Campeche, Durango, Tampico, Veracruz, Morelia, La Paz, Merida, Chihuahua and Los Mochis. Aeroméxico and its regional-airline affiliates operate a sizable, varied fleet of Boeing and Embraer aircraft which includes five Boeing 777- 200ERs, the largest aircraft in Aeroméxico's fleet. Aeroméxico took delivery of its first 777-200ER on March 23, 2006 "Delta and Aeroméxico offer one of the most comprehensive networks between the United States and Mexico and we are pleased to be able to reinstate our full codeshare network with Mexico's leading airline," says Christophe Didier, Delta's staff vice president of sales and affairs in Latin America and Caribbean. "Our customers will soon be able to benefit from the same seamless ticketing and connections between Delta and Aeroméxico flights they have long enjoyed." Delta removed its two-letter 'DL' IATA flight code from Aeroméxico flights earlier this year after the FAA downgraded the safety-oversight rating of Mexico's civil aviation authority to Category 2. The change temporarily prohibited U.S. airlines from offering codeshare service on any airline overseen by Mexican authorities. On December 1, the FAA announced that Mexico's civil aviation authority had regained full compliance. Aeroméxico, like Delta, is a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance. The carriers link their schedules through codesharing, which enables customers to buy seats on the airlines interchangeably. http://www.airlinesanddestinations.com/more/delta-resumes- codesharing-on-aeromexico-flights/ Back to Top Fifth Qantas A380 to return to service (WSJ) THE Qantas A380 fleet will rise to five aircraft on Friday with the return to service of a plane that was undergoing maintenance in Germany. The airline had already returned three of its existing A380s to service after grounding five of the planes in the wake of last month's engine explosion on the a sixth plane. A new aircraft delivered late last week is also now flying and a spokeswoman said the plane returning from Lufthansa Technik was due to go back into service on Friday. The airline also has two new planes coming early in the New Year. The move comes as European Aviation Safety Agency has eased inspection rules on Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines operated by Qantas, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines. Airlines will be required to check the engines after 200 flights, with subsequent examinations every 100. EASA had required checks every 10 flights, later revised to every 20. Meanwhile, Qantas' latest traffic statistics show that group passenger numbers rose 7.7 per cent in November compared to year ago. However, traffic increases did not match a 4.9 per cent rise in group capacity and the revenue seat factor of 81.1 per cent was 1.2 points lower than the previous year. Back to Top Watchdog relaxes Rolls' engine checks EUROPEAN air safety regulators are to relax tight inspections on Rolls- Royce engines involved in a blow-out on a Qantas A380 superjumbo last month. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is to lift some checks on Rolls' Trent 900 engines after an engine on a Qantas flight to Sydney from Singapore failed on 4 November. EASA ordered all three operators of the A380 - Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa - to do the checks after the accident, which forced the Qantas jet to return to Singapore. But investigators have since gathered enough data on the likely cause of the incident to enable them to reduce the inspections, EASA said. The agency is expected to order checks after engines had undertaken 200 flights and again after the next 100, rather than every 20 outings. http://www.cityam.com/news-and-analysis/watchdog-relaxes- rolls%E2%80%99-engine-checks Back to Top Philippines aviation safety chief quits after row MANILA (AFP) - The Philippines' chief aviation regulator has abruptly quit, the government said Tuesday, after he blamed President Benigno Aquino for keeping the country on an international flight safety blacklist. Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines director-general Alfonso Cusi tendered his resignation effective December 31. "This will give your excellency a free hand to choose a new director- general who will continue to carry out the needed reforms... and to whom the administration can give its full trust and confidence," he said in his letter. Cusi last month blamed Aquino's appointment of allies to key posts in his agency for the International Civil Aviation Organisation's (ICAO's) reluctance to remove the Philippines from countries deemed to have unsafe aviation. The ICAO move is deemed necessary to get the US Federal Aviation Administration to remove the Philippines from its "Category 2" status that had prevented the country's carriers from expanding US services. In March this year the European Union also banned Philippine carriers on safety grounds. United States and EU aviation regulators take guidance from the ICAO. Following the FAA downgrade the Philippine parliament passed a law creating a professional aviation regulatory body. The Philippine president at the time, Gloria Arroyo, named Cusi as its first chief. Last month, Cusi said he received an ICAO letter expressing concern that the Philippine aviation reforms could be sidetracked by purported political interference after President Aquino came to power in July. ICAO has since shelved a December 7 inspection mission to Manila. Aquino spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the president has accepted Cusi's resignation and named the deputy director, Ramon Gutierrez, as his temporary replacement. "The government can now move faster in getting our country out of Category 2," Lacierda told reporters. Back to Top Small plane slides off Madison runway MADISON, Wis. - No injuries were reported when a small plane slid off the runway at Dane County Regional Airport. The twin-engine Cessna 340 belongs to Wisconsin Aviation Inc., a terminal for small private planes at the county airport. Company President Jeff Baum tells the Wisconsin State Journal the six-seat plane was damaged when it slid off the runway and skidded through a snowbank on landing around 12:40 p.m. Tuesday. He says the pilot was the only person aboard and is a Wisconsin Aviation employee. Airport spokeswoman Jennifer Miller tells the newspaper the weather and ice were not factors in the crash, and that there may have been a problem with the plane. She calls it a "hard" landing. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-madison- landingac,0,2821713.story Back to Top Boeing Says to Announce Soon 787 Test Flight Return (Reuters) - Boeing Co said on Wednesday that it will soon announce the resumption of test flights for its 787 Dreamliner plane, which have been halted since last month due to technical problems. "Probably the next announcement from Boeing would be an announcement of a return to flight tests. We expect that announcement very soon," Boeing Japan President Mike Denton told reporters. Last week, the airplane maker said it would know over the "next few weeks" what impact a 787 Dreamliner electrical glitch will have on the plane's production and delivery schedule after test flights for the plane were halted after a problem with the electrical system caused a fire on one of the planes. Denton said, however, that he was not in a position to discuss the 787's delivery schedule, adding that the company is set to announce the updated 787 status in a few weeks. The light-weight, carbon-composite plane, which Boeing says promises greater fuel efficiency, is nearly three years behind its original schedule because of production and labor problems. According to its latest schedule, Boeing had planned to deliver a Dreamliner to its first customer, All Nippon Airways <9202.T>, in the middle of the first quarter of 2011. The original target was May 2008. Boeing, the world's second-biggest plane-maker after Airbus , has taken about 850 orders for the Dreamliner. Back to Top Jackals endangering flight safety at Kolkata airport KOLKATA: Last week a jackal strayed onto the runway of the N S C Bose International Airport here forcing the pilot of an aircraft to abort take off and delayed two incoming flights. The jackals as well as birds are attracted to garbage dumped from markets in areas surrounding the airport which pose a danger to air safety. Adding to the problems is the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS)'s recent ban on using guns and firecrackers to scare away birds and animals from the airport premises. The problem was discussed at a meeting of the Airfield Environment Committee headed by West Bengal home secretary G D Gautama with officials of the local civic bodies around the airport and the Airports Authority of India two weeks ago. "Garbage attracts birds and animals, including jackals and wildcats causing trouble for airport operations," airport Director R Srinivasan said. "Steps have been taken to keep the area adjacent to the airport clean and free from garbage," he said. Cages have been set up by the forest department inside the airport to trap jackals. "We are keeping in touch with forest department officials. Recently some jackals and wildcats have been caged," Srinivasan said. The BCAS recently relaxed its directive on use of firecrackers to scare away birds and animals at the airport. It, however, stipulated that firecrackers when used should be done in the presence of the Central Industrial Security Force, which is incharge of the security of the airport. Airport sources said the relaxation has not helped matters much. The sources also said though a few jackals were trapped in cages, it was not proving to be effective. "Since jackals are clever animals, they have understood the danger to them and avoid the cages," sources said. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ Back to Top Puerto Rico Air National Guard UH-72 Lakota Helicopter Goes Down December 22, 2010 - On Monday A Puerto Rico National Guard helicopter crashed off the cost of off the northern coast of Rio Grande, Puerto Rico Monday night while en route to a drug raid. The Coast Guard received notification Monday evening from the Puerto Rico National Guard Army Aviation unit of a missing UH-72 Lakota helicopter that was carrying six people. The UH-72 Lakota helicopter was transporting four Puerto Rico National Guardsmen and two attorneys from the Puerto Rico Department of Justice, who departed Monday night from the Isla Grande Airport en route to the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. Officials reported that one body was located and the remaining five are feared dead. The crew and passengers were reported to be Hector Ramirez, pilot, Carlos Acevedo, co-pilot, Col. Victor Torres Rodriguez, Sergeant Jose Omar Sostre, Francisco Mujica de Leon, prosecutor and Mario Torres Marin, prosecutor. Both prosecutors worked for the division of organized crimes. Officials reported that the two prosecutors were traveling to Vieques to assist with serving 43 arrest warrants, this after a seven month drug cartel investigation. It was reported that the pilot had 10 years of flight experience and the co-pilot had six years. It was reported that the Air National Guard helicopter was flying with two other Air National Guard helicopters, the flight was under heavy rain weather conditions and the helicopter was flying about 400 feet above sea level, the UH-72 Lakota helicopter was fairly new, it was purchased in 2009. The other two helicopters landed without incident. Puerto Rico Governor, Luis Fortuno said in a statement "these accidents remind us of the sacrifice that these public servants carry on their shoulders day to day." Governor Fortuno has ordered all flags to fly at half-staff for the next seven days. The Coast Guard had assisted local emergency responders on Tuesday in the search for possible survivors. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families of the missing soldiers and public service attorneys on the disappearance of their loved ones," said Coast Guard Captain Marc Stegman, Sector San Juan acting commander. Puerto Rico National Guard authorities requested Coast Guard assistance in locating the missing aircraft. A Coast Guard Station San Juan 45-foot response boat crew located the helicopter debris field at approximately 1:30 a.m. Tuesday off the coast of Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. Coast Guard rescue crews have been searching since Monday night aboard MH-65 Dolphin helicopters from Air Station Borinquen in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, Coast Guard Station San Juan 45-foot response boats and the Coast Guard Cutter's Reef Shark and Farallon. Emergency responders from the Puerto Rico National Guard, Puerto Rico maritime police, Puerto Rico Emergency Management and the Puerto Rico Department of Justice are also searching. http://avstop.com/ Back to Top Honda takes off as small business jet begins flight testing in NC with FAA approval in sights GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Honda is flight testing its first-ever commercial aircraft in the North Carolina skies as it works toward Federal Aviation Administration certification. Greensboro-based Honda Aircraft Co. said Tuesday it successfully completed its first flight test of its $4.5 million HondaJet. The parts were produced and the jet assembled at its factory near Piedmont Triad International Airport. The first jets are expected to be delivered to customers in the third quarter of 2012, two years later than originally expected. Honda Aircraft spokesman Stephen Keeney declined to specify how many orders have been placed for the HondaJet, other than the number is well over 100. Honda Aircraft employs about 500 people in Greensboro, growing to 600 when the plant ramps into production in 2012. Back to Top GE Exec: Business-Jet Financing Demand To Improve In 2011 (WSJ) The head of General Electric Co.'s (GE) business-jet lending and leasing unit is forecasting solid demand in 2011, based on continued improvement in the economy and corporate profits. "I'm very much encouraged for a much better 2011," said Dave Labrozzi, president of Corporate Aircraft Finance at GE Capital, the conglomerate's big finance arm. The overall market for business jets has been difficult for the past few years due to the poor economy, which prompted companies to cut costs and sell assets. The aircraft also became a symbol of corporate excess in some cases. But Labrozzi, speaking in an interview Tuesday, said those issues shouldn't restrain demand next year. "This market is completely driven by corporate profits and the economy," both of which are on the upswing, he said. GE doesn't release financial results for its business-jet lending