Flight Safety Information September 24, 2015 - No. 190 In This Issue EU to challenge German air safety authorities over regulations EU challenging system for renewing pilots' licenses after Germanwings crash GJ airport evacuated after pepper-spray can activated Tribunal May Be Formed for Malaysia Flight 17 Jet Lost Over Ukraine HIDDEN DANGER:...A SPECIAL REPORT ON THE INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE AA awards $24.5 million in environmental grants to US airports PROS 2015 TRAINING Boeing wants to turn jet's roar into energy MSU partners with airline to address pilot shortage Flight School Addresses Nationwide Pilot Shortage Here's how the Russian Air Force moved 28 aircraft to Syria (almost) undetected Lasers could be mounted on aircraft by 2020 Only female aircraft handler at Heathrow says 'the sky is the limit' IFA Forum 2015 - Hong Kong, 3-4 NOV 2015 iSMS - Safety Management System Training Upcoming Events JOBS AVAILABLE (New Positions) EU to challenge German air safety authorities over regulations French gendarmes and investigators work on March 26, 2015 on the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps over the southeastern town of Seyne. (AFP) The European Commission is preparing to commence legal action against Germany's air safety authorities over its pilot license renewal system and other matters. According to an unnamed source, Germany's license renewal regulations do not follow EU policies as they prioritize pilots' privacy rules over safety measures, Reuters reported Wednesday. The issue came into focus earlier this year as the 27-year-old co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, of a Germanwings airliner locked himself inside the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane into the French Alps, killing all 150 passengers on March 24. After the tragic crash it was revealed that Lubitz had temporarily stopped his pilot training due to a period of severe depression in 2009. But according to Lufthansa, Germanwings parent company, before restarting training he had successfully re-passed all medical and suitability tests. The incident raised questions over the thoroughness of medical checks of flight crews by Germany's air safety regulators. The source added that the commission also has issues with Germany's monitoring of airworthiness, and that if Germany refrains from complying with the commission's demands, it may face trial in the European Court of Justice. http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/09/24/430476/EU-Germany-air-safety-regulations Back to Top EU challenging system for renewing pilots' licenses after Germanwings crash BRUSSELS - The European Commission is poised to launch a legal challenge against Germany's air safety authorities and in particular its system for renewing pilots' licenses, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The Commission will tell Germany that its license renewal practices are not in line with EU law in that they gave priority to privacy rules over safety for pilots wanting to keep their licenses, the person said. The issue came to light earlier this year after 27-year-old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, barricaded himself inside the cockpit and crashed the Germanwings airliner he was flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. In addition, the Commission will take issue with Germany's supervision of the airworthiness of planes and related operations. The European Aviation Safety Agency had found issues with Germany's aviation authority as part of regular checks before the crash. While Germany has addressed some of the issues, problems remain, the person said. If Germany does not comply with the Commission's demands it could be taken to the European court. A spokesman for the German transport ministry in Berlin could not immediately be reached for comment. Following the crash it was revealed that Lubitz had broken off his pilot training due to a period of severe depression, raising questions over whether medical checks of crew members by air-safety regulators and airlines are rigorous enough. But Germanwings parent Lufthansa has said that upon resuming training he passed all medical and suitability tests again. In July a panel of experts appointed by the Commission in the wake of the crash and led by Europe's aviation safety regulator called for more pilot screening as well as support schemes. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nation-and-world/eu-challenging-system-renewing- pilots-licenses-after-germanwings-crash Back to Top GJ airport evacuated after pepper-spray can activated Passengers and staff were evacuated from the Grand Junction Airport Wednesday afternoon after a canister of pepper spray was activated in the baggage pick-up area of the terminal. Grand Junction Regional Airport was briefly evacuated Wednesday when an airline employee activated a pepper-spray container in the baggage-handling area of the airport, officials said. No flights were disrupted and no injuries were reported. An employee of Envoy, the regional carrier for American and US Airways, removed the container from a checked bag, said airport spokeswoman Amy Jordan. Airport officials evacuated the terminal about 3 p.m. when airport and TSA employees in the northeast corner of the terminal reported eye and respiratory irritation. Officials evacuated the building on the advice of the Grand Junction Fire Department and reopened the building about 45 minutes later. http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/gj-airport-evacuated-after-pepperspray-can- activat Back to Top Tribunal May Be Formed for Malaysia Flight 17 Jet Lost Over Ukraine Blocked by Russia at the United Nations, members seeking criminal accountability for the Malaysian jetliner destroyed in eastern Ukraine last year may create their own prosecution tribunal, Australia's foreign minister said Wednesday. The minister, Julie Bishop, said such a tribunal was among the narrowed options now under consideration by the core group of nations that has been leading the effort for victim justice in the destruction of the jetliner, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Ms. Bishop said ministers from those nations - Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine - would meet at the United Nations next Tuesday, during the annual General Assembly meeting of world leaders, for further discussions. "There are a number of permutations, and I can assure you there are a number of international criminal lawyers who are working on this," Ms. Bishop said in an interview with the editorial board of The New York Times. Citizens of more than a dozen nations were among the 298 passengers and crew, but Dutch, Malaysian and Australian citizens accounted for the majority of them. All were killed when the plane, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, plunged into pieces in the eastern Ukraine countryside, apparently hit by a sophisticated missile. Many countries, including the United States, Ukraine and Australia, have said they believe that Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine were responsible for the disaster. The Kremlin has rejected those accusations as politically motivated. It has also argued that the investigation into the cause remains incomplete and has suggested that Ukrainian forces may have been responsible. Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on July 29 that would have created a criminal tribunal to pursue the perpetrators. Ms. Bishop, who attended that vote, was among those who expressed outrage at Russia and said the aggrieved nations would regroup to consider their next steps. Since then, "we've narrowed the options," Ms. Bishop said in talking about the creation of a special court. "This is the 'what's next.' " She said such a court, which does not require United Nations approval, could be established through a treaty "by all of the grieving countries, however many lost citizens." The closest analogy to such a court, she said, was probably the Scottish panel established in the Netherlands to prosecute Libyan suspects after the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988, which killed 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground. Ms. Bishop said other options were also under consideration, including separate prosecutions in each of the aggrieved nations. She also did not exclude the possibility of resubmitting the resolution vetoed by the Security Council once the official investigations into the cause of the Flight 17 disaster, led by the Netherlands, are concluded later this year. A draft report ruling out mechanical failure has already been circulated, she said, while the inquiry into precisely what felled the aircraft is still underway. Nonetheless, she said, "nothing I've seen over the last 15 months has changed Australia's official view that it was brought down by a surface-to-air missile operated by Russian-backed separatists inside the Ukrainian border." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/24/world/europe/tribunal-may-be-formed-for- malaysia-flight-17jet-lost-over-ukraine.html?_r=0 Back to Top HIDDEN DANGER: A SPECIAL REPORT ON THE INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE AIR FRANCE 373: A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR DISASTER By Roger Rapoport This is the second in a series of exclusive Flight Safety Information articles on the growing problem of commercial airline accidents intertropical convergence zone. Every day pilots fly hundreds of thousands of passengers through the Intertropical Convergence Zone. With more planes flying high altitude intercontinental routes, some flight crews must navigate in and around convective storms beyond the scope of their training. Many of these pilots, dispatchers and controllers working this region have not studied weather with aviation meteorologists. As a result they sometimes underestimate the special icing conditions that have taken the lives of 506 passengers and crew during the past six years. The first of these three ITCZ accidents, Air France 447, was triggered by pitot icing in a June 1, 2009 convective storm. Two of the three pilots had extensive experience crossing the ITCZ. Unfortunately none of them had airline training necessary training to fully understand why it was critical to avoid the dangerous weather that shut down the plane's autopilot. For several years pilots at Air France and other carriers had been reporting a series of icing issues in the ITCZ. In many of these incidents an autopilot shut down put the plane into manual mode forcing pilots to hand fly the plane at cruise altitude. While the pilots duly reported these incidents the carrier failed to effectively share this information with their pilots or provide special training on how to handle this anomaly. On August 16, 2008, Air France 373 flying from Paris to Tananarive was "almost a dress rehearsal for what happened on doomed flight 447," says one French flight safety analyst. The ninth in a series of 2008-2009 Air France Airbus 330/340 unreliable airspeed incidents triggered by frozen pitot tubes, this Flight 373 event began in an ITCZ storm over Ethiopia. When the flight crew lost reliable airspeed due to pitot tube icing, they did not set mandated power and pitch or maintain level flight as prescribed by the Air France emergency procedure checklist. Determined to avoid heavy turbulence above he immediately descended 4,000 feet, ignoring a malfunctioning flight director's climb order. In the process he learned something that every pilot crossing the ITCZ needed to know. After the flight landed the captain wrote a blistering report and sent it to his airline. He warned Air France that the flight director appeared to be working on this Airbus when it fact it was not. Had it not been for his decision to avoid turbulence above his flight level, he might have followed the corrupted flight director's misleading instructions and climbed into an aerodynamic stall. Had he been flying for an American airline the pilot's blistering critique might have been widely shared with flight crews through the industry's anonymous incident reporting system. Unfortunately the Flight 373 captain's critical warning was never shared with other Air France pilots. Is it possible that the Madagascar bound pilot's superiors failed to understand the special weather hazards posed by the ITCZ. Professor Debbie Schaum at Embry Riddle believes that some decision makers lack the training and experience to understand complex meteorological events like the one encountered by flight 373. Had they correctly analyzed the special icing conditions that triggered this crisis they might have alerted flight crews to this hazard and how to handle it. The key was not to climb but to follow standard procedures for an unreliable airspeed incident by setting power and pitch until the ice melted and the pitots began sending reliable data. If these managers realized the hidden dangers in the ITCZ it's possible that the airline might have issue a bulletin to its own pilots and the European Air Safety Agency. Clearly the crew of Air France 447 did not understand the hidden ITCZ risks when they took off from Rio on the evening of May 31, 2009. Had they realized the hidden dangers in the weather ahead they might have chosen a safer route across this south Atlantic. Next: Flight 447 And The ITCZ Previously in this FSI Series: No. 181 Sept 11, 2015 Roger Rapoport is the author of the Rio Paris Crash: Air France 447 and the producer of the feature film Pilot Error. All Rights Reserved www.fsinfo.org Back to Top FAA awards $24.5 million in environmental grants to US airports US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx recently awarded $24.5 million FAA grants to 11 airports around the country to reduce emissions and improve air quality. The grants are provided through FAA's Voluntary Airport Low Emission (VALE) program and Zero Emissions Airport Vehicle (ZEV) programs. "These programs are crucial to our efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions and make our skies and roads more environmentally friendly," Foxx said. VALE is designed to reduce all sources of airport ground emissions in areas that do not meet air quality standards. The FAA established the program in 2005 to help airport sponsors meet their air quality responsibilities under the Clean Air Act. Through these programs, airport sponsors can use Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funds and Passenger Facility Charges (PFCs) to help acquire refueling and recharging stations, electrified gates, low-emission vehicles, and other airport-related air quality improvements. The ZEV program, created through the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, allows airport sponsors to use AIP funds to purchase vehicles that produce zero exhaust emissions. AIP funds can cover up to 50 percent of these total project costs. Airport sponsors also can use federal funds to pay for any needed infrastructure construction or modification needed to facilitate the delivery of the fuel and services for these vehicles. The $23.4 million in VALE grants include: * Chicago O'Hare International, $2 million - to purchase and install 15 ground power units (GPUs) and pre-conditioned air (PCA) units, which will allow aircraft arriving at overnight parking positions to shut off their auxiliary power units and connect to a clean central heating and cooling system. The project will save fuel and reduce aircraft emissions on the ground. * Memphis International, $1.3 million - to purchase and install three GPUs and PCA units. * Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall, $2.5 million - to purchase and install eight GPUs and eight PCAs for passenger gates. * Phoenix Sky Harbor International, $1 million - to install 28 charging stations in Terminal four for electric ground service equipment. * Port Columbus International, OH, $2.7 million - to purchase and install 13 GPUs and 11 PCAs at passenger gates. * Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International, AL $2.6 million - to purchase seven clean fuel burning vehicles and a refueling station. * Indianapolis International, $3.9 million - to purchase and install 12 GPUs and 22 stationary pole lights. The stationary pole lights will replace diesel-powered lights and will help illuminate ramp operations on the cargo apron to improve safety and reduce fossil fuel emissions. * William P. Hobby, Houston, TX, $1.6 million - to purchase and install five PCAs and GPUs for passenger gates. * Cleveland Hopkins International, $1.1 million - to install four GPUs and PCAs for passenger gates. The $955,088 in ZEV grants include: * Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, $926,789 - to purchase one electric shuttle bus for passenger service from terminal to terminal and fund infrastructure needed to charge the vehicle, including one wireless inductive charging pad and one long-term charging area. * Lambert-St. Louis International, $28,299 - to fund four electric utility carts for on- airport emergency services, and other uses. http://atwonline.com/government-affairs/faa-awards-245-million-environmental-grants- us-airports Back to Top Back to Top Boeing wants to turn jet's roar into energy Talk about a dreamliner of an idea. Airplane manufacturer Boeing has filed a patent for "a system and method for generating electricity from acoustic energy from an aircraft on a runway." In other words, they're trying to harness the roar of a jet's engine and turn it into energy. Gizmodo reports: [Boeing employee Chin] Toh describes all those soundwaves as wasted energy-that we should have started putting to good use a long time ago. The design would change how the average runway looks, lining them with thousands of "acoustic wave collectors" situated along the edges of the runways, not unlike a lighting system. These devices would collect and focus the sounds-eg the vibrations-of the engine's roar while taking off or landing. Then this vibrational energy would be converted into air flow, powering a turbine that then generates electricity. A substation at the end of each link would collect and transmit this energy to the ultimate source. Great idea, right? But could it work? MIT's Ask An Engineer took on the question of turning sound into energy, and wrote: What the human ear perceives as clanging cacophony-the roar of a train engine or the whine of a pneumatic drill-only translates to about a hundredth of a watt per square meter. In contrast, the amount of sunlight hitting a given spot on the earth is about 680 watts per meter squared. So, basically, no. Or at least, it'd be crazy inefficient compared to solar or other energy sources at this point. But still, the idea is intriguing, and as technology improves, maybe someday we'll all be running our cars off punk music and children's screams. http://grist.org/article/boeing-wants-to-turn-jets-roar-into-energy/ Back to Top MSU partners with airline to address pilot shortage The new program could help deal with a pilot shortage, which is expected to worsen over the next ten years. KUSA- Emily Salley is at home among the clouds-- even those in a flight simulator. "Instead of climbing, I'm going to descend," she said, as she guided the simulated flight into a landing. Salley is a senior studying aviation at Metro State University, where a new program is underway to create a new generation of airline pilots. "It's mostly for people who want to be airline pilots or want to have a career as a pilot," she said. The university is partnering with Envoy Air, a regional carrier and subsidiary of American Airlines. The idea is to get students involved with Envoy, as early as their sophomore year and prepare them to take jobs within the company by the time they graduate. "This is a pathway, all the way to an end-career position," said Kevin Kuhlmann, associate chair of MSU's Aviation and Aerospace Science Department. "What you owe them for this opportunity is two years at that airline, as a minimum, and you can move from Envoy Airlines, in a flow-through agreement, up to American Airlines." That move up could potentially happen to a graduate within five years. That's critical because of a looming pilot shortage at both regional airlines, and eventually, major carriers as well. Boeing estimates the industry will need half-a-million pilots over the next 20 years to keep up with the demand for flying. At Metro State on Wednesday, pilots for Envoy Air made their pitch to aviation students. "We need pilots. Bad," said John Colquitt, an Envoy Air pilot, told the students. "You hear pilot shortage - it's true. We're feeling it at the regional level, a lot more than the majors are right now. But it's going to hit the majors as well." Emily Salley said she sees a bright future in her career path. "In the next 10 years, I will have an opportunity to enter into the airlines or into the regional, and I'll have the opportunity to fly as a captain or a first officer," she said. "It gives me hope that there will be hiring opportunities." Envoy Air officials are meeting with prospective Metro State students about the new program this week. The school said between 65 and 75 students graduate from their aviation program each year. http://www.9news.com/story/news/2015/09/23/msu-partners-with-airline-to-address- pilot-shortage/72706136/ Back to Top Flight School Addresses Nationwide Pilot Shortage An estimated $100,000, several years of schooling and countless hours in the air; these are just some of the qualifications it takes to earn your wings and become a pilot. However, with all the time and money needed, many people are turning away from the industry. "There is a giant void in what's out there right now for pilots," Said North Coast Flight School owner, Greg Hayes. A nationwide shortage of pilots is looming and the industry might soon be in for a bumpy ride. Greg Hayes at North Coast Flight School says he's seen this coming for years. "We've been talking about it in the flight training industry for years. People always thought it was us crying wolf trying to get more and more students," he added. In a perfect world, at the top of the pyramid are your major carriers. These are the carriers with the most experienced pilots and most amount of training. They usually get their pilots from the less experienced military or regional pilots and the regional airlines get theirs from the inexperienced flight schools. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and that bottom tier of the pyramid is deteriorating. The average age of a pilot is 50 years old, which is up from 43 in 1993. In 1980, there were 557,000 student and private pilots in the U.S. In 2014, that numbered dwindled to 240,000. Less and less people are looking into aviation, so targeting the youth now, is vital. "We're trying to reach out to the youngest of the young. There are so many children that have a desire to learn and want to get involved in this. We have to reach out and make it available to them," said Hayes. Although the numbers look grim for the future, flight school trainers are still optimistic about their industry. "It takes a long time to develop a pilot, but the future for those that that are involved in it. With a little time and a lot of participation this should work," said Hayes. http://www.erietvnews.com/story/30103188/flight-school-addresses-nationwide-pilot- shortage Back to Top Here's how the Russian Air Force moved 28 aircraft to Syria (almost) undetected It's not easy to move 28 aircraft and keep the deployment confidential. Satellite imagery released in the last couple of days has exposed the presence of 28 Russian aircraft at al-Assad airfield, near Latakia, in western Syria. The photographs taken from space gave us the possibility to identify the combat planes as 4x Su-30SMs, 12x Su-25s (based on their color scheme, these are Su-25SMs belonging to the 368th Assault Aviation Regiment from Budyonnovsk) and 12 Su-24M2s along with about a dozen helicopters, including 10 Mi-24PN, Mi-35M and a couple of Mi- 8AMTSh choppers, from the 387th Army Aviation Air Base Budyonnovsk. One of our sources with IMINT Imagery Intel experience, who has had access to the imagery in the public domain, noticed something interesting on one of the Su-30SM: the first on the left (the one closer to the runway threshold) should be equipped with a KNIRTI SPS-171 / L005S Sorbtsiya-S mid/high band defensive jammer (ECM) at the wing tips. To be honest this is almost impossible to verify unless more high-resolution images become available. Whilst satellite shots provided much details about the deployed assets, they obviously didn't help answer the basic question: how did they manage to reach Syria undetected? According to one source close who wishes to remain anonymous, the Russian combat planes have probably deployed to Latakia trailing the cargo planes that were tracked flying to Syria and back on Flightradar24.com, something that other analysts have also suggested. There is someone who believes that during their ferry flight, some if not all the formation (each made of a cargo plane and four accompanying fast jets), may have made a stopover in Iran before flying the last leg to Latakia. This would also explain why some Il-76s (with an endurance that would allow a non-stop fly from Russia to Latakia) were observed stopping at Hamadan on Sept. 18-19, just before the Sukhois started appearing on the tarmac at Latakia. Also interesting is the activity of several Israeli aircraft, including a G550 "Nachshon Aitam," a sort of mini-AWACS equipped with 2 L-band antennas, on both sides of the fuselage, and 2 S-band antennas, on the nose and tail of the aircraft. The G550, a so-called CAEW (Conformal Airborne Early Warning) asset, flew a mission over the eastern Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon on Sept. 20 (and could be tracked online on Flightradar24.com...). Just a coincidence? http://theaviationist.com/2015/09/23/how-the-russians-deployed-28-aircraft-to-syria/ Back to Top Lasers could be mounted on aircraft by 2020 In H.G. Wells' seminal 1898 science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds," the invading Martians use a "heat ray" to vaporize their enemies. Now, more than 100 years later, directed energy weapons are a reality and the military is looking to expand their capabilities to a greater battlefield role. While the Navy is already testing a ship-based laser in the Persian Gulf, Air Force leaders are looking to mount the weapons on AC-130 gunships and, eventually, on fighters like the F-22 and F-35. Speaking Sept. 15 at the annual Air Force Association Air and Space Conference, Gen. Hawk Carlisle, the leader of Air Combat Command, said he expects the service will begin mounting directed energy weapons onto aircraft within the next few years. "Everybody thinks you have a tendency to talk about high-powered microwaves and lasers and it's kind of science fiction," Carlisle said. "But this is a reality. ... I believe that we will have a directed energy capability in a pod that can be mounted on a fighter aircraft very soon as well." Carlisle said the technology will "change the game." "Imagine your ability to defeat an enemy surface-to-air capability with a directed energy weapon so you can penetrate an anti-access aerial denial environment," he said, adding that the U.S. could develop the systems to protect its own airspace as well. Experts said they expect lasers to be mounted on fighters starting sometime between 2020 and 2025. But smaller craft could carry them sooner. Defense contractor General Atomics announced earlier this year that its laser system had successfully completed testing, and could be mounted on the company's MQ-1 Predator drones by 2018. Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, the leader of Air Force Special Operations Command, said AFSOC is already working to mount a laser weapon system on an AC-130W, with plans to modify eight more. "I want a high energy laser on an AC-130J gunship by the close of this decade," he told the AFA conference. "This isn't Star Wars stuff, folks. The technology is ripe for doing this. ... I've got the space, I've got the weight, and I've got the power." Directed energy weapons are one of the Air Force's top research priorities, and could provide a wide range of effects for war fighters and commanders. The Pentagon has been trying to develop high-powered 150-kilowatt lasers, while making the systems smaller and lighter. Lasers have a greater magazine than any other weapon system, with a battery able to store thousands - if not more - of shots. The systems are also relatively inexpensive to fire, costing only the electricity required to run the electronics. High-power microwaves can also be mounted on aircraft, and provide a range of capabilities including knocking out power grids, disrupting electronics or stopping anti-air weapons from acquiring a target lock. Those are some of the capabilities Heithold said he wants for missions. The first priority is to protect the aircraft by utilizing lasers to shoot down incoming missiles - the same capability the Navy is testing. "What we want to do is first put a high energy laser on an AC-130 to defend the aircraft," Heithold said. "We can find the missile coming at me and zap it. ... Let's get into a defensive capability that can ensure that I can fight my way to the target, I can fight on the target, and I can fight my way off the target." After that, the lasers should be focused on the offensive side of operations, the general said. He recalled the 1989 operation to capture Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, where four Navy SEALs died while destroying Noriega's boat and plane to prevent his escape. "Wouldn't it have been nice had we had a high energy laser on an AC-130 that would have simply zapped some point on that airplane?" Heithold said. "Disable the aircraft and nobody knows it happened until they go to use it, because nobody heard anything and nobody saw anything? You haven't spooked anybody, you've simply disabled the aircraft." In addition to disabling and crippling enemy capabilities, lasers can be powered up for kinetic strikes, such as destroying vehicles. And some experts have noted they're likely to reduce the possibility of civilian casualties and collateral damage as the weapons can be fired with pinpoint accuracy. "We are a service that was born out of technology," Carlisle said. "We need the best technology on the planet." "Directed energy weapons is an area we're headed toward, and we're going there at a fairly good pace," he said. "I actually think it's a lot closer than a lot of people think it is." http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/tech/2015/09/23/lasers-could-mounted- aircraft-2020/72618916/ Back to Top Only female aircraft handler at Heathrow says 'the sky is the limit' Anasthasia, 24, from Iver, joined the team in April this year and is hoping she encourages more women to take her lead. Anasthasia, from Iver, is the only female from over 200 employees to work as an aircraft handler at Heathrow Airport A woman from Iver is the only female from over 200 employees to work as an aircraft handler at Heathrow Airport. Anasthasia said: "I joined British Airways' Aircraft Movements team in April. "As far as anyone can remember, I'm the first female to have worked in the team, but I really hope that more women will join us in the future." She is a member of the ground crew responsible for the final checks to aircraft before they are pushed-back for departure. She added: "Safety is always in the front of my mind. You need to be confident about what you are looking at and where you might spot an issue. "I really enjoy my job, particularly talking to the flight crew who are often surprised to hear a female voice at the end of the line. "A typical job would involve going to an allocated aircraft on stand and then plugging in the communications equipment to make contact with the pilots to see if the ground power can be switched off. "Then, as the tug driver connects to the aircraft, I do the walk-around to check that everything is in order. "Before the aircraft pushes back from the stand, I re-check the aircraft doors and remove the last two chocks. During push-back of the aircraft, I stay in radio contact with the flight crew while the engines are started up. "My final job is to show the flight crew that the lock-out pin has been removed from the steering mechanism, which confirms they now have full control of the aircraft." Anasthasia is undertaking a course later this month to learn how to communicate with Air Traffic Control, and would also like to learn how to tow an aircraft. She said: "The sky is the limit. I have a host of opportunities available to progress my career and I plan to learn as much as I can from all the great people that I work with." British Airways has a number of options available to suit all skills and ambitions. As well as vacancies across the airline, school leavers can apply for one of the 200 apprenticeships places available in schemes ranging from aircraft operations to head office. University students can take part in one of the airline's six graduate schemes and there are even opportunities for work experience and business placements. http://www.getbucks.co.uk/news/local-news/only-female-aircraft-handler-heathrow- 10115853 Back to Top IFA Forum 2015 - Hong Kong, 3-4 NOV 2015 www.ifairworthy.com Back to Top iSMS - Safety Management System Training Back to Top Upcoming Events: Fundamentals of IS-BAO October 1, 2015 Farnborough, UK https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1661564 IS-BAO Auditing October 2, 2015 Farnborough, UK https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1661567 Fundamentals of IS-BAO November 2, 2015 Hong Kong, China https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1724162 IS-BAO Auditing November 3, 2015 Hong Kong, China https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1724176 BARS Auditor Training October 6-8, 2015 Dubai, United Arab Emirates http://flightsafety.org/bars/auditor-training OSHA & Aviation Ground Safety Training Course (ERAU) Oct. 19-23, 2015 Daytona Beach, FL www.erau.edu/cmas Aviation Safety Program Management Training Course (ERAU) Oct. 26-30, 2015 Daytona Beach, FL www.erau.edu/cmas Aircraft Accident Investigation Training Course (ERAU) Nov. 2-6, 2015 Daytona Beach, FL www.erau.edu/cmas Aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS) Seminar (ERAU) Nov. 17-19, 2015 Daytona Beach, FL www.erau.edu/sms Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Seminar (ERAU) Dec. 8-10, 2015 Daytona Beach, FL www.erau.edu/uas New HFACS workshop Las Vegas December 15 & 16 www.hfacs.com 'DTI QA & SMS Workshops are Back in Town!' (Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Melbourne FL, and YOUR town just contact us) www.dtitraining.com Back to Top JOBS AVAILABLE: Flight Training Human Factors Specialist Emirates www.emirates.com/careers Manager Group Safety Management Systems Virgin Australia Location: Brisbane, Australia http://careers.virginaustralia.com/cw/en/job/496413/manager-group-safety- management-systems Business Aviation Regional Sales Manager ARGUS International, Inc. https://home2.eease.adp.com/recruit/?id=18211162 Vice President Flight Operations FEDEX Express https://www.appone.com/MainInfoReq.asp?R_ID=1120042 Curt Lewis