Flight Safety Information December 15, 2014 - No. 252 In This Issue Jet Lands Safely in Baltimore After Bird Strike Air France passenger jet makes emergency landing in Ireland after CHILLI PEPPERS set off fire alarm Single-Pilot Cockpit Idea Floated in NASA Study Should pilots filter their Instagramming habits? Moscow responds on air safety: A deception Airplane clips cell phone tower, crashes in field PRISM TO HELP PREPARE FOR E-IOSA New aircraft may fly anywhere in the world in 4 hours ERAU NextGen 101 Seminar - Washington, D.C. GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship Upcoming Events Jet Lands Safely in Baltimore After Bird Strike A Southwest Airlines jet heading to the Washington area made an emergency landing at Baltimore- Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport after being struck by a bird. Authorities say the airliner landed safely Friday night. Anne Arundel County fire department officials say they were alerted about a plane in distress near Gibson Island in the Chesapeake Bay. The island is about 15 miles southeast of the airport. Some witnesses told WJZ-TV ( http://cbsloc.al/1GwiTgw ) that they saw a burst of fire from the jet. The airline says the pilot declared an emergency and landed the plane safely. Flight 3118 originated in San Antonio. Southwest says the airliner was carrying 142 passengers and a crew of five. The plane was taken out of service to be inspected. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jet-lands-safely-baltimore-bird-strike-27578810 Back to Top Air France passenger jet makes emergency landing in Ireland after CHILLI PEPPERS set off fire alarm during transatlantic flight Plane was travelling to Paris from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Flight crew declared emergency after alarm went off in cargo hold Alarm was activated by heat from the peppers The Boeing 747-400 was flying from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to Paris when its flight crew was alerted to a potential fire in the cargo hold. But reports say there was no fire at all and the alarm sounded because of the heat from the peppers. An Air France plane makes an emergency landing at Shannon Airport in Ireland after a fire alarm activated The radar map shows where the Boeing 747-400 changed course while en route to Paris It was the third time this year that a shipment of organic material has set off an aircraft alarm and forced a flight to divert to Shannon Airport, the Irish Independent reported. In Sunday's incident, the Air France flight crew declared an emergency and requested permission to divert to the nearest airport. Air France spokeswoman Ulli Gendrot told MailOnline Travel that the plane was carrying 142 passengers, two pilots and 12 cabin crew. Passengers were delayed for several hours while Air France flew an Airbus A320 to pick them up It was met by firefighters and paramedics when it landed safely around 10am on Sunday - around eight hours after departing the Caribbean. Fire crews inspected the cargo hold and found no evidence of a fire. Passengers were delayed for several hours while Air France flew an Airbus A320 to pick them up at Shannon Airport and transport them to Paris. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2874227/Air-France-passenger-jet-makes- emergency-landing-Ireland-CHILI-PEPPERS-set-fire-alarm-transatlantic-flight.html#ixzz3LyKcFq35 Back to Top Single-Pilot Cockpit Idea Floated in NASA Study New Study Comes as Industry Faces Potential Pilot Shortage and Dramatic Advances in Automation Large commercial flights today are flown by a captain with a co-pilot on board, but a new study will look at the idea of having a single pilot on board. By JON OSTROWER and ANDY PASZTOR Facing potential shortages of airline pilots and dramatic advances in automation, industry and government researchers have begun the most serious look yet at the idea of enabling jetliners to be flown by a single pilot. All large commercial jets for passenger and cargo service world-wide now fly with at least two pilots in the cockpit. A new study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Rockwell Collins Inc. will focus on the provocative idea that co-pilots could remain on the ground, remotely assisting solo aviators on the flight deck during the busiest parts of flights, said John Borghese, Rockwell's vice president of its Advanced Technology Center. Whether the concept will eventually come to fruition depends on political viability and social acceptability as well as technical feasibility. The researchers aren't endorsing the idea or devising specific plans for single-pilot operation of large commercial jets. Rather, they seek to analyze changes in technology and operations that could make the concept feasible in the future-even if that means as far off as 2030. From self-operating elevators introduced well over a half-century ago to advanced plans for driverless cars today, human mobility has become increasingly automated. The NASA study reflects not only technological ambition but more practical concerns: Many airline industry officials are worried that the world-wide pool of pilots will dwindle over the next two decades while air-travel volume doubles. Reducing the size of cockpit crews for big cargo or passenger planes-or eventually perhaps even eliminating pilots entirely-have been topics of theoretical discussion among aerospace industry officials and researchers for many years. The NASA initiative is significant because it raises the concept's profile, and signals that NASA officials are convinced the general notion isn't too far-fetched to merit further research. The roughly $4 million, four-year contract was awarded to Rockwell earlier this year but the first phase will be announced on Tuesday. The nearly half-decade study will include running simulations, determining where technology is needed and even potentially undertaking live flight trials. NASA officials say they anticipate Rockwell's efforts will spark additional studies by an array of other companies and experts. Under the concept the researchers are studying, aviators on the ground could be assigned to assist solo cockpit pilots on multiple flights, virtually co-piloting during the busiest times through crowded airspace, approach-and-landing maneuvers, or if something goes wrong. "It's a reasonably new area" to study how the notion may apply to large jets, according to Parimal Kopardekar, the program's manager based at NASA's Ames Research Center in northern California. When pilots need a midair rest or bathroom break, those on the ground even may "need to baby-sit the vehicle," he said. Such a dramatic shift won't happen any time soon, and there is virtual consensus that reduced crews for passenger planes won't be considered until they are introduced first in the cargo arena. That is unlikely to gain traction much before the end of the next decade, according to experts and airline officials. Jets today are designed to have two pilots behind the controls, and retrofitting existing aircraft "may be too expensive and may be too difficult" to obtain regulatory approval, according to NASA's Mr. Kopardekar. Industry officials say all-new aircraft would be needed with cockpits designed from the start with a single pilot in mind. The international aviation system has reached unmatched levels of safety and reliability, in part because of greater automation and a widely accepted global standard for cockpit behavior and cooperation. Early investigations of single-pilot flying alone in a simulator with a co-pilot assisting from a virtual ground station found that separation led to frequent confusion about what the other aviator was doing. Boeing Co. and Airbus Group NV designed jets in the 1970s with increasing automation that eliminated a third crew member, who used to be responsible for monitoring navigation and the various aircraft systems. Steady advances in cockpit automation and enhanced capabilities of unmanned aircraft have transformed the technologies required for reduced-pilot airline operations. "Fundamentally, it's not an engineering question anymore," according to Richard Healing, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board. "The real debate is over how regulators and public opinion will react to previously unthinkable changes." About a decade ago, FedEx Corp. informally broached the idea of reducing its cargo-jet flight crews from three to two on long overwater routes of more than eight hours. Flights of that duration require a relief pilot. To reduce risks to people on the ground, proponents argued such flights could take off from coastal airports with runways ending over water and land on the same type of strips. The company abandoned the idea, government officials said at the time, largely due to union opposition, compounded by extensive institutional and regulatory hurdles. Labor leaders naturally bristled when the issue came up, though many continue to believe the pendulum is inexorably swinging in the direction of reduced crews and ultimately, cargo planes entirely controlled from the ground. The Air Line Pilots Association declined to comment and FedEx didn't respond to a request for comment. The early industry discussion was aimed at cutting costs, but Rockwell's latest study is partly inspired by an anticipated shortage of pilots. Boeing projects a need for 533,000 new commercial airline pilots over the next 20 years as the number of miles flown doubles, and the plane maker has warned that personnel availability might fall short. Analysts, labor groups and academics contend any pilot shortage results from the industry's unwillingness to sufficiently pay pilots. Boeing declined to comment on the NASA study with Rockwell. While experts almost universally believe some moves in this direction are inevitable, they disagree over how long they may take and the extent of the stumbling blocks. "This is not an incremental change," said David Woods, a professor of cognitive systems and resilience engineering at Ohio State University. Reducing crews goes beyond bolting on technology and further automating flight decks, he stressed. "This is a major step change. It has big implications for how we train pilots." Prof. Woods said as flying becomes more automated, transitioning from routine flying to dealing with potential emergencies in the air and on the ground becomes increasingly difficult. Experts say these challenges may be surmountable, but not without significantly rethinking current design principles. The worst-case-scenario of pilot incapacitation during stormy weather or mechanical failure, for instance, offers a daunting challenge. "You need to have a very assured way of getting that aircraft down to the ground with no help from the pilot on board," said Mr. Borghese. "Right now I cannot imagine a harder problem." http://www.wsj.com/articles/single-pilot-cockpits-floated-in-nasa-study-1418611930 Back to Top Should pilots filter their Instagramming habits? There's a growing trend on Instagram: Pilots taking and posting photos, captured from their unusual vantage point inside the cockpit. And hundreds, sometimes thousands of people have been flocking to their accounts, waiting for the next round of stunning images. Though the images may be beautiful, taking the photos while piloting a commercial aircraft is against U.S. and European aviation rules. David Yanofsky, a reporter for Quartz, a digital business news publication, conducted a six-month investigation into the trend. "There's no rules specifically against taking a photograph," he said. "What there are rules on are the type of device that you can use. And using a device that has wireless capabilities is, in fact, always forbidden in a cockpit by FAA rules unless there's an emergency and the captain says that that is necessary." According to Yanofsky, pilots are taking these photos at critical periods of flight, like takeoffs and landings. "During those times there's an even heightened sense of awareness that needs to be taking place in the cockpit," he said. "And during those times, pilots can't even drink a cup of coffee, let alone talk to the flight attendant. And there have been some photographs that I've seen that appear to be taken during those times." Some of the photos have captions and a time stamp, so it's easy to tell when and where they're taken. And while there are critical periods of flight, there are also cruising altitudes when pilots can use the bathroom, eat or even say, complete a crossword puzzle. "If they're taking a break, they're not at their duty station," Yanofsky said. "And the FAA rules specifically mentions the duty station when taking the picture. You don't want someone to get sucked into a device and be focused on that more than flying the airplane, where that might not be the same case with printed material." Yanofsky said he has spoken with the FAA, which said it's never taken action against a pilot for using a personal electronic device while in the cockpit. Neither have the airlines he contacted. "The aviation community has reacted somewhat negatively to this story because it is a part of their community that they treasure," he said. "As such, they've started blocking me on various social media, so it's hard for me to determine how this has all changed." http://www.cbsnews.com/news/should-pilots-filter-their-instagramming-habits/ Back to Top Moscow responds on air safety: A deception Yesterday, eTN reported under the headline "Outright Dangerous: Airspace over Sweden" alleging Russian military aircrafts are putting passenger planes in danger over Swedish airspace. Today, Russia's Defense Ministry has dismissed this accusation that an unresponsive Russian military aircraft nearly collided with a passenger plane over the Baltic Sea. The ministry added that NATO planes in the area also have their transponders turned off. The Russian aircraft in question was 70 kilometers away from the flight path of a passenger jet taking off from Copenhagen, and thus there were "no prerequisites" for collision between the two, Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. He also denied allegations that the military jet was flying right above southern Sweden, breaching its airspace. "The flight was in strict accordance with international laws on the use of airspace and did not violate state borders while remaining at a safe distance from the routes of civil aircrafts," Konashenkov said. Earlier on Saturday, Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told local radio that the Russian jet had its transponders turned off so it could fly undetected, and claimed that it nearly crashed into a passenger plane over Sweden. "This is serious. This is inappropriate. This is outright dangerous when you turn off the transponder," Hultqvist said. Konashenkov called Hultqvist's assessment of the Russian jet being invisible - and thus dangerous - a "deception," pointing out that none of NATO's spy and patrol jets operating in the region have their transponders turned on. That, however, does not prevent Russia from detecting them. "I want to particularly stress that the flights of NATO military planes in the international space on Russia's borders - which have intensified more than threefold over the last months - are always conducted with disabled transponders. But that does not mean that the Russian airspace control are not able to detect them," the spokesman stressed. As recently as December 12, the country's detection system spotted a NATO RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in the same area where the supposed "incident" with the Russian jet took place - only closer to the civilian aircraft route, Konashenkov revealed. NATO has recently stepped up its military flights in the region, due to a perceived Russian threat and the need to reassure the allied Baltic states. It comes against the backdrop of tensions over Ukraine. Meanwhile, the defense minister of the non-NATO Sweden announced that the nation is planning to retrain about 7,500 reservists who have served in the Swedish army since 2004. "The armed forces will be able to carry out fully-manned war preparations which will result in increased operational capacity," Hultqvist explained, justifying the plans. Peace activist Jan Oberg told the Russian RT news agency that the move is in line with the anti-Russian mood in the country's media and politics, triggered by the Ukraine crisis. "The whole thing comes from the Ukrainian crisis - and that was predominantly not created by Russia, but by the West," Oberg said. "It could be very much to show that we are doing something. You have to follow up on the fact that the Swedish media and political debate in this country are very anti-Russian and that the interpretation what happened in Ukraine has not been very balanced." "There is a very uniform media structure in this country. I am sad to say that it is the case. It has become worse over time." Back in October, Swedish media went on a wild goose chase for a phantom submarine, alleged to be Russian - even though the knowledge of identity was later denied by the Swedish military. It all started with a blurry image. A week of searches led to nothing, but cost the Swedish taxpayers almost $3 million dollars. NATO has recently launched a massive military build-up of troops in the Baltic states and other Eastern European NATO member states, following the crisis in Ukraine. The alliance argues that the expansion is needed to show support and assure that NATO members are protected from a possible attack by Russia. The US-led alliance has also been boosting its presence through military exercises held on a regular basis. NATO's new chief, Jens Stoltenberg, boasted of the bloc's successes in December. "We have already boosted our presence in the eastern part of our alliance. We have five times more planes in the air. Our forces start an exercise every two days. And we have also increased the number of ships in the Baltic and the Black Seas," Stoltenberg told reporters. One of the most recent war games included servicemen from nine NATO member states participating in nearly two weeks of military exercises in Lithuania. However, Moscow sees NATO expansion towards its borders as an aggressive move, and a violation of post-Cold War agreements. In early December, Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov called the build-up of NATO forces in Eastern Europe hostile and destabilizing to the Baltic, once the safest region in Europe http://www.eturbonews.com/53583/moscow-responds-air-safety-deception Back to Top Airplane clips cell phone tower, crashes in field SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) _ The pilot of a small, private airplane somehow avoided disaster after clipping a southwest Missouri cell phone tower and crashing into a vacant lot on a university campus. The Springfield News-Leader (http://sgfnow.co/1IMKe1K ) reports four people were aboard the plane Friday afternoon when it hit the tower and traveled a mile-and-a-half over rush-hour traffic before going down on property owned by Evangel University less than 100 feet from several houses. A Springfield spokeswoman says two people sustained minor injuries and the other two were unhurt. KY3 reports the pilot was Bill Perkin, owner of KSPR-TV, while the plane was owned by Integrity Home Care of Springfield. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. Investigators were expected to arrive at the scene Saturday morning. ___ Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.news-leader.com Back to Top Back to Top New aircraft may fly anywhere in the world in 4 hours A British aerospace firm is developing an aircraft that would take passengers anywhere in the world in just four hours while flying at five times the speed of sound. Reaction Engines is working on an engine system that will pave the way for a plane that would transport 300 passengers anywhere in the world in four hours. Chief engineer Alan Bond said that a cooling technology allows air entering the new 'Sabre' engine system to be cooled by more than 1,000 degrees Celsius in .01 seconds. This would allow a jet engine to run at higher power than what is possible today, 'Business Insider' reported. The cooling system uses an array of thin pipes, arranged in a 'swirl' pattern and filled with condensed helium, to extract heat from air and cool it to minus 150 degrees Celsius before it enters the engine. In normal circumstances, this would cause moisture in the air to freeze, coating the engine with frost, but the company has also developed a method which prevents this from happening, according to a previous report in 'The Telegraph'. The aircraft, which comes with a USD 1.1 billion price tag, will measure 276 feet long, and will be called the Skylon. It would take off and land horizontally (like a plane), which would make it easier to reuse than a standard rocket. Test flights of the Skylon are planned for 2019. http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/new-aircraft-may-fly-anywhere-in-the-world-in-4- hours-114121500545_1.html Back to Top ERAU NextGen 101 Seminar - Washington, D.C. "The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide Office of Professional Education is pleased to announce a two-day seminar entitled NextGen 101. The course is designed to identify the key concepts, attributes, and challenges of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). Government and industry employees with an interest in NextGen, aviation stakeholders and members of the military transitioning to a career in civilian education should attend. The course will take place in Washington D.C. on April 21-22, 2015. Course fee is $750 per person or $675 per person with five or more people registering from the same group. For more information and to register, please visit us online at http://proed.erau.edu/programs/specialized- industry-training/nextgen-101-seminar/index.html" Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY I am Daniel Siao, and I am a graduate student studying Aviation Safety and Security Management at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). I hold both A&P and pilot certificates. I am conducting this research to attempt to reveal the hindrances that prohibit the successful implementation of Safety Management Systems (SMS) in maintenance facilities. Your participation in this survey will be greatly appreciated if you work in any capacity as an aircraft mechanic (with or without an A&P certificate). This survey is completely anonymous and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Please contact me regarding any questions you may have. The survey can be accessed with the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/66PF7WG Thank you in advance, Daniel H. Siao dhs2j@mtmail.mtsu.edu Back to Top Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship The Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship was established by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to shape the next generation of researchers in aviation weather, honoring the late Najeeb Elias Halaby, an eminent aviator and administrator, for his vision and more than five decades of extraordinary contributions to aviation (http://www.ral.ucar.edu/halabyfellowship.pdf). The Fellowship The recipient of a Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship will spend three months (in 2015 or early 2016) in residence with NCAR's Aviation Weather Research Program, which Mr. Halaby was instrumental in establishing in the 1980s. As the nation's leader in addressing aviation weather research, NCAR plays a unique role in meeting user needs by transferring research results to operations through its Research Application Laboratory (http://www.ral.ucar.edu/). The Fellow will conduct research broadly aimed at improving the integration of weather into decision support tools for improved weather avoidance and air traffic management. The Fellowship will provide: * a monthly stipend for three months, including temporary living expenses * round-trip travel expenses to and from Boulder, CO * travel to a conference to present results * page charges for one publication of key results Eligibility and Application The Halaby Fellowship targets graduate students (late Masters or early PhD level) enrolled in an aviation- relevant department or program of a domestic or international university. Interested candidates should have advanced research skills, far-reaching vision, and dedication to get things accomplished. Consideration for this Fellowship will be given to candidates based on the following submitted material: * Curriculum vitae * Proposal (maximum five pages) presenting the research to be conducted at NCAR, the anticipated outcome of that, and how the proposed effort ties into the candidate's ongoing graduate research project(s) * Contact information for three references (one of which should be the student's primary advisor) NCAR will accept applications for the Halaby Fellowship each year. Email Applications by February 28, 2015 to halabyfellowship@ucar.edu Back to Top Upcoming Events: Event: "The Future of Regulation of SMS and QA" Symposium. Keynote: Mr. Martin Eley, Director General Transport Canada. Location: Coronado Resort Hotel @ Disney World, Orlando Florida. Date: Jan 4-6, 2015 info: http://www.dtiatlanta.com/symposium.html A3IR CON 2015 January 16-17, 2015 Phoenix, AZ http://commons.erau.edu/aircon/2015/ Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) NTSB Training Center, Ashburn, VA March 10-11, 2015 www.acsf.aero/symposium FAA Helicopter Safety Effort three-day safety forum April 21-23, 2015 Hurst, Texas eugene.trainor@faa.gov www.faahelisafety.org IS-BAO Workshop Information and Registration 13 - 14 Jan. 2015 Baltimore, MD USA https://www.regonline.com/CalendarNET/EventCalendar.aspx?EventID=1592658&view=Month Curt Lewis