Flight Safety Information March 13, 2014 - No. 054 In This Issue Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours Boeing says Malaysia jet not subject to FAA inspection order India to deploy ships, choppers, aircraft to search for missing jet Inside the Nearly Impossible Task of Finding an Airplane in the Ocean Race against time to find Malaysia Airlines black box PRISM SMS Why would-be pilots are being kept out of airline cockpits Gulfstream G650 Sets New Speed Record ERAU Research Survey Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours Engine Data Suggest Malaysia Flight Was Airborne Long After Radar Disappearance, U.S. Investigators Say By ANDY PASZTOR U.S. investigators suspect that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 stayed in the air for about four hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location, according to two people familiar with the details, raising the possibility that the plane could have flown on for hundreds of additional miles under conditions that remain murky. Aviation investigators and national security officials believe the plane flew for a total of five hours, based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing Co. 777's engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring program. That raises a host of new questions and possibilities about what happened aboard the widebody jet carrying 239 people, which vanished from civilian air-traffic control radar over the weekend, about one hour into a flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. Six days after the mysterious disappearance prompted a massive international air and water search that so far hasn't produced any results, the investigation appears to be broadening in scope. U.S. counterterrorism officials are pursuing the possibility that a pilot or someone else on board the plane may have diverted it toward an undisclosed location after intentionally turning off the jetliner's transponders to avoid radar detection, according to one person tracking the probe. The Tricky Science of Radar Tracking Airliner Didn't Reappear on Vietnamese Radar The investigation remains fluid, and it isn't clear whether investigators have evidence indicating possible terrorism or sabotage. So far, U.S. national security officials have said that nothing specifically points toward terrorism, though they haven't ruled it out. But the huge uncertainty about where the plane was headed, and why it apparently continued flying so long without working transponders, has raised theories among investigators that the aircraft may have been commandeered for a reason that appears unclear to U.S. authorities. Some of those theories have been laid out to national security officials and senior personnel from various U.S. agencies, according to one person familiar with the matter. WSJ has confirmed that the pilot had the ability to manually turn off the transponder on Flight MH370. A mid-air catastrophe could have destroyed it. At one briefing, according to this person, officials were told investigators are actively pursuing the notion that the plane was diverted "with the intention of using it later for another purpose." As of Wednesday it remained unclear whether the plane reached an alternate destination or if it ultimately crashed, potentially hundreds of miles from where an international search effort has been focused. In those scenarios, neither mechanical problems, pilot mistakes nor some other type of catastrophic incident caused the 250-ton plane to mysteriously vanish from radar. The latest revelations come as local media reported that Malaysian police visited the home of at least one of the two pilots. Admiral Le Minh Thanh at a media briefing on Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam. Reuters A Malaysia Airlines official declined to comment. A Boeing executive who declined to be named would not comment except to say, "We've got to stand back from the front line of the information." The engines' onboard monitoring system is provided by their manufacturer, Rolls-Royce RR.LN - 1.71% PLC, and it periodically sends bursts of data about engine health, operations and aircraft movements to facilities on the ground. "We continue to monitor the situation and to offer Malaysia Airlines our support," a Rolls-Royce representative said Wednesday, declining further comment. "The disappearance is officially now an accident and all information about this is strictly handled by investigators," said a Rolls-Royce executive who declined to be named, citing rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency. As part of its maintenance agreements, Malaysia Airlines transmits its engine data live to Rolls- Royce for analysis. The system compiles data from inside the 777's two Trent 800 engines and transmits snapshots of performance, as well as the altitude and speed of the jet. Those snippets are compiled and transmitted in 30-minute increments, said one person familiar with the system. According to Rolls-Royce's website, the data is processed automatically "so that subtle changes in condition from one flight to another can be detected." The engine data is being analyzed to help determine the flight path of the plane after the transponders stopped working. The jet was originally headed for China, and its last verified position was half way across the Gulf of Thailand. A total flight time of five hours after departing Kuala Lumpur means the Boeing 777 could have continued for an additional distance of about 2,200 nautical miles, reaching points as far as the Indian Ocean, the border of Pakistan or even the Arabian Sea, based on the jet's cruising speed. Earlier Wednesday, frustrations over the protracted search for the missing plane mounted as both China and Vietnam vented their anger over what they viewed as poor coordination of the effort. Government conflicts and national arguments over crises are hardly unique to the Flight 370 situation, but some air-safety experts said they couldn't recall another recent instance of governments' publicly feuding over search procedures during the early phase of an international investigation. China and Vietnam venting their frustration with the slow progress of the mission and what they view as poor coordination of the effort to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Allison Morrow reports on the News Hub. Photo: Getty Images. Authorities on Wednesday radically expanded the size of the search zone, which already was proving a challenge to cover effectively, but the mission hadn't turned up much by the end of the fifth day. Also on Wednesday, a Chinese government website posted images from Chinese satellites showing what it said were three large objects floating in an 8-square-mile area off the southern tip of Vietnam. The objects were discovered on Sunday , according to the website, which didn't say whether the objects had been recovered or examined. Ten countries were helping to scour the seas around Malaysia, including China, the U.S. and Vietnam. Taiwanese vessels are expected to be on the scene by Friday, with India and Japan having also agreed to join the search soon. In all, 56 surface ships were taking part in the search, according to statements issued by the contributing governments, with Malaysia providing 27 of them. In addition, 30 fixed-wing aircraft were also searching, with at least 10 shipboard helicopters available, mostly in the waters between Malaysia and Vietnam. China's government was especially aggrieved. More than 150 of the 239 people on board are Chinese, and family members in Beijing have at times loudly expressed their frustration over the absence of leads. More than a dozen Chinese diplomats met with Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday as tension grew over the search. "At present there's a lot of different information out there. It's very chaotic and very hard to verify," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a regular press briefing. "We've said as long as there is a shred of hope, you can't give up." The day before, Beijing pointedly pressed Malaysia to accelerate its investigation, which has been hampered by false leads on suspected debris and conflicting reports on radar tracking. Vietnam on Wednesday suspended its search flights after conflicting reports from Malaysia that authorities had tracked the plane to the Strait of Malacca before it disappeared. Gen. Rodzali Daud, Malaysia's air force chief, denied saying he had told local media that military radar facilities had tracked the plane there, saying they were still examining all possibilities. Vietnam later resumed normal search sweeps. You can help search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, thanks to a website called Tomnod.com. It allows anyone to comb the area where rescue workers are searching using satellite images. The WSJ's Deborah Kan speaks to DigitalGlobe's Luke Barrington. Malaysian authorities divided the search area into several sectors on either side of the country, as well as areas on land. The challenge, said Lt. David Levy, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet, isn't so much coordination as the sheer size of the area involved. The search grids are up to 20 miles by 120 miles, and ships and aircraft employ an exhaustive methodical pattern "like mowing your lawn" in their search for the plane, he said. U.S. defense officials sought to play down any suggestion that the Malaysian government was doing a poor job with the search. "It is not unusual for searches to take a long time, especially when you are working with limited data," one official said. Aviation experts say the absence of an electronic signal from the plane before it disappeared from radar screens makes it difficult to pin down possible locations. Some radar data suggested the Boeing 777 might have tried to turn back to Kuala Lumpur before contact was lost, a detail that prompted a search for the plane on both sides of the Malaysian peninsula. A member of Singapore's military looks out of a transport plane over the South China Sea to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Tuesday. Reuters A U.S. Navy P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft has been searching the northern Strait of Malacca, west of Malaysia, while destroyers USS Kidd and USS Pinckney have been deploying helicopters in the Gulf of Thailand to the east. So far the U.S., like other nations taking part in the search, has had no success. Many aviation experts are concluding that searchers may not have been looking in the right places. Even if the plane broke up in midair, it would have left telltale traces of debris in the ocean. The cracks now emerging between some of the participants in the search could make it even more difficult. Diplomatic feuds over air disasters have generally erupted over the conclusions of the investigations, long after the initial search is over. The results of the 1999 crash of an Egyptair Boeing 767 en route to Egypt from New York, which killed 217 people, spawned a dispute between Washington and Cairo that strained ties for years. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the plane's co-pilot purposely put the twin- engine jet into a steep dive and then resisted efforts by the captain to recover control before the airliner slammed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket. Egyptian authorities insisted the evidence indicated mechanical failure. Earlier, Washington and Paris butted heads over the investigation into the 1994 crash of a French-built American Eagle commuter turboprop near Roselawn, Ind. The French objected to the NTSB's conclusions that French regulators failed to take actions that could have prevented the accident. Earlier this week, Malaysian investigators said they were expanding their investigation to encompass the possibility of hijack or sabotage, and possible personal or psychological problems of the crew and passengers. But Malaysian officials haven't discussed transmissions regarding engine operations or offered any explanation for the primary and backup transponders' not working. http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304914904579434653903086282- lMyQjAxMTA0MDEwMzExNDMyWj Back to Top Boeing says Malaysia jet not subject to FAA inspection order (Reuters) - Boeing Co on Wednesday said the missing 777 Malaysia Airlines jetliner was not subject to a new U.S. safety directive that ordered additional inspections for cracking and corrosion on certain 777 planes. The Federal Aviation Administration last week ordered additional, repeated inspections of certain Boeing 777 aircraft, warning that corrosion and cracking could lead to rapid decompression and damage to the structure of the aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines to inspect U.S. registered aircraft for cracking, corrosion and potential repairs after receiving a report about a 16-inch crack in the fuselage skin underneath an adapter for the airplane's satellite communications antenna. Boeing said it worked closely with the FAA to monitor the fleet for potential safety issues and take appropriate actions. But it said the 777-200ER Malaysia Airlines aircraft did not have that antenna installed and was not subject to the FAA order. An FAA spokesman on Wednesday also cautioned against linking the directive, one of hundreds issued annually by the agency, to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. "There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that this had anything to do with the accident," said the spokesman, who also noted that airplanes were built with redundancies in the fuselage and inspection process to catch cracks or corrosion before they got bigger and caused problems. The FAA first proposed the additional inspections for 120 U.S.-registered aircraft in September before finalizing the directive in February and then publishing them in the U.S. Federal Register on March 5. The new rule takes effect April 9. "We are issuing this airworthiness directive to detect and correct cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane," the agency said in the directive. Aviation authorities in other countries typically follow the FAA's lead in issuing such directives, but it was not immediately clear if Malaysia had already followed suit. A dozen countries, using 42 ships and 39 aircraft, are helping to search for the missing plane, which disappeared Saturday less than hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/12/us-malaysia-airplane-faa-idUSBREA2B1YN20140312 Back to Top India to deploy ships, choppers, aircraft to search for missing jet 1.17 pm: India to deploy ships, choppers and aircraft to search for missing jet India's defense ministry instructed the joint command on the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Thursday to deploy ships, aircraft and helicopters to search for a missing Malaysian airliner, a command spokesman Harmeet Singh told Reuters. The armed forces will hold a meeting on Thursday evening to decide how to coordinate their search efforts with other countries, after which they will make deployments, a senior command officer said. 11.00 am: Plane may have continued flying for four hours after it went missing: US investigators In another bizarre twist to the mystery surrounding Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, US investigators are now reportedly saying that the plane may have flown for over four hours after it disappeared off the radar, raising fresh speculation about what could have happened to the flight. A report in the Wall Street Journal reads: Aviation investigators and national security officials believe the plane flew for a total of five hours based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing Co. BA -0.99% 777's engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring program. That raises a host of new questions and possibilities about what happened aboard the widebody jet carrying 239 people, which vanished from civilian air-traffic control radar over the weekend, about one hour into a flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. The report adds that while Malaysian authorities have refused to comment on the new data, that "the huge uncertainty about where the plane was headed, and why it apparently continued flying so long without working transponders, has raised theories among investigators that the aircraft may have been commandeered for a reason that appears unclear to U.S. authorities" 10.20 am: No plane debris found at spot shown by satellite images, says Malaysia The Malaysian aviation chief has said that no plane debris found at the spot shown by China's satellite images. The new report comes in the wake of "murky satellite images that a Chinese science and defense agency said may show debris from the missing Malaysian Airlines jetliner." The images originally were posted on the website of China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. That site reports coordinates of a location in the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam and east of Malaysia. The Malaysian military had sent a number of planes to the spot highlighted by the images to investigate further. 9.45 am: Why the plane's transponder may be prove to be a crucial clue Transponder's fate may prove key to solving Malaysia Airlines puzzle, says a report on CNN as the sixth day of search for the flight continues. The transponder is the device that transmits a discreet signal to Air Traffic Control (ATC) radars The 777 has two transponders and even if one fails, it sends a message to the crew. According to the CNN report, "a senior Malaysian air force official said on Tuesday that the plane traveled hundreds of miles in the opposite direction from its original destination, and had stopped sending identifying transponder codes before it disappeared from radar screens." It says that there are a number of possible reasons that this could have happened. The first is that it could have been intentionally turned off. Others include patchy radar, that the transponder broke, or that it was flying below the radar. 9.30 am: Search planes fly to area where Chinese satellite spotted objects that could be from missing flight Reuters has reported that search planes were flying on Thursday to an area where a Chinese satellite has seen objects that could be debris from the Malaysian airliner. Also China has increased pressure on Malaysia to improve its coordination over the search for the Malaysia Airlines plane, adds the report. 154 members on board the plane were Chinese citizens. China's Premier Li Keqiang, speaking at a news conference in Beijing, demanded that the "relevant party" step up coordination while China's civil aviation chief said he wanted a "smoother" flow of information from Malaysia, which has come under heavy criticism for its handling of the disaster. 9.15 am: As a mark of respect, Malaysia Airlines to retire flight number MH370 and MH371 According to a statement issued by the Malaysia Airlines, the company will retire the flight codes MH370 and MH37. The company wrote in a statement, "As a mark of respect to the passengers and crew of MH370 on 8 March 2014, the MH370 and MH371 flight codes will be retired from the Malaysia Airlines' Kuala Lumpur- Beijing-Kuala Lumpur route." The statement added that their thoughts and prayers remain with the families of our colleagues and passengers of MH 370. 8.50 am: For the families of Indian passengers on aboard lack of information and conspiracy theories have added to their grief For the families of those who remain missing on the MH370 flight, the lack of information and conspiracy theories have only worsened their sense of grief. The flight had five Indians on board. Pralhad Shirsath, husband of Kranti Shirsath, a resident of Pune who was on the missing flight MH 370, told the Indian Express, that, "Apart from no information about the plane, what hurts most are conspiracy theories." Pralhad's son Rahul who is in class 11 and has exams has been unable to study."I can't study now," he told the paper, adding "Everything is messed up. It's too hard. There are too many conspiracy theories. I wish there was some information. How can nobody have any information?" For the family of another India on aboard, Chandrika Sharma, the fact that the Indian government has not even reached out to them is sad and bewildering. Sharma's husband K S Narendran told Indian Express, "It is ironical that India that claims to be a regional power and aims to play a prominent role on the global scene has no word on the incident, no offer of assistance for the search and rescue operation till yesterday, and no demonstrable offer of assistance to families of Indian passengers. I would have liked to see basic courtesies, and honourable assurances." 8.36 am: Has Malaysia military traced the missing MH370 jet? Malaysia's military has traced what could have been the jetliner missing for almost five days to an area south of the Thai holiday island of Phuket, hundreds of miles to the west of its last known position, the country's air force chief said on Wednesday, reports Reuters. His statement followed a series of conflicting accounts of the flight path of the missing airlines. According to the Reuters report, Rodzali Daud, the Malaysian air force chief, told a news conference that an aircraft was plotted on military radar at 2:15 a.m, 200 miles northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia's west coast. However it can't yet be confirmed that this is the missing plane and he said that they are still working with experts to confirm this. 8.30 am: No proof to link debris to missing MH370 jet, says Chinese official A senior Chinese aviation official said on Thursday that the authorities could not confirm any link between the floating objects captured on Chinese satellite images to a Malaysia Airlines jet missing for more than five days, reports Associated Press. The report quotes d Li Jiaxiang, chief of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, as saying, "It is true that the satellite was launched and detected some smoke and what were suspected metal shreds about 37 kilometers (23 miles) southwest of Ho Chi Minh City. But after some review, we cannot confirm that they belong to the missing plane." However AFP has reported that Malaysia has sent an aircraft to this particular spot to look for the missing plane. 8.10 am: And now crowdsourcing to hunt for the missing MH370 jet Malaysia Airlines MH370 has now remained missing for nearly 6 days. While ships and fighter jets from China to Malaysia to Vietnam to Singapore and more at hunting for the plane, the Internet had turned to what it is best at: crowdsourcing. The company that has launched this campaign is earth imagery company called DigitalGlobe. It has launched a campaign to scan the Gulf of Thailand for survivors. According to the company they have activated their Tomnod crowdsourcing platform to help locate the jet by asking volunteers to scan through imagery captured by our satellites. According to their official blogpost, "More than 2 million people have tagged some 645,000 features so far, making this the largest Tomnod campaign in history by orders of magnitude. We have continually tasked our satellites to image the ever-widening search area and now have more than 24,000 square kilometers of imagery available for the crowd to comb through." 8.00 am: Malaysia has sent aircraft to look for debris of missing flight MH370 Malaysia has sent aircraft to look for debris of missing flight MH370 to the spot where Chinese satellites have shown floating objects. Murky satellite images that a Chinese science and defence agency had revealed show what may be debris from the missing Malaysian Airlines jetliner. The latest clue could help searchers point to a location which is closer to the plane's original flight path south of Vietnam. Xinhua report said the images from around 11 am on Sunday appear to show "three suspected floating objects" of varying sizes in a 20-kilometer radius, the largest about 24-by-22 meters (79-by-72 feet). AFP tweeted that Malaysia has sent an aircraft to this place. http://www.firstpost.com/world/live-india-to-deploy-ships-choppers-aircraft-to-search-for- missing-jet-1424627.html?utm_source=ref_article Back to Top Inside the Nearly Impossible Task of Finding an Airplane in the Ocean An officer aboard a Vietnamese military helicopter searches for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight. Two-thirds of the planet is covered with water, which makes finding something lost at sea an imposing task. Four days after Malayasia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared enroute to Bejing, search and rescue vessels scouring the region have found no trace of the airliner or the 239 people aboard. Although authorities have yet to speculate on what happened aboard the Boeing 777-200, what ever it was that brought down the plane is widely believed to have occurred quickly, catastrophically and at high altitude. That would scatter debris over a huge area. You'd think that would make finding debris easy, but that has not been the case. Malaysia Airlines says nine aircraft and 24 ships are searching for Flight 370; the flotilla includes the USS Kidd and USS Pinckney, two destroyers that were conducting exercises in the area. The U.S. Navy also deployed a Lockheed P-3C Orion, a maritime surveillance plane originally developed for anti-submarine work. This search force, drawn from nine countries, has expanded its focus to a vast swath of the South China and Andaman seas, the Straits of Malacca and the Gulf of Thailand-an area larger than Texas and California combined. Despite the size of the search operation and the technology at its disposal, the task of searching for an aircraft in the water still comes down to sailors and airmen looking at the sea, for hours at a time. "Finding pieces and parts from the air is very difficult to do," said retired Coast Guard Lt. Commander Larry Kidd. Although a portion of the search effort is focusing on land masses in the area, that doesn't make the task any easier. There are some remote areas in that part of the world, and "they could lose an airplane or pieces of an airplane and never find it," Kidd said. Large-scale pelagic search-and-rescue operations are managed from what's called a Rescue Coordination Center. Officials there coordinate the efforts of the various nations and agencies involved, ensuring efforts are not duplicated and the area in question is thoroughly and efficiently searched. Because Flight 370 was from a Malaysian carrier, departed from Malaysia, and presumably went down relatively close to home, that country's Department of Civil Aviation is running the show. Malaysian authorities have considerable experience with search and rescue operations, and the country's expertise is well regarded by others in the field. The biggest challenge, aside from the size of the search area, is not knowing where Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shaw and First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid ran into trouble, where the plane went down, or why. Knowing where to begin the search is, of course, a key data point, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Katelyn Shearer of the United States Coast Guard. Although she would not speak specifically about the search for Flight 370, she outlined what typically happens in such a search and rescue operation. When the call comes in-either a distress call from an aircraft or a ship, or an alert from another agency-authorities direct any available ships, helicopters and aircraft toward the vessel's last known position. The number of vessels deployed will depend upon the situation-an aircraft carrier wouldn't respond to a sailboat sinking a mile offshore, for example, but would be dispatched if it were the vessel closest to a distressed ship on the high