Flight Safety Information January 8, 2015 - No. 006 In This Issue US DOT to require all U.S. commercial airlines to implement safety management systems by 2018 Airline Safety Boost Required in Rule Born From Colgan Crash AirAsia plane's tail may be lifted to retrieve black boxes Divers search wreckage of AirAsia jet's tail for black boxes Scrawl found on United jet, attendants fired when they refuse to fly Missing MH370: Search Will Prioritize Finding Jet's Black Boxes PRISM TO HELP PREPARE FOR E-IOSA More pilots, attendants to be hired by NetJets Balloon pilots prepare to break long-distance record ERAU NextGen 101 Seminar - Washington, D.C. Upcoming Events US DOT to require all U.S. commercial airlines to implement safety management systems by 2018 to reduce accident risks The U.S. Department of Transportation today announced a final rule requiring all U.S. commercial airlines to implement a safety management system by 2018 to reduce the risk of accidents. "There's never been a safer time to fly," U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said today in a teleconference of a live news conference in Washington, D.C. "From 1998 to 2008, the fatality risk for U.S. commercial airline travel fell 83 percent." Yet, the industry can always do more, Foxx said. The DOT wants to see that fatality risk rate fall by 50 percent from 2010 through 2025, he said. "We're constantly striving to enhance safety and the system we have now, which is incredibly safe," Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta said in the teleconference. "Our ultimate goal is to ... prevent accidents from happening at all." Safety management systems (SMS) give airlines a set of business processes and management tools to examine data gathered from everyday operations, detect patterns in the data as early warning signs of an accident and take steps to reduce the risks. The FAA studied 100 airplane accidents and found that if a safety management system had been in place, it could have reduced "many" of the accidents, Huerta said. Federal regulators are not telling airlines how to meet the new requirement. However, U.S. commercial airlines must submit plan to the FAA within six months and name an executive to oversee their safety management system, Huerta said. Already, more than 90 percent of U.S. airline operations are covered by some data sharing between each other and the FAA, officials said. A safety management system does not replace regular FAA oversight, inspections and audit, but complements it, officials said. Already, more than 90 percent of U.S. airline operations are covered by some data sharing between each other and the FAA, they said. The DOT and the FAA worked on the new rule in collaboration with the U.S. airline industry and other parties. "The rules and programs being announced today are the next step in the never-ending process to improve safety," said Nicholas Calio, CEO of the industry trade group Airlines for America. "We think it's a very good program." Safety management systems are increasingly being adopted worldwide by air carriers, Foxx said. http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2015/01/us-dot-to-require-all-u-s-commercial-airlines-to- implement-safety-management-systems-by-2018-to-reduce-accident-risks.html/ Back to Top Airline Safety Boost Required in Rule Born From Colgan Crash By Alan Levin Six years after the fatal Colgan Air crash, U.S. airlines are being told to develop stricter internal safety programs and conduct more risk analysis under a new regulation that will cost carriers $135 million over the next decade. The Federal Aviation Administration is imposing the latest safety techniques on everything from pilot training to data analysis in one sweeping program instead of by piecemeal mandates. The requirements take effect three years from tomorrow, when the final rule will be published in the Federal Register. Out of 80 carriers subject to the regulation, all but one has begun implementing some parts of the new Safety Management System program, according to FAA data. The rules apply to airplanes with 10 or more seats, and is part of an effort to reduce aviation accidents 50 percent by 2025, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said at a news conference. "To achieve this goal, we'll have to be even smarter about how airlines analyze and benefit from the safety data they collect every day," Foxx said today. By lowering the numbers of accidents and incidents, the new rules will save carriers $105 million to $242 million over 10 years, offsetting costs to implement the changes, according to the FAA. Colgan Response U.S. air travel is already one of the safest modes of transportation, with accidents having been extremely rare and random events that didn't lend themselves to prevention by focused new rules, the FAA said. The last fatal accident involving a U.S.-based passenger airline was on Feb. 12, 2009, when a regional turboprop plane operated by Colgan Air, then owned by Pinnacle Airlines Corp., crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people aboard and one man on the ground. The new regulation is one of the last airline safety enhancements mandated by Congress in 2010 in response to the Colgan crash. The rule requires carriers to scour flight records, place observers in the cockpit and encourage employees to come forward with concerns. Once safety issues are identified, the airline must take steps to eliminate them through better training, changes in procedures or improved communication with employees. The agency identified 123 accidents from 2001 through 2010 that would have been prevented if carriers had been more aggressive about monitoring broad risks. A more rigorous safety management program at Colgan may have identified issues leading to the accident, such as inadequate pilot training, the National Transportation Safety Board found afterward. The NTSB has since 2007 recommended the FAA require SMS at airlines. Airlines for America, a Washington-based trade group, supports the regulation, the group's president, Nicholas Calio, said at the press conference. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-07/airlines-required-to-boost-safety-in-rule-born- from-colgan-crash.html Back to Top AirAsia plane's tail may be lifted to retrieve black boxes Relatives lay flowers on the coffin of victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 Yongki Jou and his son Brian Youvito Jou, during their cremation procession in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015. Divers were hoping to zero in on the flight's black boxes Thursday, after search and recovery operations got a much-needed boost with the discovery of a chunk of the plane's tail - nearly two weeks after it plummeted into the sea, killing everyone onboard. (Trisnadi/Associated Press) PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia - Strong currents and blinding silt thwarted divers' attempt on Thursday to find AirAsia Flight 8501's black boxes, which are believed to still be in the recently discovered tail of the crashed plane. The flight data and cockpit voice recorders are crucial to helping determine what caused the jet carrying 162 passengers and crew to vanish on Dec. 28, halfway into a two-hour flight between Surabaya, Indonesia, and Singapore. Three more bodies recovered Thursday raised the total to 43, said Suryadi B. Surpiyadi, a search and rescue operation coordinator. Days after sonar detected what appeared to be chunks of wreckage on the sea floor, an unmanned underwater vehicle Wednesday zoomed in on the plane's tail, lying upside down and partially buried in the ocean floor. Divers took advantage of a brief break in weather Thursday to try to locate the black boxes, but they were unable to make it past currents and 1-meter (3-foot) visibility, said National Search and Rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo. He said expert teams from Indonesia and France were looking at other options, including a crane to lift the tail. Ping-emitting beacons in the black boxes still have about 20 days of battery life, but high waves had prevented the deployment of ping locators, which are dragged by ships. Six ships with ping locators were in the search area in the Java Sea, said Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator of the National Commission for Transportation Safety. But he said that based on pictures taken by the divers, he believed that the black boxes were still attached to their original location in the plane's tail. "Once detected, we will try to find and lift up the black boxes as soon as possible," he said. Officials are hopeful many of the 119 bodies still unaccounted for will be found inside the fuselage, which is thought to be lying near the tail. It's not clear what caused the plane to crash, but bad weather is believed to be a contributing factor. Just before losing contact, the pilot told air traffic control he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic. No distress signal was issued. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/divers-looking-for-black-boxes-in-crashed-airasia- plane/2015/01/07/1e996da8-96d8-11e4-8385-866293322c2f_story.html Back to Top Divers search wreckage of AirAsia jet's tail for black boxes (Reuters) - Scores of divers plunged into the Java Sea on Thursday to search the wreckage of an AirAsia jet for the black box recorders that could reveal why the plane crashed, Indonesia's search and rescue agency said. Flight QZ8501 vanished from radar screens over the northern Java Sea on Dec. 28, less than half-way into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors among the 162 people on board. The cause of the crash remains a mystery, with hopes centering on the so-called black boxes - the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder - providing vital clues. The plane which crashed was an Airbus A320-200, which carries the recorders near the tail section. The tail of the plane was found on Wednesday, upturned on the sea bed about 30 km (20 miles) from the plane's last known location at a depth of around 28-32 meters. "After we found the tail, our plan is to do everything step by step," Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, head of the search and rescue agency, told a news conference in Jakarta. "First we will (check whether) the black box is still at its place, in the tail, or if it has detached." A total of 84 divers are in ships in the vicinity and teams began searching the jet's tail at 0645 local time (6.45 p.m. EST), with visibility poor and strong currents still impeding efforts, Soelistyo added. Should diving teams confirm the location of the recorders, the tail will probably be plucked out of the sea using a crane capable of lifting 70 tonnes. Ships with acoustic "pinger locators" designed to pick up signals from the black boxes were at the location but were no longer being used, in a possible sign of confidence among Indonesian officials that the recorders will be found soon. Two Japanese ships that were part of the international effort to find the plane would now leave the mission on Friday, Soelistyo added. "Now that the tail is confirmed, we are confident," Mardjono Siswosuwarno, the main investigator of the National Transportation Safety Committee, told Reuters late on Wednesday. "In my opinion, the pinger locators are no longer necessary to finding the black box." Forty bodies and debris from the plane have been plucked from the surface of the waters off Borneo, but strong winds and high waves have been hampering divers' efforts to reach larger pieces of suspected wreckage detected by sonar on the sea floor. In Pangkalan Bun, the southern Borneo town closest to the crash site, Indonesian armed forces chief Moeldoko said he would personally lead any mission to lift the jet's tail. Weather agency officials warned on Thursday that although weather conditions at search areas had improved over the last two days, it was likely to worsen from Friday onwards. Indonesia AirAsia, 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based AirAsia budget group, has come under pressure from the authorities in Jakarta since the crash. The transport ministry has suspended the carrier's Surabaya-Singapore license, saying it only had permission to fly the route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Flight QZ8501 took off on a Sunday, though the ministry said this had no bearing on the accident. AirAsia has said it is cooperating fully with the ministry's investigations. That investigation would be completed by Friday evening, the transport ministry said. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/08/us-indonesia-airplane-idUSKBN0KG09L20150108 Back to Top Scrawl found on United jet, attendants fired when they refuse to fly attendants fired Thirteen flight attendants said they were fired after refusing to fly when symbols were found on jet. (Katz, Marshall & Banks) Thirteen flight attendants filed a whistle-blower complaint against United Airlines on Wednesday, alleging that they were fired in retaliation for refusing to fly after discovering drawings on the aircraft's tail that they found menacing. On July 14, 2014, United crews departing from San Francisco International Airport bound for Hong Kong found the words "BYE BYE" in six-inch high letters alongside two faces, one smiling and the other one also smiling, but with eye brows drawn in a more sinister expression. The writing was traced in an oil slick from the auxiliary engine in the Boeing 747-4000 aircraft's tail cone. In the 26-page complaint, the flight attendants said that the markings constituted a"credible and specific threat to the safety of the aircraft." The flight attendants informed United officials they were uncomfortable flying unless extra security measures were taken. They asked for deplaning the 300-plus passengers and a safety sweep to ensure that no explosive devices were planted on the plane. According to the complaint, United refused to comply with their request. In a statement released Wednesday, United spokeswoman Christen David said that three divisions thoroughly investigated the drawings, including conducting additional security checks, before determining there was no threat. "All of FAA's and United's own safety procedures were followed, including a comprehensive safety sweep prior to boarding, and the pilots, mechanics and safety leaders deemed the aircraft entirely safe to fly," David said in a written statement. The crew said they were already on heightened alert after the disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370 and a warning issued a week earlier from the Transportation Security Administration about possible phone and laptop bombs. "Given the gravity of the risk involved -- the lives of passengers and crew alike -- we were not willing to bow to United's pressure to ignore an unresolved security threat even though the company made clear that we risked losing our jobs," Grace Lam, a veteran flight attendant, said in a press statement. The airline accused the flight attendants of insubordination and fired them. The complaint was filed with the U.S Department of Labor, which adjudicates airline whistle blower complaints. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-scary-drawing-on-plane-complaint-20150107- story.html Back to Top Missing MH370: Search Will Prioritize Finding Jet's Black Boxes Nine Months Later, No Trace of Missing Jet The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has now covered an area of ocean floor the size of Connecticut, investigators said Wednesday as they announced a plan to prioritize the hunt for the jet's missing black boxes. More than 5,400 square miles of the bottom of the southern Indian Ocean have now been searched without any sign of the Boeing 777, the Australia Transportation Safety Bureau said in an operational update, and more than 80,000 square miles of sea bed have now been mapped by specialist vessels. "Assuming no significant delays with vessels, equipment or from the weather, the current underwater search area may be largely completed around May 2015," the update said. MH370 disappeared on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. Not a single piece of debris has been found. The ATSB said data from the bathymetric survey was being used to focus the search effort. "In addition to locating the aircraft, the underwater search aims to map the MH370 debris field in order to identify and prioritize the recovery of specific aircraft components, including flight recorders, which will assist with the Malaysian investigation." http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/missing-mh370-search-will-prioritize-finding- jets-black-boxes-n281231 Back to Top Back to Top More pilots, attendants to be hired by NetJets An improved economy has led to an increase in business and private-aviation flights. As a result, Columbus-based NetJets plans to hire 187 pilots and as many as 50 flight attendants to meet this growing demand. "Due to the strength of our business, we were able to not only recall pilots who were furloughed in 2009 because of the economic downturn, but grow our business to the point where we can open the door for new team members as well," NetJets Chief Operating Officer Bill Noe said in a statement. NetJets doesn't disclose revenue, but officials said the number of hours its planes were in the air rose 7 percent in 2014 after a 6 percent jump in 2013. The company has about 2,600 pilots in the U.S., with 222 based in central Ohio. About 50 of its 256 flight attendants are based here. "It's hard to say where the new pilots will be based. Our pilots can live anywhere," said NetJets spokeswoman Christine Herbert. The company furloughed about 500 pilots in 2009. Since then, "We've recalled all the ones who were still available," she said. NetJets and its pilots union have been in talks for a new labor agreement since May 2013, and " there's nothing new to report," Herbert said. The parties are operating under the terms of the expired contract. Business aviation is on the upswing nationally, and NetJets was in a good position to take advantage, said one industry expert. "The economy has been strong enough for long enough to justify more corporate flights and private aviation flights," said Scott Liston, executive vice president of the consulting firm Argus International Inc. Flight activity was up 3.7 percent in November compared with the previous year, according to Argus data. This was the 12th consecutive month of year-over-year growth. "NetJets is regarded as a market leader," Liston said. "That's a result of their continuously updating their fleet and their commitment to safety and service." NetJets has a fleet of more than 700 jets worldwide and is in the midst of a 10-year plan to buy up to 670 aircraft for $17.6 billion to refresh its fleet. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2015/01/08/more-pilots-attendants-to-be- hired-by-netjets.html Back to Top Balloon pilots prepare to break long-distance record ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - An international team led by two veteran pilots is preparing to break a pair of major ballooning records when it launches its helium-filled balloon this week. Albuquerque pilot Troy Bradley and fellow pilot Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia say they anticipate launching early Friday morning from Saga, Japan. The team's mission control will be located in Albuquerque at the Anderson Abruzzo International Balloon Museum. The two pilots aiming for the shores of North America, an attempt that will put them on course to break a distance record of 5,208 miles. They're also looking to break the flight-duration record set in 1978 when Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman made the first trans-Atlantic balloon flight. That record of 137 hours in the air in a traditional gas balloon is considered the "holy grail" of ballooning achievements. http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3669126.shtml#.VK6FbivF98E 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 Upcoming Events: IS-BAO Workshop Information and Registration 13 - 14 Jan. 2015 Baltimore, MD USA https://www.regonline.com/CalendarNET/EventCalendar.aspx?EventID=1592658&view=Month 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 ERAU NextGen 101 Seminar April 21-22, 2015. Washington D.C. http://proed.erau.edu/programs/specialized-industry-training/nextgen-101- seminar/index.html FAA Helicopter Safety Effort three-day safety forum April 21-23, 2015 Hurst, Texas eugene.trainor@faa.gov www.faahelisafety.org Curt Lewis