Flight Safety Information July 11, 2013 - No. 141 In This Issue Asiana pilot says he was blinded by light prior to crash Investigators Look Into Pairing Of Asiana Pilots British Airways Jet Engine Fire Showed Airbus Plane Damage Risk FAA requires more pilot training after Colgan crash Luggage tug hits Delta airplane at SFO N.Z. Suspends Tourism Aid for Tonga Over Air Safety Concerns 2013 Aviation Human Factors and SMS Seminar - Dallas, July 23-24, 2013 Think ARGUS PROS GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Asiana pilot says he was blinded by light prior to crash Federal crash investigators revealed Wednesday that the pilot flying Asiana Airlines flight 214 told them that he was temporarily blinded by a bright light when 500 feet above the ground. Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said it wasn't clear what could have caused the problem. Asked specifically whether it could have been a laser pointed from the ground, Hersman said she couldn't say what caused it. "We need to understand exactly what that is," Hersman said. "It was a temporary issue." Her comments came during a daily press briefing on the Saturday crash of Asiana Flight 214 that left two dead and another 168 injured. Federal crash Investigators previously said that pilots recognized they were too low and not lined up precisely with the runway while still 500 feet from the ground. At 500 feet, pilots recognized that they were low as the Boeing 777 was going 134 knots and was 34 seconds from impact. They continued to make adjustments until hitting the seawall at the end of the runway at San Francisco International Airport. Evacuation of the plane didn't begin immediately. Airlines must certify that they can evacuate fully loaded planes within 90 seconds. But in this case, a pilot told flight attendants not to begin the evacuation immediately when the plane came to rest. But after about 90 seconds, a flight attendant near the second door reported seeing fire outside a window in the middle of the plane. He relayed that information to the cockpit and then the evacuation began. Passengers on the plane that crashed in San Francisco called 911, begged for help, and said ambulances weren't coming fast enough. San Francisco officials say ambulances could not come too close out of concern that the plane would explode. Hersman said evacuations don't always begin immediately. But she said once the crew was aware of the fire, evacuations began. "We need to understand what they were thinking," Hersman said. Rescue trucks arrived within two minutes and began fighting the fire outside the plane within three minutes. Investigators found the right engine leaked oil where part of the fire was located. Two flight attendants were pinned by evacuation slides that inflated inside the cabin, at the first and second doors from the front on the right side of the plane, Hersman said. One broke her lower leg, Hersman said. "Those flight attendants needed assistance to get out from underneath those slides," Hersman said. "They couldn't do it alone." A total of three flight attendants were ejected from the plane after the tail was torn off, Hersman said. She had said Tuesday that at least two flight attendants were ejected. All three remained hospitalized and haven't been interviewed by investigators. The flight also marked the first time that Lee Gang Guk had flown with Lee Jeong-Min, a trainer making his first trip as an instructor pilot. "The question is why did it land short," said Kees Rietsema, a dean at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "Obviously the captain is responsible, and in this case it's the instructor in the right seat who is responsible." Investigators are now examining the working relationship of the two, and whether junior officers were comfortable challenging their managers, and whether senior pilots will welcome that feedback, Hersman said. "That's what the airline needs to do, be responsible so that in the cockpit you're matching the best people, especially when you're introducing someone to a new aircraft," NTSB Chairman James Hall said. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/10/asiana-flight-214-ntsb-pilot-blinded/2507059/ Back to Top Investigators Look Into Pairing Of Asiana Pilots SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - As Flight 214 descended over San Francisco Bay, both Asiana Airlines pilots were trying something new. In the left seat of the cockpit sat Lee Gang-kuk, a 46-year-old pilot with 35 hours of experience flying a Boeing 777 who was landing the big jet for his first time at San Francisco International Airport. At his right was Lee Jeong-Min, a trainer making his first trip as an instructor pilot. While the two men had years of aviation experience, this mission involved unfamiliar duties, and it was the first time they had flown together. The flight came to a tragic end when the airliner, which came in too low and too slow, crash-landed on Saturday, killing two passengers and injuring many others as it skittered and spun 100 feet. Investigators trying to piece together what went wrong are looking at the pairing of the pilots, who were assigned to work together through a tightly regulated system developed after several deadly crashes in the 1980s were blamed in part on inexperience in the cockpit. They will also be examining their working relationship, said National Transportation Safety Board chairman Deborah Hersman on Wednesday. "We are certainly interested to see if there are issues where there are challenges to crew communication, if there's an authority break in where people won't challenge one another," she said. Pilots are trained to communicate their concerns openly, she said, "to make sure that a junior pilot feels comfortable challenging a senior pilot and to make sure the senior pilot welcomes feedback in a cockpit environment from all members of the crew and considers it." The NTSB has now concluded interviews with all four pilots who were aboard the plane. Hersman said Wednesday the pilot trainee told investigators he was blinded by a light at about 500 feet, which would have been 34 seconds before impact and the point at which the airliner began to slow and drop precipitously. She said lasers have not been ruled out. It was unclear, however, whether the flash might have played a role in the crash. Hersman also said that a third pilot in the jump seat of the cockpit told investigators he was warning them their speed was too slow as they approached the runway. And she said when the plane came to a stop, pilots told passengers to stay seated for 90 seconds while they communicated with the tower as part of a safety procedure. Hersman said this has happened after earlier accidents and was not necessarily a problem. People did not begin fleeing the aircraft until 90 seconds later when a fire was spotted outside the plane. Hersman stressed that while the trainee pilot was flying the plane, the instructor was ultimately responsible, and thus the way they worked together will be scrutinized. "That's what the airline needs to do, be responsible so that in the cockpit you're matching the best people, especially when you're introducing someone to a new aircraft," former NTSB Chairman James Hall said. Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautics professor Mary Cummings said it's common for two commercial pilots who have never worked together before to be assigned to the same flight. But she said the military tries to have crews work together more permanently. "Research would tell you that crew pairing with the same people over longer periods of time is safer," she said. "When two people fly together all the time, you get into a routine that's more efficient. You have experience communicating." Jeff Skiles, a US Airways first officer, said that with the right training it should not matter if a pilot new to a plane is paired with a pilot making his first trip as a training captain. "Everybody had to have their first time," Skiles said. "You can't show up and have 500 hours experience in aircraft." Skiles was the co-pilot of the "Miracle on the Hudson" jet that lost thrust in both engines after colliding with a flock of geese. The skillful flying of captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and teamwork between Skiles and Sullenberger was credited for a water landing on the Hudson River that saved the lives of all aboard. The January 2009 accident happened after the pilots had been paired together only four days. Details emerging from Asiana pilot interviews, cockpit recorders and control-tower communications indicate that Lee Gang-kuk, who was halfway through his certification training for the Boeing 777, and his co-pilot and instructor, Lee Jeong-Min, thought the airliner's speed was being controlled by an autothrottle set for 157 mph. Inspectors found that the autothrottle had been "armed," or made ready for activation, Hersman said. But investigators are still determining whether it had been engaged. In the last two minutes, there was a lot of use of autopilot and autothrusters, and investigators are going to look into whether pilots made the appropriate commands and if they knew what they were doing, she said. When the pilots realized the plane was approaching the waterfront runway too low and too slow, they both reached for the throttle. Passengers heard a loud roar as the plane revved up in a last-minute attempt to abort the landing. The two pilots at the controls during the accident had also been in the cockpit for takeoff. Then they rested during the flight while a second pair of pilots took over. The two pairs swapped places again about 90 minutes before landing, giving the trainee a chance to fly during the more challenging approach phase. The investigation is ongoing, and Hersman cautioned against speculating about the cause. But she stressed that even if the autothrottle malfunctioned, the pilots were ultimately responsible for control of the airliner. "There are two pilots in the cockpit for a reason," she said Wednesday. "They're there to fly, to navigate, to communicate and if they're using automation a big key is to monitor." As the trainee pilot flew, she said, the instructor captain, who is ultimately responsible for flight safety, was tasked with monitoring. The third pilot was in the cockpit jumpseat also to monitor the landing. Crash survivor Brian Thomson, who was returning from a martial arts competition in South Korea and walked away physically unscathed, said he's not concerned about the pilot's lack of experience with the airliner. "At some point you have to start at hour one, hour two. It's just natural. Everyone starts a career someway, somehow. Starts a new plane someway, somehow. They have to have training," he said. The flight originated in Shanghai and stopped over in Seoul before making the nearly 11-hour trip to San Francisco. A dozen survivors remained hospitalized Wednesday, half flight attendants, including three thrown from the airliner during the accident. One has been identified as 25-year-old Maneenat Tinnakul, whose father told the Thairath newspaper in Thailand she suffered a minor backache. Another flight attendant, Sirithip Singhakarn, was reported in intensive care. Meanwhile, fire officials continued their investigation into whether one of their trucks might have run over one of the two summer camp bound Chinese teenagers, Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan, killed in the crash. Citing similarities to a February 2009 fatal U.S. airline crash near Buffalo, N.Y., two New York Democrats - Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Brian Higgins - on Wednesday called on the Federal Aviation Administration to issue long-delayed safety regulations that would require pilots to undergo more extensive training on how to avoid stalling accidents. "While the (Asiana) investigation is still ongoing, one thing is clear, this crash and the other recent crashes like Flight 3407 demonstrate a troubling pattern in which pilots are mishandling air speed, which can lead to fatal stalls," Schumer said. ___ Associated Press writers Joan Lowy in Washington and Haven Daley in Scotts Valley, Calif., contributed to this report. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=200858010 Back to Top British Airways Jet Engine Fire Showed Airbus Plane Damage Risk Airbus SAS single-aisle jets may suffer more extensive damage from engine door separation than previously thought, the U.K. safety agency investigating an incident involving a British Airways airliner said. The single-aisle plane took off from London Heathrow on May 24 and lost the fan cowl covers on both engines, forcing the crew to return to the hub after the jet sustained damage, the Air Accident Investigation Board said in a report today. It was the first such event leading to an engine fire, it said. "This event has shown that the consequences of fan cowl door detachment are unpredictable and can present greater risk to flight safety than previously experienced," the AAIB said. The cause of the engine fire remains under review, it said. The engine doors on the flight to Oslo were not properly latched after maintenance and detached on takeoff, the London-based organization said. The event created secondary damage to wing control surfaces, landing gear and a fuel pipe. The right engine caught fire, causing the plane to leave a trail of smoke as it overflew London on its return to Heathrow. The crew shut down the power plant, built by the International Aero Engines joint venture, with the other still functioning. Although extinguishing equipment was activated, the fire was not entirely suppressed, leaving it to airport emergency personnel to put out the flames after the plane landed, the AAIB said. The 75 passengers and 5 crew members escaped the incident uninjured. Airbus alerted airlines a year ago about how to properly inspect the part in response to 32 door detachments, with 80 percent occurring on takeoff, the safety authority said. The AAIB recommended Airbus instruct operators to assure the latches are secured by undertaking visual inspections. Attaching the latches typically requires maintenance personnel to lie on the ground to secure the doors, the AAIB said. The fan cowl door latches are difficult to see unless a mechanic crouches down so that the bottom of the engine is clearly visible, the AAIB said. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-10/british-airways-jet-engine-fire-showed-airbus-plane-damage- risk.html Back to Top FAA requires more pilot training after Colgan crash STORY HIGHLIGHTS Rule boosts training for co-pilots New rules stem from Colgan Air crash in 2009 near Buffalo Co-pilots must get 1,500 hours of flight time The Federal Aviation Administration announced a rule Wednesday to boost training for co-pilots after the fatal Colgan Air crash in 2009. The rule requires co-pilots, also known as first officers, to get the same 1,500 hours of flight time as pilots for their certification to fly passenger and cargo planes. Previously, co-pilots were required to have 250 hours of flight time. The rule grew out of the Colgan crash in February 2009 near Buffalo, where 50 people died. Pilot fatigue, training and qualifications were all factors in that crash. Congress directed the FAA to develop rules for more training after the National Transportation Safety Board found the Colgan pilots made mistakes that stalled their turboprop plane in a snowstorm. "We owe it to the traveling public to have only the most qualified and best trained pilots," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said. The rule will take effect when published in the Federal Register, which the FAA said is expected within days. Scott Maurer, whose 30-year-old daughter, Lorin, died in the Colgan crash, called the rule a landmark, along with a previous rule to require passenger pilots to get more rest between shifts and a pending rule to require more training for pilots to avoid stalls. "This is a huge day for USA aviation safety," Maurer said. "This will honor our lost loved ones and all people who perished in crashes before ours." The tougher requirements are likely to affect regional airlines because the pilots for mainline carriers typically have more experience. Regional airlines represent half the flights each day, so bolstering the experience of those pilots is significant. "It takes two highly qualified and highly trained pilots to land this sophisticated aircraft today," Maurer said. "The majors do a remarkable job today. The regionals need a lot of help." Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association, which has 8,000 pilots, said pilots have been training intensely to meet the new standards. Cohen warned that communities that rely on regional airline service could lose it for lack of trained pilots. "As we've stated all along, the changes will impact the future supply of pilots and could imperil service to 500 communities across the U.S. which rely on regional airlines exclusively for their scheduled flights," Cohen said. The head of the Air Line Pilots Association, which has 50,000 members, welcomed the rule by saying the union's top priority is safety. The group's president, Capt. Lee Moak, said pilots will do everything in their power "to make the transition to the new pilot qualifications rule as smooth and seamless as possible for our members." Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington, the top Democrat on the House aviation subcommittee, said he pushed for the rule "because the American flying public needs to know the government is doing everything we can to make sure the skies are safe." The rule has exceptions to obtain a co-pilot certificate for military pilots who have flown at least 750 hours, graduates of four-year colleges who have flown at least 1,000 hours and graduates of two-year colleges who have flown at least 1,250 hours. Other parts of the rule include *Requiring at least 1,000 flight hours as co-pilot to serve as a captain for a U.S. airline. *Enhancing training with 50 hours of multi-engine flight experience. "The rule gives first officers a stronger foundation of aeronautical knowledge and experience before they fly for an air carrier," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said. Maurer said families of the victims were pleased that the FAA will oversee what counts as academic credit to ensure that the exceptions don't water down the requirement http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2013/07/10/faa-pilot-training-colgan-crash/2505499/ Back to Top Luggage tug hits Delta airplane at SFO SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (AP) -- Delta Airlines says a Cincinnati, Ohio-bound flight at San Francisco International Airport had to be deplaned after a baggage tug hit the aircraft. The flight was scheduled to leave at 11:15 a.m. Tuesday. Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said the plane was at the gate when the tug accidentally hit the nose gear. There was no evidence of damage, but Durrant said Delta put the 138 passengers on another aircraft out of an abundance of caution. The next flight left at 1:59 a.m. and arrived in Cincinnati at 6 a.m. Durrant said no one was hurt. Back to Top N.Z. Suspends Tourism Aid for Tonga Over Air Safety Concerns New Zealand said tourism aid to Tonga will remain suspended until safety concerns about a Chinese-made aircraft gifted to the tiny South Pacific nation are resolved. A planned tourism support program worth NZ$10.5 million ($8 million) over three years was put on hold earlier this year after the New Zealand-run Chathams Pacific airline announced it was pulling out of Tonga, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said in a statement. It will remain on hold until safety concerns about a Xian MA60 aircraft gifted to Tonga by China are resolved, he said. "Significant safety issues have been raised regarding the plans of the new air service operator," McCully said. "Our tourism support will remain on hold until safety issues are resolved to the satisfaction of respected international aviation experts." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-10/n-z-suspends-tourism-aid-for-tonga-over-air-safety- concerns.html Back to Top 2013 Aviation Human Factors and SMS Seminar - Dallas, July 23-24, 2013 Just under a month until the 2013 Aviation Human Factors and SMS Seminar in Dallas, July 23-24 at the Frontiers of Flight Museum, from 8-5 each day. The seminar fee is $100. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. We have a great speaker lineup, entertaining venue and a chance to share best practices with your fellow professionals. FMI: http://www.signalcharlie.net/Seminar+2013 Registration: http://www.signalcharlie.net/Seminar+Registration+2013 Kent B. Lewis (850) 449-4841 www.signalcharlie.net Back to Top Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY My name is Joseph Arnold. I am graduate student with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I am in the process of working on my Capstone project. My project is to assess the accident rates of Regional Carriers and determine the underlying cause(s). I intend on comparing Regional carriers to Major Airlines as a comparative study. I have developed a survey for this purpose. I seek to survey active FAR Part 121 pilots of Regional Carriers and Major Airlines. You were refered to me as a person whom I could contact to distribute my survey to participants. The link is below: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FSKVR8R I would appreciate your assistance greatly. Respectfully, Joseph Arnold Curt Lewis