Flight Safety Information February 15, 2011 - No. 034 In This Issue Plane crash in Honduras kills all 14 Small jet crashes near Appleton airport; no one hurt Obama budget would slice airport construction grants NTSB Safety Recommendations Focus On B737 Elevator Controls Plane diverted to South Florida airport FAA sees 1 bln travelers on US airlines by 2021 India, China to be among top five domestic aviation markets Boeing 787 Dreamliner is 80 percent through flight testing Tailwind un-commanded pitch-up spurs NTSB recommendations Plane crash in Honduras kills all 14 aboard (CNN) -- A small passenger plane crashed Monday into a hill outside the capital of Honduras, killing all 14 people aboard, officials said. "The impact of the plane was pretty strong, it would have been very difficult for a person to have survived, given the way the fuselage looked," said Oscar Triminio, a spokesman for the fire department. The twin-engine Let L-410 aircraft had taken off from the northwest city of San Pedro Sula carrying 12 passengers and two pilots and was en route to Toncontin International Airport in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran Civil Aviation Department said. The airline, operated by Central American Airways, is not affiliated with a U.S. airline with the same name. At about 8 a.m., once it had been cleared to land, the plane began descending toward the airport but lost communication with the control tower, the department said. Rescuers were then alerted. The crash site was just south of Tegucigalpa at the top of a hill some 2,000 feet (600 meters) above sea level, near the town of Santa Ana Francisco Morazan, Triminio said. The weather was cold and foggy, as it had been since the weekend, he said. One of the pilots had initially survived the crash, but died on the way to the hospital, he said. The first people to arrive at the crash site were residents of the nearby village who found one of the pilots still alive. "It's sad to hear a person in the rubble asking, 'Help! Help! Help!' " said Jorge Sandrez, mayor of Santa Ana. Emergency personnel were searching for the data recorders to help in the investigation. The bodies of the 11 men and three women were taken to a morgue in Tegucigalpa for identification by relatives. Civil aviation authorities identified three passengers as Americans. They gave CNN a list of those on the flight. Also among the victims were Rodolfo Rovelo, who other news organizations have identified as assistant secretary for public works; Jose Israel Salinas, who has been identified as a trade union leader; and Carlos Chain, a former finance minister. ******** Status: Preliminary Date: 14 FEB 2011 Time: 08:02 Type: Let L-410UVP-E20 Operator: Central American Airways - CAA Registration: HR-AUQ C/n / msn: 912603 First flight: 1991 Engines: 2 Walter M-601E Crew: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 Passengers: Fatalities: 12 / Occupants: 12 Total: Fatalities: 14 / Occupants: 14 Airplane damage: Destroyed Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: near Cerro de Hula (Honduras) Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: San Pedro Sula-Ramon Villeda Morales Airport (SAP) (SAP/MHLM), Honduras Destination airport: Tegucigalpa-Toncontin Airport (TGU) (TGU/MHTG), Honduras Flightnumber: 731 Narrative: A Let L-410 passenger plane, HR-AUQ, was destroyed in an accident near Cerro de Hula, Honduras. All 12 passengers and two crew members on board were killed. The airplane operated on Central American Airways flight 731 from San Pedro Sula (SAP) to Tegucigalpa (TGU). The flight had departed San Pedro Sula at 07:04 for the fourty minute flight to Tegucigalpa. The airplane crashed in a forest at 08:02. Weather about the time of the accident (08:00 local / 14:00 UTC) was: MHTG 141400Z 36009KT 5000 VCSH FEW007 BKN020 17/14 Q1022 A3018 NOSIG= [Wind 360 degrees at 9 knots; Visibility 5000m; Showers in the vicinity; Few clouds 700 ft., broken clouds 2,000 ft.; Temperature 17°C; Dew point 14°C; 1022 hPa www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Small jet crashes near Appleton airport; no one hurt (Wisconsin) GREENVILLE - Authorities are trying to figure out what caused a private jet to overshoot the runway at Outagamie County Regional Airport on Monday afternoon. "Nothing about the landing appears to be unusual," said Marty Lenss, airport director. "(The plane) landed normally. At this point, the actual cause of the incident's unknown." None of the three men on board - including two pilots - was injured. "The individuals were checked out by paramedics on scene and released on scene," Lenss said. About 1:15p.m. Monday, the Gulfstream jet landed on the southeastern side of the northwest-facing runway and slid some 1,000 feet off the pavement into a snow- packed area near Wisconsin 76. "The pilots did a commendable job of maneuvering the aircraft off the pavement through the snow and grass," Lenss said. "That safety area is specifically designed for supporting aircraft in the event they leave the pavement," he added. "Its purpose is to minimize damage to that aircraft if it does go off the runway. That's exactly what happened here today." Despite the steady drip of snowmelt, the runway was considered "clear and dry" at the time of the incident. The plane sustained minor damage when the left main gear collapsed upon impact. The plane's left wing also hit the turf. "(The damage) does not appear to be substantial," Lenss said. Investigators from the Flight Standards District Office in Milwaukee will survey the damage this Tuesday morning. "Coming (Tuesday), that's an indication that there's not severe damage to the aircraft," Lenss said. "Right now, it's really a recovery." The jet was to be taken to a Gulfstream hangar on site. Though the related runway was shut down following the incident, the airport remained operational by using a second runway. The airport and Greenville fire departments responded to the scene. http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20110214/GPG0101/302150035/Photos -Small-jet-crashes-near-Outagamie-Co-airport-no-one-hurt ****** Share Date: 14-FEB-2011 Time: 13:15 Type: Gulfstream V Operator: Gulfstream Aerospace Registration: N53___? C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Substantial Location: Greenville, Wisconsin - United States of America Phase: Landing Nature: Test Departure airport: KATW Destination airport: KATW Narrative: Landing on runway '29' (6,500') at Outagamie County Regional Airport, Greenville Wisconsin - a Gulfstream GV operating a test flight as flight GLF16 - over ran the runway - collapsed the port main gear - and came to rest in snow and mud in an over- run area. Photos clearly show the starboard thrust bucket open, and the port thrust bucket closed. Photos below. The Gulftream Aerospace crew of 3 was uninjured. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Obama budget would slice airport construction grants President Obama proposed Monday cutting by nearly a third the construction grants given annually to airports and endorsed a provision that would have travelers paying a few dollars more per flight to make up for it. The president, in his proposed budget of spending for next year, urged raising the cap on the "passenger facility charge" that travelers pay on each flight segment from the current $4.50. The budget didn't specify a proposed ceiling on the cap, but the industry expects it could go to $7 for each leg of a trip. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2011-02-15- airportfunding15_ST_N.htm Back to Top NTSB Safety Recommendations Focus On B737 Elevator Controls Says Foreign Objects Can Damage Power Control Units The NTSB has made a series of recommendations to the FAA concerning Boeing 737- 300 through -500 series airplanes. The safety board says the FAA should require Boeing to develop a method to protect the elevator power control unit input arm assembly on 737-300 through -500 series airplanes from foreign object debris. Once the method has been developed operators should be required to modify their airplanes with this method of protection. Additionally, Boeing should be required to redesign the 737-300 through -500 series airplane elevator control system so that a single-point jam will not restrict the movement of the elevator control system and prevent continued safe flight and landing, and implementation of that design should be mandatory. Finally, the NSTB recommends that Boeing be required to develop recovery strategies (for example, checklists, procedures, or memory items) for pilots of 737 airplanes that do not have a mechanical override feature for a jammed elevator in the event of a full control deflection of the elevator system and incorporate those strategies into pilot guidance. Within those recovery strategies, the consequences of removing all hydraulic power to the airplane as a response to any uncommanded control surface should be clarified. FMI: www.ntsb.gov Back to Top Plane diverted to South Florida airport WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A JetBlue flight from Orlando to Puerto Rico was diverted to Palm Beach International Airport after reporting smoke in the cockpit. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the Airbus A320 landed without incident Monday afternoon. After landing, fire-rescue workers cleared the plane. No injuries were reported. Officials didn't immediately say what was wrong with the aircraft, which remained at PBIA. Back to Top FAA sees 1 bln travelers on US airlines by 2021 (AP) Federal officials predict that the number of passengers traveling on U.S. airlines should increase 3.5 percent this year. They also expect U.S. airlines will carry 1 billion passengers a year by 2021, two years faster than previously forecast. The Federal Aviation Administration released its annual travel forecast on Tuesday, a report that covers the next 20 years. The agency says the growth in travel will increase the need for changes including a new satellite-based air traffic control system to replace the current radar-based technology. The FAA expects international traffic to grow more rapidly than domestic travel - with U.S. airlines handling 7.8 percent more international passengers but only 3 percent more domestic passengers this year. The FAA says that trend should continue through 2031 due to faster economic growth in other parts of the world. That's in line with other forecasts. On Monday, the International Air Transport Association, which represents major global airlines, predicted 3.3 billion air travelers worldwide by 2014, up nearly one-third from 2009, with China being the major driver of growth. The FAA predicts that passengers on major U.S. airlines will pay 2 percent higher fares on domestic flights and 5 percent more for international trips this year than last year. The FAA says, however, that rates will drop slightly over the long haul. Back to Top India, China to be among top five domestic aviation markets NEW DELHI: India and China will be among the five largest domestic aviation markets in the next two years but the US will remain at the top, the IATA has estimated, saying the focus of the global aviation industry will continue shifting eastward. By 2014, the five largest markets for domestic passengers would be the United States with 671 million, China with 379 million, Japan (102 million), Brazil (90 million) and India (69 million), the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in its latest global forecast. While China will record the highest compound annual growth rate in passenger traffic of 13.9 per cent contributing an additional 181 million passengers, India with 10.5 per cent will be among nations which will record double digit growth. Other countries with double-digit growth would include Vietnam with 10.9 per cent, South Africa (10.6) and the Philippines (10.2), the figures published by the global airlines' body showed. Noting that China would be the biggest contributor of new travellers, IATA said, of the estimated 800 million such passengers expected in 2014, 360 million or 45 per cent would travel on Asia-Pacific routes. Of these, 214 million will be associated with China in domestic and international travel. The United States will remain the largest single country market for domestic passengers, projected at 671 million and will have 215 million international passengers. IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani said the focus of the industry "continues to shift eastward. By 2014, almost one billion people will travel by air in Asia-Pacific. That is 30 per cent of the global total and a four percentage point increase from 26 per cent it represented in 2009". A similar situation would prevail for aircargo as well with Asia-Pacific region estimated to account for 28 per cent of the global volumes, he said. Asia-Pacific's international passenger demand was expected to grow 7.6 per cent, with China, Japan and Hong Kong becoming the biggest international passenger markets in the region by 2014. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/- aviation/india-china-to-be-among-top-five-domestic-aviation- markets/articleshow/7502156.cms Back to Top Boeing 787 Dreamliner is 80 percent through flight testing Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is now 80 percent through flight testing needed for certification and on track for the company's latest delivery date of the third quarter of this year, the program's chief said Monday. "The airplane is flying quite well," Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program, told reporters at the Future of Flight Aviation Center, beside Boeing's Everett wide-body plant. The 787s with GEnx engines (as opposed to Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines that will be on the first 787s delivered) ares 60 percent through flight testing, he said. Here's a photo gallery of 787 assembly Monday. Boeing had aimed to deliver the first 787 in the middle of the first quarter before a fire aboard the second flight-test 787 in November grounded the fleet. After investigators determined the fire started in an electrical panel, Boeing said the 787 would need minor design changes to power distribution panels and an update of systems software that manages and protects power distribution on the airplane. "We've implemented the first tranche of fixes associated with the power-panel incident that occurred last fall," Fancher said. "That's been operating extremely well and, in fact, we're in the process of receiving the first set of production-configuration power panels. The first ship set arrived over the weekend." Boeing also has received the first two Package B Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, which include a series of improvements from the initial 787 engines, Fancher said. "They'll be put on airplanes in flow at the appropriate time." After a Trent 1000 engine failed on a test stand in August, a Trent 900 engine on a Qantas Airbus A380 exploded after takeoff from Singapore Nov. 4. Asked about the Trent 900 incident, Fancher said Boeing worked with Rolls-Royce to understand what happened and any potential applicability to the Trent 1000 engines, and found no changes were needed as a result of the failure. The fifth flight-test 787 just finished a 24-day trip in which it visited California, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bolivia and Texas before returning to Seattle, flying in all but two days, when it took a break for planned maintenance, Fancher noted. "The airplane performed beautifully." "Tomorrow we're sending an airplane up to Fairbanks, Alaska, for some cold weather testing," he added. "I understand we'll get one day of 40-plus-below weather up there." Some of the last testing is for ETOPS certification, which allows twin engine planes to fly far from the nearest airport, enabling routes across oceans and poles, and function and reliability testing. One production 787, the ninth built, already is in flight testing and the seventh or eighth 787 will join it to help with these final tests, which require a planes as close to final production aircraft as possible, Fancher said. "It's kind of a graduation exercise, if you will." Asked about workmanship issues Boeing has experienced with 787 horizontal stabilizers from Italy's Alenia Aeronautica, Fancher said Boeing put a "significant" team on site to ensure the two companies were working closely together and had a common set of expectations and understanding of steps that needed to be taken. "We've made significant progress," he said. "I'm actually pretty pleased with the rebound that we've seen." As for Alenia's prospects for building horizontal stabilizers for the next 787 model, the 787-9, Fancher said: "There are some configuration changes on -9 that will lead us to making sourcing decisions that may be different than we did on the -8, but we're really not at the point to lay that landscape out yet." With Boeing poised to move ahead on replacing its 737, Fancher addressed the possible use of 787 technology to the single-aisle airliner. "There a number of applications of composites on the 787, some of which scale down quite nicely, others of which don't," he said, adding that systems technology from the 787 probably has a broader application. Would it make sense to use a 787-style composite barrel fuselage for the 737 replacement? While that technology can scale down, "there may be crossovers where a metal structure may become more efficient," Fancher said. "It really depends upon the details of the design and the architecture." http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/2011/02/14/boeing-787-dreamliner-is-80- percent-through-flight-testing/ Back to Top Tailwind un-commanded pitch-up spurs NTSB recommendations A June 2008 un-commanded pitch-up of a Boeing 737-400 operated by Tailwind Airlines has resulted in five recommendations by the US National Transportation Safety Board to the FAA focusing on elevator system redesign for 737-300/400/500 models. The aircraft, registration number TC-TLA, experienced the pitch-up 20ft above the ground during approach to Diyarbakir Airport in Turkey. NTSB states the flightcrew performed a go-around and controlled the aircraft's pitch with significant column force, full nose-down stabilizer trim and thrust. During the second approach the crew controlled the aircraft and landed by using forceful control column inputs to maintain pitch control, and sustained injuries during the go-around. NTSB states it determined the incident was caused by foreign object debris (FOD), a metal roller element from an elevator bearing, that jammed the power control unit (PCU) on the left elevator. "During its investigation of this incident, the NTSB identified safety issues relating to the protection of the elevator PCU input arm assembly, design of the 737 elevator control system, guidance and training for the 737 flight crews on a jammed elevator control system and upset recovery training," the board states. Its five recommendations focus on those concerns. NTSB has asked FAA to require Boeing to develop a method to protect the elevator power control unit from FOD, and mandate that operators modify their aircraft with that method of protection. NTSB also believes a re-design of the -300-500 series elevator system to prevent a single point jam from restricting the movement of the system is necessary, and that operators should be required to implement the new design. The board points out that no override mechanism existed on the incident aircraft, and while the pilots exerted enough force on the control columns to override the jam, NTSB is "concerned that other jam scenarios may exist in which pilot inputs would not be enough to successfully control the airplane". The board also believes Boeing needs to develop recovery strategies - checklists or memory items - for 737 models lacking a mechanical override for a jammed elevator in the event of a full control deflection of the elevator system. The Tailwind flight crew did not have time to reference the 737 flight crew operations manual (FCOM) or the quick reference handbook, NTSB explains, and its review revealed no checklists or procedures from un-commanded elevator deflection or a jammed elevator control system in the FCOM. Additionally, NTSB states flight data recorder from the aircraft indicated once the flight crew re-established minimum control over the pitching tendency, they turned off the hydraulic power to the flight controls. "By turning off the hydraulic power during the go-around manoeuvre, the flight crew adversely affected the airplane's controllability," says NTSB. As a result, its final recommendation is within the recovery strategies it believed Boeing should develop, the consequences of removing all hydraulic power to aircraft as a response to any un- commanded control surface should be clarified. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC