Flight Safety Information March 28, 2012 - No. 062 In This Issue Jet Blue pilot has 'medical situation' mid-flight JetBlue flight from JFK airport diverted after pilot flips out Illinois man gets 10 months in prison for trying to open jet door mid-flight 2012 Aviation Safety Award winner announced In New York, airplane phone calls could land you in court PRISM ANNUAL SMS AUDIT RESULTS Man says he shined laser at OIA planes for 'stress release' Jury: Engine flaw led to crash$177 million civil suit Bahrain Air wins full membership of IATA Jet Blue pilot has 'medical situation' mid-flight AMARILLO, Texas (AP) - A Jet Blue flight bound for Las Vegas landed unexpectedly in Amarillo after a "medical situation" arose involving the captain. The airline says in a statement that the pilot in command of Flight 191 from New York then elected to land in the Panhandle of Texas about 10 a.m. Tuesday. The airline says an off-duty captain who happened to be aboard the plane went to the flight deck and took over the duties of the ill captain "once on the ground." Jet Blue says the ill captain was taken to a medical facility. The airline says the passengers are awaiting another plane to take them on to their destination. Back to Top JetBlue flight from JFK airport diverted after pilot flips out Retired NYPD cop had to restrain pilot, who warned passengers to 'say your prayers' Witnesses say the pilot was raving and had to be subdued by a retired NYPD sergeant who happened to be on board.Related Stories A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas was forced to land in Texas Tuesday after the pilot flipped out and reportedly told passengers to 'say their prayers.'A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas was forced to land in Texas Tuesday after the pilot flipped out and reportedly told passengers to "say your prayers." Witnesses say he was raving and had to be subdued by a retired NYPD sergeant who happened to be on board. "Our pilot went nuts and we had to land in Amarillo. I saw my life flash before my eyes today," tweeted passenger Tiffany Lee. An off duty JetBlue pilot who was also on the flight helped land the plane, the airline said. Flight 191 had 135 passengers and five crew members when it took off from John F. Kennedy Airport at about 10:45 a.m., JetBlue said. A passenger in the third row told the Amarillo Globe-News that the pilot appeared to have a panic attack leaving the cockpit, ranting about bombs on the plane and urging pilots to throttle back the engines. A witness told Fox 5 News the pilot was in the cabin trying to storm the cockpit. "I saw a guy wearing a pilot's uniform run down the aisle screaming and yelling and banging on the cockpit door to let him in," the witness said. The witness said the man was screaming, "Say your prayers! Say your prayers!" Four passengers, including a retired NYPD sergeant, jumped on the man and held him down. The flight was diverted to Amarillo, Texas, where it was met by police and airport security personnel as it taxied to a remote area of the tarmac. JetBlue officials said the captain was taken to a hospital with an undisclosed medical condition. Some reports said he was taken off the flight on a stretcher. . Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/jetblue-flight-jfk-airport-diverted- pilot-flips-article-1.1051575#ixzz1qLTbjJHU Back to Top Illinois man gets 10 months in prison for trying to open jet door mid-flight ST. LOUIS (AP) - An Illinois man has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for trying to open a jet door mid-flight. The sentence for 34-year-old Reynel Alcaide of Burbank, Ill., was handed down Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. He pleaded guilty in December to interference with flight crew members and attendants. Weigh InCorrections?Recommend Tweet Personal Post .Alcaide also was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of more than $7,000. Alcaide was on a Continental Airlines flight traveling from Houston to Chicago on May 8 when he repeatedly tried to open an exit door. Passengers and crew members subdued him, and the flight was diverted to Lambert Airport in St. Louis. A prosecutor says Alcaide reported marital problems and said he had tried to commit suicide previously. Back to Top 2012 Aviation Safety Award winner announced VANCOUVER, March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Today Transport Canada proudly celebrated air transportation safety in Canada by announcing the winner of the 2012 Aviation Safety Award. This year, the award was presented to the Canadian Helicopter Corporation (CHC) Safety & Quality Summit. "The CHC Safety & Quality Summit provides a valuable opportunity for those working in the field of aviation to come together to share knowledge," said the Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. "Canada has one of the safest aviation systems in the world, and working together with our partners is essential to ensure that we maintain and improve safety in the years ahead." The CHC Safety & Quality Summit is an annual non-profit conference where global stakeholders and experts from the aviation industry gather to share best practices. Since it began in 2005, the summit has become a leading forum for innovation and advances in aviation safety. This year, several hundred participants, including air operators, regulators, insurers and safety experts, are attending the summit between March 26 and 28 in Vancouver. The Transport Canada Aviation Safety Award was established to recognize persons, groups, companies, organizations, agencies or departments that have made an exceptional contribution to aviation safety in Canada. For more information on the award, visit our website at www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/opssvs/aviationsafetyaward-menu- 280.htm . SOURCE Transport Canada Back to Top In New York, airplane phone calls could land you in court NEW YORK (Reuters) - Refusing to turn off a cell phone or laptop during takeoff from a New York area airport could soon land airline passengers a one-way ticket to court. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said on Tuesday it is exploring suing the worst offenders who fail to comply with guidelines for turning off electronic devices on the runway and sometimes cause costly and annoying delays. The issue got national attention last year after actor Alec Baldwin was kicked off an American Airlines flight for repeatedly refusing to stop playing a game on his phone as his plane prepared to depart from Los Angeles. The Port Authority oversees LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark airports, where in 2011 police responded to more than 400 cases of passengers who would not turn off their cell phones or laptops or caused "some other kind of disruption," said spokesman Steve Coleman. "We're considering taking them to civil court and try to recover damages incurred by the airline, the Port Authority and others," said Coleman. New York has some of the busiest airports in the country and delays often have ripple effects at other U.S. airports. The average cost to run a passenger airline is $5,867 per hour, said Steve Lott, spokesman for the airline trade association Airlines for America. Lott said it was "extremely rare" for passengers to violate the guidelines, noting there were more than 1.2 million flights that operated out of LaGuardia, JFK and Newark airports last year. There are no current civil penalties for flaunting the guidelines. Unruly behaviour is punishable under criminal law if it rises to the level of an offense such as disorderly conduct. Brandon Macsata, executive director for the Association for Airline Passenger Rights, said he supported initiatives to improve airline on-time performance but expressed "caution against singling out passengers for delays." Back to Top Back to Top Man says he shined laser at OIA planes for 'stress release' AirTran Flight 15 departed Orlando International Airport Jan. 8 and was heading south about 400 feet off the ground when Capt. Jerry Egel was hit in the face by a bright green laser. The laser tracked him for 30 to 60 seconds until he reached an altitude of about 2,000 feet, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Egel turned all the plane's lights off and made a sharp left turn, requesting permission to change course to avoid the laser. It was an incident that placed his life, and the lives of his passengers, at risk and launched an investigation that resulted in 49-year-old Glenn Stephen Hansen of St. Cloud being accused of aiming lasers at passenger aircraft departing from OIA at least 23 times from that day until Friday. After that first incident, the investigation focused on the area directly south of the airport, according to the affidavit prepared by Federal Air Marshal Cheyenne C. Sykes. The investigation led to Hansen, who had made more than 500 complaints about noise from OIA and at one noise abatement meeting said he had used a golf range finder to determine the height of planes. On Friday, AirTran Flight 15 was again hit by a laser. This time it was Capt. Douglas John Wysocki piloting the plane en route to San Juan when the laser entered the cockpit at about 3,500 feet. And this time authorities were staking out Hansen's home in the 4900 block of Parkview Drive and watched as the laser came from a rear upstairs window and aimed at the aircraft taking off overhead, according to the affidavit, which was used to obtain a search warrant. That search warrant was served about 4 a.m. Saturday by an FBI agent. According to the federal complaint filed against Hansen, he admitted to pointing the laser at airplanes as "stress release," and he told agents he suffered from "noise anxiety." He told officers he had no idea the laser affected pilots and placed passengers at risk and that it did not know that it was wrong to point the laser at the planes. The laser was found in a drawer in the master bedroom of the home. Arrests for pointing lasers at aircraft usually involve helicopters, because they are able to hover over the area until ground units arrive, said Patrick Murphy, who operates the website LaserPointerSafety.com. The 23 counts against Hansen are the most charges he has seen filed, Murphy said. They account for 3.4 percent of all laser complaints in the United States this year and all but one complaint this year involving aircraft at OIA. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-27/news/os-orlando-man-laser-arrested-oia- airport-20120327_1_laser-airtran-flight-oia Back to Top Jury: Engine flaw led to crash$177 million civil suit verdict blames General Electric for 2008 helicopter accident that killed nine people A faulty engine - not overloading - caused the deadly 2008 helicopter crash that killed nine, including seven firefighters from Jackson and Josephine counties, in the Iron 44 wildfire in Northern California, a Portland jury has determined. It took the jury more than two weeks to reach a verdict in the $177 million lawsuit against engine-maker General Electric brought by co-pilot William Coultas of Cave Junction, his wife, Chris, and the widow of pilot Roark Schwanenberg, 54, of Lostine, who died in the crash. The verdict flies in the face of the National Transportation Safety Board's 2010 conclusion that Merlin-based Carson Helicopters' deliberate understatement of the weight of its Sikorsky S-61N helicopter by more than 1,000 pounds and lapses in safety oversight resulted in the crash. Coultas, 47, a 1982 graduate of Illinois Valley High School, had told the board in both oral and written testimony that the Aug. 5, 2008, crash was caused by the loss of power in the No. 2 engine shortly after takeoff from a nearly 6,000-foot-high mountaintop in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest near Weaverville, Calif. He was severely burned in the crash, which occurred less than a minute after takeoff. The aircraft clipped a tree, crashed and burst into flames, becoming the deadliest helicopter crash involving working firefighters in U.S. history. Plaintiffs' attorney Greg Anderson of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., had argued that GE knew the engines it made for the Sikorsky S-61N helicopter had a design flaw that rendered them unsafe. GE attorney Kevin Smith countered that the helicopter crashed because it was carrying too much weight when it took off after picking up a firefighting crew. Coultas was awarded $37 million and his wife $4.3 million by the jury, while the estate of Schwanenberg was awarded $28.4 million, according to The Associated Press. The jury placed 57 percent of the blame on GE, but also found the helicopter's owner and its manufacturer partially at fault, the AP added. "We're obviously happy with the verdict, but you can't get closure from something like this," Coultas' daughter, Ricci Coultas, 25, of Medford, told the Mail Tribune, speaking for the family via cellphone from Portland. "At the end of the day, there are nine people who are not with us because of what happened," she added. "We still haven't forgotten about the other people affected by this." While no verdict will ever bring back the husbands, father and sons who died that day, it vindicates what her father had argued all along about engine failure, she said. "We are happy the truth was seen, that our voices were finally heard," she said. Following the NTSB findings, Bill Coultas, the only surviving crew member, had told the Mail Tribune in 2010 that he was devastated by the board's conclusion. "I'm troubled and hurt, partly because my testimony wasn't considered," the veteran pilot said at the time. "I was there. I had the best seat in the house. I knew what happened." Coultas, whose son, Matthew, 19, is currently attending school to become a helicopter pilot, and Schwanenberg had been made scapegoats by the defendants, Anderson said. "But they were heroes," he said after the trial. "Some people got out of the helicopter alive because of the way they put her down." Coultas was both "elated and in shock" after the verdict, the attorney said. "This verdict compensates these people for the pure hell it has caused their families," Anderson said, later adding, "Bill still has devastating injuries. He faces a future filled with surgeries and therapy. Every dime of that verdict is justified. ... We should be able to recover 100 percent of the verdict." During the trial, Anderson argued the company had known for at least six years that there was a problem with the engine's fuel control valve. He had introduced as evidence a GE internal email from Aug. 6, 2008, discussing the size of the fuel filter, noting that the military version removes much smaller particles than the commercial version. "This is a wake-up call for GE," Anderson said, adding that the plaintiffs are "very proud they are taking care of heavy-lift helicopter pilots around the world who are flying with these same engines." But Rick Kennedy, a GE Aviation spokesman, told The Associated Press that it would appeal the verdict. "We strongly disagree with the verdict," he said. "Our position has been all along that this verdict completely contradicts findings by the NTSB." Carson Helicopters Inc., of Merlin, released a statement saying that it was gratified the full facts have been placed in front of an impartial jury. "It has been Carson's continuing belief after a thorough investigation that the physical evidence strongly showed that the primary cause of this accident was a power loss due to contamination in the engine fuel control," it said. "Carson Helicopters keeps the families of the victims of this accident foremost in its thoughts and prayers, and hopes this brings some light and closure to this terrible accident." Firefighters killed in the crash included David Steele, 19, Ashland; Shawn Blazer, 30, Medford; Scott Charlson, 25, Phoenix; Matthew Hammer, 23, Grants Pass; Edrik Gomez, 19, Ashland; Bryan Rich, 29, Medford; and Steven "Caleb" Renno, 21, Cave Junction. U.S. Forest Service check pilot Jim Ramage, 63, of Redding, Calif., also died. In addition to Coultas, three others survived: local firefighters Richard Schroeder Jr., Jonathan Frohreich and Michael Brown, who also received injuries. All of the firefighters were employed by Grayback Forestry Inc. of Merlin. The families of eight men who were killed and three who were injured reached out-of- court settlements with three of five defendants in multiple lawsuits filed after the crash, according to The Associated Press. http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120328/NEWS/203280312/- 1/NEWSMAP Back to Top Bahrain Air wins full membership of IATA MANAMA: Bahrain Air has been accepted as a full member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The formal notification was received on March 22. Bahrain Air has fulfilled all the required operational and safety standards necessary to qualify for the IATA certificate, having successfully renewed its IATA Operational Safety Audit earlier this year. "This is a historic moment for a young airline like Bahrain Air," chief executive Richard Nuttall said. "The path to qualify for IATA membership is highly demanding and requires dedication and discipline. "But our team has worked very hard to see this day. "Going forward, membership of IATA will allow us to build on our distribution and work with other IATA carriers to provide better connectivity to, from and over Bahrain. "At the same time, we will have better access to all the services of IATA as we continue to take Bahrain Air to new levels in the future," he added. "We are pleased to welcome Bahrain Air to the IATA family," IATA Middle East and North Africa vice-president Dr Majdi Sabri said. "Bahrain Air is a growing airline in possibly the most dynamic aviation region of the world. "Being an IATA member not only confirms that Bahrain Air conforms to the highest safety standards, it also gives the airline opportunity through IATA's activities to benefit from the latest industry best practices. "We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with the airline." http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=326738 Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP, FRAeS, FISASI CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC