Flight Safety Information August 8, 2014 - No. 163 In This Issue Airlines fret about missiles, but experts see little risk Air Algerie Crash Examiners Says Jet Disintegrated on Impact Pilot pay at flag carrier to soar by 360m yuan (China) No Unmanned Flights 'Anytime Soon,' FAA Assures Pilots How to Hack an Airplane's Satellite Communications System PRISM TO HELP PREPARE FOR E-IOSA After Losing 2 Passenger Jets, Malaysia Airlines Suspends Trading And Plans To Become State-Owned Flight Safety Foundation to hold annual safety summit in Abu Dhabi ISASI 2014 - Annual Seminar, October 13-16, 2014 Upcoming Events Airlines fret about missiles, but experts see little risk WASHINGTON -- Because of conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, airlines and regulators are growing worried about military weapons capable of shooting down planes falling into hands of people outside government control. But an expert on military hardware dismissed as minimal the threat from surface-to-air missiles in the hands of terrorists because of the sophistication and cost of weapons that can hit a plane cruising more than 30,000 feet above the ground. The aviation industry is grappling with the threat after a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down July 17 over Ukraine with 298 people aboard. U.S. intelligence sources say a missile brought down the plane and puncture marks in the fuselage suggest the weapon was a Russian-made SA-11. Pro-Russia separatists are fighting the Ukraine government in the area, worrying airline industry officials that powerful anti-aircraft weapons are in the hands of separatists not affiliated with a government. "The threat is posed by both state and non-state actors, which could employ these capabilities," Claudio Manno, the Federal Aviation Administration's assistant administrator for security and hazardous materials safety, told a conference Thursday of the Air Line Pilots Association. Airlines also suspended flights to Israel on July 22, when a rocket fell about a mile from the airport in Tel Aviv during the conflict with Palestinians in Gaza. FAA prohibited U.S. flights there for 36 hours. "This is a concern that is really emerging now," Manno said. "It's a different dynamic than what we've had to deal with in the past." The shoot-down in Ukraine spurred the International Air Transport Association, which represents 240 airlines worldwide, and the International Civil Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations that recommends policies, to call for governments to better manage the deployment of anti-aircraft weapons. Such conventions are already in place for chemical, nuclear and biological weapons, said Tony Tyler, CEO of the airline group. "Civil aircraft are instruments of peace and should never be the target of weapons of war," Tyler said. The Malaysia incident "demonstrated that powerful and sophisticated anti-aircraft weaponry is in the hands of non-state entities." But John Pike, executive director of GlobalSecurity.org, said the systems are so expensive and difficult to operate that only about 50 nations have the capability to fire them, and independent militants couldn't manage it. These systems include sophisticated missiles, radar to track planes and highly trained crews to identify targets and fire the weapons. A single system such as the SA-11 usually consists of several trucks. Crews train for more than a year to operate the U.S. military's Patriot missile system, which can knock down advanced aircraft and missiles, Pike said. "Not every country with a flag is up to it," Pike said. "You have to be a government - a real government - to run one. A radar-guided system is about the most complicated piece of (equipment) that ground forces operate." Despite the difficulty of hitting planes at cruising altitudes of 30,000 feet or higher, portable or shoulder-fired weapons can hit planes closer to the ground when they are landing or taking off. That was the threat in Tel Aviv. The FAA routinely issues warnings to airlines to fly at least certain heights above the ground over conflict zones such as Iraq. Manno said the FAA has issued, reviewed or updated six special regulations and 10 warnings to pilots during the last year. "The nature of the threat, as we've seen in previous years, continues to evolve," Manno said. "We must be nimble accordingly." Concerns about Israel reflected the speed at which threats move. A Delta Air Lines flight July 22 from New York diverted to Paris rather than risk landing in Tel Aviv, and other airlines suspended flights before the FAA ban went into effect. "Airlines are now often acting quicker than the government agencies are, simply because in the private industry we have the ability to do that," said Randy Harrison, Delta's managing director of corporate security, who added that he has no complaints about the government. While the threat from shoulder-fired missiles is higher, Pike said those missiles haven't proven to be the worry many have forecast. For now, rest easy in coach, if you can, Pike said. A surface-to-air missile isn't likely to hit your plane. "It's right up there by getting struck by lightning, which does happen," Pike said. "There are a lot of things to worry about in this world. This isn't one of them." http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/07/airlines-missiles-threat-ukraine- israel-malaysia-iata- icao/13729315/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatoday- newstopstories Back to Top Air Algerie Crash Examiners Says Jet Disintegrated on Impact The Air Algerie jetliner that crashed in Mali killing 116 people last month disintegrated when it hit the ground, though a "deliberate act" of sabotage can't yet be ruled out, safety experts said today. A dysfunctional cockpit voice recorder is slowing the probe as work continues to establish if stormy weather in the area on the fringes of the Sahara desert was to blame for the tragedy, the BEA, France's air-accident investigator, said today. Analysis of so-called black-boxes from the McDonnell Douglas (BA) MD-83 plane will have to rely on the flight-data recorder in the absence of cockpit recordings, together with radio transmissions, weather reports and physical evidence. The civil aviation bureau in Mali, a former French colony, has turned to the BEA for assistance following the July 24 crash in which 110 passengers died, 50 of them French citizens. While investigators haven't ruled out foul play, the plane veered from its planned path as if to avoid storms known to be present and descended rapidly, falling 1,600 feet in its last second before shattering as it hit the ground. An initial report on findings will be published in mid- September. "The impact was extremely violent," Remi Jouty, director of the BEA or Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses, said in a press briefing at Le Bourget outside Paris. The jet's last recorded speed was 740 kilometers an hour (460 miles per hour), he said. Maintenance Question Investigators will also examine why the cockpit voice-recorder failed and what kind of maintenance was performed on the black boxes before the flight. The data recorder should still provide information across dozens of parameters including the plane's position and altitude, engine performance, flap settings and how the autopilot was set up. Shortly after the accident, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told journalists that the pilots had sought permission to turn back to Burkina Faso, where the service bound for Algeria had originated, because of bad weather. Jouty said today he couldn't immediately confirm what the pilot said, since those exchanges that were recorded haven't been fully studied, though after the jet took off it made "moderate route deviations" typical of maneuvers aimed at circumventing a storm system. While the crew's words to each other won't be available for analysis because of the failed voice recorder, the BEA will examine their conversations with the ground and other planes flying. "We are trying to figure out what the crew was doing, decided or could have asked for," he said. N'Faly Cisse, president of the accident investigation commission of the Mali civil aviation bureau, said future comment will come from his office, which is leading the probe. Flight AH5017's loss capped a week of aviation disasters that began with the downing of a Malaysian Air Boeing Co. 777 over eastern Ukraine following a suspected missile strike, killing 298 people, and included the loss of an ATR-72 turboprop in poor weather in Taiwan, which left 48 dead. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-07/air-algerie-crash-investigators-says-jet- disintegrated-on-impact.html Back to Top Pilot pay at flag carrier to soar by 360m yuan (China) An Air China airliner arrives at Guiyang's international airport in Guizhou Province. The flag carrier of China will spend 360 million yuan to raise its pilots' compensation. The move is expected to benefit 4,560 pilots at its five subsidiaries. [Photo/China Daily] Air China raising salaries following protests by captains over long hours Air China Ltd, the flag carrier of China, will spend 360 million yuan ($58.06 million) to raise each of its pilots' income by 80,000 yuan annually on average, which will benefit 4,560 pilots at its five subsidiaries. The pay-raise plan is under discussion and still awaiting approval, an insider told China Daily. In order to reward core employees, captains and instructors will get 18 percent more annual income on average, which will be around 174,000 yuan per person, said the plan. Usually, pilots' income is combined with a basic salary and floating wage, called an hourly fee and calculated by their flight hours. Air China will increase the percentage of the floating wage, and the hourly fees of flight instructors will go from 409 yuan to 549 yuan, according to the plan. "We are basically satisfied with the plan, although the increase is not very large," said a captain from Air China, who declined to be identified. Air China had no official comment on the plan yet, said Ding Yue, a spokesman for the airline. An internal Air China document said that the company planned to spend 360 million yuan on pilots' pay raises. The carrier's financial report showed that its net income was 3.319 billion yuan in 2013. The airline also forecast that its net profit would drop by 55 to 65 percent in the first half of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013. But even with the raises, Air China pilots still will make less than pilots of other airlines, some business insiders said. Pilots' salaries at Air China are lower than other carriers in China, "especially compared with privately owned airlines", said Zhang Qihuai, vice-president of aviation law research for the China Law Society. Zhang said as the flag carrier and State-owned carrier, Air China attracts pilots for its resource advantages. But the rising privately owned and local airlines, which pay much higher salaries, are threatening the State-owned carrier's superiority, he said. "To raise salaries for pilots is a huge advance for Air China, but it is still low for the industry," Zhang said. The plan was floated following the signing of a public letter by hundreds of Air China pilots in April. They complained of such things as long hours and unequal treatment of Chinese and foreign pilots. "The company provides more benefits to Chinese pilots, such as medical treatment and pensions, which the foreign pilots have to foot themselves," Air China said, explaining why the carrier pays foreign pilots a higher salary. It did not address the issue of the hours. "Money is not everything for the pilots, who are already a high-income group, and they want more labor rights," Zhang said. During the peak season, some pilots work close to 100 hours per month, which is the authority's upper limit, said a captain from a domestic airline. The reason is a lack of pilots in China, Zhang added. At the end of 2013, 35,505 pilots were licensed to fly in China, while the number of civilian aircraft totaled 2,145, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Boeing Co forecast in 2013 that China would need to add 77,000 new pilots during the next 20 years. http://www.ecns.cn/business/2014/08-08/128571.shtml Back to Top No Unmanned Flights 'Anytime Soon,' FAA Assures Pilots The New York UAS test range has FAA authorization to test the PrecisionHawk Lancaster Mk III over a farm. (Photo: PrecisionHawk) Airlines should not expect to see unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) flying regularly in U.S.airspace "anytime soon," a senior official with the Federal Aviation Administration told pilots August 7. The assurance came amid ongoing reports of unauthorized UAS flights near airliners. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta "has made it very clear regarding the entry of UASs into the (airspace) system. It's going to be done in a prudent, step-by-step basis, with safety foremost in our minds," John Hickey, the agency's deputy associate administrator for aviation safety, told the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Air Safety Forum. While the agency has allowed some commercial operations of small unmanned aircraft by exemption to its current rules, it will take "very slow, deliberative steps before lettingUASs into more busy airspace," he added. Hickey served on a panel with other aviation officials moderated by ALPA aviation safety chairman Chuck Hogeman, who opened the discussion by mentioning an effort to certify a "200-pound helicopter" to fly in unrestricted airspace-a reference to theunmanned Yamaha Rmax precision-farming helicopter. The state of regulations governing unmanned aircraft, more popularly known as "drones," dominated the discussion, reflecting airline pilots' concern over potential airspace conflicts. In a report on August 4, ABC News, citing a "senior aviation official," said there had been 10 incidents in the previous 30 days in which unmanned aircraft flew close to passenger jets in the New York area, in some cases forcing pilots to take evasive action. Under pressure from the unmanned aircraft industry and Congress, the FAA plans to allow some commercial operations of small UAS by exemption under Section 333 of the 2012 FAA reauthorization act. Operators seeking exemptions are involved in filmmaking, precision agriculture, power- and pipeline inspection and oil and gas flare stack inspection. The FAA has said it will release a long-delayed draft rulemaking in November to standardize the regulation of small UAS. Standards that will facilitate flights of larger UAS in unrestricted airspace are under development by RTCA Special Committee 228, which aims to deliver them in July 2016. Also on August 7, the FAA announced that it has granted certificate of authorization (COA) allowing unmanned aircraft testing by Griffiss International Airport in Rome, N.Y., the fifth of six national UAS test sites to begin operating. Griffiss is the operating arm of the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR), which includes participation by New York and Massachusetts. The two-year COA allows Cornell Cooperative Extension to fly a small, sensor equipped fixed-wing aircraft, the PrecisionHawk Lancaster Hawkeye Mk III, to monitor crops at a farm in western New York. NUAIR and Griffiss will manage the test flights. Canada already allows commercial UAS flights; operators must first obtain and comply with the conditions of a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC). Transport Canada issued 155 SFOCs in 2011. Last year, the regulatory agency issued 945 SFOCs for commercial and other unmanned aircraft operations. "Clearly the volume is increasing," said Martin Eley, Transport Canada director general for civil aviation. "The challenge is being able to put a fence around it." Eley said a working group aims to standardize the present case-by-case regulation of UAS weighing below 25 kg (55 pounds) in the next year or two. He concurred with Hickey that introducing larger air vehicles into unrestricted airspace will take years more because of the technological hurdles involved. http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2014-08-07/no-unmanned-flights-anytime-soon-faa- assures-pilots Back to Top How to Hack an Airplane's Satellite Communications System LAS VEGAS - Gone are the days of mile-high airplane hijackings carried out with guns or knifes. In the future all a hijacker or a terrorist might need is a computer or a smartphone - and some good hacker skills. Ruben Santamarta, a security researcher at IOActive, showed a packed room at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Thursday how several types of satellite communications equipment used in airplanes all over the world can be hacked. Taking advantage of "critical" holes in these devices, an attacker could tamper with the plane's satellite communications, he said, interfering with its navigation and safety systems. And all they'd need is to be on a plane's WiFi and in-flight entertainment system. "That doesn't mean we can crash an aircraft," "That doesn't mean we can crash an aircraft," Santamarta said during a press conference ahead of his talk. But he did say a hack like this could lead to dangerous situations, like a scenario in which a pilot is fed fake data from the ground. Santamarta's findings might be hard to replicate in the real world. They were done in a lab, reverse engineering the firmware of the devices. But they do show that manufacturers selling equipment commonly deployed in airplanes have left gaping holes in their hardware. "The fact is that those vulnerabilities are there, so maybe it's possible, maybe not," Santamarta said. "But it's something that should be fixed." Other experts agreed. "The type of vulnerabilities he discovered are pretty scary just because they involve very basic security things that vendors should already be aware of," Vincenzo Iozzo, a member of Black Hat's review board, told Reuters, which first reported on Santamarta's research. The manufacturers of the devices, however, all dismissed the research, saying the risks are "minimal" or "small" or that the hackers would need physical access to the device to carry out the exploit. IOActive already published a white paper on this topic in April, but Santamarta disclosed new technical details at his talk on Thursday. Security researchers have been looking into airplane systems' security for some time. Last year, Hugo Teso showed how a hacker could exploit a protocol used to transmit data to commercial airplanes from the ground with an Android phone, potentially giving the hacker the ability to take over the plane, via a malicious radio signal. As with Santamarta's research, Teso's was also done only at an experimental level. It was dismissed as unlikely to work by European and American aviation authorities. Also at Black Hat in 2012, another researcher showed he could make nonexistent planes appear on the screen of air traffic controllers, perhaps scaring real planes into trying to avoid them. This hack took advantage of a vulnerability in the next-generation air traffic control system, the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). http://mashable.com/2014/08/07/how-to-hack-an-airplane-black-hat/ Back to Top Back to Top After Losing 2 Passenger Jets, Malaysia Airlines Suspends Trading And Plans To Become State-Owned KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysia's state investment company said Friday it plans to make Malaysia Airlines fully government owned, removing it from the country's stock exchange before carrying out an overhaul of the carrier that is reeling from double disasters. Khazanah Nasional, which owns 69 percent of Malaysia Airlines, said it has proposed to the carrier's board that it buy out minority shareholders at 27 sen (8 cents) a share, which is 29 percent higher than the airline's average share price over the previous three months. The takeover would cost 1.38 billion ringgit ($429 million). Malaysia Airlines has been hit by two major disasters this year, which added to its longstanding financial woes. In March, Flight 370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared with 239 people on board after flying far of course. The plane has still not been found, with a search in the southern Indian Ocean underway. In July, 298 people were killed when Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine. It was heading to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam and was shot out of the sky over an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists. Khazanah said the state takeover will represent the first stage of a "complete overhaul" of the loss-making airline, and that detailed plans will be announced by the end of this month. "The proposed restructuring will critically require all parties to work closely together," it said in a statement. "Nothing less will be required in order to revive our national airline to be profitable as a commercial entity and to serve its function as a critical national development entity." Before the disasters, the carrier's financial performance was among the worst in the industry, putting a question mark over its future even before its brand was tied to two almost unfathomable tragedies. It has lost money for the past three years and been through several episodes of restructuring, instigated by Khazanah, over the past decade. As a state-owned flag carrier, Malaysia Airlines is required to fly unprofitable domestic routes, and its strong union has resisted operational changes. Nimbler discount rivals such as Air Asia have expanded rapidly, while Malaysia Airlines has been like a supertanker, slow to change direction. Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation research firm Endau Analytics, said another restructuring won't yield positive results if fundamental problems aren't addressed. "I'm skeptical of the success of it because I'm not sure it will address the root problems of the airline," he said. Its biggest problems are $4 billion of debt accumulated since 2002, unprofitable routes and bloated staff numbers, Shukor said. Some analysts say the airline wouldn't survive a year without a substantial cash injection from the Malaysian government. Crisis management experts have said Malaysia Airlines must take dramatic steps, such as replacing its top executives and changing its name, to win back customers. Khazanah's offer to minority shareholders gives them more than what their shares were worth before each of the passenger jet disasters. Even so, the airline's share price has been in a long-term decline due to its losses. The day before Flight 370 vanished, the airline's share price was 25 sen. It was 23 sen the day before Flight 17 was downed. Khazanah said its plan requires approvals from regulators and Malaysia's finance minister. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/07/malaysia-airlines-state-owned_n_5660532.html Back to Top Flight Safety Foundation to hold annual safety summit in Abu Dhabi The Flight Safety Foundation is holding its 67th annual International Air Safety Summit (IASS) - aviation's premier global safety event - in Abu Dhabi. The event will take place November 11-13 at the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers hotel on the West Corniche. The event brings together aviation professionals from around the globe. IASS provides a forum for the aviation industry to identify safety concerns, devise approaches to reduce risk and implement initiatives to improve safety. As well as the major manufacturers and technology providers the Summit features contributions from groups like IATA and the Gulf Flight safety committee. James Hogan, president of host airline, Etihad, will be making the keynote address. Etihad is also providing discounted tickets for attendees. FSF is an international non-profit organissation whose sole purpose is to provide impartial, independent, expert safety guidance and resources for the aviation and aerospace industry. Today, membership includes more than 1,000 organizations and individuals in 150 countries. Information about costs and how to reserve a place at the conference can be found at: http://flightsafety.org/meeting/iass-2014 - See more at: http://www.arabianaerospace.aero/flight-safety-foundation-to-hold-annual- safety-summit-in-abu-dhabi.html#sthash.qUVsAtns.dpuf http://www.arabianaerospace.aero/flight-safety-foundation-to-hold-annual-safety-summit-in- abu-dhabi.html Back to Top Back to Top Upcoming Events: ACI-NA Annual Conference and Exhibition Atlanta, GA September 7 - 10, 2014 http://annual.aci-na.org/ IFA - Maintaining Airworthiness Standards and Investing in the Most Important Asset 'The Human Element' 17 - 18 September, 2014 Emirates Eng Facility, Dubai www.ifairworthy.com ISASI 2014 - Annual Seminar October 13-16, 2014 Adelaide, Australia www.isasi.org IASS 2014 Abu Dhabi, UAE November 11-13, 2014 http://flightsafety.org/meeting/iass-2014 Curt Lewis