Flight Safety Information December 29, 2010 - No. 266 In This Issue Air passenger charged after bullet primer caps ignite NTSB Confirms Additional Report of Citation 560XL Icing/Control Issues Antonov 22A Accident (Russa US Military Jet Makes Emergency Landing in Kazakhstan FAA Seeks Fixes to Midair Collision Warning Devices Inspector General Slams Air Safety Inspections Local air accident rate to drop to world average within 3 years: CAS (Taiwan) Mother Furious Over Car Seat Controversy On Aspen Flight Tu-204SM conducts maiden flight Safety Management System (SMS) Air passenger charged after bullet primer caps ignite (CNN) -- A 37-year-old airline passenger was arrested Tuesday in Miami after primer caps for bullets ignited while a baggage handler was unloading a roll-on bag, the FBI said. The tarmac incident is not believed to be terrorism-related, FBI special agent Michael Leverock said. Leverock would not provide details or speculate on how the bag might have gotten on the plane. He compared the primer to a "spark plug" for the bullet. The unidentified passenger, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was bound for Jamaica, was charged with transportation of hazardous materials. If convicted, he could face a sentence of up to five years. The flight from Boston landed at Miami International Airport around 11:30 a.m., American Airlines said. The 737 had two pilots, four flight attendants and 148 passengers. Hundreds of the primer caps were in a bag that ignited, and all of them went off after the first one did, Leverock said. Several hit the baggage handler's shoes, but he was not injured. The bomb squad was among those who rushed to the scene. The incident caused four other flights to be delayed, the airport said. Leverock said part of a shirt inside the bag was charred, but the movement of the bag is what set off the explosion. Back to Top NTSB Confirms Additional Report of Citation 560XL Icing/Control Issues Excel's Rudder Bound Up Due To Icing Interference The NTSB has released details confirming another report of icing having created control issues for at least two of Cessna's popular 560XL bizjets. This is the second documented report of such a problem... this one occurring when a Birmingham bound Cessna experienced rudder control issues (binding) and discovered ice in the tailcone, control cables and pulleys following an uneventful landing. NTSB Identification: CEN11IA111 Nonscheduled 14 CFR Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter Incident occurred Monday, December 13, 2010 in Birmingham, AL Aircraft: CESSNA 560XL, registration: N498AB Injuries: 3 Uninjured. This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. On December 13, 2010, about 0657 central standard time, a Cessna 560XL, N498AB, experienced rudder binding during landing at the Birmingham- Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), near Birmingham, Alabama. The two pilots and one passenger were not injured and the airplane was not damaged. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The flight was operating on an activated instrument flight rules flight plan. The non-scheduled domestic passenger flight was conducted under 14 CFR Part 135. The flight departed from the Teterboro Airport, near Teterboro, New Jersey, about 0442, and was destined for BHM. A post flight examination inside the airplane's tailcone revealed ice around the rudder's control cables and pulleys. A previous Cessna 560XL incident occurred on December 1, 2010, when another Cessna 560XL sustained rudder cable binding during landing. Ice was also found in its tailcone. That incident investigation is under NTSB ID number CEN11IA087. FMI: www.ntsb.gov Back to Top Antonov 22A Accident (Russa) Status: Preliminary Date: 28 DEC 2010 Time: 21:30 MSK Type: Antonov 22A Operator: Russian Air Force Registration: RA-09343 C/n / msn: 043482272 First flight: 1974 Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants: Total: Fatalities: 12 / Occupants: 12 Airplane damage: Written off Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: near Krasny Oktyabr, Tula Region (Russia) Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: Military Departure airport: ? Destination airport: ? Narrative: An Antonov An-22 military transport aircraft crashed on the border of the Tula and Oryol Regions in central Russia. The aircraft was en route to the airport of Migalovo. All 12 people on board were found dead after the remains of the burning aircraft were discovered from the air at 02:36 Moscow time near the village of Krasny Oktyabr in the Tula Region. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top US Military Jet Makes Emergency Landing in Kazakhstan (AFP) - A US military transport jet was forced to make an emergency landing Wednesday in Kazakhstan after experiencing engine failure, the Interfax news agency reported. The C-130 Hercules transport plane, with 300 servicemen on board, made the emergency landing in the Central Asian republic's commercial center Almaty, emergency ministry officials said. No one was reported injured in the incident, which was caused when one of the jet's three engines failed, the report said. US officials were deciding whether to repair the jet on-site or send a second transport aircraft to pick up the stranded crew. Back to Top FAA Seeks Fixes to Midair Collision Warning Devices By ANDY PASZTOR (WSJ) Federal aviation regulators are proposing fixes to midair-collision warning devices installed on what they say are nearly 9,000 U.S airliners and business aircraft, after uncovering a safety problem during a test flight. The Federal Aviation Administration's proposed directive, made public Monday, seeks to mandate software upgrades to widely used devices manufactured by a unit of L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. During a flight test over a busy airport's airspace, according to the FAA, airborne collision-warning systems manufactured by the unit, Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems LLC, failed to properly keep track of all nearby planes. The agency said one aircraft disappeared for at least 40 seconds from cockpit displays, which "could lead to possible loss of separation of air traffic and possible mid-air collisions." Despite the proposal's broad sweep, regulators apparently concluded the problem doesn't pose an imminent safety threat because they want to give airlines and operators of business aircraft up to four years to complete the upgrades. New York-based L-3 Communications previously issued service bulletins dealing with the issue. On Tuesday, an L-3 Communications spokeswoman said the flight test that disclosed the problem took place in the summer of 2009, and the company brought the issue to the government's attention and has been working on a fix for many months. The spokeswoman said, "ACSS is committed to aviation safety, and the performance and integrity of its products are of utmost importance. ACSS is actively working with and supporting the FAA on this matter." An FAA spokeswoman said the company's TCAS devices are installed on more than 7,000 U.S. airliners and more than 1,800 business aircraft registered in this country. Fewer than 100 U.S. military aircraft also use the affected TCAS devices, which provide pilots with computer-generated alerts and emergency instructions to avoid nearby aircraft. TCAS stands for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems. Other U.S. and European companies manufacture similar systems, but those aren't affected by the FAA's proposed rule. The agency's move comes amid heightened scrutiny of airborne near-misses around the U.S. Prompted by a spate of dangerous midair incidents in the past year, the FAA months ago began a nationwide review of air-traffic control procedures and safeguards. More recently, there has been a focus on controller errors leading to a surge in midair incidents in the skies over Washington, D.C. And earlier this year, the FAA, the air-traffic controllers union and United Airlines pilots agreed to set up the first U.S. program to jointly collect and analyze voluntary reports about midair near-collisions. Controllers feel that the current drive to expand voluntary reporting programs and data-sharing initiatives has contributed to the recent spike in reports of hazardous midair incidents. Those who report incidents are shielded from punishment. One goal of voluntary data-sharing is to identify crowded sections of U.S. airspace where operational mistakes-ranging from altitude deviations by pilots to improper instructions issued by controllers-occur most frequently. Participants can then devise various prevention strategies to reduce risks. The FAA's proposed rule coincides with ongoing agency and industry analyses of a different set of reports-previously supplied by European carriers--highlighting spikes in midair-collision avoidance warnings in recent years around major U.S. airports. The sites include Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas and Chicago. After analyzing data from more than four million flights, industry and FAA experts found that such cockpit warnings occurred many times more frequently over Southern California than any other busy air-traffic sector in the U.S. Some experts suspect large numbers of general-aviation aircraft around Los Angeles and San Diego, combined with FAA redesign of some approach and departure routes, may be to blame. Other experts have focused on slight differences between collision-avoidance technology used by U.S. carriers, versus the onboard devices generally used in Europe. But the FAA has said it's too early to draw conclusions. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates airliner incidents and accidents, earlier this year started collecting its own reports of cockpit collision-avoidance warnings. The board wants to make sure that such incidents are promptly and fully reported, and that relevant radar data and detailed flight information gets passed on to investigators. Back to Top Inspector General Slams Air Safety Inspections Amid one of the busiest U.S. travel periods of the year, a new report suggests that the Federal Aviation Administration may be asleep at the controls. The report from the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation slams the FAA for insufficient safety oversight of airlines operating in American skies, saying that the slowness of its inspection system has allowed hundreds of planes to fly without receiving the proper maintenance checks. For instance, between 2005 and 2009, the FAA failed to carry out 340 safety checkups at the nation's eight largest airlines in a timely manner. According to the report, safety inspectors also fail to do enough to take into account all available information, such as airlines' own voluntary disclosures, in their assessments of different carriers. The report, issued earlier this month, outlined recommendations to ensure the safety of the American air fleet, including greater training for inspectors and a revamped risk assessment program. The FAA, in its response, concurred entirely or in part with all seven of the report's recommendations. Separately, The Wall Street Journal reports that the FAA is proposing fixes for midair collision avoidance devices used by nearly 9,000 airplanes operating in the U.S. The FAA says it discovered that the systems failed to properly keep track of all nearby planes during a test flight. http://www.fairwarning.org/ Back to Top Local air accident rate to drop to world average within 3 years: CAS (Taiwan) Taipei, Dec. 28 (CNA) Taiwan's air accident rate has been falling in recent years and if the trend continues, will drop to the global average level within three years, an aviation safety official said Tuesday. Chang Yu-hern, chairman of the Council for Aviation Safety (CAS), told a press conference that there were four aviation accidents in Taiwan this year as the country's 10-year record continues to fall. From 2000 to 2009, Taiwan registered 1.82 air accidents per million take-offs, higher than the world average of 1.02, he said. "If the current rate can be maintained, by 2013, our record will have dropped to the world average level of 0.61," he added. Council figures show that prior to 2008, Taiwan's 10-year accident record was above two per million takeoffs. The decade of 1993-2002 saw the highest record of 3.52, followed by 2.82 for 1994-2003, 2.69 for 1998-2007 and 2.26 for 1999- 2008. By 2001-2010, the record had fallen to 1.82, the same as 2000-2009, according to the CAS under the Executive Yuan. The council said it expects Taiwan's aviation accident rate to continue to fall to 1.21 for 2003-2012 and to 0.61 for 2004-1013, on par with the world average. http://focustaiwan.tw/ Back to Top Mother Furious Over Car Seat Controversy On Aspen Flight Flight Attendant Refused To Let Mother Use Graco Car Seat ASPEN, Colo. -- A mother who visited Aspen last week is furious with SkyWest Airlines and its partner, United Airlines. Melissa Bradley told KGO-TV when she put her 11-month old daughter in a rear- facing car seat on the plane, the flight attendant told her the Graco car seat wasn't approved by the FAA. "He argued with me that it need to be forward facing seat and I explained to him that it was an infant seat and that infant seats face backwards because that's the way they are supposed to be installed," Bradley said. Bradley said she also showed the flight attendant the sticker on the car seat that said it was FAA approved. Bradley said the Sky West flight attendant gave her an ultimatum: remove the baby from the car seat and hold her during takeoff or get off the plane. Bradley said she was nearly in tears worried about the safety of her baby. United Airlines sent a statement to KGO that said, "Safety is our number one priority. We apologize for the misunderstanding and our partner SkyWest Airlines has spoken with the flight attendant." http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/26300622/detail.html Back to Top Tu-204SM conducts maiden flight Tupolev's new Tu-204SM twin-jet has today carried out its maiden flight, staying airborne for about 50min after taking off from the Aviastar plant's aerodrome at Ulyanovsk. The aircraft took off at 13:23 and landed at 14:15. Deputy chief designer Mikhail Khalenkov says it completed several successive circuits and climbs to three specific altitudes during the flight. "Following the landing, our on-site technical crew has begun evaluating on-board flight data in preparation for further tests," he tells ATI. The Tu-204SM has Aviadvigatel PS-90A2 turbofans and an enhanced auxiliary power unit. With 70% of its equipment superior to that on the baseline Tu-204, says Tupolev, the SM variant is essentially a new aircraft type. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC