Flight Safety Information August 30, 2011 - No. 179 In This Issue French Air Force:Jet Landed Safely After Lithuania Jet Collision China Hands Out Punishment After Airlines' Bizarre Mid-Air Stand-Off Flight From Denver Goes Off Runway In Illinois Virgin, Qantas commercial jets in Brisbane near-miss Peruvian relaunches partial operations ATA urges FAA to expedite NextGen procedures WIML- NASA Workshop...2011 French Air Force:Jet Landed Safely After Lithuania Jet Collision PARIS (Dow Jones)--A French jet fighter Mirage 2000C performing a surveillance mission in the Baltic region Tuesday landed safely in Lithuania after a mid-air collision with a Lithuanian jet, a French Air Force spokesman said. The two pilots from the Lithuanian L-39 Albatros were ejected after the collision and the jet very likely crashed, Col. Thierry Burkhard told Dow Jones Newswires by telephone. All the pilots from the two jets are safe, he said. The Mirage 2000C was manufactured by Dassault Aviation SA (AM.FR) and the L-39 Albatros was manufactured by Czech Republic-based Aero Vodochody. The French jet fighter was participating in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization four-month patrolling mission over the Baltic countries. Denmark's air force will replace French jets in September, Burkhard said. The French Air Force sent four jets to the Baltic countries for this mission. An investigation will be carried out to establish the cause of the crash, he added. Back to Top China Hands Out Punishment After Airlines' Bizarre Mid-Air Stand-Off The country's General Administration of Civil Aviation on Monday announced its punishment for privately held Juneyao Airlines Co. after an incident earlier this month in the skies above Shanghai in which a Juneyao flight crew refused to give way to a Qatar Airways jet that had issued a "mayday" call and requested immediate permission to land as it ran low on fuel. Juneyao, one of relatively few private carriers in an industry dominated by state-run airlines, was ordered to reduce its flight capacity by 10% and temporarily barred from going ahead with expansion plans as well as hiring foreign pilots. Officials also banned the flight's captain, a South Korean citizen, from continuing work as a pilot in China, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The Qatar Airways flight, a Boeing 777 en route from Doha, had been circling above Shanghai Pudong International Airport due to bad weather, Xinhua reported. Authorities decided to divert it to the city's smaller Hongqiao International Airport as it ran low on fuel. The Juneyao pilot refused six orders from the control tower to yield and allow the Qatari jet to land first. Both flights eventually landed safely, but the Civil Aviation Administration said the Qatar jet had only about 18 minutes worth of fuel left when it finally landed at Hongqiao. Juneyao Airlines in a statement posted to its website on Tuesday, said it "would seriously draw lessons" from the case, and said the airline took responsibility for the incident. The Civil Aviation Administration statement said China would discuss with Qatari authorities whether the Qatar Airways crew could have done a better job predicting the fuel problem. China's private airlines in have struggled to gain market share against state-owned airline giants such as Air China Ltd., China Southern Airlines Co. and China Eastern Airlines Corp. The growing woes of high-speed rail in China, which have been plagued by concerns over safety in the aftermath of a deadly accident in eastern China last month, are breathing new life into regional air routes in China. Domestic airlines had steeply discounted regional flights in June as the much-touted Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line prepared to open. But ticket prices have since returned to normal amid delays and safety concerns on the high-speed tracks. For his part, the Juneyao pilot claimed he'd also been running low of fuel, though the Civil Aviation Administration statement said his jet still had about 40 minutes left in fuel when it landed. "No matter the reason, it was wrong for the crew members of flight HO1112 not to carry out the instructions of air traffic controllers on Aug. 13," the company said according to Xinhua. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/08/30/china-hands-out-punishment-after-airlines- bizarre-mid-air-stand-off/ Back to Top Flight From Denver Goes Off Runway In Illinois No Injuries Among 50 Passengers, 3 Crew Members MOLINE, Ill. -- A United Express flight from Denver skidded off the runway when landing at Quad- City International Airport in Moline. No injuries were reported in the Monday afternoon incident in western Illinois. WQAD-TV reported the aircraft made a hard landing and veered off the left side of the runway. The Quad-City Times reported that emergency vehicles surrounded the regional jet. The runway was shut down for two hours until the plane could be removed. There were 50 passengers and three crew members on board the plane when it went off the runway but no one was injured in the hard landing. "All 50 passengers safely exited through the passenger boarding door and were taken to the terminal by airport authority staff," said Jarek Beem, spokesman for United's ExpressJet Airlines. The airline and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the accident, he said. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/29018942/detail.html Back to Top Virgin, Qantas commercial jets in Brisbane near-miss (AAP) A near miss between two commercial jets over southeast Queensland is being investigated by the national air safety bureau. Source: Herald Sun A NEAR-miss between two commercial jets over southeast Queensland is being investigated by the national air safety bureau. Two Boeing 737s, one a Qantas plane and the other Virgin, were en route to Brisbane from Melbourne when they were ordered into a holding pattern about 91km from Brisbane Airport on the morning of July 29. The planes were required to maintain a vertical distance of at least 1000 feet (305m) or lateral distance of at least nine kilometres. But the planes breached those requirements. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) says an investigation is underway to identify what was breached, who is responsible and how close the planes were flying. "One of those (the vertical or lateral distance) were infringed," an ATSB spokesman told AAP on Tuesday. "We're working to identify the exact details." However, a Qantas spokeswoman says the planes were flying one above the other. She said it was a Qantas pilot who observed the breach and alerted air traffic controllers. Virgin Australia spokeswoman said flight crew in both aircraft were aware of the other's location at all times. She said there was no safety risk to either plane. "Flight crew in both aircraft were following air traffic control instructions regarding their respective holding holding patterns," she said. She said they would cooperate with the ATSB. AAP Back to Top Peruvian relaunches partial operations Peruvian Airlines, which was grounded over safety concerns on 18 August, has received authorisation from Peru's Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) to relaunch its operations partially with a limited fleet of two Boeing 737-300 aircraft. According to the DGAC, the airline has resolved a number of issues raised during technical inspections. However, these pertain only to the operation of its 737-300s, leaving its fleet of seven 737-200s still grounded. After receiving the formal notification, Peruvian immediately resumed flying on 27 August on its routes from Lima to Arequipa, Tacna and Iquitos. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top ATA urges FAA to expedite NextGen procedures US carriers have called on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to speed up its timetable for implementing new air traffic procedures under the next generation air transportation system (NextGen). The Air Transport Association of America (ATA) called on the government and the FAA to expedite the most cost-effective elements of NextGen, such as performance-based procedures. "Near-term FAA action will help government focus on priorities that can provide immediate economic - and importantly - customer service benefits," said ATA president and CEO Nicholas E. Calio at the Boyd Group International Aviation Forecast Summit in Albuquerque. "The airline industry faces daunting levels of taxation and regulation, and not addressing these matters quickly stifles our ability to further drive economic growth and puts us at greater risk to foreign competition." The ATA has reported that US carriers posted a $290 million net loss for the first half of 2011. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Home Agenda Speakers Registration/Hotel Sponsors WIML- NASA Workshop2011 Psychophysiological Aspects ofFlight Safetyin Aerospace Operations 16-17, September 2011 Warsaw, Poland Organized by: Military Institute of Aviation Medicine (WIML), Warsaw, POLAND NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA Under the auspices of: - The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR) - National Security Bureau of Poland (BBN) - Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) - Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) - Polish Air Force Command Human factors plays a decisive role in flight safety. Therefore, we have decided to provide a forum for discussion of the current state and future impact of basic and applied research in the field of psychophysiology on flight safety. Internationally known experts from the United States, Russian Federation, and Poland will discuss the following topics: - Neurophysiological and psychological determinants of human performance - Effects of adverse environments and high workload on human behavior - Augmented cognition approaches to command and control systems - Psychophysiological countermeasures and crew training procedures - Crew selection and evaluation for short and long term missions. Location The workshop will be held on the 16th and 17th of September 2011 at the Warsaw Hilton Hotel and Convention Centre in Warsaw, Poland. Organizing Committee - Olaf Truszczynski, PhD, Military Institute of Aviation Medicine - Jerzy Achimowicz, PhD, Military Institute of Aviation Medicine - Gaye Graves, New Business Manager, NASA Ames Research Center Workshop Office Military Institute of Aviation Medicine Flight Safety Division Tel/fax +48 (22) 685-2961 Krasi?skiego 54, 01-755 Warsaw jerzy.achimowicz@wiml.waw.pl -- Jerzy Achimowicz Ph.D. Psychophysiological Lab Flight Safety Division Polish Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine Krasinskiego 54, 01-755 Warsaw phone/fax 48 (22) 685-2961 mobile: +48 793 153 371 Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC