Flight Safety Information June 5, 2013 - No. 112 In This Issue Airbus should consider redesigning aircraft after maintenance failure led to Heathrow emergency Qatar Air CEO Wants More 777X Data From Boeing Before Buying Jet Embraer boss: Design and comfort a 'game-changer' in executive jets Why we have to turn electronic devices off on plane Airline Kicks 100 Jewish Students Off Plane For Not Putting Away Phones Japanese Pilots Worry About Repaired Boeing 787 Jets Annual SMS Audit Results Released Saker S-1 Jet Chases Mach .99 Top Speed Airbus Names First A350 Flight Pilots as Countdown Begins GRADUATE RESEARCH REQUEST Airbus should consider redesigning aircraft after maintenance failure led to Heathrow emergency landing, says safety chief The maintenance failure which caused a British Airways jet to carry out an emergency landing should force Airbus to consider redesigning its aircraft, the leading safety adviser in global aviation has warned. Gunther Matschnigg, senior vice-president for safety at the International Air Transport Association, also warned airline BA should review its maintenance procedures. He suggested financial pressures might also have safety implications in the airline industry. Doors on both engines of the British Airways aeroplane in last month's Heathrow emergency landing drama had been left unlatched during maintenance, according to an official accident report. The unlatching had not been identified before the Oslo-bound Airbus A319 took off with 75 passengers and five crew on May 24, said the report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). Mr Matschnigg said Airbus should consider the design of the fastenings, The Times has reported. The fastenings are only visible if mechanics lie on their backs or crouch below the engines. He dismissed claims by Airbus that 32 previous reported incidents of the doors coming loose were insignificant. He said: 'I would count those kinds of incidents as very significant to look into.' John Leahy, Airbus head of sales, has said there are currently 'no plans' for the aircraft's redesign, adding one of the 5,400 aircraft in the A320 family across the globe takes off or lands every two seconds. He said: 'There is always the possibility of human error in any situation. Safety is the most important thing in this industry.' Wille Walsh, chief executive of BA's parent company, refused to comment on the emergency landing, The Times reported. The paper said he pointed to company records hailing the airline's '2,000 highly skilled engineers' when asked about claims job cuts had left maintenance crews overstretched. The fan cowl doors from both engines detached as the aircraft left the runway at Heathrow, puncturing a fuel pipe on the right engine, the AAIB report said. The detaching also punctured the airframe and some aircraft systems and the flight crew, led by the 50-year-old captain, elected to return to Heathrow. On the approach to land an external fire developed on the right engine, with the left engine continuing to perform normally throughout the flight. When the initial fault was detected, the crew declared a pan emergency - not as serious as a mayday - with the intention of returning to Heathrow. During the approach to land, an external fire developed on the right engine and the crew declared a mayday. The AAIB published a photo of the aircraft taken prior to its pushing back from the stand before take-off. This was one of a number of photographs showing the fan cowl doors unlatched on both engines. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2336102/Airbus-consider-redesigning-aircraft- maintenance-failure-led-Heathrow-emergency-landing-says-safety-chief.html?ito=feeds- newsxml Back to Top Qatar Air CEO Wants More 777X Data From Boeing Before Buying Jet Qatar Airways Ltd. wants more information from Boeing Co. (BA) on its 777X before placing an order for the long-haul jet the U.S. planemaker has begun marketing. "We want more technical details and more clarification," said Akbar Al Baker, chief executive officer of the Persian Gulf's second-largest airline. The carrier won't place an order at the Paris Air Show starting June 17, he said, after signaling earlier it may announce a deal at the event. "It is too short a time since the program was launched," Al Baker said in an interview at the IATA annual general meeting in Cape Town today. Qatar's next 777 order will be for the new model available from about 2020, Al Baker said. Boeing began formally marketing the plane last month, as it works on an update of the 777 featuring new wings and engines. The Doha-based carrier, an operator of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, has no plans to buy the largest version, the 787-10X, Al Baker said. Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SIA) on May 30 became the first carrier to sign for the jet, provided the Chicago-based aircraftmaker's board gives the go ahead to build the model. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-04/qatar-air-ceo-wants-more-777x-data- from-boeing-before-buying-jet.html Back to Top Embraer boss: Design and comfort a 'game-changer' in executive jets (CNN) -- Executive jets are a glamorous concept; throw in comfort, performance and robust design and it becomes a business with sex appeal, according to the boss of a Brazilian aerospace giant. Frederico Curado, head of Embraer, told CNN the company had combined "the best of both worlds" to create a very "sex appealing" line in executive jets. Embraer's push into the market 13 years ago took the competition by surprise, but it became a "game changer," due to its focus on design, comfort and power, Curado said. The company's first model was the Legacy 600 and it now plans to release two more in as many years, with the market stable after the financial crisis exploded five years ago, according to Curado. Embraer is gaining traction in the sector, he said. "We are around 15% of market share in terms of number of aircrafts from 12 years ago, so this is a growing business for us," he added. "In a certain sense [it is] outgrowing the commercial business." Embraer, founded over 40 years ago, is also looking to make inroads into the U.S. defense market. In February the U.S. Air Force announced it had selected Embraer Defense for its LAS (Light Air Support) program, a contract for 20 aircraft worth $427 million. The company also supplies 50% of the aircraft for the Brazilian Airforce, and Curado remains committed to that country. "Definitely Brazil is our largest defense customer, always has been, always will be," he said. Embraer is headquartered in Sao Jose dos Campos, in the state of Sao Paolo, and is seen as a jewel in the crown of Brazilian industry. But, following a decline in exports of manufactured goods over the past decade, competitiveness has been eroded by a strong currency. According to Curado, high-costs and bureaucracy makes it difficult to do business in Brazil, despite its "tremendous potential." He added: "Brazil, unfortunately, is not an obvious destination for high-tech companies to invest in, to build for example a global platform for exports... A lot is driven by the Brazilian domestic market." Brazil -- the world's sixth largest economy -- is considered one of the emerging market superpowers of the next decade and is part of former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill's famous 2001 acronym, BRIC, referring to Brazil, Russia, India and China. Despite this billing, the country has struggled with relatively low growth for the last two years, recording only a 0.6% increase in 2012. Curado said: "I hope Brazil achieves continuous growth with social insertion. We have been able to move tens of millions of people up in society from misery to poverty, from poverty to middle class and this is fundamental. Growth without inclusion doesn't go anywhere." The CEO is also hopeful the soccer World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 will go some way to improving living conditions in Brazil, leading to infrastructure investment in roads, public transport and airports. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/04/business/embraer-ceo-brazil-aircraft- jets/index.html?hpt=hp_c5 Back to Top Why we have to turn electronic devices off on planes I have a guilty secret to confess. My plane was preparing for take-off from London's Heathrow Airport in March when a flight attendant made the usual request for passengers to turn their electronic devices off. Far from complying, I pushed my smartphone deeper into my pocket. I had important work messages to check, and surely my little handset wasn't going to cause the plane to plummet from the sky, was it? It seems I'm not alone. A recent survey found around four out of 10 US air passengers admitted they don't always turn their gadgets off on flights. One notable occasion saw the actor Alec Baldwin reacting furiously on Twitter after being kicked off a Los Angeles-to- New York flight before take off for refusing to stop playing the online game Words With Friends on his phone. According to regulations, which are pretty uniform around the world, the use of portable electronic devices is not allowed below around 3,000m (10,000ft), even in "flight mode" which stops the transmission of signals. Above this height devices like laptops and music players can be used, but phones must remain off. These rules are important, we are told, to avoid potentially dangerous interference between signals from these devices and sensitive onboard electronic systems. But do these fears have any scientific basis, or is it time to relax the rules? The fear of interference comes from the fact that gadgets connect to the internet or to mobile phone networks using radio waves. To explain the theoretical dangers, Peter Ladkin, Professor of Computer Networks and Distributed Systems at Bielefeld University, Germany, uses the analogy of holding a blowtorch to your household heating pipes. The central heating system in your house makes changes based on the readings of thermometers within those pipes, so the blowtorch will heat the water, change the temperature readings and trigger the system to make adjustments. Personal mobile devices could act in a similar way on aeroplanes, on which hundreds of electronics-based systems, known as avionics, are used for navigation, to communicate with the ground and to keep track of the components that keep them in the air. Some involve sensors that communicate information to cockpit instruments. It's not just an issue with mobile phones. Kindles, iPods, laptops, handheld gaming consoles - they all emit radio waves. If these are at frequencies close to those of the avionics, signals and readings could be corrupted. This could affect systems such as radar, communications and collision avoidance technology, and the problem is potentially magnified if gadgets are damaged and start emitting stronger radio waves than they should, or if signals from multiple devices combine. So much for the theory, but is there any proof that this is a problem? There are no known recorded incidents of crashes having been definitely caused by such interference, but that said the causes of accidents can sometimes remain unknown. A flight recorder may not identify that a critical system has failed because of electromagnetic interference from passengers' devices. System malfunction But while definite proof may be lacking, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that the risks should be taken seriously. A report summarising 50 cases of safety issues thought to have been caused by personal electronic devices, was published in January this year. These were compiled from the US Aviation Safety Reporting System, a database maintained by Nasa, to which crew members can anonymously submit reports of safety problems. One such case was summarised as follows: "First Officer reports compass system malfunctions during initial climb. When passengers are asked to verify that all electronic devices are turned off the compass system returns to normal." A 2006 analysis of the database identified 125 reports of interference from electronic gadgets, of which 77 were defined as "highly correlated". In one incident a 30-degree error in navigation equipment was immediately corrected when a passenger turned off a portable DVD player. This problem reoccurred when the device was switched back on. Fight crew have reported a number of similar cases in which they have watched readings on navigations systems change apparently in response to passengers being asked to turn specific devices on and off. In another report, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) identified 75 separate incidents of possible electronic interference that pilots believe were linked to mobile phones and other electronic devices between 2003 and 2009. In the competitive world of aviation, some airlines such as Virgin Atlantic and Delta Airlines have started advertising the use of technologies that allow greater use of mobile devices on flights. In-flight mobile phone systems such as OnAir and AeroMobile use miniature on-board base stations called picocells which allow devices to transmit at lower power levels. Transmissions are processed, transmitted to a satellite and then on to the normal ground networks. This, says AeroMobile chief executive Kevin Rogers, enables the use of mobiles "as a roaming service just like when you go to a foreign country, except that in a foreign country you don't need a satellite link." Some airlines, such as Boeing, are now starting to fit AeroMobile equipment during production. These systems allow you to use your phone while at cruise altitude, but not during take- off and landing. Rogers thinks that this might change one day, but at the moment it is still difficult to "prove categorically that there is indeed no interference - so airlines tend to err on the side of caution and be conservative." But as Rogers adds: "Many phones are always left on anyway. If there was a real risk of interference of a mobile phone or an iPad with the aircraft's systems, people would not be allowed to take them on the aircraft at all." Some air authorities remain unconvinced, however. In-air mobile services cannot be used in US airspace, for example. The US Federal Aviation Administration has come under pressure to relax its rules and last year set up a group of experts to study the question. A decision is expected by the end of this year. Richard Taylor, a spokesman of the UK's Civil Aviation Authority, believes it is just a matter of time before we see more widespread use of mobile devices on aircraft, but that calls will remain banned during take-off or landing for the foreseeable future. "When regulators like us are convinced that an aircraft can be used safely even with portable electronic devices being used in the cabin, that the signal being emitted from the cabin at any stage of the flight can be safely absorbed without affecting any of the aircraft systems, of course the rules will be relaxed," he says. "But it's up to the manufacturers, and of course to the airlines, to prove that they are operating the aircraft safely." Perhaps that day may come soon. However, having learnt how difficult it is to prove definitively that planes are safe from interference, I'll be making sure my phone is properly switched off in future. After all, when I'm en route to my holiday in the sun, I don't want my handset to be responsible for tricking the pilot into landing in some rainy old place. Or for something even worse. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130604-why-we-turn-devices-off-on-planes/all Back to Top Airline Kicks 100 Jewish Students Off Plane For Not Putting Away Phones NEW YORK (CBS Atlanta/AP) - A group of around 100 high school students traveling from New York to Atlanta were ejected from an AirTran flight after the pilot and crew lost patience with kids who wouldn't sit down and put away their phones. The incident happened at around 6 a.m. Monday at LaGuardia Airport and involved seniors from the Yeshiva of Flatbush, in Brooklyn. AirTran is a subsidiary of Southwest Airlines. Southwest said in a statement that the crew and captain asked passengers several times to put their mobile devices away. When some didn't comply, the whole group was ordered to disembark. One of the chaperones kicked off the flight said the airline overreacted. "It blew out of proportion. It was a mountain out of a molehill," teacher Marian Wielgus told CNN, adding that the flight attendants were "nasty." Eight chaperones were also removed from the flight. Student Jonathan Zehavi believes they were targeted because they are Jewish. "They treated us like we were terrorists; I've never seen anything like it. I'm not someone to make these kinds of statements," Zehavi told CNN. "I think if it was a group of non- religious kids, the air stewardess wouldn't have dared to kick them off." School Executive Director Seth Linfield says administrators are still looking into the situation, but that "preliminarily, it does not appear that the action taken by the flight crew was justified." http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2013/06/04/airline-kicks-100-jewish-students-off-plane-for- not-putting-away-phones/ Back to Top Japanese Pilots Worry About Repaired Boeing 787 Jets TOKYO - As Boeing's 787 Dreamliner returns to the skies, Japanese pilots are nervous about whether they would receive enough warning about any hazards with the jetliner's new battery system. Toshikazu Nagasawa, the director at the Air Line Pilots' Association of Japan, said on Tuesday that some pilots remained concerned about the changes Boeing made to the 787's lithium-ion batteries after two incidents involving smoke or fire led to the grounding of the fleet early this year. Mr. Nagasawa said the pilots were also dismayed that Boeing did not adjust its cockpit displays to provide more substantial alerts if the batteries started to overheat. Boeing officials acknowledged in interviews that they had not expanded the alerts. But they said the new battery system virtually eliminated the chance of fire or any risk to the plane. Safety regulators in the United States and Japan, and the eight airlines flying the jets, have signed off on the changes. Two Japanese airlines, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, own 27 of the 57 Dreamliners now in service. Officials at each airline said they trusted the battery repairs, and a Japan Airlines spokesman said the airline was still trying to assuage the pilots' concerns. The two battery incidents, both in mid-January, involved a fire on a Japan Airlines 787 parked in Boston and a smoking battery that forced an All Nippon jet to make an emergency landing in Japan. Regulators in the United States and Japan have still not pinpointed the cause of the problems, though it is clear that the fire on the Boston plane started with a short circuit that spread through all eight of the cells on one of the plane's batteries. To get the planes back in the air, Boeing changed the battery manufacturing process to reduce the chances for a short circuit and added better insulation to keep a short in one cell from spreading. It also added a stainless steel box to encase the batteries and minimize the chances of a fire. And, as a last resort, it created titanium tubing to vent any hazardous residue from the plane. "Boeing says that any battery fire will now go out on its own, so there's no safety issue," Mr. Nagasawa, the Japanese pilots' union leader, said in an interview. "But that's on paper. No pilot would ever want to keep flying with a fire on board, whether it's in a metal box or not." Mike Sinnett, a Boeing vice president and the chief project engineer for the 787, said in an interview that the metal case would minimize the amount of oxygen near the battery to prevent a fire. Boeing also received support Tuesday from the Air Line Pilots Association in the United States. "A.L.P.A. is very satisfied with the B787 product improvements, and we have not heard any concerns from our members," the union said in a statement. The Japanese pilots first expressed their concerns in meetings with Boeing engineers in Tokyo in late March. Several pilots from All Nippon Airways raised about 30 safety concerns, according to a written account provided by the union. Other more recent problems with the planes have added to the worries and irritated Japanese officials. A loose fastener on an electrical panel caused a small part of that panel to char last month, though that occurred on a test flight without paying customers. On Sunday, two days after the Japanese airlines resumed 787 passenger flights, a sensor that detects uneven pressures near the batteries malfunctioned on one jet, forcing Japan Airlines to change planes for a flight to Beijing. Mr. Sinnett said both problems were caused by maintenance errors by Boeing personnel. But Akihiro Ota, the Japanese transport minister, rebuked Boeing and Japan Airlines on Tuesday for the latest blunder. That the companies "failed to take all possible safety measures is deplorable," Mr. Ota told reporters. The 787 carries two lithium-ion batteries. The main battery provides backup power for the cockpit displays. The other battery starts a small engine that provides power to the plane on the ground. According to the memorandum describing the meeting with Boeing in March, the Japanese pilots expressed concern that they would receive only a general warning of a battery malfunction, with no indication of its severity. The pilots were also worried about whether Boeing had provided enough proof that the jets could fly safely if the batteries failed. Mr. Sinnett said on Tuesday that the planes had multiple backup systems and could still fly if the batteries failed. He said the cockpit alerts were ranked in descending order by urgency - as warnings, cautions, advisories or status notices. He said that various problems with the batteries would only set off an advisory or status alert. He added that the airlines had not asked Boeing to upgrade the alert system. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/business/japanese-pilots-worry-about-repaired- boeing-787-jets.html?_r=1& Back to Top Back to Top Saker S-1 Jet Chases Mach .99 Top Speed The speedy Gulfstream G650 and Cessna Citation X might have to get out of the way of this one: A U.S. startup firm has launched a tandem, two-seat "luxury" jet called the Saker S-1 that it says would be the fastest private civilian airplane ever with a top speed of Mach 0.99. Saker Aircraft says its design is inspired by military fighter jets to appeal to buyers who want a personal jet capable of operating from short runways and flying high and fast in style. The S-1 is being designed to operate from runways as short as 1,500 feet and climb at 14,000 feet per minute to a service ceiling of 45,000 feet. Maximum range using a pair of Williams FJ44-4 turbofans and internal 500 gallon fuel tank is targeted at 1,390 nm. Two external 100-gallon tanks could increase range to nearly 2,000 nm, Saker says. According to specifications released by the company this week, the Saker S-1 would have an empty weight of 5,500 pounds and be capable of carrying a maximum payload of 6,000 pounds. The S-1 would measure 40.5 feet long and 15 feet high and would have a wingspan of 27 feet. Normal cruise speed would be Mach 0.95, a few knots faster than the G650 or Citation X, the current fastest civil jets. Despite its sleek looks, Saker says special training won't be required to fly the S-1, which would be certified under Part 23 rules - although, the company points out, ejection seats will be offered as an option. Saker's already taking "pre-orders" for the jet, which is expected to sell in the neighborhood of $5 to $7 million when deliveries start in 2019. The Saker is reminiscent of the ATG Javelin personal jet program of about 10 years ago, an airplane that never made it into production. A number of aviation experts have their doubts about whether this one can as well. http://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/jets/saker-s-1-jet-chases-mach-99-top-speed Back to Top Airbus Names First A350 Flight Pilots as Countdown Begins Airbus SAS (EAD) has nominated the pilots and engineers who will conduct the first test flight of the new A350, signaling the countdown to the wide-body aircraft's maiden voyage may be just a matter of days. The first flight will have a crew of six, including two test pilots and a project test-flight engineer who will sit in the cockpit, Airbus said. Three additional flight test crew members, all experimental flight test engineers, will work at dedicated stations on the plane to manage the flight's progress. The first take-off will mark the beginning of more than nine months of testing, in which pilots put the aircraft through increasingly complex maneuvers to ensure its airworthiness and safety. The first plane doesn't carry passengers, and is stuffed with computers and equipment to record performance data. A first flight in coming weeks would be a public-relations coup for Airbus ahead of the Paris Air Show, the year's biggest aviation expo, which starts June 17. While the organizers haven't confirmed the plane's appearance at the event, Airbus may choose a so-called "fly-by" if civil aviation authorities give it clearance. Airbus has routinely said the maiden flight is set for the middle of the year, without committing to a specific date. Tom Enders, the chief executive officer of Airbus parent European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co., told shareholders at the annual general meeting on May 29 that he was "quite confident" about a flight in coming weeks. The long-range A350 is designed to take on both Boeing Co. (BA)'s twin-engine wide- body models, with the 300-seat A350-900 - - the first to fly -- and the smaller A350-800 competing with the 787 Dreamliner and the 777-200. The A350-1000, seating 350, is a challenger to the 777-300ER and new 777X. The mid-sized A350 version costs $287.7 million at list price. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-04/airbus-names-first-a350-flight-pilots-as- countdown-begins.html 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