Flight Safety Information April 25, 2013 - No. 084 In This Issue Lion Air Compensating Bali Jet Crash Passengers FAA chief says U.S. air safety not sacrificed by furloughs FAA plans to hit UPS with $4M fine over aircraft repairs Omaha man convicted of aiming laser pointer at aircraft Israeli airport security given green light to search tourist emails US team to check local aviation safety in May (Philippines) PROS IOSA Audit Experts United Continental Wins Dismissal of Black Pilots' Suit Qatar wants to host world aviation group MD 600N Helicoper Accident (Mexico) Position Wanted: Pilot Position (Airline/Cargo) Lion Air Compensating Bali Jet Crash Passengers The 101 passengers on the Lion Air jet that recently crashed in Indonesia were lucky to escape with their lives, the history of similar water accidents shows. The airline is giving each passenger $5,600 to compensate for the crash. Indonesian military personnel, pictured on April 17, remove the crashed Lion Air jet from the sea near the coastline of Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport. The plane crashed on April 13 in the water next to Bali airport's runway. All 101 passengers and the seven crew members survived. The compensation is for the passengers' trouble and damaged luggage. "With this money, we hope we can compensate the shock that the passengers felt after the incident," Daniel Putut, director of airport operation and services for Lion Air, told The Wall Street Journal this week. "The amount we are handing out is bigger than what we are supposed to pay based on law." Under a 2011 Indonesian law, airlines must pay up to $ 411 for damaged or lost luggage and up to $ 10,000 for injury treatment. Lion Air also picked up medical bills for the five people who were hospitalized, in cooperation with Jasa Raharja, the state-owned insurance company. "If the bill is bigger than IDR 25 million [$2,500], the maximum amount Jasa Raharja could pay per passenger, we will pay for it," Mr. Putut said. He added that the hospitalized passengers have all been released. So far, Lion Air has given cash compensation, in the amount of IDR55 million (about $5,600) per person, to 76 passengers, with 25 people still left to receive money, Mr. Putut said. The passengers still maintain the right to sue, though Lion Air hasn't been notified of any lawsuits. Meanwhile, the pilots are still waiting for the results of a hair test to reconfirm a preliminary urine test that concluded they were not using alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash. The results are expected in about 10 days, said Bambang Ervan, a spokesman in the Transportation Ministry. In addition, investigators are trying to figure out why the nearly new plane crashed, a process that could take about four months. The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder are being examined at the National Transportation Safety Committee's laboratory in Jakarta. "We haven't reached any conclusion on the cause of the incident," said Mr. Mardjono, a senior investigator in the agency who only goes by one name. "After we collect all the data we need, it will be analyzed so we can give a conclusion and recommendation." http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/04/25/lion-air-compensating-bali-jet-crash- passengers/ Back to Top FAA chief says U.S. air safety not sacrificed by furloughs WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday said that the agency could not find the kind of "sizeable" non-payroll budget cuts that would have avoided furloughing air traffic controllers, but added that passenger safety is not at risk despite lower staffing levels. "We are focused on maintaining our core operational and safety responsibilities," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told a House appropriations subcommittee hearing on the agency's 2014 budget request. "We will not do anything to compromise safety." The FAA has said will furlough 47,000 employees for up to 11 days through the end of the fiscal year in September as part of its plan to meet $637 million in required spending cuts. Nearly 13,000 of those employees are air traffic controllers. "We have taken full advantage of the flexibilities we have" in terms of budget, but "we simply couldn't not get to" the $637 million in cuts required under sequestration for fiscal 2013 without idling staff, he said. Huerta was pressed by lawmakers on whether the FAA had asked for flexibility within its overall budget to preserve funds for air traffic operations as well as on why the agency was still paying overtime to employees. "We have dramatically reduced all scheduled overtime and are preserving overtime to deal with emergency situations," he said. Asked whether the White House's Office of Management and Budget had directed how the needed budget savings would be found, Huerta said the agency had "received no direction from OMB." The FAA has had a hiring freeze since the start of the year, has canceled contracts with many contract and temporary employees and has cut back on staff travel and other costs, Huerta said. "We have had big savings ... we simply could not get to the number," he said, noting repeatedly that 70 percent of FAA's operations budget is for salaries. Air travelers in the United States have experienced long delays at some airports this week as the furloughs of air traffic controllers got under way. Early on Wednesday, Los Angeles International airport was experiencing 45-minute delays on some arriving planes that the FAA attributed to staffing. Huerta also rejected a suggestion that the administration was using the furloughs and planned closures of control towers at some smaller airports to shift political blame to Republicans. "That's not true," he said. Back to Top FAA plans to hit UPS with $4M fine over aircraft repairs The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a $4 million civil penalty against United Parcel Service for failing to follow procedures when repairing four aircraft, The planes involved, two DC-8s and two MD-11s were used on more than 400 flights between October 2008 and June 2009. A spokesman for UPS said that "there was never a safety issue" and called the penalty "unwarranted and unreasonable." "We believe we were compliant with FAA rules and will vigorously defend our position," UPS spokesman Mike Mangeot said in a statement. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement that "air carriers must comply with federal regulations to ensure aircraft are maintained to the highest level of safety." Michael Huerta, the FAA administrator, said the aircraft should stay grounded until UPS makes the proper repairs. UPS has 30 days to respond. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-faa-plans-to-hit-ups-with-4m- fine-over-aircraft-repairs-20130424,0,70150.story Back to Top Omaha man convicted of aiming laser pointer at aircraft An Omaha man was found guilty Wednesday in federal court of using a laser pointer to distract pilots and could be sentenced to five years in prison. U.S. District Court Judge John Gerrard found Michael A. Smith, 30, guilty of aiming a laser at aircraft and will sentence him on July 22. Smith, who could also be fined up to $250,000, was arrested July 11, 2012, after a Southwest Airlines pilot reported that someone in northwest Omaha had used a laser to temporarily blind him. The Omaha police helicopter responded and was distracted by a laser while heading in the direction that the airline pilot had reported. The helicopter hovered in the vicinity and directed deputies from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office to the home where the laser originated. A sheriff's deputy reported that Smith was still aiming the laser pointer in the direction of the helicopter when he walked into the man's backyard near 152nd Street and Nebraska Avenue. http://www.omaha.com/article/20130425/NEWS/704259855/1016 Back to Top Israeli airport security given green light to search tourist emails An aerial view of the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv's Sde-Dov airport. Israel's attorney general says security officials can continue to access emails of foreign tourists landing at Ben-Gurion Airport. If they refuse, they can be denied access to the country. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein defended the practice in a statement, saying that such searches "are performed only in exceptional instances, after other relevant incriminating indications are found." He added that travelers were not required to give security officers their password, but instead open the accounts on their own. But Marc Grey, an attorney for the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), said the situation has little to do with passwords. "Passwords are not the issue, email accounts are about as private as it gets," he told Reuters. Although Weinstein added that the traveler is given every right to object the search, he made clear that doing so "will be one of the considerations taken into account when the authorities decide whether to allow his entry into Israel." The attorney general then took security to the next level, stating that "a person who isn't an Israeli citizen has no vested right to enter Israel. The authority for allowing entry lies with the competent authority." He added that the authority will "naturally take into account the security of the public and the state." Israeli border police stand guard at Ben Gurion air port near Tel Aviv.(AFP Photo / David Buimovitch) The attorney general also clarified that Shin Bet's authority to conduct searches at border crossings is detailed in the General Security Service Law - not in the Criminal Procedure Ordinance, as ACRI had previously stated. Weinstein's comments were in response to a complaint by ACRI, which was filed after reports emerged that Israel's Shin Bet security service was demanding access to personal emails of tourists with Arab names in 2012. Lila Margalit, an ACRI attorney, said that demands for travelers to give access to private accounts were not justified. "A tourist...to Israel [who is] interrogated at the airport by Shin Bet agents and told to grant access to their email account, is in no position to give free and informed consent. Such 'consent', given under threat of deportation, cannot serve as a basis for such a drastic invasion of privacy," she said in an email. In May 2012, two female US citizens of Palestinian origin were interrogated at Ben- Gurion Airport. Security officers searched through one of the female's email accounts, reading emails which contained key words such as "Palestine," "Israel," "West Bank" and "International Solidarity Movement." After five hours of interrogation, the women were told they had to wait three more hours, after which they were told they would be refused entry into Israel, Haaretz reported. Margalit has called the practice "invasive," and "not befitting of a democracy." http://rt.com/news/israel-airport-security-tourist-emails-358/ Back to Top US team to check local aviation safety in May (Philippines) A team from the US Federal Aviation Administration will arrive in the country next month to check whether the local aviation has complied with international safety standards. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines is hoping the next USFAA audit will lead to the upgrade of the country's category 2 rating. "There will be a check-in visit by [John] Barbagallo of the FAA sometime in May to find out again if the recommended action plan started in 2010 was followed. We are in constant communication with FAA in this particular respect," CAAP director-general William Hotchkiss III told reporters. "I am confident that as far as the action plan is concerned, we have complied. Hopefully, [we will be upgraded] within the year," he said. The category 2 status prevents Philippine carriers from increasing flights between the Philippines and the US. Hotchkiss also said the EU Commission director-general for mobility and transport had accepted CAAP invitation for the EU representative on air safety to conduct an on-site visit in the Philippines in June. The visit will coincide with the EU Air Safety Committee meeting in the last week of June in Brussels, Belgium. The committee is the one tasked to determine whether a country can be removed from the EU blacklist. CAAP officials earlier met with the EU Commission's Directorate General for Mobility and Transport director Matthew Baldwin and presented a general overview of the Philippine aviation safety standards, including the accidents involving Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific Air in 2008 to 2012. http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/04/25/us-team-to-check-local-aviation-safety-in- may/ Back to Top Back to Top United Continental Wins Dismissal of Black Pilots' Suit United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL) won dismissal of a discrimination lawsuit by black pilots who alleged that the airline offers minority employees fewer promotions to upper management than whites. U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney in San Francisco said the pilots could file an amended complaint by May 20 to fix deficiencies in the lawsuit that led to the dismissal, according to an order yesterday. The plaintiffs failed to present enough information to support claims that black pilots are adversely affected when the Chicago-based company doesn't post some positions and were precluded from applying to certain positions, she said. Twenty-three African-Americans, most of whom are captains, sued the airline last year alleging "highly subjective decision making" about promotions discriminated against minority captains. Black pilots are subject to a "dual employment track" and given part-time jobs with less job security and opportunity for promotions, while non-minority employees get full-time, higher- wage positions, according to the the complaint. Dow Patten, an attorney for the pilots, didn't immediately respond after regular business hours yesterday to an e-mail message seeking comment on the ruling. The case is Johnson v. United Continental Holdings Inc., 12-2730, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco). http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-25/united-continental-wins-dismissal-of- black-pilots-suit.html Back to Top Qatar wants to host world aviation group AFP - Qatar is proposing moving the International Civil Aviation Organization from its longtime base in Montreal to Doha, the ICAO said Wednesday. The UN agency's 191 members are scheduled to consider the move at its next assembly in September. ICAO spokesman Anthony Philbin said it would require the support of at least 60 percent of conference delegates to be approved. Montreal has been the ICAO's home since it was created in 1944, but Qatar is offering to build spectacular new offices to house the UN agency, according to documents cited by Canadian media. Furthermore, Qatar says, Montreal is cold and too far from European and Asian aviation hubs. To sweeten the deal, Doha said it would also offer to void income taxes for ICAO staff living in the country, if the agency moved there. Ottawa told AFP it will fight the bid to move the ICAO. Back to Top MD 600N Helicoper Accident (Mexico) Date: 24-APR-2013 Time: 18:35 LT Type: McDonnell Douglas MD 600N Operator: Oaxaca State Government Registration: XC-AAF C/n / msn: RN020 Fatalities: Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: 5 miles from Oaxaca, Oaxaca State - Mexico Phase: En route Nature: Ambulance Departure airport: Hospital Regional de Putla Villa de Guerrero, Oaxaca, Mexico, +17° 1' Destination airport: Hospital General de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico, +17° 3' 4.93 Narrative: An MD-600 Medevac helicopter registration XC-AAF of the Oaxaca State Government, crashed with 4 people on board, near a place called "Rio Seco" Cuilapam Villa de Guerrero, located 5 miles from the airport of the city of Oaxaca. There were no survivors. www.aviation-safety.com Back to Top Position Wanted: Pilot Position (Airline/Cargo) Experienced international airline aviator with 8,000+ total flying hours; in excess 2000 hours of B777, 2200 hours of B737, and 1800 hours of A310 experience. Verifiable record of no violations. Solid training record- has passed all commercial airline and check rights on first attempt. Continuous employment in aviation. Dependable employee- 0 no. - Shows throughout career. Facilitate open communication and mutual respect among all work groups. Committed to Safety First. Firm Advocate of Crew Resource Management. U.S. Citizen Contact: jahanzeb737@yahoo.com CURT LEWIS