Flight Safety Information January 31, 2013 - No. 025 In This Issue Report: Stabilizer icing causes ATR-42 control problems on take-off Alaska aviation deaths down by half in 2012 EASA updates aviation safety roadmap Quito's nerve-trying urban airport shuts down (Ecuador) Fines to be imposed on airplane passengers (Turkey) Small Jet Goes Off Runway at CHO PROS IOSA Audit Experts Japanese carrier ANA prepared to pursue damages from Boeing over 787 jet woes Aircraft paint suppliers explore sharkskin coating Report: Stabilizer icing causes ATR-42 control problems on take-off Danish Air Transport ATR-42 Stabilizer icing on an ATR-42 passenger plane likely caused serious control problems during takeoff, according to a report by the Accident Investigation Board Norway. On November 9, 2007 an ATR-42 operated by Danish Air Transport was departing from Bergen Airport, Norway when it lifted off prematurely without any control input had been given from the flight crew. The airplane continued on an uncontrolled climb despite both control columns being moved to the forward stops and additional engine power had been added. The stick shaker activated and the "cricket" sound was heard for some seconds at the same time as the airspeed decreased. Eventually the airplane nose started to lower and the airspeed gradually increased, after which the stick shaker ceased. The flight crew got control over the situation and continued on the flight to Florø. After landing at Florø Airport the flight controls and control surfaces was inspected without anything abnormal was found. The crew observed that snow was forming on the aircraft during the stopover at Bergen, in addition to remnants of clear ice from the previous flight on the wings, the horizontal tail surface and the propeller spinners. Prior to departure, the aircraft was de-iced and treated with anti-icing fluid. The Accident Investigation Board has noted that de-icing of the stabiliser, and especially the rear sections in the transition between stabiliser and elevator, was given special attention in the tail surface de-icing procedure for ATR 42/72. This is to prevent the elevator from freezing, as has happened several times with this, and aircraft types of similar design. The procedure also explicitly states that the upper surface of the tail must be de-iced, but the AIBN still questions whether the special focus on clearance between the elevator and stabiliser on ATR, and other aircraft types with a similar tail design, may have caused the de-icing personnel to not be sufficiently attentive to the importance of also keeping the upper surface of the stabiliser and elevator completely free of ice and snow. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Alaska aviation deaths down by half in 2012 Float plane crash on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula kills former state lawmaker After a couple of rough years in Alaska aviation, 2012 offered a relative bright spot with 11 fatalities, almost half of the deaths of the previous year. When the National Transportation Safety Board last week released its report on the disappearance of pilot Brendan Mattingley's plane in October of last year -- determining that Mattingley was likely dead after his plane vanished over Cook Inlet -- it brought the number of fatalities from Alaska aviation accidents in 2012 to 11. While some will say that even one flying fatality is too many, that's a big improvement. The previous year, 21 died -- several in rare midair collisions -- and 23 perished in 2010. Was there one contributing factor? Are pilots simply being more safety-conscious? Are new technologies allowing pilots and passengers to survive crashes that otherwise would be fatal? Or is it just a little bit of luck? Well, it turns out it may be a combination of all three. The Federal Aviation Administration and pilot organizations, through numerous safety programs, are taking a proactive stance on reducing aviation accidents, and the result has been a steady decline over recent decades. Brian Staurseth, manager of the FAA's Safety Team office in Alaska, said there's been a two-pronged focus on increasing safety in Alaska. The first part, he said, focuses on pilots, offering them safety tips outside of the normal inspection and regulatory capacity of the FAA, simply making sure safety is a priority. That includes visiting general aviation air carriers (general aviation is the term typically used for unscheduled commercial and non-commercial flights in small planes often associated with buzzing around Alaska's skies) to educate and inform about safety. "It's mostly about giving them suggestions in a non-regulatory, and non-punitive atmosphere," Staurseth said. "Most are very receptive, though there's always those out there that don't care what we're doing there, we're just from the FAA and they don't want to talk to us." The second part, he says, targets passengers on general aviation flights. Passengers, Staurseth said, are "the other half of the equation," and it's important for them to know when a pilot is safely operating an aircraft when it comes to things like properly distributing weight and keeping the overall weight within a plane's operating specifications. That's accomplished primarily through public outreach including media commercials, he said. Lifesaving technology There's also technology -- improved shoulder harnesses and seatbelt airbags, even helmets for pilots and passengers -- that contribute to survival. A key piece of technology that the FAA and NTSB hope to focus on is upgrading aircraft Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT) to the recommended 406 megahertz frequency, rather than the previous 121.5 MHz. The latter frequency isn't even monitored by search-and-rescue officials anymore, which means the 406 ELTs, though not required, can be crucial to successfully recovering someone from the Alaska wilderness. Many planes still lack the 406 transmitter, making search and rescue difficult. A March 2011 crash saw Forest Service employee John Burick in survival mode for four days after his plane crashed near Triumvirate Glacier in Southcentral Alaska. Unequipped with the newer ELT, Burick hiked from his downed aircraft to Beluga Lake before being rescued. NTSB Alaska Chief Clint Johnson said that the 406 ELT upgrade "is still at the top of our concern list," but other technologies also have emerged in recent years that make up somewhat for the lack of 406 ELTs. Among them: Spidertracks and SPOT, which Johnson said can "give you a breadcrumb" in locating a missing aircraft. But perhaps the most important technology of recent years is the ADS-B program, a navigational aid that replaces radar with on-the-ground transceivers that provide pilots with real-time terrain and GPS data. In place in Alaska for more than a decade, the FAA hopes to implement the service nationwide by 2020. Johnson said that he's seen the results of ADS-B firsthand since he's been with the NTSB, especially in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Southwest Alaska. "It's definitely helped over the years," Johnson said of the technology. "In the 15-year timeframe since I've been here, we've seen a steady decline in the sheer number of accidents. When I first started, it seemed like every single weekend we were going out on multiple fatals out on the Yukon or somewhere." Still, Johnson said, the ADS-B technology is not a "save-all," and other programs like the FAA weather camera system -- encompassing hundreds of cameras around the state -- have also helped reduce fatal accidents. A game of chance While improved technology and education certainly contribute to the improved accident numbers -- a report from the Centers for Disease Control last year said as much -- there's still an element of chance in the year-to-year number of fatalities. A May 2011 crash killed a family of five near Birchwood, and a mid-air collision in July of the same year killed four others. In 2012, the most fatalities resulting from any accident was just two -- one crash in March and another in July. There were only two more fatal incidents overall in 2011 compared to 2012 with a total of 10 more deaths. One fatal 2012 crash had an outcome that could have been worse, when a floatplane carrying five people crashed into Beluga Lake near Homer. Only one person, former state legislator Cheryll Heinze, was killed in that crash after being trapped in the submerged aircraft. And now, as the first month of 2013 draws near a close without a fatal accident, Alaska aviators are surely hoping for another year of relatively safe skies. http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alaska-aviation-deaths-down-half-2012 Back to Top EASA updates aviation safety roadmap The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has just released an updated roadmap to tackle key aviation safety risks. Released in a document known as the European Aviation Safety Plan (EASp), 86 key safety actions to tackle operational, systemic and emerging aviation safety issues are identified for implementation until 2016. The EASp creates a common focus for the entire European aviation community. Through its risk analysis and actions, the EASp is the outcome of an overarching Safety Management System for the European region. It creates a practical link between high- level safety issues and actions to be implemented by States, partner organisations, the aviation industry and EASA itself. Commenting on the release of the EASp, Patrick Goudou, EASA Executive Director, said, "The third edition of the EASp is at the heart of a European aviation Safety Management System - one which identifies the hazards, assesses the risks, and provides actions to mitigate those risks". The EASp also contains information on progress made since the previous edition of the Plan. One recently completed deliverable of the EASp has been the publication of the European Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Excursions (EAPPRE). This Action Plan, aimed at all providers and users of European aerodromes and all European aircraft operators, is the result of the combined and sustained efforts of organisations involved in all areas of runway operations. Eurocontrol led its development with support from EASA and the European Commercial Aviation Safety Team. Central to the recommendations is the uniform and consistent application of ICAO provisions. The Action Plan also contains practical recommendations with guidance materials to assist operational staff. The European Aviation Safety Plan (EASp) covering the 2013-2016 period can be downloaded from here. The European Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Excursions (EAPPRE) can be downloaded from here Back to Top Quito's nerve-trying urban airport shuts down (Ecuador) In this Jan. 22, 2013 photo, a plane approaches the Mariscal Sucre airport for landing in Quito, Ecuador. Landing at Ecuador's capital can be a white-knuckle affair. High altitude, a cramped runway and towering, active volcanos nearby make it one of Latin America's most challenging aiports for pilots. And the constant roar of the planes has tormented those on the ground as well. That will change on Feb. 19 as Quito moves its airport to an agricultural setting 12 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of the city, joining other cities that have moved, or tried to move, planes further from people. In this Jan. 15, 2013 photo, the windows of a building reflect the image of a plane approaching the Mariscal Sucre airport for landing in Quito, Ecuador. Mariscal Sucre airport sat amid cornfields when it was christened in 1960, and on Feb. 19, the airport will close and a new airport will be built. The runway will become a grassy esplanade, and a flurry of construction is anticipated nearby. The newly revised code will allow for buildings as high as 40 stories, up from the current four. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) (The Associated Press) QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Landing at Ecuador's capital can be a white-knuckle affair. High altitude, a cramped runway and towering volcanos nearby make it one of Latin America's most challenging airports for pilots. And the constant roar of the planes torments those on the ground as well. That will change on Feb. 19 as Quito moves its airport to an agricultural setting 12 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of the city, joining other cities that have moved - or tried to move - planes further from people. Mariscal Sucre airport sat amid cornfields when it was christened in 1960. Over the years, Quito grew dense around it, turning the airfield into a notoriously nerve-wracking neighbor, with planes booming in and out from 5:45 a.m. until 2 a.m. without rest. "The racket of the planes sometimes woke us at dawn," said Maria Davila, 40, who has lived two blocks from the runway since she was a child. "The windows of the house would rattle and it seemed they would shatter." "I often thought a plane would fall onto my house and kill all my family," she added. "The airport has been a bad neighbor, a very dangerous neighbor." There are a lot more of those neighbors than when it opened. Just about 350,000 lived in Quito then. The population has grown to about 2.2 million now. Over the course its life, Mariscal Sucre has seen 10 serious accidents. In 1984, a DC-8 owned by the company Aeca clipped some navigation aids on takeoff and plunged onto neighboring homes. Forty-nine people were killed. Fourteen years later, A Cubana de Aviacion Tupolev 154 failed on takeoff and slammed into the airport's wall, killing 76. Most accidents were what the industry calls "runway excursions" - as in running off the runway. They tend to plague urban airports with minimal margins for error. In addition to the cramped runway and nearby mountains, which force a steep angle of approach, the airport sits at an elevation of nearly 8,700 feet (2,850 meters), an oxygen-thin altitude that diminishes aircraft performance on takeoff and landing. Frequent air travelers, even those accustomed to the Andes' choppy air currents, can get anxious on approach to Quito, which handles about 220 departures and arrivals a day, carrying an average of 451,000 passengers a year. Growing up with the constant roar of jets surging skyward in their midst has engendered fatalism in some neighbors. Fernando Araujo, a 22-year-old university student, plays soccer just outside the northern end of the runway and said he's not bothered by the gleaming hulks of steel that pass just over the field. "I'm not at all afraid. We're accustomed to the planes' takeoffs and landings," he said. "Only God knows when we'll be taken, so we're relaxed." The new airport at Tababela is built to handle 290 flights a day and has a runway 4,100 meters (13,450 feet) long. That's nearly 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) longer the soon-to- be shuttered airfield. Other cities in the region have tried to move airports to less troublesome sites. Honduras is planning to move most airline flights out of notorious Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa, whose short runway and urban location make it the region's most dangerous major airport by many accounts. It was closed to commercial jets in 2008 for six weeks after a Taca A320 jet ran off the runway and into a busy street, killing five, including two on the ground. Land disputes, however, have frustrated efforts to move Mexico City's airport to more spacious terrain further from the urban sprawl. Tight space has led the tiny Caribbean islands of St. Barts, St. Maartin and Saba to put up with airports widely considered among the most hair-raising in the world. Quito's new airfield, which also carries the name of 19th-century independence leader Antonio Jose de Sucre, is bordered by cropland and encompasses nearly 6 square miles (15.5 square kilometers), twelve times the area of the old airport, most of which will now become a public park. As runway becomes grassy esplanade, a flurry of construction is anticipated nearby. The newly revised code will allow for buildings as high as 40 stories, up from the current four. "I can't even imagine what it's going to be like without all the noise and fear," said Francisco Cahuines, whose construction supply business borders the airfield's northern end. There will, however, be one big drawback. While the old Mariscal Sucre could be reached from downtown in 20 minutes or so it will take at least an hour to get to the new airport, and no train-to-the-plane is yet planned. Back to Top Fines to be imposed on airplane passengers (Turkey) The regulation will be put into effect as of the beginning of 2014. According to a new regulation drafted by the Civil Aviation General Directorate (SHGM), passengers who do not obey security rules on airplanes will face fines of between TL 1,000 and 10,000. The regulation was published in the Official Gazette on Tuesday. Passengers who defy rules airline rules and smoke, use electronic devices during prohibited periods, fail to remain seated when required or get into fights with fellow passengers or staff that cause a disturbance, among other things, will face stiff penalties. Under the regulation, passengers who smoke or get into a fight with staff or other passengers will be fined TL 1,000. Moreover, the regulation says that a passenger who directs a laser pointer at another aircraft during a flight will be fined TL 10,000. Fines will be doubled if the action is repeated on a subsequent flight. The regulation will be put into effect as of the beginning of 2014. The fines will be collected by the Ministry of Finance. http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=102569 Back to Top Small Jet Goes Off Runway at CHO A small private plane slid off the runway at Charlottesville Albemarle Airport Wednesday night. The Learjet plane landed on the runway, but ended up crossing into a taxiway and onto the grass. All three people who were on board are fine and the runway is operational again. Commercial flights will not be affected. As of Wednesday night, rescue crews were still on the scene. The plane will remain in place as state police continue their investigation. http://www.nbc29.com/story/20877882/small-jet-goes-off-runway-at-cho Back to Top Back to Top Japanese carrier ANA prepared to pursue damages from Boeing over 787 jet woes TOKYO (AP) - Japan's All Nippon Airways is prepared to recoup from Boeing whatever damages it suffers from flight cancellations and other costs caused by the worldwide grounding of 787 jets, a senior executive said Thursday. All Nippon Airways Co. Chief Financial Officer Kiyoshi Tonomoto said the airline was focused on investigating the cause of the 787 battery problems, and it was not yet in damage negotiations with Boeing Co. He also said efforts were focused on minimizing flight disruptions and revenue losses by using other aircraft. "But we will negotiate with Boeing," Tonomoto told reporters. "We are now focusing on assuring safety for our customers." ANA, the biggest customer for the Dreamliner with 17 of the jets in its fleet, canceled 459 domestic and international flights canceled this month, causing about 1.4 billion yen ($15.4 million) in lost revenue. It said it was unclear when the aircraft will be cleared by regulators to fly again. All 50 Boeing 787s in use around the world were grounded earlier this month after a lithium-ion battery in a 787 operated by ANA overheated. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at an airport in southwestern Japan, shortly after takeoff. Earlier in January, a 787 operated by ANA's rival Japan Airlines, suffered a battery fire while parked at a Boston airport. ANA and JAL were the first carriers to stop flying the 787 jets, known as the Dreamliner. Tonomoto said ANA revenue will be eroded by about 3 percent for this fiscal year ending March 31 if the 787 services can't be resumed, but that will translate to minimal impact on profit. Such losses will be gradually reduced over coming months, he said. "It is not small," Tonomoto said of the 787 impact. "But it is not that great." ANA, the eighth biggest airline in the world by revenue, stuck to its forecast for a 40 billion yen ($440 million) profit in the current fiscal year, up nearly 12 percent from the previous year, despite the 787 woes. The number of international passengers for the April-December period jumped 10 percent, while the number of domestic passengers rose nearly 7 percent, and as both business and leisure travel picked up for ANA. The recovery came despite a fall in travel to China, where anti-Japanese sentiment flared up over a territorial dispute in the latter half of 2012. ANA's summer travel offerings were made on the assumption that it would have the 787 jets and so, if the grounding goes on longer, the plans will have to be remapped. Flight plans for February and beyond were still undecided, and the carrier won't have a midterm plan until the 787 problems are cleared up, it said. ANA hopes to fix whatever is wrong with the 787 as quickly as possible and, when services are ready to resume, hopes to give a full explanation so customers can feel the jets are safe, Tonomoto said. Boeing CEO Jim McNerney said Wednesday the U.S. manufacturer is sticking with plans to speed up 787 production and sees no reason to drop the lithium-ion batteries. Airlines have been replacing 787 batteries at a rate that's "slightly higher" than Boeing had expected, but they were being replaced for maintenance reasons, not for safety concerns, he said. McNerney said "good progress" is being made in finding the cause of the problems, but didn't have a timeline for when the plane would get back in the air. The 787 is an innovative aircraft. It is powered by electricity more than older aircraft and its body is carbon fiber, not aluminum like standard planes. Major Japanese manufacturers have supplied key parts of the jet, including the lithium-ion battery at the center of the investigation. The battery's manufacturer, GS Yuasa, based in Kyoto, has refused comment while the investigation is ongoing. Still, Tonomoto had only praise for the 787, for its fuel-efficiency but also for a cabin that's more comfortable for fliers than older aircraft. "I think it is a fantastic plane," he said at the Transport Ministry. "Once this incident is dealt with, it will again be assessed as a quality plane." Back to Top Aircraft paint suppliers explore sharkskin coating The rough skin of sharks has long been known for the low friction of its myriad tiny, sharp-edged scales. Airbus tested aircraft in the 1990s which were partially covered with a foil that mimicked the animals' surface texture. But despite the promise of aerodynamic improvement, the technology has yet to pass the experimental stage. Lack of durability has been one problem. Another is the fact that while a sharkskin texture can be applied to aircraft or ships, the underlying physics of surface drag is extremely complicated; if nothing else, a shark is far more slippery than a similarly- textured aircraft if only because it is subtly flexible. However, evolution in paint technology has combined with rising fuel prices to revive interest in transferring the shark's slippery surface texture to aircraft. Lufthansa Technik (LHT) is testing aircraft paint with a similarly grooved surface in a joint project under Europe's Clean Sky initiative, together with Airbus, Germany's Fraunhofer research institute and Hamburg-based coating manufacturer Mankiewicz. US coatings specialist PPG is also working on drag reduction surfaces, using paint- and foil-based approaches. Mark Cancilla, global director of PPG's aerospace division, says patterned surfaces can lead to "very significant" reductions in the airframe's drag coefficient, thus lowering specific fuel consumption (SFC). However, the problem has been to keep the aircraft skin clean without additional washing, so progress depends on developing dirt-repellent coatings. Cancilla says such drag-reduction surfaces could come on to the market during the next four years. Ultra-smooth surfaces reduce friction at slow speed but at high speed the riblets are more effective, despite increasing an aircraft's surface area because they cut drag by reducing turbulence perpendicular to the airflow. Fraunhofer's institute for manufacturing technology and advanced materials has devised a process it calls the "simultaneous stamp hardening method", whereby the nanometer- range grooves are embossed into the freshly applied wet paint using a silicon film with inverse riblets, which is later removed. DRYING ON DEMAND Application is a challenge. Any practical coating must stay soft long enough to allow the riblets to be impressed into its surface, but then harden rapidly to freeze the delicate texture. This has been achieved with a paint containing only a small amount of volatile solvents, formulated for curing within seconds under ultraviolet light. Aside from repelling dirt, the coating must also maintain its surface texture during use by remaining resistant over a long time to the abrasion and erosion resulting from the physical impact of dust, sand or hail, or the chemical action of de-icing fluid. And, as with regular aircraft exterior paint, it must be flexible to endure the fuselage's expansion and contraction during flight cycles and withstand intense UV radiation without weathering. Close up image of the riblet structure of anti-drag coating Andreas Ossenkopf, head of Mankiewicz's aviation department, thinks the riblets need to remain intact for at least five years, compared with the eight-year lifespan of the modern base coat/clear coat paint systems typically used on aircraft, and on which the low-drag coating is based. Unlike normal paint systems, the low-drag system's clear topcoat provides all environmental protection, while underlying layers merely provide colourisation and are formulated for fast drying times. In conventional systems, each colour layer fulfils all protective functions, leading to longer drying times - so the low-drag coating can compensate for its shorter lifespan not only by saving fuel but by speeding up the application process. The new chemistries also allow for modification of the surface properties of the clear topcoat without regard to the formulation of the underlying colour coats. This flexibility could be exploited to create multifunctional surfaces. LHT has been testing riblet paint on two of its parent carrier's Airbus A340s since mid- 2011, in a trial scheduled to run until summer 2013. Eight 10 x 10cm (4 x 4in) test patches have been placed on the fuselage and wings of each aircraft to assess the coating's durability in regular flight operations. Ensuring the stamp process can be applied on an industrial scale without prohibitive production costs and turnaround times is another major hurdle. Ossenkopf points out that the riblet paint has so far only been used in small sections in selected areas. While it will not be necessary to apply it to the entire fuselage and wings, he says the aerodynamically relevant sections still constitute a large area that will be "challenging" to cover. LHT aims for a "highly automated [paint] application process" and might conduct subsequent trials with larger test patches. But the German maintenance, repair and overhaul provider says preliminary evaluations of the riblet paint show potential SFC savings of "more than 1%". If cost of the paint and application process can be kept low enough, even this small gain should prove attractive. If the grooved lacquer finds application on tomorrow's airliners, however, airline marketing departments will have to gloss over a cosmetic hitch of the "green" coating. A rough surface may save fuel, but these slippery aircraft will have lost their shine. http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/aircraft-paint-suppliers-explore-sharkskin- coating-381646/ Curt Lewis