Flight Safety Information March 14, 2013 - No. 056 In This Issue Black boxes in operating rooms: should hospitals copy aviation for safety? Only 24 PIA aircraft are operational (Pakistan) Berlin Airport Fiasco Shows Chinks in German Engineering Armor Safety probe permanently grounds Barrier Aviation (Australia) 'Aviation ministry misled Parliament on UN air safety report' (India) PROS IOSA Audit Experts Jet leasing company urges Boeing not to rush 777X Lufthansa Places Large Aircraft Orders, Looks At 777X People Express signs deal to buy charter airline, repays city Ky appointed new European Aviation Safety Agency chief Black boxes in operating rooms: should hospitals copy aviation for safety? Should operating rooms have recording devices like flight recorders on planes? Leaders in health care keep talking about borrowing ideas from the aviation field for purposes of efficiency, patient-focused care and safety. This week, the CEO of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute asks a titillating question: Since black boxes have proven so invaluable in aviation safety, why not use similar devices to investigate and prevent medical mishaps? Thousands of patients die in hospitals each year from preventable errors. Just last week, results from the Canadian Paediatric Adverse Events Study showed that over nine per cent of children suffer an adverse event in hospital. If the rate is that high in young patients who so often have family members at their side, one can easily see how it escalates for those without patient navigators and advocates at their bedside. In an essay published by Longwoods, Hugh MacLeod and Dr. Dirk F. de Korne, of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital, discuss how voice and video recordings of hospital procedures could help change practices and behaviours, to improve patient safety. They're not necessarily advocating installation of black boxes. But perhaps something analogous. Read the essay below: "Today on the balcony I am joined by Dirk de Korne a leader in quality improvement from the Netherlands. We start our conversation by taking the view that collectively we must look the truth in the face if we are to prevent harm and there is no greater enemy of improvement than indifference to failure. The challenge for all is to lead, manage, guide and coach others through a quality transformation process. This goes much deeper than tinkering with structure and adopting the right rhetoric. It is a sustained effort to embed safety as a defining imperative that permeates both individual behaviour and organizational culture. To improve performance, organizations must overcome varying degrees of systemic, cultural, and individual barriers. Leaders have an obligation to identify and nurture the people with courage and discipline to drive improvement and change. Hospital safety checklists now used in most operating theatres as a precautionary measure. But experts say more must be done to prevent errors. We talk about lessons from the airline industry. While we recognize that the relationship between people is what makes the absolute comparison between healthcare and aviation inappropriate. There is much to learn from aviation, but compared to healthcare it is elegantly simple. The pilot and co-pilot have check-lists that apply in every circumstance. They do not interface with each and every passenger and do not customize their service to address the uniqueness of what each passenger presents. In fact, the pilot is formally protected from contacts and interruptions. Entry is not permitted. The proportion of their jobs that is technocratic and automated is much higher than in healthcare. Commercial airliners literally fly themselves most of the time. Yes, there are things healthcare can learn from aviation: the absence of hierarchy in making safety decisions, standardization of equipment and supplies, simulation exercises, the importance of data, and the optimal use of technology. Healthcare and aviation when it comes to complexity are fundamentally different in character and complexity; If aviation is checkers, healthcare is multi-dimensional chess. By all means let's strive for scientific and technocratic excellence, but let's also pay attention to - and measure - the relational and behavioural sidemaking sure it is supported by a foundation of truth and strong values. We are interrupted by the familiar voice of the "Ghost of Healthcare Despair" who shouts..... When a plane crashes or when something goes wrong they have a "black box" that records everything, and the recorder is analyzed not by the company but by an independent investigator. If you believe that healthcare is more complex and given the amount of harm that takes place in operating theatres why doesn't healthcare have "black boxes" in the operating theatres. You spend huge amounts of time and efforts on retrospective interviews? Many studies have indeed shown that healthcare is often hazardous to patients with unnecessary morbidity and mortality. We need to embrace this reality. What strikes us, is that similar contributing factors - complexity of the work processes, organizational characteristics, professional autonomy - are faced by several industries. And some have found good approaches to mitigate their effect on safety and quality. Aviation's black box is one of these. According to William Rutherford, a retired U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, safety improvements developed by the aviation industry in three areas can be used within healthcare. The first concerns an increasing transparency about its errors; aviation encourages staff to report mistakes and designs interventions to reduce risks. The second is within the area of procedural standardization, i.e., curtailing operator autonomy while preserving operator authority. And third, the aviation industry has realized an increased efficiency by extracting value from all parts of the system - human, information, and hardware - with team training programs. Rutherford claims that healthcare could benefit from the three innovations. However, little is known about whether and how they can be diffused to healthcare. Since the early 1990s, learning from aviation has been a central part of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital's strategy. Aviation was taken as one of the exemplary industries 'since this industry has shown the possibility of handling more passengers, improving logistics and safety, and being highly service-orientated'. A comparison of the passenger versus patient handling processes was conducted from 1992 till now, resulting in the decision to adapt a series of innovations from the aviation. To stimulate the use of safety management principles, in 2008 the Rotterdam Eye Hospital introduced an innovation inspired by aviation's "black box" which, by recording all flight crew activities, is used to determine the cause(s) of an accident. In adopting the innovation, the hospital decided to have surgical team activities recorded. Aviation trainers were hired who video and audio taped several ophthalmic surgeries, which were later used to give the team feedback on the application of the safety procedures that were taught during multidisciplinary safety (or crew resource management, CRM) training. Hospital operating rooms: good places to install voice and video recording devices? The voice and video recordings revealed team specific differences in performing the time-out procedure. It also showed that the teams varied in the use of the safety communication rules agreed upon during the CRM training, and that the absence of team members at the pre-operative briefing resulted in a less structured surgery. The video recordings, for example, showed that after the patient did arrive in the OR, a resident and student received medical-technical explanation about the procedure. There was no talk about specific casts, performing actions or potential problems. The resident was unexpectedly supposed to jump in during the surgery and wasn't able to do so. In debriefing with an aviation expert, it was made clear that a 'captain' needs to have the situational awareness regarding the competences of his colleague performing the operation. To prevent errors like this, he briefs him before what to expect, so the situational awareness of the co-pilot is updated. The 'co-pilot' can ask questions or make things clear to the whole team. Since then a briefing and debriefing has been introduced in the surgical program. We were only able to create this feedback as a result of the video-capturing. This definitely is not a "black box" yet. During recent wrong-side surgeries, there were no tapes available for incident analyses since there is no automated flight data recorder. Huge amounts of time and efforts are currently spent on retrospective interviews, analysis and reporting. Aviation has learned about the causes of incidents from the cockpit voice recordings. Moreover, 'real' cockpit data is very strong to incentive medical professionals and create common awareness. There are other mountains to climb. In aviation, there is strong legislation concerning the production and use of such recordings. After an incident, an independent investigator will use the data, not the public prosecutor or police. This kind of legislation is currently lacking in healthcare. Protecting the confidentiality and security of information collected needs to considered as "protected health information". Aviation has not become a safe industry due to well-willing and transparency oriented pilots. Governmental bodies, like national transportation and safety boards played an important role. Sector-wide systems approaches are needed. If black boxes have proven to be invaluable in improving safety in aviation, could not black boxes prove to be invaluable to ensuring safety in medicine?" http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/03/13/black-boxes-in-operating-rooms-should- hospitals-copy-aviation-for-safety/ Back to Top Only 24 PIA aircraft are operational (Pakistan) ISLAMABAD: Minister for Defence Syed Naveed Qamar on Wednesday apprised the National Assembly that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had acute shortage of aircraft and out of total 38 planes, only 24 were being operated on various routes. Replying to various supplementary questions during Question Hour, he said that eight aircrafts were grounded temporary for maintenance while six were grounded permanently. He said that all the aircraft require routine maintenance checks, were grounded periodically to accomplish the checks as per manufacturer's and requirements of the regulatory authority. The minister said that seating capacity of five B747 aircraft was increased from 468 seats to 503 seats in all economy configuration in year 2011. No additional cost was incurred as the configuration change was done in-house and the seats were cannibalized from a grounded B747 aircraft. No other up-gradation was done on PIA fleet during the last five years, he added. He said all PIA aircraft were painted in-house using own manpower and resources and Rs.5.65 million had been spent under the head of paint and material cost during the last five years on painting. The minister said that PIA has started process to induct new aircraft in its fleet and shortly new aircraft would be part of the national carrier. http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/108-pakistan-top-news/110479-only-24-pia- aircraft-are-operational-na-told.html Back to Top Berlin Airport Fiasco Shows Chinks in German Engineering Armor Faulty fire protection, lights that won't go off and an overlooked nuclear reactor are just a few of the hurdles holding up the new airport in Berlin that is tarnishing Germany's reputation for industrial derring-do. Designed to befit a capital that attracts more than 10 million visitors every year as Europe's No. 3 city destination after London and Paris, the airport was built to handle 27 million passengers annually and first scheduled to be operational in 2011. A new date hasn't been set after construction and planning faults made a June start impossible. The terminal building, left, is seen from the aircraft taxi area at the new Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport in Berlin. A worker passes a row of automated check-in machines covered in bubble wrap, operated by Air Berlin Plc, inside the departures hall at the new Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport in Berlin. The fiasco reflects the mismanagement creeping into prestige public projects in Germany, taking the sheen off the country's image as a paragon of engineering proficiency. The setbacks come as Berlin, Germany's capital since 1990 and its biggest city, shakes off a post-unification malaise and booming tourism spawns new hotels. Low rents compared with other capitals are drawing in software, film and publishing startups. "It's not rocket science to build a modern airport," said Thomas Winkelmann, chief executive officer of Germanwings, Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA)'s low-cost airline. "Fashion is better in Italy, food is better in France, and Germans do engineering. So not to be able to construct a single terminal building is super embarrassing." The project is being managed by the city of Berlin, the state of Brandenburg and Germany's federal government. Originally budgeted at about 2.8 billion euros ($3.6 billion), the latest projection is 4.3 billion euros. More Tourists Hartmut Mehdorn, the former chief executive officer of Deutsche Bahn AG and Air Berlin Plc (AB1), was named CEO of the airport on March 8, filling a post vacant since January after Rainer Schwarz was fired because of the missteps. Berlin is building the new airport to attract more tourists and business and cut through the postwar tangle of several aerodromes, Tegel in the western part of the city and Schoenefeld in the east. While Tegel has been popular with travelers for its short distances from street drop-off to departure gate, the facilities don't offer enough space to expand into the global gateway Berlin is aspiring to become. "Berlin needs an airport, and that's why we have to do everything so that this airport is completed as quickly as possible," Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters on March 8. London's Heathrow is Europe's busiest airport, attracting 69.9 million passengers last year. Paris's Charles de Gaulle drew 61.6 million passengers, while third-ranked Frankfurt had 57.5 million. Prestige Companies Some of Germany's biggest companies including Siemens AG (SIE) and Robert Bosch GmbH are involved in the Berlin airport project. Carriers including Air Berlin and Lufthansa have built new facilities there and are in talks over how to recoup losses incurred by the delays. Air Berlin plans to use the site as its hub and Lufthansa, Europe's second-biggest airline, had planned to operate more than 1,000 weekly flights there. The list of calamities at the 280,000 square-meter (3 million square-foot) terminal, located in the state of Brandenburg about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of downtown Berlin, is growing. At last count, at least 20,000 defects ranged from the faulty fire protection systems to incorrectly laid tiles, according to reports in German media. A Feb. 13 visit revealed a site devoid not only of passengers and planes, but also of workers as project directors continue to compile a catalog of what needs to be fixed before work can resume. The building is lit up every night because there's no mechanism to turn the lights off. There are deficits in the sprinkler system and a lack of fire protection on some steel girders used for construction. Stained Record The project is not the only blemish on Germany's engineering prowess. A plan to put Stuttgart's train station underground has met environmentalist opposition and is now budgeted to cost 6.5 billion euros, compared with 4.5 billion euros in the initial plan. A harbor concert hall in Hamburg, Germany's richest city, may end up costing more than 10 times the original estimate of 77 million euros and is also years behind its 2010 completion date. "I would love it if Berlin had the international airport it deserves as the capital," actor Matt Damon told reporters at the Berlinale Film Festival, where he was promoting his film "Promised Land" on Feb. 8. 'Poor But Sexy' Critics of the Berlin chaos have put the blame on politicians meddling in the complexities of a large-scale infrastructure project. Matthias Platzeck, the prime minister of the state of Brandenburg who became airport supervisory board chairman on Jan. 16, took over the job from Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who has marketed Berlin as the city equivalent of a startup under the slogan of "poor but sexy." Berlin is the second-most indebted of Germany's 16 states, with more than 60 billion euros of debt, according to data from the Federal Statistics Office. "It shows that big German city governments are incapable of running the infrastructure show," said Friedrich Thelen, founder of Thelen-Consult, a Berlin-based business advisory group and former parliamentary editor of business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. "Major projects must be run by private professionals." Germany's federal structure has spawned a network of global and smaller airports throughout the country. Frankfurt remains by far the largest, followed by Munich, built in the early 1990s. Berlin, which was divided until 1990, never gained the same global status as other German cities, with years of only one regular intercontinental connection -- servicing the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator. Nuclear Reactor At the new site, the smoke ventilating equipment installed throughout the glass- sheathed structure is faulty even after lessons learned from Germany's worst airport disaster -- a 1996 fire at Dusseldorf airport which killed 17 people. These present the biggest safety risk, according to a Jan. 25 report to Parliament's Budget Committee. Planners also failed to consider that authorities might balk at an experimental nuclear reactor located under a planned flight path. The reactor in Berlin's southwest Wannsee district is operated by the Helmholtz Zentrum, a materials and energy research institute. The Wannsee route was declared illegal by an administrative appeals court in a Jan. 23 ruling. "The risk of a plane crash and an aviation terrorist attack and the release of ionized radiation from the research reactor was insufficiently considered," the court said in a statement issued with the ruling, in which it scolded airport planners for failing to recognize and evaluate the risks. 'Very Severe' "The problems are severe, very severe," Horst Amann, the chief airport operating officer who was installed last year after his predecessor was fired, said in a Jan. 8 interview with broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk. To be sure, other German airport projects have been completed on time. Fraport AG expanded Frankfurt Airport's Terminal 1 in October after four years of construction, adding capacity for the biggest passenger planes, including Airbus's A380 and Boeing's 747, for as many as 6 million passengers at a cost of 700 million euros. And one thing that does work at the new airport is its low- tech environmental monitoring system. Cabbages have been planted in plots around the runways to help monitor the air quality since 2011, according to Jan. 28 report by the airport. The cabbages are harvested and analyzed in a laboratory for hazardous substances, the report says. Honey produced in beehives at the airport is also analyzed. "Building an airport is a complex thing that needs a massive amount of teamwork, an open and integrated relationship with the supply chain," said Paul Griffiths, the CEO of Dubai Airports. "To get the program back on track, get some realism into the schedule, get people who know what they're doing and start testing. And don't announce a date until you're absolutely confident everything is working." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-13/berlin-airport-fiasco-shows-chinks-in- german-engineering-armor.html Back to Top Safety probe permanently grounds Barrier Aviation (Australia) Far north Queensland charter airline Barrier Aviation has been permanently grounded after an investigation into safety issues. The Cairns-based airline has not been flying since Christmas, when the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) suspended its operations because of what was described as a "serious and imminent risk to air safety". CASA spokesman Peter Gibson says it has taken the strongest possible action against the airline, which was ordering its pilots to fly defective planes. Mr Gibson says the CASA investigation found the airline had been operating aircraft with serious and known defects and problems were ignored in the airline's safety records. "Not maintaining aircraft properly, flying aircraft with defects, directing pilots to fly the aircraft with defects," he said. He says CASA has cancelled the air operator's certificate. "The matters are so serious, Barrier hasn't put forward a successful plan to address the issues, so that's why they're permanently grounded," he said. "Late yesterday, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority served a notice on Barrier which now effectively permanently grounds the airline. "Essentially the Civil Aviation Safety Authority - after a thorough investigation - is not satisfied that Barrier Aviation can address the many safety issues that we found within the airline and continue to operate safely. "They've not responded in any way that gives us confidence that they could operate safely in the future." However in a statement, the airline's owner and managing director, David Kilin, has accused CASA of having a personal vendetta against him. Mr Kilin says the regulator's "draconian approach" has destroyed his business. He says Barrier Aviation is considering its options. The company has 28 days to appeal CASA's decision. http://www.abc.net.au/news/ Back to Top 'Aviation ministry misled Parliament on UN air safety report' (India) CASAC says the aviation ministry misled Parliament about a safety audit draft report by a UN watchdog A file photo of civil aviation minister Ajit Singh. The aviation ministry misled Indian Parliament about a safety audit draft report by a United Nations watchdog, the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC) said in a letter to aviation minister Ajit Singh and aviation secretary K.N. Srivastava. 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, Mint reported on 11 March. The organization then clubbed India with Angola, Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea- Bissau, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi Sao Tome and Principe as far as safety levels were concerned. A DGCA spokesman had then said the regulator was taking corrective action on the report "which has been accepted by Icao. This will be implemented by June 2013. Then we will invite Icao's team to verify the action taken". However, the aviation ministry, under which DGCA operates, told Parliament on 13 March that it wasn't aware of any such report. This was in response to a question (number 2748) by parliamentarian Shivaji Adhalrao Patil and four others with the subject line Icao audits of DGCA in the Lok Sabha. The question was: "Whether in its audit report Icao has pointed out the poor performance of DGCA in hiring and training of staff thereby jeopardizing safety of the passengers and if so the details in this regard with the reaction of the government thereto." The aviation ministry said Icao had not given it the report yet. "The International Civil Aviation Organisation has not made available the draft report to India of the audit carried out by them from 12th to 20th December 2012," the ministry said. CASAC, which was established in the aftermath of the Mangalore crash of Air India Express in 2010 that killed 158 people, questioned the ministry's reply. "I am shocked to find that a false statement has been filed in the Lok Sabha based on the data submitted to you by the DGCA. You are aware of the concern we have raised regarding the DGCA's action in condoning fudged log books, fudged simulator hours and fudged data. We have seen no action to correct that. I am copying, below, the answer provided by the ministry of civil aviation for an unstarred question in the Lok Sabha," Mohan Ranganthan, member of CASAC, wrote in a letter on Thursday to Singh and Srivastava. He said Parliament was being given false data, making any action on passenger safety questionable. "If the Parliament can be misled by false data from DGCA, there is no hope for safety in Indian aviation. India comes in the lowest 5% of member states in Icao (13 states black- flagged in the list of 194 states), and where even the small neighbours like Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan have a clear rating, it is a shame that India needs urgent and drastic correction," he wrote. "Officials in DGCA and AAI (Airports Authority of India) who have brought us down to this level must be held accountable." Singh's office said he was in Parliament and could not be reached for immediate comment. Aviation secretary Srivastava declined comment. He is slated to travel to Montreal in the next few days to meet top Icao officials and has other engagements there also, according to a ministry official, who declined to be named. http://www.livemint.com/Politics/TQObQ0LrCTbKaTncVrlm7N/Aviation-ministry-misled- Parliament-on-UN-air-safety-report.html Back to Top Back to Top Jet leasing company urges Boeing not to rush 777X An Aeromexico 777 lands at Barajas airport in Madrid, Spain, in August 2011. Reuters - A major U.S. leasing company has urged Boeing not to rush into developing a replacement for its 777 wide-body airliner, contrasting with pressure from some airlines to refresh its popular mini-jumbo. Henri Courpron, chief executive of AIG subsidiary International Lease Finance Corp., said Boeing's hot-selling, 365-seat 777-300ER would work well for the industry into the next decade. "The 777-300ER is working fine and does not have much competition. It is a formidable airplane. Why break that?" Courpron said in a telephone interview. "The market does not need a replacement any time soon." He said Boeing in any case had its hands full resolving a crisis over the grounding of its 787 Dreamliner. Back to Top Lufthansa Places Large Aircraft Orders, Looks At 777X Lufthansa is emerging as one of the possible launch customers for Boeing's proposed 777X. The airline is including the aircraft in its long-haul fleet evaluation that is to be decided later this year. The carrier is looking at the Airbus A350-900/1000, more Boeing 747-8s and the 777X, company sources say. The 787 is not under consideration as it is too small for Lufthansa's requirements. Boeing has never been able to place the 777 with Lufthansa, but the group made a first step on Thursday by confirming an order for six 777-300ERs that are to be operated by its subsidiary Swiss and will replace Airbus A340-300s. Company sources say that decision is a hint that Boeing has a good chance with its 777X proposal to beat the A350 in the race for Lufthansa's medium-sized long-haul aircraft. Boeing is expected to receive authority to offer the aircraft as soon as next month, as first reported by Aviation Week on March 11. Other airlines that are pushing Boeing for a quick decision include Qatar Airways and Emirates. The German airline also added two Airbus A380s to its orderbook. The airline had previously ordered 17 aircraft, ten of which have already been delivered. The current long-haul fleet is made up of A380s, 747-8s, 747-400s, A340-300/600s and A330-300s. The A340s and 747-400s are the first models to be phased out over the next few years, followed by the A330-300s in the longer term. Separately, Lufthansa opted for the A320/321NEO as the future backbone of its short- haul fleet. The supervisory board confirmed an order for 70 A320/321NEOs (new engine option) and 30 A320 family aircraft. Lufthansa currently has outstanding orders for 236 new aircraft to be delivered until 2025. The A350/777X/747-8 campaign is not included yet. http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_03_14_2013_p0- 559023.xml Back to Top People Express signs deal to buy charter airline, repays city NEWPORT NEWS - People Express airlines has signed a purchase agreement to buy an unnamed charter airline, a top People Express official said Wednesday, potentially launching the rebirth of the 1980s airline out of the Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport. In an email on Wednesday, People Express president Michael Morisi told the Daily Press the purchase agreement has been signed, and that a $500,000 refundable loan that was used to help finance the purchase was returned to taxpayers. Morisi declined to immediately answer further questions, saying that more details will be announced after employees of the charter airline are notified. Morisi has previously said that charter operations will continue, and also that the purchase would help People Express start up commercial flights originating from Newport News. The Regional Air Service Enhancement Committee, or RAISE, granted the $500,000 short-term loan. The airport committee collects taxpayer funds from a number of localities on the Peninsula. The loan was always intended as a way to bolster the financial case to make the purchase, and was set to be refunded to the RAISE committee once the purchase went through, officials have said. Florence Kingston, the Newport News economic development director who heads up the RAISE committee, confirmed that the $500,000 had been returned. She said the signs look positive for the sale to happen. People Express first announced their plans to relaunch in February 2012, but snags in financing delayed the startup airline from beginning operations. On March 1, the RAISE committee granted a four-and-a-half month extension on the loan to give People Express more time to execute the purchase of the charter airline. But it took less than two weeks to execute the agreement, and Morisi said after the March 1 meeting that they were in the "final days" of the purchase. Vice Mayor Bert Bateman, who is a member of the airport board, said starting an airline is not an easy endeavor, and he's "thrilled" that People Express appears to be on its way. "Startup airlines don't occur often, and there are significant barriers to entry," Bateman said. "The persistence of People Express is noteworthy." An airline industry expert told the Daily Press in February that the odds of a startup airline succeeding are about one in 100. Former Newport News Mayor Joe Frank, who chairs a committee to improve airline service out of the Newport News airport, said he has helped facilitate meetings between potential local investors and Morisi. Frank said he doesn't know whether the meetings were fruitful, but that he hopes everything comes together to make People Express successful. "This isn't mission accomplished," Frank said. "It's great progress in the right direction." While People Express has committed to flying out of Newport News, where to locate its corporate headquarters is still up in the air. It is currently operating with a skeleton staff out of the Newport News airport, but Morisi has said that the Pittsburgh airport has also expressed interest in hosting the airline's corporate headquarters. http://www.dailypress.com/news/breaking/dp-nws-peopleexpress-purchase- 20130313,0,1560405.story Back to Top Ky appointed new European Aviation Safety Agency chief The Management Board of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has appointed SESAR chief Patrick Ky as its next executive director. Ky is currently executive director of the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) Joint Undertaking and has driven the set-up and execution of Europe's ambitious air traffic management modernisation programme since October 2007. Ky will succeed Patrick Goudou, who has been executive director of EASA since its creation in September 2003 and whose term ends on 31 August 2013. "I am delighted that the EASA Management Board have nominated Patrick Ky as my successor. Patrick is a leading figure in European aviation and his experience and skills will be a tremendous asset to the Agency. I look forward to working closely with him over the coming months as we prepare the transition," said Goudou. Prior to leading SESAR, Ky held different managerial positions in the French Civil Aviation Authority, a consulting company, and Eurocontrol. In 2004, he joined the European Commission to work on SESAR. In total, Ky has more than 23 years of work experience in Civil Aviation. A graduate from Ecole Polytechnique and the Civil Aviation Engineering School in France, Ky also holds degrees in economics from the University of Toulouse and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The process of replacing Ky as SESAR as executive director will be conducted through an official call. http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2013/03/ky-to-head-easa-from-september/ Curt Lewis