sea. If the vessel in distress cannot be promptly located, search and rescue craft begin a search pattern. The Coast Guard has five general patterns, and which one is deployed depends upon the accuracy of any information about where the distress call was made and whether, and where, datum-possible debris sightings-are reported. The pattern used is determined by the current, wind and other factors and also the type of vessels involved in the search. Using a specific pattern ensures the search is conducted efficiently and accurately. "Search patterns are valuable because they allow crew members to complete a thorough and a methodical search of the area," Shearer said. Depending on what's available, search patterns will be done via air and sea, with the coordinating authority assigning tasks to individual vessels to ensure coverage. Each vessel has a specific advantage-and drawback. An airplane can survey a much larger area than a ship, and do so in much less time, but it is not as useful for locating or investigating small debris. One of the biggest issues in searching for anything at sea is dealing with current and drift. Computer models and meteorological data help here. The Coast Guard, for example, uses computer models to "determine the most appropriate search pattern based on currents, wind and other external factors," said Shearer. The Coast Guard software can also predict in which direction the vessel may have drifted, but as time passes, predicting drift becomes increasingly difficult. Members of the Chinese emergency response team salvage floating object at the possible crash site of missing Malaysia Airlines flight. In the case of Flight 370, rescue planes would have started with a track line search, tracing the flight path of the plane from the point of departure in Kuala Lampur all the way to Beijing, said Kidd. Then, search assets would begin adjusting for lateral drift, performing what's called a parallel track search. Kidd said airplanes would likely fly in five-mile-wide patterns, with ships searching one mile at a time. If something was spotted, a radio beacon typically is dropped into the water and new search grids developed based on that location. Even with all the technology in the world, search and rescue operations come down to men and women scanning the sea with binoculars. This is an exceedingly daunting task when you consider the search area covers as many as 500,000 square miles. And this explains how it is possible not to have found any debris yet. Searching open water is slow, tedious work, made more so by the time required to get anywhere. With something like a missing commercial airliner, help from other, less traditional sources, comes into play. The U.S Government reviewed imagery taken by its spy satellites in the region for possible evidence of an explosion, to no avail, according to Reuters. DigitalGlobe, a commercial satellite imagery firm, has taken numerous pictures of the search area with its five satellites, posting the pictures on its website in an attempt to crowdsource the search. The odds of finding survivors dwindles over time, but U.S. Navy and other vessels involved with the search are equipped with medical facilities should survivors be located, and hospitals are on alert. Kidd says that if the plane had hit the water in one piece, there would most likely would be a lot of debris in a concentrated area. However, if it broke up at altitude, pieces could be scattered far and wide, making it hard to identify any single item from the air. This, combined with the challenge of seeing debris of any kind in the water, can make finding things difficult. Early in the search it was widely reported that an airplane door had been spotted, but authorities didn't conclusively identify what it was and it hasn't been spotted again. What was thought to be debris in another area turned out to be a coral reef. And so the search goes on, for as long as it takes. It took two years before authorities found the black box data recorder and the airframe for Air France Flight 447, which went down over the Atlantic in 2009. But at some point, the search will scale back. When and how that happens will be up to officials at the Rescue Coordination Center. http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/03/flight-370-search/ Back to Top Race against time to find Malaysia Airlines black box as battery sending signal 'will run out in 30 days' Search teams are racing to find the flight recorders of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane before the exercise becomes a prolonged and potentially costly one resembling the search for Air France Flight 447, experts say. An underwater locator beacon inside the black box that switches on automatically after a crash and sends out a sonar signal has not been detected. "The battery life of the locator lasts 30 days. If they cannot find it within this window, it will become very hard to locate," said Professor Alan Lau Kin-tak, of Hong Kong Polytechnic University's engineering department. No signal was received from the Malaysian plane's emergency locator transmitter, which is designed to emit distress signals from a plane after an accident. It has a lifespan of 24 hours. The flight recorders of Air France flight 447 were uncovered nearly two years after it disappeared. Photo: AP David Newbery, a Hong Kong flight captain and accredited aircraft accident investigator, said search teams faced similar difficulties when investigating the disappearance of the Air France Flight 447 over the south Atlantic in June 2009. The black boxes were found two years later. "If you still haven't found the wreckage by the time the pinger stops working, you really have a problem," said Newbery. The two shoebox-sized devices, thought to be indestructible, are located towards the tail of most aircraft. One is a digital flight data recorder which documents parametric data such as airspeed, altitude, heading, pitch and instrumental readings such as cabin pressure and engine temperature. The other device records the dialogue and radio communication in the cockpit. Downloading the data readings from the recorders would help investigators learn if Flight MH370 exploded - one of several theories raised- or suffered a sudden loss of cabin pressure through a hole in the fuselage, Lau said. The two boxes, which are actually coloured bright vermillion, are built to withstand an impact of up to 3,400 times the force of gravity and temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, he said. The boxes are also watertight to 600 metres and can stay intact for 30 days. Lau has urged airlines to invest in real-time data link communications through satellites to ensure that plane tracking signals were always available. Black boxes equipped with satellite transmitters could also ensure a signal would be picked up after batteries drain, he added. After the AF447 accident, some in the industry suggested aircraft could continuously live-stream flight data. But Lau said airlines had been reluctant to impose such changes because of the expense. "More weight means more fuel which means higher costs. If no one proposes anything first, no one in the industry will have impetus to change," he said. Malaysia Airlines confirmed earlier this week that the missing aircraft did not have a continuous satellite link, citing the cost. Warren Chim Wing-nin, honorary secretary of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers aircraft division, said the technology would be hard to implement because of the sheer amount of data from the flight recorders that would have to be managed and processed. "This is very expensive and a lot of sensitive data will most likely have to go through a third- party processor," he said. "This will obviously raise issues of security, privacy and sovereignty." http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1447013/search-teams-race-find-black-box- signal-missing-malaysia-airlines Back to Top Back to Top Why would-be pilots are being kept out of airline cockpits The gap between the flight time the FAA now requires to be a commercial pilot and the hours that students log in college marks yet another factor in the impending pilot shortage. The controls of a flight simulator in a reproduction of a Boeing 737 cockpit FORTUNE -- Zachary Wilkinson was just a few months into his freshman year at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University when the path he'd set out for himself -- earning a degree in aeronautical science and landing a job as a commercial pilot -- was upended. In February 2012, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed a rule that would require first officers -- commercial airlines' entry-level pilots -- to hold an Airline Transport Pilot certificate, which requires 1,500 hours of flight time. Graduates of programs that have been approved by the FAA, including Embry-Riddle, could earn an ATP with 1,000 flying hours. The rule was proposed in the wake of the February 2009 crash of a Colgan Air regional plane caused partly by pilot fatigue, and it became law in August 2013. Wilkinson, 21, will leave Embry-Riddle with a bachelor's degree and about 250-300 hours of flying time. He enrolled at the university thinking that would be enough to land him in the co- pilot seat at a regional airline. But when Wilkinson graduates in the spring of 2015, those 300 hours in the air will leave him 700 hours short of an entry-level airline job. "It was discouraging," Wilkinson tells Fortune. "It will require me to spend more time building up hours as a flight trainer." Wilkinson now plans to apply for a flight instructor position at Embry- Riddle after graduation. Working in that role for a year or so will put him over the 1,000-hour threshold. The gap between the flight time required to be a commercial pilot and the hours that students like Wilkinson log in college is another factor in the impending pilot shortage. Late last month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report that said regional airlines are having trouble finding enough qualified individuals to pilot their planes. One commonly cited culprit in the shortage is pilots' measly first-year pay. The GAO report pegged it at $24 per hour based on data collected for 14 regional airlines, but the Air Line Pilots Association estimates that the average starting salary is even lower than that -- $22,500 per year, which for a 40-hour work week equals an hourly rate of $10.75. The pilot lifestyle -- especially at the regional level, where pilots jet from one small market airport to another -- also plays a role. Kent Lovelace, professor and chair of the aviation department at University of North Dakota, said that when his school surveys students about why they don't want to be an airline pilot, they most frequently cite the lifestyle. Pay is the second- most frequently mentioned deterrent, he says. But the new flight hours requirement means that the thousands of college graduates in flight programs -- there were 10,600 in 2008, the last time the University Aviation Association took count -- can't immediately fill the roughly 1,900 to 4,500 new pilot positions that the GAO