Flight Safety Information March 29, 2011 - No. 064 In This Issue A pilot discovered a small hole in the exterior of the aircraft Southwest makes emergency landing at Louisville FAA: Close calls during O'Hare expansion work Ethiopian crash pilots were relatively new to 737-800 A pilot discovered a small hole in the exterior of the aircraft Both the airline and the FBI are investigating (CNN) -- A US Airways 737 pilot in Charlotte, North Carolina, discovered a small hole in the exterior of his plane's fuselage Monday, prompting the airline to take the plane out of service and for the FBI to begin an investigation. "During a pre-flight inspection, one of our captains noticed a small hole in the fuselage," said US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder. "Safety is paramount, so we took that aircraft out of service and our maintenance team is investigating," she said. Wunder said that she had not seen the aircraft and could not characterize the size or shape of the hole, but said it was towards the rear of the aircraft. Amy Thorseson, spokeswoman for the FBI in Charlotte, confirmed that the federal agency had an evidence team at the scene, but it was not immediately known what caused the hole in the plane. The plane -- a 737-400 designated as flight 1161 from Philadelphia -- landed without incident at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport at about 4 p.m. The plane holds 144 passengers, according to the US Airways website. It was not immediately known how many people were aboard the aircraft, but all of the passengers were accommodated on other flights, according to a US Airways spokeswoman. Back to Top Southwest flight 1385 just after landing at Louisville International Airport LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A Southwest Airlines flight heading from Orlando to Chicago made an emergency landing at Louisville International Airport after smoke was reported in the cockpit. Flight 1385 landed without incident around 3:25 p.m. No injuries were reported among the 101 passengers. According to Ashley Dillon, a Southwest spokesperson, the first officer noticed a smell of smoke in the cockpit from wires that connected to the windshield. The power to the wires was turned off and the smell went away. Dillon said the passengers were being rebooked on another flight to Chicago. The plane will be checked the Southwest maintenance personnel and will not be used until it is cleared. Southwest Airlines is based in Dallas, TX and its entire fleet is made up of 547 Boeing 737's, a short to medium range, twin engine jetliner. Back to Top FAA: Close calls during O'Hare expansion work (AP) Authorities have implemented new safety measures since the incidents at O'Hare International Airport, which occurred during the first phase of a $15 billion airport expansion project, the Chicago Tribune reported in its Monday editions. But the revelations come in the wake of a recent compromise agreement between the city of Chicago and the two largest airlines operating out of O'Hare, United and American, that lets the city move ahead with a second phase of expansion, including the construction of another runway. The close calls highlight the safety risks such massive projects can create. "It changes the traffic patterns that pilots may be accustomed to and it requires a lot of extra care on everybody's part," aviation safety expert David Zwegers said. Construction-related alterations have caused confusion at O'Hare, veteran United Airlines pilot Kevin Dohm told the Tribune. "Normally, we don't land over anything after crossing over the airport fence," he said. "Now at O'Hare we often are dealing with a displaced landing zone beyond barricades, and that can throw an unprepared cockpit crew a curveball." One close call took place on Sept. 9, 2009, when a FedEx plane sped down a runway that the pilots realized was shorter than they thought only when it was too late to stop - and they barely cleared a construction-related fence stretched in their path, the newspaper reported. FAA databases include another account of a fully loaded Boeing 777 taking off at O'Hare in May 2008 with a weight above the maximum allowed because the crew wasn't aware construction work had reduced the runway's length. And in an incident in June 2004, an air traffic controller told officials he ordered two planes within just a three-minute span to abort landings because construction vehicles were traversing a landing strip, the Tribune reported. Chicago aviation officials said the work at O'Hare met FAA safety standards, but they agreed more could be done to make it safe. Among other steps, the FAA has begun revising daily alerts to pilots about airfield conditions, including trying to making them easier to follow. The FAA, Chicago's aviation department and others with a stake in the airport met to discuss the issue last year. One outcome of those discussions was to erect clearer signs at the beginning of runways indicating their current length, the Tribune reported. The issue of construction as a potential hazard arose in 2006, when a Comair plane turned onto a runway that was too short and crashed on takeoff at a Lexington, Ky., airport, killing 49 people. Federal investigators ultimately concluded pilot error was primarily to blame. But the airline - while accepting responsibility - also questioned whether the pilots could have been better notified about construction that had diverted planes. Back to Top Ethiopian crash pilots were relatively new to 737-800 Lebanese investigators have disclosed that the captain and co-pilot of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 which crashed off Beirut last year each had relatively little experience in their respective positions on the aircraft. In a progress report on the inquiry into the January 2010 accident, the Lebanese transport ministry states that while the captain's overall flight time totalled more than 10,000h only 188h were logged in command of the type. The first officer on the twinjet had only 673h of which 350h were on the 737-700/800. Previously the captain had been in command of Fokker 50 turboprops - clocking up more than 1,000h - before achieving his 737-700/800 rating in October 2009. He was released to command the type on 3 December 2009, just 53 days before the crash. While the inquiry report states that he had over 3,700h as pilot-in-command, it says nearly 2,500h were on "different light and spray aircraft". He had been previously rated as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767, as well as the 737-200. Both pilots on the fatal flight, ET409 to Addis Ababa, had flown for 4.7h in the previous 24h, and had arrived in Beirut as crew on the inbound service ET408. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC