Flight Safety Information August 24, 2011 - No. 175 In This Issue Investigators attempt to unravel crashed 737's track New rule to improve FAA 'safety culture' CMA wants pets banned from airplane cabins Smoke triggers evacuation of airplane at MSP Qantas Statement on Civil Aviation Safety Authority Review IAF Lost 46 Fighters in 7 Years: Govt (India) JetBlue flight lands safely after pilot declares emergency Investigators attempt to unravel crashed 737's track Canadian investigators are trying to determine why a chartered Boeing 737-200, operated by a carrier familiar with harsh arctic conditions, crashed on a hill offset from the runway centreline shortly after declaring it was on final approach. The 36-year old First Air twinjet, a combi version fitted with gravel deflectors for unpaved runways, had been due to land at Resolute Bay in daylight on 20 August after a service from Yellowknife. Both the cockpit-voice and flight-data recorders have been retrieved from the site of the accident. Three of the 15 occupants survived the crash, which claimed the lives of all four flight crew, 1nm east of the midpoint of Resolute Bay's single runway 17T/35T. The runway has an elevation of 222ft with terrain rising to 600ft above sea level immediately to the east. Canadian forces had been in the immediate vicinity as part of the Operation Nanook 11 arctic capability exercise, which this year, ironically, was to test response to a major air disaster. A source supporting the exercise told Flight International that he had been looking east from the airport apron at the time flight 6560 was scheduled to arrive. "I could not see the base of the hill opposite because the fog was too low," he said. The 737 had declared it was on final instrument landing system approach to 35T but when the tower controller requested a position update a few minutes later there was no response, and a Beech 99 pilot - on approach to 17T - was asked to try contacting the flight, with no result. "I saw First Air ground crew waiting for the aircraft and wondering where it was," said the source, adding that an engineer said he thought he had heard a spooling of jet engines, followed by a thump. No communication was heard during a subsequent check on the VHF distress frequency 121.5MHz. The Beech executed a missed approach and continued south, before turning to follow the track to 35T on which the 737 had been inbound. After it landed, said the witness, followed shortly by another aircraft - a De Havilland DHC-6 - the fog began to lift and the improved visibility revealed smoke, flames and wreckage on the opposite hill. A special weather advisory issued as soon as the wreckage was located indicated fog and a cloud base of 300ft, with winds from the south. While there was a tailwind there is no immediate indication that the 737 was intending to fly the back-course procedure and land on the opposite runway 17T. The impact point is close to the VOR beacon for Resolute Bay, which is offset from the runway centreline by around 0.8nm east. Canada's Transportation Safety Board said there was a post-impact fire. The day after the crash, a Nav Canada Bombardier Dash 8 arrived to verify the approach navigation aids, and the instrument landing system for 35T was temporarily declared out of service. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top New rule to improve FAA 'safety culture' The FAA has enacted a conflict-of-interest rule prohibiting air carriers and some general aviation operators from employing as representatives aviation safety inspectors with oversight roles over their operations for two years after the inspectors leave the agency. The rule, proposed in 2009, was the FAA's response to concerns about "an overly close relationship" that had developed between Southwest Airlines and inspectors overseeing airline operations, the FAA said in a news release Aug. 19. "The flying public can rest assured that our aviation safety inspectors will remain focused on protecting the flying public without any conflicts of interest," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Effective Oct. 21, operators affected by the rule will be prohibited from employing or contracting with former FAA employees who directly served in or oversaw inspection of the employer's operations. The restrictions apply to operations under parts 121, 125, 133, 135, 137, 141, 142, 145, 147, and subpart K of part 91. General aviation operators providing on-demand charters under Part 135, flight training under Part 141, or participating in fractional ownership or its management under subpart K of Part 91 would be included. Other Part 91 operators would be excluded. FAA Administrator or Randy Babbitt said that the rule would "improve our safety culture here at the FAA and throughout the aviation industry." In 2008 the FAA proposed a $10.2 million civil penalty against Southwest for operating 46 airplanes on approximately 60,000 flights without inspecting fuselages for fatigue cracks in accordance with an airworthiness directive, according to the final rule published Aug. 20. A report by the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General report "concluded that the FAA Certificate Management Office (CMO) overseeing the airline that failed to perform the required inspections had developed an overly collaborative relationship with the airline." The report recommended that the FAA issue "post- employment guidance" prohibiting carriers from hiring former inspectors who had overseen the carrier's operations. The FAA said aviation safety could be compromised if a former inspector were able to exert "undue influence on current FAA employees with whom he or she had established close working relationships" during his or her time at the agency. In an effort to quantify the rule's potential workforce impact, the FAA studied the fiscal year from Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept. 30, 2009, and estimated that of 163 inspectors who left the agency during the period, 125 would have been affected by the rule. http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2011/110823faa-improves-safety-culture.html Back to Top CMA wants pets banned from airplane cabins Plane cabins should be as pet-free as they are peanut-free, says Canada's leading doctor's group. The Canadian Medical Association voted in favour Tuesday of supporting a ban on all pets, except for certified service animals such as guide dogs, travelling inside aircraft cabins on all Canadian passenger planes. B.C. physician Mark Schonfeld says federal regulations allowing major national airlines to accept pets in cabins are posing serious threats to people allergic to animals. Cats and small dogs are the animals most likely to be found on-board, though some airlines allow birds and rabbits as well. "While airlines argue that this is a great convenience for pet owners, the practice actually exposes our patients, and their passengers, to significant allergens that can make the journey very difficult - and occasionally quite seriously ill as a result," Schonfeld said Tuesday at the doctors' group's annual assembly in St. John's. Passengers with severe allergies can end up with serious allergic reactions. Delegates voted 93 per cent in favour of the motion. Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/ Back to Top Smoke triggers evacuation of airplane at MSP MINNEAPOLIS -- Passengers on a Delta flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport had to use the emergency exit slides after the plane filled with smoke Tuesday afternoon. An airport spokesman says Delta flight 2153 was getting ready to leave for Seattle when smoke filled the cabin and cockpit. The spokesman says it's unclear what caused the smoke. No injuries were reported, but every will be checked for possible smoke inhalation. http://www.kare11.com/news/article/935476/14/Smoke-triggers-evacuation-of- airplane-at-MSP Back to Top Qantas Statement on Civil Aviation Safety Authority Review Qantas today said it would work with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) on the latest review it planned for some of the airline's operations. The Executive General Manager of Qantas Engineering, Mr David Cox, said Qantas had a long and respected history of safety, engineering and maintenance excellence, and that the flying public should have confidence in the airline."Our operations are first class and are continually subject to the scrutiny of Australian and overseas regulators as well as our own internal audits," Mr Cox said. "We have no issue with this latest review and CASA says it has no evidence to suggest that safety standards at Qantas have fallen. We agree and are totally confident these checks will confirm the integrity our engineering and maintenance operations and our commitment to safety. "CASA regularly audits a range of Qantas' operations. Qantas Engineering, for example, successfully completed 13 audits in the last year alone, and a recent comprehensive audit of Qantas' Air Operators Certificate resulted in the airline’s operating approval being again confirmed." Mr Cox said Qantas also conducted up to 150 internal audits each year on Qantas Engineering's operations, and was the subject of extensive audits by around 75 external regulators, manufacturers and customer airlines. These included CASA's equivalents in the United States, the European Union, Japan and New Zealand. "On any given day, Qantas Engineering is working with multiple audit teams, both internal and external, who are forensically scrutinising every part of our operations, and our compliance, openness and responsiveness to regulator audits is well known across the industry," he said. "We always have been, and always will be, fully open to this intense and constant scrutiny in the knowledge that our standards are confirmed every time these auditors renew our approvals." Mr Cox said yesterday's B767-300 air turn back was a routine and appropriate response to an issue with the aircraft's hydraulic system. "Qantas Group airlines operate more than 330,000 sectors each year, and issues that require an air turn back are extremely rare," he said. "In this case, the flight crew responded appropriately, emergency services were on standby at Sydney Airport as a precaution, there was absolutely no safety issue at any time and, after checks, the aircraft was back in service eight hours later." Issued by Qantas Corporate Communication Back to Top IAF Lost 46 Fighters in 7 Years: Govt (India) Indian Air Force (IAF) has in all lost 46 fighter aircraft in little less than seven years since 2005, government said today. "During 2008 to August 17, 2011, a total of 26 fighter planes of IAF had crashed. During the preceding three-year period of 2005 to 2008, 20 IAF fighter planes had crashed," Defence Minister A K Antony told the Rajya Sabha. Replying to a question on crashes involving fighter planes, the Minister said, "The makes of these fighter planes were MiGs, Su-30 MKI and Jaguar. Six pilots were killed in these crashes." During this period, a maximum number of fighter jets crashed in 2009-10, when IAF lost a total of 10 planes, while two crashes have been reported this year till August. On the strategy adopted by government to overcome these accidents, Antony said that every IAF aircraft accident is thoroughly investigated by a Court of Inquiry (CoI) to ascertain its causes and remedial measures are taken accordingly to check their recurrences in future. "IAF has taken serious measures to invigorate aviation safety organization, streamlining of accident and incident reporting procedure, analytical studies and quality audits of aircraft fleets to identify vulnerable areas and institute remedial measures to reduce aircraft accidents," he said. He also told the House on steps taken by government to address issues related to flight safety and improved training of IAF pilots. "Ornithology cells, which carries out bird surveys at flying bases and suggest bird prevention modules, has been established at the Directorate of Flight Safety. All flying bases have been visited by aviation safety personnel to apprise and caution them on causes of accidents and to get their views," Antony said. Steps have been taken by government to train pilots to prevent accidents due to human error, Antony said. "These include increased use of simulators to practice procedures and emergency action, focused and realistic training with additional emphasis on critical aspect of mission," he said. Courses like Crew Resources Management, Operational Risk Management to enable safe mission launches, Aviation Psychology Course and Aerospace safety capsules in training of aircrew have also been introduced to check cases of fighter accidents and crashes. http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?732353 Back to Top JetBlue flight lands safely after pilot declares emergency (CNN) -- A JetBlue plane with 95 people on board landed safely in Orlando on Tuesday night after the pilot declared an emergency, officials said. The plot reported a problem with two of the plane's brakes and the plane landed at Orlando International Airport about 10:05 p.m., said airline spokeswoman Allison Steinberg. The plane was towed to a gate without incident, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC