Flight Safety Information September 3, 2013 - No. 182 In This Issue Severe turbulence injures 12 passengers, crew during TAM Airlines flight from Spain to Brazil Southwest jet returns to airport after bird strike Commercial Pilots: Addicted to Automation? Regional Airlines' Pilot Shortage is Heading Toward the Perfect Storm Jordanian plane hijacked in Libya Teen taken off plane after tampering with bathroom mid-flight India DGCA puts on hold Malkani's appointment as Jet Airways safety head Improper aircraft handling of Boeing 777F during landing and go around leads to two tail strikes Aviation chiefs meet on Africa's air safety MD-11F Loading Incident (South Africa) Pilot union: Five German airports not safe enough Embry-Riddle to Host Workshop on Aviation Safety Management Systems Think ARGUS PROS China CAAC outlines support for regional aviation development, 69 new regional airports by 2015 Severe turbulence injures 12 passengers, crew during TAM Airlines flight from Spain to Brazil RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - A TAM Airlines flight hit turbulence so severe that 12 passengers and crew members on the plane from Madrid to Sao Paulo were injured and the aircraft was forced to make an unscheduled landing. The airline says in a statement that Flight 8065 had to land in the northeastern Brazilian city of Fortaleza early Monday after hitting the sudden turbulence. Passengers say the turbulence lasted only a few seconds, but it caused panic and slammed several people to the cabin's roof. Many of them had been sleeping. TAM says two people remain hospitalized after the incident. The statement didn't specify the injuries, but passengers told local media many people suffered cuts and a few appeared to have broken bones. ************* Date: 02-SEP-2013 Time: ca 01:00 Type: Airbus A330-203 Owner/operator: TAM Airlines Registration: PT-MVL C/n / msn: 700 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 200 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Unknown Location: Fortaleza - Ceárá - Brazil Phase: En route Nature: International Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Madrid-Barajas Airport (MD/LEMD) Destination airport: Sao Paulo-Guarulhos (GRU) Narrative: TAM Flight JJ 8065 from Madrid, Spain to Sao Paulo, Brazil diverted to Fortaleza, Brazil after encountering turbulence over the equator line at FL400. Descent from FL400 was initiated at 01:03 Brazil time (04:03 UTC) when the flight was over the Atlantic Ocean, 290 km northeast of Fortaleza. The airplane landed about 01:43 Brazil time. At least 15 people, including passengers and crew required medical attention. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Southwest jet returns to airport after bird strike RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A Southwest Airlines jet carrying 124 people struck a bird shortly after departing for Chicago from a North Carolina airport on Monday. Southwest spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said that a Boeing 737 immediately returned to Raleigh-Durham International Airport after reporting the bird strike at about 6 p.m. She says the plane, with a five-person crew, shut down the affected engine before Flight 220 landed safely back at Raleigh-Durham and taxied to the gate. No injuries were reported. "We re-accommodated all of the passengers onto other aircraft to Chicago," Eichinger said. The aircraft was taken out of service for inspection and any necessary repairs. ************* Date: 02-SEP-2013 Time: 18:00 Type: Boeing 737 Owner/operator: Southwest Airlines Registration: uk C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 124 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Minor Location: Raleigh-Durham, NC, USA - United States of America Phase: Initial climb Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Raleigh-Durham Airport Destination airport: Chicago Midway Airport Narrative: Shortly after takeoff from Raleigh-Durham, NC airport, a bird was ingested by the right hand engine causing it to lose power and shoot flames out. The engine was shut down and the aircraft returned to Raleigh-Durham airport without further incident. There were no injuries (excepting the bird who is presumed to have passed). Passengers were rerouted to Chicago on other flights. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Commercial Pilots: Addicted to Automation? Have pilots become over-reliant on computers in cockpits? The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit travels to the University of Iowa's Operator Performance Laboratory, where a NASA-funded $1.2 million research project is studying the relationship The use of automation in cockpits has made commercial flying safer than ever, but it is also raising safety issues, as some experts say pilots may have become over-reliant on technology to fly. Stephen Stock reports. The use of automation in cockpits has made commercial flying safer than ever, but it is also raising safety issues, as some experts say pilots may have become over-reliant on technology to fly. As commercial airlines continue to develop and use enhanced, cutting-edge technologies, computers have become central in every modern cockpit. While data shows automation has made flying safer, the FAA, NTSB and NASA have all raised questions recently over whether or not that same technology may pose a safety issue. The FAA issued a Safety Alert for Operators Warning, telling pilots to pay attention