Flight Safety Information August 31, 2011 - No. 180 In This Issue AP IMPACT: Automation in the air dulls pilot skill US fears about Australian airlines' safety revealed FAA advises new icing procedure for GE 747s and 767s FAA echoes Canada for Q400 wing check PBN training at NLR ATSI SpiceJet to service 60 small Indian airports with Q400s Boeing Bets on 737 MAX to Win $1T in Jet Orders Atlanta Safety Consultants AP IMPACT: Automation in the air dulls pilot skill By JOAN LOWY WASHINGTON (AP) - Pilots' "automation addiction" has eroded their flying skills to the point that they sometimes don't know how to recover from stalls and other mid-flight problems, say pilots and safety officials. The weakened skills have contributed to hundreds of deaths in airline crashes in the last five years. Some 51 "loss of control" accidents occurred in which planes stalled in flight or got into unusual positions from which pilots were unable to recover, making it the most common type of airline accident, according to the International Air Transport Association. "We're seeing a new breed of accident with these state-of-the art planes," said Rory Kay, an airline captain and co-chair of a Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee on pilot training. "We're forgetting how to fly." Opportunities for airline pilots to maintain their flying proficiency by manually flying planes are increasingly limited, the FAA committee recently warned. Airlines and regulators discourage or even prohibit pilots from turning off the autopilot and flying planes themselves, the committee said. Fatal airline accidents have decreased dramatically in the U.S. over the past decade. However, The Associated Press interviewed pilots, industry officials and aviation safety experts who expressed concern about the implications of decreased opportunities for manual flight, and reviewed more than a dozen loss-of-control accidents around the world. Safety experts say they're seeing cases in which pilots who are suddenly confronted with a loss of computerized flight controls don't appear to know how to respond immediately, or they make errors - sometimes fatally so. A draft FAA study found pilots sometimes "abdicate too much responsibility to automated systems." Because these systems are so integrated in today's planes, one malfunctioning piece of equipment or a single bad computer instruction can suddenly cascade into a series of other failures, unnerving pilots who have been trained to rely on the equipment. The study examined 46 accidents and major incidents, 734 voluntary reports by pilots and others as well as data from more than 9,000 flights in which a safety official rides in the cockpit to observe pilots in action. It found that in more than 60 percent of accidents, and 30 percent of major incidents, pilots had trouble manually flying the plane or made mistakes with automated flight controls. A typical mistake was not recognizing that either the autopilot or the auto-throttle - which controls power to the engines - had disconnected. Others failed to take the proper steps to recover from a stall in flight or to monitor and maintain airspeed. The airline industry is suffering from "automation addiction," Kay said. In the most recent fatal airline crash in the U.S., in 2009 near Buffalo, N.Y., the co-pilot of a regional airliner programmed incorrect information into the plane's computers, causing it to slow to an unsafe speed. That triggered a stall warning. The startled captain, who hadn't noticed the plane had slowed too much, responded by repeatedly pulling back on the control yoke, overriding two safety systems, when the correct procedure was to push forward. An investigation later found there were no mechanical or structural problems that would have prevented the plane from flying if the captain had responded correctly. Instead, his actions caused an aerodynamic stall. The plane plummeted to earth, killing all 49 people aboard and one on the ground. Two weeks after the New York accident, a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 crashed into a field while trying to land in Amsterdam. Nine people were killed and 120 injured. An investigation found that one of the plane's altimeters, which measures altitude, had fed incorrect information to the plane's computers. That, in turn, caused the auto-throttle to reduce speed to a dangerously slow level so that the plane lost lift and stalled. Dutch investigators described the flight's three pilots' "automation surprise" when they discovered the plane was about to stall. They hadn't been closely monitoring the airspeed. Last month, French investigators recommended that all pilots get mandatory training in manual flying and handling a high-altitude stall. The recommendations were in response to the 2009 crash of an Air France jet flying from Brazil to Paris. All 228 people aboard were killed. An investigation found that airspeed sensors fed bad information to the Airbus A330's computers. That caused the autopilot to disengage suddenly and a stall warning to activate. The co-pilot at the controls struggled to save the plane, but because he kept pointing the plane's nose up, he actually caused the stall instead of preventing it, experts said. Despite the bad airspeed information, which lasted for less than a minute, there was nothing to prevent the plane from continuing to fly if the pilot had followed the correct procedure for such circumstances, which is to continue to fly levelly in the same direction at the same speed while trying to determine the nature of the problem, they said. In such cases, the pilots and the technology are failing together, said former US Airways Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, whose precision flying is credited with saving all 155 people aboard an Airbus A320 after it lost power in a collision with Canada geese shortly after takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport two years ago. "If we only look at the pilots - the human factor - then we are ignoring other important factors," he said. "We have to look at how they work together." The ability of pilots to respond to the unexpected loss or malfunction of automated aircraft systems "is the big issue that we can no longer hide from in aviation," said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va. "We've been very slow to recognize the consequence of it and deal with it." The foundation, which is industry supported, promotes aviation safety around the world. Airlines are also seeing smaller incidents in which pilots waste precious time repeatedly trying to restart the autopilot or fix other automated systems when what they should be doing is "grasping the controls and flying the airplane," said Bob Coffman, another member of the FAA pilot training committee and an airline captain. Paul Railsback, operations director at the Air Transport Association, which represents airlines, said, "We think the best way to handle this is through the policies and training of the airlines to ensure they stipulate that the pilots devote a fair amount of time to manually flying. We want to encourage pilots to do that and not rely 100 percent on the automation. I think many airlines are moving in that direction." In May, the FAA proposed requiring airlines to train pilots on how to recover from a stall, as well as expose them to more realistic problem scenarios. But other new regulations are going in the opposite direction. Today, pilots are required to use their autopilot when flying at altitudes above 24,000 feet, which is where airliners spend much of their time cruising. The required minimum vertical safety buffer between planes has been reduced from 2,000 feet to 1,000 feet. That means more planes flying closer together, necessitating the kind of precision flying more reliably produced by automation than human beings. The same situation is increasingly common closer to the ground. The FAA is moving from an air traffic control system based on radar technology to more precise GPS navigation. Instead of time-consuming, fuel-burning stair-step descents, planes will be able to glide in more steeply for landings with their engines idling. Aircraft will be able to land and take off closer together and more frequently, even in poor weather, because pilots will know the precise location of other aircraft and obstacles on the ground. Fewer planes will be diverted. But the new landing procedures require pilots to cede even more control to automation. "Those procedures have to be flown with the autopilot on," Voss said. "You can't afford a sneeze on those procedures." Even when not using the new procedures, airlines direct their pilots to switch on the autopilot about a minute and a half after takeoff when the plane reaches about 1,000 feet, Coffman said. The autopilot generally doesn't come off until about a minute and a half before landing, he said. Pilots still control the plane's flight path. But they are programming computers rather than flying with their hands. Opportunities to fly manually are especially limited at commuter airlines, where pilots may fly with the autopilot off for about 80 seconds out of a typical two-hour flight, Coffman said. But it is the less experienced first officers starting out at smaller carriers who most need manual flying experience. And, airline training programs are focused on training pilots to fly with the automation, rather than without it. Senior pilots, even if their manual flying skills are rusty, can at least draw on experience flying older generations of less automated planes. Adding to concerns about an overreliance on automation is an expected pilot shortage in the U.S. and many other countries. U.S. airlines used to be able to draw on a pool of former military pilots with extensive manual flying experience. But more pilots now choose to stay in the armed forces, and corporate aviation competes for pilots with airlines, where salaries have dropped. Changing training programs to include more manual flying won't be enough because pilots spend only a few days a year in training, Voss said. Airlines will have to rethink their operations fundamentally if they're going to give pilots realistic opportunities to keep their flying skills honed, he said. Back to Top US fears about Australian airlines' safety revealed Safety concern ... Wikileaks reveals the US Federal Aviation Authority found 'significant shortcomings' with Australian airline safety. Photo: James Alcock The US was so concerned about the state of Australia's air safety system in 2009 that it considered downgrading Australian airlines flying to the US. The revelation, in a US State Department cable released this week by WikiLeaks, discussed a safety inspection by the US's Federal Aviation Authority, which audits countries whose carriers fly to the United States to ensure they meet appropriate safety standards. In the cable, written in December 2009, it is revealed the FAA told Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) that Australia could face a downgrade to "Category 2" due to a shortage of properly trained safety inspectors and too much delegation of CASA's regulatory function to carriers. Advertisement: Story continues below A Category 2 rating suggests that FAA believes the country's safety regime does not meet international standards. It is a category mainly used for countries in the developing world. "A downgrade to Category 2 would be the worst-case scenario, which would entail measures such as freezing Australia-US flight operations to current levels and terminating code-sharing arrangements, such as the one between Qantas and American Airlines," the cable stated. "CASA officials are not taking this possibility lightly and seem committed to resolve the shortcomings in order to avoid a downgrade." The findings resulted from a five-day safety audit by FAA officers in late 2009, which found "significant shortcomings" in CASA's maintenance of the Australian aviation regulatory system. CASA has been criticised for delegating too much of its regulatory obligations to the flight carriers in the past, and the FAA audit may well have been the last straw. In the 2010 budget, the government announced a large funding increase for CASA, which some commentators believe was following a rising sense of unease about recent safety incidents involving Qantas and Jetstar. The FAA audit may also help explain why CASA was so severe when cracking down on Tiger earlier this year. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/us-fears-about-australian- airlines-safety-revealed-20110831-1jlkt.html#ixzz1Wc8dxXRE Back to Top FAA advises new icing procedure for GE 747s and 767s US regulators are directing General Electric-powered Boeing 747 and 767 operators to adopt a procedural change aimed at reducing the potential risk of engine flame-out during descent in icing conditions. The Federal Aviation Administration said the directive had been prompted by reports of "several" in-flight engine flame-outs, among them "multiple" dual-engine flame-outs. One event in November 2007, it added, involved three multi-engine flame-outs and, at one point, a three-engine flame-out. The FAA's advisory is centred on activation of wing and nacelle anti-ice prior to descent on 747s and 767s with CF6-80C2 or -80A engines. But the change drew objections from GE which disagreed with the FAA's opinion that an unsafe condition was likely to exist, pointing out that there had never been an instance in which a CF6-80C2 engine had failed to relight rapidly. GE also argued that, with 1,064 aircraft in the global fleet affected, the proposed procedures would create an "environmental burden", said the FAA, through additional fuel burn. "GE believes the extremely improbable rate of dual-engine flame-outs coupled with the adverse environmental impact outweigh the benefits of the proposed [aircraft flight manual] procedure," it stated, adding that GE requested withdrawal of the proposal. But the FAA said it did not agree with GE, claiming that evaluation had found "sufficient data" to demonstrate that under certain conditions a flame-out could also cause engine damage which would potentially prevent a relight. Delta Air Lines and Japan Airlines requested that the procedural change should apply only in the vicinity of convective weather, but the FAA rejected this argument as well. "Service experience has demonstrated that flight crews are not always able to differentiate between ice-crystal icing that causes engine flame-out and other types of visible moisture that typically do not lead to engine flame-outs," it said. "Therefore, relying on flight crews to recognise the necessary weather conditions might not provide an adequate level of safety." Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top FAA echoes Canada for Q400 wing check The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will mandate repetitive inspections on wing fasteners for all US-registered Bombardier Dash-8 Q400s, mirroring a 21 July Transport Canada emergency airworthiness directive (AD) on the problem. At issue are three reports of cracked barrel nuts at the front spar locations of the wing- to-fuselage attach joints and three other reports of loose washers in the barrel nut assembly of the high-wing, twin-engine turboprop commuter. Transport Canada reported that the investigators have linked the cracks to "hydrogen embrittlement", a process in which hydrogen, introduced during manufacture or in- service, causes high strength steel to become brittle and fracture. "The unsafe condition could result in separation of the wing from the airplane during flight," said the FAA. According to Flightglobal's ACAS database, there are 80 Q400s operating in the US with three airlines. The inspections include both a visual check and a torque check of each barrel nut per a 20 July Bombardier alert service bulletin. Aircraft with more than 1,900h flight time or greater than one year of time in service must be inspected within 10 days or 100 flight hours of the issuance of the AD; Q400s with less than 1,900h or one year of service must have the first inspection within one year of the AD or before accumulating 2,000 flight hours. Repetitive inspections for all Q400s must be carried out at 2,000h or 12 month intervals. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Experts from ICAO and Eurocontrol talk about developments in Performance Based Navigation in ATSI Academy's PBN training Amsterdam based ATSI Academy organises a course on Performance Based Navigation on the 29th and 30st of November 2011 where experts from ICAO and Eurocontrol talk about developments in Performance Based Navigation. See PBN training for more info ATSI Academy: Safety training for aviation professionals ATSI Academy is an initiative of NLR's Air Transport Safety Institute to provide specialist training and seminars related to air safety. Aimed at aviation professionals from government, airlines, airports and ANSP's, ATSI Academy provides training for experts and beginners in aviation safety.. In 2011 the following events are scheduled (follow the link for more information): * ATM Safety (7-8 November, 2011) * Safety for regional airports (contact us) * Safety Scanning (17 November 2011) * Performance Based Navigation (29-30 November, 2011) Back to Top SpiceJet to service 60 small Indian airports with Q400s Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet aims to connect more than 60 smaller local airports with the major hubs in the country using its new Bombardier Q400 turboprops. The airline received the first two Q400s, out of the 15 that it ordered last year, on 26 August 2011. SpiceJet said it will use them on "high-frequency, point-to-point services" to regional cities, complementing its larger Boeing 737s that are used to connect major Indian cities and on its international services. "As India experiences substantial growth, many cities and industrial towns remain underserved," said Kalanithi Maran, chairman of SpiceJet. "SpiceJet is focused on connecting these burgeoning areas with more than 60 airports that could not be served by larger jets. After an evaluation of all the aircraft in the 60 to 80-seat category, we selected the Q400, which combines excellent reliability, economics and passenger comfort," he added. The airline's order of the Q400s is a "breakthrough" for Bombardier, said the Canadian airframer. SpiceJet will be the first Indian carrier to operate the type and Bombardier said it aims to increase its presence in the growing market. SpiceJet has also signed a 10-year agreement under Bombardier's SmartParts programme that provides cost-per-flight-hour maintenance for the Q400s. "The fact that we will be able to proactively budget for traditionally variable expenses and count on optimal repair turnaround times under Bombardier's SmartParts programme is another significant advantage," said Neil Mills, CEO of SpiceJet. SpiceJet's first Q400 service will be from Vizag to Tirupat on 21 September this year. That will be followed by a Hyderabad-Mangalore service on 30 September and Hyderabad-Aurangabad service on 1 October. It also aims to begin flights from Hyderabad to Goa, Madurai, Nagpur and Pune as well as from Bangalore to Vizag. Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport will be the first base of its Q400 and SpiceJet is also evaluating options for a second base. This could be Ahmedabad Airport in Gujarat, or one of two other "airports in south India". The airline's the main 737 fleet is based in Hyderabad, Bangalore's Bengaluru International Airport, Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shiva International Airport and Chennai International Airport. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Boeing Bets on 737 MAX to Win $1T in Jet Orders (BLOOMBERG) - A Boeing Next Generation 737 jet for Ethiopian Airlines sits on an assembly line at Boeing's manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington, U.S. Photographer: Kevin P. Casey/Bloomberg The emergency exit doors of a Boeing Next Generation 737 jet sit open on an assembly line at Boeing's manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington, U.S. Photographer: Kevin P. Casey/Bloomberg Boeing Co. (BA) is counting on the 737 MAX, the new version of the world's most widely flown jetliner, to help capture half of a $2 trillion market in the next 20 years and fend off a challenge from Airbus SAS. Powered by more efficient engines, the 737 MAX has already won 496 order commitments in "a very positive indicator of demand for what has been viewed as a 'me- too' offering," Robert Spingarn, a New York-based Credit Suisse analyst, said yesterday in a note to clients. Deliveries of the 737 MAX should begin in 2017, two years after Airbus's upgraded A320neo, Boeing said yesterday after its board gave formal approval to the jet. The commitments are spread among five different customers, the company said. The directors' go-ahead followed an agreement in July to sell 100 of the jets to American Airlines as half of an order with the Chicago-based planemaker. American split a purchase of 460 aircraft between Boeing and Airbus, which began offering more fuel- efficient engines on its A320 narrow-body in December. The Airbus order broke an exclusive arrangement between Fort Worth, Texas-based American and Boeing dating to 1987, compelling the planemaker to shift to the quicker, cheaper option of upgrading the 737 from its stated preference of developing an all-new jet. Boeing's 20-year forecast projects global sales of 23,000 narrow-body jets in the next two decades, at a value of almost $2 trillion. The company ranks second in commercial deliveries to Toulouse, France-based Airbus, which has rung up more than 1,000 orders and commitments since unveiling the A320neo in December. Market Share "This is an airplane that's going to allow us not to just maintain the market share we have, but one that will allow us to grow the market share," Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Jim Albaugh said at a news conference in Renton, Washington, near the factory where the 737s are built. Boeing should be able to command a premium price for the new version, said Albaugh, who declined to comment further. The average 737 has a catalog price of $78 million. The MAX will use modified Leap-1B engines from CFM International and offer 7 percent lower operating costs than rivals. "In today's operating environment, it is critical for us to maximize the fuel- and cost- efficiency of our fleet," said Vasu Raja, managing director for corporate planning at AMR Corp.'s American. "Boeing's latest evolution of 737 product is an important step forward for airlines and our customers." Fuel-Efficient Fuel use on the 737 MAX will be 16 percent less than the existing A320 and 4 percent less than the neo, said Marc Birtel, a Boeing spokesman. The plane will also be slightly more efficient than Bombardier Inc.'s new CSeries narrow-body jets, said Nicole Piasecki, Boeing's business-development chief. "Boeing made the right decision to re-engine," said John Leahy, Airbus's chief operating officer, adding that the 737, which was launched in 1965 and redesigned in the 1990s, isn't as modern as the A320 family. Leahy had advocated against Boeing's previous preference for an all-new plane by 2020, saying it would skew the competitive landscape since Airbus didn't foresee having its own new jet until the middle of the next decade. Engine Fan Size Engineers are studying whether to use a 66-inch or 68-inch fan size for the new engines, up from 61 inches now, Albaugh said. They have been told to make minimal changes to the rest of the plane -- essentially only stiffening some sections to handle the heavier engines -- and avoid the temptation to creep toward the new-plane development that the company rejected, he said. The new engines will be offered for the current models, the 737-700, -800 and -900, to be renamed the -7, -8 and -9. A fleet of 100 737 MAX-8s would save an airline about $85 million in fuel a year compared with the 737-800, according to the company. Boeing climbed $1.43, or 2.2 percent, to $66.03 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The gain was the largest among the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Albaugh is "challenging the team" to get the 737 MAX to the market as soon as possible, while being mindful of the delays that have plagued the two current development programs, Piasecki said. The 787 Dreamliner is running more than three years late and the 747-8 is two years behind schedule. 'Prudent' Plan "Given our recent track record, we are being very prudent and disciplined to make sure that whatever we talk to our customers about, we actually have a plan to deliver on," Piasecki said after the press conference. "I think you'll see improvements on the 2017" delivery target. With airlines reluctant to switch between planemakers, most 737 customers "will be taking a serious look" at the new jet, Robert Stallard, an RBC Capital analyst in New York, wrote in a report yesterday. Like Credit Suisse's Springarn, he rates the shares as "outperform." Albaugh said that while Boeing will work with carriers if they want to convert existing orders to MAX contracts, most customers probably will stick with the current 737. Boeing's existing jets will still cost less to operate than the A320neo when including expenses such as maintenance, the company said. Sales and production of the current 737 should run "well into the end of this decade," Albaugh said. Delta Air Lines Inc. last week ordered 100 737-900ERs, boosting a backlog that was already more than 2,100 planes. The company has teams looking at where to build the 737 MAX, with Renton "at the top of our list," though other brand- new sites are being considered, Albaugh said. He expects to make a decision in six to eight months. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-30/boeing-approves-upgrading-737-after- 496-order-commitments-1-.html Back to Top Atlanta Safety Consultants, LLC List of Services OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) -Evaluation, development or improvement of required VPP programs, application and annual reports. Inspections - Mock OSHA inspections, develop site specific OSHA inspection checklist, train staff to manage OSHA inspections and assist in mitigating / complying with OSHA citations. OSHA Required Programs - Development of OSHA General Industry programs such as Haz Com, Blood Borne Pathogens, Confined Space, Emergency Action Plans, Respiratory Protection, Lock-out, PPE, etc. Safety Programs Development and/or evaluation of site specific safety programs such as: Behavioral Based Safety - Identify behaviors leading to injury causes and implement process for identifying and changing at risk behaviors. Ergonomics - Industrial and office ergonomic assessments. Auditing - Development of site specific audit process to identify and correct safety and operational deficiencies. Training Accident/Incident/Near Miss Investigations - Teach employees how to investigate incidents and get to root causes / solutions. Back Injury Prevention - Develop site specific class centered on actual lifts in the work place. OSHA Required Training - Train personnel on OSHA required subjects such as Lock-out, Haz Com, Personal Protective Equipment, Confined Space, Blood Borne Pathogens, Emergency Action Plans, Fire Prevention Plans, etc. Aviation Ground Safety Need assistance with your ground safety program. Nearly 20 years of experience in aircraft damage prevention, ramp and boarding procedures, manuals, reservations ergonomics, material handling injuries, etc. Don't see what you are looking for here? Call me, odds are I can do it or know someone who can. 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