Flight Safety Information April 21, 2011 - No. 081 In This Issue Recent air controller incidents no sign of crisis, experts say Jet grounded after bird strike Australia threatens Tiger's license to fly Aviation safety making incremental improvements, NTSB says International Flight Grounded Because of Bird EU Raises Concern Over German Safety Regulator Safety Board Blasts Shuster Amendment As Detrimental To Safety Air France Black Box Search Harnesses Hollywood for Crash Clues Delta ponders pilot sources FAA de-recognises DGCA-approved doctor (India) FAA's Maintenance Fatigue Working Recent air controller incidents no sign of crisis, experts say By Alan Levin In less than a month, nine controllers have been put under investigation for suspicion of sleeping on the job, watching a movie while monitoring traffic or bringing a plane carrying first lady Michelle Obama too close to a military transport jet. The Federal Aviation Administration has fired two of the controllers, and its air-traffic chief abruptly resigned. However, several of the nation's foremost experts in air-traffic safety tell USA TODAY that while unfortunate, the recent incidents are not a sign that safety in the system has suddenly worsened. If there is a threat to the system, they say, it is the bad publicity and the pressure it creates for an overreaction by politicians. "The rhetoric is completely out of proportion to the risk," says Bill Voss, a former controller who now heads the non-profit Flight Safety Foundation. "The system isn't collapsing. It is working at an unprecedented level of safety, overall." Problem has been around for years Voss has been a critic of the FAA's policy that pushes controllers to work overnight shifts on schedules that make it nearly impossible to get adequate sleep. But he insists that the latest incidents are symptoms of a problem that has existed for decades. "What you're seeing is nothing new," says Jeff Griffith, a 32-year veteran of the FAA who retired as deputy chief of air traffic. "Unfortunately, in a profession where mistakes are not allowed, these things have gotten a lot of attention." Veterans of the air-traffic world, such as Voss and Griffith, say none of the recent incidents created a major risk. In general, they say, the air-traffic system hasn't been a big cause of fatal accidents. Since 1990, only three fatal airline accidents have been caused at least in part by controllers, killing a total of 67 people, a USA TODAY analysis of accident records shows. No fatal accidents linked to the air-traffic system have occurred since 1994, the data from the National Transportation Safety Board show. That isn't to say there's no risk. The NTSB during the past year investigated nine cases in which aircraft had to take evasive action to avoid midair collisions, says Thomas Haueter, the agency's chief aviation investigator. One of the cases was particularly scary, the safety board's case files show. On Sept. 16, a US Airways Airbus A320 carrying 95 people passed within 100 feet of a prop plane carrying cargo shortly after taking off in Minneapolis. The two planes were in clouds and could not see each other. Incidents such as that one deserve more attention, the experts say. The problem is that the recent focus on controllers has been on incidents not nearly as serious. Attention could cause problems, too The spate of bad news is unfortunate, air-traffic veterans say, because it has been brought on partly by reformers within the FAA who have pushed for greater openness about mistakes. Openness is required at airlines, which must have programs encouraging employees to come forward about errors they make. But the FAA has lagged for years in introducing such programs for its own employees. "Unquestionably, this is the correct thing to do," Voss says. "And now the FAA is being punished for it." Now he fears safety-minded reforms, such as allowing controllers to take controlled naps, will never be allowed. http://www.usatoday.com Back to Top Jet grounded after bird strike A JetBlue aircraft is being held for inspection at Sacramento International Airport after a post-flight check discovered bird remains in one engine, officials said. The pilot told airport officials he heard the sound of a suspected bird collision when the jet was about 10 miles from the airport Tuesday night during the last minutes of a flight from New York to Sacramento. The collision did not affect the flight, officials said, but prompted the grounding of the plane for further inspection for possible damage. The grounding caused cancellation of a subsequent Sacramento to New York flight. www.modbee.com Back to Top Australia threatens Tiger's license to fly SYDNEY (AFP)-Australia's air safety regulator has issued a warning to Tiger Airways Australia, the budget carrier said Thursday, with reports linking it to flight training and maintenance concerns. Tiger, whose parent company is Singaporean, said the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) had served it a "show cause" notice last month threatening to vary, suspend or cancel its license. Reportedly related to training and monitoring of pilots and maintenance, it is the first such notice to be issued to a major Australian airline since 2001, when CASA threatened to ground the now-defunct Ansett Airways over jet safety. A Tiger spokeswoman stressed that there were no serious safety concerns but declined to comment on the details. "CASA asked Tiger to clarify certain matters, which Tiger has responded to promptly and in full," the spokeswoman said. "Basically what they've done is they've asked for a few corrective measures - those were implemented,' she added. "If CASA had any concerns they would certainly shut us down. That hasn't occurred. We continue to operate with CASA's approval." Regulators were now believed to be considering Tiger's response to the notice. CASA told AFP it was not "saying anything really except that we don't comment on show- cause notices." It came as Tiger cancelled several services in Australia, stranding hundreds of passengers ahead of a five-day break to mark Easter and a war veteran's holiday - traditionally one of the busiest times for airlines. Tiger said the cancellations were not due to the show-cause notice but related to "operational issues." Passengers would receive a full refund, credit to fly at another time or could be transferred to another Tiger flight of their choice, the spokeswoman said. Tiger Airways Australia is a subsidiary of Singapore-based Tiger Airways Holdings, which is part-owned by Singapore Airlines. It has been flying in Australia since 2007 and last month celebrated its seven-millionth passenger with a $1 fare sale across 19 domestic routes. It describes itself as Australia's "only true low-fare airline" and has reportedly driven down domestic ticket prices by 30 percent since entering the market. Back to Top Aviation safety making incremental improvements, NTSB says The safety of civil aviation in the United States continued to make incremental improvements across most industry segments in 2010, based on preliminary aviation accident statistics released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Twenty-six accidents were recorded for U.S. airlines and six accidents on scheduled commuters, all non-fatal, the NTSB said on Wednesday. Total accidents of on-demand operators (charter, air taxi, air tour and air medical operations) decreased from 47 in 2009 to 31 in 2010, despite a slight rise in the number of annual flight hours from 2,901,000 to 2,960,000. However, fatal accidents increased from two in 2009 to six in 2010. The number of fatalities for both years was 17. The decline in general aviation accidents in 2010 continues its downward trend, but this sector still accounts for the greatest number of civil aviation accidents and fatal accidents. There were a total of 1,435 such accidents in 2010, 267 of them fatal, resulting in 450 fatalities. http://www.examiner.com/ Back to Top International Flight Grounded Because of Bird SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- A flight, from Orlando-Sanford International Airport to London, England, with nearly 300 people on board had to turn around because it hit a bird! Fortunately, the pilot was able to land safely Wednesday night. The passengers had to spend the night and catch another flight Thursday. Needless to say, many of the people were shaken by the experience. One passenger said people around her were crying just after the plane struck the bird. "As it was going up, there was a loud bang, and there was a horrible smell. A fuel smell. We knew something was wrong." said passenger Julie Colville. The Boeing 767 was seven miles from the runway when the bird hit. About 20 minutes later the plane was back on the ground. The left engine never quit, but airport officials said it would've been too dangerous for the plane to venture across the Atlantic. The airport's president said the plane will stay at the airport until mechanics have tested it. A different plane will pick up the crew and passengers on Thursday at the Orlando-Sanford International Airport. The airport uses things like noisemakers, guns and pyrotechnics to scare away birds to avoid incidents like this one. Despite efforts there are still between 15-30 bird strikes each year at the airport. The president of the airport told Eyewitness News some of the feathers would be sent to the Smithsonian to determine what kind of bird was hit. http://www.wftv.com/news/27619654/detail.html Back to Top EU Raises Concern Over German Safety Regulator Germany's Federal Aviation Office (LBA) is weak when it omes to oversight of airlines registered in the country, the European Union has found. In a stunning finding concerning one of the EU's leading aviation member states, the EU aviation safety officials note that ramp inspections have found increasing numbers of faults with German carriers. "The root cause analysis of the performance of these air carriers revealed particular weakness in the oversight of these carriers," the EU states in the latest update to its safety blacklist. In particular, it points the finger at "insufficient numbers of qualified personnel within the LBA, thus impacting upon Germany's ability to ensure oversight and limiting the LBA's ability to increase the level of oversight where necessary." The EU's Air Safety Committee says that German officials note that "no improvement in the situation would occur in 2011." A review of LBA resources is now underway and that could lead to the situation improving starting next year. The EU also points out problems with specific airlines holding a German air operator certificate. For instance, the AOC of ACH Hamburg has been suspended, with a review of the situation due next month. If the airline does not address concerns, the AOC would be revoked. The LBA also has warned other carriers that have seen ramp inspection problems creep up that their AOC is at risk unless remedial action is taken. http://www.aviationweek.com Back to Top Safety Board Blasts Shuster Amendment As Detrimental To Safety The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has provided ammunition to proponents of sleep regulations for flight crews. NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman questioned several provisions outlawing sleep regulations in the FAA reauthorization bill, calling one "detrimental to the safety of flight crews, medical personnel, patients on board and persons on the ground." Hersman's April 19 letter was just the response Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the House Transportation Committee, was looking for. Costello had asked Hersman to evaluate several air safety provisions in the bill, including one sponsored by Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) that would roll back pilot fatigue rules put in place in response to the fatal February 2009 crash of a Colgan Air Bombardier Q400. "It is further evidence that the Republican majority is not serious about making aviation safety a priority," Costello says in a statement. "The FAA rulemaking process needs to be made more efficient, not more bureaucratic and time-consuming." http://www.aviationweek.com Back to Top Air France Black Box Search Harnesses Hollywood for Crash Clues (Bloomberg) - Investigators seeking to explain why Air France flight 447 plunged into the night ocean two years ago will rely on gear pioneered by telecommunications and oil companies as well as a Hollywood director to unlock the mystery. The wreckage of the Airbus SAS A330 jet was discovered this month 3,900 meters (12,800 feet) deep in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil after multiple searches. Few aircraft salvage missions have probed the same depth, where the sea is perfectly black, temperatures approach freezing and water pressure is equal to the weight of a car on a postage stamp. Diving deeper than the Titanic's final resting place, a robot tethered to a surface ship will sift through the aircraft debris in search of the two flight recorders bolted inside the tail of the fuselage. Their data promises the best chance yet to explain the crash, the deadliest in Air France's history. Complicating the mission is the presence of numerous bodies, some still strapped into their seats and preserved by the cold water and lack of oxygen or light. "At that depth, it is pitch black, and the difficulty is knowing where you are while keeping track of things," said Dave Gallo, director of special projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Research Institute in Falmouth, Massachusetts, whose robots helped locate and map the wreckage. "It's a question of operational skill." No Survivors The Airbus disappeared en route to Paris from Rio De Janeiro on June 1, 2009, leaving no survivors among the 228 aboard. While some fragments and bodies were recovered from the surface of the sea, most of the jet remained missing until this month. The data recorders are built to withstand submersion and extreme impact, though until retrieved there is no certainty the data they stored will be readable. The expedition will gather at the port in Dakar in Senegal tomorrow, before traversing the Atlantic on the Ile de Sein vessel to the location of the aircraft, about 435 nautical miles off the coast of Brazil. French phone-equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent SA is providing the 140-meter ship, which normally lays deep-sea cables. Aboard will be 70 people, including members of the French BEA air accident authority, investigators from the U.K. and Brazil, experts from Airbus and Air France, as well as one psychologist. Family members of the victims were not permitted aboard. Robot Submarines Underwater engineering company Phoenix International Holdings Inc. is sending one of its two "Remora" robotic submarines, or ROVs, equipped with high-resolution cameras and two manipulator arms. The basket on the ROV can recover as much as 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of debris in a single mission. "There are about six to eight ROVs in the world capable of descending as deep" as the Remora, said Tim Janaitis, business development manager at Phoenix, who spoke from Largo, Maryland. Typically, the robot's missions include work on deep-sea oil drilling, and a recent descent took the vehicle to the Titanic wreck in the northern Atlantic, Janaitis said. The search for the remains of the doomed ocean liner in the mid 1980s, and the 1997 blockbuster movie directed by James Cameron helped advance deep-sea technology, spawning high- resolution cameras and robots that can scour through wrecks. Nazi Battleship Following the success of the Titanic movie, which won 11 Academy Awards and cost about $200 million to make, Cameron embarked on an underwater expedition to Nazi battleship Bismarck, which sank in the Atlantic in 1941. "Stuff like that is enough at times to help keep research going," said Robert Jensen, chief executive officer of Kenyon International Emergency Services, a Houston-based company that helps airlines handle disasters. "Look at what they spent on the Cameron movies. He went down on several submersibles to look at ships, to recreate as realistically as possible what happened." The Remora robot can work as far down as 6,000 meters. To ensure steady operation, a team of nine Phoenix experts will operate the 900-kilogram sub from the ship using large video monitors to track its progress. Every movement of the vessel at the surface is translated to the Remora's umbilical cable with a delay, said Brennan Phillips, manager of ROV operations at the University of Rhode Island in the U.S. Delayed Reaction "If the ship moves, it takes half an hour for the vehicle to feel it," he said. "You need an extremely stable ship." Of the almost 100,000 photos taken of the wreck and surrounding area, BEA publicized several black-and-white images of the landing gear, an engine, a wing and parts of the fuselage. While the black boxes have not been spotted, the robot has located the part of the tail that normally houses the recorders. Investigators withheld images of bodies and made them available only to researchers involved in the mission. For some, the sight was too much to bear. "There were many bodies, and our people initially said they would not like to participate in any such recovery operation," said Peter Herzig, director of the Leibnitz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, northern Germany, whose Remus 6000 robot sub was one of three that located the wreck. Team members later changed their minds, though in the end, Herzig's group wasn't asked to participate, he said. Should the recorders be found, they will be pried from the wreck, lifted aboard the Ile de Sein and immediately placed under seal, before being transported by a French Navy vessel to a French port. From there, they will be sent by air to the BEA under the responsibility of a judicial police officer. Recovering Bodies Recovering the victims is a more complex and contentious task. Only 51 bodies, including the pilot, were recovered from the ocean surface in the weeks after the crash. Nelson Marinho, who leads a group of victims' relatives, said not all families want to see corpses brought up, though they recognize the obligation to present forensic evidence for a criminal probe. A French prosecutor is pursuing allegations of manslaughter against both Airbus and Air France, and autopsies may help answer questions such as whether passengers were still alive when the plane sank. BEA said all decisions concerning human remains will be made by France's Justice Department. "The worst feeling, for us, is the risk of even more damage to these corpses," Marinho said. "French officials want to transport them to France, but we want to bring them directly to Brazil." Among the victims were 58 passengers from Brazil, 61 from France, 26 from Germany, and other nationalities including travelers from China and South Korea. TWA Crash Past aircraft salvage missions have managed to recover the bodies of victims. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board brought up all the bodies from TWA flight 800, which crashed off Long Island in 1996, and EgyptAir 990, which went down 60 miles from Nantucket in 1999, former director Jim Hall said. "I think as human beings, it's the humane practice, and it would be a disservice to family members by the airline and regulators not to recover them," he said. The greatest technical challenge will remain operating at an extreme depth. Only one past air crash has forced salvage teams to dive deeper. The wreckage and black boxes of a South African Airways Boeing 747 that disappeared near Mauritius in 1987 were located 14 months later under 14,000 feet of water. "It's only relatively recent that we even have the technology to consider these kind of recoveries," said Paul Hayes, director of safety at London-based aviation consultant Ascend Worldwide Ltd. "And it sounds simplistic, but I think we tend to forget how vast the oceans are." Back to Top Delta ponders pilot sources Delta Air Lines is considering a "blue sky" theory for how to meet future pilot demands. Called "CAPT," for Civil Airline Pilot Training programme, the carrier stresses the idea is conceptual in nature and that it is not committed to the implementation, nor is it engaged in discussions with potential sponsors. Speaking at the World Aviation Training conference in Orlando, Florida on 19 April, Arnie Kraby, Delta's manager of pilot selection, said a dramatic pilot shortage is a "gathering storm" that industry must address. Delta alone in the next 15 years will lose 7,600 pilots who will reach age-65 and retire, says Kraby. CAPT would mainly look to high-tier college aviation programmes as means of cultivating pilots. "Statistical data indicates that a quality college education from a top-tier university or college provides us with a much better pilot in terms of fewer training failures, overall performance and reliability," notes Kraby. The programme would include advanced jet aircraft simulation training and would be on par with military training, which produces skilled pilots qualified to fly high-performance aircraft in a shorter period compared with the civil sector, says Kraby. He is a former US Air Force pilot who flew Delta aircraft for 38 years, "First we need to educate, mentor and train students," says Kraby. The CAPT programme would invite stakeholders across industry to come onboard as sponsors and jointly work out solutions. One of the first goals would be to build an outreach programme focused on middle- and high schools in an effort to stir up enthusiasm for the pilot profession. CAPT candidates would be carefully screened to choose only those who have skills necessary to become a pilot. The candidate would have to maintain a 2.75 GPA, and 3.0 GPA for aviation courses. Upon earning a degree, the candidate would be required stay on as CAPT member and accrue 1,000 hours as a flight instructor at the university, thus providing a stable workforce for the school and to acquire FAA-required flight hours. Graduates of the programme would be guaranteed an interview at a sponsoring regional airline. Then, after meeting regional airline requirements and logging required number of hours for a mainline slot (Delta requires 1,200 hours), CAPT would offer an interview at a major airline sponsor-- "another light at the end of the tunnel", says Kraby. With aviation training costs running $80,000-$100,000, Kraby stresses: "We've [industry] got to provide financial assistance for students if we are to get the [pilot] numbers." The programme might require that student loans be guaranteed by the sponsoring organisation. Another solution might be to have loans reduced by 5% per year up to a maximum of 50% for each year the candidate works for a sponsoring airline. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top FAA de-recognises DGCA-approved doctor (India) New Delhi: The US Aviation Agency FAA has officially removed Dr Akshay Bhalla as their medical examiner from the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) acted after CNN-IBN reported that Dr Bhalla was extorting money from pilots in exchange for the fitness certificate. Dr Bhalla was a DGCA-approved practitioner and was authorised to give pilots seeking a flying permit the mandatory fitness certificate. New Delhi: The US Aviation Agency FAA has officially removed Dr Akshay Bhalla as their medical examiner from the Federal Aviation Administration.The FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) acted after CNN-IBN reported that Dr Bhalla was extorting money from pilots in exchange for the fitness certificate.Dr Bhalla was a DGCA-approved practitioner and was authorised to give pilots seeking a flying permit the mandatory fitness certificate. He was the only doctor in North India authorised by the FAA to issue medical fitness certificates to pilots with the US flying license. There are four others in Mumbai. Several expats and domestic pilots with the US flying licenses have alleged that Dr Bhalla used to extort money from them to issue medical certificates. Others claimed if they didn't pay up, Bhalla would withhold the fitness chit without even examining them. A pilot told CNN-IBN, "There was no problem with my blood pressure. It was all about money, the more money he could extract by saying that you have this and that problem. It was a kind of situation where if you don't pay he could send a negative report to the FAA." There are 500 expert pilots and US flying license holders in India. They are required to get medical fitness certificate every six months. And if one refuses to pay up, they are declared unfit without even being checked. "The urgency of the situation and him knowing that it could cost Rs 8000 just to fly to Mumbai besides other expenses, he declared me unfit even without checking me," said another pilot. Dr Bhalla in his defence said that he has been correct in giving disposes to pilots. "I have been most correct in giving them disposes. The only thing is now they have started going to the Indian medical and now they are running scared. Now they are referred to me to do a complete and correct medical on them." People trust pilots with their lives when they are flying. But with such dubious doctors who are willing to give medical certificates for money, people's trust may be misplaced. Pilots had even written to the US authorities as early as 2009 to revoke Dr Bhalla's license. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/faa-derecognises-dgcaapproved-doctor/149807-3.html Back to Top FAA's Maintenance Fatigue Working The FAA's Maintenance Fatigue Working Group has teamed with the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign to carry out a maintenance industry fatigue benchmark study. The online survey, which takes about 15 minutes to complete, will be hosted at the University of Illinois to collect data on maintenance technician work practices and operational conditions related to work and duty patterns across the industry. This information is being collected as part of the ongoing efforts that hope to inform future advisory and rulemaking efforts. If your company is interested in participating in this free study which will be run May through June 2011, please contact Dr. Terry von Thaden at vonthade@illinois.edu to sign up. A copy of the aggregate data as it relates to your company will be provided to you at the end of the survey. Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC