Flight Safety Information April 22, 2014 - No. 082 In This Issue Boy Who Hid in Plane's Wheel Well Beat Long Odds in Surviving 5 ½-Hour Flight Malaysia Airlines Jet Turns Back After Tire Burst Putin lets Russian airlines hire foreign pilots China considers monitoring civilian pilots after disappearance of flight MH370 Radio-controlled helicopter had 'serious risk of collision' with jetliner at YVR NTSB chief urges child-safety seats on planes PRISM SMS Cockpit conundrum: Shortage of pilot candidates puts a drag on regional carriers Frontier Airlines hires former Spirit Airlines VP as president Embry-Riddle Worldwide to offer UAS workshop in San Diego April 24, 25 ICAO Loss of Control In-Flight Symposium Boy Who Hid in Plane's Wheel Well Beat Long Odds in Surviving 5 ½-Hour Flight By MATTHEW L. WALD Jumping a deteriorating airport fence, running across the airport unobserved in the darkness and climbing into the wheel well of a parked Boeing 767, as a California teenager did on Sunday, is not all that difficult, according to experts, but surviving the trip - in this case, a five-and-a-half-hour flight from San Jose, Calif., to Maui, Hawaii - is extraordinary. "I just assumed that everybody who did this died," said Richard Marchi, an airport consultant. Most do, but the 15-year-old boy who hid in one of the wheel wells for the main landing gear on the plane, woke up after it landed and walked out onto the landing field, where he was noticed by the Hawaiian Airlines ground crew and eventually turned over to state child welfare authorities. He had apparently spent most of the flight unconscious in the freezing, low-oxygen, wheel storage compartment. Officials in Hawaii would not describe the condition of the stowaway on Monday, but did say he was from Santa Clara, Calif.; had been traveling with no identification; and had run away from home after a dispute with his family. "Officials have notified the boy's family that he is safe," the Office of Child Welfare Services said in a statement. It added that the office would "enlist the help of all necessary agencies to ensure the boy's safe return to his home in California." Boeing opted not to discuss the incident; a spokesman said the company did not want to "provide any information that might encourage such extremely dangerous and illegal activity." Airport security cameras caught what seems to have been the boy climbing the fence at Mineta San Jose International Airport and crossing the tarmac to reach the airplane, the authorities said. They said the boy, whose name was not released, did not remember any of his ordeal. The plane landed in Maui at 10:30 a.m., but the boy did not emerge from the wheel well until 11:30, said Tom Simon, a special agent in the F.B.I.'s Honolulu office. He said the boy wore a hoodie and long pants and "no special gear." Because he was not conscious, "he didn't have a compelling story about his harrowing ordeal," said Mr. Simon, who added that the boy was "lucky to be alive." In fact, the boy is in the minority among wheel-well stowaways. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, since 1947, worldwide, 105 people have stowed away on 94 flights in the space where the main landing gear or the nose wheel fits. The cold and low oxygen levels at cruise altitudes killed 80 of them, for a mortality rate of 76 percent. Often their bodies were found miles from the arrival airport, below the spot where the pilots opened the doors and lowered the gear for landing. The landing gear of a 767 holds the belly of a plane about six feet off the ground, so the space into which the wheels nestle in flight is fairly large. The well has several niches where a small individual could fit, said John Goglia, an aircraft maintenance expert and a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board. But anyone who tried to lie on the doors while they were closed would fall out when the pilot started the landing procedure. Big airliners commonly cruise at altitudes of up to 38,000 feet, where the oxygen is about 20 percent of what it is at sea level, and the temperature approaches 80 degrees below zero. The tires are hot when they enter the wheel well, and the hydraulic lines running through it give off heat, but not much. Death is common at cruise altitudes because the air is so thin that outside the pressurized portion of the fuselage, people can suffer nitrogen gas embolisms, known to sea divers as "the bends." But it turns out, a 1996 study by the F.A.A. found, that the extreme cold lowers the body's need for oxygen, allowing some people to survive. At body temperatures of 80 degrees or lower, heat and breathing rates fall, the study said. It is not a phenomenon to rely on. In February, mechanics diagnosing a problem with the landing gear of a South African Airways A340 at Dulles International Airport near Washington found a dead Nigerian stowaway in the wheel well. In August 2001, a stowaway's body fell onto a parking lot in Island Park, N.Y., six miles from Kennedy International Airport, apparently when the landing gear on an American Airlines flight from London was lowered. Precautions for keeping people off airport runways vary internationally. In the United States, the perimeter fencing can generally keep animals out but is not a serious challenge for determined people. At Mineta San Jose International Airport, the fences looked substantial near the front entrance. But on the northwest side of the airport on Monday, the fence was falling down in one spot; in another, it was partly covered by purple and pink bougainvillea. Signs warned that it was a restricted area. The barrier the stowaway presumably breached is "an eight-foot fence with three strands of barbed wire," said Mr. Marchi, the consultant, who is a former senior official with Airports Council International, a trade group. "I probably could have done it when I was 18." http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/us/boy-who-hid-in-planes-wheel-well-beat-long-odds-in-surviving- 5-hour-flight.html?_r=0 Back to Top Malaysia Airlines Jet Turns Back After Tire Burst KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia April 21, 2014 (AP) - A Malaysia Airlines flight heading to India with 166 people aboard made an emergency landing in Kuala Lumpur early Monday after it was forced to turn back when a tire burst upon takeoff, the airline said. The airline said Flight 192 to Bangalore in southern India landed safely at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 1:56 a.m. (1756 GMT) Monday, about four hours after it departed. The airline initially said the right landing gear of the Boeing 737-800 "malfunctioned upon takeoff" but later added that the problem was caused by a burst tire. "This was because one of the tires on the right-hand main landing gear burst during takeoff," the airline said in its latest statement emailed to The Associated Press. . Malaysia Airlines said tire debris was found on the runway, prompting air traffic control to immediately order the pilot to turn back to the airport. Fire rescue services were also deployed to be on standby for the landing. The airline said all 159 passengers and seven crew members have disembarked from the plane and no one was injured. Stockholm-based Flightradar24, which tracks air traffic in real time on its website, showed the plane repeatedly circling the airport before making the emergency landing, presumably to burn off fuel and lighten the plane's load before landing. "They have landed safely -thank God!" acting Transport Minister and Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein tweeted. The incident comes more than six weeks after a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 239 people on board 8isappeared March 8 on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Searchers are still trying to locate the plane, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/wireStory/malaysia-airlines-jet-turns-back-tire-burst-23405759 Back to Top Putin lets Russian airlines hire foreign pilots Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives for a meeting with Ben van Beurden, chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell, at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow April 18, 2014. (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Monday that allows Russian airlines to hire foreign pilots, a move the Kremlin said was needed to end a shortage of pilots on civilian flights as passenger numbers grow. The law signing comes five months after 50 people were killed in the crash of a Tatarstaapriln Airlines jet, blamed on pilot error, which highlighted concerns that Russia does not have enough pilots to meet growing demand. "The (new) federal law is designed to liquidate the deficit of commanders to civilian aircraft," the Kremlin said in a statement. It said the number of passengers air trips had been increasing by 13 to 15 percent a year. It said the law would allow airlines to hire foreign pilots over the next five years, indicating that no new foreign pilots could be hired after April 2019 but those already employed in Russia could remain. Russia and the other former Soviet republics combined have one of the world's worst air-traffic safety records, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average in 2011, according to the International Air Transport Association. After the November 17 Tatarstan Airlines crash, federal investigators said the pilot may have received his license from a training center that was later closed on suspicion of operating illegally. Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin was quoted as saying there was reason to believe many pilots working for smaller Russian airlines had received licenses without undergoing the proper training. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/21/us-russia-pilots-foreign-idUSBREA3K0SL20140421 Back to Top China considers monitoring civilian pilots after disappearance of flight MH370 The installation of pilot monitoring system is fiercely opposed by pilots on privacy grounds. China is considering the use of military technology that monitors a pilots' in-flight physical and mental state on civilian airliners to improve air safety, according to scientists involved in the research. The installation of pilot monitoring systems has been discussed by the international aviation industry for years, but the idea is fiercely opposed by pilots on privacy grounds. After a long delay in recovering Air France flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, and the recent disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 last month, some air safety experts and passengers are calling for increased in-flight monitoring of cockpit crews. The People's Liberation Army developed a pilot monitoring system that was being used by its air force, the PLA Daily reported in 2005. Its core components are contained in a lightweight vest which is worn by the pilot. The 200-gram vest gathered various data, including the pilot's pulse, respiratory rate, muscle movement, body temperature and seating position, constantly relaying the information back to controllers for detailed, real-time assessments of the pilot's physical and mental status. Professor Zhuang Damin of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, who studies the interaction of humans with computers, said authorities were encouraged by the vest's military performance and were interested in potential civilian applications. Zhuang was lead researcher in a government-funded study to develop a pilot monitoring system for civilian airlines. "The ultimate goal is to monitor airline pilots as comprehensively as our astronauts," he said. Zhuang's team developed a cockpit-mounted system to track the precise movements of a pilot's eyes to detect changes in attention level. Computer and mathematical models were developed based on data findings, with the goal of detecting abnormalities in a pilot's behaviour or voice patterns. Controllers on the ground would receive warnings in the event a behavioural anomaly persisted. "Our work was at the research stage," Zhuang said. "There was no concrete timetable for implementation." But Zhuang said the disappearance of flight MH370 en route to Beijing on March 8 might revive the research project. Professor Li Huijie, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Psychology, said a cockpit-based pilot monitoring system still faced numerous technological challenges, especially in measuring pilots' mental status. Reports from such a system were usually based on the assumption that certain behavioural patterns would reflect certain mental states, but the machine could not detect nuances or complex psychological scenarios. "If a pilot is aware of the installation of such a system on board, he may very likely change his or her behaviour," he said. An aviation safety expert with the Civil Aviation University of China said that after the crash of Air France flight 447 there were calls to install cameras to monitor flight crews, but pilot opposition had kept cockpits camera-free. "Airline pilots are one of the most respected professions in the world" and felt the introduction of cameras insulted their professionalism, the expert said. "On long-haul flights pilots will discuss a range of personal and professional topics they don't want to share with controllers," the expert said. http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1493985/china-considers-monitoring-civilian-pilots-after- disappearance-flight Back to Top Radio-controlled helicopter had 'serious risk of collision' with jetliner at YVR Federal safety report lists 59 incidents at YVR in 2013 Incidents of wake turbulence are expected to increase with more aircraft flying in the Vancouver area and with improved navigational systems that allow planes to more accurately follow the same precise landing approaches. A radio-controlled helicopter posed a "serious risk of collision" with an Air Canada passenger jet during its landing approach, according to federal aviation safety reports for last year at Vancouver International Airport. On March 29, the Air Canada Boeing 777-300 was flying at 600 metres when the crew observed the radio- controlled helicopter pass within 20 to 30 metres of the aircraft at the same altitude. The crews of subsequent aircraft also reported seeing it flying above 450 metres. RCMP were dispatched but no helicopter or operator could be found. Lew Potts of the Sea Island Model Flying Club, based in Delta, said most enthusiasts of gas or electric model aircraft belong to a regulated club offering liability insurance and operating usually at altitudes no higher than about 120 metres. But he said radio-control helicopters - which can have an aluminum or titanium frame, fibreglass shell and carbon-fibre rotor - do not require landing strips and in this case may have involved a "rogue operator" who wanted to test the limits of the aircraft. Noting that some models can be the size of an eagle, he said: "You wouldn't want it sucked into an airplane, that's for sure." Bill Yearwood, regional manager of the federal transportation safety board in Richmond, confirmed that a remote-control helicopter could have a similar impact to a large bird. It poses a potential threat not just to an engine, but to windshields - especially on smaller aircraft and full-sized helicopters - and to external controls. Turbulence also figured prominently last year in a list of 59 reportable incidents from YVR compiled by the safety board for The Vancouver Sun. During a Sept. 3 Air Canada Jazz flight from Smithers to Vancouver, the turbulence was so swift and severe that a flight attendant and passenger hit their heads on the ceiling and a passenger also scraped an arm on a trolley. The event lasted only two seconds while the de Havilland Dash 8 flew at 7,500 metres. There were also 11 reports of wake turbulence, which is caused by aircraft moving through the air and can be especially dangerous for smaller aircraft travelling behind large jets on calm days. During windy days the turbulence created by large jets can dissipate in seconds, but on flat-calm days it can linger for several minutes, posing an invisible threat to planes closely following the same flight path. On Aug. 1, a Jazz de Havilland Dash 8 was on arrival flying at 3,000 metres and about eight kilometres behind a much larger Air Canada Airbus A320 when the crew reported "quite a bounce" and the airplane moving around for 15 to 30 seconds resulting in the crew disengaging the autopilot. On Aug. 3, a Pacific Coastal Airlines Saab-Fairchild SF 340A was on landing approach descending through 850 metres when it hit "severe turbulence" resulting in a "nose up deflection and 45 to 60 degree roll to right," but no injuries or aircraft damage. Incidents of wake turbulence are expected to increase with more aircraft flying in the Vancouver area and with improved navigational systems that allow planes to more accurately follow the same precise landing approaches. If wake turbulence is encountered at low elevation, suddenly jostling the plane up and down, it may be impossible for the crew to regain control before striking the ground. That's what happened in July 2009 to a Canadian Air Charters twin-engined Piper Chieftain on landing approach to YVR. Captain Jeremy Ryan Sunderland, 28, and first officer Mathew Douglas Pedersen, 23, died in the crash near Bridgeport and No. 5 roads. The turbulence from an Air Canada Airbus A321 about 1.5 nautical miles ahead resulted in "upset and loss of control at an altitude that precluded recovery," the safety board report found. Four reportable incidents involve bird strikes, including a Japan Airlines Boeing 767-300 en route to Narita on March 17 that aborted takeoff due to a possible bird strike in the left engine. All eight main tires deflated, requiring water to be applied to cool the brakes. On Nov. 2, an Air Canada Boeing 767-300 bound for Korea hit a small flock of birds. The crew noticed increased vibrations and elected to dump fuel in the Strait of Georgia and return to the airport. There were six incidents involving smoke or faulty smoke detection equipment, including an incident March 12 in which smoke filled the cockpit of a Pacific Coastal Airlines Beech 1900C causing the crew to declare an emergency. An audio amplifier was to blame. http://www.vancouversun.com/ Back to Top NTSB chief urges child-safety seats on planes WASHINGTON - Deborah Hersman, departing chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Monday that "one of her great disappointments" was that child-safety seats aren't required on planes for young children. During a farewell speech at the National Press Club after 10 years on the board, Hersman recalled the different outcomes for two children aboard United Flight 232, which crashed in 1989 in Sioux City, Iowa. The crash killed 185 people, and 111 survived. Two sets of parents with small children were told to brace for impact by placing infants on the floor cushioned with blankets. The plane approached the runway at 240 mph, cartwheeled and caught on fire, and parents were unable to find the children when evacuating. A passenger heard an 11-month-old girl crying and carried her out. "Those mothers couldn't hold onto their babies," Hersman said. "Nobody could have." She was joined on the dais by Jan Brown, a flight attendant who blocked a parent from going back into the burning plane to look for her 22-month-old son, who died of asphyxiation from the smoke. Brown has lobbied for 25 years to require child-safety seats for children on planes, but the Federal Aviation Administration hasn't adopted that recommendation. Federal regulations allow parents to hold children up to 2 years old in their laps on flights. The NTSB urged the FAA to develop regulations for restraining all children during takeoff, landing and turbulence, putting children weighing up to 40 pounds in child-restraint systems approved for their height and weight. "When I came on the board in 2004, it was almost unbelievable that that was still allowed to go on," Hersman said of unbelted children on airliners, in contrast to state laws requiring child-safety seats in cars. "They're just as valuable in the airplane as they are in the car." She is leaving the NTSB to become head of the National Safety Council, where she hopes to continue advocating on a broad range of safety issues. The FAA recommends - rather than requires - that a child weighing less than 20 pounds use a rear-facing child restraint system. A forward-facing child-safety seat should be used for children weighing 20 to 40 pounds. The FAA has approved one harness-type device for children weighing 22 to 44 pounds. When purchasing plane tickets, parents and caregivers should contact the airline to see if discounts are available for children because buying a ticket for a child is the only way to guarantee that a child-safety seat can be used during flight. Airlines say parents and caregivers should check before flying to make sure their child restraint is approved for use on aircraft. The International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines worldwide, will hold a workshop in May on cabin safety that will include a panel about governments coordinating standards for which child- safety restraints are permissible on planes. Hersman emphasized that transportation is very safe. She said safety improvements since the Sioux City crash helped limit the deaths to three in the crash-landing of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in San Francisco in July 2013. Technology to avoid aviation collisions and to warn pilots when they are too close to the ground has prevented crashes where people have failed, Hersman said, but safety always can be improved. *For cars, she said, manufacturers have collision-avoidance technology and automation for brakes and cruise control. She said such technology must be installed on more than the most expensive vehicles. *Hersman said more people travel on buses each year than on planes. She said regulators and the industry must weed out bad companies to reduce the number of crashes. *For railroads, the NTSB will hold a two-day hearing Tuesday and Wednesday to review rail safety as more oil is shipped by train. She said common tanker cars aren't designed to haul hazardous materials. "We've got to get on top of it," Hersman said. "We aren't prepared." http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/21/ntsb-hersman-national-press-club-plane- crashes-rail-safety-buses-cars/7961795/ Back to Top Back to Top Cockpit conundrum: Shortage of pilot candidates puts a drag on regional carriers Pedro Fábregas did the math, and the math wasn't good. Fábregas, president and chief executive of Envoy Air Inc., says Envoy hired about 52 pilots in the first quarter. But 20 pilots were moving each month to parent American Airlines Inc. and 22 to 24 were leaving for other jobs or for other reasons. "You can see the deficit there," Fábregas said recently. Envoy, formerly known as American Eagle Airlines Inc., isn't the only regional carrier having trouble with pilot math. For a combination of reasons, regional carriers are having a tougher time finding enough qualified pilots to keep their cockpits manned. "I think it is a very, very real issue," aviation consultant Bill Swelbar said. He noted that some regional carriers have already had to park airplanes because they don't have enough pilots and can't hire enough replacements. "This all speaks to an industry that is concerned about having sufficient bodies to fly the schedule that's in the computer today," said Swelbar, executive vice president of InterVistas Consulting LLC. He led a study that projected that the four largest U.S. carriers, American Airlines Inc., United Airlines Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., will need 14,000 pilots by 2022 just to replace pilots hitting the mandatory retirement age of 65. Regional carriers as a group currently employ about 18,000 pilots. And regional carriers are the primary source of candidates for pilot jobs at the mainline carriers. Another consulting firm, Flightpath Economics Inc., looked at the number of retirements at the mainline carriers, including US Airways Inc. as part of American, and predicted nearly 18,000 mandatory retirements through 2022. "Over the next eight years, the largest network carriers will retire approximately 50 percent of their pilots, resulting in a hiring frenzy that will extract pilots currently flying in the cockpits of lower-paid regional airline affiliates," Flightpath said in its study. That could lead to a pilot crisis at the regionals. Some have already had to reduce service. Forced to cut flights Since Jan. 1, Great Lakes Airlines has stopped service to 14 small cities in eight states, places like Hays, Kan., and Jamestown, N.D. In its annual report filed April 9, the Cheyenne, Wyo.-based airline said it didn't have enough pilots to support the service. In fact, Great Lakes cited the pilot shortage as a primary reason that doubts have been raised about its ability to continue operating. On April 9, Silver Airways Inc., a small carrier based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., cited a "nationwide shortage of regional airline pilots" as a primary reason for its decision to stop service between Atlanta and five Southern cities. Silver had been offering $6,000 hiring bonuses to attract first officers. On April 3, it increased the bonus to $12,000. One of the largest regional airlines, Republic Airlines Inc., blamed a shortage of pilots earlier this year for its decision not to seek renewal of contracts to fly 27 Embraer jets for mainline partners American and United when those contracts expire this year. In February, United announced a pull-down of service at its Cleveland hub. One reason cited was that regional partner ExpressJet Airlines Inc. had difficulty finding enough pilots to operate its flights there. Regional Airline Association president Roger Cohen said his members are more important than ever as they fly nearly half of the scheduled flights in the United States. "But I must say the single thing that has thrown not just sand in the gears but has the potential of dramatically reducing that footprint is the issue of having enough pilots to fly the schedules," he said. New federal rules While the need to replace retiring pilots was already going to be a problem in coming years, Cohen and others said two factors have suddenly brought the issue to the forefront: First, the federal government began requiring pilots to have 1,500 hours of flight time before joining an air carrier. Before Aug. 1, 2013, the requirement was 250 hours. Second, new federal restrictions on flight time and duty time in January increased the number of pilots needed to fly the same airline schedules as before. Speaking to industry analysts in February, Republic Air Holdings Inc. CEO Bryan Bedford said the 1,500- hour rule and the pilot duty limits "are adding new crew resource challenges for all regional airlines." Mainline carriers haven't had any problem. They've been draining the regional carriers. It's the regional carriers that have had to deal with getting enough qualified pilots in the door. The new federal rules put up a roadblock for college students wanting to be pilots, said Cohen and Swelbar, the aviation consultant. They have spent huge amounts of money to graduate as pilots. Now they have to pay for more expensive flying time to meet the 1,500-hour rule. "It used to be I could go to a four-year university and come out with 300 to 400 hours and be able to move immediately and take a job with a regional airline," Swelbar said. The union view Unions representing pilots say the industry would lure enough pilots if carriers would pay them more. With starting pay for first officers at $22,000 to $23,000, new pilots start out at low levels after spending a small fortune to get through school and get their necessary licenses. Pilots at three carriers - Envoy, Republic and ExpressJet - have rejected new contracts recently. Envoy's parent company, American Airlines Group Inc., had insisted on cost-cutting contracts as a condition for Envoy to get larger jets. On Thursday, pilots union leaders from those three carriers and 10 other regional airlines signed a joint pact not to accept concessionary contracts and allow managements to play one union against another. "With the shortage of qualified pilots who are willing to fly for substandard wages and inadequate benefits at fee-for-departure carriers, the time is now for true cooperation," the union leaders stated in their communiqué. Cohen, head of the airline trade group, expressed doubt that a higher starting wage would help in the face of the 1,500-hour limit. "It doesn't matter if you triple the starting salary tomorrow," he said. "That's still not going to create one more person that's got 1,500 hours tomorrow." The 1,500-hour rule, as well as the duty-time rule and heightened requirements for training, stem largely from a Colgan Air Inc. crash on approach to Buffalo, N.Y., in 2009. There was evidence that pilot errors and fatigue played big roles. For that reason, the rule probably won't be changed. "On the political side, it's untouchable," Swelbar said. He expects more effects of the pilot shortage to show up in airline schedules next fall and winter, but he thinks the industry will mitigate the impact for a few years. He sees 2017 as the year when a lack of cockpit crews could force carriers to significantly reduce service to the smaller, less profitable cities in their networks. "I don't think we're going to do much in this space until airports en masse begin to go dark," Swelbar said. "That's when it hits home." http://www.dallasnews.com/business/airline-industry/20140419-cockpit-conundrum.ece Back to Top Frontier Airlines hires former Spirit Airlines VP as president Frontier Airlines jets at Denver International Airport. Frontier Airlines has hired a veteran of the ultra-low-cost-carrier (ULCC) segment to be its new president and lead its transition into ULCC status. Barry Biffle will take over the newly created role at Denver-based on July 16, reporting to Frontier CEO David Siegel. Biffle is a former executive vice president of Spirit Airlines who most recently had worked as CEO of VivaColombia, the first airline to attempt the ULCC model in South America. "Barry is an industry innovator in the ultra-low-cost segment who, importantly, also recognizes the unique opportunity we have to create the first customer-friendly and customer-focused ultra-low-cost airline in the United States," Siegel said. Private equity firm Indigo Partners LLC purchased Frontier in October, and Indigo managing partner William Franke - the former vice chairman of ULCC pioneer Spirit - has said he intends to continue its ongoing transition into a carrier that offers significantly lower ticket prices but makes many customers pay for some traditionally free amenities, like non-alcoholic beverages and carry-on luggage. http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2014/04/21/frontier-airlines-hires-former-spirit-airlines-vp.html Back to Top Embry-Riddle Worldwide to offer UAS workshop in San Diego April 24, 25 Daytona Beach, Fla., - Professionals looking to gain a better understanding of the emerging unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) industry can take advantage of a two-day course being offered in San Diego April 24 to 25 by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Worldwide. Topics to be discussed include: introduction and impact of UAS; UAS designs; legislation, certification and regulation; industry concerns; applications; operational profiles; business opportunities; and the future of UAS. The course is developed and taught by Embry-Riddle Worldwide faculty with UAS operations and research experience. The cost of the course is $550, and continuing education units are available. For more information, click here or email training@erau.edu. About Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, is a nonprofit, independent institution offering more than 60 baccalaureate, master's and Ph.D. degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business and Engineering. Embry- Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., and through the Worldwide Campus with more than 150 locations in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The university is a major research center, seeking solutions to real- world problems in partnership with the aerospace industry, other universities and government agencies. For more information, visit www.worldwide.erau.edu , follow us on Twitter (@ERAUworldwide) and www.facebook.com/EmbryRiddleWorldwide , and find expert videos at http://www.YouTube.com/EmbryRiddleUniv. Back to Top DO NOT MISS THIS KEY AVIATION EVENT, REGISTER NOW! Although Loss of Control In-flight (LOCI) accidents are rare, they have accounted for one third of all fatalities in scheduled commercial aviation over the last ten years, more than any other category of accident. Addressing LOCI has therefore become a priority for the aviation industry. ICAO will convene a Loss of Control In-flight (LOCI) Symposium on 20-22 May 2014 in Montreal to share information and experiences of professionals from a wide variety of aviation disciplines to address this safety priority. Our List of Speakers includes: - Bertrand de Courville, Consultant to IATA, Co-chair of the European Commercial Aviation Safety Team. - Peggy Gilligan, Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, FAA. - Kevin Hiatt, Senior VP for Safety and Flight Operations, IATA. - Jules Kneepkens, Rulemaking Director, European Aviation Safety Authority. - Terry McVenes, Director, Operational Safety and Regulatory Affairs, Boeing. - Harry Nelson, Executive Operational Advisor to Product Safety, Airbus. Click here to see the full list of our confirmed speakers >> Who Should Attend: The Symposium will attract aviation professionals from regulatory authorities, accident investigation bodies, manufacturers, airlines, training schools, international organisations, and members of the research and academic community. Sponsorship and Exhibition Opportunities: Industry stakeholders with relevant products and services are invited to exhibit and/or sponsor at this event in order to gain visibility with government and aviation industry audiences. For more information please contact: Ms. Enza Brizzi. ENGAGE. SHARE. MAKE A DIFFERENCE CLICK HERE TO REGISTER For more information go to:www.icao.int/meetings/loci Follow us at: Back to Top Upcoming Events: Embry-Riddle Worldwide to offer UAS workshop San Diego April 24, 25, 2014 www.erau.edu Airport Show Dubai May 11-13, 2014 Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) www.theairportshow.com/portal/home.aspx International Humanitarian Aviation Summit 12-14MAY Toledo, Spain wfp.org 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/ ICAO Loss of Control In-Flight Symposium 20-22 May 2014 - Montreal www.icao.int/meetings/loci Asia Pacific Aviation Safety Seminar 21-22 May 2014, Bangkok, Thailand http://bit.ly/APASS2014 International System Safety Society Annual Symposium 04-08AUG2014 - St. Louis, MO http://issc2014.system-safety.org Curt Lewis