to manual flying skills to avoid becoming over-reliant on autoflight systems. It was released six months before Asiana Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco International Airport killed three people and injured dozens more. While the NTSB investigation into the exact cause of the crash remains open, NTSB's chairman has said publicly her investigators are exploring the role that automation in the cockpit may have played in the accident. In NTSB interviews made public, the pilots of Asiana Flight 214 said they believed the auto throttle was engaged as they descended on final approach to runway 28L. A three-year, NASA-funded study at the University of Iowa's Operator Performance Laboratory is currently exploring how pilots interact with automation to determine if some are too reliant on the technology to make flying decisions and to come up with practical solutions to keep pilots from losing situational awareness in flight. "Flying heads down is something that we see a lot more with computerized cockpits," said Dr. Thomas "Mach" Schnell, the research scientist leading the study. Dr. Schnell said his team hopes to develop methods to prevent pilots from becoming disoriented by automation in cockpits throughout the world. As part of the study, researchers hook up veteran commercial pilots to monitors which track breathing, heart rate, brain waves and physical reactions while the pilots fly long, simulated overseas flights. The scientists also track pilots' eye movements across a jet's automation display during flight and reaction times during long boring stretches of flight. With the new automation controlling so much of commercial airline flight, Dr. Schnell says pilots are becoming supervisors of the computer rather than participants actually hand-flying the airplane. "You're all but an observer," he said. "You lose eventually touch of the stick and rudder skills that a pilot may have had." Dr. Schnell draws a comparison with cruise control in automobiles: "Everybody has had a little glitch with the car where they thought that the cruise control was off and then they realize, 'Hey, it's still on,'" Dr. Schnell said. "Now make it 10 times as complicated and that's what automation in the flight deck looks like. Every once in a while it will catch you in such a way that you didn't anticipate." When asked by NBC Bay Area whether pilots are too dependent on automation, he responded, "I believe that's fair to say [it happens] in the air transport world." Dr. Schnell's team is not the first to study the topic. At least a dozen different research papers and projects have focused on the issue of automation addiction among commercial pilots in the last decade. In one, Boeing found that over the last decade, the leading cause of death on commercial airlines was loss of control in flight, causing 80 accidents and 1,493 hundred deaths. In another study, NASA used that data from Boeing and found in 46.3 percent of those accidents, inappropriate crew response and interaction with the plane's equipment played a role in the accident. Other notable recent fatal crashes of commercial jets have also involved pilots who investigators later determined had become confused by automation in the cockpit. For example, NTSB investigators determined that the pilots on-board Colgan Air Flight 3407, marketed as a Continental Connection flight, which crashed outside Buffalo in February 2009, became confused by the auto- pilot and pulled back on the stick when they should have reacted in the opposite way. 49 people died on board that airplane and one person was killed in a home by the falling airplane. And, investigators who finally recovered the black boxes from a downed Air France Airbus which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009, found the data showed the pilots brought the plane into an unrecoverable stall due to confusion over automation in the cockpit after the plane's pitot tubes froze over in a high-altitude thunderstorm. 228 people died in that accident. Flight instructors say that while automation makes flying safer, it must always be used in its proper context and with care. "Automation allows you to think on a higher level things involved with the flight rather than just the basic stick and rudder skills," Ken Maples, the lead flight instructor at Trade Winds flight school in San Jose, told NBC Bay Area. Maples said automation allows pilots to think beyond steering and to consider factors like weather and fuel, thus adding a layer of safety. "What I like to tell people is, automation allows you to become a manager rather than an individual participant," Maples said. However, he said, pilots must know how to use the technology properly. "You always have to be ready to deal with the failure of the system, but what I see continuously is it's unusual for the system to fail," Maples said. "It's very common for the pilot to not understand what the automation is telling them or what it's doing," Understanding the automation and using it in conjunction with manual flying skills is essential, according to Airline Pilots' Association (ALPA) National Safety Coordinator Captain Sean Cassidy. "If you're not balancing the use of automation and also the use of solid flying skills, that can sometimes create challenges," Cassidy said. ALPA produced another study by Captain Dennis J. Landry, titled "Automation Addiction," first published in March, 2006. That study found "a pilot's proficiency in the art of basic attitude instrument flying seems to diminish proportionately as automation proficiency is acquired." In simple terms, the study found that the more automation pilots learn and use, the more they lose basic manual flying skills. The ALPA's study was later republished at the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Association (IFALPA) Human Performance Committee Meeting in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. "If you're taking a passive role and just letting the automation fly the airplane without actively tracking and seeing what it's doing, then I would consider that to be over-reliant," Cassidy said. "You have to be prepared to manually take over that flight. And so anything that we can do to make sure that our pilots are as well prepared as possible, any training in that direction, is a good thing." http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Commercial-Pilots-Addicted-to-Automation--221727971.html Back to Top Regional Airlines' Pilot Shortage is Heading Toward the Perfect Storm With mainline airline pilots retiring and carriers such as United and Delta hiring for the first time in years, they are looking to regional airline pilots to fill the ranks. Major airlines covet their regional airline partners' pilots, and the big carriers are going to have to come up with programs to help the regionals get through the crunch. Regional airline pilots are trained to fly in all kinds of weather, but they are heading toward the proverbial perfect storm. That's because regional airline pilot-recruitment wars are about to get intense, very messy, and ugly. Next year is destined to be the beginning of crunch time in the battle for cockpit talent among regional and mainline airlines for several reasons: Major airlines, including Delta and United, are beginning to hire pilots for the first time in several years, and they will look to the upper ranks of regional airlines to fill a large number of the positions. Regional airlines, which range from American Eagle and Republic Airways to Air Wisconsin and Mesa, are already facing a hiring crisis and will find it increasingly difficult to fill pilot positions because of the talent drain to the mainline airlines, and more rigorous, federally imposed training requirements. This pinch could be somewhat offset by the phasing out of some - but not all - 50-seat aircraft, and the transition to larger, and more-efficient regional jets, which should mean fewer pilots per passengers flown. But, as you'll see, even that migration to larger regional jets will be convoluted and wild, from the pilots' perspective, at least. "In 2014, this is going to hit the fan," says aviation consultant Kit Darby, adding that Delta is slated to hire some 300 pilots in November, and United plans a pilot-recruitment drive for 2014. » One Related Link You Really Should Read After This: The U.S. Airline Pilots Who Barely Make Minimum Wage Much of the focus will be on regional airlines, which are already facing their own pilot shortfall, and are fighting over potential hires even before they complete their training, with promises of signing bonuses and perks. As regional airlines take on a higher profile in U.S. aviation, they are coping with new training mandates that make pilot recruitment more of a high-stakes game, and more difficult. New Requirements Starting August 1, as a response to the 2009 Colgan Air flight 3407 accident that killed 50 people, co-pilots are required to complete at least 1,500 hours of pilot training to fly commercially and obtain an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) Certificate, up from the previous 250 hours of flight experience for a commercial pilot certificate. Since regional airlines in the U.S. fly about half of the total number of flights and one quarter of the passengers as they feed flyers into the major airlines' hubs, Darby says with some exaggeration: "The big airlines are not going to run out of pilots, but they are going to run out of passengers." In addition to feeding passengers to the mainline airlines, the regionals also supply them with pilot new-hires. "The regionals are going to be a mess from a regional pilot's point of view," Darby says. "The majors will be hiring regional captains off of the top of their seniority list and the regionals will be furloughing first officers from the bottom due to the flying reduction if United and American follow the same model as Delta, which seems likely." In a seemingly bygone era, when major airlines were smaller than they are today, and prior to their putting such tight restrictions on capacity, "they each hired 1,000 pilots per year in good times," Darby says. "The big three (United, Delta and American) could easily absorb the entire excess of pilots in a single year, maybe even 6 months, still leaving a large shortage over time," Darby says. Of course, the DOJ suit to block the US Airways-American Airlines merger puts a whole new level of uncertainty into the equation regarding pilot needs for each of the two airlines, if they don't merge, and the rippling dynamics at associated regional airlines. All of this is a highly volatile situation for regional airlines, and the pilots and co-pilots that fill - or seek to join - their ranks. As potential hires dry up because of the increased training requirements, regional airlines are already trying to recruit them with signing bonuses, and sometimes candidates are fielding multiple offers simultaneously. No More Mr. Nice Guy Unwritten rules about major airlines not raiding each others' pilot ranks are likely to be tossed aside, at least one observer says. "We don't expect a shortage at the major and global airlines, but are certain the larger carriers will poach pilots from the smaller airlines with large jets, as well as the regional carriers flying smaller jets," says Louis Smith, president of Future & Active Pilot Advisors. In other words, large airlines will be able to recruit pilots because of the relatively high salaries they offer, but it will be the regional airlines, which the major carriers depend on, that will have a hard time filling their cockpits. Smith believes that the regional airlines in the U.S. will lose about half of their pilots to mainline airlines over the next five years, and that the regionals will find it very difficult to land qualified pilots, as the recruiting pool is severely depleted. It isn't as though regional airlines can simply throw money at higher pilot salaries as union contracts are already in place, but Smith predicts market conditions will force some of the regionals to open up their agreements with pilots. "The only way the regional airlines can comply with the new ATP rules and staff their cockpits is to attract pilots out of the woodwork, and the only way to attract enough pilots from the woodwork is to provide a guaranteed seniority number at the mainline carriers," Smith says. The mainline carriers may have to fix the problem for their regional airline partners by forging flow-through agreements, with possibilities including having the mainline carriers foot the bill for pilot-training costs, and allowing regional pilots to transition to the big airlines without having to go through a screening process again. Not everyone, though, agrees that a pilot-shortage crisis is imminent Absorbing a Pilot Surplus Quickly Bryan Bedford, the CEO of Republic Airways, which operates the for-sale Frontier Airlines, Republic Airlines, Chautauqua Airlines, and Shuttle America, said last month during the company's Q2 earnings call and before news broke of the American Airlines-US Airways potential roadblock, that there will be a net loss of about 300 aircraft and a surplus of 3,000 pilots as the regional airline industry replaces some 50-seaters with 75-seaters and larger aircraft over the next three years. Republic Airways has partnerships with American, Delta, United and US Airways. "So, again that's going to leave us with about 3,000 surplus pilots, which I believe the industry will clearly absorb," Bedford said. "But now again the question is going to be who are the carriers, regionals that are growing and who are the regionals that are shrinking." Consultant Darby agrees with Bedford's projections about the 3,000-pilot surplus, albeit as a temporary phenomenon. "The extra 3,000 pilots will occur in an uneven manner where some small airlines will be hiring and others furloughing based on their success in the market, and the replacement of the 50-seat aircraft with larger, more efficient regional jets," Darby says. Don't expect a smooth trend line, though. "It will all be about the timing of these fleet changes," Darby says. "It's going to be a real mess while the airlines small and large adjust their fleet mix to the new reality of inefficient, 50-seat regional jets." If the transition to larger regional jets means disruption in the pilot workforce, for business travelers, the switchover should mean additional comfort, including more legroom and overhead bin space. And, no more bumping your head on the overhead bins in cramped 50-seaters when you stand up. Darryl Jenkins, an aviation consultant and founder of The Airline Zone, also looks into his crystal ball and views a future where regional pilots will be in short supply as pilots at legacy airlines retire, and need to be replaced. Says Jenkins: "I think regional airlines will be under pressure for the next five or 10 years." http://skift.com/2013/08/29/regional-airlines-pilot-shortage-is-heading-toward-the-perfect-storm/ Back to Top Jordanian plane hijacked in Libya Armed group hijacked a Royal Jordanian airlines airplane in Libyan capital Tripoli AMMAN - Armed groups hijacked a Royal Jordanian airlines airplane in Libyan capital Tripoli on Monday. A Royal Jordanian airlines airplane scheduled to take off for Amman was hijacked in Tripoli International Airport, sources said. No announcement has so far been made by Libyan or Jordanian authorities. It also remains unknown whether or not there were any people onboard. International Tripoli Airport was besieged by armed groups and all flights were transferred to be conducted from Mitiga International Airport on Sunday night. http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/155424/jordanian-plane-hijacked-in-libya.html Back to Top Teen taken off plane after tampering with bathroom mid-flight EUGENE, Ore. -- A 17-year-old was taken into custody on the Eugene Airport tarmac Monday morning after police say he tampered with one of the panels inside a plane's bathroom. Eugene Police were called out to the airport at around 10:30 a.m. Monday when the pilot of an incoming Allegiant flight from Phoenix reported that one of the passengers had messed with the panels inside plane's bathroom. "(He) had tampered with some panels in the lavatory, so we wanted to have the police come in and check that out," said Deputy Airport Director Cathryn Stephens. Officers boarded the plane and escorted a 17-year-old male off for questioning. Stephens said he was eventually transferred into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's custody. Police held the passengers on the plane for 45 minutes to get answers on what had happened. Eugene Police charged the teen with first-degree criminal mischief and second-degree disorderly conduct. Officials at the airport said the teenager, who has mental health issues, was released and picked up by his counselor. http://www.kval.com/news/local/Teen-taken-off-plane-after-tampering-with-bathroom-mid-flight- 222090121.html Back to Top India DGCA puts on hold Malkani's appointment as Jet Airways safety head MUMBAI - Aviation regulator DGCA is understood to have put on hold a decision on the appointment of Capt Naveen Malkani as the flight safety head for Jet Airways and asked the airline to come up with more names for the top safety post. Following laid-down procedures, the private carrier had recently named Capt N T Malkani as its flight safety head and sought the regulator's approval for it, airline sources said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is understood to have asked the Jet management to come up with some other names for the flight safety head, apparently unsatisfied with Malkani's qualifications. The sources said fresh names were sought after it was found that Malkani had not done any course on safety, accident prevention or safety management systems. It was also alleged that Malkani had started functioning as the flight safety head even before the regulator gave its nod. When contacted, a Jet Airways spokesperson said that it has applied to the DGCA for the approval of Malkani's name for the safety job. "Capt Ranbir Singh continues to be the chief of flight safety. We have applied to the DGCA, seeking an approval for the appointment of Capt Naveen Malkani as the chief of flight safety. The approval is awaited," a Jet Airways spokesperson said. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/dgca-puts-on-hold-malkanis- appointment-as-jet-airways-safety-head/article5082303.ece Back to Top Improper aircraft handling of Boeing 777F during landing and go around leads to two tail strikes tailstrike damage of the Boeing 777F Improper aircraft handling led to tail strikes during landing and go around of a Boeing 777F cargo plane, according to a Danish investigation report. On April 17, 2011 a Boeing 777-F6N cargo plane, of China Cargo Airlines sustained substantial damage in a tail strike accident at Copenhagen Airport, Denmark. A normal final approach was flown with the autopilot off and the auto throttle engaged. During the flare the pilot flying started to correct the rate of decent by increasing the pitch attitude. At touchdown the pitch attitude was 4.6°, the computed airspeed was 143 knots, the vertical speed was 160 feet/min. The aircraft touched down and bounced three times. After the first bounce, the ground spoilers automatically retracted and the auto braking system disarmed. A second bounce occurred followed by a third bounce. After the third bounce, the speed brakes handle was pulled either by the pilot flying or by thrust reverser command, which deployed the ground spoilers and the thrust reversers. The reversers were deployed in 11 seconds. During the deceleration, the pitch angle gradually increased to 10.5° and the aircraft suffered a tailstrike. At the same time the pilot flying felt an increasing pitch up attitude and decided to initiate a go-around. An initiation of a GA after thrust reverser activation is very risky and not an option according to the Boeing 777 Flight Crew Operating Manual (FCOM) and the Boeing 777 Flight Crew Training Manual (FCTM). After the ground spoilers were retracted and the reversers were stowed, the pitch angle was decreased to 7.0°. At that time, the indicated airspeed was 117 knots. Engine power was applied and as the airspeed increased. The increase of the forward engine thrust caused a further nose up pitch moment, resulting in an increasing pitch angle of 11.9°. During lift off the indicated airspeed (IAS) was 140 knots, which was 8 knots below the V2 calculated speed. The lower speed gave less lift and kept the main landing gear compressed. The result was less aft tail belly clearance, leading the second tail strike. During initial climb, the flight crew noticed a beeper aural warning and the tailstrike caution on the upper Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System (EICAS) display. The flight crew performed a tail strike Malfunction Check List and a Go Around Check List. The pilot not flying informed ATC about the go around and the tailstrike indication and that the pilots didn't have control problems with the aircraft. A new approach was requested to runway 22L.The aircraft landed without further problems. The damage in the belly section 47 and 48 was substantial and covered the area between stations 1980 in the front to station 2286 in the rear (approximately 8 meters). Several places on the fuselage skin were broken up and the inside of the aircraft was visible. The area at the aft dome pressure bulkhead was worn into the frame of the dome pressure bulkhead and there was visible damage in the frames and structure inside the aircraft. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Aviation chiefs meet on Africa's air safety African aviation personnel including the heads of civil aviation organisations and airspace agencies will converge on Abuja as Nigeria has been nominated by the executive of the Civil Air Navigation Organisation (CANSO) in Africa to host its first regional conference in the continent. The conference, which is intended to review air navigation safety globally and especially in Africa, will also chart the way forward for aviation safety as well as develop and enhance strategies for improvement. Boni Dibante, regional director, Africa Affairs, who paid an official visit to the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, (NAMA), described the forthcoming event which holds from October 7 in Abuja, as historic being the first to be organised by the newly established CANSO Africa Regional Office. http://businessdayonline.com/2013/04/aviation-chiefs-meet-on-africas-air-safety/ Back to Top MD-11F Loading Incident (South Africa) Date: 01-SEP-2013 Time: Type: McDonnell Douglas MD-11F Owner/operator: Ethiopian Airlines Registration: ET-AML C/n / msn: 48758/615 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Minor Location: unknown - South Africa Phase: Standing Nature: Cargo Departure airport: Destination airport: Narrative: An MD-11F cargo plane tipped on its tail at an airport in South Africa, according to photos published on line. The incident happened at or before September 1. ET-AML was active again on a flight from Addis Abeba (ADD) to Liège (LGG) on September 2. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Pilot union: Five German airports not safe enough Map showing the 'red star' airports The German airline pilot's union Vereinigung Cockpit published a list of German airport that have "serious safety defects", according to the organisation. Vereinigung Cockpit analyzed Germany's 29 main airports, by checking a list of safety criteria. If an airport failed certain safety criteria, penalty points were awarded. The most important criteria according to the organisation were the availability of taxiways to the beginning of the runway and the availability of ILS in both directions of the main runway. Five airports: Weeze, Memmingen, Lübeck, Zweibrücken, and Friedrichshafen did not meet their safety standards and were given a 'red star'. The union acknowledges that these airports are all safe according to international standards. However, the union states that Germany should use stricter safety standards instead of international minimal limits. Lübeck Airport released a statement saying it was not possible to fulfill all of Cockpit's criteria. Friedrichshafen called the inspections arbitrary, while Memmingen disputed the fact that not having enough taxiways was a safety issue. Weeze airport called the red star 'outrageous' and stated that according to the 'arbitrary' criteria, all Dutch regional airports would also have received a red star. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Embry-Riddle to Host Workshop on Aviation Safety Management Systems Aug. 30, 2013 - Embry-Riddle's Professional Programs Office will offer a workshop on the Principles of Aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS) Nov. 19-21, 2013, at the Daytona Beach, Fla., campus. Taught by Embry-Riddle faculty, the course is tailored for aviation safety practitioners responsible for the formation, implementation or expansion of an SMS within their organizations. The workshop provides a solid foundation in basic SMS concepts while also covering safety risk management (hazards, risks and controls); human factors; reactive, proactive and predictive safety management tools and methods; positive safety culture; and SMS implementation overview. Those who complete the course will understand the theory, principles and application of an SMS as well as ICAO requirements for implementation and FAA guidance for operators and organizations. All participants will receive a signed copy of Safety Management Systems in Aviation, co-authored by Dr. Alan Stolzer, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in Embry-Riddle's College of Aviation. The course is $1,400 per person, or $1,300 for those who register before Sept. 30, 2013. For more information and to register, visit www.daytonabeach.erau.edu/sms , write to case@erau.edu or contact Sarah Ochs, Director of Professional Programs, at (386) 226-6928. Back to Top Back to Top China CAAC outlines support for regional aviation development, 69 new regional airports by 2015 CAAC announced (02-Sep-2013), via its Weibo page, that China will continue to support the development of the nation's regional aviation sector through the construction of 69 regional airports by 2015. It will also encourage airlines to introduce regional aircraft, including foreign made and Chinese made regional aircraft such as the MA60 through policy concessions, and continue to provide subsidies for regional operations. The civil authority added it has allocated CNY1000 million (USD156.3 million) subsidy p/a for regional aviation including the operation of regional airports and regional routes. Most of the new regional airports will be located in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Yunnan and Heilongjiang, according to CAAC deputy director Xia Xinghua. According to National Development and Reform Commission Wang Fei, some 90% of the country's regional airports are operating at a loss. http://centreforaviation.com/news/caac-outlines-support-for-regional-aviation-development-69-new-regional- airports-by-2015-260720 Curt Lewis