Flight Safety Information September 24, 2014 - No. 196 In This Issue Drones Are Coming To Hollywood: FAA Set To Announce Approval For Use In Filming War plane crashes in Kazakhstan Pilots picket against FedEx MH370 Search Pushes South on New View of Plane Movements Report Faults Rollout of Air-Traffic-Control Upgrade PRISM TO HELP PREPARE FOR E-IOSA CHARITY CALLS FOR BOOZE BAN ON PLANES ICAEA-ANAC-CIPE Aviation English Workshop Graduate Survey Research Request AIRPORT WILDLIFE HAZARD MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP ISASI 2014 - Annual Seminar, October 13-16, 2014 - Early Bird Registration Deadline Upcoming Events Employment Drones Are Coming To Hollywood: FAA Set To Announce Approval For Use In Filming The FAA will approve Hollywood's request to use drones for filming, government and industry sources familiar with the process have told Forbes. On Thursday afternoon the FAA will announce its decision, and explain the procedures under which production companies will operate and the aviation rules which they are exempted from, the sources say. In May, seven aerial photo and video production companies asked for regulatory exemptions (known as a 333 exemption) that would allow the film and television industry to use drones with FAA approval. Those seven companies and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), were asked by the FAA to develop the guidelines and safety procedures under which they planned to operate. The FAA reviewed those procedures and is expected to approve the drone-specific rules and standards that will enable Hollywood to be exempt from existing aviation regulations. The process was an onerous one that began more than four years ago with aerial cinematography companies working to develop internal guidelines. After filing their request for an exemption, the industry began drafting rules and guidelines, with the participation of pilots, lawyers, consultants, unmanned aviation experts, cinematographers, representatives from the studios, and experienced cinematography companies including Aerial Mob, Astraeus Aerial Cinema Systems, Flying-Cam Aerial Systems, Heli Video Productions, PictorVision, Snaproll Media and Vortex Aerial. A representative from Vortex Aerial, one of the companies involved in the exemption process, said, "We are very proud to be a part of this monumentally historical event. Being the result of over 4 years of industry leader collaboration we can only hope that this most daunting and financially taxing of tasks will finally come to fruition and not be yet another false start for our industry." The exemption is expected to specify detailed procedures under which companies may operate. The companies involved expect to release clear safety rules and guidelines that will set the standard for other companies to follow. The exemption allows the companies to fly pursuant to specific rules for the types of flights film productions plan to conduct. By definition, the exemption means that Hollywood will not need to to comply with some of the general flight rules covering pilot certificate requirements, manuals, maintenance and equipment mandates and certain airworthiness certification requirements. Hollywood is an appropriate industry to be granted one of the first exemptions, said Tony Carmean of Aerial Mob, because it can address the FAA's two major concerns: safety and privacy. "Most studio productions take place on closed sites with an established perimeter, ensuring that personnel on those sites are affiliated with the production and are aware of inbound aircraft," he said. Aerial Mob has worked with clients such as the BBC, Nike, Harvard University and MTV. The company suspended all operations inside the United States while awaiting FAA approval, oftentimes filming in Mexico, which has a more permissive environment for aerial cinematography. The companies involved in the exemption process have extensive flight experience with both manned and unmanned aircraft, suggesting that certification as a pilot of manned aircraft may be a criteria that the FAA believes is important for the operation of unmanned aircraft. To date, the FAA has received 45 requests for exemptions from large and small companies across a range of industries including agriculture, oil and gas, pipeline inspectors and surveyors. "We have even received an exemption request from a realtor, and a person asking for permission to use a UAS for news gathering," said FAA spokesman Les Dorr. Currently, Certificates of Waiver or Authorization are available to public entities that want to fly drones in civil airspace. The FAA says that commercial operations are authorized on a case-by-case basis. Such operations require a certified aircraft, a licensed pilot and operating approval. The exemption process under Section 333 provides an additional avenue for commercial UAS operations. http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/09/23/drones-are-coming-to-hollywood-faa-will- announce-approval-this-thursday/ Back to Top War plane crashes in Kazakhstan Kazakhstan's Defence Ministry has confirmed that an SU-27 plane has crashed near the capital Almati. According to a statement, the plane vanished from radar while it was coordinating a training session for fighter gets. The plane was later found 15 kilometers from Almati's Koksusky district. Two senior pilots are said to be missing after the crash. Although the cause of the crash is not currently known, the Defence Ministry said it was launching an investigation into the possible cause. http://www.worldbulletin.net/world/145037/war-plane-crashes-in-kazakhstan Back to Top Pilots picket against FedEx MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC) - Just months from the busiest shipping day of the year, 700 FedEx pilots hit the picket line. The pilots started the picket line around noon, outside of the FedEx Air Operations center on Democrat Road. The pilots say the contract negotiating process is too long. FedEx says it is committed to swiftly signing the dotted line. The message from pilots to FedEx is "contract now, it's time." The demonstration is also happening in Anchorage, Alaska and Los Angeles, Ca. Hundreds of pilots held the silent "informational picket," not to strike, but to inform the public about what is happening. "As a unity statement and to highlight the fact union negotiations have been going on too long," said FedEx Division of the Airline Pilots Association Executive Council Chairman Scott Stratton. Signs that read, "FedEx Pilots Deliver" and "Focused, Realistic, Fair" were among a few used to demonstrate the pilots' frustration with the drawn out contract negotiations. "We need this contract closed up in a timely manner," added Stratton. FedEx released the following statement: "FedEx Express is committed to reaching an agreement as quickly as possible that is beneficial to both the pilots and the company. We are encouraged that progress is being made in recent negotiating sessions. We still have issues to resolve and have submitted proposals that would bridge some of those gaps in reasonable ways." The shipping giant also released a negotiations packet showing that pilots make an average of $234,210 per year. "Some of the most important sections of the contract and the ones you would consider costing the most money are before us and we have not seen movement from FedEx," Stratton said. The length of the discussions in debate is 42 months, according to the pilots. A FedEx spokesperson says the delay came when both sides agreed to wait on legislation to pan out. The pilots say both sides had an agreement to shorten negotiations. "Unfortunately, FedEx didn't take that route and we find ourselves mired in traditional negotiations," Stratton explai The next step? Back to the negotiating table. FedEx says the picket will have no impact on your service in any way. They point out an informational picket also happened during their last negotiations and service went on without a hitch. http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/26601660/pilots-plan-protest-against-fedex Back to Top MH370 Search Pushes South on New View of Plane Movements Underwater vehicles will search for the missing Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS)'s Flight 370 further south than previously expected, after analysts revised their views of the plane's last movements. Priority regions for a deep-sea sonar search "will most likely extend south of the previous 'orange' priority area'," the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement on its website. Three search vessels are preparing to start a yearlong scan of the ocean bottom for wreckage of the aircraft, which disappeared March 8 with 239 people on board. The search in 6.3 kilometer-(3.9 mile) deep waters of the Indian Ocean off Western Australia aims to find remains of the Boeing Co. (BA) 777-200. The only clues to the aircraft's final resting place have been data exchanges with an Inmarsat Plc (ISAT) satellite, which indicated it ditching along an arc of ocean west of Perth. "Recent refinement to the analysis has given greater certainty about when the aircraft turned south into the Indian Ocean," the Safety Bureau said on its website. The working group planning the search zones also had a better understanding of satellite ground station operations during the final flight of the Malaysia Airlines aircraft. Malaysia Airlines is controlled by Khazanah Nasional Bhd., Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund. The revised priority search zone extends to a latitude of around 35 degrees south, according to a map published online, compared with a southern limit of about 32 degrees south in a previous map published June 24. The Malaysian-contracted GO Phoenix search vessel will arrive at the underwater search area on Oct. 1, and search for about 20 days, according to the statement. Two vessels operated by Fugro NV under a contract with the Australian government are also heading to the search zone. The Fugro Equator will start deep-sea sonar searches around the end of October after a ship-based seafloor scan is complete and the Fugro Discovery will arrive in Australia around Oct. 2, where a crew and equipment will be mobilized. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-24/mh370-search-pushes-south-on-new-view-of-plane- movements.html Back to Top Report Faults Rollout of Air-Traffic-Control Upgrade An effort to modernize the U.S. air-traffic-control system is seeing such a bumpy rollout that costs associated with some of the core technology outweigh potential benefits, according to a report soon to be released by a federal watchdog. An audit report by the Transportation Department's inspector general, slated to be released in the next few days, raises new questions about the design, deployment and projected benefits of one of the Federal Aviation Administration's futuristic ways to enhance monitoring and management of aircraft. The document is sharply critical about early implementation of ground-based radio towers that are part of a proposed $4.5 billion network designed to track the locations of planes more precisely than current radar. The new system, dubbed ADS-B, eventually aims to rely primarily on satellite-based navigation and tracking. The report comes as U.S. passenger airlines enjoy the safest period in history, with no fatal accidents in more than six years, though incidents persist involving close calls between jetliners in the air and on the ground. By tracking the location of planes more precisely than current radars, the modernized system aims to enable aircraft to safely fly closer to one another, while saving both fuel and time following more efficient routes. Existing radars, some of which are old and require substantial maintenance, sometimes don't provide updated aircraft locations for 10 seconds or longer, and their accuracy varies depending on distance to the plane being tracked. Starting in 2007, the FAA opted to install ADS-B towers nationwide because those signals precisely capture aircraft positions once per second, regardless of how far away planes may be flying. Ultimately, the plan envisions enhanced safety with updates from satellites going directly to cockpits, allowing pilots to steer clear of potential midair dangers even without the help of controllers. But in the report on the new system, the inspector general found, among other things, that pilots and controllers are receiving only limited benefits from some 600 ADS-B towers that have been installed, due to incomplete technology updates of the automated systems intended to track aircraft. According to the report, the FAA itself has determined that taxpayer investments in such ground-based applications "now outweigh the projected benefits of the program by as much as $588 million." The findings also emphasize that "it remains uncertain how and when the FAA will implement" advanced capabilities, "and at what cost." Some of the general criticism mirrors reports and comments by the inspector general and his staff over the past few years directed at the FAA's overall air-traffic-modernization initiative, which it calls NextGen. U.S. airlines remain reluctant to invest billions of dollars in onboard equipment because they are uncertain how effectively the agency will carry out its share of the program. The FAA, for its part, recently has stepped up public pressure on the industry to commit to installing ADS-B devices by the mandated deadline of 2020. Until now, the rollout of the ADS-B ground towers-for which Exelis Inc. is the prime contractor-has been described by company and FAA officials as on time and on budget. In comments filed with DOT, the FAA said the rollout has "increased the availability of service and expanded coverage" as planned, adding that "cost and schedule baselines will be revisited periodically." But "more benefits would be apparent if operators chose to equip early," according to the agency. An Exelis spokeswoman and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the trade group for general aviation, declined to comment. Members of Airlines for America, the major trade group for the big carriers, won't be in a hurry to put the necessary equipment on planes until there is "a clear demonstration that the FAA has developed and designed a program, as well as policies and procedures, along with training for controllers, that could deliver benefits as carriers equip," said Sharon Pinkerton, the association's senior vice president of legislative and regulatory policy. By some industry estimates, ADS-B equipment could cost airlines, including regional carriers, as much as $5 billion. Meanwhile, other aspects of the FAA's ambitious NextGen modernization initiative haven't gone well. "There's a history here," Ms. Pinkerton said, "when we have equipped our planes at great expense and then it takes the FAA three years to train controllers and design processes where we can benefit." The report notes that the FAA has been unable to perform "end to end testing," encompassing cockpit equipment, controller stations and ground installations, because of the relatively few planes currently equipped with required technology. The document also reveals that the Defense Department and others have doubts about the FAA's ability to face security challenges "related to cyber threats" and the "security of the ADS-B infrastructure and aircraft avionics." The report also says a more-complex version of the program, which would beam data into cockpits so that pilots could "see" the heading, altitude and speed of other airplanes around them, has so far not been "fully defined." As of April, the FAA said it had completed the deployment of 634 ground radio towers to support the program, a point of pride and a reduction of the 792 ground stations originally projected. But the FAA office overseeing ADS-B has since identified "coverage gaps" and the need for 200 more stations at a price tag of $258 million, the report said. Because the FAA "has yet to complete modernization of its air-traffic automation systems to accommodate the new ADS-B technology," only limited service is being provided to pilots and controllers. In addition, testing has identified problems with the display of this data on FAA air-traffic automation systems in Louisville, Ky., Houston, Philadelphia and the state of Alaska. And the FAA "has not yet fully developed a system to monitor the performance and operational safety of the ground equipment and help avoid and resolve outages." And the FAA "has not yet fully developed a system to monitor the performance and operational safety of the ground equipment and help avoid and resolve outages." The report also noted that the FAA has warned "general aviation" pilots-mostly private pilots-they shouldn't rely on ADS-B information to separate their planes from others in the airspace. Some general- aviation pilots relying on this data "inadvertently flew their aircraft into restricted airspace that was either unmarked or incorrectly located on their ADS-B devices," the report said. The FAA subsequently cited these pilots with violations. "Concerns such as these not only suggest significant safety risks, but could degrade users' confidence in the system and the industry's willingness to invest," the report said. http://online.wsj.com/articles/report-faults-rollout-of-air-traffic-control-upgrade-1411518984 Back to Top Back to Top CHARITY CALLS FOR BOOZE BAN ON PLANES Drug Arm Australasia has already confirmed it would support an initiative to ban booze at 35,000 feet, and even in airports, believing it would "reduce the risk and harms associated with alcohol use and increase the safety of both passengers and crew", as reported by The Australian. It comes following reports of a number of incidents in which passengers have become abusive toward staff mid-flight. Recently a Qantas plane travelling from Bangkok to Sydney was diverted to Cairns after a man tried to steal alcohol from a trolley and then became loud and abusive, with crew forced to restrain the man with plastic handcuffs, as reported by The Australian. Australian airlines have so far resisted calls to ban alcohol on board, despited diversions costing them tens of thousands of pounds. Both Qantas and Virgin Australia have stated they believe their alcohol service is responsible and that their measures to deal with drunken passengers is appropriate. Quantas said the "vast majority" if its customers were responsible in their alcohol consumption and that offering alcohol was a "premium service" valued by its customers, but that it takes a "zero-tolerance" approached to anti-social and aggressive behaviour. A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said the airline had "strict protocols" in place and reserved the right to refuse alcohol on board, and that it continually reviews its practices to ensure safety on board. Under Australian aviation laws, flight crews must be trained in responsible service of alcohol, but no other restrictions apply. http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2014/09/charity-calls-for-booze-ban-on-planes/ Back to Top ICAEA-ANAC-CIPE Aviation English Workshop Buenos Aires, Argentina. International Civil Aviation English Association Workshop, hosted by Argentina ANAC and CIPE. "Skills and competencies needed in aviation communications: The Latin American Challenge." Open to anyone interested in aviation English. Nov. 20-21, 2014. www.icaea.aero Back to Top Graduate Survey Research Request Dear fellow pilots/Dear Colleagues: Apart from still very actively flying airplanes like all of us, in my case the Airbus, I'm also about to write a thesis with the University of Applied Sciences in Zurich, Switzerland, on the topic of culture and Crew Resource Management. Part of my research consists of a questionnaire for pilots, which takes about 10 minutes to fill in and is completely anonymous. Not even the IP-address is logged or traced, absolutely nothing. It would be great if you could take a few minutes to answer the survey which can be accessed using this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/UNI-HWZ Every additional reply is of great help. So, please feel free to answer my questions. For any feedback, comment or expression of doubt, just drop me a line. Many thanks and very kind regards, Thomas Thomas Häderli Captain Hadlaubstrasse 39 8044 Zürich Switzerland Cell +41 79 638 48 38 tom.h@me.com skype: thaederli Back to Top Back to Top INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF AIR SAFETY INVESTIGATORS ISASI 2014 45TH ANNUAL SEMINAR "Investigations and Safety Management Systems" This year's seminar will take place at the Stamford Hotel in Glenelg, near Adelaide, Australia, from 13 -16 October, 2014. All current information regarding seminar registration, hotel reservations and speakers can be found on the official seminar website at www.asasi.org. Please note the deadline for Early Bird Registration and the discounted rate at the hotel is midnight September 4. Questions can be directed to: Mr. Lindsay Naylor ISASI 2014 Seminar Chair lindsaynaylor77@gmail.com or Ms.Barbara Dunn International Seminar Chair - ISASI avsafe@shaw.ca Back to Top Upcoming Events: 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 ERAU SMS Seminars Daytona Beach, FL Nov. 17-18 & 19-21, 2014 www.erau.edu/sms ICAEA-ANAC-CIPE Aviation English Workshop. Buenos Aires, Argentina. International Civil Aviation English Association Workshop, hosted by Argentina ANAC and CIPE. "Skills and competencies needed in aviation communications: The Latin American Challenge." Open to anyone interested in aviation English. Nov. 20-21, 2014. www.icaea.aero ERAU UAS FUNDAMENTALS COURSE December 9 - 11, 2014 ERAU Daytona Beach Campus, FL www.daytonabeach.erau.edu/uas FAA Helicopter Safety Effort three-day safety forum April 21-23, 2015 Hurst, Texas eugene.trainor@faa.gov www.faahelisafety.org Back to Top Employment: Positions Available: Pilots (India) TATA SIA Airlines Limited pilots@airvistara.com www.airvistara.com Curt Lewis