and leasing arm, one of the biggest players in the global sector. Labrozzi declined to say if the unit has been profitable in 2010, although he stressed it performed better than in 2009 and "has been a good business for [GE] for a long time." He said he thinks negative publicity that became associated with business jets during the era of taxpayer-funded bailouts "has largely abated," meaning the stigma about their use probably won't factor into many future corporate decisions. In addition, he said, prices for used business jets are at or very close to a bottom--having tumbled 25% to 35% on average over the past three years--so some corporations that have been holding out for the best deals don't have reason to continue delaying. "Folks are now getting back into the market," Labrozzi said. "If we're not at a bottom [on used prices], then people are thinking we're close enough there." Honeywell International Inc.'s (HON) aviation unit cast something of a pall over the business-jet sector in October, predicting in a closely watched annual outlook that the number of new aircraft deliveries may not perk up until 2012. But Labrozzi chalked up the trend largely to the high numbers of used aircraft that remain on the market, not to a lack of corporate demand. "I think [GE] is going to have a good year" in 2011 in terms of business-jet lending and leasing, he said. "And I think the industry itself is going to be much better off, but the lag on the new manufacturing side is going to take some time" to catch up. Labrozzi characterized 2010 as "an OK year" for the GE unit and 2009 as "tough." Back to Top FAA and IG differ on ATOS recommendations Officials from the FAA and Inspector General's (IG) office in the US Department of Transport have yet to resolve a majority of recommendations issued by the IG in its latest review of the FAA- managed Air Transportation Oversight System (ATOS). ATOS was introduced 12 years ago to use data-driven and risk-based methods in oversight of air carrier operations. But FAA inspectors have encountered problems in using ATOS, which has led to inconsistent inspections methods, according to risk identified in ATOS by the IG in 2002. After Southwest's high-profile incidences of missed aircraft inspections required under airworthiness directives that surfaced in 2008, the carrier in its $7.5 million settlement with FAA agreed to undertake significant changes in its ATOS programme. Part of the fallout from the missed inspections at Southwest was a request by members of the US Congress for IG to conduct another review of ATOS. In its latest assessment the IG concludes required inspections under ATOS were not completed in a timely manner and that some FAA inspectors did not effectively assess whether critical maintenance systems at air carriers were performing as intended. IG issued seven recommendations to the FAA stating: "Without these improvements, FAA lessens it ability to effectively oversee the National Airspace System." But IG and FAA have agreed to close only one of the recommendations, which is to evaluate whether ATOS is scalable across all Part 121 carriers. In the mean time, beginning in 2013 ATOS at all Part 121 carriers is being replaced by FAA's Safety Assurance System (SAS). FAA declares it will further enhance oversight scalability when SAS is deployed three years from now. While IG explains that FAA generally agreed with the remaining six recommendations, the agency did not propose "actions we consider sufficient to address our concerns". Specifically IG believes ghost icons used by FAA to indicate a specific inspection is not complete does not provide FAA headquarters with a process to hold field offices accountable for missed inspections. The FAA argues that is already complying with IG's recommendation to overhaul the ATOS risk assessment process to appropriately prioritize maintenance programmes with the greatest percentage of increased risk through planned enhanced system assessment planned through SAS. "The cost of re-engineering the ATOS software to accommodate these changes is not warranted; however this will be addressed in SAS," FAA tells the IG. IG is also urging FAA to clarify its planned action to provide training to existing inspectors after recommending that the agency strengthen efforts to help inspectors accurately interpret data from all available sources, including air carrier voluntary self-disclosure. FAA states it introduced two new courses for ATOS inspectors in the summer of 2010, and is completing a review by year-end to determine if enhancements to those courses would be useful. The agency states the courses are also required for new inspectors. But IG still has concerns after determining in its audit that "existing inspectors and mangers were not using all available data sources when analysing risk". IG conducted its audit from May 2008 through July 2010. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC