Flight Safety Information May 5, 2011 - No. 091 In This Issue Air France Crash Victim's Body Recovered From Atlantic Seabed Airbus Jet Operators to Check Fuselage Nuts After Cracks Found SA pilots issue laser alert Two more 'fake pilots' arrested in Delhi African airlines in bad shape, says IATA Air France Find Could Alter the Future of the Black Box Fuel contamination discovery at Tel Aviv grounds flights FAA, airlines continue attack on EU ETS Houston computer glitch another blow to FAA Air France Crash Victim's Body Recovered From Atlantic Seabed May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Underwater salvage teams retrieved a body from the wreck of the Air France Airbus that crashed into the Atlantic two years ago as they seek to collect more evidence to help explain the worst disaster in the airline's history. Investigators took a tissue sample for DNA analysis, French police said today. The sample will be sent to Paris with the flight recorders to determine whether the victim can be identified, according to an e-mailed police statement. The recovery of bodies from the crash site, which lies beneath 3,900 meters (12,800 feet) of water, began after robots found the two flight recorders that store data and cockpit voices that may explain the accident. All 228 people aboard the Airbus SAS A330 were killed when the jet plunged into the ocean on June 1, 2009, en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro. Bringing up bodies has stirred controversy among the victims' families. The families are "very divided" about lifting bodies from the wreck, said Alain Jakubowicz, an attorney who represents the relatives of 70 victims of flight AF447. "There are a lot of technical challenges, this has never been done." The bodies of 51 of the dead, including the flight captain, were recovered from the sea in the weeks following the crash. The operation to recover the first corpse was "particularly complicated" and succeeded only on the second attempt, the statement said. Poor Condition The body was raised along with the aircraft seat it was attached to and appeared in poor condition, police said. A decision has yet to be taken on the recovery of more bodies, and "very strong uncertainties remain" about its feasibility, according to the French police statement. If investigators hope to glean clues about how the plane struck the water, more bodies may have to be recovered, said Derrick Pounder, a forensic pathologist professor at Scotland's Dundee University who has worked on other air accidents. "On a scientific level, I don't think it's helpful to recover one body to interpret what happened," Pounder said. "It's the pattern of injuries to all passengers that is used to make the interpretation." While automated radio transmissions from the plane suggested its airspeed sensors failed in bad weather, triggering a series of system breakdowns in the minutes before the crash, France's BEA air accident investigator says the precise chain of events cannot be understood without more information. After submersion in seawater for two years, there is no assurance the data in the flight recorders can still be fully retrieved. Lack of Oxygen Among the victims of the accident were 58 passengers from Brazil, 61 from France, 26 from Germany, and other nationalities including travelers from China, South Korea and the U.S. The cold salt water and lack of oxygen and light at the depth of the wreck probably helped preserve the bodies, according to members of the salvage team. The bodies are likely "reasonably well preserved," said Pounder, the Dundee University professor. The pressure of the water will have forced out all air from the body and that, together with the cold, would stop the action of bacteria that cause bodies to decay, he said The recovery work is being carried out by an unmanned submarine equipped with high-resolution cameras and two robotic arms, operated by underwater engineering company Phoenix International Holdings Inc. The basket on the sub can lift a load of 200 kilograms (440 pounds). Manslaughter Charges The BEA, which is heading the crash inquiry, said last month that decisions on the recovery of victims' bodies would be taken by legal authorities. Airbus, the plane's manufacturer, and Air France, Europe's largest airline, are facing manslaughter charges in relation to the accident. Bodies have been raised from the sea after previous air accidents, although never from such depths. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board recovered all victims from TWA flight 800, which crashed off Long Island in 1996, and from EgyptAir 990, which went down 60 miles from Nantucket in 1999. Following retrieval of the flight recorders, investigators still plan to pull up several dozen pieces of the wreckage to help study the accident, BEA President Jean-Paul Troadec said in a May 3 interview. Photos released to the public show parts of the landing gear and the fuselage with window sections. Should the corpses ultimately remain at the bottom of the Atlantic, families and friends of the deceased may struggle more to come to terms with their loss, said Robert Jensen, the chief executive officer of Kenyon International Emergency Services, a Houston-based company that helps airlines handle accidents and assists in earthquakes and tsunami. "Their life doesn't move on," Jensen said. "It stays as it was from the night of the plane crash. The best practice seems to be recovery." Back to Top Airbus Jet Operators to Check Fuselage Nuts After Cracks Found Operators of Airbus SAS narrowbody planes were ordered to check the nuts on fuselages and fuel tanks after some of the parts were found to have cracked. Operators will check about 170 A318, A319, A320 and A321 jetliners for the faults, the European Aviation Safety Agency said in airworthiness directives published yesterday. Airbus found the cracks during production of the aircraft, the directives said. Tests found no immediate action is necessary. The location of the nuts, on "primary structural elements," means they must be inspected, and replaced if necessary. "This condition, if not corrected, could impair the structural integrity of the affected airplanes," the regulator said. "This is a proposed directive, for consultation, and there's no immediate cause for concern," Justin Dubon, an Airbus spokesman, said by phone. Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, is a unit of European Aeronautic, Defence and Space Co. Airbus has delivered more than 4,600 narrowbody aircraft. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-05/airbus-jet-operators-to-check-fuselage- nuts-after-cracks-found.html *************** EU Proposes Inspection of 170 Airbus Jets . By ANDY PASZTOR (WSJ) European aviation regulators, concerned about large batches of suspect nuts installed on single-aisle Airbus jets, on Wednesday ordered detailed inspections and possible replacement of the defective parts on more than 170 of the planes used around the world. The proposed safety directive, which is subject to weeks of industry comment, covers certain of the European manufacturer's A319, A320 and A321 twin-engine models. According to the European Aviation Safety Agency, "a large number" of suspect nuts were installed in the fuselage and fuel-tank areas of the jets during assembly. "If not corrected," the agency said in its proposed directive, use of the parts "could have long-term consequences" and "could impair the structural integrity" of the affected jets. But the European Union regulators said, as part of their proposed fix, that tests for metal fatigue, corrosion and other problems have shown the suspect parts don't pose any immediate danger. Accordingly, EASA proposed to mandate completion of detailed inspections-and potential replacement of nuts-ranging from six years to 12 years after the first flight of the affected planes. An Airbus spokesman said the company and regulators previously "determined there was no cause for immediate action" because potential issues wouldn't show up for a long time, if ever. Airbus is a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. The proposed safety mandate comes weeks after the discovery of unrelated manufacturing problems affecting several aging Boeing 737 jets. After a five-foot hole opened in the fuselage of a Southwest Airlines Co. Boeing 737 in midflight, investigators uncovered defects in the plane's aluminum skin ranging from misaligned rivets to gaps between some rivets and their holes. The April 1 Southwest event, which resulted in sudden cabin depressurization while the jet was cruising at 34,000 feet, shocked the airline industry and spooked many travelers. But there were no serious injuries and the pilots made a swift emergency landing. Investigators initially focused on a design miscalculation, but they are now concentrating on assembly-line lapses. Manufacturer Boeing Co. has said it is premature to draw definitive conclusions. The Airbus manufacturing problems, by contrast, have been known and analyzed by international industry experts for years. It wasn't immediately clear how many of the affected planes are operated by U.S. carriers. U.S. government regulators are expected to piggyback on the European move. Airbus previously issued nonbinding service bulletins advising airlines on how to perform the inspections and replace suspect nuts, if necessary. Many airlines already have completed the safety checks laid out by European regulators, according to industry officials. The latest problems originally were sparked by the discovery that cracked nuts had been used in the production process. Airbus has confronted different types of manufacturing problems in the past, including certain composite structures on various models requiring enhanced inspections to look for potential weaknesses or separation of inner layers. In 2000, French regulators temporarily grounded certain Airbus A330 models after discovering cracks in the rear nuts holding engines to the wings. Back to Top SA pilots issue laser alert The safety of thousands of aircraft passengers across South Africa is being threatened by the illegal use of hand-held lasers, which are temporarily blinding pilots. Up to 12 incidents a week are reported countrywide, say aviation authorities. One pilot describes the practice of shining laser beams into the cockpit as planes come in to land as a "very dangerous fad". The penlight lasers are intended for use by stargazers to point out stars and constellations, and at night can have a range of 50km. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) confirmed it had received complaints about laser beams being shone at aircraft, blinding the pilots as they came into land. The Airline Pilots' Association of SA (Alpa SA) has provided a more detailed report, saying it receives between 10 and 12 complaints each week. Airports at Cape Town, Joburg, Durban and Lanseria are the hot spots and the association is calling for a ban on the sale of the lasers. Today Margaret Viljoen of Alpa SA said: "We believe that many of these actions may be intended as pranks, but the public needs to be reminded that their actions may be criminal and could lead to fatal consequences. "We intend to urge the police to investigate this trend and ensure that recalcitrant members of the public who point lasers at aircraft are tracked down and criminally charged." Viljoen said the association received between 10 and 12 complaints a week. She said there had a temporary drop in incidents after the issue was reported in the media a month ago. However, incidents were on the rise again, with three complaints received in two days recently. Viljoen said the figure was probably much higher because in the case of big airlines, pilots logged incident reports directly with their relevant airline. She said that in some cases, the pilot was temporarily blinded and could not land. Worse, the pilot could be permanently blinded. Measures like tinted glasses or windows were not ideal as "pilots have to be able to see clearly"."We need to educate the public and outlaw the sale of these lasers." CAA spokesman Kabelo Ledwaba said a few cases had been reported since last year. In the US it is a federal offence to point the laser pen at aircraft. Some states in Australia have classified it as a "prohibited weapon" and being caught with one without a permit could mean 14 years in prison. Ledwaba said South Africa was a signatory to the International Civil Aviation Organisation and if it introduced new standards or regulations regarding lasers, the CAA would definitely look into implementing it in South Africa. Corporate pilot Henri Pienaar, who has twice had a laser beam shone at him just before landing in the city, described the practice as a "very dangerous fad". He said all aircraft landing at Cape Town International Airport turned at the same point, about seven minutes before they touched down. It was at this point that they were being targeted. Pienaar, who has been flying since 1998, reported his incidents to the Air Traffic Navigation Service, who reported them to the CAA. "This is a potential danger and something should be done about it. The people doing this have got to realise they are putting people's lives in danger," Pienaar said. He added that while it would be difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the beam, it appeared to come from the Kraaifontein area. Another pilot, who did not wish to be named, said: "Why are the authorities waiting for something to happen before they do anything about it?" People who shone lights at pilots could be criminally charged, warned Ledwaba. He said it contravened two sections of the Civil Aviation Regulations. If found guilty, offenders could be fined or imprisoned for up to 10 years, or both. Mango spokesman Hein Kaiser said they had had "infrequent instances" of laser strikes and each had been reported. Comair, which operates British Airways locally and kulula.com, said it had received no complaints from flight crew. SAA did not respond to requests for comment. During the World Cup last year, Yusuf Ebrahim, 35, was arrested for shining a laser at the Durban beachfront, which temporarily blinded a helicopter pilot. Anyone who witnesses the practice can e-mail cahrs@caa.co.za or fax 011 545 1453. http://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/sa-pilots-issue-laser-alert-1.1064836 Back to Top Two more 'fake pilots' arrested in Delhi (India Blooms News Service) New Delhi, May 5 (IBNS) The Delhi Police on Thursday said they have arrested two more 'fake pilots', who allegedly forged marksheets and related papers to avail licences. Captain Param Prakash and Captain Anirban Sannigrahi were arrested by the police on Thursday. At least 14 pilots and several flying school instructors have already been grounded by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for obtaining commercial aviation licenses by filing fake documents and records. The first arrest was made on March 8 when Indigo pilot Parminder Kaur Gulati was apprehended by the Delhi Police's crime branch for using fake marks-sheet to procure her commercial licence. Gulati had come under probe after her wrong landing techniques on several occasions caused damage to the air-craft, the latest being on January 11 when she made a rough landing at Goa airport. Alarmed after expose of pilots procuring commercial licences using forged documents, the DGCA had earlier said it is now scrutinizing the records of all pilots. The DGCA also took disciplinary action against its second senior-most officer at the Directorate of Air Safety, RS Passi, after private airlines SpiceJet complained of favouratism. According to sources, SpiceJet wrote to DGCA chief Bharat Bhushan that Passi's daughter Garima grabbed a pilot's job though she was allegedly removed from her flight training from a US-based flying school. Back to Top African airlines in bad shape, says Iata The International Air Transport Association says the safety of African airlines had deteriorated enormously over the past few years. CAPE TOWN - The safety of African airlines had deteriorated enormously over the past few years, with 16 countries now blacklisted by the European Commission because their civil aviation authorities were not exercising effective control over air traffic and infrastructure, International Air Transport Association (Iata) CEO Giovanni Bisignani told a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum yesterday. Blacklisting meant European airlines were not allowed to travel to those countries, which included Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Mauritania. It also hampered Africa's bid to build up its limited intracontinental air traffic networks. Robust civil aviation regulation was essential for safety , Mr Bisignani said. Effective leadership could turn the situation around, as had happened in Russia and China. In the past eight years, about 10 airlines had failed to comply with Iata's membership requirement of a safety audit, as well as the "hull loss rate", which measures the number of airliners permanently taken out of service per million flights. Globally, the hull loss rate is 0,6 and for Iata members 0,2, but for African airlines it was 12 times worse at 7. Mr Bisignani also participated in the release of a report at the forum on how the aviation industry could reduce its carbon emissions. The industry contributes 2% of global emissions and this will increase as air traffic is forecast to grow at nearly 4,5% annually until 2050. The report, The Policies and Collaborative Partnership for Sustainable Aviation, concluded that a dramatic increase in biofuel production, amounting to about 13,6- million barrels a day, would be needed by 2050 if the aviation industry was to meet its target of achieving a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, compared to the 2005 baseline. The sector has also set itself the ambitious target of capping net emissions and achieving carbon- neutral growth from 2020. Biofuels produced from either nuts or algae have already been proven as an alternative to jet fuel but their production was still too costly to be commercially viable , and a major obstacle delegates noted was that oil companies made huge profits and had no interest in investing in biofuels. The report identified fiscal incentives as having a greater potential to increase investment in reducing carbon than green levies and taxes . It found that taxes usually resulted in a net outflow of funds from the industry and less investment in carbon reduction projects. Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk stressed that governments needed to urgently send two signals to the market: setting a price on carbon, and committing themselves to the 2050 emission targets. http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=141739 Back to Top Air France Find Could Alter the Future of the Black Box How excited do you think these guys are viewing the most significant break-through in the investigation into the crash of Air France Flight 447? On the monitors, accident investigators are watching the end of a very long and very expensive phase; recovering the black boxes from the plane that crashed while en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro in June 2009. Two hundred and twenty eight people were killed in the mishap. Over the weekend, the men saw, via remote camera, a robotic arm fetch the flight data unit of the Honeywell flight data recorder off the ocean floor and drop it into a basket where it was then hauled out of the Atlantic. An activity repeated on Monday with the cockpit voice recorder. I'm just guessing here, but I'm thinkin' this monumental development nearly two years after the search began, is being greeted with the popping of champagne corks. The news from the French Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (let's just call it the BEA) may may be eclipsed in the headlines, this being the same week the world learned that US special forces in Pakistan killed Osama Bin Laden. So one particular airplane crash may pale in comparison to finally "getting" the man who plotted the use of four airliners to attack American landmarks and kill thousands of people. While I won't argue with that, I will chime in with this thought. The mysterious crash of Air France Flight 447 will change commercial aviation significantly. (If I didn't loath the cliché, I might call it a "paradigm shift".) But this metamorphosis might not have happened without those years of expensive and frustrating searches for the airplane's black boxes. When the flight data capsule produced by Honeywell was finally dredged up from the ocean, BEA investigator Olivier Ferrante, was cautiously optimistic. "Cautiously" because while the black boxes are poked, soaked, baked in a flame and fired from a cannon to earn the moniker "crash survivable memory unit", the experience of this particular flight recorder has grossly exceeded at least one of the test parameters. Submerged in the Atlantic for 700 days, it has been in the drink, 670 days longer than the salt water submersion survivability test, as described in this March 2010 article in Avionics News. One month ago, when it appeared likely that the black boxes might be found, Ferrante and another investigator, Arnaud Desjardin, spoke to the European Society of Air Safety Investigators about what they learned from their pursuit of those elusive devices. The BEA made several recommendations based on their experience. Ferrante "hopeful" at April's safety meeting Now, in possession of the soggy recorders, Ferrante is hopeful that data can be read, even after being in the ocean for so long. "In previous operations, the same type of recorder was damaged but BEA has always been able to read out and analyze this data," he said. "We will try to push the limits to read them." He must hold on to this hope and he is not alone. After five search efforts and $135 million spent scouring inhospitable terrain and ocean depths, what will be the return on the investment if the data is unusable? In the days after the crash of Flight 447, I faced what I called the twitter paradox; in which I essentially asked this question, "How can my 16-year old son using his cell phone, know his friends' every move, while multi-million dollar airliners are unable to transmit critical information?" Turns out I was not the only one asking that question. At DRS Technologies, executives say before the year is out, they will demonstrate how airliners can compress and encrypt flight information and cockpit communication and transmit this information off the airplane as a continuous stream of data in real time for less money than airlines are now spending on airtime. Money, bandwidth and a lack of necessity are the three persistent arguments I've heard against the feasibility of this development. "We've looked at the number of aircraft flying at any one time. We've looked at flight profiles as they fly into major hubs. We've looked at congestion of transmitted data and the available satellites and we believe it is possible to do this," Scott Newbold, an executive with a Florida subsidiary of DRS, told me in a phone interview Monday afternoon. Air France Flight 447 and another fatal crash that same month, Yemenia Airway Flight 626 may address the third argument, "Where's the need?" I learned about DRS while reporting on the twitter paradox for The New York Times. Then, I was writing about the company's deployable recorder, a nifty product that encases a recorder in an airfoil so that the entire device flies away from the airplane in a crash and floats if it lands on water. It pings its location and the last known position of the aircraft, through the international search and rescue satellite network. It would have saved the French a bundle, had it been on Air France Flight 447. And in the case of the Yemenia A310, which crashed off the coast of Grand Comore in the Cormoros Islands, June 30, 2009, it could have saved lives. A 14-year old on the flight reported hearing the voices of other passengers as she clung to floating wreckage in the Indian Ocean. But when rescuers finally arrived 13 hours later she was the only one found alive. "They were 10 miles off the coast, in a normal flight pattern. It wasn't like they were hundreds of miles off the coast," said Blake van den Heuvel an executive with DRS. No airline uses deployable recorders, though. "They're not mandated so typically what you see in civilian aviation, those things that are not mandated don't get put on aircraft," van den Heuvel said. Crashes like Yemenia where passengers survive the disaster and perish waiting for rescue, may be rare. Cases where recorders have been difficult to find, not so unusual. Over the past 30 years, there have been 26 accidents in which underwater searches were required to recover CVRs or FDRs. That little factoid comes from the BEA, which gets us back to the ever-hopeful and I hope the presently-champagne-quaffing investigators. They obviously believe that black box data is a non-redundant system. There's no backup when the recorders are too hard to find or can never be found, as was the case on three of the airliners flown into buildings on 9/11. And so while waiting for the day the BEA worried might never come, the investigators started working with DRS, Airbus, satellite manufacturers and dozens of others to come up with new ways to bring airliners into the digital age by giving them the same capabilities as the modern teenager. An airplane that takes its secrets to the bottom of the ocean is a paradox, yes. It can also be an opportunity to push ahead with what's possible in the future http://christinenegroni.blogspot.com/2011/05/air-france-find-could-alter-future- of.html#more Back to Top Fuel contamination discovery at Tel Aviv grounds flights Fuel contamination has halted all aircraft refueling at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport and aircraft that refueled at the airport have been grounded. The contamination was discovered today at around midday local time. Airport manager Shmuel Kendel ordered an immediate stop to refueling when the company supplying fuel detected the contamination. Airlines were instructed to refuel at Larnaca in Cyprus or other nearby airports. All domestic flights and some international flights that were refueled at Ben Gurion before the problem was detected have been grounded. The Israeli Airport Authority said that tests are being carried out in order to find the source of the fuel contamination. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top FAA, airlines continue attack on EU ETS US FAA and organizations representing airlines pushed back against aviation's inclusion in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme starting next year, arguing that it exceeds the EU's regulatory authority and will take money away from airlines that could instead be used to invest in new technology that could help lower carbon dioxide emissions (ATW, May 1). Speaking on Wednesday at ATW's 4th Annual Eco-Aviation conference in Arlington, Va., FAA Assistant Administrator-Policy, International Affairs and Environment Julie Oettinger said, "CO2 emissions are a global concern that calls for a global solution ... The European Union continues to move forward unilaterally. I fear that [airlines' inclusion in the EU ETS] will be counterproductive. [Reducing CO2 emissions in aviation] demands a globally harmonized approach." US Air Transport Assn. Managing Director-US Environmental Affairs Timothy Pohle added, "You're talking about a system that reaches into another country overseas and takes [airline] capital and uses it in ways that don't help solve the environmental problem ... It's precisely using our capital to buy new technology that is going to get us there" in terms of lowering the industry's CO2 footprint. ATA and three of its member carriers-American Airlines, Continental Airlines and United Airlines-brought suit in December 2009 in the UK seeking to preclude non-EU carriers from the ETS. That case has been referred to the European Court of Justice (ATW Daily News, May 28, 2010). A key contention of the ATA challenge is that the ETS violates several treaty provisions in the Chicago Convention, in particular Article 1, which states that countries have sovereignty over airlines in their own airspace. "I can't emphasize enough that we have what we believe is a very strong case," Pohle said. "Our hope is that it will actually be resolved this year before the ETS goes into effect." UK Representative to ICAO Michael Rossell noted, "The information that we have is that it's likely that the case will be heard late this year with a judgment early next year." Airlines argue that the ETS doesn't make sense economically. "It's a very capital- intensive industry and it's risky to take that capital away from buying new technology [to comply with the ETS]," Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Assn. Executive Director Alex de Gunten said at the Eco-Aviation conference. "It's a good system maybe for Europeans. But please don't share it with the rest of us." Defending the ETS, Rossell said, "Even though we are using the most efficient aircraft available, [the airline industry's CO2] emissions are going to continue to grow. If emissions are growing in one place, they have to be reduced in another place ... For reasons of policy, the European region has decided it wants to take action [to track emissions and incentivize carriers to lower them. To achieve that], ETS works best." http://atwonline.com/international-aviation-regulation/news/faa-airlines-continue- attack-eu-ets-0504 Back to Top Houston computer glitch another blow to FAA Departures from George Bush Intercontinental Airport stopped for about 40 minutes Wednesday afternoon when all Houston airport traffic was affected by a computer glitch. A 90-minute computer glitch that halted and delayed air traffic across Central and Southeast Texas on Wednesday afternoon is the latest black eye for the Federal Aviation Administration, which has been criticized in recent weeks for air traffic controllers sleeping on the job and a near-miss incident involving a plane carrying first lady Michelle Obama. The people who conduct the aircraft symphony above the clouds began seeing twin images around 4:40 p.m. when computers inside Houston's Air Route Traffic Control Center began showing actual flights along with identical entries. "You don't usually see a ghost image. That's how they knew there was a problem," FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said. All Houston outbound and inbound planes were affected until the technical issue was fully resolved around 6:15 p.m. That included about 40 Continental Airlines flights that were delayed up to an hour and several Southwest Airlines flights across the Central Texas region that were delayed an average of 15 minutes, air carriers reported. Flights headed to Houston from Love Field and the larger Dallas-Fort Worth airport were slowed down in the air or delayed, though Lunsford could not provide a specific number. Since late March, controller error has been in the headlines beginning with at least five cases of controllers slumbering or watching movies at work. That string of incidents led to the resignation of a top agency official and caused the FAA to end the practice of keeping only one controller on the job during overnight shifts. And last month, a White House plane carrying the First Lady was diverted after coming dangerously close to a military cargo jet as a result of an air traffic controller's mistake. But on Wednesday in Houston, the problem was a technical issue at the Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center. Massive range The Houston Center, as it is known, is a squatty building - not a tower - on the edge of George Bush Intercontinental Airport that controls a massive airspace and airports across Southeast Texas, the Gulf Coast and into the Gulf of Mexico. The range stretches roughly 200,000 square miles including from the Mobile, Ala., airport to west of San Antonio and north to central Louisiana. "You can't get into Houston or out of Houston commercially without flying into Houston Center airspace," Lunsford said. "Everything they're looking at is high-altitude traffic traveling at 18-30,000 feet plus." Lunsford said he wasn't sure about the cause of the technical mishap but added that such incidents were "extremely rare." The twin images started showing up about 4:40 p.m., which prompted the FAA to take down the Houston Center's computer system. To ensure safety, controllers took steps to reduce the congestion in the air space. That meant slowing down landings and immediately halting departures at both Bush and Hobby airports in Houston, Lunsford said. "For planes that were already inbound, they increased the amount of space between them for additional safety," he added. "If they were already in the air, they kept going where they were going." 'Equipment problem' Departures from Houston airports stopped for about 40 minutes. When they started allowing planes to take off and land again, they also had extra distance between them. The computer system regained reliability shortly before 6 p.m. and was back to full speed by 6:15 p.m. "This is simply an equipment problem," Lunsford said. "They identified the problem and fixed it. Anybody who's ever had a computer system has had something go wrong with it." No one was injured in the incident. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7550624.html Back to Top NATA Issues New, Comprehensive Fact Book Alexandria, VA, May 5, 2011 - The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has released its new fact book entitled, General Aviation in the United States. The new and improved fact book features member testimonials on a wide array of NATA's products and services and serves as a fantastic educational tool for the association's Day on the Hill event. General Aviation in the United States provides an in-depth review of the NATA membership segments as well as other important components of the general aviation and airline services industry. This handy reference also contains information on a number of U.S. government agencies that affect the day-to-day operation of aviation businesses, and features several charts containing vital general aviation and business aviation statistics on fuel consumption, fractional ownership companies, active pilots, airports, and much more. This new fact book is free-of-charge and can be viewed and downloaded at www.nata.aero/factbook. "Our new fact book really serves as a great foundation to learn about General Aviation and the aviation service business that help it take flight," stated NATA president James K. Coyne. "I encourage all of our members to utilize this document when educating local, state and federal political leaders as well as local airport boards on the importance and value of aviation businesses." # # # NATA, the voice of aviation business, is the public policy group representing the interests of aviation businesses before Congress and the federal agencies. Back to Top Aviation Fatigue Research Roadmap Symposium, McLean, Virginia June 6-8, 2011 The MITRE Corporation, in collaboration with government, industry, and research organizations, cordially invites you to the Aviation Fatigue: Building a Bridge Between Research and Operational Needs Symposium held from June 6 to 8, 2011, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in McLean, Virginia. This symposium brings together influential stakeholders in aviation from both civil and military organizations and focuses on methods to transition results from ongoing fatigue research to operational fatigue risk mitigation systems. Special emphasis is placed on requirements for support from the research community, aviation operators, and current and potential sponsoring organizations. * Scheduled speakers include: o Mark Rosekind, Ph.D. - Member, National Transportation Safety Board o Bill Voss - President and CEO, Flight Safety Foundation o John Allen - Director, Flight Standards, Federal Aviation Administration o COL. Warren Thomas - United States Air Force, Air Mobility Command o Steve Predmore, Ph.D. - Vice President and Chief Safety Officer, JetBlue o Greg Belenky, M.D. - Research Professor & Director, Sleep and Performance Research Center, Washington State University o Joseph Teixeira - Vice President, Safety, Federal Aviation Administration o Scott Foose - Senior Vice President, Regional Airline Association Do not miss your chance to attend this timely event-seating is limited. Visit aviationfatigueregistration.aero for details and registration information. Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC