Flight Safety Information February 6, 2015 - No. 026 In This Issue Both engines on the TransAsia flight lost power less than two minutes after take-off PROS 2015 TRAINING Research Survey Request Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship Position Available Upcoming Events Both engines on the TransAsia flight lost power less than two minutes after take-off, aviation official says Rescue teams work to free people from a TransAsia Airways ATR 72-600 turboprop airplane that crashed into the Keelung River shortly after takeoff from Taipei Songshan airport on Feb. 4 in Taipei, Taiwan. Over 50 people were onboard the aircraft when it clipped a bridge and crashed into the river. One of the engines on TransAsia Airways Flight 235 went idle 37 seconds after takeoff, and the pilots may have shut off the remaining engine before attempting to restart them, but the plane crashed before that could happen, Taiwan's top aviation safety official said Friday. TransAsia pilots hailed as heroes for steering plane into river, away from residential buildings The two pilots at the controls of a turboprop plane that crashed Wednesday soon after taking off from Taipei were being hailed as heroes after at least 15 of the 58 passengers survived. TransAsia Flight GE235 from Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, to Kinmen island, lost altitude soon after takeoff, with one of the plane's pilots sending a frantic message, "Mayday, Mayday, engine flameout." As the plane fell to the earth, the pilots appear to have steered for the Keelung river to avoid the nearby buildings. A dramatic video, captured by a car dashboard camera, showed the plane spiralling over a road bridge, clipping it with its wing, before plunging into the water. The details were presented at a news conference in Taipei by Aviation Safety Council Executive Director Thomas Wang as preliminary findings from the flight data recorder. Wednesday's crash into a river in Taipei minutes after takeoff killed at least 35 people and left eight missing. Fifteen people were rescued with injuries after the accident, which was captured in a dramatic dashboard camera video that showed the ATR 72 propjet banking steeply and scraping a highway overpass before it hurtled into the Keelung River. Wang said the plane's right engine triggered an alarm 37 seconds after takeoff. However, he said the data showed it had not shut down, or "flamed out" as the pilot told the control tower, but rather moved into idle mode, with no change in the oil pressure. Then, 46 seconds later, the left engine was shut down, apparently by one of the pilots, so that neither engine was producing any power. A restart was attempted, but the plane crashed just 72 seconds later. Wang said it was too early to draw firm conclusions about the reasons why the engines ceased producing power. "It's only the third day so we can't say too much," Wang said. "We haven't ruled anything out." Taiwanese Vice-President Wu Den-yih, mindful of the island's reputation as a tourist destination and its tense relations with China where most of the flight's passengers were from, went to a Taipei funeral parlour for prayer sessions to pay respects. Related Passenger plane clips bridge in Taipei, smashes into river and leaves at least 25 dead The terrifying moment a TransAsia Airways plane clipped a bridge and crashed into a river At the parlour, where bodies are being stored, Wu expressed condolences and praised pilot Liao Chien-chung, who died in the crash. The pilots may have deliberately steered the plane away from buildings and into the river in the final moments. "When it came to when it was clear his life would end, (the pilot) meticulously grasped the flight operating system and in the final moments he still wanted to control the plane to avoid harming residents in the housing communities," Wu said. "To the plane's crew, the victims ... I here express condolences." Divers with a local fire agency found one female and three male bodies Friday along the muddy Keelung River bottom about 50 meters from the crash site, a Taipei City Fire Department official surnamed Chen said. AFP PHOTO/TVBS Taiwan AFP PHOTO/TVBS TaiwanThis screen grab taken from video provided courtesy of TVBS Taiwan on Feb. 4 shows a TransAsia ATR 72-600 turboprop plane clipping an elevated motorway and hitting a taxi (C) before crashing into the Keelung river outside Taiwan's capital Taipei in New Taipei City. The agency suspects the eight bodies that are still missing may be in equally murky areas and has sent 190 divers to look for them. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence dispatched three S-70C rescue helicopters to search along a river system that runs into the ocean off Taiwan's northwest coast. More than 30 relatives of victims cried wildly, prayed or were comforted by Buddhist volunteers at the riverside crash site as divers in black wetsuits brought back the four bodies. Some divers came ashore with their hands joined in prayer for the people they brought back. The pilot's and co-pilot's bodies were found earlier with their hands still on the controls, Taiwan's ETToday online news service said. Wang said the cockpit flight recorder was still being analyzed and a transcript would be provided as soon as possible. Investigators are to issue a preliminary report on the crash within 30 days and a fuller report within three to four months. A final draft will be submitted within eight months and the full investigation concluded in about a year, Wang said. He said the engines had shown no problems before the flight and repeatedly stated that the plane would have been able to take off and fly even with only one engine working. Earl Chapman of Canada's Transportation Safety Bureau told the news conference that the plane's Pratt & Whitney engines were known for their reliability. "This engine type has millions of flight hours behind it with a very good safety record. So it's fairly unremarkable in that respect," said Chapman, who was participating in the investigation because the engines were made by Pratt & Whitney's Canadian division. The same airline operated another ATR 72 propjet that crashed on an outlying Taiwanese-controlled island July 23, 2014, killing 48. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou's office said Thursday it was worried that air crashes would damage the island's reputation as a tourist destination. Thirty-one of the passengers on Flight 235 were from China. Tourists from the mainland to Taiwan rose from a trickle before mid-2008 to a cumulative total of 9.7 million as of last year. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since a civil war in the 1940s, chilling relations until Ma took office in 2008 and opened dialogue that led to an agreement allowing tourist visits. Tourists from China have also died in a construction site accident. A bus crash three years ago in eastern Taiwan injured 34. As both sides handle the crash aftermath, a Chinese government minister in charge of Taiwan affairs postponed a visit scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The two sides also need more time to discuss four new domestic flight routes that China declared on its own last month, Taiwan's China policymaking body said in a statement. Taiwan opposes the new Taiwan Strait air routes, saying they could cause safety problems for its own domestic flights. http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/06/both-engines-on-the-transasia-flight-lost- power-less-than-two-minutes-after-take-off-taiwan-aviation-official-says/ 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