Flight Safety Information June 17, 2014 - No. 122 In This Issue Search for Missing Jet Will Move Southwest, Officials Say EU-Mandated Switch to Pilot Texting Brings Risks ANALYSIS: The truth about the US pilots shortage FAA Ramps Up Data-Sharing Efforts to Enhance Global Airline Safety PRISM TO HELP PREPARE FOR E-IOSA Airlines PNG modifies its Dash 8 aircraft after fatal plane crash in Madang in 2011 Boeing, Southwest Airlines to Implement Airplane Health Management Airlines Roll Out New Tactics In Fight Against Unruly Passengers Upcoming Events Search for Missing Jet Will Move Southwest, Officials Say CANBERRA, Australia - Australia plans to resume searching for Malaysia Airlines' missing Flight 370 to the southwest of the area in the Indian Ocean where the seafloor was scanned in detail last month, Australian officials said in interviews over the last five days. The shift to the southwest reflects analyses of a series of electronic "handshakes" between the missing Boeing 777-200 and a satellite operated by the London-based company Inmarsat in the hours after the plane vanished before dawn on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people aboard. The satellite data, suggesting that the aircraft turned south across the Indian Ocean after skirting the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, remains the best lead that investigators have in trying to find the plane, said Angus Houston, the retired chief of the Australian military who is overseeing the search. "We're going to have to go deep and do a comprehensive look at the ocean floor," he said, later adding, "The handshakes are the most robust information we have at the moment." The Australian Transport Safety Bureau hired a private company, Fugro Survey, on June 10 to conduct a three-month survey of the ocean floor along the arc of possible final locations derived from the satellite data. The bureau is also seeking tenders by the end of the month for a commercial contractor to deploy a towed deep-sea submersible to scour the seafloor; Mr. Houston said that the towing operation would not need to wait for the completion of the undersea mapping but could start this summer. Australia's own long-range, over-the-horizon radar, known as the Jindalee Operational Radar Network, was not focused on the area where the plane apparently flew and did not detect it, he said. Investigators have also not gleaned any useful clues, he said, from an undersea thud detected by acoustic researchers at Curtin University, near Perth, Australia, that roughly coincided with the time when the plane stopped its electronic handshakes and appears to have run out of fuel. An Australian vessel, the Ocean Shield, did an exhaustive search last month of a small section of seafloor in the northeast half of the arc of possible final locations for the plane. The search was conducted after the ship detected sounds there that were initially interpreted as locator pings from the aircraft's so-called black boxes, sounds that were later reanalyzed and found not to be the pings. Chris McLaughlin, an Inmarsat vice president in London, said Tuesday in a telephone interview that the satellite company did not fault searchers for pursuing those signals, which were detected in April to the northeast of the zone identified by Inmarsat's calculations. "The Inmarsat model indicated a more southerly reach for MH370 than the earlier pickup of pings appeared to suggest," Mr. McLaughlin said. "Four other independent analyses of the data," conducted by experts at Boeing, the French electronics group Thales and investigators in Australia and Malaysia, "have also indicated a more southerly position, closer to the seventh arc" calculated from the final signal Inmarsat's satellite received from the plane, he said. Continue reading the main story "So we believe the next stage of the search will be concentrated around the outcome of this data," Mr. McLaughlin said. On Tuesday, the BBC quoted officials at Inmarsat who said that while Australia had understandably paid considerable attention to the detected sounds, Inmarsat's modeling of the satellite handshakes had long showed the highest-probability zone for the aircraft's final location as lying farther to the southwest. But Inmarsat said in a statement on Tuesday, "Because there are many uncertainties due to the lack of aircraft performance and tracking data, a specific final location in the Southern Ocean cannot be identified." Australian officials said that their next priority was to map the ocean floor in enough detail that the deep-sea submersible could be safely towed for long distances at a fairly brisk speed in the coming months with little risk that it will slam into previously undetected seamounts. Australia has no plans for any further searches from the air for floating debris, having concluded that any debris would have sunk by now or would have spent so much time in the water that it would no longer be recognizable as having come from the plane. "After a period of time, nearly everything sinks, including seat cushions and so on, because they become so waterlogged," Mr. Houston said. When an Air France flight crashed off the coast of Brazil in 2009, considerable debris was visible on the ocean's surface for the first few days, but nothing was left on the surface by the 16th day, and by the 26th day the visual search was halted. In the early days of the search for the Malaysia Airlines plane, one of the worries was that the plane might have landed on a smooth patch of sea somewhere and then sunk, in which case it might have left no floating debris for airborne searchers to find. But now the possibility, however small, that the plane might have sunk intact is actually the best-case scenario for searchers. An intact aircraft would be less difficult to find on the vast expanses of the ocean floor than one that had broken into many pieces upon hitting the water. Such pieces would have descended at different rates and in different directions based on their size, shape and water resistance as they glided or tumbled through water as deep as six kilometers, or nearly four miles. "We could be confronted with a very dispersed debris field," Rear Admiral Trevor Jones of the Royal Australian Navy said in an interview on Monday. A further worry has to do with the topography of the seafloor. When the Air France jet crashed, it came to rest on a fairly level sandy plain at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, which facilitated recovery of both black boxes: the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. By contrast, sizable areas of the Indian Ocean seafloor where the plane might be located are crisscrossed with hills and ravines and with silt dozens of meters deep in some places. One of the concerns, Australian officials said, is that the black boxes may have plunged deep into the silt, even as lighter articles like clothing may have drifted down slowly and settled on the silt's surface. Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story Deep-sea submersibles like the United States Navy's Bluefin-21, which the Ocean Shield towed last month, have sonar that can penetrate light silt suspended in the water at the ocean floor but may not be able to penetrate thick layers of denser silt. Australian officials and oceanographers say that silt drifting down on the debris is very unlikely to cover it up in the months and years to come. The rate of deposition is extremely slow, as little as one or two micrometers a year in some areas, a tiny fraction of the thickness of a human hair. Deposition may be a little faster in the more southerly areas now slated to be searched, as upwelling cold water may sustain more life in the ocean waters above. But the rate of deposition still should not be fast enough to bury debris, said Robin Robertson, an oceanographer at the Australian Defense Force Academy here in Canberra. Group Captain Craig Heap, the Royal Australian Air Force officer who oversaw the airborne search of large swaths of the Indian Ocean in late March and through April, said that aircraft from Australia, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States had logged about 3,000 hours of flying time during the search for debris, including nearly 900 hours of flying over remote areas of ocean where the plane might have come down. "We're still very disappointed, and always will be, that we didn't find anything," he said, while adding that the search had nonetheless been unusual in producing cooperation among military aviators from China, Japan and South Korea - countries that have had considerable frictions lately over air and maritime sovereignty issues in the East China Sea. Mr. Houston expressed optimism that the missing plane would eventually be found. But other Australian officials voiced worries that the combination of silt on the ocean floor and the dispersion of debris and the uncertainties about the final flight path may not make it feasible for years, if ever, to find the aircraft and recover its black boxes. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/world/asia/search-for-missing-jet-will-move- southwest-officials-say.html?_r=0 Back to Top EU-Mandated Switch to Pilot Texting Brings Risks Clogged Bandwidth Has Messages to Air Controllers Bouncing Back, Causing Cockpit Distraction By ANDY PASZTOR and ROBERT WALL A European effort to streamline communications between pilots and air-traffic controllers is creating confusion and safety threats, according to the region's aviation regulator. Nagging problems with the $1.3-billion initiative-intended to replace voice communication with text messaging-have broad international implications. The same type of electronic data-link systems also are essential components of future air-traffic control upgrades planned for the U.S. and other regions. Instead of relying almost entirely on traditional voice transmissions over radios, cockpit crews and controllers for years have been trying out exchanges of information across European skies by sending text messages via specialized data links. The European Union has been pushing such measures to help ease demand on overtaxed radio communications in the region's crowded airspace. But despite years of efforts to improve reliability, a recent report by the European Aviation Safety Agency found that frequent failures-messages not going through-persist, leading to pilot distraction and other potential hazards. The average failure rate is 10 times higher than the "specified level" for the program, according to the report. But in particularly busy airspace the failure rate can be up to 30 times higher than envisioned. European aviation officials predict it will take years to come up with solutions and test them. Some are even concerned that electronic messaging, which has been gradually phased in starting more than a decade ago, may never be fully viable. "Shortcomings with the current system have been known for years," said one aviation official. "But addressing them didn't get the required level of attention." The basic problem, according to the report, is lack of adequate bandwidth to handle various streams of air-to-ground messaging. The study concluded the system has reached its "saturation level resulting from the increased demand on data volume," and said widespread implementation of text messaging may have to be delayed. The links that pilots and air-traffic controllers use operate on the same frequency that airlines rely on to pass other information between the ground and the plane, such as maintenance and weather data. Capacity constraints mean messages between pilots and controllers often bounced back, said Patrick Ky, EASA's executive director. As pilots and controllers repeatedly tried to get messages to go through, they were often distracted from other tasks, possibly leading to "loss of situational awareness," the report stated. Last month, EASA issued a safety bulletin warning crews that repeated attempts to transmit messages "may increase the workload" in the cockpit, and reminding airlines to urge pilots to revert to radio communication. "It was creating safety concerns," said Mr. Ky. The setback is frustrating for regulators hoping to fully deploy the system by 2025. Fixing the problem will require shifting to a multifrequency network, with message traffic between pilots and controllers getting a dedicated frequency. Testing the new architecture may take two years, Mr. Ky said. Plane makers such as Airbus Group and Boeing Co. have said they would make the necessary changes for free, Mr. Ky said. Other costs airlines may incur as they upgrade their communications equipment aren't known yet. Ground installations also must be enhanced. Europe's technical woes are being closely watched from the other side the Atlantic. "We want to get this stuff all squared away before we switch" to widespread airborne use of data and text communications in the U.S., according to Steven Bradford, chief scientist for the Federal Aviation Administration's next-generation traffic control system. The FAA has made efforts to allocate bandwidth in a way that prioritizes air-to-ground data transmission, Mr. Bradford said. Otherwise, he said, "we would have the same problems of infrastructure." The issues in Europe may be coming to a head because the European Commission, which ordered the study, has scheduled a meeting for next Tuesday to discuss future steps. There may be additional delays as the EU tests upgrades more extensively. By contrast, data links have been routinely used across the North Atlantic-where there are many fewer planes-by pilots and controllers for years, without significant problems. Regulators haven't identified specific incidents or close calls stemming from data-link failures above Europe, but EASA's May report emphasized that pilot reporting is spotty and there is no centralized effort to collect such data. Honeywell International Inc., Rockwell Collins Inc. and France's Thales SA HO.FR +0.28% are among the companies providing onboard equipment that handles these messages. A Honeywell spokesman said the company is working with carriers, regulators and traffic-control organizations "to understand what the root cause is," adding "we still have faith that this is a good and needed technology." Rockwell Collins declined to comment and Thales couldn't be reached for comment. European airlines generally have been reluctant to complain publicly, preferring to see how the debate shapes up. Low-cost carrier Ryanair Holdings RYA.DB -0.24% PLC said "we are engaging with the European authorities to reach a satisfactory outcome." http://online.wsj.com/articles/eu-mandated-switch-to-pilot-texting-brings-risks- 1402435134 Back to Top ANALYSIS: The truth about the US pilots shortage The US General Accounting Office says it does not know if there is an airline pilot shortage in the country. The Air Line Pilots Association says there is no shortage. The US Federal Aviation Administration says it is not the cause of the problem. The Regional Airline Association says: come to Cleveland, Ohio or Tupelo, Mississippi or Devils Lake, North Dakota and we will show you there definitely is a shortage and it could become everyone's problem. Republic Airways, for example, has grounded 27 Embraer EMB-140 aircraft it flew on behalf of American Airlines and United Airlines, telling its investors the decision was based on "the significant reduction in qualified pilots who meet the congressionally mandated 1,500h pilot experience rule and the company's rigorous qualification standards". Republic chairman and chief executive Bryan Bedford recently testified to the US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation: "Had we been able to keep those aircraft flying, we would need nearly 800 more employees." Great Lakes Airlines is taking the drastic step of converting its 19-seat Beech 1900s into nine-seaters, enabling them to fly with a single pilot as a Part 135 carrier and thus cutting its pilot requirement in half. The Cheyenne, Wyoming-based carrier had trimmed service to 17 cities, some of which is being restored with the modified turboprops, but plans to park 11 of its 28 aircraft. Florida-based Silver Airways ended scheduled service to five cities in New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia in February and another five in Alabama and Mississippi in April. President and chief executive Dave Pflieger blames "increased requirements related to new hire pilot certification", which has had "the unintended effect of creating a nationwide shortage of regional airline pilots". United Airlines spokesman Rahsaan Johnson also cites regional-carrier pilot shortages when the carrier dropped Cleveland Hopkins International airport as a hub, eliminated non-stop service to over 40 cities, reduced peak-time departures from 199 to 72, and left the city of Cleveland with a potentially vacant concourse initiated at the behest of Continental Airlines, which United merged with in 2010. The FAA's 1,500h experience rule has been named as a root cause of a possible growing shortfall of certificated flightcrew. The effect on travellers is typically two-fold: higher ticket prices and longer times to get to their destination, either via flight connections through other cities or car, bus or train rides to a major airport. "It is not just regional airlines and the smallest markets they serve that face a pilot shortage crisis," Bedford told the Congressional committee. "The pilot shortage is a threat to air carriers large and small and to our nation's economy overall." He noted that regional airlines provide the exclusive source of scheduled air service at 70% of US airports and the majority of air service at 86% of the country's airports, adding: "Some may be surprised to learn that many larger hubs are also served mostly by regional airlines. For example, 66% of Chicago O'Hare's flights are operated by regional airlines." In other words, there is likely to be a domino effect on air service. If regional airlines cannot hire pilots to fly their aircraft, that reduces the feeder traffic to their major air carrier partner hubs. A GAO report issued in April found that small airports have lost 20.5% of flights since 2007, medium-sized airports have lost 23.9%, and large hubs are down by 9.1%. And larger-capacity aircraft are not the reason: these lost flights represent about 80,000 fewer total seats. Consultants Matt Barton and Dan Akins at Flightpath Economics warn in a white paper entitled Grounded: The Devastating Impact of the Pilot Supply Crisis that 239 airports across the country are at risk of losing air service. "The stability of the airline industry, and the large economic benefits that it generates, are currently threatened by a growing shortage of available, qualified, and interested pilots." They estimated over the next 10 years a potential shortfall of up to 10,000 pilots resulting in lost revenue to the aviation industry of as much as $26 billion, eliminating as much as $50-130 billion in total annual economic activity, a scale they compared with "the economic impact of 9/11". RAA president Roger Cohen says there is a demand for air service - "there's just not the pilots that can fill it". He points out that the FAA 1,500h rule, part of the agency's August 2013 implementation of the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-216), which mandated that all first officers carry an Air Transport Pilot certificate, caused a "severed pipeline", with "a huge demand as pilots leave the workforce but a shrinking number of people come in". Cohen tells Flightglobal in an exclusive interview that there has been talk of a pilot shortage half a dozen times over the 40 years he has been in the aviation industry. "To a lot of people, it almost became like the Loch Ness monster or Big Foot; people had heard about it but no-one had really seen it." A GAO report issued in February concluded that indicators of a pilot shortage are mixed; it could not definitively say whether there was a shortage or not. Senior Policy Analyst Vashun Cole admits the study "ran into a number of data limitations trying to do the econometric model". At the recent RAA Convention in St. Louis, the GAO report was blasted for apparently failing to factor the impact of 9/11 on pilot salaries and other labour market indicators. Cohen is emphatic that there is a pilot shortage. "This time it is different. It is here. It is very real. And it has happened faster and more significantly than anyone had ever expected." All of the previous "sightings" of a pilot shortage at the commercial level, he explains, "were mitigated by what could be termed exogenous events", in other words produced by something outside the system, for example: recession, fuel prices, 9/11, or SARS. Cohen says a regional airline pilot shortage was just starting to manifest in 2007. "A number of carriers had actually begun to cut service, but then the industry was overtaken in 2008 by the global recession." In effect, the recession, together with the FAA raising the mandatory pilot retirement age to 65, postponed the pilot shortage. "Now those people who are 65 are starting to leave the profession, there is a little bit of growth in the commercial sector, and yet we have the confluence of long-term demographics - people getting out of the profession, the pay is not what it needs to be, the industry has lost its glamour, kids aren't interested in science and technical kinds of activities - and, coming out of the recession, there's a global need for airline pilots. But here's the capper: a whole set of new regulations layered onto all of this." The FAA 1,500h rule "has moved the goalposts and cut off the pipeline for people who were currently training to start their career", says Cohen. Bedford laments: "Just as the industry was beginning to hire new, much-needed pilots, the FAA placed an additional obstacle between future aviators and their professional airline career." He notes that aspiring pilots who have graduated from well-regarded training programs "must now spend an additional 12-18 months building extra flight hours in predominantly unstructured environments before airlines are permitted to hire and place them into their own structured training programs." This gives new meaning to the phrase "gap year" after graduation, including more cost, which discourages many candidates from pursuing pilot careers altogether. A study last year by half a dozen universities with aviation training programs revealed that more than 40% of student pilots may drop out of the pipeline: 9% are no longer considering an airline pilot career because of the new requirements, and one-third are "reconsidering" their career choice. There is concern, too, that lack of continuity and structure during the "hours-building" gap of a year or two between formal training and reaching the magical 1,500h hour level may cause new pilots to lose their sharp edge. "Unfortunately, these aviators often find themselves needing to put the start of their airline career on hold while they literally fly in circles accumulating hours in aircraft and operating conditions that are in no way similar to those they would gain as a first officer flying under the authority of an experienced airline captain," said Pedro Fábregas, president and chief executive of Envoy Air, an American Airlines subsidiary. ALPA, a union representing about 50,000 commercial pilots in the US and Canada, claims there is no shortage of capable candidates, only "a shortage of pay and benefits for pilots in the regional airline industry", according to president Lee Moak. Stephen Farrow, president and chief executive of Piedmont Airlines, disputes this. He says the regional carrier sought 50 new pilots in the first quarter but could only hire 28. "This is not due to a lack of motivation or compensation. Piedmont pays one of the highest first-year salaries ($30,000) in the regional industry and offers a $5,000 signing bonus for new hires. This is due simply to an acute shortage of qualified, appropriate pilots on the market, and the unprecedented demand for their services." Like many regionals, Silver Airways is offering a signing bonus to entice qualified first officers. Silver recently doubled the ante to $12,000, which it claims is the highest in the regional airline industry. The major US air carriers have all exhausted their pools of previously furloughed pilots. Delta Air Lines recently called back all of its pilots, United recalled the remainder of its laid-off pilots last autumn, and American Airlines used up its available furlough roster a year ago. Victoria Day, spokesperson for the trade group Airlines for America (A4A), says: "We expect the major commercial airlines will remain appropriately staffed and are not expecting any shortage. In fact, commercial airlines continue to attract quality candidates for our openings - including pilots - because we offer well-paying jobs with good benefits." As the major carriers turn to the next most-qualified group of candidates - pilots flying for regionals, there simply are not enough of them to go around. Cohen says most estimates show a need in the US for about 18,000 new pilots by the end of the decade. "Right now, that's more pilots than all the regionals have combined." Challenged at the RAA convention, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta defended the clearly unpopular ATP certificate and 1,500h requirement. "Congress's intent was clear. They wanted to increase the qualification and experience requirements for pilots." He claimed, "We broadened the flexibility as much as we could in an effort to address industry concerns." But Huerta also left the door slightly ajar, saying: "We're open to discussing ideas on strengthening the pilot pipeline." The FAA's AFS-280 department, the Air Carrier Training Systems and Voluntary Safety Programs Branch, has established an Aviation Rulemaking Committee to explore "alternative pathways" to enable more young pilots to attain their ATP. The ARC is chaired by AFS-280 manager Rob Burke and Don Dillman, managing director of Flight Operations for A4A. The 15-member group, whose meetings are not open to the public, also includes representatives from airlines, academia, and training vendors such as FlightSafety International and CAE. Currently the FAA regulations permit exceptions to the 1,500h threshold only for authorised two-year college programmes (1,250h), four-year college programmes (1,000h), and military (750h). The RAA and others would like to see credit for other "structured" or "proficiency-based" training, such as airline-sponsored programs through flight training academies. They would also like to reconsider substituting some flight hours with simulator-based time, as many as half of the 1,500, a concept originally proposed to the FAA but which is capped at 100h under the current rules. The ARC is expected to make recommendations within a year. Might the FAA also adopt an ICAO Multi-crew Pilot License (MPL) programme, as have about 50 national aviation authorities around the world? "We don't like to use that word [MPL]," says Cohen, a sentiment echoed by many who see the FAA as overly resistant to the MPL concept, which requires only 250h of flight time for new pilots - the same number of hours FAA regulations had considered acceptable for decades until the US Congress dictated otherwise. Proponents of MPL (including a consensus at last December's ICAO MPL symposium) argue that the highly structured, competency-based programs, which have produced about 1,000 new pilots to date worldwide, "showed an equivalent level of performance out of the MPL graduates" compared with a traditional commercial pilot licence approach, according to Mitch Fox, chief, ICAO flight operations section. http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/analysis-the-truth-about-the-us-pilots- shortage-400009/ Back to Top FAA Ramps Up Data-Sharing Efforts to Enhance Global Airline Safety FAA Seeks Comprehensive Plan to Combat Budding Problems Before They Result in Accidents By ANDY PASZTOR And ROBERT WALL CONNECT WASHINGTON-The Federal Aviation Administration seeks to enhance global aviation safety by stepping up data-sharing initiatives from Latin America to Asia to Europe, according to U.S. government and industry officials. The latest steps, spelled out during an industry conference here Monday, seek to expand internationally lessons that the U.S. has gleaned from years of analyzing incident data, voluntary pilot reports and other sources of safety information. Those efforts played a major role in driving U.S. commercial-aircraft accident rates to record-low levels, and today more than 50 U.S. airlines and industry organizations participate in wide-ranging data partnerships with the FAA. The data being shared covers a wide range of issues, including pilot mistakes and confusion, air-traffic control slip-ups, and onboard malfunctions. The information also includes statements by pilots and others explaining what led to the incidents. The ultimate goal is to merge such safety data from various regions and roll in early warnings from mechanics, air-traffic controllers and flight attendants to create a comprehensive plan to combat budding safety problems before they result in accidents. It is "very much an outreach agenda," FAA official Jay Pardee said during one panel session, "to reduce the world-wide accident rate." The conference was sponsored by the Air Line Pilots Association, the largest North American pilot union. In a speech prepared for the gathering, FAA chief Michael Huerta predicted "there's little doubt that data sharing has the potential to be the single-greatest catalyst for aviation safety in the decades to come." Though aircraft accidents are at historic lows, safety officials worry that traffic growth could lead to an increase in the total number of incidents and mar the industry's image. Across the Caribbean, Central America and South America, data sharing already has had an impact. Potentially dangerous approaches by U.S. carriers to nearly two dozen airports have fallen by roughly 50% in recent years, thanks in large part to data highlighting the hazards of coming in too fast or sinking too quickly. More than 40 countries are joining in the overall data-sharing drive, with many agreeing to adopt 13 specific safety fixes derived from in-depth data analysis. But the FAA's ambitious plans confront some big challenges overseas. Unlike the U.S., judges and prosecutors in many countries have clear-cut authority to demand that confidential or voluntary safety data be turned over to them or even be made public. The air-safety arm of the United Nations has been working for years to draft protections, but progress remains slow and final recommendations to national regulators may be two years away. Ken Quinn, a Washington lawyer who helps runs the aviation practice of the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, currently sees "little to no protection" for data, and no safeguards enacted to ensure it won't be "subject to abuse or misuse as it is today." But "some regions are ahead of others" in devising solutions, he said, pointing to Latin America as a leader in this area. To succeed, "we have to demonstrate benefits" from swapping data internationally through a standardized evaluation process, said John Illson, a senior official of the U.N's International Civil Aviation Organization. "It is not a silver bullet," he said. "But it is the right thing to do." More details about data sharing are likely to emerge Tuesday, when the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency kick off their annual safety conference. EASA, based in Cologne, Germany, has contacted the FAA to determine how best to set up a database to share information seamlessly while protecting security and privacy demands, said Patrick Ky, the agency's head. Europe will likely gradually build its database and start with a small group of around five states that will participate on a voluntary basis to expedite the process, Mr. Ky said. The system should be operational within two years. One of the biggest challenge for EASA will be securing the funding for the program, which could cost around $200 million. Europe also still needs to decide who would receive the data. Mitre Corp., which holds and analyzes voluntary safety data on behalf of the FAA and its current industry partners, has been working on a study to launch a major data-sharing initiative across the Pacific region. "The value of collaboration cannot be overstated," according to Hassan Shahidi, a senior Mitre official. Over the years, FAA hopes of attracting a limited number of foreign airlines to join its U.S.-focused data network have stalled, largely due to legal uncertainties over protecting information. Meanwhile, some inside the FAA have been leery of gathering detailed incident data about foreign airlines because that could put the onus on agency enforcement officials to step up inspections or take other action against carriers with spotty records serving the U.S. http://online.wsj.com/articles/faa-ramps-up-data-sharing-efforts-to-enhance-global- airline-safety-1402977874 Back to Top Back to Top Airlines PNG modifies its Dash 8 aircraft after fatal plane crash in Madang in 2011 Locals look at the remains of an Airlines PNG Dash 8 plane near Madang in Papua New Guinea on October 14, 2011. Airlines PNG has modified its Dash 8 aircraft so pilots are unable to make the mistake that caused a fatal plane crash in Papua New Guinea three years ago. The company has acknowledged that pilot error contributed to the accident in Morobe Province but says other factors were also at play. Twenty-eight people were killed when a Dash 8 aircraft crashed near Madang in 2011. The Australian and New Zealand pilots, a crew member and one passenger survived the accident. The Accident Investigation Commission's final report found the pilot damaged the plane's engines on descent by putting them into reverse after an alarm sounded warning that the plane had reached its maximum speed. Airline PNG's general manager of safety Craig Chapple told Pacific Beat the mistake had been made by several other Dash 8 pilots elsewhere in the world. He says the crash would not have happened if Transport Canada, the regulating authority for the plane's manufacturer, had adopted previous recommendations to require 'beta lockout' devices to be installed to stop accidental reversing while a plane is in flight. "There was a propeller control unit on the right-hand side that didn't work as required and allowed the right-hand engine into overspeed," he said. "And then after the pilot had pulled the controls through the beta gate, he wasn't able to recover it on the left-hand side, the engine." The Dash 8 was being flown manually because the aircraft's yaw damper was unserviceable. In its report, the Commission found neither pilot noticed the aircraft's speed increasing to its maximum operating speed. Mr Chapple says it is now not possible to put power levers into reverse on any Airlines PNG Dash 8. "With the beta lockout modifications that we've done to the fleet, you cannot put the aircraft into beta in the air," he said. "To go into reverse prior to the accident, you needed to lift the gate to go through the power levers into the beta range. "They've obviously lifted the gate to go into the beta range by accident while they were dealing with the descent." The Commission's Report found that once the Dash 8 was in trouble, the crew did not follow company procedures, such as extending the flaps or putting down the landing gear so the aircraft would have more time in the air and to soften the impact when it crashed. "The crew at the time were obviously dealing with multiple critical events and there was other conflicting events occurring that were all high priority so they were in a high-stress environment," Mr Chapple said. He says the pilots originally planned to ditch into the sea and it was only at the last moment that they decided to try to land beside a creek bed. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-17/png-madang-crash/5530664 Back to Top Boeing, Southwest Airlines to Implement Airplane Health Management System to enhance operational decision making for Next-Generation 737 fleet SEATTLE, June 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Boeing [NYSE:BA] today announced Southwest Airlines has selected Boeing Airplane Health Management (AHM) to enhance operational efficiency in its maintenance and engineering operations. Southwest Airlines will use Airplane Health Management to collect and evaluate airplane operations data while the airplane is in flight. This real-time data is used to signal ground operations crews of any potential maintenance issues before the airplane lands, minimizing flight schedule disruptions and maintenance-related delays. "In our trials with Airplane Health Management, we clearly saw how we would be able to reduce - and even avoid - unscheduled maintenance and ground time for our fleet," said Jim Sokol, vice president of Maintenance Operations, Southwest Airlines. "The predictive nature of this product allows us to proactively initiate planning for necessary repairs, even while an airplane is in flight. With this capability, we can mitigate schedule delays and help ensure on time arrivals and departures for our customers." Boeing technical teams will work with Southwest to facilitate initial deployment of the system for its Next-Generation 737s. Southwest is Boeing's 66th customer for Airplane Health Management. "We expect to see an immediate cost benefit with the introduction of Airplane Health Management to our next-generation 737 fleet," said Trevor Stedke, vice president of Technical Services, Southwest Airlines. "We're excited to work with Boeing to take advantage of the full potential of this product and further leverage its capabilities to improve efficiency across our operations." Boeing Airplane Health Management is a powerful, data-driven capability used worldwide by airplane operators and maintenance, repair and overhaul providers (MROs) to proactively manage the serviceability of airplanes and fleets. It is designed to interface with existing airplane systems and communication infrastructure, using state-of-the-art airplane and ground technology to address day-of-operation disruptions, help predict future operations events and prevent unplanned maintenance and schedule interruptions. Airplane Health Management is part of an integrated suite of aviation services marketed as the Boeing Edge. These include parts, training, engineering, maintenance and software solutions that increase the efficiency and profitability of airlines and leasing companies. "Throughout the long relationship between Boeing and Southwest, we have worked closely together to support ongoing focused efforts in applying state-of-the-art technology to solve day- of-operations issues," said Rick Anderson, vice president, Sales, Commercial Aviation Services. "We are very pleased to provide Digital Aviation solutions such as Boeing Airplane Health Management to enhance and accelerate improvements in Southwest's operations with real-time data analysis, which gives our customers a competitive advantage." Southwest Airlines is an all-Boeing carrier and operates the largest 737 fleet of any airline. In 2011, the airline became the launch customer for the 737 MAX. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/boeing-southwest-airlines-to-implement-airplane-health- management-2014-06-16?reflink=MW_news_stmp Back to Top Airlines Roll Out New Tactics In Fight Against Unruly Passengers NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) - A passenger recently went berserk on a JetBlue flight from JFK to Las Vegas, and it was all caught on video. As CBS 2s Maurice Dubois reported, the incident was part of a disturbing trend in our skies and now, fed up airlines are taking action. The outburst began 90 minutes into a Saturday morning flight, when a passenger stood on his seat and started yelling in a foreign language. His family tried to hold him back, but the man lunged at a flight attendant who finally managed to restrain him. Another crew member bound the man's wrists with plastic cuffs, but he still managed to kick his own daughter. The man was taken to the back of the plane and strapped into an empty row of seats, away from other passengers, as the captain re-routed the flight. Since 2007, airlines have reported 28,000 incidents involving unruly passengers, 8,000 of those have been in the last year alone. As CBS News Travel Editor, Peter Greenberg explained, alcohol is often involved. "Flying is a stressful situation for many passengers, and when they're left to their own resources when waiting for a plane, a lot of them will drink," Greenberg said. In November, police escorted a man off of a Spirit Airlines flight for shouting and throwing things at other passengers. In August of 2012, an intoxicated man on another JetBlue flight was arrested and accused of groping a pregnant woman. Airlines have recently endorsed new protocols to deal with unruly fliers including curbing alcohol consumption at airports. They have also moved to close a legal loophole that has allowed some unruly passengers to avoid punishment. "If I'm an unruly passenger going from Los Angeles to London, well, where's the jurisdiction? do I get penalized under Los Angeles codes or London codes? And in the past, if London codes are more lenient, I might get off," Greenberg said. Saturday's flight was diverted to Detroit where police took the passenger to the hospital. They are still determining whether to file criminal charges. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/06/16/airlines-roll-out-new-tactics-in-fight-against-unruly- passengers/ Back to Top Upcoming Events: Gulf Flight Safety Council Doha, Qatar 22nd of June 2014 membership@gfsc.aero 6th Annual Aviation Human Factors & SMS Seminar June 24th & 25th 2014 Dallas, TX www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1384474 21st Century Pilot Reliability Certification Workshop June 30th and July 1st, 2014 Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07605 Please contact Kacy Schwartz kacy@convergentperformance.com 719-481-0530 International System Safety Society Annual Symposium 04-08AUG2014 - St. Louis, MO http://issc2014.system-safety.org Curt Lewis