Flight Safety Information February 1, 2013 - No. 026 In This Issue Alaska Air jet makes safe landing after pilot passes out Airbus says it has a "Plan B" for A350 jet batteries Delta Jet Evacuated After Fire Dutch 737 pilot locked out of cockpit while co-pilot sleeps FAA 787 Inspections Reveal Checks Were Left to Boeing JetBlue flight diverts to Denver due to passenger Fog Forces Delhi Airport to Suspend Flight Departures PROS IOSA Audit Experts Nigeria works to dismantle a troubled history of airplane crashes Alaska Air jet makes safe landing after pilot passes out PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - An Alaska Airlines jetliner bound for Seattle made an emergency landing in Portland, Ore., Thursday night after the pilot lost consciousness, an airline spokesman said. The co-pilot landed Flight 473 safely after declaring an emergency to get priority care for the pilot, spokesman Paul McElroy said. All of the airlines' pilots are trained to fly single- handedly. The pilot lost consciousness "somewhere over Oregon," McElroy said, then later regained consciousness and left the cockpit. A doctor on board the flight tended to him in the cabin until the plane landed and was met by medical personnel on the runway. The pilot, who was not identified, was taken to a hospital but there was no immediate word on his condition, McElroy said. The Boeing 737-700 with 116 passengers and five crew members left Los Angeles about 6:30 p.m. and touched down in Portland at about 9 p.m. It had been due to arrive in Seattle at 9:30 p.m. McElroy says the pilot has been flying for Alaska for 28 years and was current on his six- month medical evaluation. The co-pilot is an 11-year Alaska Air veteran. On Jan. 22, the co-pilot on an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Las Vegas fainted briefly, and the pilot requested emergency landing priority to get prompt medical assistance for him. "At this point we do not believe there was a connection between the two incidents," McElvoy said. Twenty passengers with a tight schedule for connecting flights were put on a Horizon Air shuttle flight to Seattle on Thursday night, the spokesman said. A new pilot was dispatched to Portland to fly the remaining passengers to Seattle on board the same plane. Back to Top Airbus says it has a "Plan B" for A350 jet batteries The main body section of the first Airbus A350 is seen on the final assembly line in Toulouse TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - Airbus has studied alternatives to lithium-ion batteries for its next jet, the A350, and has time to adapt to any rule changes prompted by the problems that have grounded Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner, its top executive said. Airbus plans to use lithium-ion batteries on the A350, similar to the technology incorporated in Boeing's 787 airliners, and so far has stood by the modern power packs. "We studied the integration of these batteries on the A350 very carefully," Airbus Chief Executive Fabrice Bregier told a group of French aerospace journalists on Thursday. "I am very relaxed about this." The first U.S. grounding of a new model of passenger jet in over 30 years has focused attention on the risks that lithium-ion batteries can overheat and ignite a fire that is harder to put out than most flames, because of the solvents involved. Airbus warned about the risks of lithium-ion batteries at a closed meeting of airlines in March 2011, according to a presentation first reported by Reuters this week. "We identified this fragility at the start of development and we think we resolved it about a year ago," Bregier said. "Nothing prevents us from going back to a classical plan that we have been studying in parallel." He did not provide details, but some aerospace industry sources caution that a redesign of the batteries could require months of engineering work and tests to obtain certification. "We have a robust design. If this design has to evolve, we have the time to do that," Bregier said. "If it has to change in a more drastic way because the authorities reach the conclusion that the technology is not mature, then we have all the time we need to do this on the A350 before first delivery in the second half of 2014." The head of the company that makes A350 batteries, France's Saft, told Reuters earlier on Thursday he did not believe there would be a radical rethink by aviation regulators on the use of lithium-ion as a result of the 787's problems. It is the first time Boeing or Airbus has used the technology in designing commercial passenger jets. POWER BOOST Lithium-ion batteries are a third lighter than their older nickel-cadmium counterparts and are also capable of supporting other electrical systems that make the plane lighter. They take up less space than the nickel cadmium batteries used on most jets. Experts say the 787 relies more heavily than the A350 on electrical systems instead of traditional hydraulics to control brakes and other systems, and therefore needs more power back-up. The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said after a press conference last week that the lack of a fire-fighting system in the 787's battery compartment, which also contains flight electronics, was one area being examined. Airbus has declined to say whether the A350 would include battery fire extinguishers, but industry sources say burning materials would instead be expelled outside the plane and that the fire hazard is reduced by electronics also provided by Saft. Saft declined to comment on the A350 battery design. Boeing's 787 batteries are supplied by French defence electronics company Thales, which sub-contracts the lithium-ion cells to Japanese company GS Yuasa Corp. A year after intense global publicity surrounding wing cracks on its A380 superjumbos, Airbus is keen to avoid a public split with its commercial rival on safety issues. But after sending a public message of support to Boeing on the 787 this month, Bregier exhibited frustration at growing speculation over the saga's impact on the A350. "I'm not going to give any lessons to Boeing. At the same time, I don't have to take any either, when I think we have done well and have a plan which allows me to have aircraft flying with batteries that don't catch fire," he said. "Let's allow the U.S. authorities to come up with their own recommendations and decisions." Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney said on Wednesday the U.S. planemaker was "narrowing down" the potential causes of the two battery incidents that led to the 787 grounding. Back to Top Delta Jet Evacuated After Fire A Delta jet was evacuated today at Boston's Logan International Airport due to a fire on the plane. According to CBS, the fire occurred while the plane was being taxied toward the runway. The brake system caught fire and all of the passengers were evacuated from the aircraft. No one was hurt in the incident. Travelers Today reports that 143 passengers were evacuated from Delta flight 2101. The plane was scheduled to fly from Boston to Atlanta. According to one of the passengers, the MD90 jet was on its way to the runway when one of the brakes locked up. Kevin Davis, a passenger on the plane, said: "We were taxing out to the runway and one of the brakes locked up on the right side wheel. The captain notified us that a fire truck would be following us back to the terminal and apparently the brake caught fire as we were taxing back, so they evacuated all the passengers off the plane." The passengers were bussed back to the terminal and put on a connecting flight. www.inquisitr.com/504707/delta-jet-evacuated-after-fire/#X9tS4Twqv5q5YUzS.99 Back to Top Dutch 737 pilot locked out of cockpit while co-pilot sleeps (CNN) -- Dutch airline Transavia said it has launched an investigation after a Boeing 737 pilot was locked out of the cockpit and his first officer was later found asleep at the controls. The incident took place in September, when the airliner was en route from Greece to the Netherlands, a top Dutch safety investigation agency said. The 737 landed safely in Amsterdam as scheduled, the airline said Wednesday. According to a Dutch Safety Board report released Wednesday, the pilot stepped out of the cockpit to take a bathroom break about 2½ hours into the flight. When he returned a short time later, the pilot used an intercom to ask his first officer to open the door. There was no answer, the report said. Eventually, the pilot alerted the crew and was able to open the door himself. That's when he found the first officer asleep, according to the report. "It's a serious incident," said Wim van der Weegen of the Dutch Safety Board, "What makes it serious is the combination of the pilot being unable to access the cockpit and the first officer being asleep. "By 'serious incident,' I mean the flight was in danger," he said. The Dutch Safety Board will decide whether to open its own inquiry when the airline's investigation is finished, van der Weegen said. Laws regarding pilot breaks during flights vary from country to country. For U.S. carriers, sleeping while at the controls is a violation of FAA regulations. Flights longer than eight hours require a relief pilot on board to take over when pilots sleep. U.S. airlines also require a flight attendant to be in the cockpit when the pilot or first officer take bathroom breaks, in case the person flying the aircraft becomes incapacitated. Back to Top FAA 787 Inspections Reveal Checks Were Left to Boeing By Alan Levin When it came time for U.S. regulators to certify the safety of Boeing Co. (BA)'s 787 Dreamliner and its new technologies, they relied on the planemaker's engineers to oversee final tests and vouch for their company's work. The Federal Aviation Administration has operated that way for many years, even as government audits have found those efforts were sometimes poorly overseen and led to errors. The agency in 2005 began allowing Boeing and other manufacturers to pick the engineers, who previously were chosen by the FAA. Safety Enhanced "It's hard for the public to accept the concept for someone else to make a finding for the government," he said. "But this has been done since the start of the FAA. This is really just an extension of that, with better oversight than they had back then." The agency can overturn decisions by outside engineers and must sign off on all decisions, according to an e-mailed statement it provided. Engineers in the program must agree to act on behalf of the government. "We provide rigorous oversight," the agency said. "If the FAA sees any evidence that a delegation system is compromised, the agency will revoke the authority." Most countries follow the FAA's lead in regulatory matters, though they do their own certifications of new planes and can order additional tests or data. Designated Engineers The FAA's statement didn't address how the Dreamliner's lithium batteries were approved in 2007, four years before the plane entered commercial service, and the NTSB hasn't released any information on that process from its investigation. The 787 was the first all-new Boeing model since the 777 debuted in 1995. Clues to how the FAA certified the batteries can be found in the steps it took to be sure that the 787's carbon-fiber structure was as strong and durable as the aluminum-based aircraft that preceded it. Boeing employees known as designated engineering representatives oversaw tests to demonstrate the design's strength, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report in 2011. FAA's engineering staff was responsible for overseeing the "more significant tests and documents" and took steps beyond what was required to oversee the new design, the GAO said. An 11-page directory of companies allowed by the FAA to choose engineers to certify designs and components lists Boeing and other companies that worked on the 787 program. Those include Thales SA (HO), based in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, France. Thales makes the Dreamliner's power packs that include batteries made by GS Yuasa Corp. (6674), based in Kyoto. 45 Violations Engineers designated by the FAA, including Boeing employees, have done an equivalent job to what the agency's own engineers would have done, Bret Jensen, a spokesman for the Chicago-based company, said in an interview. "The 787 was certified following the most rigorous test program in Boeing's history and the most robust certification program ever conducted by the FAA," Jensen said. "We are confident in the regulatory process that has been applied to the 787 since its design inception." The U.S. Transportation Department's inspector general, in a 2011 review of all FAA's aircraft certifications, found 45 instances in which non-agency engineers hadn't complied with the rules. The inspector general didn't name the companies involved. Swissair Crash One unidentified manufacturer couldn't show it had conducted "critical tests" on a new engine component, the inspector general found. Another manufacturer didn't follow rules for emergency oxygen supplies for passengers and crew, according to the report. The FAA agreed to make changes, including keeping a database of approved outside engineers to ensure that anyone with a history of performance issues would be barred from the program, according to the report. Neither the GAO nor inspector general cited evidence that the program has led to a safety lapse on a Boeing plane. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada pointed to engineering certification as a possible factor in the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, 1998, that killed all 229 aboard. Engineers at an aircraft maintenance company who were acting on the FAA's behalf signed off on an entertainment system that may have started a fire that brought down the plane, the Canadian safety board found. The engineers lacked sufficient knowledge of the Boeing MD-11's power grid to provide that certification, the board found. The FAA in response reviewed the entertainment system's approval and found it was done correctly, according to an inspector general report in 2004. Checks, Balances Hall, who led the NTSB from 1994 through 2000, said the safety board investigated several accidents in which the certification of an airliner was questioned. He stopped short of calling for the FAA to stop using outside engineers, while saying he would recommend a public hearing on the battery certification if he was still chairman. The system has adequate checks and balances to ensure safety, Larry Timmons, president of Aircraft Engineering Specialists Inc. in Bellevue, Washington, said in an interview. Timmons has been approved by the FAA to certify aircraft wing designs since 1969. From 1998 to 2004, the FAA removed 770 designated engineers for poor performance, according to the 2004 GAO report. Some FAA employees felt that the agency should have acted in more cases, according to the report. The 2011 inspector general's report didn't say how many removals have occurred since the program was changed, though it refers to one engineer whose authority was rescinded. The threat of the FAA discovering an error keeps the vast majority of outside engineers honest, Timmons said. "You build this reputation up," he said. "It's relatively easy to destroy. You don't get many chances to make a mistake. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-31/faa-787-inspections-reveal-checks-were- left-to-boeing.html Back to Top JetBlue flight diverts to Denver due to passenger DENVER (AP) -JetBlue Airways Corp. says a flight from New York to San Diego was diverted to Denver because of an unruly customer. JetBlue says Flight 185 landed around 7:15 p.m. Thursday in Denver, where the customer was met by law-enforcement officers. The airline says 137 passengers were on board, and they were back on their way several hours later. Passengers tell KMGH-TV ( http://tinyurl.com/avfy7bx) the woman was seated in the premium section when another passenger was moved to the same row because his TV monitor didn't work. Passengers said the woman became angry that the man was moved to her premium section without paying extra and she got into an argument with the flight crew. A federal air marshal intervened and the flight was diverted. Back to Top Forces Delhi Airport to Suspend Flight Departures NEW DELHI--Delhi's airport has suspended the departure of all international and domestic flights because of dense fog since 0030 GMT. "No flight has taken off from any of the runways at the Delhi airport for four hours. We don't know when flights will resume," a spokesman for GMR Infrastructure Ltd., who asked not to be named, told The Wall street Journal. GMR operates the Delhi airport. The spokesman didn't reveal how many outbound flights have been canceled so far, but said that some arrivals have been put off as well. Delhi, India's capital, often experiences dense winter fog. http://online.wsj.com/ Back to Top Back to Top Nigeria works to dismantle a troubled history of airplane crashes Officials estimate there are 65 abandoned planes at nation's airports, including in Lagos at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. Workers dismantle an abandoned airplane at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria. LAGOS, NIGERIA-Workers have begun dismantling the abandoned airplanes left to rot at airports across Nigeria, a nation with a troubled history of crashes and mismanaged airlines. The work has started in Lagos at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, where passengers coming into Africa's most populous nation have long seen the abandoned planes when landing. Henry Omeogu, director of airport operations for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, said Thursday that he hopes workers will dismantle all the aircraft within the coming weeks. Omeogu estimated there are at least 65 abandoned planes at Nigeria's airports, ranging from small jets to a massive Boeing 747 in the northern city of Kano. The work comes as Nigeria struggles to overcome a past filled with airline disasters and corruption in the aviation sector. http://www.thestar.com/ Curt Lewis