Flight Safety Information May 1, 2013 - No. 089 In This Issue NTSB assists plane crash probe in Afghanistan - Video NTSB to assist Afghan cargo plane crash probe British charter jet flying from Mexico to England makes safe emergency landing in Bermuda Flight Lands Safely In DIA After Declaring Emergency All Dreamliner airlines to resume flights Japan Sets More Rigorous Standards For Resumption Of 787 Flights. UK merges safety, airspace policy functions The TSA Says No to Pocketknives on Airplanes After All PROS IOSA Audit Experts $70 Million Per Seat For Space Flight? Russia Charging NASA $70 Million Per Seat On Shuttle Aviation: Business of business travel booming in China, India and other emerging countries U.S. airports don't stack up Ghostly Plane Wrecks Found in Remote, Exotic Locations Position Wanted:...Pilot Position-First Officer...(Airline/Cargo) NTSB assists plane crash probe in Afghanistan Boeing 747 crash at Bagram Airfield caught on tape By Joan Lowy WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday it is sending a team of investigators to Afghanistan to assist local authorities with their investigation of a U.S. cargo airline crash that killed all seven crew members on board. The plane, a Boeing 747-400 operated by National Air Cargo, crashed Monday just after takeoff from Bagram Air Base. The crew members were all American citizens, the board said. The accident site is within the perimeter of Bagram Air Base. The international cargo flight was destined for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The Afghanistan Ministry of Transportation and Commercial Aviation is leading the investigation. The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but NATO said later the claims were false, and there was no sign of insurgent activity in the area at the time of the crash. The team will be composed of three NTSB investigators, as well as representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, board said. The plane - owned by National Airlines, an Orlando, Florida-based subsidiary of National Air Cargo - was carrying vehicles and other cargo, according to National Air Cargo Vice President Shirley Kaufman. She said those killed were four pilots, two mechanics and a load master, who was responsible for making sure that the weight and balance of the cargo is appropriate. Five of the seven people who died were from Michigan, said Kaufman. The identities of those killed haven't been released. National Airlines was based until recently at Michigan's Willow Run Airport, west of Detroit in Wayne County's Van Buren Township. It carries cargo both commercially and for the military, Kaufman said. She said the company employs about 225 people. Back to Top NTSB to assist Afghan cargo plane crash probe The National Transportation Safety Board will lead a team to assist the Afghanistan Ministry of Transportation and Commercial Aviation in the investigation of a cargo plane crash Monday at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. NTSB Senior Air Safety Investigator Tim LeBaron will be the U.S. accredited representative. He will lead a team of three additional investigators from the NTSB as well as representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and The Boeing Company. The private cargo plane, a Boeing 747-400 operated by National Air Cargo, crashed just after takeoff from the U.S.-operated air base at 11:20 a.m. local time Monday. All seven crew members on board were killed and the airplane destroyed. The seven crew members were all American citizens. The accident site is within the perimeter of Bagram Air Base. The international cargo flight was destined for Dubai World Central - Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. "Safety is always our top priority at National Airlines," said National Airlines President Glen Joerger in a statement posted on the company's website. "This is a devastating loss for our family and we'll work diligently with authorities to find the cause," said Joerger. "Most importantly, our thoughts and prayers are with our crew members and their families." National Airlines said it will release additional information as it becomes available, in cooperation with government authorities. http://www.aircargoworld.com/Air-Cargo-News/2013/04/ntsb-to-assist-afghan-cargo- plane-crash-probe/3013536 Back to Top British charter jet flying from Mexico to England makes safe emergency landing in Bermuda HAMILTON, Bermuda (AP) - A charter passenger jet made an emergency landing Tuesday in Bermuda after the captain reported a possible fire in the cabin, officials in the British island territory said. Thomas Cook Airlines Flight 149 landed safely in Hamilton and the passengers and crew were safely evacuated, said Lt. Jay Donawa, a spokesman for the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service. "No injuries were reported and there was no fire on board when the aircraft landed," Donawa said. The A330 aircraft had 338 passengers and was traveling from Cancun, Mexico, to Manchester, England, when the captain declared an emergency about 8:20 p.m. and diverted to Bermuda. The craft landed about 40 minutes later with emergency personnel waiting. Back to Top Flight Lands Safely In DIA After Declaring Emergency DENVER (AP) - A Frontier Airlines flight heading for San Diego has landed safely in Denver, after instruments showed a possible loss in cabin pressure. A spokesman for parent company Republic Airways says instruments notified the flight crew Monday morning of the loss in pressurization, shortly after Flight 1557 left Denver International Airport. The flight crew declared an emergency and returned to Denver. Republic spokesman Peter Kowalchuk says oxygen masks didn't deploy. He says the flight was carrying 98 passengers and four crew members. Back to Top All Dreamliner airlines to resume flights (CNN) -- The eight airlines around the world that have the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in their fleets are set to resume commercial flights of the aircraft by early June. Qatar Airways was the latest airline to confirm it would resume Dreamliner flights between Doha and Dubai this week and a longer service from Doha to London's Heathrow starting May 15. Ethiopian Airlines was the first to recommence passenger flights with a service from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday. This week Japan authorized passenger airlines to resume flying the embattled aircraft in the country starting Friday, officials said. Air Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, which account for 24 of the 50 Dreamliners delivered by Boeing thus far, earlier announced they would resume commercial 787 flights on June 1. United Airlines -- the only U.S. airline to take delivery of the 787 -- has announced it would resume Dreamliner flights from May 31, initially serving the domestic Houston- Denver route. Polish carrier LOT is planning to resume services June 5, while Air India has said in local reports it is planning to reintroduce its Dreamliners to the skies in May. Chilean airline LAN has announced it plans flights in June. The resumption of services ends a worldwide grounding of the ultra modern Dreamliner of more than three months, after two incidents on jets operated by Japanese airlines called the battery systems into question. Officials later pointed to faulty battery systems in recommending the planes be grounded. Last week, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration cleared Boeing to make fixes to the problematic battery system. Boeing said it was deploying teams to help the airlines install the redesigned system. In an online posting last Thursday, the FAA outlined the modifications necessary for the Dreamliner to fly again. The Dreamliner's use of lightweight composite materials to greatly improve fuel economy has made it a big seller in Asia and the Middle East, where long-haul flights account for much of an airline's business. Back to Top Japan Sets More Rigorous Standards For Resumption Of 787 Flights. What Are Passengers To Think? John Goglia, Contributor First, the FAA had to be nudged by the Japanese into grounding the Boeing BA -0.53% 787 after two batteries dangerously overheated - with one actually catching fire - on two different Japanese airliners. Then there was criticism from the NTSB that the FAA's original certification of the 787 batteries did not meet minimum industry standards. Now, news that the Japanese transport ministry has taken the unusual step of issuing more stringent requirements for resumption of 787 flights. In addition to the changes mandated by the FAA for the APU battery, the battery charger and the battery enclosure, the Japanese are also requiring their airlines to install battery monitoring systems to monitor battery performance and to institute an inspection program to ensure the effectiveness of the battery changes. These additional precautions would only apply to JAL and ANA, and not to any other airlines flying 787s including United, the only US operator with a 787 fleet. By ordering these additional steps, the Japanese authorities appear to be implying that Boeing and the FAA did not go far enough in addressing the problems that led to the 787's grounding, especially given the fact that the cause of the batteries' overheating has not been determined. As a long-time aviation safety advocate, it seems to me that the Japanese have taken a more deliberative approach to authorizing renewed flights. The additional steps mandated by the Japanese aviation authorities seem reasonable in light of the seriousness of the problem of a potential in-flight fire. And I couldn't help but notice that, in stark contrast to the FAA, the Japanese authorities waited for the conclusion of the NTSB's hearings on the 787 batteries to decide whether to lift their grounding order. As readers may recall, the FAA announced its acceptance of Boeing's fix a few days before the NTSB hearings even began. Unfortunately, there's no love lost between these two agencies (think FBI and CIA pre-9/11), but it would seem to me that in the interests of aviation safety and reassuring the public that the FAA could have at least made a pretense of wanting to hear what the Safety Board's hearings would reveal. And now that the media has widely-reported that Japanese 787s will follow a stricter safety regimen, the flying public deserves an explanation from Boeing and the FAA why they did not mandate the same level of safety for US airliners. http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoglia/2013/04/30/japan-sets-more-rigorous- standards-for-resumption-of-787-flights-what-are-passengers-to-think/ Back to Top UK merges safety, airspace policy functions The UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is to merge the activities of its Safety Regulation Group and Department of Airspace Policy, with effect from 1 July. The new, merged department will be led by Mark Swan, currently the CAA's Director of Airspace Policy. The change follows Safety Director Gretchen Haskins' decision not to seek a reappointment to the CAA Board when her current fixed term expires. She will remain at the CAA supporting the transition and working on a number of strategic safety projects in the UK and internationally, before leaving the organisation in the Autumn. CAA Chief Executive, Andrew Haines, said: "Merging the functions of our airspace policy and safety departments has been a possibility that has been considered for a number of years, not least in the 2008 review of the CAA undertaken by Sir Joseph Pilling. In the light of Gretchen's decision not to seek reappointment to the Board, now seemed like the right time to make that change. There are real safety benefits from consolidating our safety and airspace management activities in one place." "It has been an absolute privilege to work with Gretchen over the past three years. Her understanding of and commitment to aviation safety is exceptional and she has made an enormous contribution to the CAA." "Mark Swan brings huge strengths to his new role. His leadership of our airspace work has won him considerable respect both within the UK and internationally and he spent many years as a pilot during his service in the RAF." http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2013/04/uk-caa-merges-safety-airspace-policy- functions/ Back to Top The TSA Says No to Pocketknives on Airplanes After All When Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole moved last month to lift restrictions on bringing small pocketknives, hockey sticks, and baseball bats on airplanes, he was deluged with criticism. Pistole argued that small knives could not be used to bring down an airliner-and pointed out that the TSA already allows small scissors and screwdrivers on board. But airline executives and flight attendants protested that it would put crews and passengers in danger. And the airport screeners union complained that the new rules, which permit knives shorter than 2.36 inches, would be the subject of endless squabbling from passengers, leading to even longer airport delays. Unlike other agency heads, who are legally bound to get public input or congressional approval before making big rule changes, Pistole had the authority to make the change and said he wasn't going to back down. He backed down. According to my colleague Jeff Plungis, Pistole announced in an internal e-mail circulated to TSA staff on Monday that he was delaying the plan, which was set to go into effect on April 25. The TSA chief said he needed "to further consult with the airline industry" before making the change. Pistole didn't say how long he'd take to make up his mind. For the time being, passengers who don't want to get into hassles with the TSA should leave pocketknives and baseball bats in their checked luggage-or at home. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-23/the-tsa-says-no-to-pocketknives-on- airplanes-after-all Back to Top Back to Top $70 Million Per Seat For Space Flight? Russia Charging NASA $70 Million Per Seat On Shuttle Is $70 million per seat too much - even for a flight to space? Russia is apparently charging NASA $70 million per seat on an upcoming interstellar flight to the International Space Station, which works out to a whopping $424 million bill for six astronauts. With the end of the US Shuttle program, Russia is the only game in town for the US to send their astronauts into space, and the Russians are charging dearly. $70 million per seat is actually a raise on the previously reported price of $65 million per seat, but it seems the price tag has gone up. The flight is scheduled for 2016, but NASA administrators are lobbying Congress hard for money to build their own crafts instead. On the flip side, if you've some got some spare cash around, $70 million per seat is a bargain for a civilian wanting to see the ISS up close. http://www.vibe.com/article/70-million-seat-space-flight-russia-charging-nasa-70-million- seat-shuttle Back to Top Aviation: Business of business travel booming in China, India and other emerging countries From Asia to Africa to the Middle East and the Americas, the business of business travel is booming in emerging countries. And it shows. Dubai, an emirate with global ambitions to diversify, expanded its airport recently with a new terminal paved with white marble, devoted to its growing fleet of Airbus A380s double-deckers. Similarly, Beijing and Shanghai both greet foreign travelers with gleaming and spacious new international terminals. Istanbul, ancient capital of empires, is successfully refashioning itself as a modern transportation hub with better connections to Asia than rivals in the United States or Europe. And Brazil, a rising oil power, is pouring billions into infrastructure as it prepares to host the soccer World Cup next year and the Olympic Games in 2016. Business travelers are expected to spend about $1.16 trillion on airfare, accommodations and other travel this year, according to the Global Business Travel Association, up from $1.07 trillion last year. Much of that growth is coming from developing nations, prompting a boom in new construction in emerging markets while business travel in the US recovers at a slow pace and Europe, mired in the euro crisis, remains stagnant. "What we've seen in terms of infrastructure in recent years recalls the old baseball adage - if you build it, they will come," said Tony Davis, a partner at Irelandia Aviation, an investor in low-cost airlines like VivaAerobus in Mexico and Tiger Airways in Singapore. The growth in passenger travel tells the story. Global traffic rose 4 per cent last year, according to the Airports Council International, a trade group that represents more than 1,700 airports in 170 countries. In North America and Europe, airports had only modest gains. But air transportation in emerging economies has been buoyant - a testament to their dynamism and growth prospects in time of low interest rates, and their opportunities in raw materials, commodities and trade. Traffic last year grew by 7.5 per cent in Asia, 7.3 per cent in Latin America, 6.4 per cent in Africa and 13 per cent in the Middle East, according to the airport trade group, outpacing Western airports by a wide margin. Five airports in emerging markets, each with more than 40 million annual passengers, reported double-digit growth - Istanbul, Dubai, Jakarta, Bangkok and Singapore - according to a report released last month by the airport group. Atlanta, currently home to the world's busiest airport, grew 3.3 per cent. Chicago O'Hare International Airport, the second-busiest in the US, actually shrank slightly, according to the report. Nowhere has the growth in business travel been more robust and prolonged than in China. Passengers at Beijing Capital International Airport tripled in the last decade and most travel experts expect that it will jump ahead of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as the world's top airport by passenger traffic next year. China's business travel spending has grown an average of 15.5 per cent each year from 2000 to 2013 and is set to reach $226 billion this year, according to the Global Business Travel Association. Remarkably, that figure is growing even as China's export-led economy begins to slow down and make the transition to a consumer-oriented one. Chinese business travel is forecast to increase nearly 17 per cent next year and China is set to overtake the US as the world's top business travel market by then. Shanghai built a new terminal at the Hongqiao International Airport as part of a $9 billion investment program that also included a transportation hub linking the airport to city buses, subways and a new high-speed rail network. The airport, which opened three years ago and can handle 300,000 flights a year, has high-end shops like Armani and chains like Starbucks. To cater to China's rising middle class and fulfill the leadership's desire to reduce the economy's reliance on exports, businesses will need a better travel infrastructure across the vast Chinese interior. To that end, the Chinese government has outlined plans to build another 100 airports throughout the country over the next couple of years. "You really have a changing landscape throughout the developing economies," said Michael W. McCormick, the executive director of the Global Business Traveler Association, a group whose members include corporate travel managers. "The infrastructure is clearly racing to catch up with demand." Of course, travel off the beaten path holds its share of perils and inconveniences. Hotel infrastructure is often inadequate. Roads can be hazardous. Sometimes vaccines and antimalarial medication may be necessary. Climate is another challenge. Summer temperatures in Qatar, which won its bid to host the 2022 soccer World Cup, exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit on average from May through September and can reach highs of 120 degrees. (Rest assured, there are plans for high- end cooling technology at match venues or, alternatively, to hold the tournament in the winter.) There are other hazards presented by a rise in global travel, notably a greater risk of rapid disease transmission and pandemics. The latest threat emerged in China, where a previously unknown influenza virus infected dozens and killed at least 17 people recently. Another virus, similar to the one that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, was also recently identified in the Middle East. Security issues are another consideration. In some places, the risk of kidnapping cannot be ruled out. Business travel suffered throughout the Middle East in recent years during the Arab uprisings, though they have also created new opportunities in the region. The Libyan economy had one of the world's fastest growth rates last year, according to the International Monetary Fund, reflecting a strong recovery after its collapse during the uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/- aviation/aviation-business-of-business-travel-booming-in-china-india-and-other- emerging-countries/articleshow/19815753.cms Back to Top U.S. airports don't stack up Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport was the first U.S. airport to show up on a world's best airport list -- at No. 30. (CNN) -- There's some work to be done to get United States airports on par with their global competitors. This is according to President Obama, who highlighted poor U.S. airport rankings during a press conference Tuesday. "Just one interesting statistic when it comes to airports. There was a recent survey of the top airports in the country -- in the world -- and there was not a single U.S. airport that came in the top 25. Not one -- not one U.S. airport was considered by the experts and consumers who use these airports to be in the top 25 in the world. I think Cincinnati airport came in around 30th," Obama said as he addressed questions about the contentious debate over forced government budget cuts and the recent Federal Aviation Administration furloughs. Politics aside, the president is correct that Cincinnati's airport was ranked 30th on a recent list of the world's top 100 airports. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport was the first U.S. airport to appear on the list, released earlier this month as part of the Skytrax World Airport Awards. And the world's best airport is ... Singapore airport masters safety Singapore Changi Airport took the No. 1 spot, followed by Incheon International Airport in Seoul. Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport ranked third. Of the top 10 airports, five were in Asia and four were in Europe. Vancouver International Airport, ranked No. 8, was the only North American airport to make the top 10. 17 U.S. airports made the top 100: No. 30: Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport No. 36: Denver International Airport No. 40: San Francisco International Airport No. 48: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport No. 54: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport No. 62: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport No. 63: New York JFK International Airport No. 71: Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport No. 79: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport No. 80: Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport No. 84: Chicago O'Hare International Airport No. 86: Raleigh-Durham International Airport No. 87: Charlotte/Douglas International Airport No. 88: Boston Logan International Airport No. 93: Newark Liberty International Airport No. 94: Salt Lake City International Airport No. 97: Pittsburgh International Airport Skytrax's World Airport Awards are based on 12.1 million survey questionnaires filled out by passengers covering 108 different nationalities and 395 airports worldwide during a nine-month survey period in 2012 and 2013. The survey asked travelers about departures, arrivals and airport transit and includes questions about terminal amenities, comfort and cleanliness, security, staffing and other elements of the airport experience. Back to Top Ghostly Plane Wrecks Found in Remote, Exotic Locations West Sahara Canada Dietmar Eckell has traveled the world in pursuit of ruin. His portfolio is filled with mystifyingly beautiful pictures of abandoned buildings, forgotten military sites and decomposing cars. For his newest project, he tracked down 15 rotting airplane carcasses left over from crash sites where there were no fatalities and everyone was rescued. "We hear enough about air disasters in the news so I didn't feel the need to dramatize that in my photography," he says. "Instead I wanted to give the viewer a positive 'wow' effect." For nearly three years, he trekked to extremely isolated locations across the world - nine countries on four continents - to find the photos and now he's running an Indiegogo campaign to fund a self-published book. "I shoot all kinds of abandoned relics with amazing stories, but the planes are special," he says. "Visually it's just surreal when you see an airplane after the long journey to get out [to these remote spots]." In Papua New Guinea he says the quest to find a downed plane was like a trip through history. He was after a piece of modernity, but to get there he had to cross through communities that still clung to centuries-old traditions and had no electricity or running water. While chasing another wreck in North Africa he had to negotiate with a local rebel group in order to get transported across the border from Mauritania into Western Sahara. "That was a different kind of thrill," he says. Most of the airplanes have sat in the same spot for decades, so over time they've become part of the landscape. In the forests, trees grow through broken windows. In the desert, piles of sand conform to the shape of the fuselage. In the mountains, their gray metal innards start to resemble the rocks around them. To find the wrecks, Eckell pored over internet forums, dug through archives and searched Google Earth. Once he had a general region, he also began surveying local pilots to see if they had details on a specific location. He couldn't get to the most remote crashes in places like Antarctica and Greenland because it was too expensive, but he hasn't given up. He's trying to raise more money and plans to eventually track them down. "One day I'll get there," he says. http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2013/04/finding-beauty-in-wrecked-and-rotting-airplanes/ Back to Top Position Wanted: Pilot Position-First Officer (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