Flight Safety Information June 27, 2011 - No. 129 In This Issue No flights for aircraft without safety systems from 2012 Plane Returns To Lindbergh Field After Engine Overheats Flight lands on closed Kolkata runway during maintenance FAA proposes fine for AirTran Transportation Safety Board: Hold pilots accountable to raise professionalism Russian plane crash highlights concern about Soviet-era jets Senate inquiry into pilot training and airline safety issues Two BA pilots questioned about mobile phone incident Landing jet's spoiler defect puts airport on standby NTSB UNVEILS NEW "MOST WANTED LIST" International Winter Operations Conference GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY No flights for aircraft without safety systems from 2012 - Rosaviatsia chief (RUSSIA) Planes that do not meet the world's aviation safety requirements will be banned from flights from 2012, the head of the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia), Alexander Neradko said on Saturday. In 2009 Rosaviatsia issued an order stipulating that all the passenger planes should be equipped with the Traffic Collision Avoidance System as well as automatic Terrain Awareness and Warning System by 2012. "Many companies responded these demands less than enthusiastically...Due to different reasons we have postponed the implementation of these demands, but we agreed that since January 1, 2012, these requirements will come into force," Neradko said in an interview with Rossiya TV Channel, broadcasted to the Russian Far East. Neradko added that the planes that would not have the necessary safety systems would not be operated. Rosaviatsia chief dismissed the suggestion that these requirements were linked with the recent air crash in Russia's northern city of Petrozavodsk. A RusAir Tu-134 crashed while landing at Petrozavodsk airport in northwest Russia on Monday, just before midnight, killing 44 people. Another died in later in the hospital. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110625/164841795.html Back to Top Plane Returns To Lindbergh Field After Engine Overheats Alaska Airlines Flight Had Overheated Engine Shortly After Takeoff SAN DIEGO -- An airplane made an unplanned landing minutes shortly after takeoff from Lindbergh Field on Sunday. According to an Alaska Airlines spokeswoman, Flight 232 left San Diego at 10:04 a.m. bound for Los Cabos, Mexico. Shortly after takeoff, one engine on the 737 showed signs of overheating. Pilots followed standard operating procedure and shut down the engine, according to the spokeswoman. Kelly Sipes who was on the flight, told 10News the airplane turned back about 20 to 25 minutes after it left San Diego. "All of a sudden we were told we were coming back, with no reason initially," she said. "Then as we were turning back around, the pilot came back on said it was due to an engine light and that the engine was turned off and we needed to go back." The plane was able land safely at Lindbergh Field at 10:52 a.m. Anne Dontigny told 10News she was also on the plane and that passengers were able to stay calm. "They warned us about the emergency vehicles that came on to the tarmac when we were there," she said. Passengers were escorted off the plane. A new airplane was flown down from Seattle to take the passengers to their destination and is scheduled to depart just after 6 p.m. The spokeswoman said 157 passengers and six crew members were on board. http://www.10news.com/news/28362493/detail.html Back to Top Flight lands on closed Kolkata runway during maintenance KOLKATA: A Thai Air Asia aircraft touched down on the wrong runway at the Kolkata airport around noon on Sunday causing panic-stricken men to rush out of the way of the Airbus 320. An accident was averted after a worker engaged by the civil construction firm carrying out the maintenance work on the primary runway spotted the approaching plane and sensed something amiss. He alerted everyone else. Barely seconds after 65 men and two heavy-duty rollers moved out, the plane carrying 141 passengers from Bangkok landed about 500m from the spot they were working. Even if the pilot had applied emergency brakes, he could not have stopped the aircraft within that short distance. ATC sources confirmed that the pilot had been told to land on the secondary runway again when he entered the Kolkata airport jurisdiction but still made the error. The pilot realized his mistake only a couple of seconds before touchdown at 12.07pm, said sources. He spontaneously blurted out the mistake into the microphone linked to the ATC. On December 1, 2008, the pilot of a SpiceJet flight carrying 139 passengers from Bagdogra had made the same mistake and landed on the primary runway while maintenance work was underway. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the case. It will check radar tracks to identify if there was a communication or pilot error leading to the landing on the wrong runway. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Flight-lands-on-closed-Kolkata-runway- during-maintenance/articleshow/9008479.cms Back to Top FAA proposes fine for AirTran (CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday proposed fining AirTran Airways for allegedly operating an airplane not in compliance with regulations, the agency said. The FAA wants to fine AirTran Airways of Orlando, Florida, $250,000 for allegedly operating a Boeing 737 on four passenger flights without testing the sensor that indicates potential loss of lift on the aircraft. The angle-of-attack sensor was damaged by lightning during a March 20, 2009 flight, said the statement. AirTran is also accused of misusing the Minimum Equipment List when it decided to continue flights without addressing the needed repair, the statement said. The MEL is a list of what systems must be working to fly a plane legally and what can be deferred for later repairs. Repairing a damaged AOA sensor cannot be deferred, said the statement. AirTran has 30 days to respond or challenge the agency's enforcement letter. Back to Top Transportation Safety Board: Hold pilots accountable to raise professionalism The National Transportation Safety Board says holding pilots and air traffic controllers accountable for their mistakes will increase professionalism in their ranks. The NTSB said improving the performance of pilots and controllers should be one of the nation's 10 most important safety objectives in the coming year. The safety board, which is best known for investigating airplane crashes, began to more formally investigate pilot and controller errors last year. With errors increasing and the firing of several controllers for sleeping on the job, the NTSB added their record of unprofessional behavior to its annual Most Wanted List of the top 10 critical changes needed to reduce transportation accidents and save lives. "Accident after accident there is a very powerful message here," said board member Robert L. Sumwalt. "When pilots and controllers depart from their training, procedures and best practices, safety margins erode, which can lead to tragedy." Sumwalt said the fact that 19 recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration dating to 2005 have not been resolved to the NTSB's satisfaction indicated a need to "really put the spotlight on this." "There's a lot of visibility" of lack of professionalism, he said. A Southwest Airlines "pilot is sitting there having a conversation with an open mike; there's Northwest 188, where the pilots overflew Minneapolis-St. Paul; there's Colgan Air, where the pilots were not paying attention. We've got air traffic controllers who are falling asleep. It's a number of things that have brought this to a head." The FAA responded that Administrator Randy Babbitt has made improving professionalism a major focus of his tenure. "He has traveled around the country, speaking to pilots and air traffic controllers about the need to uphold the highest safety and professional standards at all times," said FAA spokeswoman Sasha J. Johnson. Many of the other items on the Most Wanted List had appeared there before. Drunken driving, teen driving safety and recommendations for mandatory motor coach safety regulations appeared again. "There are no federal vehicle standards for protecting motor coach occupants," said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. "Without mandatory safety standards for motor coaches operated in the U.S. we will continue to see serious injuries and those needless fatalities." Always controversial, a recommendation for mandatory use of motorcycle helmets also made the list. "While just 3 percent of the more than 250 million vehicles on the road are motorcycles, motorcyclists represent some 13 percent of highway fatalities," said Board Vice Chairman Christopher A. Hart. "This year, 13 states have considered weakening their helmet laws. The good news is that seven states are considering strengthening helmet laws." The board also recommended improvements for non-commercial aviation, addressing human fatigue that contributes to accidents, requiring data recorders on small planes, trucks and buses, and requiring that transportation system operators have safety management systems. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/transportation-safety-board-hold-pilots- accountable-to-raise-professionalism/2011/06/23/AG1vp3hH_story.html Back to Top Russian plane crash highlights concern about Soviet-era jets Fred Weir | The Christian Science Monitor | Jun 21, 2011 A fatal plane crash in western Russia has once again focused attention on the country's fleet of Soviet-built Tupolev jets, which do not meet international standards but are still flown by many regional airlines. Russian aviation officials blamed pilot error for the accident, which killed 44 people - including eight foreigners. The Tu-134 and its big sister, the Tu-154, were the main workhorses of Soviet aviation, which used to transport about 120 million passengers annually; twice Russia's current traffic. The country's main carrier, Aeroflot, retired all its Tupolev planes in 2009, but about 230 of each type remain in use with smaller airlines serving far-flung Russian communities and airlines of former Soviet republics. Though notoriously cramped and uncomfortable, the planes until recently enjoyed safety records comparable to many similar Western-built aircraft. According to SOAR, a private company that teaches clients to overcome the fear of flying, both the Tu-134 and the Tu-154 have suffered about one crash per million hours of flying, or roughly the same rate as the Douglas DC-9 and Airbus 310. But a series of accidents with Tupolevs in recent years has raised questions about whether the planes are getting too old to continue service in Russia, where foul weather is the default condition, airports are run down, and equipment is often substandard. Russian official promotes Tu-134 replacement at Paris Air Show In Tuesday's incident, a 30-year-old Tupolev Tu-134 flown by the RusAir regional airline with 52 people aboard reportedly clipped a tree and then crashed onto a highway while attempting to land in poor weather at Petrozavodsk airport in Karelia, a Russian republic that borders Finland. "From the initial external data, the pilot's mistake is clear. In bad weather conditions he veered to the right of the runway and in foggy conditions searched for the runway visually until the last minute [and] did not find it," deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov told journalists. Mr. Ivanov, who oversees Russian aviation, was in France on Tuesday along with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to attend the Paris Air Show and promote Russian aerospace technology - in particular the new Sukhoi Superjet 100, which is designed to replace the Tu-134 on Russia's myriad short-haul routes. Russia's safety record improving A year ago, in a strikingly similar accident to Monday's disaster, a Tu-154 belonging to the Polish Air Force crashed in Smolensk, Russia, with almost 100 people on board, including Poland's president. A Russian investigation concluded that bad weather and pilot error led the plane to miss the runway and careen into a nearby forest. The biggest recent spate of accidents with Tupolev jets has occurred in Iran, leading some experts to speculate that local factors, such as international sanctions that prevent importation of aviation equipment, could be responsible. . Russia had one of the world's worst air-safety records as recently as five years ago. But the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in a statement this week that Russia has been making progress in improving air safety, though it still has some distance to go. None of Russia's 13 major carriers has suffered a fatal accident in the last three years, the statement quoted IATA's general director, Giovanni Bisignani, as saying. "But safety concerns remain with the continued operation of some Russian-built equipment that does not comply with International Civil Aviation Organization standards," he added. Planes' age not the main problem Some Russian aviation experts insist that the age of the Tu-134 (which entered service in 1967) and the Tu-154 (since 1970) makes little difference. They place the blame for the post-Soviet uptick in accidents on other factors, including corner-cutting on maintenance by small airlines, inadequate pilot training, and deteriorating airport services. "The main thing is not the age, but the technical state of a plane," says Alexei Sinitsky, editor of Aviatransportnoye Obozreniye, a leading Russian aviation journal. "Older planes don't get equipped with any new expensive systems, because that is not profitable," he says, which would explain why Russia's aging fleet of Tupolevs fall short of the latest international standards. "They may be old, but that's no reason to write them off," he says. http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/russian-plane-crash-highlights-concern-about- soviet-era-jets Back to Top Senate inquiry into pilot training and airline safety issues recommendations (Australia) The Senate Rural Affairs and Transport References Committee has issued a 137-page report on pilot training and airline safety, after several weeks of hearings. Included in the 137-page report are the Committee's recommendations, the most notable of which are: * An ATPL should be required for first officers on RPT jet aircraft. * For non-jet operatioins which employ low-experience FOs, operators should be required to provide enhanced supervision and mentoring schemes. * All prospective RPT pilots should be required to complete substantial course-based training in multi-crew operations, resource management and human factors training prior or close to initial endorsement training. * CASA should place "sufficient weight" on multi-engine experience and discount glider and ultralight experience. * CASA should have a close look at simulator training to ensure it is being used to achieve optimum safety outcomes, rather than just compliance. * There should be a review of the supply of pilots, with particular reference to GA and cadet training - and HECS/VET support. * There should be a review of the final report into the Air France accident to see how the findings might apply here. * There should be a report to Parliament every six months on the progresss of CASA's regulatory reforms, priorities, consultative processes. * There should be a review of CASA funding to ensure there's enough to expedite the regulatory reform process - but also to enable CASA to be competitive in recruitment. * There needs to be a general obligation to report whenever "the responsible person" believes that there is an urgent safety risk. * ATSB should review its approach to invetsigation and publication of human factors to achieve a more robust and useful learning tool. * CASA should require operators to observe the highest standards of incident reporting from their personnel and provide appropriate training as part of their SMS. * CASA should expedite amendments/additions to regulations covering fatigue management, in line with ICAO guidelines - and include cabin crew fatigue management. * CASA needs to specify the training required for cabin crew, including mandatory English standards. The committee picked up on the fact that there was a lot of material subnitted that had broader ramifications for the industry. "...a number of issues that were raised in evidence are not addressed in detail in this report. An example of one such issue is aviation maintenance, which ... may be worthy of particular examination... "Similarly, the committee notes that ... an inquiry into the general aviation sector may well be warranted in future." There was a great deal of interesting stuff in the individual and corporate submissions to the inquiry. See our separate report for some insight into the process. http://www.aviationbusiness.com.au/news/senate-inquiry-into-pilot-training-and-airline- safety-issues-recommendations Back to Top Two BA pilots questioned about mobile phone incident British Airways has apologised to passengers for the incident (BBC) A British Airways flight was delayed for three hours after a mobile phone was allegedly thrown from the plane on to a runway at Edinburgh Airport. Two BA pilots have been questioned by police about the incident on Friday. The BA2945 flight to Gatwick, carrying 149 people, was delayed after the incident at 1930BST. BA apologised and said: "We are investigating the matter and speaking to the pilots to understand the exact circumstances around the incident." The incident apparently followed the discovery of an unclaimed mobile phone on board. The captain and co-pilot have been questioned by Lothian and Borders police, who are still investigating the incident. A police spokesman said: "We are investigating after a mobile phone was reported to have been thrown from a plane on to the runway at Edinburgh Airport about 7.30pm on 24 June." A British Airways spokeswoman said: "We apologise to customers on the BA2945 from Edinburgh to Gatwick for the delay to the aircraft's departure. "There was a local airshow in aid of Armed Forces Day that meant some aircraft couldn't depart or arrive for some time. "This was further exacerbated as an unclaimed mobile phone was located on board so the aircraft returned to stand." Back to Top Landing jet's spoiler defect puts airport on standby An Air New Zealand flight called for emergency services to be put on standby at Wellington airport last night after the pilot discovered a "spoiler defect'' minutes before landing. The Airbus A320, carrying 165 passengers, had flown from Melbourne and landed in Wellington without incident around 11pm. An Air New Zealand spokesman said the pilot aboard flight NZ 842 requested Wellington Airport standby after learning there was a spoiler defect. Spoilers are surfaces on the top of a wing which can be extended upward into the airflow to "spoil it''. They are used to reduce lift in an aircraft and are used during landing. The defect was not connected to the ash cloud which has plagued New Zealand airspace for the past week, he said. "The pilot had an indicator fault saying the spoiler wasn't operating so he called a local standby a couple of minutes from landing.'' The defective spoiler was subsequently not activated for landing. "That aircraft is operating from Wellington to Melbourne today but via Auckland." Staff had carried out maintenance work on the aircraft this morning, he said. "The only issue they still now have is the crew that operated that service, because it was late by the time they had done the debrief papers after the incident, are now short on operating hours.'' Passengers on this afternoon's flight would now have to fly to Auckland so new crew could board. A Wellington airport spokeswoman confirmed the airport's emergency services had been alerted to the incident last night. "An alert was put out and everyone was made aware of the situation. We assessed what was happening and when the plane landed safely everyone was stood down.'' http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5197163/Landing-jets-spoiler-defect-puts-airport-on- standby Back to Top NTSB UNVEILS NEW "MOST WANTED LIST" Top 10 critical changes needed to reduce transportation accidents and save lives The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) today announced its new list of the most critical transportation issues that need to be addressed to improve safety and save lives. The new "Most Wanted List" highlights 10 safety issues that impact transportation nationwide. The announcement of the new list came at a press conference in Washington, D.C. in which each of the five members of the Board spoke briefly about the issues on the list. "The NTSB's ability to influence transportation safety depends on our ability to communicate and advocate for changes," said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. "The Most Wanted List is the most powerful tool we have to highlight our priorities." NTSB began issuing an annual Most Wanted List in 1990. The list released today is the first one produced under a revised format developed by the agency over the past several months in an effort to modernize and streamline the list. This year's list features 10 broad issue areas that the NTSB will highlight in its advocacy efforts during the next year. The new Most Wanted List can be found on the NTSB's remodeled website. The effort to update the website began at the end of last year and was a revealed today. "Our new website, with a landing page dedicated to the Most Wanted List issues, provides pertinent, easy-to-find information along with videos and NTSB recommendations that support all of the issues on the list," Hersman said. The issue areas on the new Most Wanted List are: * Promote pilot and air traffic controller professionalism * Address human fatigue * Promote teen driving safety * Improve general aviation safety * Improve motorcycle safety * Require safety management systems * Improve runway safety * Address alcohol-impaired driving * Improve bus occupant safety * Require image and onboard data recorders More information about the Most Wanted List issue areas can be found at www.ntsb.gov/mostwanted Back to Top You're Invited... Experts from the aviation industry will discuss the latest technologies, operational procedures and lessons learned in the field that can help you address the challenges that may affect your winter operations. We look forward to seeing you there! For more information visit: www.winterops.ca Hosted by the Flight Safety Division, Air Canada Pilots Association Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY My name is Brittney Rogers and I am an Aerospace graduate student and Master of Science candidate at Middle Tennessee State University. I am currently working on my thesis which focuses on determining how fatigue affects the abilities of aviation maintenance technicians within the field. My overall research questions are: 1) Is fatigue a factor in aircraft maintenance? 2) What are aircraft maintenance technician's perceptions of how fatigue impacts their job performance? 3) What improvements can be made to alleviate the symptoms of fatigue in the aircraft maintenance field? One of the main issues I am focusing on is the fact that aviation maintenance technicians are often faced with less than ideal working conditions that often contribute to fatigue. Duty time limitations and rest requirements established by the FAA reduce, but do not eliminate, the conditions that lead to fatigue. Over the past 7 months I have performed extensive research on fatigue in the aviation industry. I noticed early on that the majority of information available on this topic centers on pilots and very little attention has been paid to fatigue as it relates to the aircraft maintenance industry. This is one of the main reasons for this study. This report will seek to determine how fatigue affects the abilities of aviation maintenance technicians within the field, and once the results have been analyzed, it shall give recommendations on how to reduce fatigue-related errors and accidents. The Survey is located at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/amt-fatigue-survey Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Brittney C. Rogers bcr2t@mtmail.mtsu.edu Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC