Flight Safety Information January 26, 2011 - No. 019 In This Issue Air France Keeps Safety Conclusions Private Fewer B.C. plane crashes, fewer deaths, transportation safety board reports Air New Zealand B737 Birdstrike Pemco Counters FAA Allegations Warner Robins Air Logistics Center to Receive Additional OSHA Citations EU Blocks Aegean Airlines, Olympic Air Merger Qantas Continues to Struggle With Safety Issues Court orders hearing into 1968 Air France Caravelle crash Safety review makes 35 recommendations to Air France FAA Cabin Safety Workshop 2011 Air France Keeps Safety Conclusions Private An independent review of Air France's safety procedures commissioned by the operator in December 2009 has issued 35 recommendations, although the carrier has decided to keep most of the conclusions to itself. The panel was established after the loss of Flight 447, an Airbus A330-200 service between Rio de Janeiro and Paris that crashed into the Atlantic in June 2009 killing all 228 on board. While the cause of that crash has still to be determined, Air France's safety protocols and training came under scrutiny, which in turn caused a rift between the airline's pilots and management. Some of the preliminary recommendations from the Independent Safety Review Team have already been disclosed, notably the formation of a flight safety committee within Air France's board of directors (Aviation Daily, Sept. 9, 2010). Air France now confirms it has also launched a Line Operations Safety Audit, a system that monitors pilots during flight operations, which the airline says it is introducing in Europe. "The independent safety review's work mainly focused on listening to employees' accounts and observing the airline's operating methods. These observations were analyzed by the safety review team's eight experts: safety systems and safety management in aeronautical sectors or other sectors, "resilience" of the organizations and human factors," says Air France in a release, adding, "The findings primarily concern the company's organization, its corporate culture and the individual behavior of its staff, managers and unions." Air France, which notes that the review was not an audit and found the carrier in compliance with all regulatory requirements, says 'most of the recommendations will be rapidly implemented in line with a schedule to be defined shortly and monitored in the groups concerned. "The adaptation, postponing or non-acknowledgment of any of these proposals will be subject to discussion and validation by these groups." Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, Air France-KLM's CEO, continues, "Air France is the only airline to submit itself, on its sole initiative, to the opinion of a team of external experts to whom I extend my gratitude for the quality of the work accomplished. By implementing their recommendations, which combine the best practices observed individually in other airlines worldwide, Air France will place its flight safety performance at the highest level possible." http://www.aviationweek.com/ Back to Top Fewer B.C. plane crashes, fewer deaths, transportation safety board reports Fewer airplanes are crashing in B.C. Canadian-registered aircraft had 38 accidents in the province in 2010, down from 44 in 2009 and a five-year average of 45 from 2005 to 2009, the federal transportation safety board reports. A total of 13 people died in five fatal accidents in B.C. in 2010, down from 14 deaths in eight accidents in 2009. Another two people died last year in the province in seven crashes of ultralight aircraft, a separate category from larger aircraft. There were 10 crashes and no deaths in 2009. Nationwide, Canadian-registered aircraft crashed 244 times in 2010, down from 249 in 2009 and a five-year average of 261. Private aircraft accounted for the majority of crashes at 148, followed by helicopters at 29 and air taxis (commercial aircraft with up to nine seats) at 28. Canadian fatalities remained constant at 64 over each of the past two years. Foreign-registered aircraft accounted for 13 accidents and one fatality last year in Canada, compared with 14 and two, respectively, in 2009. Across the nation, Canadian registered ultralights were involved in 30 accidents and four deaths in 2010, compared with 34 accidents and four deaths in 2009. Despite the general drop in aircraft accidents, the number of civil aircraft registered in Canada increased to 34,175 in 2010 from 33,533 in 2009, with B.C. accounting for 5,812 and 5,772, respectively. Last year's fatal aircraft accidents in B.C. included: four dead in the May 29 crash of an Atleo Air Cessna float plane crash near Tofino; four dead Aug. 17 when a Piper Comanche plane (overloaded and flying into hot summer air that reduced lift) crashed near Apex Mountain; two pilots dead aboard a Conair air tanker that crashed south of Lytton July 31 while on firefighting duty; two dead Sept. 5 in a crash at an airstrip at Mabel Lake east of Vernon; and a Trail pilot killed Jan. 18 after his Cessna crashed into the mountains west of Nelson. As well, a West Kelowna man died June 26 in an ultralight crash in the Deep Creek area of the north Okanagan, as did the pilot of a homebuilt improperly registered Jodel F-11 that crashed March 3 near Courtenay. http://www.vancouversun.com/ Back to Top Air New Zealand B737 Birdstrike Date: 26-JAN-2011 Time: ~5:17 p.m. Type: Boeing 737-300. Operator: Air New Zealand. Registration: ZK- C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 115 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Unknown Location: Between Dunedin and Wellington. - New Zealand Phase: En route Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: NZDN Destination airport: NZWN Narrative: About 20 minutes into its flight from Dunedin to Wellington ANZ Flight 474 sustained a bird strike on its left engine. The jet turned back to Dunedin and landed safely at 5:37 p.m. www.aviaton-safety.net Back to Top Pemco Counters FAA Allegations Pemco World Air Services responded to FAA's Jan. 24 claim that the MRO failed to properly follow drug and alcohol testing requirements in two categories. On the first count, FAA says the MRO did not administer pre- employment drug tests to two people doing safety-sensitive jobs. Pemco says the two people had started company training a few days before the negative drug test results came back, but those people were not performing safety-sensitive work. FAA's second claim, based on a routine audit, states Pemco didn't conduct follow-up drug or alcohol testing for eight people reinstated after finishing return-to-duty-training in 2008. The agency says Pemco missed 24 follow-up tests in total for these individuals. Pemco says it gave the tests per an external substance abuse vendor, which apparently provided faulty scheduling and test quantity requirements. "In the vast majority of instances cited, the required number of tests were administered, but in the wrong months," says Pemco, which no longer uses that vendor. FAA proposed a $170,000 civil penalty against Pemco, which has 30 days to respond. In its Jan. 25 statement, the company says it supports FAA's efforts to monitor safety and takes the agency's allegations seriously. "Pemco does not believe that any of these circumstances represented a material shortfall in our safety procedures, and we are working with the FAA to clarify whether they warrant the action the FAA has proposed," says a company statement. In related news, the FAA proposed a $1,025,000 penalty on Jan. 22 against ST Aerospace Mobile for also not following drug and alcohol testing requirements. ST Aerospace says it addressed FAA's allegations in 2008. "Although we are concerned about the FAA's notice, we are also comfortable with the fact that we cooperated with the FAA years ago to resolve their concerns and to implement quality controls to ensure that we continue to comply with the FAA's drug- testing program," says the MRO in a press release. http://www.aviationweek.com/ Back to Top Warner Robins Air Logistics Center to Receive Additional OSHA Citations The Warner Robins Air Logistics Center has learned it will be given more than 50 additional citations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration concerning safety processes and procedures. The Center was officially notified Monday of 27 of the citations, which cover a range of violations, from inadequate fall protection to employees not wearing hard hats in areas which require their use. The Center expects to receive official notification of the other citations in early February. "We will promptly address each finding," said Maj. Gen. Robert H. McMahon, WR-ALC commander, noting his intent is for all Center personnel to go above and beyond "mere compliance" with OSHA requirements. McMahon added, one of his 2011 goals for the Center is to reduce the number of injuries 25 percent, and said reaching the goal will require many personnel "to think differently" about how they do business. "We will take care of our people," he said. The violations were discovered during OSHA Federal Agency Targeting Inspection Program inspections here in the second half of 2010. FEDTARG inspections take a comprehensive look at federal agency worksites which experience a certain number of lost time cases - employees who lose time from work due to injuries. Those inspections followed others here by OSHA in late 2009 and early 2010. The earlier inspections were centered on the 402nd Maintenance Wing's composite flight, which is responsible for overhauling various bonded structures on F-15, C-130 and C-17 aircraft, and resulted in the Center receiving 13 citations in May. The Warner Robins Patriot - Warner Robins Air Logistics Center to Receive Additional OSHA Citations http://warnerrobinspatriot.com/ Back to Top EU Blocks Aegean Airlines, Olympic Air Merger BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--The European Commission said Wednesday it has blocked the proposed merger between two Greek air carriers Aegean Airlines SA (AEGN.AT) and Olympic Air as the tie-up would have created a quasi-monopoly in the country's air transport market. "The Commission's investigation showed no realistic prospects that a new airline of a sufficient size would enter the routes and restrain the merged entity's pricing," the commission said in a statement. The companies offered to cede take-off and landing slots at Greek airports, but Greek airports do not suffer from the congestion observed at other European airports in previous mergers or alliances, it added. Back to Top Qantas Continues to Struggle With Safety Issues At one point in time, Qantas Airways was dubbed to be the world's most safe airline. However, recently the airline has been rocked by a number of safety scares. The airline saw another safety scare as one of its planes actually plummeted 25,000 feet mid-flight. Reports say that, during this fall, passengers had to grab their oxygen masks as the cabin became depressurized due to a faulty air conditioning system. The airline said that the crew made a very rapid but controlled descent. The Boeing 737 was carrying around 100 passengers and six crew members at the time of the drop. The plane was able to land safely Melbourne Airport. A spokesperson for the airline said that there were no reports of injuries, and Qantas said that there was no flight safety issue. Emergency services were on standby, but they were not required at all. Engineers are now assessing the aircraft. One of the passengers that was on the plane said that it was not as clam as the spokesperson made it sound. The passenger said that all of the oxygen masks dropped down, and the captain came on the radio and said, "This is an emergency!" Passengers were ordered to keep on their oxygen masks for about five minutes. Just last November the airline had to ground its whole fleet of A380 pales after one of its Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines exploded in mid-air. Reports said that the total cost of grounding the fleet of planes and replacing 16 of the A380 engines has been estimated to be about £50 million. Hopefully the airline can now get past all of these problems and return to being the safest airline in the world. http://news.overseas.com.au/9231854.html Back to Top Court orders hearing into 1968 Air France Caravelle crash A court in Nice has ordered a hearing into the crash of an Air France passenger aircraft between Nice and Ajaccio 42 years ago, which killed all 95 people on board. The hearing will take place on 2 May and could lead to the re-opening of a judicial inquiry. The crash occurred on 11 September 1968 and involved a Sud Aviation Caravelle aircraft operated by Air France which was operating a scheduled flight between Ajaccio, on the island of Corsica, and Nice. Although the exact cause of the crash has never been determined, some of the victims' relatives maintain it was brought down by a military missile fired during exercises. In 1972, a government commission concluded that the crash was caused by "a cabin fire, the origin of which is unknown", which led to a fatal loss of control of the aircraft, causing it to crash a few kilometres off the French Mediterranean coast. However, an association of the victims' families led by two brothers, Louis and Mathieu Paoli, who lost their parents in the crash, has continued to gather evidence on the possible cause of the crash. The association points to eyewitness accounts and documents which it claims give credence to the view that the Caravelle was brought down by a stray missile during army exercises in the vicinity. It has led to the filing of legal proceedings with the Nice court against the French army on the grounds of involuntary manslaughter. The public prosecutor's office had called on the court to declare the association's claims as inadmissible. The president of the court said the decision to convene the hearing was to establish whether there was a case to answer. However, the association has hailed the court's decision as an initial victory in its long campaign and says the hearing will allow it to present its case in full. Air France declines to comment. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Safety review makes 35 recommendations to Air France An independent review of Air France's safety culture has provided the carrier with a set of 35 recommendations, which the carrier is studying but has not publicly disclosed. The review was launched in the wake of the 2009 crash of an Air France A330-200 into the South Atlantic. The aircraft has yet to be recovered. Eight independent safety experts carried out the review, which focused on Air France's internal operating modes, decision-making processes and practices that could have an impact on the safety of its flights. "The findings primarily concern the company's organisation, its corporate culture and the individual behaviour of its staff, managers and unions," says Air France. Most of the recommendations will be "rapidly implemented in line with a schedule to be defined shortly", and monitored by an in-house group comprising unions and management, says Air France. "The adaptation, postponing or non-acknowledgement of any of these proposals will be subject to discussion and validation by these groups," it adds. The carrier says it has already implemented some of the recommendations contained in the review, including the creation of a Flight Safety Committee and the launch of an in-flight observations campaign. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top FAA Cabin Safety Workshop 2011 The Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) is announcing the Cabin Safety Workshops for 2011. The workshops are conducted at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, OK, and are designed to familiarize interested aviation personnel with important research activities conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the area of aircraft cabin safety. These workshops are not intended as basic training for in-flight personnel, but are designed to provide supplemental information. Current research topics to be presented include: aircraft accident research, aircraft seat and restraint system research, brace-for-impact positions, infant/child restraint systems, aircraft evacuation research and procedures, aircraft fire safety research and procedures, water survival research, emergency equipment and procedures, physiological research and training. Altitude physiology education includes classroom instruction on the effects of high altitude flight operations on the human body and concludes with an altitude chamber flight at the end of the workshop to allow participants to actually experience the effects of decompression. Attendees who wish to participate in the altitude chamber flight must present a current third class medical certificate before they can participate in this activity. Chamber seating is limited to 18 participants; register early. The workshops begin on Monday afternoon and conclude with the altitude chamber flight on Friday morning. Each workshop accommodates 40 attendees, who are typically senior flight attendants, instructors, in-flight managers, and safety representatives. Our Research Division relies on feedback from industry in order to continue providing the most timely and applicable information possible. Therefore, the goal of these workshops is to provide an open forum for exchange of information between participants and CAMI researchers. http://www.faa.gov/data_research/research/med_humanfacs/aeromedical/cabinsafety/workshops/ Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC