Flight Safety Information May 17, 2013 - No. 100 In This Issue Gold shipment valued at $625,000 vanishes from Miami airport Two Pilots Fired After Brazilian Pop Star Takes Captain's Seat Mid-Flight Airplane crash reported in Sierra County was a Cessna 421 Airline Industry Remains Divided Over Personal Electronics Usage During Takeoff and Landing Cecelia Crocker, Other Plane Crash 'Sole Survivors' Share Tales of Guilt, Pain and Triumph Annual SMS Audit Results Released China Eastern gets A320 wing-tip aircraft Gold shipment valued at $625,000 vanishes from Miami airport American Airlines planes taxi past a terminal at Miami International airport in Miami, Florida. A shipment of gold valued at $625,000 vanished in a suspected heist after arriving in Miami on an American Airlines flight, authorities announced Thursday. A police report says the gold, which arrived in a box, was brought on the flight from Guayaquil, Ecuador to the Miami International Airport early Tuesday, WSVN reports. The plane's cargo was unloaded by five crew members, but the box containing the gold disappeared after apparently being loaded onto a motorized luggage cart or tug, the report said. The cart was found in front of a gate of the same terminal were the flight from Ecuador was unloaded, about an hour after workers emptied the cargo hold, but without the box containing the gold. The police incident report did not say who owned the gold or what its final destination was and an American Airlines security official at the airport declined to comment to Reuters on the case, saying only that it was being investigated by the FBI. "The FBI is aware of the situation," FBI spokesman Michael Leverock told Reuters in an email. Miami International serves as a major trans-shipment point for large quantities of gold produced in South America and exported primarily to Switzerland for refining. The city has seen the trans-shipment of gold rise sharply in recent years as investors have turned to gold and its price has risen. Gold is Miami's No. 1 import valued at almost $8 billion last year, mostly from Mexico and Colombia, and almost all destined for Switzerland, according to World City, a Miami-based publication that tracks trade data. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/17/gold-shipment-valued-at-625000-vanishes- from-miami-airport/#ixzz2TYb80Yyw Back to Top Two Pilots Fired After Brazilian Pop Star Takes Captain's Seat Mid-Flight A Brazilian pop star who calls himself Latino has put TAM Airlines in the hot seat after he was allegedly invited to sit in the captain's chair during a cross-country flight from Recife to Rio de Janeiro. Pictures of the singer in the cockpit of an Airbus A320-200 were circulated on Instagram and posted to the musician's website the day after the incident, but were later removed. According to an incident report on The Aviation Herald, autopilot was on and the first officer was in his seat when Latino climbed into the captain's chair. After a few pictures were snapped, the captain took back his seat and the aircraft continued for a safe landing in Rio. The news outlet reports the airline initially claimed the photos were taken while the plane was on the ground, but later admitted the aircraft was in-flight, evidenced by engine instruments and navigation displays in the background of the photos. Both pilots have been fired as a result of the occurrence, and Brazil's Agência Nacional de Aviação Civi - the country's equivalent to the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States - has opened an investigation. http://www.gadling.com/2013/05/16/two-pilots-fired-after-brazilian-pop-star-takes- captains-seat-m/ Back to Top Airplane crash reported in Sierra County was a Cessna 421 10:10 p.m. update The Sierra County Sheriff's Office says that authorities are at the scene where they are investigating. Authorities have no details about the status of anyone on board. The Sierra County Sheriff's Office is being assisted by other agencies as it tries to gather information, sheriff's dispatch reports. No timeline is in place for release of additional information. 3:45 p.m. update: Federal Aviation Adminstration spokesman Allen Kenitzer reports that a Cessna 421 was heading to Reno when it was lost off radar about 1:25 p.m. today. The accident was about 10 miles west of Verdi, the Kenitzer said. Authorities have not said yet if there were any injuries or fatalities and have not said how many were on board. According to Airlineers.net, a Cessna 421 is a twin-engine airplane that can have six or eight seats. It is pressurized. Crews are making their way to an airplane crash northeast of Truckee. The accident happened this afternoon. The location has not been pinpointed, the Tahoe National Forest reported, but it is being described as the reservoir area northeast of Truckee. There was no name given for the reservoir. It is believed to be in Sierra County. Several agencies are responding. http://www.rgj.com/article/20130516/NEWS/305160063/Update-Airplane-crash- reported-Sierra-County-Cessna-421 ************* Date: 16-MAY-2013 Time: 13:25 LT Type: Cessna 421C Golden Eagle Operator: Tri-Wings LLC Registration: N421W ? C/n / msn: 421C0868 ? Fatalities: Fatalities: / Occupants: Airplane damage: mis Location: Near Verdi Peak, NV - United States of America Phase: En route Nature: Departure airport: KRHV Destination airport: KRNO Narrative: The aircraft, a Cessna 421C Golden Eagle, impacted mountainous terrain and caught fire NE of Truckee, California, near Verdi Peak, Nevada. The aircraft registration, damage, numbers of souls onboard, or their fate, has not yet been verified. From KRNO-May-16-2013-2000Z.mp3: "421 whiskey verify heading 040" "uh 21 whiskey negative" "421 whiskey say intentions" "421 whiskey norcal approach how do you hear" "golden eagle 421 whiskey norcal approach say intentions" "he's in a spin" "golden eagle 421 whiskey norcal approach" "21 whiskey is in a spin" "21 whiskey's in a spin" "golden eagle 421 whiskey norcal approach roger" www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Airline Industry Remains Divided Over Personal Electronics Usage During Takeoff and Landing Earlier this year, we noted that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was continuing to look at the use of personal electronic devices during the taxi, takeoff, and landing phases of commercial flights, hoping to take action by the end of the year to loosen restrictions currently requiring that all devices be powered down during these times. Bloomberg now provides another update on the situation, noting that the airline industry remains divided over whether restrictions should be relaxed as reports of possible interference between these devices and aircraft electronics continue to surface. The report leads with a brief anecdote involving an iPhone: The regional airliner was climbing past 9,000 feet when its compasses went haywire, leading pilots several miles off course until a flight attendant persuaded a passenger in row 9 to switch off an Apple Inc. iPhone. "The timing of the cellphone being turned off coincided with the moment where our heading problem was solved," the unidentified co-pilot told NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System about the 2011 incident. The plane landed safely. Despite the fact that correlation does not necessarily imply causation, some pilots and airlines remain concerned over the potential impact of these electronic devices on their aircraft. The International Air Transport Association collected a list of 75 suspected cases of interference between 2003 and 2009 and airlines are continuing to see occasional reports, although some remain in favor of relaxing the regulations. Even Delta Air Lines Inc., which argued for relaxed rules, told the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration its pilots and mechanics reported 27 suspected incidents of passenger electronics causing aircraft malfunctions from 2010 to 2012. Atlanta-based Delta said it couldn't verify there was interference in any of those cases. The airline industry has been divided. Delta said in its filing that it welcomes more electronics use because that's what its passengers wanted. United Continental Holdings Inc. said it preferred no changes because they'd be difficult for flight attendants to enforce. Just last week, a study indicated that 30% of U.S. airline passengers who have brought electronic devices onboard have accidentally left them on at least once. With increased connectivity in the air through in-flight Wi-Fi and pilots even taking advantage of iPads to replace their traditional flight bags weighing 30-40 pounds, consumer demand for increased access to their electronic devices during flight has raised visibility of the debate over whether such devices pose risks during critical phases of flight. For now, the debate continues to play out as both sides seek to use scientific data to back up their positions. http://www.macrumors.com/2013/05/15/airline-industry-remains-divided-over-personal- electronics-usage-during-takeoff-and-landing/ Back to Top Cecelia Crocker, Other Plane Crash 'Sole Survivors' Share Tales of Guilt, Pain and Triumph Cecilia Crocker, the sole survivor of Northwest Airlines flight 255 that crashed in 1987, shares her story. (ABC News) At just 4 years old, Cecelia Crocker became known as America's orphan after being the only survivor in a 1987 plane crash, which, to this day, she doesn't remember. In 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 255 crashed minutes after taking off from Detroit's Metro Airport, killing 154 people on board and two people on the ground, but leaving behind one tiny miracle. Cecelia Cichan, whose married name is now Crocker, was the lone survivor of the crash. Her mother, father and 6-year-old brother, David, who were on the flight with her, were all killed. Now, almost 26 years later, that little girl is all grown up, and she is speaking out for the first time about the tragedy that forever changed her life. It is believed that Crocker's mother, Paula Cichan, shielded her in the crash. "I think about the accident every day," said Crocker, 30. "It's kind of hard not to think about it when I look in the mirror. I have visual scars, my arms and my legs and I have scars on my forehead." At the time of the crash, Crocker's family lived in Tempe, Ariz., but her aunt and uncle raised her afterwards in Birmingham, Ala., and kept her out of the spotlight. Although she doesn't remember the crash, Crocker said she knows when she first understood what happened to her. "When I realized I was the only person to survive that plane crash, I was maybe in middle school, high school maybe," Crocker said. "Being an adolescent and confused, so it was just extra stress for me. I remember feeling angry and survivor's guilt. Why didn't my brother survive? Why didn't anybody? Why me?" Crocker is one of four people, all of whom are lone survivors of airline crashes, featured in a new documentary, "Sole Survivor," which will hit theaters this August. Another person featured in the film is George Lamson, who, at age 17, was the only person found alive after Galaxy Airlines flight 203 went down in Reno in 1985. The documentary follows Lamson as he connects with the few people who know what it's like to go through what he went through. Another one of those people is John Polehinke, the co-pilot on Com Air flight 5191, which went down seconds after takeoff in Lexington, Ky., in 2006. Even today, he said he still struggles with survivor's guilt. "I've cried harder than any man has ever cried, or any man should be able to cry," Polehinke said. "My wife was there to support me to where I could just put my head on her shoulder and cry. It's that constant struggle where my inner voice wants to keep going forward and the good voice says, 'Yeah, come on,' you have the inner strength to do that , but the bad voice says, no stay here, have another shot of liquor." Then there is Bahia Bakari, who was 14 when she survived after Yemenia flight 626 plummeted into the Indian Ocean in 2009, and spent nine hours clinging to plane wreckage before she was rescued. Since 1970, there have been only 15 instances where a commercial plane crash left a single survivor. Amazingly, roughly 95 percent of people involved in plane crashes live to tell about it, according to National Transportation Safety Board statistics on accidents studied from 1983 to 2000. In 1996, 50 people out of 175 on-board survived the Ethiopian Airways flight that crashed off the coast of Africa. Then there is the most remarkable plane crash survivor story of recent memory, when U.S. Airways Captain Chesley "Sulley" Sullenberger safely landed in Hudson River shortly after take-off. All 150 passengers and five crew members survived the so-called "miracle on the Hudson." To find the secrets to surviving a plane crash, Ed Galea, a professor of mathematical modeling and engineering at the University of Greenwich in London, interviewed 2,000 survivors of 105 plane crashes. "There is no magic seat on board an aircraft," Galea said. "There is no one seat that is the safest seat on the aircraft." Discovery Channel's "Curiosity: Plane Crash" investigation compiled a team of experts who rigged a 727 jet with cameras, sensors and test dummies and then crashed it, on purpose, in the Mexican desert to see whether there are ways to help passengers survive when tragedy unfolds. Their conclusion: Bracing for impact can indeed be a lifesaver. "You're limiting the opportunity for movement of the upper torso, and hence, you're limiting the impact speed of your head against an obstacle," Galea said. "So the brace position is designed to reduce your chances of being knocked unconscious during a heavy impact, and you must be conscious, obviously, to evacuate." For those who survive plane crashes, it is a life-long struggle to understand why they made it out alive when others perished. An exclusive screening of "Sole Survivor" was held Wednesday night in Royal Oaks, Mich., near the 1987 Northwest Airlines flight 255 plane crash site. The film's director, Ky Dickens, said being a sole survivor is both a blessing and a burden. "The most important thing that people can take away [from the film] is that survivors are really victims too," Dickens said. "There is this misperception that if you survive something, you are lucky... But their life is altered forever, and it's not easy for them to pick up and go on and there's very little of it that feels lucky to them." In the audience were family members of victims who were killed in the 1987 crash, the one in which Crocker was the only survivor. "When you see the footage of the wreckage, it's just a complete miracle and blessing that somebody walked away from that," said Jeff Krappitz, who lost his grandfather in the crash. Also in the audience was John Thiede, the firefighter who first spotted Crocker in the wreckage. "When we found it and found her, it was just elation," Thiede said. "A moment you couldn't describe: 'Hey, we found somebody.'" Crocker is now happily married, studies art therapy and flies regularly. She even got a tattoo of an airplane on her wrist. "So many things, scars were put on my body against my will, and I decided to put this on my body for myself," Crocker said. "I am happy. I'm just, I've never been happier." She is a sole survivor who took control, and turned tragedy into a life of triumph. http://abcnews.go.com/US/cecelia-crocker-plane-crash-sole-survivors-share- tales/story?id=19198107&page=2#.UZYtQlAo6Uk Back to Top Back to Top China Eastern gets A320 wing-tip aircraft China Eastern Airlines is the first Chinese carrier to get an Airbus 320 aircraft equipped with wing-tip devices. The devices, known as sharklets, are placed at right angles at the end of the wing. They are made from light-weight composites that can offer up to 4 percent fuel reduction and the flexibility of either adding an additional 100 nautical miles range or increasing payload capacity up to 450 kilograms, according to Airbus. The devices are optional on the A320 and standard on all members of A320neo aircraft. The first A320 aircraft equipped with sharklets was delivered to Air Asia in December 2012 and as many as 47 A320 aircraft equipped with sharklets were a delivered globally by mid-May. "China Eastern will shortly introduce 97 sharklet equipped A320 aircraft to our fleet," said Shu Mingjiang, vice-president flight operations of China Eastern. The sharklet-equipped A320 aircraft is also the first plane of its type to be assembled in Tianjin and it will make its first commercial flight from Shanghai to Dalian on Saturday. The Airbus Tianjin Delivery Centre has delivered 126 aircraft since June 2009 and it plans to deliver 46 aircraft in 2013. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2013-05/17/content_16507682.htm Curt Lewis