Flight Safety Information October 31, 2011 - No. 223 In This Issue Flyers stranded aboard Jet Blue plane for 7 hours Jet makes emergency landing in Hamburg; no injured AirTran jet lands in Mont. with cracked windshield Bodies of Asiana Pilots Recovered Over 100 Air India pilots threaten to quit TSA spots concealed knife in bag at Newark airport Independent body to be set-up to deal with aviation safety (INDIA) Wreckage of Asiana 747-400F found three months after crash Air China performs biofuel 747-400 test flight ERAU - PhD - Research Survey Request Flyers stranded aboard Jet Blue plane for 7 hours after flight diverted to Conn. Angry passengers left without food, water, bathrooms after Newark-bound flight is stranded on tarmac Some 200 passengers aboard a Newark-bound Jet Blue flight were trapped on the plane for seven hours without food, water or working bathrooms after the freak snowstorm that socked the East Coast on Saturday forced the plane to land in Connecticut. Passengers said they were told they'd be let off the plane shortly after it reached Bradley International Airport at around 1:30 p.m. But hours later, Flight 504 from Fort Lauderdale was still sitting on the tarmac. "We ran out of water," passenger Andrew Carter, a reporter planning to cover the Giants-Dolphins game, told The Hartford Courant from the plane. "The bathrooms are all clogged up and disgusting. The power would go off every 45 minutes or so for five minutes or so, and that would freak people out.'' Flyer Todd Bailey told FOX Connecticut that a crying baby - and fried nerves - led to a spat among two passengers, while others were screaming at flight attendants to let them free. "It's just crazy... Everybody is freaking out here. They're tired of it," he told FOX. At one point, firefighters and cops came aboard to help a paraplegic man who was having circulation trouble, The Courant said. More firefighters finally arrived at around 9 p.m. and began taking people off the plane with a ladder, according to local reports. Jet Blue apologized for the incident in a statement on Saturday. The rare October snowstorm forced 23 planes to land at Bradley on Saturday, causing a massive traffic jam, according to Gov. Dannel Malloy's office. The pre-Halloween nightmare left some passengers in a foul mood. "Next time I spend 11.5 hours on a plane, I sure as heck better wind up someplace better than Hartford, Conn.," Carter wrote on Twitter. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/flyers-stranded-aboard-jet- blue-plane-7-hours-flight-diverted-conn-article-1.969173#ixzz1cN2mtR5x Back to Top Jet makes emergency landing in Hamburg; no injured BERLIN (AP) - German charter airline Condor says one of its Boeing 757s has made an emergency landing after an engine was damaged by a flock of birds shortly after takeoff from Hamburg airport. Spokesman Johannes Winter says the plane, which was on its way to the beach resort of Hurghada in Egypt, returned to Hamburg and landed safely on Monday morning. Winter says none of the 245 passengers or eight crew members was injured. Back to Top AirTran jet lands in Mont. with cracked windshield BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Officials say an AirTran Airways flight from Washington state to Wisconsin made an emergency landing in Billings, Mont., after the windshield cracked. Billings Logan International Airport officials say the Boeing 737 landed at about 4 p.m. Saturday. KULR-TV reports (http://bit.ly/ubNsS3) no one was injured. Officials say AirTran sent another plane to get the 130 passengers traveling from Seattle to Milwaukee. Back to Top Bodies of Asiana Pilots Recovered The retrieved cockpit of an Asiana Airlines cargo plane that crashed off Jeju Island in July is brought to Jeju Port on Sunday. The bodies of the two pilots of an Asiana Airlines cargo plane that crashed off Jeju Island on July 28 were recovered on Sunday, 94 days after the accident. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affair said a private rescue team hired by Asiana discovered and retrieved the cockpit of the plane on Saturday 104 km from an islet off the western coast of Jeju. The ministry added that it moved the cockpit to Jeju port on Sunday morning and found the bodies of Choi Sang-gi (52), the captain of the plane, and Lee Jeong-wung (43), his co-pilot. According to ministry officials, the bodies of the pilots were heavily decayed after being crushed by the frame of the cockpit, but both were sitting in their seats with their seatbelts fastened and were wearing their uniforms. It was difficult to identify their bodies, but officials were able to determine their identities through the name tags on their uniforms. But search and rescue workers have still not retrieved the plane's black box, which contains crucial data that could help solve the mystery of the crash. The ministry said search operations will end Monday due to the colder temperatures and resume in March next year. The pilot apparently took out life insurance policies from five different insurers between the end of June and mid July. Total compensation amounted to nearly W3 billion (US$1=W1,107). There were rumors that Choi had around W1.5 billion of debts, leading to speculation that he deliberately crashed the plane so his family could collect the insurance money. However, it later emerged he actually was only W200 million in debt. An official at the General Insurance Association of Korea said compensation is usually paid to the surviving family three or four days after claims are received. But insurers are reluctant to pay Choi's family until the aircraft's black box is found. If it cannot be found, insurers will not be able to withhold payment indefinitely. "In the end, it looks as though the insurers will have to pay," the official added. Aviation experts say the fact that Choi's body was found strapped to the pilot's seat suggests that he and his co-pilot had attempted to avoid crashing the aircraft until the last minute. If the pilot had deliberately crashed the plane, it would have nosedived into the ocean, and the impact would have been so hard that nothing would be left of the bodies. http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/10/31/2011103101179.html Back to Top Over 100 Air India pilots threaten to quit New Delhi: In a move that could hit Air India's international operations, over 100 pilots have threatened to quit the airlines, charging the management with adopting discriminatory attitude against them and stalling their career progression. The development comes four days ahead of the launch of a training programme for pilots to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, the first of which is expected to join the airline by December. In a letter to Air India CMD Rohit Nandan, over 100 pilots, owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG), said they were "compelled to seek a No Objection Certificate so that we may consider seeking employment elsewhere". Copies of the letter were also sent to Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi and other officials, besides the Regional Labour Commissioner, Mumbai. When contacted, Air India officials, requesting anonymity, said the IPG office-bearers were currently holding negotiations with the management and "we are hopeful of sorting out their issues". The IPG represents around 200 pilots of the pre-merger Air India, while the Indian Commercial Pilots Association that had gone on strike in April this year represents around 1,400 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines. A total of 101 pilots signed the letter claiming they felt "cheated by the management's unfair and discriminatory decisions, leading to a complete stall of our career progression". "These decisions and actions provide a windfall gain to the pilots of erstwhile Indian Airlines at the expense of the career progression prospects of the pilots of erstwhile Air India," the letter said. Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/over-100-air-india-pilots-threaten-to- quit-145511&cp Back to Top TSA spots concealed knife in bag at Newark airport NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A Transportation Security Administration screener at a New Jersey airport spotted a knife concealed in a carry-on bag. The TSA says the screener was operating the X-ray machine at a security checkpoint at Newark-Liberty International Airport on Sunday when the screener saw the knife in the zippered pocket where the bag's handle is stored. The bag belonged to a passenger from New York who was boarding a flight to Atlanta. Port Authority police confiscated the knife. Back to Top Independent body to be set-up to deal with aviation safety (INDIA) NEW DELHI: In order to ensure better regulation over aviation safety and security, an independent Civil Aviation Authority is on the anvil with the Civil Aviation Ministry finalising a draft legislation on the issue. Once the draft is finalised, it would be circulated to other ministries for their inputs before it is placed before the Union Cabinet for approval. However, this process would take some time, official sources said. The proposed CAA would have financial and administrative autonomy to take expeditious decisions on matters relating to a range of activities - from regulation of air traffic services and licensing to ensure financial fitness of airlines, they said. The CAA would come up at a time when the total number of planes in the country is about 440 and is estimated to cross 1,000 in a few years. In addition, there are over 200 helicopters and private jets. The passenger handling capacity of Indian airports, which was just 66 million in 2005, has reached 225 million now and is expected to cross 500 million in the next 10 years. In this backdrop, the CAA would take over the responsibilities of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation like air safety, airspace regulation, setting aviation standards, licensing of airlines, pilots, air traffic controllers and consumer protection. The Ministry is also proposing to provide certain economic regulatory functions to the new authority, including airfares and areas like consumer protection, environmental research and consultancy. The CAA is also likely to decide on ground handling and other charges which airlines have to pay to airport operators. It is likely to act as an ombudsman to deal with complaints against airlines, airports and other agencies. With its proposed autonomy, CAA would be able to recruit professionals directly for a variety of jobs, instead of routing it through the UPSC as it does now, they said, adding that about 400 technical positions in DGCA were lying vacant now. The CAA would also conduct periodic safety and security audits, including flight inspections of agencies, to ensure that the prescribed local and global standards are being met. The authority would have powers to take preventive, corrective and punitive action against agencies and staff for violation of rules and regulations and to ensure ethical trade practices, the sources said. While preparing the draft legislation, the Ministry studied the aviation regulatory systems in many countries and decided to follow the British Civil Aviation Authority model. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/- aviation/independent-body-to-be-set-up-to-deal-with-aviation- safety/articleshow/10538868.cms Back to Top Wreckage of Asiana 747-400F found three months after crash The wreckage of an Asiana Boeing 747-400 Freighter that crashed into the waters off South Korea has been found almost three months after the incident. South Korean and Asiana officials said that rescue teams retrieved the bodies of the two pilots on Saturday, and brought them to shore on Sunday morning. The search for the cockpit data recorder and the voice recorder continues, they added. There was no information on the state of the airframe. The aircraft, with the registration HL-7604, went missing off Jeju Island on 28 July while en-route from South Korea's capital Seoul to Shanghai's Pudong International airport. The crew reported "control problems" at an altitude of 7,600ft and that there was a fire in the hold, said the South Korean Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTMA) shortly after the crash. It had diverted to Jeju International airport when it crashed, it added. The ministry said on 29 July that while the "fire probably caused the crash", its exact role in the incident has not yet been determined. The aircraft was carrying cargo that included lithium batteries, paint and other potentially dangerous materials. While there is no immediate evidence that the cargo contributed to the accident, lithium batteries are considered a potentially hazardous because they pose the risk of in-flight fire. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Air China performs biofuel 747-400 test flight Air China has carried out China's first sustainable biofuel flight, using a Boeing 747-400 powered by jatropha feedstock. The aircraft operated from Beijing Capital airport using a fuel developed by a US-Chinese co-operation between PetroChina and Honeywell UOP. Air China said PetroChina used jatropha crude oil and transformed it into aviation fuel with UOP's technological processes. This was blended 50:50 with regular aviation fuel by China Aviation Oil to produce a product meeting regulatory standards. Boeing and Pratt & Whitney provided airframe and engine support. "Aviation biofuel can work after being directly mixed with traditional fossil-fuel," said Air China. "Neither aircraft nor engine needs to be refit, and neither storage nor transportation facility needs to be built or rebuilt." Air China added that its crew carried out "elaborate preparation" before the test flight, studying the differences in the blended fuel compared with normal aviation fuel. "All of this contributed important information for the success of the test flight," it said. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Ph.D. in Aviation Research Survey Request A research study titled "A Mixed Method Exploration of Airline Reliability and Customer Choice" is currently underway. The purpose of this research is to provide an understanding of the public perceptions and preferences in choosing between airlines for travel. Specifically, we seek to understand if people who fly and experience delays are influenced enough, beyond the common complaints we all hear throughout the terminals, to choose which airline to travel on based on the airline's on-time departure reliability. The research team is comprised of three Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Ph.D. students (T. Bauphiban, D. Jackson, and H. Townsend) currently studying mixed methods research in aviation. This course examines approaches to integrating qualitative and single-case research methods with quantitative techniques, to create mixed-method study designs conducive to scholarly inquiry of aviation-related topics. The principle investigator of the study is: Dr. Truong. This research study will utilize a survey constructed to gather both quantitative and qualitative data from a questionnaire that should require no more than a few minutes to complete. You can access the survey at http://www.makesurvey.net/cgi-bin/survey.dll/18E91E86F1254C6FB0BD81B9F25931DC. This study adheres to all of the applicable research requirements set forth in universally accepted research protocols such as The Belmont Report, The World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki, The United States Code of Federal Regulations Title 45 Part 46, the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, and the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Institutional Review Board. Thank you for your participation and assisting this research team in understanding mixed-method study designs. Back to Top Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC