Flight Safety Information May 16, 2012 - No. 098 In This Issue 'Black box' of Russia jet crash found in Indonesia Crashed Sukhoi was replacement aircraft Russia may blacklist air passengers, pilots Africa 2012 Aviation Safety Summit being held to enhance air safety PRISM CERTIFICATION CONSULTANTS Virgin Atlantic to allow cellphone calls Australian passengers flouting mobile phone ban in the skies Airlines and pilots battle over contracts, safety Despite recommendations, FAA still not budging on mandatory bird strike reports Back to Top 'Black box' of Russia jet crash found in Indonesia JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesian special forces have found the voice-and-data recorder of a new Russian passenger jet that slammed into a jagged, mist-shrouded cliff on a dormant volcano, an official said Wednesday. The "black box" could help explain the cause of the deadly crash of the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which had been on a short demonstration flight for potential buyers. Search and Rescue agency spokesman Gagah Prakoso said it was found near the tail of the shattered wreck at the bottom of a 1,500-foot (500-meter) ravine. The device was delivered to investigators late Tuesday. It was badly burned and lost its orange color, making it harder for search teams to find it among the trees and heavy brush, Prakoso said. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 - Russia's first passenger jet model since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago - was being demonstrated for potential buyers when it roared into Mount Salak at 800 kph (480 mph) on May 9. All 45 people on board were killed. Tatang Kurniadi, who heads the National Commission on Safety Commission, said he and his Russian colleagues would make a joint official announcement about the black box later Wednesday. He added that data retrieved from the device would be analyzed in Indonesia, with assistance from Russian experts. The Superjet is Russia's first new model of passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago, and is intended to help resurrect its aerospace industry. The plane was being demonstrated for representatives of Indonesia's fast-expanding domestic airlines, which are among its biggest potential buyers. Back to Top Crashed Sukhoi was replacement aircraft Moscow, May 16 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crashed into a mountain in Indonesia, killing 45 people May 9, was a replacement aircraft for one that had been withdrawn due to engine problems shortly before the flight. A Superjet 100 aircraft with the tail number 95005, which earlier performed demonstration flights in Kazakhstan and Pakistan as part of a six-country tour aimed at wooing potential buyers, was the one originally planned to be shown in Indonesia, the LifeNews TV channel quoted Alexander Tulyakov, deputy president of Russia's United Aviation Corporation (UAC) as saying. But an engine oil leak revealed during maintenance May 6 forced the show organisers to replace the plane with another similar jet, with the tail number 95004, Tulyakov said. This resulted in organisers having just a few hours to prepare the plane for the flight, he said. A spokesperson for the Sukhoi Corporation, which designed the plane and is part of UAC, confirmed that the plane was replaced, but did not name the reason. All 45 people on board the Superjet 100 were killed when the plane slammed into a steep side of Mount Salak near Jakarta shortly after take-off on a demonstration flight. Russia's acting Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said experts believe "human factor" was the most probable cause of the fatal crash. UAC head Mikhail Pogosyan said it was premature to say if pilot error was to blame. A search operation for victims' bodies continues despite difficult weather and terrain at the site of the crash. Indonesian aviation officials have said the investigation of the crash may take up to a year. Back to Top Russia may blacklist air passengers, pilots Moscow, May 16 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Pilots who violate work rules and unruly passengers could be blacklisted in Russia under a bill now in parliament, an MP said. Andrei Andreev, chairman of the Duma Air Transport Committee, said this Tuesday. The bill was introduced by the Liberal Democratic Party in April. Vitaly Saveliev, the chief executive officer of Russian flag carrier Aeroflot, said blacklists for pilots fired for violating work rules and for misbehaving passengers should be adopted in Russia. One of the bill's authors, Duma Deputy Yaroslav Nilov, however said the document still needs to be updated to clearly spell out the reasons for blacklisting a pilot. The Aeroflot CEO also spoke of the need to allow air carriers to hire pilots from former Soviet countries. The shortage of pilots in Russia had become acute in the past decade and is hampering growth of the national aviation market. Russian air companies need to add at least 700-800 pilots a year, according to Yevgeny Bachurin, former head of Russian air transport regulator Rosaviatsiya. There are currently about 10,000 commercial pilots in Russia, but each year an estimated 1,000 leave for jobs abroad or retire. http://india.nydailynews.com/business/048f3e9175189572f239c9c46943cb95/russia- may-blacklist-air-passengers-pilots Back to Top Africa 2012 Aviation Safety Summit being held to enhance air safety The Africa 2012 Aviation Safety Summit, currently underway in Johannesburg, is being convened by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), in conjunction with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), to adopt the required achievable strategies to strengthen safety oversight and enhance the regional safety performance by the end of year 2015. According to IATA, an analysis of fifty-six (56) accidents involving African carriers over the last five years shows the main contributory factors includes weak regulatory oversight, improper certification of air operators, pilot qualification and training, and non-adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). As a result, the two most prevalent air incidents and/or accidents fall are runway excursions and loss of control. Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) South Africa is actively taking part in the summit. Commenting during the second day of the summit, ATNS CEO, Patrick Dlamini, said "Africa needs to invest more in aviation skills and knowledge. We are almost there though". Dlamini further mentioned that aviation, specifically aviation safety, is very critical in any economic activity and its role in the international markets cannot be downplayed. Luke Hawkins, ATNS Senior Manager Safety & Regulation Assurance, has been tasked to work with the Task Force that will develop the African Strategic Safety Improvement (SSI) Action Plan. The SSI Plan is aimed at addressing the continent's safety challenges and also significant safety improvement by the end of 2015. Hein Reid, Senior Manager Operations and Johnny Smit, Centre Manager at the ATNS Johannesburg Centre, will serve as panelists during the "Runway Safety and Loss of Control" discussion", taking place on 15th May 2012. The discussion will look into the planning, training and the effective implementation measures of the "runway safety toolkit" to ensure that all relevant personnel are adequately and properly trained to meet the set standards. It is anticipated that over two-hundred (200) participants will attend the summit, including Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of African Airlines, Directors General of Civil Aviation Authorities of African States and selected officials of Key Aviation stakeholders. The Summit takes place from 14th to 16th May 2012. http://www.defenceweb.co.za/ Back to Top Back to Top Virgin Atlantic to allow cellphone calls A Virgin Atlantic airplane lands at London's Heathrow Airport. On some Virgin Atlantic planes, you'll be able to phone home from 35,000 feet in the air. The airline has announced that it will become the first British airline to provide passengers the capability to make and receive phone calls during flights. Passengers also will be able to send and receive text messages, emails and have web access via GPRS. The new service will be available in all cabins of the airline's new Airbus A330-300 aircraft and refitted Boeing 747s. It will target business travelers and be limited to just six users at a time. "The service is intended for use in exceptional situations, when passengers need to send an SMS, make a quick call, or access an e-mail on a Blackberry," the airline said in a written statement. By the end of 2012, the system will be available on nearly 20 Virgin Atlantic aircraft. There will be some restrictions, however: Passengers can't use the service during take- off or landing or within about 250 miles from U.S. airspace. For now, AeroMobile is available to customers with O2 and Vodafone network providers. When in flight, international roaming costs will apply. Those will be set by the mobile provider. Some industry analysts said having mobile service in-flight could worsen the cabin experience. "At the very least, the airline will have to restrict times of day when passengers will be able to scream into their phones 'Can you hear me now?' at 40,000 feet, in order to not wake up fellow passengers on overnight flights," says George Hobica, president of AirfareWatchdog.com. "But you know what will happen--no one will listen. There will be screaming matches, glares, and probably fisticuffs." Virgin Atlantic's chief operating officer Steve Griffiths told the U.K. Daily Mail: "We have listened to what customers want and connectivity in the air is always on the wish list." http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2012/05/virgin-atlantic-lets-passengers-make- calls-from-the-sky/694128/1 Back to Top Australian passengers flouting mobile phone ban in the skies Passengers aren't listening when it comes to rules on using mobile phones during flights. Passengers disobeying mobile phone ban on planes Airline says the rules are difficult to enforce Comes as Virgin Atlantic allows the use of mobile phones AUSTRALIAN passengers are repeatedly ignoring safety bans on mobile phones and using their devices mid-flight, the national air safety investigator has found. Passengers have been caught using their mobile phones more than 500 times since the beginning of last year on just one airline, a report by the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau (ATSB)says. "The proliferation of personal electronic devices (PEDs) has made the potential much higher for non-compliance but it is not possible for cabin crew to check that all PEDs are switched to flight mode and then off," the airline, which has not been identified, told the ATSB. "In this respect cabin crew act in good faith that passengers are compliant, responsible and accountable themselves." The use of mobile phones is banned during flights because it could interfere with the vital aircraft navigation system and cause a crash. Current regulations give crew the power to ban the use of any device that could threaten the safety of an aircraft. The ATSB investigation stemmed from a passenger complaint made through its confidential reporting scheme, REPCON, about others texting and using the internet on their mobiles during flights from Sydney to Melbourne. Concern was raised that cabin crew may not be taking the safety matter seriously and had failed to adequately warn passengers to turn off electrical devices or put them in flight mode. The airline responded, saying the "hundreds of reports that come through each year" from their staff showed cabin crew and members of the public took the issue seriously. But they said it remained a difficult issue to police, especially during takeoff and landing when crew needed to be seated. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has reviewed the ATSB report and is satisfied with the airline's response. The ATSB has warned: "It is very important that passengers listen to and comply with announcements from the cabin crew when these restrictions apply." Experts say that electromagnetic waves emitted by mobiles can interfere with a plane's electronics and cause a crash, concerns that were outlined in an investigation by the New York Times last year. Virgin Atlantic has also this week announced it will allow the use of mobile phones on 20 planes via a separate telecoms base station and satellite system. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ Back to Top Airlines and pilots battle over contracts, safety (CBS News) United Airlines pilots have not had a new contract for nine years. Recently, their union launched a publicity campaign called "The Unfriendly Skies" telling passengers the airline is not only unfriendly, but actually unsafe. In a statement, United says "safety is the airline's highest priority" and the pilots are using the campaign "to create leverage in ongoing labor contract talks." But now that the issue has been raised, travelers are wondering just how unsafe it is to fly. "It's actually very safe to fly," CBS News aviation and safety expert Capt. Chesley Sullenberger said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning." "But what we need to remember is you can't define safety solely as a result of recent accidents and incidents. Unless you look further behind the curtain and proactively look at it and mitigate it, you're not doing what our passengers deserve." One of the big issues is the outsourcing of maintenance and outsourcing to the regional carriers. That could mean that less experienced pilots are flying the plane because there are different rules in play. It may say the same name on the side, but it's often run by a company who's the lowest bidder. "When you go on a regional airline, you're not achieving the same level of safety that we have at the major airlines," Sullenberger said. "At the regionals, you don't have the same robust safety system in which we operate that you do with the large major airlines. So we still have not, in spite of our best efforts, achieved what we call 'one level of safety.' They're simply not the same." http://www.cbsnews.com/ Back to Top Despite recommendations, FAA still not budging on mandatory bird strike reports A review of bird strike statistics. Open access to the FAA's bird strike database and increased public awareness have improved bird strike reporting rates. According to the USDA, birds of prey are the greatest risk to aircraft at Chicago O'Hare. Advances in technology have made aircraft and engines more resistant to bird strikes, but birds can still cause catastrophic damage. One Canada goose: 10 pounds. One Airbus A320 jetliner: 172,000 pounds. Combine the two at 200 miles per hour, and 155 lives are suddenly in need of a miracle in the Hudson. Last month the FAA announced a revised plan to lower the risk of bird strikes to aircraft through research and wildlife management. This strategy relies on database analysis and predictive models, yet fails to make reporting bird strikes mandatory - a move some experts say will hinder the effectiveness of the program. "We were lucky with the Hudson ditching, the next one will be a smoking hole in the ground - I just hope there aren't a lot of people aboard," said Ed Herricks, professor emeritus of environmental engineering at the University of Illinois, referring to the 2009 incident involving US Airways Flight 1549 in New York. Low reporting rates Herricks, who has a Ph.D. in biology, works with the FAA to develop strategies to minimize wildlife interactions with aircraft and improve air safety. He said there are at least 20 bird strikes on U.S. aircraft every day, and likely many more that go unreported. "Only 30 or 40 percent of bird strikes are reported, and the costs are handled by the airlines and aircraft owners. So the risk is there, but there isn't any pressure on the FAA to do anything - responsibility has largely been relegated to the airports," Herricks said. Aaron Spencer, a wildlife biologist for the USDA at Chicago O'Hare, said that bird strikes are a constant worry. "We always have bird strikes," Spencer said. "It's a really big issue here, there's no down time as far as wildlife goes." According to the FAA bird strike database, there have been 149 reported bird strikes at O'Hare in the last year. Three of the strikes were listed as having caused substantial damage. The FAA's bird strike database archived more than 29,500 civilian aircraft strikes in the U.S. in the last three years. This number represents a fraction of the bird strikes that actually occur. A 2009 FAA study estimated that 39 percent of bird strikes are actually reported, while a 2010 Department of Defense study puts the reporting rate at only 20 percent. Despite the low reporting rates, the FAA concluded in its most recent bird strike prevention plan released on April 25, that reporting bird strikes does not need to be mandatory. "The current level of reporting is statistically valid and is sufficient for the FAA to develop national trends and mitigation policies, making mandatory reporting unnecessary," the FAA report said. Herricks said there was more to the FAA's decision than statistics. "Yes, I do think bird strike reporting should be mandatory, but I don't know how you enforce it," Herricks said. "That's probably a significant part of the FAA's decision - why put something out there that people will ignore? That sets a bad precedent." There is no incentive for an airline to report bird strikes in a voluntary system, Herricks said, because more vigilant reporting may have a negative impact on an airline's bottom line. "An airline that more actively reports its strikes could end up with ink on its face, and it might seem like they're striking more birds than an airline that doesn't report," Herricks said. NTSB recommendations disregarded The FAA's decision to not make bird strike reporting mandatory goes against recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board dating back to 1999. In 1999 the NTSB published a safety recommendation following two bird strike events on passenger jets that resulted in severe damage to the aircraft. The report urged the FAA to make bird strike reporting mandatory. "The voluntary reporting system has not resulted in the provision of adequate data on bird strike hazards, and this has hindered the proper evaluation of the problem and implementation of safety improvements," the NTSB recommendation said. Following the fatal 2008 crash of a Cessna Citation business jet following a bird-strike, the NTSB published an accident report with recommendations to the FAA, including: "Require all airports and aircraft operators to report all wildlife strikes, including, if possible, species identification, to the Federal Aviation Administration National Wildlife Strike Database." The FAA response to the 2009 NTSB recommendation said, "We believe the current level of reporting of 39 percent is statistically valid and sufficient to analyze trends and develop national mitigation policies." In a document released to Medill Reports, the NTSB said, "In recent decades, the Safety Board has issued dozens of safety recommendations related to bird strikes. [...] Of those, Safety Recommendation A-99-091 requested that the FAA 'require all airplane operators to report bird strikes to the FAA.'" Herricks said the FAA chose not to adopt the NTSB's recommendations because of logistical difficulties. "I think the FAA's reluctance to make reporting mandatory is more a matter of bureaucracy, and not necessarily for nefarious reasons," Herricks said. "And when I say it's bureaucracy, I mean there are issues of practicality - this would be exceptionally expensive to enforce." Despite pushback from the FAA, the NTSB continues to believe mandatory bird strike reporting could improve air safety. According to the NTSB, "The FAA chose not to adopt the recommendation; however, the Board continues to believe that mandatory reporting of all wildlife strikes would allow a more complete and accurate assessment of the wildlife strike problem and would enhance mitigation efforts." Efforts to make the bird strike database secret The debate over mandatory bird strike reporting is not the first time the FAA and NTSB have clashed over issues relating to bird strikes. Notably, the FAA drew criticism from experts and lawmakers in 2009 when it proposed a federal law to make its national bird strike database off-limits to the public. The FAA published a notice in 2009 that said the move was intended to protect the data to encourage voluntary reporting. The FAA said the potentially negative impacts on passenger confidence in air safety could affect the bottom lines of airports and airlines. The move drew criticism from the NTSB and the US Department of Transportation. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood chucked the FAA's proposal and said the public had a right to the information. "To keep this information secret when most every other accident type is reported made no sense at all. Secretary LaHood is making the right call to scrap the FAA's proposal," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. In a 2009 letter to the FAA, acting NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said, "The safety board believes that public access to all the data in the FAA Wildlife Strike Database is critical to the analysis and mitigation of the wildlife strike problem, and the board strongly disagrees with the FAA's proposal to restrict public access to these data." Bird strike data essential to air safety Pilots and air traffic controllers currently rely on three types of tools to anticipate the bird strike threat: Predictive models of bird behavior, airport-specific wildlife management programs, and sensory data such as radar that can provide real-time updates on bird behavior. Two out these three tools , predictive models and wildlife management, rely on accurate bird strike data to be effective. The most widely used predictive model is the U.S. Air Force's Bird Avoidance Model, known as BAM to pilots. BAM is a computer model that is formulated from several pieces of information, including; radar data, weather patterns, bird migration patterns - and bird strike reports. BAM is used by civilian pilots in the flight planning process to gauge an airport's bird strike threat. Military pilots will even cancel flights based on BAM warnings. "When we flight plan we use BAM to get the bird condition at an airport," said a U.S. Air Force special operations pilot, on condition of anonymity. "If the threat level is too high, we just won't go there - so yeah, what BAM tells us about the bird threat really affects operations." Some experts worry that the predictive models and wildlife management programs used by pilots and airports may be based on incomplete data. A 2009 NTSB accident report on a fatal bird strike event said, "The low level of participation in voluntary wildlife strike reporting has resulted in data that severely underestimate the number and type of actual wildlife strikes." "Such incomplete information could reduce the effectiveness of any efforts to develop information that will assist pilots in developing operational strategies for minimizing the risk and severity of bird strikes," the report concluded. According to the Bird Strike Committee USA, a volunteer organization comprising members from the FAA, USDA, Department of Defense and airlines, accurate bird strike reporting is needed to manage wildlife at airports and design aircraft to better handle strikes. "Bird strike reports provide critical data for biologists, aeronautical engineers, and land- use planners to justify and develop effective programs to reduce damaging bird strikes," the Bird Strike Committee said on its website. According to Boeing, bird strike data are used to design aircraft capable of surviving high-speed impacts with birds. "Bird-strike data, together with knowledge of the operational environment, are utilized by Boeing as a basis of many airplane design features beyond regulatory requirements," said William S. Reed, a safety pilot for Boeing, in a report. While the FAA has not endorsed mandatory reporting, the administration has adopted another one of the NTSB's key recommendations - mandatory wildlife hazard assessments and wildlife hazard plans for all certificated airports. These programs, however, also depend on accurate bird strike data to be effective. According to a 2010 DOD report, "By knowing the species of bird involved in a bird strike event, managers can investigate the habitat and food habits of the species and begin the process of reducing, modifying or eliminating the attractants." At O'Hare, USDA wildlife management considers reporting bird strikes to be an essential part of managing the threat of strikes to aircraft. "We hold ourselves to a really high standard here in that if we find a bird on the runway, and even if we can't attribute it to a specific aircraft, we still report it as a strike because it helps us do our jobs better to know what kinds of animals are being struck out there," Spencer said. Bird strike reporting is mandatory in Canada. U.S. Air Force and Naval regulations dating back to 1981 require all bird strikes be reported. The military also requires that the remains of all impacted birds are sent to the Smithsonian Institute for species identification. Despite the lack of a mandate, the FAA has taken steps to make bird strike reporting easier. Mobile application software was recently created, allowing smart phone users to make additions to the FAA's online bird strike database with their data device. Technology has its limits Wildlife management programs and predictive models are not the only tools available to lessen the bird strike threat. The FAA also uses radar to monitor the bird strike threat in real-time. The radars currently in use were designed to detect aircraft, but have been modified to monitor bird activity. "The radars that we currently use at O'Hare were developed to look at large objects in two dimensions - we need technology for looking at small objects in three dimensions," Herricks said. New technologies such as thermal imaging and mortar-detection radar developed for use in Iraq and Afghanistan are on the horizon but have not yet been integrated into the domestic aviation infrastructure. "There are lots of technologies that can be reasonably applied," Herricks said. "What has to be improved is the willingness of the whole aerospace industry to respond and invest in this." New technology is being reviewed for use at O'Hare. Spencer said, "We're working with the University of Illinois Center for Aviation Excellence and trying to evaluate the use of new types of radars on birds and seeing how well that actually works when you put it in the airfield environment." Predictive technologies and real-time updates go hand in hand, Herricks said. The trick is learning how to effectively apply the available tools. "What really needs to be addressed are procedures to integrate the technology with practice, and we're just beginning to research how to do that," Herricks said. A continuing threat with serious consequences Since the first recorded bird strike fatality in 1912, birds have been a major concern to pilots. According to the DOD, bird and other wildlife strikes to U.S. aircraft cause more than $600 million in damage annually. DOD estimates put annual bird strikes costs to the military at $75 million. The Central Science Laboratory, a U.K. research institute, appraises the worldwide cost of bird strikes to airlines at nearly $1.2 billion annually. These strikes can have more serious consequences -- more than 220 people have been killed as a result of bird strikes since 1988. High passenger loads aboard modern jetliners and the increase in the volume of air traffic have increased both the probability and the consequences of a catastrophic bird strike event. New airplanes such as the Airbus A380 can hold more than 800 passengers in one class seating arrangements. Advances in technology have made modern aircraft more resistant to bird strike damage, Herricks said, but the threat of a catastrophic event still exists. "Technologies can lower the risk, but not eliminate it," Herricks said. "The Hudson crash showed us that, and the outcome could have been very different." According to airport data, Chicago O'Hare operates nearly 3,000 daily flights and more than 66 million passengers pass through the airport every year. The high volume of traffic has made bird strikes a worry for wildlife managers. "We do have bird strikes, and just based on the sheer volume of aircraft we push through this airspace, it's a really big issue," Spencer said. The risk of bird strikes is highest during takeoff, landing and associated phases of flight- usually within airport airspace. Bird strikes are also more likely to occur during spring due to bird migration patterns, and this year has been no exception. A Delta Air Lines flight to Los Angeles made an emergency landing on April 19 at Kennedy Airport after birds were sucked into the plane's engine. Five days later, a JetBlue flight had to turn around after two geese hit the aircraft's windshield. Planes carrying Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden were both struck by birds on April 19. No one was hurt. http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=205369 Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP, FRAeS, FISASI CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC