Flight Safety Information August 20, 2013 - No. 171 In This Issue Robert Sumwalt, NTSB member on scene of UPS cargo plane crash Transportation Safety Board of Canada deploys investigators to air accident in Yellowknife Officials: Flight makes emergency landing in Memphis after passenger tries to open door B-1 bomber crashes in southeast Montana Lawsuits Filed for Information on Flight 800 Crash Brain Lesions More Common in High-Altitude Pilots, Study Finds Think ARGUS PROS Emirates aims for high flyers with private Airbus A319 jet WOMEN IN AVIATION - SURVEY GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Robert Sumwalt, NTSB member on scene of UPS cargo plane crash, is aviation safety expert, former airline pilot Robert Sumwalt, a board member with the National Transportation and Safety Board, speaks at a press conference after a UPS cargo plane crashed at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Ala. on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013. The jet crashed into a field near the Birmingham airport Wednesday, killing two pilots. Robert Sumwalt, the National Transportation Safety Board member leading the investigation of a UPS cargo plane that crashed in Birmingham Wednesday, is no stranger to what happens in a large airplane's cockpit. Sumwalt, who is currently serving his second five-year term on the board, was an airline pilot for Piedmont Airlines and US Airways for 24 years, where he logged more than 14,000 of flight experience in five different aircraft, according to his bio on the NTSB's website. Before being appointed to the board by President George W. Bush in 2006, Sumwalt was the manager of aviation for the SCANA Corporation, a South Carolina utility company. Sumwalt, a graduate of the University of South Carolina, has worked on flight safety issues throughout his career, having served on the Air Line Pilots Association's Accident Investigation Board, as a consultant to NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System, and as an instructor in the University of Southern California's aviation safety and security program. Sumwalt's passion for airplane safety started when he was a teenager in South Carolina and went to the scene of a fatal crash, he said at a NASA conference in 2010. Sumwalt and his friends then signed up for flying lessons. He has worked at many accident sites, including the crash of a small private jet at an airport in Thomson, Ga., that killed five passengers onboard and injured both pilots in February. http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/08/robert_sumwalt_ntsb_member_on.html Back to Top Transportation Safety Board of Canada deploys investigators to air accident in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories EDMONTON, Aug. 19, 2013 /CNW/ - The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) will deploy a team of investigators to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, where a Douglas DC-3 operated by Buffalo Airways landed short of the runway. There were no reported fatalities or injuries to those aboard. The TSB will gather information and assess the occurrence. http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1421404#ixzz2cVj9zvAS ************ Date: 19-AUG-2013 Time: Type: Douglas DC-3 Operator: Buffalo Airways Registration: C-GWIR C/n / msn: 9371 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 24 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Yellowknife airport - Canada Phase: Landing Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Yellowknife airport Destination airport: Hay River Narrative: The plane's right engine caught fire shortly after takeoff. The pilot decided to return to Yellowknife airport. The clipped some trees and just missed some power lines before it made a hard belly landing. There were no personal injuries among the passengers. Considering the age of the aircraft, in some media the damage is established as beyond economic repair. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Officials: Flight makes emergency landing in Memphis after passenger tries to open door MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Authorities say an AirTran flight was diverted to a Memphis airport after a passenger tried to open an emergency exit on the plane. In an e-mail to Memphis station WREG-TV, Southwest Airlines spokesman Brad Hawkins says AirTran flight 265 was on its way from Baltimore to Austin, Texas, Monday evening when it had to make an emergency landing in Memphis because of an unruly passenger. John Greaud, the airport authority's vice president of operations, says the passengers deplaned so officials could interview them about the incident and check the plane. The flight later resumed its trip to Austin. It wasn't immediately known if charges would be filed. Back to Top B-1 bomber crashes in southeast Montana A B-1 bomber crashed this morning in a remote area of southeast Montana, but the crew of four escaped with minor injuries. According a spokesperson with Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City the crash happened Monday morning near Broadus. Two pilots and two weapon systems officers were on board, a base spokesman told CBS station MTN in Missoula, Montana. All four of the crew members ejected from the plane survived the crash. Few other details are available at this hour. Ellsworth AFB is the home of the 28th Bomb Wing. They maintain and fly 28 B-1 bombers and are home to two of the Air Forces's three B-1 combat squadrons. "We are actively working to ensure the safety of the crew members and have sent first responders to secure the scene and work closely with local authorities at the crash site," said Col. Kevin Kennedy, 28th Bomb Wing commander. "Right now all of our thoughts and prayers are with the crews and their families." There are roughly 60 B-1's remaining in the U.S. Air Force fleet. Residents of Ekalaka, tell MTN that the emergency sirens in that town were activated between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. to alert the volunteer fire department of that crash. The Carter County Sheriff's Office has also confirmed that it is responding to the crash as well. Ekalaka residents tell MTN that neighboring ranchers reported seeing several parachutes deploy from the plane and an explosion before the plane crashed. Since the crash, the ranchers has told the residents there has been a plume of smoke rising into the sky. Ellsworth Air Force Base said the Air Force will be conducting an investigation to determine a cause of the crash. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57599191/b-1-bomber-crashes-in-southeast- montana/ Back to Top Lawsuits Filed for Information on Flight 800 Crash (AP) A man who helped produce a documentary that questions the official cause of the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 has filed federal lawsuits seeking more information from the military. Thomas Stalcup says in two lawsuits filed in Boston last week that he received inadequate responses to Freedom of Information requests to the Missile Defense Agency and the Naval Special Warfare Command. Stalcup, a physicist who lives in Sandwich, Mass., has challenged the National Transportation Safety Board's determination that the explosion of the aircraft's center fuel tank caused the New York-to-Paris flight to crash minutes after taking off from New York's Kennedy Airport, killing all 230 people aboard. He is among a group of people who believe the plane was downed by a missile. Among the records Stalcup is seeking are the names and dates of all military exercises conducted on the East Coast during the summer of 1996. He also requested from the Missile Defense Agency all test and evaluation master plans for all systems involved in missile defense for Fiscal Year 1996. Stalcup is also seeking records from the Navy SEALs, which participated in recovery efforts after the plane crashed off Long Island on July 17, 1996. Stalcup has asked for all data, imagery, video, memos or other information on SEAL activities with 100 miles of the Long Island coast during July and August 1996. "Effectively, I got no documents from either agency," Stalcup said Monday. The lawsuits ask a judge to order the agencies to turn over the information sought by Stalcup. A spokesman for the Department of Defense declined to comment and referred questions to the Department of Justice, which represents the department in court matters. A spokesperson for DOJ did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The Naval Special Warfare Command, based in San Diego, Calif., did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Stalcup co-produced "TWA Flight 800," a documentary that aired last month on the EPIX television channel. He is among a group of people pushing to reopen the investigation into the crash. Back to Top Brain Lesions More Common in High-Altitude Pilots, Study Finds Results could also apply to deep-sea divers, mountain climbers MONDAY, Aug. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Pilots of U.S. Air Force U-2 reconnaissance planes may be at risk of developing brain lesions, a new study suggests. America's involvement in two wars has increased the workload of U.S. airmen, and cases of decompression sickness -- a potential hazard of high-altitude flying -- have tripled over the past two decades, the researchers say. But this study suggests that U-2 pilots in general are more vulnerable to bruises in the brain, a sign that decompression damages the brain even in the absence of illness. The findings, published in the Aug. 20 issue of the journal Neurology, indicate that decompression sends tiny bubbles known as emboli into the brain where they don't necessarily make people ill but may still cause harm, said study lead author Dr. Stephen McGuire, a neurologist with the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas. "If the bruise is not too severe, the brain recovers," he said. However, "we don't really know what the long-term implications are." Decompression sickness, also known as "the bends," occurs when pressure around a person suddenly dips. High-altitude pilots, miners, mountain climbers and scuba divers can be affected. Dr. Adam Bender, a diver and attending neurologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, described what happens with decompression sickness this way: "Tiny bubbles of nitrogen gas form in the blood and coalesce in the blood vessels of the joints. Bubbles can also coalesce in the blood vessels of the skin, causing itching and skin rash. Most dangerously, the blood vessels of the brain and spinal cord can be involved, causing multiple small strokes," he explained. "The blood actually 'boils' at these very low atmospheric pressures," Bender said. "The effect is similar to the bubbles seen when you quickly open a bottle of soda or champagne. The decrease in pressure in the bottle causes the release of carbon dioxide gas, previously dissolved under pressure in the liquid, to come out in the form of small bubbles." Bender said the resulting lesions can be harmful. "They can accumulate and result in symptoms varying from mild (slowed thought process) to severe (speech difficulty, confusion and unresponsiveness)," he said. Commercial airline pilots and passengers fly in pressurized airplanes and shouldn't be concerned. U-2 pilots, however, fly at very high altitudes -- often above 18,000 feet -- with limited cabin pressurization. The number of decompression sickness incidents per U-2 flight has grown threefold over the last 20 years, although they're still rare at well under 1 percent, McGuire said. The rise in cases could be attributed to increased flight demands related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said. In the new study, researchers examined brain scans of 102 male and female U-2 pilots and 91 people of similar age, health and education level. The U-2 pilots had 295 percent more lesions than the non-pilots and almost 400 percent more brain lesions by volume. The findings suggest that decompression sickness is caused by "micro-emboli" instead of large air bubbles, McGuire said. And these tiny bubbles often seem to enter the brain without causing symptoms, he added. What do the study findings mean for pilots, divers and others? "If you have someone being exposed to altitude, even on oxygen (to prevent decompression sickness), you have to be concerned about potential brain injury," McGuire said. It's possible, but unproven, that the bruises contribute to senility, he suggested. Bender said possible prevention strategies include oxygen treatment, fewer flights and less exposure to extreme altitude. Another idea is to make U-2 planes that don't expose pilots to extreme pressure. "Although such planes are not yet being produced," Bender said, "research is currently underway to design U-2 planes with these specifications." http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/08/19/brain-lesions-more- common-in-high-altitude-pilots-study-finds Back to Top Back to Top Emirates aims for high flyers with private Airbus A319 jet Ten private sleeper cabins take up the rear of the Airbus A319. Ten private sleeper cabins take up the rear of the Airbus A319. Emirates Executive offers chartered flights on a luxury Airbus A319 Airline hopes to tap into a growing niche market, especially in emerging regions (CNN) -- For those that love the luxury of first class air travel but loathe the imposition of having to share it with others, Emirates thinks it has the aircraft for you. The Dubai-based airline is aiming for the high-end business traveler with a new luxury private jet service. Launched this week, Emirates Executive is a bijou and bespoke version of its premium product in a dedicated Airbus A319. It can be chartered by individuals, groups or corporations through the website. Qatar Airways and Korean Air are two commercial airlines that offer a similar executive jet chartering service. "We have seen an increasing demand in the private travel segment, especially in the Middle East and Europe as well as in markets such as India, Russia and China," said Adnan Kazim, Emirates' Divisional Senior Vice President for Planning, Aeropolitical & Industry Affairs. "We are looking to tap into this niche market with the high quality of service and attention to detail." China warms up to luxury jets Private jets of the rich and famous Private jets of the rich and famous The Emirates Executive Airbus A319 can accommodate 19 people, with the plane divided into two main zones. The front of the aircraft has a dining area and executive lounge designed to seat 12 people. Mechanically activated tables can be raised in front of two large sofas, while one of 1,500 channels of in-flight entertainment can be watched on two 42-inch LCD screens. The rear of the aircraft has ten private suites -- similar to the ones found in Emirates' First Class cabins. Live TV, video conferencing facilities and high speed internet and mobile phone connectivity are also available on board. Passengers with an appetite can have specially prepared meals served on board by Emirates crew, while a full-height shower with heated floor is available for those who need refreshment after all that exhausting pampering. While the world's super-rich may still be able afford their own private aircrafts, the chartering of executive jets is a growing market. It's certainly a more affordable option than buying a large private jet outright; an Airbus ACJ318 (similar to the Emirates Executive A319) or long-range Gulfstream G650 costs around $65 million from the respective manufacturers. While it took a big hit after the global recession that began in 2008, the private jet market is on the rise. According to forecasts by Canadian private jet manufacturer Bombardier, the industry is expected to exceed pre-2008 levels for the delivery of new jets by next year. North America, with around 40% of the market, remains the biggest destination for private executive travel but the largest growth is expected to come from emerging regions in Latin American and Asia. Although hampered by lack of airspace and facilities, in the coming years China is expected to see a 15% increase in number of private jets flying in its skies, according to Bombardier. The sector is worth $626 billion to manufactures like Embraer, Bombardier and Gulfstream. Boeing and Airbus produce executive iterations of their planes, including the 747 and A380. David Velupillai, marketing director of executive and private aviation for Airbus says that their jets -- from A318s to superjumbo A380s -- can be fitted out according to their clients' needs. "We can do features which the Chinese market particularly appreciates, such as a large round table which is the focus of Asian life. We can do Karaoke bars," he said. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/travel/emirates-executive-airbus-private-jet Back to Top WOMEN IN AVIATION - SURVEY The International Labour Organization is inviting all women who work in the aviation industry, to complete thefollowing online questionnaire: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ILOWOMENAVIATION (simplyclick the above link, or cut&paste the link intoyour web browser) Itis designed to be completed by any female aviationworker (above the wing, below the wing andmanagerial/administrativepositions) Please forward this email to all your female colleagues inaviation. Why is this important? Transportis one of several sectors which have been traditionallyregarded as no place for women. These male-dominatedindustries have in the past resisted the encroachment ofwomen and although conditions of work may be improving,it is happening at a snail's pace. Even today, inaviation, women are underrepresented. In the USA, forexample, only 5 per cent of all pilots 'for hire' arewomen and 4 per cent of all pilots who report that they'make a living from flying' are women. The same is trueof many other women aviation workers such as those whostrive to make it to the executive boards of aviationcompanies, those who operate as aircraft engineers andthose who work in air navigation services. The aviationindustry is by and large a sector which is closed to thevast majority of women. The International LabourOrganization's (ILO) mandate to promote gender equalityin the world of work is enshrined in its Constitutionand reflected in relevant international labourstandards. It was therefore decided that the SectoralActivities Department (SECTOR) of the ILO beginresearching the working conditions of women transportworkers. The ILO's study will identify and prioritisethe issues and obstacles facing women workingindifferent transport sectors, during different phasesof a career cycle, from applying for a job to beingsuccessful in a career. The study will also identifypossible solutions for governments', employers' andworker' organizations to address these issues and maketransport a more attractive sector to women. Goodpractices by employer organisations and case studies ofwomen who have 'made it' in their chosen career willalso be included. As a result the perspective of womenaviation workers will be invaluable for this study,highlighting the significant barriers which face womenthroughout their career, sharing good and badexperiences and expelling advice for the futuregenerations. For more informationabout "Women inAviation"visit our Facebook page and "like"us: www.facebook.com/pages/Women-in-Aviation-Exhibition You can also visit our web pages:www.wai.org and e-mail us at:Exhibition@fldnet.de Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Commercial Airline Pilot Informal Learning Survey-Request for Participant's, Recent aviation accidents have highlighted the need to understand all aspects of commercial airline pilot training and learning. The Federal Aviation Administration's 2010 Call to Action recognized that current pilot training practices may need to be modified or changed. The one-size fits all approach to pilot training may no longer be sufficient in today's aviation environment. While there have been numerous studies on commercial airline pilots' formal learning, little is known about pilots informal learning activities, perceptions of informal learning, and opinions on how airlines should support informal learning. This study intends to answer those questions. If you are currently US part 121 commercial airline pilot, please take a few minutes to let us know how you learn outside of the training center. The survey is anonymous and should take approximately 10 - 15 minutes to complete. Click here to access the survey, or you can paste the link into your browser: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FMDFJRM Please note that the results of the study will be aggregated and will be available upon request at the conclusion of the study. For more information, or to receive a paper copy of the survey, please contact the researcher below. Thank you for your time. Kevin Corns Principle Investigator Capella University kcorns2@capellauniversity.edu Curt Lewis