Flight Safety Information December 17, 2013 - No. 257 In This Issue Eurocopter in worldwide safety alert on 'Clutha crash' helicopter NTSB to try to salvage plane in crash off Molokai Company had 5 incidents in past, FAA records show UND student pilots learn from accidents in aviation industry Firefighters mistakenly battle blaze with jet fuel instead of water Delta Airlines jet among area transportation casualties from Monday snowstorm Think ARGUS PROS China's Growing Hunger For Air Travel Has Created A Pilot Shortage Eurocopter in worldwide safety alert on 'Clutha crash' helicopter Scottish Air Ambulance EC 135 helicopter The EC 135 is used by many police forces and ambulance services in the UK Helicopter maker Eurocopter has issued a worldwide safety alert to operators of its EC 135 model - the type that crashed in Glasgow last month. The firm said a problem with the low fuel level warning system had been discovered in a number of aircraft. There is no suggestion it is linked to the Clutha bar crash in Glasgow on 29 November, in which 10 people died. Air accident investigators have already said the Police Scotland aircraft did not run out of fuel. Bond Air Services, which operated the police helicopter, grounded its fleet of 38 EC 135s last week. The move came after an air ambulance, one of its 22 aircraft leased in the UK, was found to have a fuel indicator problem. Tests found others also had the same fault. 'Red warning' A spokesman for Eurocopter said tests by Bond and two other EC 135 operators in Europe found possible similar supply-tank fuel gauging errors that overestimated the fuel on board. "The first analysis shows that the indication of the fuel quantity in the supply tanks could be overestimated," the company said in a statement. "All crews should be aware that in the worst case a red warning "Low Fuel" could appear without any amber FUEL Caution before." Clutha crash helicopter The Clutha bar helicopter crash in Glasgow killed 10 people Eurocopter said it was issuing a safety notice to remind all EC 135 operators to follow the safety procedures already in place and outlined in the flight manual, regardless of the aircraft's fuel quantity indication. The company said it would "update its Safety Information Notice as needed" with investigations continuing. Bond Aviation said in a statement on Monday that the results of the tests on the rest of its helicopters were validated by Eurocopter, and appropriate repairs were made before returning the aircraft to service. The discovery of the fault in Bond's fleet came 12 days after one of its EC 135s leased to Police Scotland crashed into the Clutha pub in Glasgow killing three crew members and seven people inside the pub. The helicopter was only minutes away from returning to its base when it dropped vertically onto the roof of the bar. A preliminary report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch found no major engine or gearbox problems with the police helicopter. It also found that the aircraft had sufficient fuel when it crashed at 22:25 on 29 November. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-25414685 Back to Top NTSB to try to salvage plane in crash off Molokai HONOLULU (AP) - Crews will try to salvage the plane that crashed off the Hawaiian island of Molokai after the submerged wreckage was spotted from a helicopter, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday. The agency previously said it seemed unlikely the single-engine plane could be pulled out of the water. But NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said the plane was spotted Friday from a helicopter, about 400 to 500 yards off the north shore of Molokai. "It's important to look at the engine," Weiss said. Hawaii Health Director Loretta Fuddy was the sole fatality among the nine people aboard the Dec. 11 flight. One passenger said the Cessna Grand Caravan lost power soon after takeoff, as the plane started to turn toward Honolulu. The pilot maneuvered a water landing on the plane's belly, C. Phillip Hollstein Jr. said. Fuddy didn't seem injured or distressed after everyone got out of the plane and were bobbing in life jackets in the water, said Hollstein, who swam to shore. An autopsy was conducted Friday. Weiss said the NTSB is awaiting the results from Maui County. Makani Kai Air owner Richard Schuman has said he has no idea why the engine failed. The plane had no previous problems, he said. A 200-foot recovery vessel will leave Honolulu Harbor on Tuesday night and crews will attempt to pull the plane out of the water Thursday morning, Weiss said, adding that the effort will be paid for by an insurance company. It's not known how long the process could take. While investigators believe it is the plane that was spotted, they will be certain once it's out of the water. They also don't know for sure if the plane will still be there. "But we're going to at least make the attempt," Weiss said. The NTSB has been able to investigate crashes even when an aircraft's wreckage is not recoverable. http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/NTSB-to-try-and-salvage-plane-in-crash-off- Molokai-5069520.php Back to Top Company had 5 incidents in past, FAA records show Makani Kai Air, whose plane crash Wednesday killed state Health Director Loretta Fuddy, has had five previous accidents or incidents involving the helicopters that the company also operates. One of those was a midair collision between a company helicopter and another plane. However, Makani Kai claims on its website that neither its airplanes nor helicopters have had an accident or incident in the company's more than 20-year history. Makani Kai President Richard Schuman could not be reached for comment Friday. The Federal Aviation Administration released records Friday that revealed the five previous accidents or incidents for Schuman Aviation, which does business as Makani Kai. None, however, involved injuries or fatalities. Those incidents are as follows: --July 8, 1996: A Hughes 369 helicopter had a midair collision with a Mooney M20 plane near Diamond Head during a movie shoot. The helicopter went down in the ocean, and the Mooney landed without incident. --June 30, 1998: A Bell 206B helicopter landed without incident in an open field on Oahu after the pilot reported hearing a noise in the main rotor area. --July 7, 2002: An AS350 helicopter made a hard landing near Wiliwilinui Ridge. --Jan. 5, 2009: An AS350 made a hard landing near Wiliwilinui Ridge following a reported loss of engine power. --May 13, 2012: An AS350 made an emergency landing after ingesting trash into the tail rotor at Honolulu Airport. http://www.aviationpros.com/news/11280527/company-had-5-incidents-in-past-faa- records-show Back to Top UND student pilots learn from accidents in aviation industry As Asiana Airlines Flight 214 approached the runway at San Francisco International Airport this past July, the pilots voiced concern that the aircraft was flying too slow but did nothing to about it until just before the aircraft hit the ground. UND aviation students Ben Mossberd (left) and Alec Davis train on a flight simulator Monday. As Asiana Airlines Flight 214 approached the runway at San Francisco International Airport this past July, the pilots voiced concern that the aircraft was flying too slow but did nothing to about it until just before the aircraft hit the ground. A National Transportation Safety Board hearing last week highlighted the pilots' mistaken reliance on the autopilot to maintain their airspeed. It's an issue that's been highlighted before in 2009 when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed in Buffalo, N.Y., and Air France Flight 447 crashed in the Atlantic Ocean. In both cases, pilots' misunderstanding of what they thought their aircraft would do and what the aircraft did contributed to disaster. In UND's Aviation Department, those crashes have only reinforced the need to teach student pilots how to safely use the powerful automation features of modern airliners. "At UND, I think we do a really good job of forcing students not to rely on automation," said Jim Higgins, an aviation professor and former commercial airline pilot. "We do a lot of failures." By this he meant students would use autopilot in simulators and be subjected to all kinds of autopilot errors so they can learn to avoid the errors or recover from an error. "We've definitely increased learning about automation," he said, using advice from people in the aviation industry. In fact, automation is so integrated into modern aircraft that students learn about them the first time they learn the layout of a cockpit, he said. Deadly lessons For UND and the aviation industry in general, learning from others' mistakes is integral to the safety culture. "Anytime there is a major aircraft accident, even some minor accidents, what we'll do is we'll take info that's available and we'll incorporate it into our curriculum and discuss it," Higgins said. Past aviation accidents have contributed to how UND now teaches pilots, according to Bruce Smith, dean of the School of Aerospace Sciences. After American Eagle Flight 4184 crashed outside Chicago in 1994, in which ice on the wings caused the aircraft to behave erratically, Smith said UND added a course and several acrobatic planes to teach students how to recover from erratic flight. The university also added a device that simulates disorientation because many accidents have been caused by pilots becoming convinced by their senses that they were flying normally when they were not, according to Smith. He gave the 1999 accident that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. as an example. Kennedy's aircraft dove into the water off the coast of Massachusetts after a series of erratic maneuvers that suggested he couldn't tell what direction his plane was pointed. Autopiloting skill But engineers who design autopilots are also learning from aviation accidents, Higgins said. "They take with them the collective wisdom of the last 100 years. We learn from all the tragic accidents." He said he understands the criticism that pilots rely too much on automation to the point that it's affected their ability to fly the aircraft themselves. "There is some evidence that the art of flying an aircraft, the skills of flying an aircraft, that has eroded." But the safety record shows that automation is also making aircraft much safer because machines don't make as many errors as people, he said. The last major crash involving a domestic airline was the Colgan Air crash in 2009, he said. So, while UND is teaching students piloting skills, it's also teaching them "autopiloting" skills. Higgins said the error that often occurs with autopilots is "mode confusion," in which pilots are unaware of what their autopilot will do. That's what happened in the Asiana case, he said. To counter that, UND teach students "mode awareness." Pilots must constantly observe their aircraft's display even when it's on autopilot so that they understand what the autopilot is doing. As the Cold War saying goes, "trust but verify," he said. Attitudes change As automation technology improves and new generations of pilots join the workforce, he said attitudes toward the technology have changed also. Older pilots never quite trusted a machine to fly their plane and would often turn off their autopilot, he said, but students today are much more comfortable with the feature. "I give it a lot of trust," said Tyler Norton, a senior studying commercial aviation at UND. He compared the autopilot to cruise control, which, unlike a person, can keep a car going at almost exactly 70 mph no matter if the car is going up a hill or down one. Besides, he said, accidents are often caused by an "error chain" rather than just one problem. The Colgan Air crash was also caused by pilot fatigue, he said, which led to federal rules on how many hours pilots can fly without rest. http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/280377/ Back to Top Firefighters mistakenly battle blaze with jet fuel instead of water "When the firefighters put water on a fire that had been deliberately developed for training the fire got bigger instead of smaller," official says. Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Washington State authorities are investigating an incident that happened at the fire training academy in North Bend on Oct. 25 when firefighters sprayed jet fuel instead of water on a fake airplane crash. The massive mistake caused a huge fireball that left two firefighters with minor burns. "When the firefighters put water on a fire that had been deliberately developed for training the fire got bigger instead of smaller," said Bob Calkins of the State Patrol. The cause of the mistake may have had something to do with the academy's oil/water separator. The device, which recycles the water used that's used in training exercises, may have not properly filtered the jet fuel from the water that was used in previous training sessions. According to Caskins, an expert is being brought in to investigate whether the separator malfunctioned or if the device was incorrectly used by academy employees. http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/Blog/2013/12/16/Firefighters-mistakenly-battle-blaze- with-jet-fuel-instead-of-water/3641387210771/#ixzz2njbcZs00 Back to Top Delta Airlines jet among area transportation casualties from Monday snowstorm A Delta 737-800 jet is surrounded by emergency vehicles on Monday evening after sliding off a runway while taxiing at Dane County Regional Airport. The plane was arriving in Madison from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Planes, trains and automobiles came to a screeching halt Monday afternoon when a fast- moving storm dumped nearly three inches of snow on the Madison area and created an icy transportation nightmare. No serious injuries were reported from a slew of snow-related incidents, including a Boeing 737-800 jet operated by Delta Airlines that slid off a taxiway just after it landed at about 4 p.m. at the Dane County Regional Airport, authorities said. The airport was closed for less than an hour after the incident. An hour later, a train collided with a car that was stuck on the tracks in heavy traffic at the intersection of John Nolen Drive and Olin Avenue, according to Madison police Sgt. Tim Patton. The driver of the car was unhurt even though he had remained in his vehicle and tried to pull forward when it was struck. John Nolen Drive was closed for about 20 minutes, further snarling an already messy traffic situation at the height of the evening commute, Patton said. "It was a bad day for mass transit," Patton added. "But considering that planes and trains were involved and nobody was hurt, that was a pretty good day." Delta Airlines Flight 385 from Minneapolis-St. Paul slid off a taxiway and stopped in the snow just after exiting the main runway, airport spokesman Brent McHenry said. The 60 passengers and six crew were bused to the terminal less than 45 minutes after the incident, McHenry added. Passengers said it wasn't a particularly dramatic experience. They felt the plane land like normal, passenger Kevin Fearon said, but as it slowly moved toward the terminal it seemed to slide and miss a turn. "It just kept going straight," said Fearon. "You felt that it was skidding." "Just like a car when you can't stop," said Denise Penn, who also was on the flight. "That was it - it was really a non-event." Fearon admitted to letting out a yell as the plane slid. When he and fellow passenger Chris Leo arrived at baggage claim, a Delta employee greeted them with vouchers worth $100 off their next flight. Crews from the Madison Fire Department responded to the incident, spokeswoman Lori Wirth said. Although it was snowing at the time, McHenry said he didn't know if the taxiway was snow-covered when the jet slid off it. He said the process of keeping runways and taxiways clear begins before snow starts to accumulate on the ground. "It's a very rare occurrence that these types of incidents happen," McHenry said. The last time a passenger jet slid off a taxiway or runway at the airport, according to State Journal archives, was Dec. 2, 2007, when United Express Flight 7258 from Chicago failed to turn onto a taxiway from the runway in icy conditions. There were no injuries in that incident. Monday's storm, which the National Weather Service said dropped 2.7 inches of snow at the Dane County airport, began early in the afternoon and immediately started causing problems on roads in Dane County. http://host.madison.com/news/local/delta-airlines-jet-among-area-transportation- casualties-from-monday-snowstorm/article_632b1828-fb59-5ead-9cd5- 2e01098e5c90.html#ixzz2njaiuYQM Back to Top Back to Top China's Growing Hunger For Air Travel Has Created A Pilot Shortage An Airbus A380 in the China Southern Airlines fleet Over the next two decades, China will take delivery of 5,500 new aircraft as its airline industry grows to match the expanding spending power of its ever more affluent population. The problem is, China already has a shortfall of about 10,000 pilots, says Zou Jianjun, a professor at the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China. China currently has the world's fastest-growing air travel market, with domestic traffic second only to the U.S.', expanding by 14.7 percent from June 2012 to June 2013, according to the International Air Transport Association. The rising middle class in China is flying a lot more than they did 10 years ago, and because of this more airliners are being ordered to keep up with demand. Around 800 aircraft are on order, with more than 2,000 already in the air, and finding locally trained pilots has proven troublesome. This illustrates a plethora of issues for the rapidly expanding economy, where training and infrastructure haven't been able to keep pace with demand. But China isn't the only one struggling to keep up. The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) estimates that the Asia- Pacific region will need 185,600 new pilots between 2012 and 2031, accounting for 40 percent of the entire global demand. Currently, the region has 26 percent of the world's pilots, amounting to about 56,000. A partial short-term solution for China has been to woo U.S.-based pilots with salaries upwards of $270,000 plus benefits, roughly double the average salary for a U.S.-based air captain. http://www.ibtimes.com/chinas-growing-hunger-air-travel-has-created-pilot-shortage- 1508656 Curt Lewis