Flight Safety Information June 4, 2013 - No. 111 In This Issue Terrifying video captures moment German drone missed Afghan plan Jet Airways flight aborts take-off as cargo door remains open Philippines probes Cebu Pacific for rough landin Shifting Cargo May Have Doomed Plane That Crashed Near Kabul Air India pilots ignore alert, grounded Former FAA Safety Inspector Sentenced To Jail Air Canada flight lands safely after smoke detected in cockpit Before 3407, FAA Threatened Colgan Air with Disciplinary Actio Annual SMS Audit Results Released Boeing looking at training pilots in Russia's Skolkovo tech hub Honey bees bother Chennai airport now Japan Works On Prototype Supersonic Passenger Airplan GRADUATE RESEARCH REQUEST Terrifying video captures moment German drone missed Afghan plane carrying 100 passengers by just two metres (Video here) Classified footage of an out-of-control drone narrowly missing an Afghan passenger plane carrying 100 people has caused outrage in Germany. The video, filmed from onboard the unmanned German Luna drone as it flew over Afghanistan, shows it missing the plane by about two metres. It has caused fury in Germany as debate rages about the Government's new order of drones. Last week German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Luna's successor would not be fitted with anti-collision technology because it is too expensive. Critics have seized on the dramatic footage taken nine years ago as proof of the dangers of unmanned drones and called for de Maiziere to reconsider. They say larger drones should be fitted with the technology as it could cause more damage if it crashed. Since then the footage has gained widespread attention, despite being nine years old. The 88lb German 'Luna' drone was caught in air turbulence created by the Ariana passenger plane, before losing control and crash landing near the Afghan capital, Kabul. The video shows the plane in the distance before it swiftly moves into shot. The drone passes under the left wing of the engine. The video was posted on YouTube despite it being strictly classified. Wreckage from the crash in 2004 was never recovered. German magazine Der Spiegel believe that the drone flew less than two metres away from the Airbus A300, putting 100 lives at risk. However, Germany is still going ahead with the purchase of a possible 16 armed aircraft for military use from 2016. The country has held talks with Israel over the Heron TO unmanned aerial vehicle and with the U.S. over the Reaper aircraft. A defence ministry spokesman said that he did not foresee combat-ready drones being deployed over Germany, for example in anti-terrorism operations. A Government spokesman told AFP: 'The intention is that we acquire 16 such devices in future and that the armed forces have them at their disposal from 2016, three years from now.' It comes as Defence Minister de Maiziere fights for his political career after abandoning a multi-million euro drone programme. Mr de Maiziere scrapped the 'Euro Hawk' surveillance drone project two weeks ago blaming spiralling costs. It had already cost €508 million (£432million) before Mr de Maiziere said on May 14 that he would 'pull the ripcord' on the plan to buy four more of the unmanned surveillance aircraft. He feared aviation authorities in Europe would not certify the controversial aircraft to fly over the continent because it lacks the anti-collision system. But he is under mounting pressure amid accusations at home that he already knew about possible problems with the anti-collision system but continued to plough money into the project. The Defence Minister is now expected to present a report to the German media on the so- called 'drone debacle'. Drones are controversial in Germany, both because of battlefield 'collateral damage', or civilian deaths, and because of their spying capabilities, which evoke dark memories from past fascist and communist regimes. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335122/Terrifying-video-captures-moment- German-drone-missed-Afghan-plane-carrying-100-passengers-just-metre.html Back to Top Jet Airways flight aborts take-off as cargo door remains open A Delhi-bound Jet Airways flight from Mumbai aborted take-off today after the aircraft's cargo door was found open, airport sources said. The runway was vacated following the incident which happened around 6 PM and the aircraft taken to a parking bay, they said. "The pilot of the Jet Airways flight 9W for Delhi aborted the take-off after there was an indication that the door of the cargo belly was not shut," sources said. The number of passengers onboard could not be immediately ascertained. Jet Airways spokesperson was not available for comments. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/- aviation/jet-airways-flight-aborts-take-off-as-cargo-door-remains- open/articleshow/20414935.cms Back to Top Philippines probes Cebu Pacific for rough landing Philippine aviation authorities said Tuesday they were investigating Cebu Pacific pilots and crew who left passengers waiting some 15 minutes before deploying emergency slides on a plane that overshot the runway and landed on its nose. None of the 165 passengers was injured, but several complained about the slow response. The rough landing in stormy weather Sunday evening forced the closure of the Davao International Airport in the southern Philippines while the Airbus A320-200 remained stuck on the runway. Civil Aviation Authority Deputy Director General John Andrews said that the pilots' error probably caused the accident. "Everyone panicked. Women and children were screaming," Percival Jacones told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. He said that the cabin crew appeared stunned and that it took 15 minutes before the captain came out of the cockpit to address the passengers. Davao Mayor Sara Duterte said airport management was late in alerting city emergency services about the landing and denied quick access to the passengers. She said that an airport security guard phoned Emergency 911 to report the accident. The aviation authority said that all angles will be investigated. Cebu Pacific President Lance Gokongwei apologized but also defended the crew's action. "In this situation we may not have handled all issues perfectly, but we can learn from this experience," Gokongwei told ABS-CBN TV. The plane had departed Manila. Cebu Pacific is the Philippines' largest low-cost carrier. It operates 33 Airbus planes and eight ATRs, and also flies on regional routes. A similar accident occurred in 2011, when a Cebu Pacific plane overshot the runway in Puerto Princesa in western Palawan province. There were no casualties. The Ateneo de Davao University, which had members aboard Sunday's flight, published an open letter saying it will boycott the airline to protest "the insensitivity and ineptness" of the crew. "Your personnel lack training for an emergency situation. They froze. They did not know what do to. They must be able to put the welfare of the passengers before their own," said university President Joel Tabora. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/420315/philippines-probes-cebu-pacific-for-rough-landing Back to Top Shifting Cargo May Have Doomed Plane That Crashed Near Kabul Crash investigators in Afghanistan said Monday that quickly shifting cargo of heavy military vehicles contributed to the crash of a civilian cargo plane on April 29 in which all seven people aboard were killed. As the Boeing 747 began to take off from the Bagram Air Base, the vehicles slammed into the back of the cargo space so hard that parts of the plane broke off and were left on the runway, officials said. With the center of gravity pushed too far backward, the nose rose too high for the plane to fly. The cockpit voice recorder did not indicate that the pilots knew what was happening, but wiring at the back of the plane showed damage from the shifting cargo, according to Nangialai Qalatwal, a spokesman for the Ministry of Transportation and Civil Aviation. The crash was caught on video by a dashboard camera on a vehicle at the air base. The accident may cast new attention on the quality of Defense Department oversight of its contractors. The safety of civilian flights is usually regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, but after a 2004 crash in Afghanistan of an American civilian cargo plane under contract to the American military, the F.A.A., which had no personnel in the country, delegated the Defense Department to oversee safety. With the American military pullout from Afghanistan in full swing, a vast network of transportation contractors has been employed to ship heavy equipment out of the country. Although most of the cargo traffic is expected to go through Pakistani seaports via road hauling, a huge uptick in outbound cargo flights is also under way. On May 17, the F.A.A. issued a reminder to cargo carriers with heavy vehicles on board to ensure that their loads were tightly fastened, an indication that American safety officials suspected a cargo shift in the April crash. But on Monday, Afghan officials cautioned that it was too early to determine the exact cause of the accident, which remains under investigation. The cockpit voice recorder, which was recovered from the wreckage, has offered few clues, Mr. Qalatwal said. "The only thing that was recorded by the black box right before the crash was a pilot's voice, who was shouting, 'Wait! Wait!' " he said at a news conference in Kabul. The plane, operated by National Air Cargo, a Michigan-based carrier, was loaded with three armored vehicles and two mine sweepers, almost 80 tons of equipment in all, for a flight from Afghanistan to Dubai, Mr. Qalatwal said. He said that the plane had been checked twice before takeoff, once two hours before departure and again just before it left, and that neither review had revealed any technical problems. Aviation experts had speculated earlier that there had been a problem with the plane's pitch control, and that a part might have fallen off during takeoff. The charred remains of the cargo straps were recovered from the site and appear to have been cut, but Mr. Qalatwal said it was unclear whether the damage had occurred before or after takeoff. The plane, consumed by fire from the crash, yielded little else in the wreckage, he said. Under treaties governing aviation, the responsibility for investigating a crash lies with the host country, although other parties, including safety officials from the country where the plane was registered, must be involved. The National Transportation Safety Board sent technical experts to Kabul to assist with the investigation. If the problem was shifting cargo, it was "a freak accident," said Mark V. Rosenker, a retired Air Force general who was a member of the N.T.S.B. from 2003 to 2009, and chairman for part of that period. But, he said, "it could be that one broke loose and flipped into the others." In that case, he said, there would have been "a domino effect" inside the plane. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/world/asia/shifting-cargo-may-have-doomed- plane-that-crashed-near-kabul.html?_r=1& Back to Top Air India pilots ignore alert, grounded NEW DELHI: Air India has grounded two of its pilots for reportedly endangering the lives of passengers by not switching off an engine that was giving the warning of running low on oil. While standard operating procedure in such a situation is to switch off such a engine within seconds to avoid the possibility of it catching fire and leading to a disaster, the pilots of AI 452 kept the low oil pressure engine of the Airbus A-321 flying from Vizag to Delhi on May 26 running for almost 11 minutes. The passengers got lucky with the pilots finally - after a long delay - remembered to switch off the engine and diverting the aircraft to the nearest airport, Nagpur, on the single functional engine. However, the engine was not that lucky. While switching it off instantly after getting the low oil warning would have meant AI get away with minor repairs, the delay has led to it being a complete waste and requiring a replacement - something that will cost the airline several crores apart from losses caused by grounding of the aircraft. "After examining the engine, the manufacturer, CFM, has reportedly told AI that it is a total loss. They have said the pilots should have switched it off in 30 seconds while they did so after 11 minutes," said sources. An AI spokesperson confirmed the incident and said: "The pilots have been grounded pending inquiry. We are investigating the matter with the engine manufacturer and will be able to comment more only after the probe is over." Possibly the airline did not offer to comment more as both the commander and co-pilot of the flight have an extremely questionable track record. The commander recently went to Singapore to train on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner but failed the training and was sent back, with Boeing reportedly putting a question mark on him being a commander on any type of aircraft. A senior airline source said that two AI commanders had failed the Dreamliner training. While one was demoted to being a co-pilot on Airbus A-320' the other was again upgraded to being a captain in disregard of Boeing recommendation. The woman co-pilot had some months back aborted take off after the apples she had purchased from a stopover spilled in the cockpit. After hearing that sound, she got scared that there was some problem with the aircraft and then screeched the plane to a halt. Even after this incident, she had again aborted take off when the aircraft was in top take off speed on ground. Such a high speed abort had led to the tyres burning out. She has been permanently made a co-pilot. "The problem in sarkari AI is that people use their connections to get back to flying even if they have been involved in serious incidents. Knowing the right people in the government means employees can get away with anything. And what aggravates the problem is the complete toothlessness of the DGCA," rued a senior training commander. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Air-India-pilots-ignore-alert- grounded/articleshow/20418111.cms Back to Top Former FAA Safety Inspector Sentenced To Jail The Government Accounting Office (GAO) reported last week that Harrington Bishop, a former FAA Aviation Safety Inspector, was sentenced on April 18 in U.S. District Court, for accepting illegal gratuities. The court sentenced Bishop, who was once stationed at the Teterboro Flight Standards Safety District Office, to a year and a day in prison, a $5,000 fine, one year of supervised release and a $100 special assessment. As part of his sentencing, Bishop was also subject to a criminal forfeiture in the amount of $70,000. Bishop resigned from the FAA in October 2011, just prior to pleading guilty to a single count of accepting illegal gratuities as a public official. The former inspector pled guilty on October 27, 2011, to accepting tens of thousands of dollars for hundreds of unauthorized pilot check rides he performed between May 2004 and February 2011. The GAO said Bishop spent weekends, holidays, and other days of approved leave conducting a variety of flight tests. In exchange for these check flights, he routinely accepted $300 "tips" from the pilots (which some critics labeled as bribes), fully aware that he was not allowed to accept payment from pilots in exchange for his official duties. Bishop admitted that nearly all of the check flights resulted in the pilot passing the ride. http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ainsafety/2012-04-30/former-faa-safety- inspector-sentenced-jail Back to Top Air Canada flight lands safely after smoke detected in cockpit DEER LAKE, N.L. - An Air Canada flight had to make an emergency landing Monday night at the Deer Lake regional airport in Newfoundland. The RCMP says the flight was headed to Goose Bay, Labrador from St. John's when a problem developed with one of the engines just before 8 p.m. The crew smelled smoke in the cockpit about 130 kilometres from Goose Bay and the crew landed safely with the second engine. There were no injuries among the 14 passengers and two crew members. The aircraft remains at the Deer Lake regional airport and passengers from flight 7633 were to be transported on another flight. The RCMP says the matter has been reported to Transport Canada. http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/air-canada-flight-lands-safely-after-smoke-detected-in- cockpit-1.1309791 Back to Top Before 3407, FAA Threatened Colgan Air with Disciplinary Action Buffalo, NY (WKBW) - Ever since news broke that pilot error brought down Flight 3407 more than four years ago, questions have been swirling about Colgan Air's safety regulations. Now, it seems the FAA had questions about the airline too -- even before the crash that left 51 dead. Statements released by the FAA show the airline was warned of some of its procedures, months before the crash of Flight 3407. Those statements from the FAA stop short of citing safety concerns with Colgan Air, instead referring to maintenance issues. However, the follow-up included changes and safety training for Colgan Air employees, the summer before Flight 3407 crashed into a Clarence Center neighborhood. A statement from the FAA said its officials "met with Colgan executives in the summer of 2008, when the airline was expanding its fleet, to discuss recurring maintenance issues identified through FAA surveillance data." The FAA officials reviewed open civil penalty cases, which look into the issue of fines for non-compliance. The FAA even thought about suspending or revoking the airline's certification for commercial flights. In response, Colgan started seminars to discuss airline safety with virtually every employee. It also added more employees, reduced pilot flying time and made maintenance improvements. According to the FAA, "over a period of several months, constant FAA monitoring of risk indicators showed improvements." However, Karen Eckert and Susan Bourque, whose sister Beverly Eckert died in the crash, says the FAA did not go far enough. The FAA cites "human error" as the cause of the crash. However, Eckert and Bourque say it comes down to a lack of concern for safety at Colgan Air. "This really was a situation that was ripe for a catastrophe," says Bourque. "Sickening to know that -- and then Colgan went on," says Eckert. "We all know what happened February 12, 2009." The FAA says it continued to monitor Colgan Air. Family members believe the small regional airline met the minimum FAA requirements -- but that wasn't enough. FULL FAA STATEMENTS TO EYEWITNESS NEWS ... FAA STATEMENT 1: As a result of FAA oversight, Colgan Airlines implemented many safety changes prior to the accident, including adding more employees, enhancing safety training for all employees, reducing pilot flying time by reducing ferry flights, and making maintenance improvements. Over a period of several months, constant FAA monitoring of risk indicators showed improvements. The Colgan accident was the tragic and unfortunate result of a series of human errors. With the help of the Colgan families, the FAA has made significant progress across the industry in reducing pilot fatigue, and improving pilot training and qualifications to reduce or eliminate the types of errors that caused the accident. FAA STATEMENT 2: FAA officials met with Colgan executives in the summer of 2008, when the airline was expanding its fleet, to discuss recurring maintenance issues identified through FAA surveillance data. The FAA officials reviewed open civil penalty cases and raised the possibility of certificate action. Colgan proposed a safety standdown, which the FAA supported. Subsequent to the meeting, Colgan added staff to operations and maintenance and FAA data confirmed improvements. The airline's ferry flights complied with regulations, but the FAA worked with Colgan to develop better procedures for those operations. http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/Before-3407-FAA-Threatened-Colgan-Air-with- Disciplinary-Action-210026731.html Back to Top Back to Top Boeing looking at training pilots in Russia's Skolkovo tech hub Russia's answer to silicon valley could be teaming up with US plane maker Boeing to set up a flight school to breach the country's huge pilot shortfall. The school will be set up as a part of the space cluster of the Skolkovo Techno Park and will provide higher qualification courses for pilots, the daily Vedomosti quotes sources in the Ministry of Transportation. «Boeing will deliver simulators and possibly other equipment to the school. Our investments will reach tens of millions of dollars. It's difficult to say more precisely, as the project is being discussed," Vedomosti quotes a Boeing employee. The new flying school should help solve Russia's lack of qualified pilots. Russian airlines lack up to 1,200 commercial pilots, says Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov to the newspaper. That's despite Russian pilots's salaries are higher than many European airlines and reach 450,000 roubles a month ($14,000). Russia has only 7 civil aviation flight schools which are unable to train enough pilots to meet the growing demand. Air travel in Russia has double digit expansion. Russian airlines are skeptical about the project. A representative of UTair says the majority of carriers have their own refresher courses and their own requirements for pilot training. "In principle, the establishment of a school outside the airline is a dubious enterprise," Vedomosti quotes a spokesman of Aeroflot. The Skolkovo Foundation is a major science and innovation center championed by Dmitry Medvedev and headed by one of Russia's richest businessmen, Viktor Vekselberg. Over the past year it has been a subject to several criminal investigations criminal investigations concerning its management. In 2012 the budget for the organization was 50 billion roubles (about $1.7 billion), with 42 billion roubles ($1.4 billion) allocated from the state budget. http://rt.com/business/boeing-skolkovo-training-pilots-204/ Back to Top Honey bees bother Chennai airport now An official claims he spotted a hive on airside of new international airport Honey bees. That is the new problem the Chennai airport has to deal with. On May 29, passengers on board a Jet Airways flight from Chennai to New Delhi watched a swarm of bees buzzing around an aircraft wing. One of the passengers, Amartya Basu (25), said the flight was delayed by 15 minutes due to the bees. "The pilot announced the delay was caused by an invasion of honey bees from a hive near the parking bay. We could see fire tenders but they did not spray water. Instead, the pilot taxied on the runway and the bees dispersed. Soon after that, the aircraft took off," he said. However, Jet Airways officials said they were not aware of any such incident. An official of Airports Authority of India (AAI) said, "Just a few days ago, I spotted a hive on the airside of the new international terminal. I'm not sure if it has been removed," he said. "It is not the first time we hear of such things; other airports have also been plagued by bee attacks. I will ensure this issue at the Chennai airport is addressed at the earliest," said an air safety official based in Delhi. Another air safety official expressed the belief that removing a beehive provides only a temporary solution. "Bees have a tendency to return to the spot, sooner or later," the official said. A professional beekeeper said bees usually form a hive in an environment where the temperature is about 25-30 degree Celsius. "It is difficult to say what attracts bees to the aircraft. The availability of some sugary substance in any of the food stalls close to the airport could be a reason. Or, it could be certain types of plants and flowers inside the airport," he said. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/honey-bees-bother-chennai-airport- now/article4779012.ece?homepage=true Back to Top Japan Works On Prototype Supersonic Passenger Airplane The Concorde could be said to be one of the more successful failures, as trans-Atlantic travel for those who are on a clock (and have plenty of money to burn literally speaking) was in vogue for some time before it became economically disastrous for whoever runs the Concorde show. Well, the folks in Japan always had this knack of getting a whole lot more bang for your buck - take the Nissan Skyline GT-R for instance, that beast of a vehicle might have a smaller engine capacity than some other American muscle, but it still offers supercar performance when tuned correctly. Well, that aside, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is said to be working on a new kind of aircraft which looks as though it was specially designed to pay homage to the first supersonic commercial aircraft in the world. Not yet named, this aircraft is still a prototype, but it has the ability to achieve supersonic speeds without causing too much sound, quite unlike one of the Concorde's chief complaints. In fact, this Japanese invention is said to be the 75% quieter than the Concorde, but it does carry a lower number of passengers at just 50 heads. http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/06/japan-works-on-prototype-supersonic-passenger- airplane/ Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH REQUEST A fellow aviator of 40 years is conducting a doctoral research study on pilot decision- making. The study - which examines why otherwise competent and certified pilots make mistakes that result in check-ride failures - will be the first qualitative research study to generate emergent new theory based on the erring pilot's perspective. Although many quantitative studies have looked at what pilots do wrong, researchers have not previously sought pilot input on why the erring pilots made substandard mistakes. Pilot volunteers interested in participating must have had to repeat a recurrent training simulator proficiency check ride. Pilot volunteers must also hold a current Federal Aviation Administration medical certificate and must be currently qualified and in an active flying bid status. All pilot interviews are confidential, and pilot participants will have an opportunity to review a draft of the study before results are submitted to the dissertation committee. The study has the support of both organized labor and the commercial aviation flight departments. The research is being conducted across the United States. Professional pilots are loath to discuss performance shortcoming, however the importance of pilot perspective must not be left in the closet. Help us help the profession - please participate. Click here for more information or email the researcher directly at PHDpilotstudy@conflictcounts.com With deepest appreciation! Captain Gary Boettcher PhD Candidate Sullivan University PHDpilotStudy@conflictcounts.com 540-287-7817 M Curt Lewis