Flight Safety Information March 11, 2013 - No. 053 In This Issue Air India widebody jet clips JetBlue plane at JFK Small Delta jet runs off tarmac at Hobby Airport 2 pilots dead in Alaska cargo plane crash 'Aircraft lost control twice after landing' (India) FAA reaches million-dollar settlment over 2008 Continental Airline crash at DIA UN report raises air safety concerns in India UCF scientist may have golden solution for pilots hit by laser pointers Flying on fumes...- One UK Jet's fuel runs low every week Mitsubishi Aircraft Benefits From Weakening Yen on Orders CASE STUDY: How Orbis turned an old airplane into increased donations FSI on TWITTER Air India widebody jet clips JetBlue plane at JFK A taxiing Air India Boeing 777 jet clipped the tail of a JetBlue Airbus A320 over the weekend at New York's JFK Airport, an incident The Wall Street Journal says "could renew calls for steps to prevent such tarmac hazards." The Air India-JetBlue collision occurred early Saturday morning. It's the second high- profile clipping incident in two years at JFK. In April of 2011, the wing of an Air France Airbus A380 superjumbo jet clipped the tail of a regional jet flying for Delta affiliate Comair. That incident - captured on video - caused the much-smaller regional jet to spin around, almost looking like a toy in the video. http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2013/03/11/air-india-widebody-jet-clips- jetblue-plane-at-new-york-jfk/1977605/ Back to Top Small Delta jet runs off tarmac at Hobby Airport Aerial views from Air 11 showed the passenger jet partially sitting the grass near the tarmac. Several rescue vehicles surrounded it. HOUSTON -- A small Delta jet ran off the tarmac at Hobby Airport just before sunrise early Monday. No injuries were reported. Aerial views from Air 11 showed the passenger jet partially sitting the grass near the tarmac. Several rescue vehicles surrounded it. According to a passenger, the affected jet is Flight 4302. The flight was scheduled to depart Hobby at 6 a.m. and land in Atlanta at 7:39 a.m. Central time, according to FlightAware.com. There was no early word on what caused the plane to leave the tarmac. The passenger told KHOU 11 that the pilot blamed it on a faulty gear mechanism. Other reports indicated the plane suffered some kind of communication problem, and the pilot went into the grass while trying to turn around. The affected passengers were loaded onto and airport shuttle and taken back to the terminal. http://www.khou.com/news/local/Small-Delta-jet-runs-off-tarmac-at-Hobby-Airport- 196841471.html Back to Top 2 pilots dead in Alaska cargo plane crash The bodies of two Anchorage pilots were recovered on Saturday from the wreckage of an ACE Air Cargo plane that went missing in stormy weather on Friday about 20 miles northeast of Dillingham in Southwest Alaska, according to Alaska State Troopers. Alaska Air National Guard pararescuers located the wreckage at about 6 a.m. Saturday in the Muklung Hills, not far from the site of the 2010 crash that killed U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. The bodies of Capt. Jeff Day, 38, and 20-year-old Neil Jensen were recovered and flown to Dillingham, and then on to Anchorage, where they were turned over to the Alaska State Medical Examiner, troopers said. The twin-engine Beechcraft 1900 plane had been due at the local airport early Friday and was cleared to land but never arrived. Its emergency locator beacon began transmitting a signal at about 9:15 a.m. Friday, but initial efforts to reach the area by snowmachine were turned back by poor weather, troopers spokesperson Megan Peters said. An Air Guard helicopter followed the beacon's coordinates and located the site of the crash, but low hanging clouds made it impossible to see anything on the ground. Crews were forced to turn back for several hours, and search efforts resumed around 7 p.m. The National Weather Service reported skies overcast at 1,500 feet, with rain and light snow shortly before the plane went missing. Visibility was 7 miles with winds out of the east at 15 knots, gusting to 23. Within an hour, however, the conditions had degraded to skies overcast at 600 feet, visibility at 2 miles with rain and snow. The ACE crash was the second fatal airplane incident in Alaska this week. On Monday, three people died when a Cessna 182 following the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race crashed in Rainy Pass, killing all three aboard. http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130309/2-pilots-dead-alaska-cargo-plane- crash ************* Accident description Last updated: 11 March 2013 Status: Preliminary Date: 08 MAR 2013 Time: ca 08:30 Type: Beechcraft 1900 Operator: ACE Air Cargo Registration: registration unknown C/n / msn: First flight: Crew: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0 Total: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 Airplane damage: Written off Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: 32 km (20 mls) NE of Dillingham Municipal Airport, AK (DLG) (United States of America) Phase: Approach (APR) Nature: Cargo Departure airport: King Salmon Airport, AK (AKN) (AKN/PAKN), United States of America Destination airport: Dillingham Municipal Airport, AK (DLG) (DLG/PADL), United States of America Flightnumber: 51 Narrative: A Beechcraft 1900 cargo plane suffered an accident some 32 km northeast of Dillingham Municipal Airport, AK (DLG). The airplane was approaching in weather conditions that included a low cloud ceiling and light snow. The airplane did not arrive at the destination airport and an ELT signal indicated it had come down in the Muklung Hills. The wreckage was located the next day at an altitude of 2000 feet on the south side of the Muklung Hills. Weather reported about the time of the accident (08:30 LT / 17:30 UTC) was: PADL 081645Z 10017G30KT 7SM -RA OVC015 01/01 A2909 [08:55 LT: Wind 100 degrees at 17 knots, gusting to 30 knots; Visibility: 7 miles; light rain; overcast cloud deck at 1500 feet AGL; Temperature: 1°C, dew point: 1°C] PADL 081755Z 09015G23KT 7SM -RASN OVC015 01/00 A2914 [08:55 LT: Wind 090 degrees at 15 knots, gusting to 23 knots; Visibility: 7 miles; light rain, snow; overcast cloud deck at 1500 feet AGL; Temperature: 1°C, dew point: 0°C] www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top 'Aircraft lost control twice after landing' (India) MUMBAI: Preliminary investigations into Saturday's landing goof-up involving an Indigo flight from Chandigarh have revealed that the aircraft lost control twice before the pilot brought it under control. The commander and the co-pilot of flight 6E 433 were de-rostered on Sunday pending a probe by the Directorate general of Civil Aviation (DGCA) into the incident. The flight, with 140 passengers on board, deviated from the center-line of the runway and went left towards the shoulder, breaking five lights in the process. It then went further up to the unpaved area. The pilot reportedly tried to steer the aircraft back to the runway and brought it back till the shoulder, but it veered off again towards the unpaved patch. It was only in the second attempt that the plane was brought back on the runway. The Airbus A-320 landed at Mumbai airport at 6.35pm and went-off the 60-feet wide runway into the unpaved patch. It came back to the runway towards the taxiway without notifying the air traffic control. The incident was discovered eight minutes later when a Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd staffer spotted the five damaged runway lights. On Sunday, a preliminary draft was made and the pilots were summoned for a statement, said director general of civil aviation Arun Mishra. An Indigo spokesperson said that a gust of wind caused the incident. However, a DGCA official said that "the pilot seems to have lost control due to a technical glitch because of which the aircraft didn't turn towards the designated taxiway". The DGCA will be taking the wind pressure reading from the meteorological department to verify the airline's contention and submit a total assessment report on Monday. The primary findings by DGCA officials also show that while the aircraft was to vacate the main runway by a taxiway on the right side, it went off in the opposite direction. It first went left and broke one light on the runway's edge. While attempting to get back on the runway from the unpaved patch, it broke three more lights and went back towards the patch. In the second attempt, the aircraft damaged one more light. "Eventually, the aircraft vacated through a taxiway which is about 300 m from the one it was originally supposed to take," said a DGCA officer. The aircraft speed at that moment was around 60-80 knots, which is usual while landing. Officials said that not informing the air traffic control and apron control about the incident was another grave error. "The lights were broken and there were shards of glass on the runway. In such a situation, it isn't safe for other aircraft landing later. The runway has to be clear of metal and glass," said an airport official. "Fortunately, the incident was detected in 10 minutes before more flights started coming in." Airport officials said the airline also changed the tyre of the aircraft without telling the apron control. "The tyre is replaced only if it is not working and it has to be notified as per rules," said an official. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Aircraft-lost-control-twice-after- landing/articleshow/18899406.cms Back to Top FAA reaches million-dollar settlment over 2008 Continental Airline crash at DIA, attorney says Suit: Air traffic control didn't warn about gusts DENVER - Passengers and crew members who endured a Continental Airlines crash at Denver International Airport in 2008 have reached a million-dollar lawsuit settlement with the Federal Aviation Administration, an attorney for the plaintiffs said Friday. In December 2008, Continental Flight 1404 slid off a wind-blown runway during a night takeoff and down a ravine, where it caught fire. All 110 passengers and five crew members managed to escape. Six people were seriously injured and dozens others were treated for minor injuries. Many of the 65 people who sued the FAA over the crash have also settled a separate lawsuit against the airline, said Bruce Lampert, a Westminster attorney who represented 22 passengers and crew members in the lawsuits. The jetliner crash was blamed on pilot error and a strong crosswind. A 2010 National Transportation Safety Board report said the pilot failed to make the proper rudder adjustments to keep the plane on the runway while dealing with the crosswinds. Yet, passengers and some crew members who filed the FAA lawsuit also blamed air traffic controllers for failing to inform pilots of crosswinds gusting to 40 mph, Lampert said. The NTSB report also cited air traffic controllers' failure to provide "key, available" information about the wind as a contributing factor. "When we got into the case we found out that FAA withheld information regarding the winds from the pilot," Lampert said, adding that an FAA handbook requires air traffic controllers to inform pilots of gusting winds in the "centerfield" of the runway, not just average wind speed where planes land and take off. "If you've got a 40-knot crosswind, you better tell (pilots) that. They never told them that," Lampert said. "The FAA is really as culpable as the airline for this crash." The total amount of money the FAA agreed pay out in the settlement was not contained in settlement papers filed in Denver federal court. But Lampert said the settlement runs into several million dollars. An FAA spokesman referred 7NEWS to the U.S. Department of Justice, whose lawyers represented the agency in the lawsuit. 7NEWS could not reach the DOJ for comment late Friday afternoon. While some people were physically injured in the crash, Lampert said most of the passengers had claims for emotional stress damages. They jumped from the wrecked plane in the dark into knee-deep snow and scrambled up an embankment -- only to turn and see the airplane burst into flames, Lampert said. "A lot of these people were carrying little kids and babies," he said. "One mother had to hand a child off to a complete stranger, because she had another child and she couldn't carry them both" during the evacuation, Lampert said. "So to save her child, she gave him to a stranger and said, 'Take him to safety.'" "Luckily, the person she handed him off to was a daycare provider and pretty used taking care of kids. They became good friends afterward," Lampert said. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/front-range/denver/faa-reaches-million-dollar- settlment-over-2008-continental-airline-crash-at-dia-attorney-says Back to Top UN report raises air safety concerns in India India clubbed with Kazakhstan, Haiti, Congo; regulator found wanting in ability to oversee airlines, aircraft As many as 158 people died in India's worst air crash in a decade in Mangalore in 2010 when an Air India Express flight IX-812 overshot a hilltop runway. New Delhi: The United Nations (UN) aviation watchdog has expressed grave concerns on India's air safety, placing it among the 13 worst-performing nations on this count, according to excerpts of an audit report. The International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao), of which India is a member, completed an audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in December and found it wanting in its ability to oversee safety issues. "Icao has identified a significant safety concern with respect of the ability of this state (India) to properly oversee its airlines (air operators) under is jurisdiction," it said in its latest report, parts of which Mint has reviewed. The organization has clubbed India with Angola, Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, and Sao Tome and Principe. A DGCA spokesman dismissed the concerns as "procedural issues". "We have taken corrective action, which has been accepted by Icao," the spokesman said. "This will be implemented by June 2013. Then we will invite Icao's team to verify the action taken." In its report, which is yet to be made public, Icao has also questioned India's oversight on all aircraft operations, including charters and business jets. "Icao has identified a significant safety concern with respect to the ability of this state (India) to properly oversee aircraft under its jurisdiction," the global agency has said. This is not the first time Icao has raised such red flags. In its earlier audit in 2006, the organization had warned about air safety oversight in India, after which the US aviation regulator threatened to downgrade India's safety ranking, a move that would have stopped Indian carriers such as Air India Ltd and Jet Airways (India) Ltd from adding additional flights to the US and forcing extra ramp checks on aircraft at US airports. The matter was taken up by the two governments and resolved. India has a patchy air safety record in recent years. Nearly 300 people have lost their lives between Icao's 2006 audit and the latest one completed in December. It conducts these audits every six years. As many as 158 people died in India's worst air crash in a decade in Mangalore in 2010 when an Air India Express flight IX-812 overshot a hilltop runway, charring people to death, including women and children, because rescue did not reach them in time. The record of charter aircraft has been worse. Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu was killed with four others after when a Eurocopter B8 Pawan Hans helicopter crashed in bad weather in May 2011. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy died when his state government- owned Bell 430 helicopter crashed in a dense forest while flying to a village in Chitoor district in September 2009. Ten people, including seven on board a medical ambulance aircraft of Air Charter Services India Pvt. Ltd, were killed when the flight to Delhi from Patna crashed into the roof of the two houses near the national capital in 2011. The findings of the audit are alarming, according to Denzil Keelor, a former chief of the Indian Air Force and a former aviation regulator. "It's a very damaging statement," Keelor said, adding that DGCA has failed in its primary obligation to provide safe passenger travel. "Icao has made this remark because they (DGCA) have not been able to justify that they have been able to do their job," he said. Keelor said the main reason for this is that DGCA is being run by bureaucrats and not experts such as pilots. "The government is not serious about flight safety. Many DGCA officers are completely compromised. The first thing they do is ground the pilot (in case of an accident)," Keelor said. "You have to prevent accidents and incidents, and not cure them." India is expected to be the fastest growing aviation market till 2031, Boeing Co. said in September. The government had six years to make up for gaps found in the 2006 audit, but it was busy giving permission to private airlines to import aircraft and not ensuring there were enough people to watch over their upkeep, said Mohan Ranganathan, a member of the civil aviation safety advisory committee that was set up by the government after the Mangalore crash. "The rapid deterioration in safety in the past one year is of serious concern," Ranganathan said. "Several aircraft were written off (scrapped), it did not wake them up. Several lives were lost, it didn't wake them up. Maybe this international shame may wake them before more lives are lost." ********** A matter of safety *Nearly 300 people have lost their lives in air accidents in India between Icao's 2006 safety audit of India and December 2012 *As many as 158 people died in the 2010 Air India Express IX-812 crash in Mangalore *One plane each of Jet Airways, Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines has been written off in accidents since 2006 *Two state chief ministers-Andhra Pradesh's Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Dorjee Khandu of Arunachal Pradesh-have died in helicopter crashes since the 2006 audit, among many other smaller crashes *Icao says it has concerns over India's ability to oversee the safety of airlines and aircraft under its jurisdiction *India has been red-flagged on safety and clubbed by Icao with 13 nations-Angola, Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, and Sao Tome and Principe *None of India's neighbours-Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka or the Maldives-has been red-flagged Source : Icao, civil aviation safety advisory committee http://www.livemint.com/Politics/nADuFwi7nSGPdJPZEXrnJK/UN-report-raises-air- safety-concerns-in-India.html Back to Top UCF scientist may have golden solution for pilots hit by laser pointers (Joshua C. Cruey, Orlando...) Most people see gold as a high-end sign of wealth. Jayan Thomas sees it as a high-tech remedy for a safety threat that has worried the aviation industry for years. The University of Central Florida scientist envisions his research in gold nanotechnology could one day produce "laser-proof" glasses coated with gold to protect airline pilots from being temporarily blinded by a laser shot from the ground. "Are we working on a bulletproof vest for the eyes? Yes, that's probably a pretty good analogy for what we're developing here," said Thomas, an assistant professor of chemistry in UCF's NanoScience Technology Center. With nearly 3,500 such "laser incidents" having occurred in the U.S. last year - including 298 in Florida and 58 in Metro Orlando - experts say there's a fertile market for such a product if it works. But Thomas and his collaborators at Carnegie Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh face some serious hurdles before the idea becomes a reality - not the least of which are the federal government's new deficit-reduction budget cuts. If those "sequester" budget cuts remain in place, nearly $9 billion will be eliminated from scientific research this year alone, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. That means competition for grants will become more intense than ever, said Thomas, who plans to apply for money from the Air Force and the National Science Foundation for his latest project. "It's going to be very difficult, very difficult," said the laser researcher, who has won hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants since coming to UCF two years ago from the University of Arizona. So far, his laser-proof-eyewear project has been financed solely by UCF and Carnegie Mellon. Through atomic engineering, they have created "gold nanoclusters" - more than 200,000 times smaller than the tip of a pen - that have "optical limiting" qualities. That means the tiny gold particles can block and extinguish high-energy laser beams while allowing harmless visible light to pass through. If the lab work eventually translates into a commercial product, it could be a breakthrough in laser-safe eyewear, said Dan Macchiarella, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. Although he is not familiar with UCF's specific research, Macchiarella said military pilots have used gold-tinted laser-safe eyewear for a long time, though it is effective only against certain frequencies of laser beams. "If there is a solution they're developing that could be applied to lasers of all strengths and wavelengths, that would certainly be a big advancement," he said. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-03-10/technology/os-tech-gold-nano-research- 20130310_1_laser-pointers-laser-beams-laser-incidents Back to Top Flying on fumes - One UK Jet's fuel runs low every week - Worst airline caught 84 times in 4 years Danger ... planes are running low on fuel PLANES are repeatedly running dangerously low on fuel during flights over Britain, a Sun investigation has found. Problems occur more than once a week, with airlines reporting a staggering 224 such "low-fuel safety incidents" in the past four years. Shockingly, one unnamed airline is responsible for 84 of the incidents - THREE times more than any other operator. Another has reported 32 incidents with the third worst offender responsible for 29, according to official Civil Aviation Authority figures for 2009-2012. Airlines MUST tell the CAA of any low fuel episodes and none of the 44 UK airlines registered with the authority was incident free. Legally, planes entering British airspace must have fuel to complete their journey, with enough in reserve to reach another airport AND circle for 30 minutes. Carrying any extra adds weight - hitting fuel consumption and costing airlines. But delays by flight queues at busy airports or by bad weather can leave fuel tanks dangerously low, forcing emergency landings. In January last year two Virgin Atlantic jets had to make low-fuel emergency landings at Stansted Airport. And Ryanair was told to review procedures when three of its planes made emergency landings in Spain on the SAME day. The British Airline Pilots Association said last night: "Airlines should carry more than the minimum amount to allow for a greater safety margin." A CAA spokesman added: "We work closely with the aviation industry to ensure strict safety standards are maintained." http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4835198/Flying-on-fumes-as-one-UK- jets-fuel-runs-low-every-week.html Back to Top Back to Top Vietnam faces pilot shortage, looks abroad Experts warn of illegitimate aviation recruitment agencies as Vietnam faces a worsening shortage of pilots A VietJet Air aircraft at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. Experts have forecast rising demand for foreign pilots in Vietnam. Vietnam is running short on qualified airplane pilots, but its airlines do not have enough money and resources to continuing hiring them from abroad. According to AviationCV, a Lithuania-based company that supplies pilots around the world, Vietnam's airline industry is poised for expansion in 2013. "[Due to Vietnam's] rising middle class, a greater share of the population now has the discretionary income to travel abroad, paving the way for a number of new airlines concentrated largely in the low-cost segment," it said. But airlines in Vietnam are finding it difficult to recruit pilots despite the fact that their wages are the second highest business cost for after fuel. It is not easy for them to recruit pilots because bigger carriers offer higher salaries. Aviation experts said that airlines in Vietnam pay foreign pilots piloting Airbus A320 aircraft up to US$12,000 per month depending on their experience. The salary is just $2,000 for a Vietnamese pilot, although locals get their training paid for by the airline. Vietnam's per capita income is around $1,300. Owing to long-running training deficiencies and a shortage of highly experienced personnel, a considerable portion of pilots in Vietnam continue to be sourced from abroad. According to AviationCV, of the 800 pilots currently filling the ranks in the nation's flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines, 360 are non-Vietnamese nationals. "The same conditions prevail elsewhere, with up to 40 foreign pilots working at Air Mekong, 50 at VietJet Air, and 58 at Jetstar Pacific Airlines, where they constitute close to 95 percent of total air crew," according to the AviationCV press release. Demand for pilots is increasing with Vietnam Airlines, the country's largest carrier, having recently announced plans to increase its fleet number to 115 as well as broaden its pilot base to 1,200 over the next two years. In addition, VietJet Air has sought new destinations in South Korea and Southeast Asia, taking advantage of the accelerating demand for budget air travel to and from Vietnam. The 2012 Boeing's Pilot & Technician Outlook projected that 51,500 pilots and 67,400 technicians would be needed in Southeast Asia over the next two decades. "In many regions of the world, our customers are facing recruitment challenges due to pilot and technician shortages," Bob Belllitto, the global sales director of Boeing Flight Services, told Vietweek. "The need is particularly great in the Asia Pacific region, where surging economies are driving travel demand." Actually, the Asia Pacific aviation sector was particularly low on pilots in 2011 when some carriers had to cut flights and ground new planes due to the shortfall. The region needs more than 180,000 in extra pilots and almost 250,000 new technicians over the next two decades to meet demand, according to a statement by issued by Boeing in September 2011, when there were about 60,000 pilots and 46,000 technicians in the region. Roei Ganzarski, chief customer officer of Boeing's flight services unit, told AFP that some airlines have grounded flights or reduced flights due to the shortage. He did not name any carriers but said countries affected by the shortfall included India, the Philippines and Indonesia. Shortages were also happening in other regions, and the global aviation sector needed more than one million pilots and technicians by 2030, but tight supply was most acute in Asia, he said. Meanwhile, Skaiste Knyzaite, CEO of AviationCV, said pilots are needed in Asia more than anywhere else in the world. "Considering the fluctuating situation in Europe and the US, where some airlines face bankruptcy or restructuring issues, Vietnam, China and some other Asian countries are sure to be an attractive destination for foreign pilots," Knyzaite told Vietweek. She said that Vietnam Airlines has reported that up to a quarter of its new pilots will be foreigners. "This contributes quite considerably to company expenditure, with salaries for foreign crew averaging around $10,000 per month for a single pilot. Engineer salaries also deviate little from this sum, with foreign personnel commanding no less than $7,000 upon hiring," she said. Even though pilot wages account for the second largest expense of Vietnamese carriers, it has been difficult to attract enough as competition for qualified pilots remains high. Knyzaite warned that increasing demand would prompt several unexpected consequences. "With the drive for a greater number of expat pilots in the country, many airlines have consulted the services of a number of aviation recruitment agencies... [There are] unscrupulous recruitment agencies that are either slow to mediate between issues or fail to respond entirely," she said. In 2011, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) found Vietnam Airlines breaking its own procedures and regulations by recruiting a foreign pilot who did not satisfy requirements. An inspection of the carrier's recruitment methods was launched after controversy erupted over its hiring of South Korean pilot Kim Tae Hun, who had forged documents about his flying experience. http://www.thanhniennews.com/index/pages/20130310-vietnam-faces-pilot-shortage- looks-abroad.aspx Back to Top Mitsubishi Aircraft Benefits From Weakening Yen on Orders Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (7011)'s aircraft unit is set to reap the benefits of a weakening yen after securing more than $4 billion of contracts for a new jet when the currency was near a record high against the dollar. Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp., which is making Japan's first regional passenger jet, pays for about 60 percent of the plane's materials and other costs in dollars, Chief Executive Officer Hideo Egawa said in an interview in Tokyo on March 8. The planes are sold in dollars and profit is booked in yen. Hideo Egawa, chairman and chief executive officer of Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. The aircraft maker won an order for 200 planes including options, worth $8.4 billion at list prices last year from U.S. commuter carrier SkyWest Inc. The yen touched a record high at 75.35 to the dollar in October 2011. The yen has slid since Prime Minister's Shinzo Abe's party won the elections last year as he pledged to work with the Bank of Japan (8301) to end 15 years of deflation. "We're delighted with a weaker yen. We welcome it with open arms," said Egawa. "We'd like the yen to get even cheaper." The yen traded at 96.18 to the dollar as of 1:18 p.m. in Tokyo. The Japanese currency has slid 21 percent from 79.76 yen since Mitsubishi Aircraft announced its SkyWest order. Mitsubishi Heavy shares rose 0.4 percent to 546 yen in Tokyo trading today. They have gained 32 percent this year, compared with a 19 percent gain in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average. 325 Orders The aircraft maker has won 325 orders, including options, for the plane, topping the company's goal of up to 250 planes before the Mitsubishi Regional Jet's first flight, set for as early as October, Egawa said. The carrier is outselling rival Bombardier Inc. (BBD/B), which had secured 148 orders for its new passenger jets by the end of December. "When the yen was around 80 to the dollar we were constantly looking for ways to cut costs," said Egawa. "When we convert our orders into yen it definitely gives us an edge." The planes both use variations of an engine being developed by United Technologies Corp. (UTX)'s Pratt & Whitney that will help the planes cut 20 percent in fuel consumption. The Nagoya, Japan-based company, is on target for the first flight of the plane, which it began assembling in April 2011, by the end of this year, Egawa said. The planemaker plans its first delivery of the plane in the year ending March 31, 2016. Mitsubishi Aircraft is building 78- and 92-seater versions of the MRJ to compete with planes from Bombardier and Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA as it forecasts global demand for 5,000 similar-sized aircraft over the 20 years to 2030. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-11/mitsubishi-aircraft-benefits-from- weakening-yen-on-orders.html Back to Top CASE STUDY: How Orbis turned an old airplane into increased donations Orbis, a charity which operates an eye surgery that travels from country to country in an aircraft, bucked the trend of decreasing charitable donations in Hong Kong by turning a decommissioned airplane into donation mementos. Background Growth in charitable donations in Hong Kong has been declining in recent years. There was a 9 per cent drop in donations between 2011 and 2012, with growth now at only 14 per cent. Hong Kong has fallen eight places in the 2012 World Giving's Rankings (from 11th place to 19th). Aim Orbis had two objectives in 2012. It needed to decommission its old DC-10 aircraft and fund a new flying surgery, requiring considerable funds. In addition, the charity needed to sustain, if not exceed, its record-level donations of HK$1.8 million (US$232,000) for the second year. Execution Through Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Hong Kong, the charity ran a campaign entitled 'Old parts for new'.* The Orbis aircraft-surgery is by definition at the heart of the charity's work. For six years, the charity had sold branded pins (badges) as its main fundraising mechanism. Ogilvy & Mather took scrap parts from the DC-10's fuselage, doors, seats and life jackets, and transformed them into Orbis pins. Each pin had its own distinctive characteristics-scratches, marks and dents-making the pins imminently collectable. Pins were sold on the street and through other channels, and sales were supported by print advertising in the MTR system. Results In 16 weeks, the campaign generated private donations of US$374,000, an all-time high for the organisation and an increase of 55 per cent over 2011. The campaign raised $838,000 when donations from corporate bodies were included. The campaign also generated $180,000 worth of media coverage. The money raised through the campaign was enough to fund sight-saving surgeries for 9,600 people. http://www.campaignasia.com/Article/336072,case-study-how-orbis-turned-an-old- airplane-into-increased-donations.aspx Back to Top TWITTER For late breaking aviation news, follow us on Twitter @ curtllewis01 Curt Lewis