Flight Safety Information January 7, 2011 - No. 006 In This Issue Woman who tried to open plane door given discharge...SINGAPORE Nigeria: Libyan, Afriqiyah Airways Embark on Flight Safety Assessment Smoke terror on Easyjet flight from Liverpool to Belfast NTSB urges investigations of emergency transmitter NTSB's Look At Airbags For GA Aircraft Kipnuk runway accident caught on weather cam Woman who tried to open plane door given discharge SINGAPORE : A 28-year-old Irish woman, accused of trying to open a door of a Singapore Airlines aircraft while it was still in flight, has been given a discharge amounting to an acquittal in a district court on Friday. Diana Mary Scanlon, who is a chef, was charged on December 15 with trying to open the door of the plane at around 6.50am on November 30 last year. Flight SQ327 was then flying from Munich, Germany, to Singapore. The slim brunette looked relieved as she stood in the dock on Friday and she thanked the judge before taking her leave. No reasons were given for her discharge. Those who threaten the safety of an aircraft can be jailed up to a year, fined a maximum of S$5,000 or both. - CNA/al Back to Top Nigeria: Libyan, Afriqiyah Airways Embark on Flight Safety Assessment The Libyan African Aviation Holding Company (LAAHCo) and Lufthansa Consulting have signed an agreement focused on the safety standards of Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways. The carriers as well as associated catering, ground handling and aircraft maintenance enterprises operate under this government-created holding structure. The airlines are certified IOSA and ISO 9000 companies. Lufthansa Consulting will check the current airline safety status and will provide its own two week safety and quality assessment program and methodology. A team of six aviation consultants will identify the areas for possible improvement on site in Tripoli and will subsequently submit a safety and quality upgrade concept to the client. LAAHCo's chairman Capt. Sabri Shadi is committed to implementing the anticipated recommendations leading to improvement. Another part of the project is a pilots' upgrade program. The 270 flight captains and first officers at Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways will undergo a computer-based theoretical test and a simulator assessment. Lufthansa Consulting will evaluate each pilot and identify development potential. A training program will be recommended accordingly. It will be launched in addition to the regular and mandatory simulator sessions and will give the responsible Training Captains the chance to upgrade the complete flight deck crew to ensure consistent highest safety standards. The program, scheduled to take three months, will be performed at several flight simulator centres in Central Europe and Northern Africa using Lufthansa Training Captains specialized in pilot screening. With this measure, LAAHCo has launched a significant contribution towards improving flight safety for both airlines. http://allafrica.com Back to Top Smoke terror on Easyjet flight from Liverpool to Belfast LIVERPOOL passengers were evacuated from a plane after smoke started pouring from the ceiling. The 46 people on board last night's Easyjet flight from John Lennon Airport to Belfast had to exit on an emergency slide after landing. Dad-of-one Andy Kelly, from Waterloo, said: "We landed at 8pm and everything seemed fine. But then smoke started coming from above, near where the lights are. "We were told to get in the brace position and the plane had to do an emergency stop. The lights then went out. "We were evacuated and got out on the slides without being able to get our things. "The cabin crew dealt with it really well. But some people were quite distressed." The passengers waited on the runway for half an hour until a bus came to take them to the terminal. An Easyjet spokesman said the plane was evacuated as a precaution. "EasyJet can confirm it initiated an evacuation of flight EZY615 (Liverpool - Belfast) after landing at Belfast. "During the taxi to the stand, smoke was spotted in the cabin by the crew. "As a precaution, and in line with standard operating procedures, the crew initiated a slide evacuation from the aircraft." He added: "All passengers and crew safely evacuated the aircraft and returned to the airport via coach. Safety is our number one priority and at no point was the safety and well being of our passengers compromised." http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk Back to Top NTSB urges investigations of emergency transmitter The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued two alerts on Wednesday, January 5, 2011, A-10-169 and -170, in a six page document which asked the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to inspect that aircraft emergency locator transmitters (ELT), also called distress radio beacons, are properly installed. Such devices, installed on general aviation aircraft, are radio transmitters that are designed to send a plane's identification and location upon impact. The signal is then picked up by satellites and relayed to search-and-rescue organizations. According to the NTSB, "An ELT is designed to broadcast a signal through an externally mounted antenna that contains the aircraft's registration information and the global positioning system coordinates of the original signal. Also, the 'homing signal' can be detected locally by other aircraft, air traffic control facilities, or rescue personnel who use a compatible receiver." There are about 300,000 planes that the FAA classifies as "general aviation," said FAA spokesperson Laura Brown. General aviation (GA) planes range from small, single- engine propeller aircraft used by recreational fliers to multi engine private jets. An ELT is required on all U.S.-registered civil airplanes, according to 14 Code of Federal Regulations 91.207. The alert resulted from the accident investigation of a de Havilland Dash0in turbine Otter (DHC0in) airplane, registration N455A, which crashed in mountainous tree- covered terrain approximately 10 miles from Aleknagik, Alaska on August 9, 2010 at 2:30 p.m. local time, killing former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens and four others. Among the four survivors was former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. All had to wait nearly five hours for responders to visually locate the downed aircraft, which had gone down only 19 miles from where the flight originated. The aircraft was on its way from a corporate-owned lodge on Nerka Lake near Dillingham to a sport fishing camp on the Nushagak River. Poor weather and darkness prevented the removal of survivors until the next morning. Rescuers found the emergency transmitter on the floor of the plane, where it apparently fell during the crash. It was switched on but wasn't transmitting. The ME406 ELT should have broadcast a 121.5 MHz "homing signal". "In this case, the airplane was equipped with a functioning Artex ME406 ELT, which can be a tremendous aid to search and rescue operations," said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. "But this vital life-saving technology won't do anyone any good if it doesn't stay connected to the antenna." The NTSB safety alerts went on to caution, with these words, "In all cases, the retention capabilities of each system are dependent on proper installation, and any looseness or misalignment of the retention strap would increase the chance of accidental detachment of the ELT. The NTSB concludes that proper installation and inspection of ELT units is imperative to ensure they remain connected to the antenna and maintain functionality for rapid notification of aircraft accidents and prompt emergency response." The alerts recommended that the FAA to take the following actions: [1] Require a detailed inspection, during annual inspections, of all emergency locator transmitters installed in general aviation aircraft to ensure that the emergency locator transmitters are mounted and retained in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications. (A-10-169) [2] Determine if the emergency locator transmitter (ELT) mounting requirements and retention tests specified by Technical Standard Order (TSO) C91a and TSO C126 are adequate to assess retention capabilities in ELT designs. Based on the results of this determination, revise, as necessary, TSO requirements to ensure proper retention of ELTs during airplane accidents. (A-10-170) According to FAA spokesperson Laura Brown, "FAA will review the recommendations and respond within 90 days." The de Havilland Dash0in Otter is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, Short Take Off and Landing (STOL) utility transport aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which carries a pilot and 9-10 passengers, and used a 600 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp reciprocating engine. It has a cruising speed of 121 mph, a stall speed of 58 mph, a range of 945 miles, and a service ceiling of 18,800 feet. http://www.examiner.com Back to Top NTSB's Look At Airbags For GA Aircraft By Glenn Pew, Contributing Editor, Video Editor The NTSB has studied airbag use in mitigating injury in survivable GA accidents and will hold a public meeting January 11 to consider its findings, which it has not yet made available. The study was initiated to examine the effectiveness of airbags in survivable crashes and to identify possible unintended consequences of airbag deployment in small aircraft. The agency also used the study to help develop procedures to assist investigators when dealing with the systems in future investigations. The NTSB says it will post a summary of the study online following the conclusion of the January 11 meeting with the full study to appear a few weeks after that. Meanwhile, interested parties can attend the meeting or watch it online. The meeting will be held at 9:30 a.m. in the Board Room and Conference Center at 429 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C.. It will also be available on the Board's website, here, along with technical documents lusted under "Board Meetings." The NTSB will be using its findings to support safety recommendations, which will also be posted "shortly after" the meeting. http://www.avweb.com Back to Top Kipnuk runway accident caught on weather cam Posted by thevillage Posted: January 6, 2011 - 5:38 pm By KYLE HOPKINS khopkins@adn.com Jimmy Paul, tribal administrator for the Southwest Alaska village of Kipnuk, heard the call over the VHF radio at about 1:30 p.m. today. There was a problem at the runway. More than 30 villagers arrived to find an Era Aviation Cessna 208 had plowed into the snow with five people on board. No one was hurt, according to safety investigators. "I think it ran out of runway," Paul said. It's at least the third time an aircraft has been damaged landing or taking off in Alaska villages this week, but this time something unusual happened. An FAA weather cam caught the whole thing on camera. Check out the shots, each taken 10 minutes apart: Note that the times imprinted on the top of the photos are not Alaska time. The accident came at about 1:26 p.m., according to the NTSB. We have a larger version of the pics here. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Josh Cawthra hoped to talk to the pilot tonight to learn more about what happened. "All I really know is he was landing on runway 33 at Kipnuk airport and for some reason exited the runway surface area," Cawthra said. This is the first time in his career that Cawthra has seen pictures of an accident appear on a weather camera, he said. "From what I understand ... damage focused to (the) right wing and possibly the engine and propeller, but that's just looking at the photos that we can see on the web cam." Paul, the tribal administrator, took a look and figures the plane could fly again with repairs. Villagers drove the passengers -- including a woman and infant -- to the clinic on snowmachines just to be safe, he said. The flight was arriving from Bethel, about 85 miles to the northeast. Calls to Era Aviation were not returned late this afternoon. Read more: http://community.adn.com/adn/node/155142#ixzz1ALou3zkt Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC