Flight Safety Information October 22, 2013 - No. 218 In This Issue 'Severe turbulence' hurts 8 on United flight to Ireland Incident: United B744 at Sydney on Oct 20th 2013, blew tyres on takeoff Vietnam Airlines aircraft loses front tire in flight Report: Delta Jet Makes Emergency Wash. Landing Fighter jet in near-miss with passenger aircraft from Aberdeen (U.K. ) US Airways jet detained after suspicious note found Boeing 747 pilots blamed for near miss over Scotland 'Multiple failures' led to Hercules plane crash Think ARGUS PROS Argentina's State Airline to Order 20 New Boeing Aircraft SJ30 still going strong after all these years Utah Valley University (UVU) - Aviation program is awarded Honor Roll 'Severe turbulence' hurts 8 on United flight to Ireland Several passengers on a trans-Atlantic United Airlines flights were injured after the Dublin-bound Boeing 757 encountered "severe turbulence." The Nationalist of Ireland writes "emergency fire crew and ambulance paramedics were scrambled to the runway" to meet United Flight 23 upon landing in Dublin early Sunday morning. "One customer was taken to hospital to receive medical attention and has since been discharged. Seven other customers sustained minor injuries and were released by medical services," United says in a statement to Ireland's Independent newspaper. The Independent reports there were 129 passengers and eight crew on the flight, which departed from United's hub at Newark Liberty International Airport on Saturday evening. A United spokeswoman tells the Independent that the seat-belt sign was on when the plane hit "severe turbulence." http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2013/10/21/severe-turbulence-injures-8-on-united-flight-to- ireland/3142597/ Back to Top Incident: United B744 at Sydney on Oct 20th 2013, blew tyres on takeoff A United Boeing 747-400, registration N182UA performing flight UA-840 from Sydney,NS (Australia) to Los Angeles,CA (USA), was in the initial climb out of runway 34L when the crew reported it appeared they blew a tyre on takeoff, tower might want to double check the runway and they were returning to Sydney. Runway 34L was closed, a runway inspection discovered "lots of rubber" on the runway. The aircraft entered a hold at 10,000 feet to dump fuel and returned to Sydney for a safe landing on runway 34L about 90 minutes after departure. During roll out tower reported some smoke from the left main gear, it appeared there was some rubber missing from those wheels. The aircraft vacated the runway via taxiway G and stopped clear of the runway. Both left aft body gear tyres had separated with the wheels running on their rims, tyre debris impact marks around the wing root fairings. Runway 34L was closed for about 20 minutes until the debris had been removed, but needed to be closed again due to damage on the runway caused by the wheels. The runway was opened and closed a number of times over the next 5 hours as result of the occurrence. The flight was cancelled. http://avherald.com/h?article=46a33f88 Back to Top Vietnam Airlines aircraft loses front tire in flight An ATR 72 belonging to Vietnam Airlines with its remaining front tire after it lost the other Monday. The loss was only noticed by the ground crew after landing. Vietnam Airlines resumed operation of its ATR-72 airplanes early Tuesday after grounding them for an inspection of their tires soon after one of them lost a front tire while landing the previous afternoon. Its flight VN1673 arrived safely in the central city of Da Nang at 2pm Monday from Hai Phong in the north with 41 passengers. The crew were unaware that the aircraft had lost one of its two front tires until airport technical staff noticed it. Vu Tien Khanh, the pilot, said engineer and co-pilot Trinh Linh Tho had done a preflight inspection and reported that everything was normal. Khanh, 34, who has been flying ATR 72s for six years, himself did safety checks before taking off. "I took off smoothly," he said. Unlike Airbus and Boeing aircraft, the French-Italian ATR 72 does not indicate tire pressure, and so it is not known how and where the tire was lost. Khanh said the weather was good when they landed at Da Nang Airport but since there was a slight cross wind he handled the landing himself instead of handing over the controls to the co-pilot. "I asked the engineer in the cockpit later whether he noticed some abnormality, but he said no." But he said taxiing had needed more power than normal. "After the landing, the technical staff were terrified to discover that a tire was gone. "Of course, passengers were not aware of the incident." Lai Xuan Thanh, director of the Aviation Department, said the incident was serious and the Ministry of Transport immediately ordered inspections of all 14 of Vietnam Airlines's ATR-72 aircraft. Technicians found nothing wrong with the front tires of any of the other planes. The carrier has informed the aircraft manufacturer and sent the tire axle to Paris for investigation. The tire is thought to have fallen off when the aircraft was in the air and is yet to be found. The aircraft is four years old and underwent a maintenance on September 21. Asked whether the safe landing was down to luck, Khanh said the carrier's pilots receive training twice a year, including in dealing with emergencies. "The thing I am concerned most is if that tire hit someone on the ground," he said. http://www.thanhniennews.com/index/pages/20131022-vietnam-resumes-atr-72-flights-after-a-plane-lost- wheel-in-the-air.aspx Back to Top Report: Delta Jet Makes Emergency Wash. Landing A Delta Air Lines jet reportedly made an emergency landing Monday night at Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco, Wash. No injuries were reported. KNDU-TV reports ( http://is.gd/sNZyDk ) that the captain of the Boeing 757 says a bus will be taking some of the passengers to their Seattle destination while the rest will spend the night in the Tri-Cities. A passenger told the station the plane was bound from Atlanta to Seattle. A Delta spokesperson did not immediately return a call for confirmation and details. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman at a Seattle-area operations center said she could not confirm the landing and directed inquiries to an FAA spokesman who did not immediately return an email. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/report-delta-jet-makes-emergency-wash-landing-20641817 Back to Top Fighter jet in near-miss with passenger aircraft from Aberdeen (U.K. ) Weapons system used to find plane travelling from Aberdeen to Humberside A FIGHTER pilot activated his weapons system in an attempt to locate a passenger plane from Aberdeen carrying 31 people. A new report has revealed that the F15 jet passed within 1,200ft of a JS41 jet en route to Humberside from Aberdeen. In a failed attempt to locate the Jetstream JS41 - which he could not see - the pilot of the F15 switched on his gun radar, part of his weapons system. The near-miss was identified as Class B by the UK Airprox Board, meaning the safety of the aircraft was compromised. The Aberdeen to Humberside jet had 28 passengers and three crew on board at the time. http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/Article.aspx/3439787 Back to Top US Airways jet detained after suspicious note found US Airways jet held on the ground at Charlotte-Douglas Airport Monday afternoon (WCNC/AirStar) CHARLOTTE -- A US Airways flight heading to New Orleans from Buffalo was held at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Monday afternoon, after officials said a suspicious note was found on board. Flight 2045, an Airbus A319, from Buffalo was held on the airfield at Charlotte away from the terminal while officials checked out the aircraft. The flight was scheduled for an intermediate stop in Charlotte before going on to New Orleans. Helicopter news cameras showed emergency service vehicles on location near the aircraft. They also showed mobile stairs in place near the plane and buses stationed nearby. Charlotte NBC station WCNC says airport officials in Charlotte note that there is no operational impact to operations at the airport. Officials said there were 124 passengers and five crew members on board the aircraft. Passengers were offloaded from the aircraft and placed on buses before being allowed back on board the plane. http://www.11alive.com/news/article/310646/40/US-Airways-jet-detained-after-suspicious-note-found Back to Top Boeing 747 pilots blamed for near miss over Scotland Two Boeing 747s came close to crashing over Scotland after the pilots failed to follow instructions for avoiding a collision, a report has found. The near miss on happened about 40 miles north of Glasgow on 23 June. A report by the UK Airprox Board found that all four pilots had mistakenly followed instructions meant for the other crew. At one point, the aircraft were just 4.5 miles apart horizontally and only 100ft vertically. The report noted that both planes were under the guidance of the National Air Traffic Control Centre at Prestwick. "It was apparent that both crews had taken each others' instructions, and the board found it hard to determine why this had occurred" UK Airprox Board report One of the pilots requested to climb to the plane's cruising height for a transatlantic crossing and was given clearance. Controllers at Prestwick noticed that this "resulted in a potential confliction" with the other Boeing 747 and "took timely action in issuing appropriate avoiding instructions" to both pilots. The report noted: "Had the pilots complied with these instructions, simulation indicated that separation would not have been lost. "It was apparent that both crews had taken each others' instructions, and the board found it hard to determine why this had occurred," the report stated. "The board was surprised that all four pilots had misheard or misinterpreted the avoiding action instructions despite at least one of the crews reading them back correctly." The report concluded: "The pilots of the aircraft on converging tracks flew into conflict because, although they acknowledged timely avoiding action, they did not follow it." The board found that a contributory factor was that air traffic controllers "climbed the aircraft to the same level". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-24609183 Back to Top 'Multiple failures' led to Hercules plane crash Swedish accident investigators on Tuesday released their final report on the crash of a Norwegian Hercules airplane, citing many causes the led the aircraft to slam into a mountainside in northern Sweden last year, killing five people. According to the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority (Statens Haverikommissionen, SHK), Swedish air traffic controllers let the plane fly too low and the Royal Norwegian Air Force was unable to handle the situation. A combination of insufficient procedures and inexperience, rather than a technical failing or one specific person's error, meant that the crew flying the plan never got any warning they were heading into the side of the Kebnekaise Massive. "It's not especially interesting who made a mistake. Everyone can make mistakes. What's interesting for us is, how could this happen?" SHK head Hans Ytterberg told reporters on Tuesday. "To summarize, there were failings and weaknesses among both the Norwegian and Swedish air forces." The aircraft went missing when it was on its way from Evenes in northern Norway to Kiruna in the far north of Sweden on March 15th. At the time, the Hercules was participating in the Cold Response military training exercise taking place over northern Norway which was scheduled to run from March 12th to March 21st and included 16,000 soldiers from 15 countries. Two days later, wreckage, as well as body parts from the five deceased crew members, was found on the east and west sides of the Kebnekaise Massive at an altitude of more than 1,500 metres. Investigators found that the Norwegian air force lacked procedures for planning and following up the flight, and also put too much faith in Swedish air traffic controllers. As a result, the crew was never made aware that the information they received from air traffic controllers meant that they plane wasn't maintaining sufficient distance from the ground. Information from air traffic controllers also didn't follow procedures because they "didn't have enough experience and knowledge to be able to lead air traffic from the west into Kiruna airport in a safe way under prevailing conditions" the commission wrote. Lead accident investigator Agne Widholm, who led the accident probe, said that an over-reliance on technical systems may have also played a role in the accident. The fact that the area where the crash occurred isn't covered by radar also complicated air traffic controllers' work. In looking into why the plane's low-altitude warning system wasn't activated, investigators found that the topography combined with the system's settings at the time of the crash didn't fulfill the criteria required to sound the alarm. It wasn't, SHK concluded, the result of a technical malfunction. "All four crew members and one additional passenger died when the plane crashed into the mountain," said Widholm. The violent crash unleashed an avalanche which then buried much of the wreckage. He added that both the Swedish and Norwegian investigators are in agreement about the findings of the report, which includes 22 recommendations for the Norwegian air force, the Swedish Transit Authority (Transportstyrelsen), the National Police Board (Rikspolisstyrelsen), and the Civil Contingencies Agency (Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap, MSB). The recommendations are meant to help prevent a similar accident from occurring in the future and improve emergency services. http://www.thelocal.se/50938/20131022/ Back to Top Back to Top Argentina's State Airline to Order 20 New Boeing Aircraft BUENOS AIRES--Argentina's state-run airline, Aerolineas Argentinas, said Monday that it will order 20 Next- Generation 737-800 aircraft from Boeing Co. ( BA ) to modernize its fleet. At current list prices, the planes are valued at $1.8 billion, Boeing said in a statement, adding that the order has not yet been finalized. "This is a landmark order for our company, both in the number of aircraft and in what they signify for our fleet," Aerolineas President Mariano Recalde said in a statement. Aerolineas plans to incorporate the aircraft into its fleet between 2016 and 2018. The more fuel-efficient planes will cut its fuel costs sharply, the Argentine carrier said. The financing terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Argentina is currently suffering from foreign currency shortages that have led the government to cut imports and ration the U.S. dollars its citizens can buy. Spokesmen for Boeing, Aerolineas and Argentina's government couldn't be immediately reached for comment. Aerolineas has been roundly criticized by opposition political parties for requiring hefty subsidies to stay in business. Government officials, including Mr. Recalde, have said the company will eventually turn a profit even though it services many unprofitable routes in the country's interior. Argentina's government seized control of Aerolineas from Spain's Grupo Marsans in late 2008. By the end of this year, Aerolineas plans to have 63 operational aircraft in its fleet of planes made by Boeing, Airbus and Brazil's Embraer SA. http://www.nasdaq.com/article/argentinas-state-airline-to-order-20-new-boeing-aircraft----update- 20131021-01382#ixzz2iSFDDODy Back to Top SJ30 still going strong after all these years Rendering of the pilots' view from the SyberJet SJ30. For at least two decades Ed Swearingen had the aviation press corps in the palm of his hand. We would follow him around the press rooms at the National Business Aviation Association convention as his airplane was the next big thing. At the time, it was. The aircraft's designation changed from SA-30 to SJ-30, then SJ30-2, and we couldn't have been more excited. Now, under ownership of Metalcraft Technologies, the SyberJet SJ30 is on the verge of making it into the market. It promises to deliver its owner nonstop coast-to-coast across the United States. The company's Mark Fairchild has been with the organization 18 years, and has seen its journey from iteration to iteration, owner to owner. There are signs that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually the sun, and not a train coming the other way. Now there is a repair station for the SJ30 in Cedar City, Utah. A factory pilot training program has been established with Fairchild, who has 1,200 hours in the aircraft, and Mark Elwess who has 1,000 hours in it. There's also a snazzy new spaceship-like interior for the aircraft. Critics of the airplane in past years surmised that it had gone out of date in the decades since it was just a twinkle in Swearingen's eye. It has even been the subject of an article in Business Jet Interiors magazine. The Utah governor's office has approved financial incentives for the company totaling nearly $45 million. This time, maybe this time, as the love song goes, the SJ30 has a chance to realize the dream. http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2013/October/21/SJ30-Syberjet.aspx Back to Top Utah Valley University (UVU) - Aviation program is awarded Honor Roll The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has awarded the Honor Roll Award to UVU's Aviation Science Program in flight training excellence. The Aviation program is proud to be the recipient of this award; however, the program doesn't plan to stop there; it has big plans for the future. The school of Aviation Science is one of the oldest facilities established in Utah Valley University. What started in the early 1930s as just a fantasy for some young people has turned into reality for a lot of students. The Aviation program prepares students for great career opportunities, and this year the program is ready for more. It has been recognized for its high standards of accomplishments in flight teaching. "We feel it's important to recognize flight training providers like UVU who create a quality customer experience that supports student pilots and their entry into all aspects of the aviation community," Shannon Yeager, vice president of AOPA's Center to Advance the Pilot Community, said. The award ranks them third in training excellence in the AOPA. Along with that award, they have received other awards such as first place in the Best Flight School Award (best instructor) and second place for Outstanding Flight School (outstanding instructor). "The cool thing about the award is they determine it by student votes," Ryan Tanner, director of Aviation Science at UVU, said. "To think that the students are giving positive feedback makes us all very proud." The school is also known for its award winning online programs, which has helped many students achieve their goal of a bachelor's degree. "The great thing about the online program is that students have the opportunity to train at the local flight school while finishing the aviation program online through UVU," Tanner said. Aviation careers include commercial, medical evacuation, aircraft sales, military flight instruction, test pilots, airline administration and more. These careers have a starting salary of $18,000 a year and can increase to $104,000 a year. To be a commercial airline pilot a student must have a Bachelor's of Science degree in Aviation Science with a professional pilot emphasis. They must then complete 300 hours of flying before graduation. After this, a student will most likely become a flight instructor and finish with up to 15,000 hours of flying before working for an airline. UVU is the third largest collegiate aviation program in the United States. It has over 2,500 students enrolling every year "We are always looking to expand our student body," Tanner said. Recently the students and alumni have requested a master's program at UVU. "It's a possibility. We have a lot of request from students and alumni," said Tanner. The aviation school is exploring the master's program right now and testing new possibilities. The Aviation School is now working on recruiting international students, especially from countries like China and Brazil, who know that the U.S. has a lot of good flight programs. "We get quite a number of veterans," Tanner said. "We love veterans, and they love the program." A lot of vets that come to UVU were actually students from Brigham Young University. BYU doesn't have a flight school they only offer the U.S. Air Force R. O. T. C., so the students have to look at other options. The flight school campus is located in Provo, off of Center Street. It is well known for not only being advanced and full of opportunity, but also a school that provides some of the most reliable equipment. "We encourage people to come out and tour our campus, and see our advanced aircrafts, so they can feel the safety and everything that UVU has to offer," Tanner said. http://www.uvureview.com/2013/10/21/aviation-program-is-awarded-honor-roll/ Curt Lewis