Flight Safety Information June 11, 2013 - No. 116 In This Issue Strike grounds 50% of flights at France's main airports Singapore-bound JAL Dreamliner flight aborted Flight instructor, student walk away from plane crash Twin-engine plane crashes in southwestern Quebec Substitutes for Leaded Airplane Fuel to Get U.S. Tests Annual SMS Audit Results Released Orchestra delayed on airplane performs 'pop-up' concert Last flight of the 'Flying Pencil' Strike grounds 50% of flights at France's main airports A strike by air traffic controllers have thrown flight schedules into chaos across France on Tuesday, with officials saying nearly 50% of flights have been canceled at the nation's busiest airports. Airlines and airports have moved to trim their schedules in an effort to cope with a three-day strike by air traffic controllers. The Civil Aviation Authority said that some 1,800 flights were cut Tuesday in Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Beauvais, Lyon, Nice, Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux airports. "(The cancellations) are for security reasons, but also to avoid airport overcrowding," the Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Eric Herault says to The Associated Press. Air France had already canceled more than 480 flights as of 7:40 a.m. ET (1:40 p.m. Paris time) Tuesday, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. The New York Times writes Air France "said that it expected significant disruptions and was advising passengers with reservations Tuesday for a flight in France or on a European flight departing or arriving at a French airport to postpone their travel plans if possible." Air France, however, also said it was working to find space for all of its passengers with intercontinental flight reservations Tuesday, "either on its own flights or with another airline," according to the Times. In the United States, the nation's three biggest airlines (United, Delta and American) have instituted flexible rebooking policies as they warn customers about possible disruptions on itineraries to or through France. Air traffic controllers are strike over a plane that would centralize control of Europe's air space. The disruption comes ahead of a speech scheduled for Tuesday in Strasbourg by the EU's commissioner for transportation. Siim Kallas - the commissioner - is expected to fast-track initiative on claims that European air traffic control inefficiencies cost airlines and customers nearly $6.6 billion a year. "We need to boost the competitiveness of the European aviation sector and create more jobs in the airlines and at airports," Kallas is quoted as saying by the Times. And, while France is the epicenter for the work disruption, strikes are expected to spread to several other nations within the European Union on Wednesday. http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2013/06/11/strike-grounds-50-of-flights-at-frances-main- airports/2410805/ Back to Top Singapore-bound JAL Dreamliner flight aborted A Singapore-bound Dreamliner flight had to be aborted mid-air after developing a glitch with its anti-icing system, its Japanese operator said on Tuesday, the latest setback for Boeing's flagship plane. The 787, operated by Japan Airlines was turned around shortly after leaving Tokyo's Haneda airport at 1:30 am (1630 GMT), a spokesman said. "Several minutes into the flight, a message came on in the cockpit indicating a glitch with the anti-icing system for the left engine," he said. "The glitch could not be sorted out quickly. The pilot expected some cloud and other elements en route to Singapore that could cause ice to form. So the decision was made to return to Haneda." The plane landed safely less than an hour after takeoff. All but two of the 155 passengers on board opted to take the replacement Dreamliner offered, which left Haneda five hours later, the spokesman said. The incident comes only weeks after JAL and All Nippon Airways (ANA), the single biggest operator of 787s, put their full fleets of Dreamliners back into service following a four-month suspension over battery problems. A global grounding order was issued in January after lithium-ion batteries overheated on two different planes, with one of them catching fire while the aircraft was parked. Boeing admitted in April that despite months of testing it did not know the root cause of the problems, but rolled out modifications it said would ensure the issue did not recur. Since then, Dreamliners have experienced a series of minor glitches, including a fault with an air pressure sensor. The JAL spokesman stressed that the latest incident did not affect the battery system. "We are investigating the cause of the trouble," he added. http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/singapore-bound-jal-dreamliner-flight-aborted-055808496.html Back to Top Flight instructor, student walk away from plane crash FRANKLIN TWP. - Two people walked away from a small plane that crashed Monday in a field on Shaker Road. Franklin Twp. fire and rescue crews and the Ohio Highway Patrol responded at approximately 7:25 p.m. to the 4800 block of Shaker Road. The aircraft lost power and the pilot made an emergency landing in the field, according to OHP Sgt. Scott Bierer. The aircraft took off from the Red Stewart Airfield off U.S. 42 near Waynesville. The occupants were a flight instructor and student doing manuevers. Bierer said the pair were in the process of turning around and flying back to the airfield when the airplane lost power. Bierer said it was fortunate the ground was soft from recent rains because it helped soften the landing. Early reports indicated the front wheel of the aircraft broke on impact, but no fluids leaked out. The aircraft will remain in the field until the Federal Aviation Administration conducts an investigation, authorities said. This was the second small plane incident in the area in three days. On Saturday near the Bellefontaine Regional Airport, Logan County, a pilot and passenger walked away from the crash of a two-seat Diamond Eclipse single-engine aircraft. Authorities said an emergency landing was made after the engine apparently lost power while practicing landing and taking off at the airport. http://www.whiotv.com/news/news/breaking-small-plane-crashes-in-franklin-twp/nYHN3/ Back to Top Twin-engine plane crashes in southwestern Quebec A twin-engine airplane crashed Monday afternoon just off the Trans-Canada Highway east of Montreal, near the airport of St-Mathieu-de-Beloeil, injuring four people. They were transported to the Honoré-Mercier Hospital in Saint-Hyacinthe. The injuries are not life-threatening, according to Captain Michel Lefebvre from the Richelieu-St-Laurent police department. The Beech King A100, which can carry six to eight passengers, was in communication with the airport control tower and had been circling the area, according to Captain Lefebvre. He says the cause of the accident could be a mechanical failure or a fuel shortage, though an investigation is underway to determine the exact cause. The Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to the crash site. The aircraft is operated by Aviation Flycie Inc. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/06/10/plane-crash-quebec-st-mathieu.html Back to Top Substitutes for Leaded Airplane Fuel to Get U.S. Tests Aviation regulators will begin testing, as soon as next year, unleaded substitutes for aviation gasoline that remains the largest source of U.S. airborne lead. The Federal Aviation Administration invited fuel manufacturers to submit proposals for unleaded formulations, it said in a statement posted on its website today. The agency pledged last year to find a replacement by 2018 for leaded aviation gasoline, which has been linked in health studies to elevated levels of the toxic metal in children who live near general-aviation airports. "We need to work with industry to develop an unleaded fuel that advances aviation safety and improves the environment," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in the statement. Lead was banned 17 years ago in gasoline for motor vehicles because of its health risks. It remains in the high- octane fuel that powers most piston-engine airplanes used by private pilots, and accounted for 56.9 percent of U.S. lead emissions in 2008, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Friends of the Earth, an environmental group based in San Francisco and Washington, filed suit last year seeking to force the U.S. government to regulate leaded fuel. Since 2003 The agency, while deserving praise for moving ahead, could do more to encourage pilots to use existing unleaded aviation fuels, Marcie Keever, the group's West Coast legal director, said in an interview. "Any unleaded fuel should be encouraged," Keever said. More than 80 percent of piston-powered planes can use high-octane automotive gasoline, she said. The group has been pushing the EPA, which shares regulation over aviation fuel with the FAA, to act since 2003. The FAA said fuel producers can submit possible replacement fuels to the agency by July 1, 2014. The agency will then test as many as 10 fuels, according to the release. President Barack Obama's proposed 2014 budget includes $5.6 million for the testing. The General Aviation Avgas Coalition, which represents fuel- and aviation-industry groups, said it approved of the FAA decision. The coalition's comments were released by one of its members, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, a Washington-based trade group. Finding a substitute fuel may require design changes and recertification of some high-performance planes, the group said in its statement. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-10/substitutes-for-leaded-airplane-fuel-to-get-u-s-tests.html Back to Top Back to Top Orchestra delayed on airplane performs 'pop-up' concert Philadelphia Orchestra musicians perform on flight waiting on Beijing tarmac. Being stuck on an airplane during a delay never sounds like a fun way to pass the time, but a live classical music concert is a great way to ease the discomfort. Members of The Philadelphia Orchestra were delayed on the tarmac for three hours on Friday waiting for a flight from Beijing to Macao. The orchestra is currently doing a residency and 40th anniversary tour of China. In a video uploaded to YouTube, musicians are seen crammed among seats and beneath overhead bins as others around them try to capture the "pop-up" concert on cameras and phones. A voice comes over the airplane's intercom: "Nee how, The Philadelphia Orchestra is on tour in China, and on the way to Macao. And our musicians would like to offer you a musical surprise." Two violin players, a viola player and a cello player then launch into the Finale of the String Quartet No. 12, the American Quartet, by composer Antonin Dvorak. And you thought only snakes on a plane made for great entertainment! The musicians play for about 6 minutes. At the 1:55 mark, the string music is accompanied by a ringing cellphone. And at the 3:19 mark, the person shooting the video turns the camera sideways, making us all very happy this isn't an in-flight performance. The piece ends with applause from those on the airplane and shouts of encore. So, next time the guy in front of you reclines his seat into your lap, maybe you'll get lucky and find he's just making room for his cello. http://www.today.com/entertainment/orchestra-delayed-airplane-performs-pop-concert-6C10240743 Back to Top Last flight of the 'Flying Pencil': How Dornier bomber recovered from sea bed off Kent coast was shot down during Battle of Britain forcing crew to land belly-up on sandbanks It was recovered yesterday after 70 years lying on the bottom of the English Channel, but the German Dornier 17 rescued from its watery grave was originally shot down at the height of the Battle of Britain. The aircraft, which historians believe is the only remaining example of the 'flying pencil', was raised from the sea bed in the biggest salvage operation of its kind in British waters. But the bomber was originally part of a large enemy formation which was intercepted by RAF fighter aircraft on August 26, 1940, as they attempted to attack airfields in Essex. The plane was forced to make a belly-up emergency landing on the Goodwin Sands, in Kent, at low tide following a firefight in the skies above which left crew wounded and both engines damaged. Attempting a wheels-up landing, Feldwebel (Flt Sgt) Willi Effmert managed to touch down safely and the aircraft sank inverted. While Effmert and his observer were captured the other crewmen died and their bodies were later washed ashore. A notable aspect of the battle was the enormous bravery of the RAF Boulton Paul Defiant fighter pilots, who took on the Dornier 17 in outdated planes which had already suffered many losses in the early stages of the Battle of Britain. The two-seater planes, which had space for a rear gunner, were considered obsolete by the time the Battle of Britain was in full swing and the type was eventually withdrawn from front-line fighter duties to be converted to a night fighter role and later a drone tug. The Do 17 was one of the principal bombers used by the Luftwaffe in the early years of the war, including during the Blitz. It was part of a combined formation of Dorniers sent to bomb Debden and Hornchurch airfields before the battle in August 1940. It is believed seven aircraft started to bomb an aerodrome, thought to be Debden, causing some damage. However, accounts of the aircraft's loss vary between sources. According to the original PoW Interrogation Report, the Do 17 became separated from the rest of the formation while flying above clouds before reaching its target. It was then attacked by fighters, believed to be one of the recently arrived RAF Hornchurch, Essex-based Boulton Paul Defiants of No.264 Squadron RAF led by Flt Lt Banham. The attack is thought to have hit both engines and the cockpit. Reports suggests the Defiants brought down between one and six Dorniers in the fight, while losing three of their number. Of the four crew of the Do 17, two became Prisoners-of-War in Canada - wounded Pilot Feldwebel Willi Effmert and Bomb Aimer Uffz Hermann Ritzel - and two were killed - 27-year old Wireless Operator Unteroffizier Helmut Reinhardt and 21-year old Bomb aimer Gefreiter Heinz Huhn. Their bodies were recovered later and buried in Holland and the UK, in the Cannock Chase German cemetery, respectively. The recovery of the aircraft from the seabed is a £600,000 project by the RAF Museum in North London. Its team were able to raise the aircraft by placing metal cables around the strongest part of the frame and lifting it whole. Experts at the museum say the plane, was found on Goodwin Sands by divers in 2008, is in 'remarkable condition', particularly considering the events surrounding its downfall and the effects of spending so much time under water. Peter Dye, of the RAF Museum, said: 'The discovery and recovery of the Dornier is of national and international importance. The aircraft is a unique and unprecedented survivor from the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. 'It will provide an evocative and moving exhibit that will allow the museum to present the wider story of the Battle of Britain and highlight the sacrifices made by the young men of both air forces. It is a project that has reconciliation and remembrance at its heart.' Apart from being covered with barnacles and teeming with marine life, the Dornier is largely intact. The undercarriage tyres remain inflated although the propellers were damaged when the aircraft crashed. Sonar scans by the RAF Museum, Wessex Archaeology and the Port of London Authority confirmed its identity. The recovery was backed by a National Heritage Memorial Fund grant of £345,000. A two-year restoration will take place at the RAF Museum's site in Cosford, Shropshire, and it will later go on display at the RAF Museum in Hendon, North London. The plane will eventually be restored and go on display as an 'evocative and moving' reminder of the young men of both sides who lost their lives in the battle for air supremacy in 1940. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2339428/Last-flight-Flying-Pencil-How-Dornier-bomber-recovered-sea-bed-Kent-coast-shot-Battle-Britain-forcing-crew-land- belly-sandbanks.html Curt Lewis