Flight Safety Information February 3, 2015 - No. 023 In This Issue Taiwan plane careens into river after take-off, killing 23 Business jet makers want out of U.N. aircraft tracking plan U.N. proceeds with conflict zone flight plan despite Russian doubts. TransAsia Safety Record Under Scrutiny After Second ATR72 Crash. PROS 2015 TRAINING Research Survey Request Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship Position Available Upcoming Events Taiwan plane careens into river after take-off, killing 23 (Reuters) - A TransAsia Airways (6702.TW) plane with 58 passengers and crew on board careered into a river shortly after taking off from a downtown Taipei airport on Wednesday, killing 23 people and leaving 20 missing, officials said. Fifteen people somehow survived the crash after the plane lurched between buildings, clipped a taxi and an overpass with its port-side wing and crashed upside down in the shallow water. Dramatic pictures taken by a motorist and posted on Twitter showed the plane careening over the motorway soon after the turboprop ATR 72-600 aircraft took off in apparently clear weather on a domestic flight for the island of Kinmen. "I've never seen anything like this," a volunteer rescuer surnamed Chen said of the most recent in a series of disasters to hit Asian carriers in the past 12 months. Television footage showed survivors wearing life jackets wading and swimming clear of wreckage. Others, including a young child, were taken to shore in inflatable boats. Emergency rescue officials crowded around the partially submerged fuselage of flight GE235, lying on its side in the river, trying to help those on board. TransAsia GE235: BEST Raw Footage of Crash In Taiwan The plane missed apartment buildings by metres, though it was not clear if that was luck or whether the pilot was aiming for the river. Footage showed a van skidding to a halt on the damaged overpass after barely missing the plane's wing, with small pieces of the aircraft scattered along the road. The chief executive of TransAsia, Peter Chen, bowed deeply at a televised news conference as he apologised to passengers and crew. TransAsia's shares closed down 6.9 percent in heavy trade, its biggest percentage decline since late 2011. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said his government had offered Taiwan any help necessary following the crash. "MAYDAY MAYDAY" The last communication from one of the aircraft's pilots was "Mayday Mayday engine flameout," according to an air traffic control recording on liveatc.net. A flameout occurs when the fuel supply to the engine is interrupted or when there is faulty combustion, resulting in an engine failure. Twin-engined aircraft, however, are usually able to keep flying even when one engine has failed. The plane was powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW127M engines. Pratt & Whitney is part of United Technologies (UTX.N). The head of Taiwan's civil aviation authority, Lin Tyh-ming, said the aircraft last underwent maintenance on Jan. 26. The pilot had 4,916 hours of flying hours under his belt and the co-pilot had 6,922 hours, he said. Taipei's downtown Songshan airport, the smaller of the city's two airports, provides mostly domestic flights but also connections to Japan, China and South Korea. A statement from China's Taiwan Affairs Office said 31 of those on board were tourists from the southeastern city of Xiamen, which lies close to Taiwan's Kinmen island. The crash is the latest in a string of mishaps to hit Asian carriers in the past 12 months. An AirAsia (AIRA.KL) jet bound for Singapore crashed soon after taking off from the Indonesian city of Surabaya on Dec. 28, killing all 162 people on board. Also last year, a Malaysia Airlines MASM.KL jet disappeared and one of its sister planes was downed over Ukraine with a combined loss of 537 lives. TransAsia is Taiwan's third-largest carrier. One of its ATR 72-500 planes crashed while trying to land at Penghu Island last July, killing 48 of the 58 passengers and crew on board. Taiwan has had a poor aviation safety record in recent years, including the disintegration of a China Airlines (2610.TW) 747 on a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong in 2002, killing 225. In 2000, a Singapore Airlines jetliner taking off for Los Angeles during a storm hit construction equipment on the runway, killing dozens. The plane involved in Wednesday's mishap was among the first of the ATR 72-600s, the latest variant of the turboprop aircraft, that TransAsia received in 2014 as part of an order of eight aircraft two years earlier. The 72-seat aircraft are mainly used to connect the capital, Taipei, with smaller cities and islands. ATR is a joint venture between Airbus (AIR.PA) and Alenia Aermacchi, a subsidiary of Italy's Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI). http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/04/us-taiwan-airplane-idUSKBN0L808520150204 ************* Status: Preliminary Date: Wednesday 4 February 2015 Time: 10:55 Type: ATR 72-600 (72-212A) Operator: TransAsia Airways Registration: B-22816 C/n / msn: 1141 First flight: 2014-03-28 (10 months) Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127M Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: 5 Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants: 53 Total: Fatalities: 23 / Occupants: 58 Airplane damage: Destroyed Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: 5,3 km (3.3 mls) E of Taipei-Sung Shan Airport (TSA) ( Taiwan) Phase: Initial climb (ICL) Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Taipei-Sung Shan Airport (TSA/RCSS), Taiwan Destination airport: Kinmen-Shang-Yi Airport (KNH/RCBS), Taiwan Flightnumber: GE235 Narrative: A Transasia ATR-72-600 operating as Flight GE235 from Taipei to Kinmen Island impacted a highway viaduct and the waters of the Keelung River near New Taipei City shortly after takeoff. Twenty-three occupants on board the airplane are reported to have suffered fatal injuries. Fifteen were injured and twenty remain missing. The airplane took off from Taipei-Sung Shan Airport's runway 10 at 10:51 hours local time and turned right, climbing to an altitude of 1350 feet. Instead of continuing the climbing right hand turn, the airplane turned left and began losing altitude and speed. Meanwhile the flight contacted the Sung Shan Tower controller declaring a Mayday and reporting an 'engine failure'. It then turned to the right before banking left again as it impacted the viaduct with the left hand wing. The airplane broke up as it impacted the river. Sources: » Channel News Asia » Straits Times » TVBS METAR Weather report: 02:00 UTC / 10:00 local time: RCSS 040200Z 11007KT 9999 -DZ FEW013 BKN028 BKN040 16/14 Q1024 NOSIG RMK A3026 02:25 UTC / 10:25 local time: RCSS 040225Z 10008KT 9999 FEW013 BKN028 BKN040 16/13 Q1024 NOSIG RMK A3026 03:00 UTC / 11:00 local time: RCSS 040300Z 10010KT 9999 FEW015 BKN028 BKN040 16/13 Q1024 NOSIG RMK A3025 Winds: 100 degrees at 10 knots; few clouds at 1500 feet; broken clouds at 2800 feet; broken clouds at 4000 feet; Temperature: 16°C; Dewpoint: 13°C; Pressure: 1024 mb www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Business jet makers want out of U.N. aircraft tracking plan (Reuters) - Business jets, which mostly carry the rich and powerful, should not be subject to a United Nations proposal to require plane makers to install costly equipment that would better track aircraft, an industry group said on Tuesday. The U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has proposed fitting commercial jets with ejectable flight recorders and wants them to report their positions more frequently. The goal is to help rescuers find missing planes more quickly. The International Business Aviation Council, which represents business jet makers, said the plan should not apply to jets with 19 or fewer passenger seats. "When they spend their safety dollars, they really want value for money," said Peter Ingleton, director of the group's ICAO liaison office. "There doesn't seem to be value for money, safety-wise, in diverting safety expenditures away from traditional areas into things like tracking and deployables," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a global safety meeting. A draft of the tracking plan released before the conference did not include the exemption, but in a presentation on Tuesday ICAO's Secretariat said it should only apply to planes with a take-off mass of more than 27,000 kg and with more than 19 seats. That detail, like the rest of the plan, will need to be approved by ICAO's governing council after the conference. Ingleton said the added cost of installing new safety devices are more easily defrayed on larger commercial planes than on a small business jet where the expense would be spread over a smaller number of passengers. "It's a huge cost that would push up the cost of the airplane to the customer." ICAO's new safety proposals come after the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner last March. Global aviation leaders are gathered in Montreal to push for new standards in tracking aircraft. The new guidelines call for a combination of regular tracking in normal flight and accelerated signals whenever an aircraft flying over oceans or deserted areas gets into trouble. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/04/us-airlines-icao-jets-idUSKBN0L800E20150204 Back to Top U.N. proceeds with conflict zone flight plan despite Russian doubts Members of the Russian delegation listen to proceedings at the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) global safety meeting in Montreal, February 3, 2015. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi (Reuters) - The United Nations aviation agency said at a major safety conference on Tuesday it will press ahead with plans to establish a warning system for airlines on conflict zone risks despite reservations from Russia. Aviation officials also rallied behind a plan to track commercial aircraft in a twin response to several Malaysian airline disasters last year. A senior Russian official had told a gathering of the International Civil Aviation Organization that plans for a centralized information-sharing system posed legal risks that could only be addressed by a full meeting of all 191 ICAO member states in 2016. But ICAO Secretary-General Raymond Benjamin said the Russian intervention would not delay the initiative to next year. "The Russian Federation has proposed certain amendments, but there was no support for these proposals," he told Reuters. The U.N.'s aviation agency, has been under pressure to come up with a new system to protect aircraft from risks after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over eastern Ukraine last July. The incident occurred during fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia separatist rebels. The United States has said the plane was hit by a ground-to-air missile fired by the Russian-backed rebels, but Moscow blamed the Ukrainian military for downing it. "I think it would reflect on us very badly ... if we did not see these ideas through to delivery," Patricia Hayes, Britain's top aviation official, told the ICAO safety conference. Speaking for the European Union, the Netherlands, which lost 196 citizens aboard MH17, said there was no need to delay setting up an information-sharing prototype. In a statement, ICAO said its members strongly supported the scheme and referred the matter to its 36- nation Council, of which Russia is a member. A final decision is not expected until later this year. ICAO rarely grabs headlines, but diplomats say its 70-year-old system of aviation standards is among the most effective examples of international co-operation, albeit one that is often criticized for taking too long to make decisions. Last year's Malaysian airlines' tragedies have echoed round its corridors in some of the most sensitive debates since the downing of a South Korean civilian airliner by a Soviet fighter jet in 1983 or that of Iran Air flight 655 by a U.S. warship in the Gulf in 1988. In a brief spat on the floor of Tuesday's meeting, Ukraine demanded that parts of a Russian working paper on MH17 be withdrawn. REAL-TIME TRACKING ICAO members also backed a tight deadline to improve the tracking of passenger planes in a push to prevent a recurrence of the still unsolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Several nations are keen to show progress in time for the March 8 anniversary of MH370. Regulators and airlines were criticised for responding too slowly to French recommendations on tracking following the crash of an Air France jet over the Atlantic in 2009. ICAO urged airlines not to wait to install tracking systems that are already available. "We know that there are technologies available today," Nancy Graham, director of ICAO's Air Navigation Bureau, said. Britain, China, the United States and others supported the tracking improvements which would apply progressively from November 2016. Aircraft would have to send their position at least every 15 minutes, or more often in case of emergency, but it would be up to each state to decide how and when to implement this. Malaysia said it was "unacceptable" that an aircraft or its crucial flight recorders could be lost, decades after satellites were invented. Airlines have been criticised for backing away from stop-gap proposals to fit existing tracking technology in their planes within 12 months. The International Air Transport Association, which represents about 200 airlines, defended their record. "Many airlines are tracking their aircraft today," said IATA Director General Tony Tyler. He urged regulators, however, to ensure that "hasty action" did not add complexity or "unintended impacts on safety." http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/04/us-airlines-icao-idUSKBN0L800A20150204 Back to Top TransAsia Safety Record Under Scrutiny After Second ATR72 Crash SINGAPORE - Regulators are likely to scrutinize TransAsia Airways and its fleet of ATR72 turboprop aircraft after Wednesday's crash in Taiwan, its second fatal accident in seven months. Industry data showed the crash of Flight GE235, in which at least 16 people were killed, was the fifth aircraft the airline has written off since 1995. The death toll could still rise after the ATR 72-600, which had 58 passengers and crew on board, crashed into a river shortly after taking off from Taipei's Songshan airport. This comes just seven months after a TransAsia ATR 72-500 crashed while trying to land at Penghu Island, killing 48 of the 58 passengers and crew on board. There have been two other fatal accidents and another two major incidents in the airline's history, according to data from Flightglobal Ascend, an industry consultancy. In December 2012, an ATR 72-200 freighter crashed en route to Macau from Taipei, killing both crew members. In 1995, an ATR 72-200 crashed into a hill near Songshan, killing all four crew. In 2003, an Airbus A321 was written off after colliding with a vehicle that had strayed onto the runway while the plane was landing. A year later, an Airbus A320 was severely damaged when it over-ran the runway while landing at Songshan. There were no fatalities in either of those incidents. Investigators into the latest disaster are likely to focus on cockpit procedures and maintenance issues at the airline, said Greg Waldron, Asia Managing Editor at Flightglobal. "Coming so soon after July's crash, the airline could come under intense scrutiny by regulators, not to mention the impact this will have on public perceptions of the carrier," he added. Taiwan had a poor air safety record from the 1980s to the early 2000s due to several fatal crashes, mostly at flag carrier China Airlines. Before last year's TransAsia incident, Taiwan's last fatal crash came in May 2002 when a China Airlines Boeing 747-200 broke up mid-air on the way to Hong Kong, killing all 225 people on board. That prompted the Taiwan government, with help from agencies such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA), to revamp its regulatory agencies. China Airlines also reviewed its procedures and passed IATA's International Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) in 2005, which meant that it met global safety standards. The focus now is on TransAsia, which was listed on the Taiwan stock exchange in November 2011 and remains a much smaller player than China Airlines and EVA Air. The airline, which also has Airbus A320s and A330s, mainly operates services from Taiwan to other Northeast Asian destinations in China and Japan. It also has services to South Korea, Macau, Thailand and Cambodia. Its ambitious management has, in the past, expressed hopes of eventually becoming a larger carrier with services to Europe or the United States using aircraft such as the Airbus A380. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/transasia-safety-record-under-scrutiny-after-second-atr72-crash- n299886 Back to Top NTSB: Selfies caused fatal Colo. plane crash DENVER - Investigators with the National Transportation and Safety Board said selfies likely contributed to a plane crash that killed two eight months ago. The pilot, 29-year-old Amritpal Singh, and his passenger were killed near the Front Range Airport near Watkins on May 31. The Cessna 150 took off at around 12:30 a.m and was reported missing at 3:45 a.m. by family members. It was discovered around 7 a.m. that morning. According to an NTSB report, recordings from a GoPro camera recovered from the crash scene revealed that Singh and his passenger were taking selfies with their cellphones during the flight. The flash from the phones disoriented Singh, causing him to lose control of the airplane, the report said. The NTSB said the 29-year-old pilot did not meet the requirements for night flights with passengers. Singh was listed as the owner of the plane. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/03/ntsb-selfies-disoriented-pilot-causing- crash/22785475/ Back to Top Back to Top Research Survey Request CASR's Limited Job Task Analysis Validation Survey Extended to February 28, 2015 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 February 28, 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 GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Hello, My name is Samuel Lien and I am a Masters of Applied Science student working under the supervisions of Dr. Jonathan Histon in the Human in Complex Systems (HCOM) Lab of the Human Factor Research Group in the System Designs Department at the University of Waterloo. The reason we are contacting you is that we are conducting a study that looks at the effect of information asynchrony on pilot-ATC communication. We are currently seeking subject-matter experts including active or retired professional pilots (commercial or higher rating) and air traffic controllers (terminal / enroute) as our participants to the study. Participation in this study involves going to our online experiment website from your computer as the experiment will be conducted online. In appreciation of the time you have given to this study, you can enter your name into a draw for 1 of 10 prizes. The prizes include $100 amazon.com gift card. Your odds of winning one of the prizes is approximately 1 in 4. I would like to assure you that the study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee. However, the final decision about participation is yours. To be clear, this experiment is not an official Nav Canada / FAA / NASA funded/sponsored/endorsed research activity but is a student research project. If you are interested in finding out more, please visit the website link here at: http://rbhagat.uwaterloo.ca/IDEA/ Or, please contact me or Dr. Jonathan Histon at the contact information below. Sincerely, Samuel Lien, Dr. Jonathan Histon Humans in Complex Systems Lab Systems Design Engineering University of Waterloo slien@uwaterloo.ca, jhiston@uwaterloo.ca 519-888-4567 x32529 Back to Top Position Available Assistant/Associate Professor Organization Name DB-College of Aviation Instruction Division Daytona Beach Campus Brief Description The Applied Aviation Sciences Department has a Tenure Track/Non-Tenure Track Assistant/Associate Professor position within the Aerospace and Occupational Safety (AOS) program. The AOS program focuses on exposing students to Aviation Safety, Fire Safety, Safety Management, Risk Management, Hazard Identification, System Safety, regulatory processes related to DOT, FAA, OSHA, and EPA, and to aviation accident investigations processes at the program's Crash Lab. Detailed Description Teaching obligations will include teaching 12 undergraduate credit hours (4 courses) per semester with possible graduate teaching obligations. Teaching areas will require flexibility in order to teach a variety of courses that may include aviation safety management (SMS, FOQA, ASAP, VDRP, etc.) system safety, human factors, engineering hazard controls, accident investigation or industrial hygiene. Expectation include appropriate scholarly activity, participation in applied research, and a variety of activities designed to support the Aerospace and Occupational Safety degree program. This is nine-month position, renewed annually, with the possibility of summer teaching assignments. Job Requirements Ph.D. in Aviation Safety, Human Factors, Occupational/Public Health, Risk Management, Industrial Hygiene, Industrial/Occupational Safety, or related field and a proven record of teaching required. A doctorate in education (Ed.D.) or a candidate enrolled in a doctoral program with appropriated aviation/aerospace safety experience will be given consideration as well. Preferred - An earned doctorate with extensive work experience in aviation/aerospace safety, occupational/industrial safety, industrial hygiene, allied field. Additionally, candidates with CSP or CIH are desired. Candidates must show evidence of substantial and successful teaching experience of safety-related courses, along with service activities associated with the profession. Additionally, candidates must show exceptional promise in research related to safety and health. Position available beginning August, 2015. 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You can add/delete documents on the "Personal Information" tab, or click on the remaining headings to view and/or update your profile. Please remember to SAVE often. 3. When you are finished updating your information, click the SAVE button and then the Home tab near the top right. This will take you back to the Welcome Page of your profile. Back to Top Upcoming Events: Fundamentals of IS-BAO February 10, 2015 Long Beach, CA USA https://www.regonline.com/eventInfo.asp?eventID=1651572 Fundamentals of IS-BAH February 10, 2015 Long Beach, CA USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1651575 IS-BAH Auditing February 11, 2015 Long Beach, CA USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1651581 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 ERAU OSHA & Aviation Ground Safety Seminar Daytona Beach, FL Apr.13-17, 2015 www.erau.edu/cmas ERAU Aviation Safety Program Management Seminar Daytona Beach, FL Apr.20-24, 2015 www.erau.edu/cmas ERAU Aircraft Accident Investigation Seminar Daytona Beach, FL Apr. 27-May 1, 2015 www.erau.edu/cmas ERAU Advanced Aircraft Accident Investigation Seminar Prescott Campus, AZ May 4-8, 2015 www.erau.edu/cmas ERAU Aviation SMS Seminar Daytona Beach, FL May 12-14, 2015 www.erau.edu/sms Curt Lewis