predicts will open up annually for the next 10 years. Instead, they have to spend at least another year after graduation logging hours to get the same job that a previous generation of pilots could secure fresh out of school. "The shortage is with these new pilots and the changed criteria," says Tim Brady, dean of Embry-Riddle's college of aviation. It's getting so critical, he says, "regionals are starting to park their planes." The best way to rack up hours is to become a flight instructor, but those positions are limited. For instance, Embry-Riddle employs 150 flight instructors, and it graduates between 300 and 400 students from its flight program every year, says Brady. Graduates who can't land a flight instructor job have to resort to gigs like flying planes that tow banners or crop dust to surpass the 1,000-hour mark. It's too early to tell how the new flight time requirement will affect student enrollment in aviation programs. Universities like Embry-Riddle and UND, which have had their curriculum approved by the FAA and whose students qualify for the 1,000-hour exemption, have a recruiting advantage over colleges that haven't met those requirements. But even before the new regulation went into effect, Lovelace says UND's piloting program was facing increased competition from careers in operating unmanned aircraft systems, or drones, which UND began to offer as a course of study in 2009. "If you turn the clock back 15 years, 75-80% of our student population was interested in professional flight. Now that's about 55%," says Lovelace, who notes that completing the flight program at UND costs in-state residents about $120,000. Half of the cost is for flight time. Universities and airlines -- and passengers, for that matter -- will have to hope that students with an interest in commercial flying will look past the large initial training investment and focus on the profession's long-term benefits. Median pay for airline and commercial pilots in 2012 was $98,410, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Or they can bank on the notion that there are many more Zachary Wilkinsons out there, itching to get into a cockpit. "If I was doing this just for the paycheck, I wouldn't be here. I'm doing it for the prospect of providing a great service to people and for the travel and adventure of it," he says. "I'm willing to spend the first few years climbing the ladder." http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/12/pilot-shortage-flight-hours/ Back to Top Gulfstream G650 Sets New Speed Record Gulfstream's G650 business jet has set a new speed record, 13 hours and 49 minutes between White Plains, N.Y. and Mumbai, India at an average cruise speed of Mach 0.85 for a flight distance of 7,115 nautical miles. In 2013, the G650 set the world record for circling the globe westbound in 41 hours and 7 minutes. Powered by Rolls-Royce Br725 engines and featuring the PlaneVIew cockpit avionics package from Honeywell, this is the 42nd record record that the G650 has claimed. "The G650's ability to link these two key business destinations reinforces its utility as a vital tool for corporations to advance their economic interests around the world," said Jason Akovenko, regional vice president, Sales, Asia-Pacific, Gulfstream. The new record is pending approval by the U.S. National Aeronautic Association. Pending approval, the record will be sent to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in Switzerland for recognition as a world record. http://www.aviationtoday.com/the-checklist/Gulfstream-G650-Sets-New-Speed- Record_81603.html#.UyFuaPldU8k Back to Top ERAU Research Survey Researchers with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide are requesting that Aircraft Maintenance Technicians and Airframe and Powerplant Mechanics participate in their research study titled "Prevention of Back Injuries in Technicians and Mechanics". The purpose of the study is to identify protective factors and risk factors associated with back pain and back injury. The ultimate goal is to identify factors that are protective so that they can be implemented within organizations to curtail back pain and back injuries and to identify factors that can be improved to enhance safety for aircraft maintenance technicians and airframe and powerplant mechanics. Participation in the study is strictly voluntary. You will briefly answer questions about your work activities, perceptions of your workplace and your health. This questionnaire takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. All responses are anonymous as no personally identifiable information is collected. To participate in this important study please access the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CT8G2LH Thank you, Todd. D. Smith, PhD, CSP, ARM Principal Researcher Program Chair - Master of Science in Occupational Safety Management Program todd.smith2@erau.edu Back to Top Upcoming Events: North Texas Business Aviation Safety Show-Down is set for April 3rd http://www.aviationpros.com/press_release/11327425/north-texas-business-aviation-safety- show-down-is-set-for-april-3rd Middle East Air Cargo and Logistics Exhibition & Conference 2014 April 9-10, 2014 Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) http://cargomiddleeast.com Airport Show Dubai May 11-13, 2014 Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) www.theairportshow.com/portal/home.aspx National Safety Council Aviation Safety Committee Annual Conference Savanah, GA - May 14-15, 2014 Contact: tammy.washington@nsc.org http://cwp.marriott.com/savdt/artexmeeting/ Curt Lewis