Flight Safety Information March 25, 2011 - No. 062 In This Issue India revokes licences of 14 'fake pilots' Reagan air traffic incident renews fatigue debate New Flight Safety Information Subscribers India revokes licences of 14 'fake pilots' The licences of 14 pilots have been revoked by India's aviation authorities as they were allegedly proved to be flying with fake documents. A police probe found a flying club had issued "fake records" of their training sessions, India's civil aviation chief, Bharat Bhushan, told the BBC . Earlier this month the licences of seven pilots were cancelled because of fake certificates. The licences of 4,000 pilots are being checked for irregularities. Mr Bhushan said that the police had discovered that a flying club in the northern state of Rajasthan had issued "fake records" of training sessions for 14 pilots. "Based on the police complaints, we have revoked the licences of 14 commercial pilots," he said. There have been a series of scandals involving Indian airline pilots recently - even though the country has a relatively good safety record. Earlier this month authorities said that they were taking action against 57 pilots who had reported for duty drunk over the past two years. Over the same period there have also been reports of pilots falling asleep while flying and pilots fighting with air crew. The BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi says the massive growth in India's aviation sector over recent years has presented serious regulatory challenges to the authorities. India now has the world's fourth largest number of domestic fliers after the US, China and Japan. In China, 200 pilots were found with fake papers in 2008, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12857742 Back to Top Reagan air traffic incident renews fatigue debate WASHINGTON --- Federal aviation safety investigators have worried for years that the fatiguing schedules that air-traffic controllers work could undermine safety, an issue that resurfaced Wednesday when the tower at Washington's Reagan National Airport went silent in the wee hours. Two jets landed without clearance from the control tower at the airport that sits just two miles from the White House shortly after midnight Wednesday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The supervisor on duty, the only person staffing the tower on the over-night shift, did not respond for more than 20 minutes. SUSPENSION: 'There's no answer' Pilots had repeatedly radioed the tower and gotten no response, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. After controllers at a regional facility that guides jets to National were notified, they also tried reaching the tower through telephones and an intercom system. The NTSB and the FAA have not said whether the controller was asleep, got locked out of the tower as has occasionally happened or suffered some other problem. The unnamed supervisor has been removed "from all operational duties" while the FAA investigates the incident, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt announced in a statement Thursday. "I am determined to get to the bottom of this situation for the safety of the traveling public," Babbitt said. "As a former airline pilot, I am personally outraged that this controller did not meet his responsibility to help land these two airplanes. Fortunately, at no point was either plane out of radar contact and our back-up system kicked in to ensure the safe landing of both airplanes." Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood also ordered that the Reagan National tower have at least two people on duty at all times. One of the top concerns of investigators will be to determine whether fatigue played a role, as has occurred numerous times during previous investigations. "Air traffic controllers have notoriously difficult schedules that are prone to inducing profound levels of impairment associated with sleep deficiency," says Chuck Czeisler, a Harvard University Medical School professor who specializes in sleep research. The issue arose during the NTSB's investigation of the Aug. 27, 2006, crash at Lexington that killed 49 people. A controller on duty when the jet attempted to take off on a dark, closed runway at 6 a.m. told investigators that he had only two hours of sleep during the previous 24 hours. The controller was on a common shift among FAA air-traffic workers: he had worked during the daytime on the day before the accident, then returned to work the midnight shift after nine hours off. While some controllers like such schedules because they effectively give workers a three-day weekend, controllers say they are known as the "rattler" because of the way they disturb normal sleep patterns. The NTSB ultimately did not find that the controller was at fault in the crash, but was concerned enough to issue a series of recommendations to the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association urging that they adopt less fatiguing schedules. The agency said that several other incidents provided "clear and compelling evidence" that fatigue has played a roll in controller errors. They were: * On March 23, 2006, a controller at Chicago's O'Hare International mistakenly told pilots on an Airbus A320 to cross a runway and moments later cleared a Boeing 737 to take off on the same runway. The 737 pilots spotted the other plane and aborted their takeoff. The controller said he had slept only four hours the previous night. * On Aug. 19, 2004, a controller at Los Angeles International told a 737 to take off as a Boeing 747 was preparing to land on the same runway. The 747 pilots spotted the other plane and aborted their landing. The controller told investigators she had slept five to six hours and attributed the incident to her fatigue. * On July 8, 2001, a collision on a runway at Seattle/Tacoma International was narrowly averted after a controller told a Boeing MD-80 crew to taxi across a runway where a Boeing 767 was landing. The controller was working his third shift in two days with only eight hours off between shifts. At the time of the incident, the controller said, he was fatigued because he "had to be up all night long on a double quick turnaround." http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20110324/NEWS01/110324019/-1/ESN/Reagan-air-traffic- incident-renews-fatigue-debate?odyssey=nav%7Chead Back to Top Do you have a Friend or Colleague that would like to receive the daily Flight Safety Information Newsletter? Subscribe to Flight Safety Information Newsletter Flight Safety Information Newsletter & Journals - is a free service of Curt Lewis & Associates, LLC and is provided to over 30,000 subscribers worldwide. Flight Safety Information (www.fsinfo.org) provides a free daily electronic newsletter on current topics concerning flight safety from around the world. The newsletter consists of article summaries from newspapers, websites, and other industry sources containing information on the latest accidents, incidents, recommendations, and industry information. Flight Safety Information Journal also produces periodical journals with a focus on current trends, technologies, and elements of safety. Follow the link in the top center of www.curt- lewis.com website or follow this direct link http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0010HtJrZYhEoeMkzROJRWBPg%3D%3D to subscribe to the daily newsletter. If you would like to know more about the services and products of Curt Lewis & Associates, LLC, email us at contactus@curt-lewis.com or visit our website at www.curt-lewis.com. Subscribe to Flight Safety Information Newsletter For Immediate Release: March 14, 2011 Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC