Flight Safety Information May 10, 2011 - No. 096 In This Issue US Airways Union Wants Executive Fired on Safety Concerns 2 dead after 2 planes collide over NY wood Bacteria, mold found in jet fuel (Israel) Air Safety Campaign: IATA charges African governments to lead Indonesia moves to address airline crash problem Chinese experts sent to investigate MA60 airplane crash Unruly man tackled at cockpit of SFO-bound flight Air France Flight 447 - will all be revealed? One of AF447's engines retrieved from sea bed Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 awarded FAA ETOPS approval Boeing 787 wins order from China's Xiamen Airlines Pic of TSA Agents Searching Baby at KCI Sparks Outrage US Airways Union Wants Executive Fired on Safety Concerns The US Airways Group Inc. (LCC) pilots union called for the firing of the airline's executive overseeing safety, saying he has repeatedly ignored concerns and recommendations from the group. Management at the Tempe, Arizona-based airline also declined to participate in an external-safety evaluation undertaken by the union, the US Airline Pilots Association said today in a statement. The union said it advised US Airways in a letter last month of 17 specific issues to support its request that Paul Morell, vice president of safety and regulatory compliance, be fired. The carrier has been unable to reach a contract agreement to cover all of its pilots since the 2005 merger of US Airways and America West Holdings Corp. The two pilots' groups continue flying under separate work and scheduling rules and pay scales. "USAPA has reached out to Mr. Morell time and time again, requesting his input and guidance about how to alleviate the many safety issues that face our pilots," Mike Cleary, union president, said in the statement. "At best, we have received a dismissive or tepid response; at worst, complete silence." US Airways, the smallest of the major full-fare U.S. airlines, has an "exceptional" safety record and has a number of programs for pilots to address safety concerns, said Todd Lehmacher, a spokesman for the airline. "Unfortunately, they've chosen to use safety as a negotiating tactic," he said in a telephone interview. "Our record on safety definitely speaks for itself." Airbus SAS A330 fuel leaks, Boeing Co. 737 fuselage integrity issues and an aircraft damaged by a bullet were among items cited by the pilots in their April letter. US Airways last month said its 737s were not among those needing stepped-up inspections for fuselage cracks after the body of a Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) plane ruptured in flight April 1. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been investigating a possible bullet hole found in a US Airways 737 in March. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-09/us-airways-union-wants-executive-fired- on-safety-concerns-2-.html Back to Top 2 dead after 2 planes collide over NY woods WAWAYANDA, N.Y. (AP) - Two small planes collided over a wooded area in upstate New York, killing the pilots in a fiery wreck that scattered debris over a large swath of rural land, police and aviation officials said. The single-engine planes, four-seat Pipers, crashed Monday afternoon in New Hampton, a hamlet about 60 miles north of New York City, as they headed back to New Jersey. State police Capt. Joseph A. Tripodo said that when the planes collided they left substantial wreckage at two impact sites a couple of hundred yards apart. "One plane burst into flames, one plane did not," he said. Two pilots flew one plane from Sussex, N.J., to Orange County Airport and picked up another plane, Tripodo said. They took off from Orange County Airport about 2:40 p.m., heading back to Sussex, and crashed within about 15 minutes. Area resident Rebekah Rochelle said she was in her vegetable garden when she happened to look up and saw two planes flying south. "One clipped the other, clipped the wing is what it looked like from my angle," she said. "The one spiraled directly down, and the other was more at an angle over the hill." She said she immediately ran inside for cover from the metal debris raining down and called 911. Another witness said he heard an engine revving up just before he heard the crash. "It sounded like two cans being crushed," Tom M. Boyle said. As Boyle's fiancee called 911, he ran up to one of the planes and shouted "hello" to see if there were any survivors. There was no response. The skies were clear with visibility of 10 miles and winds at 15 mph, with gusts up to 23 mph, National Weather Service meteorologist Lauren Nash said. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac confirmed two people were killed. Initial reports that one person was critically injured were unfounded. Because the bodies were found outside the planes, investigators don't know which plane each victim was in when they crashed. Rescuers reached one plane quickly and could see the other from the air but had a difficult time getting to it because of the dense woods. "The conditions in the woods are extremely difficult - muddy, thick forest, hard to traverse," Tripodo said. The cause of the collision hadn't been determined. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were en route Monday night, Tripodo said. The identities of the dead weren't immediately confirmed. One plane was registered to Edward J. Crump, from Boonton, N.J., and the other plane to Gary L. Delia, of Sussex, N.J. It isn't known if Crump and Delia were the victims or were even aboard the planes, Salac said. Calls to phone numbers listed at their home addresses went unanswered Monday afternoon. Back to Top Bacteria, mold found in jet fuel (Israel) JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An Israel Airports Authority investigation has found bacteria and mold in contaminated jet fuel, which had grounded dozens of planes in Israel. The Airport Authority checked the fuel in an outside lab. It called on the Paz Oil Company on Monday to explain why its fuel was documented as fine when it actually was contaminated, Haaretz reported. A U.S. Air Force laboratory in Germany refused to test the fuel, saying it did not take on private jobs. Meanwhile, Israel's national airline, El Al, has brought back jet fuel from Cyprus on two of its airplanes to fuel its smaller planes to ensure that there is no disruption of short and midrange flights to European cities, according to Yediot Achronot. Aircraft refueling was halted May 5 at Ben Gurion International Airport when Aviation Assets, which supplies fuel to the airport's pipeline, discovered contaminants in the fuel. Refueling was stopped as well at regional airports in Eilat and Haifa. Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded. Officials had noticed two weeks earlier that the fuel filters on Aviation Assets' trucks were clogging. Clogging of airplane fuel filters "could be disastrous," an airport official told reporters May 5. Domestic air travel in Israel resumed Sunday. International aircraft continue to fill up in Cyprus on the way to or from Israeli pending a conclusive identification of the contaminant. The disruption in air travel has cost the economy tens of millions of dollars, according to reports. http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/05/09/3087618/bacteria-mold-found-in-jet-fuel Back to Top Air Safety Campaign: IATA charges African governments to lead The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called on African leaders to champion the campaign to improve the continent's air transport safety record, which is regarded as the worst in the world today. "I do not see political leadership saying 'this is important- it's a battle we have to win'," IATA Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani told reporters in Johannesburg on Thursday. "Profit is important. But the number one priority for aviation is safety. Africa must improve its safety record." IATA measures aviation safety in hull losses (that is, accidents in which an aircraft is destroyed outright or damaged beyond economical repair) per million flights. "The numbers tell a difficult story, an unhappy story," he stated. The global average last year was 0,61 hull losses per million flights. The figure for Africa was 7,41 hull losses per million flights - some 12 times greater than the global figure. The next worst region was Latin America, with 1,7 hull losses, while Asia/Pacific had 0,8, North America 0,1 and Russia 0,0 (zero hull losses in 2010). Safety standards vary across the continent, with IATA's African member airlines having passed the stringent IATA Operational Safety Audits (IOSA - now a requirement for all members of the association) and having excellent safety records. A number of African countries, including (but not only) Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, have first class aviation safety in general. On the other hand, some 16 to 18 (the number varies) African countries are on the European Union (EU) blacklist, which bans their airlines from flying in EU airspace. Other regions have had air safety issues as well. However, these have benefited from decisive political leadership, asking for assistance from, and implementing the recommendations of, IATA. "In 2003/2004, China was a big problem regarding safety. In two years we solved it," cited Bisignani. "In 2005/2006 we had a problem in Russia. We solved it." "Aviation must be safe everywhere. Africa cannot be the exception," he asserted. "I urge South Africa to take a leadership role in the region and promote IOSA as a tool for governments to use to supplement their safety oversight and improve the region's performance." http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/05/air-safety-campaign-iata-charges-african- governments-to-lead/ Back to Top Indonesia moves to address airline crash problem Indonesia, which has consistently had one of the world's worst airline accident records, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Netherlands-based European Joint Aviation Authorities Training Organisation (JAA TO) to set up a major training centre to produce aviation safety management skills for its own needs and those of other nations in the region. This agreement was signed just the day before a fatal crash involving Indonesian regional carrier Merpati Nusantara in which all 27 people on board died. Merpati has an accident rate that has consistently put it almost at the bottom of the global safety league for about 30 years. The carrier's relatively new Xian MA-60 twin turboprop was attempting to land in stormy weather and crashed into the sea short of the runway. The signing took place in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on 6 May, and involved the heads of Indonesia's transport ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation as well as senior JAA TO officials. The JAA TO said: "The objective...is to establish a framework within which the organisations will co-operate in delivering a curriculum for aviation professionals in Indonesia and other ASEAN countries, with competency-based courses conforming to JAA TO's worldwide quality standards. "This will enable training and qualifying local trainers to become certified JAA TO instructors. The focus on a strong and long-lasting cooperation envisages the establishment of a solid training capacity able to meet the demands of the growing aviation industry in Asia." Transport minister Freddy Numberi said: "The aviation industry continues to grow at rapid rate. It can be seen from both the steady growth of the air transport passenger traffic and the expansion of aviation routes. These continuing trends are also followed by the application of technology in aviation which is now getting more advanced." Numberi added: "To keep up with those obvious facts, we are now challenged to provide human resources with compatible competences to carry out aviation which complies with the safety, security, and service aspects based on international standards." http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/05/10/356413/indonesia-moves-to-address- airline-crash-problem.html Back to Top Chinese experts sent to investigate MA60 airplane crash A Chinese-made Modern Ark 60 plane (MA60) plunged into the ocean on May 7 local time, CCTV reported. After the accident, which occurred at 2:30 p.m. Beijing time, AVIC Xi'an Aircraft Industry (Group) Company, Ltd. assigned a series of arrangements to deal with the crash and sent eight experts to Indonesia to assist in investigating the accident. A "black box" recorder from the MA60 was retrieved and is on the way to Djakarta. It is reported that this flight connected at Yanliang Airport in Xi'an to Kunming on December 1 and headed abroad from Kunming on December 2. Before the crash, the plane had operated for 620 hours and launched 770 times in total. Indonesia, famous for being made up of thousands of islands, is a big market for plane sales. Airlines among Indonesian islands are well suited for MA60 operations. In May 2006, Indonesia granted the MA60 a flight certificate, paving the path for China to export the MA60 to the southeast. In July 2006, West Flight Corporation and Indonesia's Merpati Nusantara Airlines signed a contract for 15 MA60 planes, creating a new record for the sale of Chinese-made planes. In August 2007, two MA60 planes were handed over to Merpati Nusantara Airlines and then started to operate in Indonesia. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7375097.html Back to Top Unruly man tackled at cockpit of SFO-bound flight A man with ties to the Bay Area and Yemen was wrestled to the floor of a San Francisco International Airport-bound airliner Sunday night by crew members and passengers after trying to smash open the locked cockpit door with his shoulder, according to federal court documents. Federal authorities filed a criminal charge of interference with a flight crew Monday against 28-year-old Rageh Al-Murisi, who was traveling with a Yemeni passport and a California identification card that says he lives in Vallejo. An FBI spokeswoman said he is due in federal court Tuesday morning. Al-Murisi was arrested by local authorities aboard American Airlines Flight 1561 shortly after it landed about 9:15 p.m. and was taken to San Mateo County Jail. He was turned over to federal officials Monday morning, said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. The incident occurred the same day as several airline security scares and at a time of heightened scrutiny of mass transit after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Al-Murisi reportedly screamed "God is great" in Arabic while pounding on the cockpit's locked door and yanking its handle. A flight attendant called for assistance after getting between him and the cockpit door. Other crew members and a handful of the 156 passengers aboard came running to help. He was tied up with zip-tie-style handcuffs and held in the back of the plane until landing. He suffered some minor injuries during the tussle, but no other passengers were injured. Among those who pinned Al-Murisi to the floor were a retired San Mateo police officer and an off-duty American Airlines pilot, officials said. San Mateo police declined to identify the retired officer but said they were proud a former member of their ranks had been involved. American Airlines officials couldn't immediately say Monday where the off-duty pilot lives. American Airlines spokesman Ed Martelle said Al-Murisi was seated in the rear half of the airplane but strode to the front moments before the trouble started. A flight attendant in first class saw the man approaching and presumed he was looking for the restroom. When Al-Murisi allegedly began pulling on the cockpit door handle, the flight attendant thought he was confused and tried to show him to the bathroom. At that time he started shouting and pounding on the door, Martelle said. Officials said there was no indication that the incident had anything to do with a terrorist plot. However, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes local, state and federal authorities, is investigating the incident. Al-Murisi got on the plane in Chicago after taking a connecting flight from New York's LaGuardia Airport. His final destination was San Francisco. http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_18027445?nclick_check=1 Back to Top Air France Flight 447 - will all be revealed? Investigators hope that data recorders recovered from the Atlantic last week will explain if the Airbus 330's innovative construction and fly-by-wire technology were factors in the mysterious crash. Advanced passenger jets do not simply fall from the sky. But on June 1 2009 this is what happened to Air France Flight 447. Three hours into its journey from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, the hi-tech Airbus 330 entered a vast tropical storm and, for reasons that have perplexed and troubled flight engineers ever since, plummeted into the Atlantic roughly halfway between north-east Brazil and West Africa. All its 228 passengers and crew perished. The limited information we have has spawned several theories, but none is sufficient to explain a disaster of such magnitude. Now, two years on, however, thanks to the "black-box" technology that recorded the final moments of the doomed flight together with a feat of remarkable engineering that has enabled the flight recorders to be recovered from the bleak, black depths of the ocean, some light looks set to be shed on the tragedy. A French crew equipped with robot mini-submarines last week recovered the flight data recorders that should explain how and why flight AF 447 fell into the sea. Both orange cylinders appeared to be intact and are now with the French aviation accident investigation agency, the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) in Paris. Tests over the next two weeks will reveal how much data remains. BEA director Jean-Paul Troadec says: "If we can read what is in the two flight recorders, we will finally know what happened." A great deal is riding on the engineered resilience of these shoe-box sized cylinders. The airline industry is desperate to prevent a repeat of a disaster that should never have happened, while the bereaved, too, are seeking answers. Some may face renewed trauma as the remains of their loved ones may soon be recovered from the wreckage on the ocean floor, close to where the black boxes were discovered. "This is an air accident the like of which we haven't seen before,'' according to Dr Guy Gratton an aviation safety expert at Brunel University. ''Half the accident investigators in the Western world - and in Russia too - are waiting for these results. This has been the biggest investigation since Lockerbie. Put bluntly, big passenger planes do not just fall out of the sky." It's remarkable that investigators ever managed to find the cockpit voice and flight data recorders. In the weeks after the disaster, Paul-Louis Arslanian, chief of the French civil aviation ministry's bureau of investigation, said he was pessimistic about the chances of recovering either device - and no wonder. The wreckage was submerged almost two and half miles below the surface of the Atlantic, in pitch black, and under incredible pressure. Yet, in an extremely mountainous 10,000 square miles of sea bed, the robot submarines eventually located the recorders near parts of the wreckage (see box below). Experts say there is a very good chance the precious data will be intact. The devices are designed to withstand extreme conditions, from immense water and crash forces, to the 1,000C heat produced by burning aviation fuel. Exactly what they're made of is a trade-secret worthy of Coca Cola. Most experts think the material includes light- weight alloys, as well as fibre-reinforced plastics. The super-tough casings house what are essentially solid-state hard drives, one of which records the cockpit conversations and ambient noise, while the other tracks dozens of key technical parameters such as air speed, altitude and the use of controls by cockpit crew. Chris Yates, an independent aviation safety consultant, said that even if the recorders yielded decisive information, the French air safety authorities would almost certainly call for changes to their construction. "I think one of the key BEA recommendations will be for the sonar locater beacons [in the recorders] to be improved, so that they send out signals for a much greater period of time," he says. "Currently the batteries that power the devices last only 30 days or so after a crash. "Even organising the search and rescue operation in difficult conditions like those seen in the Air France crash can take some time, so it's clear that 30 days isn't enough." Other methods of expediting data from air accidents have been suggested. Some experts have advocated greater use of streaming, in which cockpit conversation and technical information is continuously beamed to air company technicians throughout a flight. Had such systems been running two years ago, vital data from AF477 would be already in the hands of the investigators. But the cost of introducing such systems would be enormous. "And logistically it could be even worse," says Dr Gratton "There's already a global turf war over the limited availability of radio band widths." Many experts say resources would be better spent improving the recording devices - and making them easier to recover. Introduction of cockpit video recordings has also been mooted, but pilot unions have dismissed the idea as an unwelcome "Big Brother" intrusion that might be exploited by the media or litigants in civil cases in order to sensationalise events. "This is a nonsense argument," says Mr Yates. "Cockpit videos could add considerably to our knowledge of what is going on at the controls before a crash, and any such data could significantly increase our awareness of risks and therefore bring real benefits." Calls for such video systems were made immediately after 9/11 and the hijacking of several planes by terrorists. "A decade on, we're still waiting for them to be introduced," he said. Certainly, video recorders would have shown how the cockpit crew of AF447 reacted as the aircraft sped into a huge thunder storm on that fateful night. Violent and vast - about the size of the British Isles - there was no way around it. But such storms are not uncommon in the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone at the Equator, and several other aircraft made it comfortably through the same bad weather that night. (It has been speculated that the presence of a smaller storm effectively concealed the presence of a larger one on the radar read-outs.) Limited technical data beamed by flight computers to Air France technicians before the crash via satellite suggest that external airflow-sensing devices, pitot tubes - the craft's speed indicators - may have iced up in super-cooled air caused by the storm. The resulting inconsistent speed readings may have confused the plane's computers, causing it to stall. Airbus has since recommended that the pitot tubes, made by Thales, be replaced by ones by rival manufacturer Goodrich. The Federal Aviation Authority has deemed these are less likely to ice over. Some reports have suggested that, with reduced control over speed and altitude, AF447 entered "coffin corner", a precarious state in which inexperienced pilots, in particular, have very little margin for error. But the man at the controls of AF477 was not inexperienced and neither was his co-pilot. Air France spokesman Justin Dubon noted: "Unreliable speed data from pilots alone could not have led to what happened." Several other theories are in circulation, although they are not aired frequently. Air safety engineers rarely divulge much information to journalists, for fear of miss- reporting or exaggeration by the media. But The Daily Telegraph understands that one key idea being seriously considered by investigators relates to the design and structure of the Airbus 330 itself. The cutting-edge aircraft's large size, reliance on computers to process virtually all pilot commands and the high proportion of fibre-reinforced plastic in its structure, are factors that distinguish it from other aircraft and may have had a role in the disaster. Investigators have noted that fibre-reinforced plastic, while extremely strong, might have reacted differently to traditional metallic fuselage structures during the physical and electrical battering in a thunderstorm. Could a structure, commendably strong in theory, have failed in exceptional circumstances, causing a calamitous loss of cabin pressure? Or did the computer-controlled, fly-by-wire controls of the Airbus make it too difficult for the pilot to countermand them and assume manual control in an emergency? For now, any such ideas are simply speculation, but, says Mr Yates, it all goes to show how much rests on the data contained on the two little cylinders dredged from the bottom of the Atlantic. "The fuselage of the much-delayed Boeing Dreamliner [the new super-efficient Boeing that will be the first passenger liner to use composite material for most of its structure] is made mostly from fibre-reinforced plastics," he says. "They are immensely strong. But if they were shown by this investigation to have fatal weaknesses in certain conditions, the repercussions for the industry would be enormous." Dr Gratton agrees: "This crash is a mystery. We need to know how and why this happened." It is to be hoped that, in the next few months, we will. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8503270/Air-France-Flight-447-will- all-be-revealed.html Back to Top One of AF447's engines retrieved from sea bed One of the two General Electric CF6 engines of the crashed Air France Airbus A330, lost in the South Atlantic two years ago, has been raised from the sea bed. Salvage efforts have continued following the location of the flight-data and cockpit- voice recorders from flight AF447, both of which are en route to the analysis laboratory of French investigation agency Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses. With the priority task of retrieving the recorders completed, BEA says that it has started recovering structural parts of the twinjet. It has lifted the avionics bay, with several computer systems from the A330, and one of its CF6 engines - it is unclear whether this is the starboard or port powerplant. The recorders have been transferred from the Ile de Sein recovery vessel to a French naval patrol boat, La Capricieuse, which is taking the devices - under the watch of two investigators and a judicial police officer - to Cayenne in French Guiana. BEA says the patrol boat should arrive in Cayenne on 11 May, from where they will be flown to its headquarters in Paris. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 awarded FAA ETOPS approval Rolls-Royce's Trent 1000 turbofan has been awarded 330min extended twin engine operations approval by the US Federal Aviation Administration. The engine is the lead powerplant for the Boeing 787 twinjet, due to enter service with All Nippon Airways (ANA) in the third quarter. R-R has meanwhile delivered Trent 1000s to Boeing to support 787 ETOPS test flights for approval of the engine/aircraft combination. It has also handed over a pair of Trent 1000s for the first 787 to be operated by ANA. Simon Carlisle, R-R Trent 1000 programme director, said: "ETOPS approval marks a major milestone for the Trent 1000 programme, setting new industry standards. We have produced the quietest and lightest engine for the aircraft, with the lowest fuel burn over the lifetime of an engine, contributing to the 787's target of delivering 20% less CO2 than previous generation aircraft." The Trent 1000, which ran for the first time in 2006, was granted FAA certification in August 2007, and has amassed more than 10,000h of ground and flight tests, said R-R. The engine powered the 787's first flight in December 2009 and has since powered 80% of all test flights. The engine equips five of the seven aircraft in the 787 flight test programme, and recently passed 2,800h of flight tests, R-R added. A Trent 1000 suffered an uncontained failure during ground testing in the UK on 10 August 2010, but R-R said a modification had been developed for later engines. However, Boeing last year blamed a lack of modified engines for causing delays to parts of the 787 flight test programme. General Electric offers its GEnx as an alternative powerplant for the 787. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/05/09/356408/rolls-royce-trent-1000- awarded-faa-etops-approval.html Back to Top Boeing 787 wins order from China's Xiamen Airlines Boeing won its first 787 Dreamliner orders this year following a period of order cancelations. In a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, China Southern Airlines, the largest carrier in China, said its Xiamen Airlines subsidiary plans to buy six 787 airplanes, Bloomberg News reported. Boeing had lost a total of 12 Dreamliner orders earlier this year. The Xiamen order - which is not yet final - is worth $1.1 billion at list prices, though the carrier will pay "significantly" less than this price, the filing said. According to market data from aircraft valuation firm Avitas, the actual value of the order is estimated at about $670 million. In 2006, Xiamen canceled a previous order for three 787s, replacing that order with six 737-800s. In other good news for the 787 program, Rolls-Royce announced Monday that its Trent 1000 engine for the Dreamliner has won Extended Twin Engine Operations (ETOPS) approval by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), meaning it is certified to fly up to 330 minutes away from the nearest airport. However, Boeing must separately complete extended flight tests to win ETOPS approval for the engine combined with the Dreamliner. Those flight tests are expected to begin soon. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2015008432_boeing10.html Back to Top Pic of TSA Agents Searching Baby at KCI Sparks Outrage Baby Pat-Down at KCI KANSAS CITY, MO.- A picture of Transportation Security Administration agents patting down an 8-month-old baby at Kansas City International Airport has sparked controversy over what constitutes an actual terror threat on airplanes. The picture was taken on Saturday at KCI by metro pastor Jacob Jester as he was waiting to board a flight to Albuquerque. According to an interview on Elliot.org, Jester said that the child's mother was being cooperative, but he had never seen anything "quite that bad." He said that he uploaded the picture on Twitter, where it received a huge response, saying "Just saw #tsa agents patting down a little baby at @KCIAirport. Pretty sure that's extreme." Jester says that the tweet has had over 140,000 hits since he posted it. "I understand that my security is at stake. I appreciate TSA trying to make flying more secure. But I wouldn't want it to happen to my son," Jester told Elliot.org. The incident comes after other highly-publicized incidents involving TSA airport pat- downs of a 3-year-old and 6-year-old children. Later, the TSA released the following statement: "TSA has reviewed the screening of this family and determined that the officers involved followed proper current screening procedures. After the child's stroller alarmed during explosives screening, officers followed protocol to conduct additional screening on members of the family, who were very cooperative." "While children are not exempt from security screening, Administrator [John] Pistole has tasked the agency with exploring additional ways to focus its resources and move beyond a one-size fits all system while maintaining a high level of security. As part of this effort, TSA has been actively reviewing its screening policies and procedures to streamline and improve the screening experience for low-risk populations, such as younger passengers." http://www.baltimoresun.com/wdaf-pic-of-tsa-agents-searching-baby-at-kci-sparks- outrage-20110509,0,6887904.story Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC