Flight Safety Information June 23, 2011 - No. 128 In This Issue Change made to airport screenings for young kids US, Nigeria meet to tackle bird strike menace on air safety Delta flight returns to Atlanta airport after 'engine issue' Odd object found wedged between seats of Delta flight American Airlines in talks for 100 Airbus planes: report Change made to airport screenings for young kids WASHINGTON - The government has made a change in its policy for patting down young children at airport checkpoints, and more are promised. Airport security workers will now be told to make repeated attempts to screen young children without resorting to invasive pat-downs, the head of the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday. The agency is working to put that change in place around the country, and it should reduce, but not eliminate, pat-downs for children, an agency spokesman said. There was public outrage in April over a video of a 6-year-old girl getting a pat-down in the New Orleans airport. She was patted down, John Pistole said, because she moved during the electronic screening, causing a blurry image. That kind of pat-down was put in place partly because of the Nigerian man who got past airport security, boarded a plane with explosives hidden in his underpants and tried to use the bomb to bring down the airliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. But this screening has been criticized as being too intrusive and an unnecessary measure for children and older people who seem to pose no terror threat. Last month, a picture of a baby being patted down at Kansas City International Airport gained worldwide attention as well. The baby's stroller set off an alert of possible traces of explosives, so the screeners were justified in taking a closer look at the boy cradled in his mother's arms, the agency said. Pistole, testifying at a hearing on transportation security by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said his agency has been working on other policy changes for screening children, and an announcement will come soon. Terrorists in other countries have used children as young as 10 years old as suicide bombers, Pistole said, although that hasn't happened in the U.S. "We need to use common sense," he told lawmakers. Some of the first information gleaned from Osama bin Laden's compound after he was killed by U.S. forces in May indicated that al-Qaida considered attacking U.S. trains on the upcoming anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Counterterrorism officials have said they believe the planning never got beyond the initial phase and have no recent intelligence pointing to an active plot for such an attack. But the evidence from bin Laden's compound shows what U.S. officials have been saying for years: Terrorists remain interested in attacking transportation nodes, such as airplanes and trains. ------ Online: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee: http://tinyurl.com/3tvxztj TSA: http://www.tsa.gov http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9O14OG80.htm Back to Top US, Nigeria meet to tackle bird strike menace on air safety ...As world loses $1.2bn yearly Finding lasting solution to the menace and dangers posed by birds and other wildlife activities to aircraft dominated discourse during the week, between the United States of America (USA) and various Nigerian aviation agencies. Moira Keane of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), America's highest aviation safety regulator, and senior representative in Africa, stressed that in the global context of air transport, bird strike was not only dominant but also remains a natural and universal phenomenon, and one that has given great concern to the global aviation industry. Similarly, Anne Ene-Ita, permanent secretary, ministry of aviation, further explained that the phenomenon was not peculiar to West Africa, but bird strikes had caused annual damages that had been estimated at $400 million within the United States alone, and up to $1.2 billion to commercial aircraft worldwide According to her, "We can recall also the menace of bird strikes at New York, when the American airliner collided with a flock of birds, causing the Airbus 320 airplane to lose power and ditch in the Hudson River, just some minutes after take-off, even though all the 155 passengers and crew survived the landing on the river." She added that the situation in Nigeria, as in other West African countries, was even more worrisome due to the frequency of such incidents, and in view of the attraction of different species of wildlife to the airports, as well as bushes and wastes spots within and around the airports. These factors, she reiterated, had been found to be responsible for the heavy presence of birds at the airports, a situation that has continued to expose aircraft operating at the airports to the menace of bird strikes and other wildlife incidents. "The menace of bird strikes in Nigeria has been identified as a major threat to air safety. In recent past, a number of aircraft had suffered incidents of bird strikes across various airports in Nigeria with a huge economic loss annually," she noted. Thus to minimise its occurrence, FAAN adopted an action/implementation plan for the bird hazard control programme, which has been structured into phases one, two and three, based on the prevalence of bird strikes at the airports. At the height of the menace, airlines under the auspices of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) had threatened to drag FAAN to court, to compel it to pay costs incurred in repairing damaged aircraft as a result of wildlife incidents. According to her, based on the operating hours of eight airports, 39 officers with requisite background in biological sciences were recently recruited and posted as Bird/Wildlife Hazard Control Officers (B/WHCOs). Ene-Ita, thereby commended the Federal Government of Nigeria, the United States' FAA, and the United States Department of Agriculture for technical assistance, and a three-week mandatory intensive training on airport wildlife hazard management and preliminary wildlife hazard assessment conducted for the officers in Washington DC, USA. http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/travel/aviation/23451-us-nigeria- meet-to-tackle-bird-strike-menace-on-air-safety Back to Top Delta flight returns to Atlanta airport after 'engine issue' (CNN) A Delta Air Lines plane returned to Atlanta's main airport after the crew experienced an "engine issue," the airline said early Tuesday morning. Airline spokeswoman Chris Kelly Singley could not elaborate on what the problem was, saying she had heard varying reports. "A few moments after the plane took off, there was somewhat a loss of power and some passengers noticed a noise," said passenger Eric Psalmond. "We turned around and the flight crew announced that everything was fine and that we were just turning around and going back to the airport -- back for landing." Flight 1323 took off from Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport and was headed to Los Angeles. Shortly after, the Boeing 757 returned to the airport, Singley said. Another passenger described the plane's rough landing. "She stepped on the brakes very hard," Bert Rudman told CNN affiliate WSB. Once the plane came to a stop, Rudman said, the order to evacuate was given. "The doors popped off and the flight attendant started encouraging people to move quickly and leave everything on the airplane," Rudman said. Psalmond said, "Most everyone was calm and collected but there was a little sense of urgency." Delta said the 174 passengers on board would be taken to Los Angeles on another flight while the plane is examined. Back to Top Odd object found wedged between seats of Delta flight arriving at Newark airport raises red flag NEWARK - It looked like something out of an old science fiction movie. It had the body of a clear ballpoint pen, with an electrical button trigger device and a nail and alligator clip protruding from it. A battery was held in place by electrical tape, and next to it was a flashlight top, authorities said. The curious - potentially ominous - object was found wedged between seats of a Delta Airlines flight that arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport from Minnesota overnight Monday. And now the Port Authority Police union wants to know how the object - which prompted a visit from the bomb squad and FBI - made it past federal screeners and onto the plane, an MD-88. "Basically, it looked like something that was made to scare people," said Bobby Egbert, a spokesman for the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association. "The big question is: How the hell did this thing get on board?" A cleanup crew reported the incident at 12:50 a.m. Tuesday at Gate 53 of Terminal B, officials said. Delta Flight 1972, arrived from Minneapolis/St. Paul around 11 p.m. Monday. Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said local law enforcement is continuing its investigation. "TSA is aware that a suspicious item was discovered by the cleaning crew on board Delta Flight 1972 after landing at Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday, June 21," Farbstein said today. "Local law enforcement responded and cleared the item." Was it a homemade flashlight, or something more harmful? "There was no imminent threat at the time this object was discovered," Special Agent Bryan Travers, a spokesman for the FBI in Newark, said today. Delta spokesman Paul Skrbec said last night the airline is "cooperating fully with the local authorities." As part of his routine aircraft cleaning duties, an employee found the object in between seats 21B and 21C, officials said, adding that no one was assigned to those seats. The employee called police, who evacuated the area and conducted a 15-minute sweep of the aircraft with a bomb-sniffing dog that turned up negative. The Essex County Sheriff's Department bomb squad also inspected and cleared the suspicious item, and the TSA and FBI were called, officials said. An FBI bomb technician took possession of the object at 5:08 a.m. and the aircraft was deemed safe and returned to Delta at 5:15 a.m. - nearly four and a half hours after the strange incident began. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/06/odd_object_found_wedged_betwee.html Back to Top American Airlines in talks for 100 Airbus planes: report (Reuters) - AMR Corp's (AMR.N) American Airlines, the operator of an all-Boeing (BA.N) jet fleet, is in talks with Airbus (EAD.PA) about buying at least 100 narrow-body planes, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. A decision by the board of AMR, the third-largest U.S. carrier, may come as soon as July, the report said, adding that the jets from Airbus's A320 series would replace less- efficient aircraft such as Boeing 757s and MD-80s. An A320 has a list price of $85 million, giving a potential American order a value of about $8.5 billion, according to the report. Representatives of American Airlines and Airbus were not available for comment outside of U.S. business hours. Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC