Flight Safety Information January 15, 2015 - No. 011 In This Issue Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: New Deep Sea Drone Could Be Final Hope Of Finding Missing Plane Cabin smoke forces United Airlines flight to return to Newark The least safe airlines in the world revealed MoD urged to fit anti-collision system to RAF jets (U.K.) Indonesian Air-Traffic Control Is Unsophisticated, Pilots Say PROS 2015 TRAINING Delta Jumbo Jet Gets Rare Retirement Reprieve Ahead of 747's End Research Survey Request Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship ERAU NextGen 101 Seminar - Washington, D.C. Upcoming Events Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: New Deep Sea Drone Could Be Final Hope Of Finding Missing Plane The final hope of locating wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may come down to a new, deep sea drone which will cruise the floor of the Indian Ocean in the area where searchers believe the plane must have gone down back on March 8, 2014. The three ships currently searching for the missing plane in an area investigators call the "Seventh Arc" have covered about 5,500 square miles of rugged ocean floor so far - an area about the size of the state of Connecticut. While the international search team, headed by Australian officials, believes the entire 23,000 square mile area that lies 1,000 miles off the coast of Perth, Australia, can be searched by the end of May, currently the high-tech vessels are looking for the Flight MH370 wreckage using sophisticated cameras lowered by tethered cables nearly four miles down to the bottom of he ocean. But a fourth ship now joining the search effort, the Australian Fugro Supporter, is equipped with an "autonomous underwater vessel" - in other words, a robot submarine, or drone - known as the Kongsberg HUGIN 4500 which can leave the ship on its own and search the bottom of the sea for any trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 without ties to a ship on the surface. "The AUV will be used to scan those portions of the search area that cannot be searched effectively by the equipment on the other search vessels," Australian search officials said in a prepared statement. The drone, with its parent ship, is set to arrive in the remote region of the Indian Ocean where the other three vessels are hunting for Flight 370 debris sometime later in January. The missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was carrying 239 passengers and crew on what was supposed to be a routine, redeye flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it suddenly cut off all communication with the ground. Investigators believe Flight MH370, for reasons that remain unknown, then took a sharp westward turn and flew for seven more hours and thousands of miles. Finally, the searchers believe, the errant aircraft would have run out of fuel and crashed violently into the remote Indian Ocean. But more than 10 months later, not a single shred of physical evidence that would indicate what actually happened to the Malaysia Airlines plane has turned up, creating the single most baffling and tragic mystery in the 101-year history of commercial aviation. The Malaysian government, however, has vowed that it will never abandon the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 - and the missing people who were aboard the plane. http://www.inquisitr.com/1755649/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370- drone/#oDCo8OoivmrAYi6O.99 Back to Top Cabin smoke forces United Airlines flight to return to Newark A United Airlines 767-400 airliner parked inside a specially built hanger at Newark Airport. A United 767 had to return to the airport Wednesday morning due to a smoke condition in the cabin. (Ed Murray | The Star-Ledger) A United Airlines flight bound for London with 84 people on board had to return to Newark Liberty international airport Wednesday morning after the pilot reported smoke in the cabin. The flight, United 922 to Heathrow Airport, left from Newark airport and returned at 10:41 a.m., after the smoke condition was reported, said Federal Aviation Administration officials. The FAA is investigating what caused the smoke issue in the Boeing 767 airliner. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials said the plane returned without incident. FAA officials said the smoke was initially reported in the passenger cabin. http://www.nj.com/traffic/index.ssf/2015/01/ Back to Top The least safe airlines in the world revealed AIRLINES from Nepal, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan bottomed out on a list of the world's safest carriers. AirAsia, which recently lost 162 passengers and crew in an Indonesia-to-Singapore journey, also rated poorly on safety ranking made by AirlineRaings.com. The online airline journal evaluated 449 airlines from across the globe. The airlines were rated on a seven-star system that leaned on accreditation from various international flight bodies. If any airline used exclusively Russian-made equipment, it lost one star automatically. Nepal's Tara Air also fared badly sitting in the one star category. The worst of the worst were Nepal's Tara Air and Nepal Airlines, Kazakhstan's Scat Airlines and Afghanistan's Kam Air which all received just one star. Amazingly, Malaysia Airlines - which had Flight 370 vanish without a trace in March with 239 people on board - had high safety scores with five stars. AirAsia subsidiaries in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines didn't fare well, scoring just two, three and three stars respectively. AirAsia has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons. There were 149 airlines that scored the max of seven stars. Qantas, which hasn't had a fatal crash in the jet era, was named the world's safest airlines. Others in the top 10 included, in alphabetical order, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines. http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/the-least-safe-airlines-in-the-world- revealed/story-fn6yjmoc-1227185513074 Back to Top MoD urged to fit anti-collision system to RAF jets (U.K.) Typhoon An anti-collision system is being developed for the Typhoon, the MoD says Typhoon fighter jets should be fitted with collision warning devices to avoid a "catastrophic" mid-air crash, the UK's military aviation watchdog has warned the Ministry of Defence. The Military Aviation Authority (MAA) said a crash between a Typhoon and a commercial jet was "improbable" but could cause "substantial loss of life". Collision avoidance systems should be installed "with full haste", it said. The Ministry of Defence said programmes to fit the systems had begun. The MAA's advice follows a critical report issued last year into a mid-air collision between two RAF Tornados over the Moray Firth, off the coast of Caithness. Three men were killed and another seriously injured in the incident in 2012. 'Well-documented failings' Accident investigators concluded that the lack of a collision warning system onboard had contributed to the accident. The MAA's annual air safety report published on Wednesday praised "good progress" by the MoD overall, but said failure to upgrade safety equipment on Typhoons was "unsustainable". The director general of the MAA, Air Marshal Richard Garwood, said anti-collision software should also be fitted to the new F35 fighter. AM Garwood said there were "well documented failings over the fitment of an airborne collision avoidance system (ACAS) to Tornado GR4". He added: "In the worst case, which is judged improbable but catastrophic, a Typhoon colliding with commercial air traffic could result in severe consequences for the MoD because of the likely substantial third party loss of life." Such a crash, he warned, could result in more than 50 deaths, and "would have adverse repercussions for the institution responsible, in this case the government of the day". AM Garwood said: "Ultimately, the Typhoon will be in service for many years, and if the MoD elects not to fit an ACAS, the decision will need to be well documented and the risk held at the highest levels of defence." F-35B The MAA has also recommended a systems for the new F35 The MoD said a collision avoidance system was being fitted to the Tornado GR4, the type of aircraft involved in the 2012 crash. Work was also under way to have a system developed for Typhoons, the MoD said. It added that "further technologies" and "planned upgrades" were proposed for the new F35 fighter. An MoD spokesman said: "The department has welcomed the MAA's report, and is acting upon its comments and recommendations. "Air safety is at the core of all our aviation activity and we take very seriously our obligations to our people and the wider community to ensure that our activities are both as safe as reasonably practicable and comply with relevant policy and legislation." SNP Westminster leader and Defence spokesperson, Angus Robertson MP - whose constituency includes RAF Lossiemouth, home of Tornados and now Typhoons said: "This is a hugely damning report for the MoD. "Twenty years after it was proven and recommended that these systems would save lives they remain to this day uninstalled. "It is clear that the MoD with its cavalier approach to safety has learned no lessons as it has not even made the systems mandatory on new fast jets it acquires, while it drags its feet installing them on the ones they use already." http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-30820887 Back to Top Indonesian Air-Traffic Control Is Unsophisticated, Pilots Say Technology for Air-Traffic Control Is Basic by Industry Standards A photo taken from an Indonesian Air Force helicopter Jan. 10 showed a portion of the tail of AirAsia Flight 8501 on the deck of a rescue ship. Indonesia's air-traffic control technology remains basic by industry standards, pilots say. SURABAYA, Indonesia-Pilots in Indonesia say the archipelago nation's air-traffic control system is unsophisticated and doesn't do enough to help airliners contend with poor flying conditions, concerns that are getting more attention after last month's crash of an AirAsia plane over Indonesian waters. Indonesia's air traffic control technology remains basic by industry standards despite a boom in air travel as its middle class expands and budget carriers slash fares to compete for passengers. To improve the state of its air traffic control infrastructure, the country formed AirNav, a state-owned air traffic control company in 2013. But Indonesia still lacks computer systems that integrate the tracking of aircraft and weather patterns, as well as technology that crunches data to automate suggestions for safe flight paths in crowded skies. Indonesian air-traffic controllers often leave pilots to identify potential weather problems and suggest flight diversions themselves, a role controllers should be more aggressive in playing, pilots and aviation experts say. New technology could help controllers do this, as they do in many developed air markets, experts say. Even the weather radar systems and other equipment most commercial airlines have on board offer more information than Indonesian air-traffic controllers get from their gear on the ground, said veteran commercial pilot Rendy Sasmita Adji. Air-traffic controllers "see in 2-D. We see in 3-D," he said, referring to that data gap. ENLARGE Bambang Cahyono, chief executive of AirNav, said the group is exploring installing systems that could better track flight routes relative to weather patterns. He didn't elaborate further on Indonesia's air traffic control system or its impact on pilots looking to safely avoid bad weather. Air-crash investigators haven't said what led Flight 8501 to crash into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 en route to Singapore from Surabaya, though the recovery this week of both black boxes containing important flight information is expected to help the probe advance quickly. Indonesia's meteorological agency has already speculated that an ominous weather system over the Java Sea played a role, issuing a report Jan. 2 that said icing from storm clouds is the most likely explanation for the crash. Authorities haven't said air-traffic control capabilities had any impact on the loss of the plane, nor outside of the weather agency, have they blamed the weather. Indonesia has made progress after investing heavily in aviation safety after a spate of crashes in the 1990s and 2000s. The government upgraded radio and radar ground stations and installed a network of antennas on volcanoes and in mountain valleys using a system called ADS-B, or automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast, to fill in gaps in coverage. Mr. Adji, a captain with 25 years of experience at national carrier Garuda Indonesia who now flies to the Middle East, says it was much worse in the '70s and '80s. He recalls having to wake up air-traffic controllers at regional airstrips by flying low over the towers. Pop music from local radio stations sometimes drifted onto communications channels because of antiquated transmitters. But Indonesia's air-traffic control equipment is antiquated compared with what is used in Singapore and Hong Kong, which have sophisticated systems that display plane routes alongside weather systems. This equipment lets controllers help pilots in busy skies find the safest ways around weather hazards. Similar systems are used in the developed air- travel markets of the U.S., Europe and other parts of Asia. Indonesia's air-traffic controllers have access to printouts and online copies of satellite weather images. But when it comes to what they see on their screens, "They just look at the route and the blinking of the airplane on the radar screen," said Adhy Gunawan, a pilot and a member of the advisory board for Indonesia's federation of pilots. Adopting systems that increase their awareness of weather would be "very helpful and useful to pilots," he said. Indonesia also lacks a computerized air traffic flow management system, which helps controllers position planes at safe distances from one another and suggests delays or diversions to prevent bottlenecks at airports. In bad weather or other cases when routes are congested, these systems help stop aircraft from heading toward areas where traffic is already tangled, said Andrew Herdsman, the director of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. The traffic flow management system is "basically a semiautomatic jigsaw puzzle," said Indonesian aviation expert Gerry Soejatman. The systems, part of a move toward automation for all aspects of aviation, combine computing power with air-traffic controllers' judgment to piece together the best routes for multiple planes, he added. Mr. Cahyono said AirNav is discussing acquiring a computerized flow management system. The country's air traffic control computers don't allow real-time tracking of storms partly because of difficulties in placing weather-radar ground systems. Much of Indonesia's airspace is over water, where installing weather radar is costly, and other parts of the archipelago lack the electricity infrastructure to power ground stations, Mr. Soejatman said. Authorities are also considering installing more sophisticated systems at its two air-traffic control centers in Jakarta and Makassar that map flight routes over satellite weather images. Flight 8501's pilots, Capt. Iriyanto and co-pilot Rémi Emmanuel Plesel, made two requests to change course over the Java Sea before air-traffic controllers lost contact with the plane. AirNav approved Flight 8501's initial request to alter its course seven miles to the left to avoid storm clouds. When moments later the pilot requested to climb 6,000 feet to 38,000 feet, in what turned out to be the last communication from the cockpit, AirNav told pilots to stand by. About 2˝ minutes later, AirNav instructed Flight 8501 to wait because another plane was in the way. About two minutes after that, when skies near the jet cleared, AirNav sent approval to climb to 34,000 feet. An air-traffic control official in Indonesia speaking on condition of anonymity said the response time was reasonable. http://www.wsj.com/articles/indonesian-air-traffic-control-is-unsophisticated-pilots-say- 1421292025 Back to Top Back to Top Delta Jumbo Jet Gets Rare Retirement Reprieve Ahead of 747's End Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) is hanging on to one of the Boeing 747 jumbo jets it retired last year, a reprieve for an aircraft increasingly out of favor in the industry. Four of the 16 humpbacked wide-bodies were pulled from service in 2014 as Delta moves toward retiring the entire fleet by 2017. One of these four planes will be retained as an operational spare and may be used for charter flights and when another plane has mechanical problems, said Michael Thomas, a spokesman. A memo distributed to Delta pilots Jan. 6 says the four-engine jumbo would be flown between Atlanta and Honolulu between late May and mid-August. A twin-engine Airbus Group NV (AIR) A330 now serves that route. Thomas said he couldn't confirm the details in the memo, saying only that the 747 could be deployed for various purposes. Like other airlines, Delta has been retiring its jumbos in favor of smaller, more fuel- efficient jets that can make flights once reserved just for the largest planes. About 17 percent of the global fleet of 747-400s, the version operated by Delta, was in storage last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Delta's 747s averaged 22.4 years of age as of the carrier's third-quarter regulatory filing, the second-oldest aircraft type among its 764 jets. Delta and United Airlines are the only major U.S. airlines flying the 747 in passenger service, and United also plans to retire its jumbos. Boeing Co. (BA) has struggled to sell the jet's latest model, the 747-8, failing to pick up any net new orders last year and has cut back on monthly production. More Pilots For Delta, the 747's retention also means it will have to keep more mainline pilots, rather than shifting them to other aircraft, since it will have 13 of the jumbos this year instead of 12, the memo says. The carrier said in September it will let as many as 50 pilots retire early as it pulls the jumbo jets from its fleet. Kelly Regus, a spokeswoman for the Delta chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association, said pilots shouldn't suffer from the airline's retirement of its 747s. The airline's recent decision to buy 50 wide-body aircraft from Airbus means it will have more long-haul jets in the next few years, even with the 747's phase-out. "This is Delta's decision not ours, but we see a bright future with a profitable airline," Regus said. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Sasso in Atlanta at msasso9@bloomberg.net http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-14/delta-jumbo-jet-gets-rare-retirement- reprieve-ahead-of-747-s-end.html Back to Top Research Survey Request Limited Job Task Analysis Validation Survey The Center for Aviation Safety Research at Saint Louis University (USA) invites active and recently retired pilots, check airmen and instructors to validate a Limited Job Task Analysis for professional pilots. This task analysis focuses on a select set of phases of flight and seeks your opinion regarding the criticality of the underpinning knowledge requirements. This task analysis was developed with the help of an international panel of subject matter experts and practicing professional pilots. We are requesting you to kindly take this 45-minute online survey (https://slu.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0GuI969wyJB4snP ) to validate our draft of the task analysis. Please note that we need to have all survey responses by January 15, 2015. And, if you have friends who are qualified to support this research, we respectfully ask that you forward this invitation to them, as well. If you have any trouble accessing the survey, please feel free to contact Dr. Manoj Patankar, Executive Director of the Center for Aviation Safety, at patankar@slu.edu or 314-977-8725. 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 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: 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