Flight Safety Information November 21, 2013 - No. 241 In This Issue Oops! Boeing cargo jet lands at wrong Wichita airport JetBlue flight diverted to Orlando after an emergency slide deployed INSIDE a plane mid-flight Russian plane crash: Voice recorder found in wreckage of doomed jet FAA: All overweight pilots, controllers must be tested for sleep disorders SFO reveals missteps after Asiana crash Etihad flight returns to Brisbane after reporting 'airspeed system failure' Russian airlines will not be allowed to buy old aircraft Man charged with lying to FAA about pilot and mechanic certifications ERAU Unmanned Aircraft Systems Workshop: Register Now For Discount Think ARGUS PROS British Airways in drive to recruit more female pilots Restored Lockheed Constellation aircraft preparing for cross-country flight Riyadh to get $267m aviation academy Announcing...The Annual "Moral Courage Safety Awards" Oops! Boeing cargo jet lands at wrong Wichita airport Atlas Air cargo plane lands at wrong airport (CNN) -- Help, I've landed and I can't take off. A Boeing Dreamlifter landed at the wrong airport in Wichita, Kansas -- one with a runway apparently too short for the mammoth cargo plane to take off from again. The Atlas Air 747 Dreamlifter is a beast of a plane. It's a modified 747-400 passenger airplane that can haul more cargo by volume than any airplane in the world. In fact, it's a plane that carries major assembly parts for other big planes, such as parts for the 787 Dreamliner from suppliers around the world to its assembly plant in Washington. Late Wednesday night, the plane, which was bound for McConnell Air Force Base from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, missed its mark by about 12 miles. It ended up at the much at the much-smaller Jabara Airport on Wichita's northeast side. Jabara has no control tower and normally doesn't handle jumbo jets. There was no damage to aircraft or airport, according to the City of Wichita which runs the airport. But there was a hitch: When fully loaded, the Dreamlifter needs a runway 9,199 feet long to take off, reports affiliate KWCH. The Jabara runway is 6,101 feet. What to do? What to do? Boeing sent a tug to the airport to move the jet. But, said the affiliate, it broke down on its way. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/travel/kansas-cargo-plane-wrong-airport/ Back to Top JetBlue flight diverted to Orlando after an emergency slide deployed INSIDE a plane mid-flight A JetBlue flight was forced into an emergency landing this afternoon after one of the planes evacuation slides deployed mid-flight inside the aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that JetBlue Flight 1266 from Fort Meyers to Boston landed at Orlando and reported no injuries to the 74 passengers and 4 crew. The compromised Embraer E-190 aircraft touched down at around 3.45 p.m. and taxied to a gate where passengers were led off the flight via a rear exit. A JetBlue plane was diverted to Orlando on Wednesday after an emergency evacuation slide opened in flight, according to the Federal Aviation Administration A JetBlue plane was diverted to Orlando on Wednesday after an emergency evacuation slide opened in flight, according to the Federal Aviation Administration JetBlue spokesman Loren Duran confirmed the incident saying that a slide 'partially deployed into the front galley and that no injuries were reported.' 'The aircraft was taken out of service for further inspection. Customers will be reaccommodated on another aircraft to Boston with an estimated scheduled departure of 5:00 p.m. local time.' Flight Tracker showed that the aircraft had only just cleared the coast of Florida when the slide accidently deployed. The National Transportation Safety Board said through their Twitter feed that they are gathering information on the incident. It was not clear what caused the slide to deploy inside the aircraft cabin. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2510866/JetBlue-flight-diverted-Orlando-emergency-slide-deployed- INSIDE-plane-mid-flight.html#ixzz2lHWPTNfk Back to Top Russian plane crash: Voice recorder found in wreckage of doomed jet Rescuers working at the crash site of a Boeing 737 passenger airliner in the international airport of Russia's Volga city of Kazan on Wednesday. MOSCOW -- The last word the pilot of the Boeing 737 uttered was "circle." Moments later the jetliner slammed into the ground, investigators said Wednesday, killing all 50 people on board. The Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee, which investigates plane crashes across the former Soviet Union, concluded a day earlier that the crew failed to land at first attempt, began to stall in a steep climb, then overcompensated - plunging the plane into a near-vertical dive Sunday. The report was based on the data retrieved from the plane's flight parameters recorder, which also showed that its engines and other systems were working fine until the plane hit the ground. On Wednesday, search teams found a tape of cockpit conversations - a crucial piece of evidence that was missing when its container was found the day before. The recording is expected to shed light upon the motives behind the series of faulty maneuvers that led to the crash. Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee, Russia's main criminal investigative agency conducting its own probe into the crash, said that recordings of the crew's conversations with the control tower sounded routine. The pilot reported that the plane was in a wrong position for the landing and confirmed getting a traffic controller's command to circle the airport prior to making a second run. "The final word the pilot said before the crash was 'circle,'" Markin said in a statement. The Tatarstan Airlines plane was flying from Moscow to the central city of Kazan, 450 miles to the east. Moscow's Interstate Aviation Committee's report concluded that to prepare the jet for a second try, the crew switched off autopilot and put the plane's engines on maximum power, raising the plane's nose to an angle of about 25 degrees. The abrupt move apparently caused the jetliner to lose speed. The normal procedure during an aborted landing is to apply near-maximum power and assume about a 5-to-7 degree nose-up attitude, said Kevin Hiatt, a former Delta Air Lines chief pilot and president of the Flight Safety Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit. New video of the Sunday crash of a Boeing 737 in Russia that killed everyone aboard reveals that the passenger jet was vertical when it went down. "Twenty-five degrees nose-up is excessive. There's no question about that whatsoever," Hiatt said. "Why they determined they needed to go to that high an angle will be part of the investigation." At an altitude of about 2,200 feet, the crew then tried to gain speed in order to avert a stall by putting the nose of the plane down. The report said the plane then went into a dive of about 75 degrees and hit the tarmac. Airplanes can sometimes recover from steep dives but they must be at a sufficiently high altitude. The committee said it took only 45 seconds from the moment the crew put the engines at maximum throttle until the moment the Boeing smashed into the ground. Such "loss of control" accidents are responsible for more deaths than any other type of plane crash because they are rarely survivable, according to the Flight Safety Foundation, an industry-supported global aviation safety nonprofit based in Alexandria, Virginia. The head of Tartarstan Airlines, Aksan Giniyatullin, said Tuesday that the plane's two pilots had sufficient experience, ranging from 1,900 to 2,500 hours, but admitted that they apparently had no experience with attempting a second landing. http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/20/21548571-russian-plane-crash-voice-recorder-found-in- wreckage-of-doomed-jet Back to Top FAA: All overweight pilots, controllers must be tested for sleep disorders It could apply to about 125,000 of the nation's 600,000 commercial and private pilots Pilots with sleep disorders will have to be treated before they get medical certification to fly Washington (CNN) -- After several highly publicized incidents involving sleeping or fatigued pilots and air traffic controllers, the Federal Aviation Administration is putting new scrutiny on the problem, requiring all overweight pilots and controllers to undergo testing for sleep disorders. The order, announced by the FAA's federal air surgeon, is massive in scope and could apply to about 125,000 of the nation's 600,000 commercial and private pilots, according to one estimate, and an unknown number of the nation's 14,500 controllers. Under the new policy, all pilots and controllers will be screened during their routine medical examinations. Those with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or greater and a neck circumference of 17 inches would have to be tested for obstructive sleep apnea. A BMI of 40 equates to a 5-foot, 11-inch man weighing 287 pounds, according to the National Institutes of Health. Sleep apnea, which can cause fatigue, is "almost universal" in people who fit those criteria, Dr. Fred Tilton, the federal air surgeon, wrote in a statement announcing the new policy. Pilots diagnosed with sleep disorders must be treated before they receive a medical certification needed to fly. After appropriately dealing with pilots with a BMI of 40 or greater, the FAA will look at people with lower BMIs "until we have identified and assured treatment for every airman" with sleep apnea, Tilton wrote. The Air Line Pilots Association, the nation's largest association of commercial pilots, said it is reviewing the policy. A group representing private pilots, meanwhile, asked the FAA to indefinitely suspend implementation of the policy, saying there is no evidence to support the screening of general aviation pilots. "This policy seems to be based on one incident involving an airline flight," Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Vice President Rob Hackman said in a prepared statement. "Analysis of a decade of fatal general aviation accidents by the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee didn't identify obstructive sleep apnea as a contributing or causal factor in any of the accidents studied," he said. In February 2008, two pilots on a Go! Airlines flight from Honolulu to Hilo, Hawaii, fell asleep, overshooting their destination by 26 miles. When they awoke, the pilots at first explained their diversion on a missed radio call, and even flew the next flight, agreeing they were feeling alert as a result of the incident. But the pilots eventually acknowledged they had fallen asleep. The captain was subsequently diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea. Fatigue was also a factor in the February 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407, which crashed near Buffalo, New York. As a result of that crash, the FAA has mandated new rest requirements for commercial pilots. Those requirements take effect in January. Air traffic controllers have also experienced a spate of incidents involving fatigue. In 2011, the FAA fired at least three controllers for sleeping on the job, in one case intentionally. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association on Wednesday declined to comment on the new policy. In a statement Wednesday, the FAA said the new policy addresses a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation and is "designed to help airmen and aviation safety by improving the diagnosis of unrecognized or untreated obstructive sleep apnea." http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/20/travel/faa-sleep-disorder-testing/ Back to Top SFO reveals missteps after Asiana crash Emergency vehicles encircle the Asiana aircraft that crashed while trying to land at San Francisco International Airport in July. An automated system designed to alert key managers at San Francisco International Airport to an emergency failed within minutes of the airport's biggest disaster ever, the crash of an Asiana Airlines jetliner in July, according to an analysis that officials released Wednesday. Rather than work as designed and send computer-generated voice mails to managers needed to coordinate the response to the Boeing 777 crash July 6, the system worked so slowly because of a software glitch that those on duty had to call more than 100 key officials one by one, said Charles Schuler, head of external communications at the airport. The airport had paid $11,750 a year for the system. It is not clear what effect the failure had on the overall response to the crash of Asiana Flight 214, in which three passengers were killed and about 180 were injured, officials said. But, they noted, it was one of several areas where the review found room for improvement in SFO's response to crashes and other emergencies. The review, done by the aviation consulting firm ICF SH&E, also found that the airport's website went down shortly after the crash, unable to handle the crush of users trying to learn details about the disaster and whether other flights at SFO had been redirected or canceled. The website - run out of a single network server in Denver - normally handled about 19,000 visitors a day and cost $180,000 to set up. It began failing within two minutes of the 11:28 a.m. crash and went dark completely in 30 minutes, hit by a wave of as many as 75,000 users, Schuler said. The lack of SFO-provided facts led to widespread misinformation, including early reports that the downed plane was a cargo jet. Falling back on Twitter It took hours for SFO technicians to put up a page that referred people to Twitter, which became the airport's fallback method of updating the public about its operations and status of repairs of its runways. "With the website down, that became our primary channel of communications," Schuler said. Many people were already flocking to the social media service, as survivors and bystanders started tweeting messages and images within minutes of the crash. The airport's 8-year-old website was "ancient" by current standards, Schuler said. On Aug. 20, the airport replaced it with a system that works off an Amazon cloud-based platform. "The plan was to move the website to a system that did provide redundancy," Schuler said, "so our response would be better than what happened on July 6." Questions unanswered John Martin, director of the airport, said some of the consultants' findings won't be released until after the National Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation of the crash, most likely next year. One area not covered in Wednesday's briefing was the apparent communications breakdown between San Francisco Fire Department units stationed at the airport and their city-based supervisors that led to a fire rig running over a crash survivor. Footage recorded by a fire lieutenant's helmet camera, reviewed by The Chronicle, shows that firefighters spraying flame-retardant foam on the burning plane did not alert commanders to the presence of the victim, 16-year-old Ye Meng Yuan, whom they had already found on the ground near the plane's left wing. She eventually became covered in foam and was struck and killed by a fire rig. Officials also did not divulge any findings the review may have reached on possible communications problems between the airport's control tower and emergency responders. Two pilots of a United Airlines jet told air traffic controllers five minutes after the crash that they could see survivors who had been ejected from the plane and who clearly needed help, according to an audio recording. San Francisco fire officials have said they did not learn about that group of critically injured victims until 14 minutes after the crash - and only after an airport field officer made a report to them. It is unclear whether air traffic controllers relayed the information to rescuers or whether they heard the exchange during the chaotic first moments after the crash. New hotline One lesson the airport learned from the crash, Martin and other officials said, was the immediate need to have a hotline linking controllers in the tower to the emergency command center managers on the ground. Such a line has since been installed. Despite the problems in some areas, Martin said, much of the airport's response went well. By the time he arrived about 40 minutes after the crash, 60 airport staffers, together with police, firefighters and other first responders, were "working seamlessly together," Martin said. One success, said Schuler, came when the airport received complaints of local hotels "gouging" crash survivors who needed places to stay while they waited for the airport to resume operations. SFO and travel association officials got hoteliers to back off, he said. "We were getting reports that some hotels were charging $400 to $500 a night," Schuler said. "I'm all for business, but that wasn't right." http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SFO-reveals-missteps-after-Asiana-crash-4996962.php Back to Top Etihad flight returns to Brisbane after reporting 'airspeed system failure' Australian transport safety bureau launches investigation when a passenger plane makes mayday call shortly after takeoff The Australian transport safety bureau has launched an investigation after a passenger plane made a mayday call shortly after takeoff from Brisbane airport on Thursday afternoon. The Etihad A330 was holding east of Brisbane when it made a distress call, and reported an "airspeed system failure", the bureau said. The bureau said the plane reported issues with the airspeed indicator and "possibly with associated systems". In response, the plane returned to Brisbane airport and landed safely about 2.50pm local time. A statement from Etihad airways said the flight returned to Brisbane due to "a flight deck instrument failure". "The flight crew followed all standard operational procedures, declared an emergency, and made a precautionary landing. The aircraft landed without incident and all passengers and crew are safe." The bureau has received a technical report from the operator of the flight and has launched an investigation into the incident. "We will be working with the operator to obtain the relevant recorded information," a spokesman told Guardian Australia. The 11.50am flight EY473 to Singapore, initially delayed by just over an hour, took off at 1.10pm, according to the Brisbane airport departures website. Passengers were having flights rebooked with other airlines, Ethiad said http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/21/ethiad-flight-returns-brisbane-airspeed-system Back to Top Russian airlines will not be allowed to buy old aircraft After the air crash in Kazan, Russian airlines may not be allowed to buy used foreign aircraft, first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee for Industry, Vice President of the Russian Engineering Union, Vladimir Gutenev said. According to the official, there are no specific figures available yet; there is only an idea. It is also planned to develop a range of measures of financial support for airlines operating domestic aircraft. According to Gutenev, if an airline buys or takes on lease a new Russian aircraft, and returns it to the the lessor or sells it to third world countries in five years, the company will be allowed to lease the next new aircraft on preferential terms. Will it help solve the real problem? Why do they want to ban old aircraft, if it was a pilot error that caused the plane crash near Kazan? Share your opinion. http://english.pravda.ru/news/russia/20-11-2013/126196-russian_airlines_old_aircraft-0/ Back to Top Man charged with lying to FAA about pilot and mechanic certifications A man who performed maintenance on and flew a historic plane cared for by a Monroe veterans organization has been charged with fraud after authorities say he lied to the Federal Aviation Administration about having pilot and mechanic certifications. Paul Douglas Tharp, 53, of Greensboro was arrested Wednesday and charged with lying to the FAA about his qualifications as a mechanic and a pilot and with flying an airplane without the proper pilot's license. If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in prison for each of two counts of making false statements to the FAA and three years in prison for each of three counts of flying without proper authorization. "Tharp knowingly and repeatedly lied about his qualifications to his clients and the FAA and in the process put lives at risk," U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins said in a news release. "Tharp's lack of proper certification as a pilot and a mechanic is a serious safety hazard, and now Tharp must face the legal consequences of these dangerous lies." Federal prosecutors say Tharp was hired by the Warriors and Warbirds group in 2011. The Monroe-based organization was started by local pilots in 2005 to honor veterans and their families, according to its website. Their centerpiece is Tinker Belle, a C-46 cargo plane purchased from an aviation museum in Midland, Texas. The city of Monroe owns the plane, but the group held pancake breakfasts, air shows and hangar dances to help pay for Tinker Belle's repair and maintenance. During much of World War II, the C-46 was a workhorse, carrying badly needed military equipment over the Hump - the nickname given the Himalayas - from Allied bases in India to China. The supplies kept U.S. and Chinese forces in action against the Japanese. Prosecutors say Tharp operates an airport in Davidson County, but when he was hired by Warriors and Warbirds, he was certified to fly only single-engine aircraft (Tinker Belle has two.) He also didn't have the necessary mechanic's license with an FAA seal of approval. Authorities say Tharp regularly traveled to Texas to perform maintenance on the C-46, even though he wasn't certified to do so. On three occasions, he was the second-in-command on flights, also something he wasn't certified to do. On June 4, 2011, Tharp - acting as second-in-command - and several other people flew to an air show in Reading, Pa. Because the plane still needed mechanical work to improve its airworthiness, the FAA required a special permit before it could be flown back to Monroe. "An FAA inspector asked Tharp if someone had inspected the airplane's condition to determine if the C-46F was safe for the return flight from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and Tharp falsely represented he was an A&P mechanic who could make that determination," prosecutors said. "When the FAA inspector asked Tharp about his (mechanic's) certificate, Tharp lied and told the inspector that he had forgotten his A&P certificate in a rush to prepare the C-46F for the flight to Pennsylvania." Prosecutors said Tharp gave the FAA inspector the number of another mechanic's certificate. The FAA inspector approved a temporary flight permit, and the plane flew back to North Carolina, with Tharp operating as second-in-command, authorities said. But when the FAA learned the certificate belonged to another mechanic, it launched an investigation. Prosecutors said Tharp again lied about his certifications. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/11/20/4483788/man-charged-with-lying-to-faa.htmlstorylink=cpy Back to Top ERAU Unmanned Aircraft Systems Workshop: Register Now For Discount Unmanned Aircraft Workshop The Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) course is designed to identify the key concepts, attributes, and challenges of UAS operations. The UAS sector is one of the fastest growing and most dynamic segments within aviation industry. Currently the majority of UAS growth has been in support of military and security operations however, recent congressional mandates have unlocked a bourgeoning civilian market with interest in a broad range of uses such as aerial photography, precision agriculture, mapping, monitoring climate and environmental conditions, and public safety. Attendees will gain knowledge of: * UAS System Components and Classification * UAS Design and limitations * Regulatory Environment for UAS * Issues Associated with UAS Airspace Integration * Future and Current Trends affecting the UAS Industry Course Topics: * The UAS Market * UAS Systems Design and Development * UAS Sensors Packages * UAS Navigation Systems * National Airspace System Integration Who Should Attend: This Course is designed for UAS Engineers, Transitioning Military UAS Operators, Mission Coordinators, Entrepreneurs, Field Service Representatives, UAS Technicians, UAS Program Managers or others wishing to obtain further knowledge of UAS operations. Course Dates: Course Location: Course Fee: April 1-3, 2014 ERAU Daytona Beach Campus, FL Standard Course Fee: US $1,450 Early Bird Fee (prior to January 31, 2014): US $1,300 For more information, Please contact Sarah Ochs, Director of Professional Programs Tel: 386.226.6928 * email: case@erau.edu daytonabeach.erau.edu/usa Back to Top Back to Top British Airways in drive to recruit more female pilots British Airways is doing its bit to banish prejudice against women drivers by actively encouraging more women to train as pilots. With one week to go until the current British Airways cadet training programme closes on November 26, the airline is calling for more female applicants to apply. The airline has released a video featuring two sisters Aoife (27) and Cliodhna Duggan (35) from Dublin who say being a pilot is a 'dream job'. Banishing prejudice: British Airways took on its first female pilot in 1987 and is now calling for more women applicants for the top job BA director of flight operations Captain Stephen Riley, said: 'Even though we have more female pilots than any other UK carrier, the number doesn't nearly represent the general population, and I actively encourage any women considering a career in flying to apply.' The carrier's 18-month 'Future Pilot Programme' has attracted around 5,000 applicants for fewer than 100 places in its first two years, but currently the number of male pilots outnumber females 18 to one, with just 200 women pilots out of 3,500 flying for BA. Aoife Duggan (First Officer) and Cliodhna Duggan (Senior First Officer), sisters and pilots for British Airways. Sisterhood: Aoife and Cliodhna Duggan are both pilots for British Airways Since Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman in the world to receive an aeroplane pilot's licence in 1910, when only three per cent of pilots were women, the situation has not changed much. Baltic Aviation Academy (BAA) figures show that while the aviation industry employs many women, men still dominate in the pilot market. Today female pilots account for six per cent of all pilots in the market. And in the US market, the ratio is slightly higher, with women making up 6.6 per cent of the country's 123,000 commercial aircraft pilots. BAA statistics show that the last decade, the US saw an almost 20 per cent growth in the number of female pilots. And a significant increase in hiring female pilots has been observed within emerging markets, according to BAA. In India women make up almost 11 per cent of the pilot market: in 2010 'Air India' had more than 130 female pilots. In Europe most of the female pilots are employed by the largest airlines. Lufthansa has 300, British Airways 175, and AerLingus 41 for example. BAA says it has attracted more enquiries about aviation training from women in recent months than before. However a recent survey showed that prejudice against women pilots is alive and kicking. A survey by travel agent sunshine.co.uk at the start of November revealed that 51 per cent of people admitted they were less likely to trust a woman pilot than a male one. Some key moments in women's aviation history 1906 E. Lillian Todd is the first woman to design and build an airplane, although it never flew 1908 Madame Therese Peltier is the first woman to fly an airplane solo 1910 Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman in the world to earn a pilot's licence 1912 Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to pilot her own aircraft across the English Channel 1921 Adrienne Bolland is the first woman to fly over the Andes 1928 Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly across the Atlantic 1932 Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic 1938 Hanna Reitsch is the first woman to fly a helicopter and get a helicopter licence 1953 Jacqueline (Jackie) Cochran becomes first woman to break the sound barrier 1964 Geraldine Mock is the first woman to pilot a plane solo around the world 1980 Lynn Rippelmeyer becomes the first woman to pilot a Boeing 747 While 32 per cent felt 'male pilots were more skilled', 28 per cent said female pilots would not be as good under pressure. In a further blow, the poll showed women were even more wary of female pilots than men. But with the continuing growth in passenger flows the number of female pilots can only rise. British Airways' cadet programme helps applicants to gain places at one of three BA approved flight training schools in Oxford, Southampton and Jerez in Spain During their training, students complete their ground theory training, cockpit instrument rating and flight training, flying light aircraft in Spain, New Zealand or Arizona in the US. The final two months of the programme are completed on BA's flight simulators at the airline's training centre near Heathrow. Applications can be made through ba.com/careers until November 26. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2510471/British-Airways-drive-recruit-female- pilots.html#ixzz2lHfuvp95 Back to Top Restored Lockheed Constellation aircraft preparing for cross-country flight KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The National Airline History Museum is raising money for a cross country flight in an historic aircraft. The Museum at the Charles Wheeler Downtown Airport is home to one of three Lockheed Constellations in the world. The Connie, as it's called, is on display at the Museum, giving visitors a chance to see what flying was like back in the early days of aviation. This aircraft in Kansas City is the only one in the world that has been restored to be an exact replica of a TWA passenger plane. "It's an opportunity that people can come down, get on board an aircraft and see what it used to be like to fly," said John Roper, VP of Operations. "Back in the early days of aviation, it was an event. You dressed up in a suit and tie. There are no overhead bins, you've got tons of headroom and it's a great way to see what it was like to travel." The two other Lockheed Constellation aircraft are in Switzerland and Australia. "But they have been restored from converted military aircraft, so their interiors are just some seats thrown in," Roper said. In 2014, Roper wants the Connie to recreate a 1944 flight where Howard Hughes and Jack Frye broke a speed record flying from Burbank, Calif. to Washington D.C. Since the Connie is already in flying condition, Roper is raising money for the operational costs of that flight. http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/local_news/restore-lockheed-constellation-aircraft-preparing-for-cross- country-flight#ixzz2lHn588gn Back to Top Riyadh to get $267m aviation academy An aviation academy is to be set up in Riyadh at a cost of SR1bil ($267m), it was reported. The Riyadh-based Infinity Support Services and Flight Safety International Company signed an agreement for the construction of the academy on Monday, according to a report by Arab News. Khalid Al Khaibary, official spokesperson of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), told the newspaper that the academy would be run by the private sector. GACA has given official approval for this academy, which would benefit a large number of Saudi and Arab youths who are interested in joining the aviation industry, he said. The institute, which will specialise in the field of aviation, will be built on an area of 50,000 square metres. Obaid Al Mozainy, CEO of Infinity Support Services, said that the region would need 20,000 pilots during the next 10 years based on recent studies. "The growing demand for 2,000 pilots a year underlines the need for technically qualified people in the aviation sector," he said. He said the new academy would attempt to fulfill these needs by training people across all sections of the aviation industry. The programs will be designed to international standards and the facility would have state-of-the art equipment for various training disciplines. Al Mozainy said that the academy was the only one of its kind in the Kingdom and would offer a high-tech blend of the latest aircraft and simulation tools to ensure students and navigators received the best training. Meanwhile, the Arab News reported that the GACA has signed an agreement with the Alpha Star Aviation Services to set up a private aviation center in Riyadh. The facility is to be built on an area of 40,000sqm as part of GACA's program to encourage the participation of the private sector. http://www.arabianbusiness.com/riyadh-get-267m-aviation-academy-527325.html Back to Top Announcing The Annual "Moral Courage Safety Awards" Presented at Heli-Expo 2014 Presented by the US DOT - Transportation Safety Institute Call For Nominations The purpose of the award is to promote and foster positive safety culture in the rotorcraft industry by recognizing those individuals and organizations that make sometimes difficult operational decisions based on continued safe operations. Example of a deserving individual and organization - I learned of a HEMS pilot who aborted a critical neonatal transport because of unforecast bad weather. It was a tough call and one that haunted him, but he knew it was the right decision to ensure a safe outcome. His organization supported the decision and went so far as to recognize him for making the tough call. Both the individual and the organization should be recognized. Let's face it; it's always easy after the accident to second guess the decisions that put a crew in trouble. What our industry needs is to reward those who make the tough decisions that keep them out of trouble. That's walking the talk of positive safety culture! Sometimes choosing the safest course of action can be difficult, especially if it means modifying the mission. Bottom line, it takes moral courage to do the right thing. You can help - nominate someone today! Who is eligible? Any Crew, Crew Member, Maintainer, Supervisor, Manager, employee and or their organization who demonstrates commitment to a positive safety culture. Email Mr. D Smith for a nomination form. D.smith@dot.gov Or call US 405.694.1644 Curt Lewis