Flight Safety Information April 18, 2016 - No. 075 In This Issue Drone apparently crashes into plane headed to London's Heathrow First Air France jet in years lands in Iran Plenty of Passengers, but Where Are the Pilots? Airbus Sets Up Singapore Academy to Ease Asia Pilot Shortage Qualified Saudi female pilots get high-flying offer Stateside Air Force drone pilots can now log combat time for overseas flights German Parliament Toughens Drug Controls for Pilots Allegiant Air Says It's Boosting Safety After Mishaps Airplane Stowaway Turns Out to be FedEx Worker Who Fell Asleep Video shows 24 hours of flight traffic in 1 minute PhD Research Request Drone apparently crashes into plane headed to London's Heathrow (CNN) A drone apparently slammed into a British Airways plane headed to London on Sunday, officials said. The plane was headed from Geneva, Switzerland, to London's Heathrow Airport when the pilot said he thought a drone had struck the aircraft, London Metropolitan Police said. The Airbus A320 had 132 passengers and five crew members on board, British Airways spokesman Michael Johnson said. After the plane landed safely at Heathrow, authorities said they believe a drone struck the front of the aircraft. It's unclear whose drone may have hit the plane. No arrests have been made. Johnson said engineers thoroughly examined the plane and cleared it for its next flight. Dodging drones in the sky While it's unusual for a drone to strike a plane, there are plenty of close calls -- especially in the United States. Hundreds of drones have flown dangerously close to manned aircraft in U.S. airspace, forcing pilots to sometimes take evasive action, according to a study released in December. Experts reviewed 921 cases involving drones and manned aircraft between 2013 and 2015. Of those cases, more than one-third involved drones and manned aircraft coming within 500 feet of each other. "Our findings indicate that incidents largely occur in areas where manned air traffic density is high and where drone use is prohibited," experts said in a statement. Drones flying too close to commercial flights pose a serious threat to larger aircraft, and can be sucked into the engine or crash into the cockpit window, injuring or killing a pilot. http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/17/europe/london-heathrow-drone-strikes-plane/ Back to Top First Air France jet in years lands in Iran Iran's media say the first Air France plane has landed in capital Tehran after a hiatus of eight years. Iran's media said on Sunday that the first Air France plane had landed in capital Tehran after a hiatus of eight years. The plane - an A330 - has reportedly landed in Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA). It is carrying the French Transport Minister Alain Vidal as well as the CEOs of Air France and Boeing among others, reported iribnews.ir, the news agency of Iran's state broadcasting IRIB. This is the first Air France jet to land in Iran in eight years following a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 that went into effect in January. Air France will fly to Iran three times a week. German carrier Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines also run several flights a week connecting Iran and Europe. British Airways will start offering six flights a week to Tehran on July 14. Speculations are already rising that Vidal's trip to Tehran could lead to the finalization of a major deal between Iran and Airbus to purchase scores of new planes. The $27-billion deal - that was signed during the visit to Paris by Iran's President Hassan Rouhani - envisages the delivery of 118 planes as early as July. Also, the reported trip to Tehran by Boeing chief could mean that a deal - possibly for 100 new planes - with the American aviation giant is around the corner. Ali Abedzadeh, the president of Iran Civil Aviation Organization (CAO), said in March that talks with Boeing over the purchase of new planes are in advanced stages, stressing that a deal with the American aviation giant is "very likely" to be sealed. This could make the plane-maker the first major American enterprise to seal a deal with Iran. Iranian officials have already emphasized that the country will need to buy 500 commercial jets of various models for various short-, medium- and long-distance routes. According to Minister Akhoundi, Iran's current civil aviation fleet consists of 248 aircraft with an average age of 20 years, of which 100 are in storage. http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/04/17/461276/First-Air-France-jet-in-years-lands-in-Iran/ Back to Top Plenty of Passengers, but Where Are the Pilots? DELAYS or cancellations because of bad weather or mechanical problems are exasperating but common occurrences in air travel, but increasingly, passengers aren't making it to their destinations for yet another reason: not enough pilots. The gate agent may not tell you that's why you're grounded, but a dearth of qualified pilots is disrupting, reducing and even eliminating flights. "After 35 years analyzing and following this industry, I've never seen anything like it - and it's only going to get worse," said Dan Akins, an aviation economist and consultant who conducts quarterly surveys of both pilots and airlines to identify staffing trends. "Everyone knows the house is on fire and no one can find the hose." In addition to widespread delays and cancellations, at least 29 communities, from Modesto, Calif., to Macon, Ga., have lost air service since 2013, and hundreds more had their number of flights reduced. Meanwhile, airports that haven't lost service complain they can't get additional flights to keep up with local economic development. "We've had $5 billion of new industry come to our area, and the airlines say they can't grow us because there aren't enough pilots," said Mike Hainsey, executive director of the Golden Triangle Regional Airport, which serves Columbus, Starkville and West Point, Miss. So what's causing the shortage? To start, there are just a lot more passengers. According to the Department of Transportation, airlines carried a record 895.5 million passengers in the United States in 2015, up 5 percent from the previous year. To meet global growth over the next 18 years, Boeing forecasts that the industry will need more than a half million new pilots. Next, you can point to the roughly 18,000 pilots in the United States who will age out by 2022. This is a can Congress kicked down the road in 2007 when it raised the mandatory retirement age to 65 from 60 to delay the exit of all the military pilots who moved to airlines after the Vietnam War. There is also a bottleneck in the supply of new pilots because of federal legislation passed after the 2009 Colgan Air crash in Buffalo, which was attributed in part to errors by the flight crew. Among other changes, the law mandated that, as of 2013, all entry-level first officers (that is, co-pilots) on commercial carriers have at least 1,500 hours of flight time instead of the previous minimum of 250 hours. This change translates to years of flight instructing or flying on the often hair-raising fringes of aviation (aerial pipeline inspecting, banner towing, corpse transport and the like) for meager wages and often in poorly maintained equipment, before flying for a regional airline like Republic Airways, ExpressJet and Endeavor Air. Then you're looking at several more years of low pay (about $26,000 per year), unpredictable schedules and undesirable routes, giving up nights, weekends and holidays before you have a shot at advancing to a major airline like Delta, United, Southwest or American, where only after many more years can you hope to start making the kind of benefits and money (about $135,000 a year) that might make it all seem vaguely worth it. So while being a professional pilot once seemed a glamorous profession - all mirrored sunglasses and swagger - now, not so much. Even those pilots living the dream of flying for a mainline carrier say that in reality it's a highly automated, button-pushing kind of job with advancement based on seniority rather than merit. And then there is the toll on pilots' families from long absences and the constant threat of furloughs resulting from economic downturns, or terrorist attacks. "The real problem the industry is facing is young people aren't making the decision to become an airline pilot," said Capt. Tim Canoll, a Delta pilot and president of the Air Line Pilots Association. "It takes a very motivated person to meet the physical, emotional and intellectual challenge of becoming a pilot, and that same motivated person does the math looking at what it takes and the return on investment, and it just doesn't add up," particularly when training costs alone can reach $150,000. Thus far, the shortfall is most acute at regional airlines, which are often affiliated with major carriers, using their logos and connecting passengers to mainline hubs. These smaller operators are responsible for around 50 percent of national departures and were able to hire only 50 percent of the pilots they needed last year, according to the Regional Airline Association. Citing the pilot shortage, two regional operators, Republic Airways and SeaPort Airlines, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February. Other regional carriers have been unable to fulfill their obligations to their mainline partners, resulting in shake-ups; United Airlines, for example, recently transferred 40 jets from ExpressJet to CommutAir in the hopes the latter could better meet its needs. "Hiring is not a huge problem yet for the major carriers because regional carriers serve as their pilot pipeline," said Faye Malarkey Black, president of the Regional Airline Association. "But the number of pilots the majors are going to need in the coming years will burn through our entire work force unless there's some sort of intervention." AND it's not just airlines that are feeling the pinch: flight schools, charter and corporate operations, weather trackers and crop-dusting outfits all say they are struggling to find pilots. Even the military can't seem to recruit or retain talent, with the Air Force alone short 511 fighter pilots. The Air Line Pilots Association says the solution is simply to raise wages and improve working conditions to attract people to the profession, a difficult proposition given the unfavorable contracts that regional airlines have with their mainline partners, which leave little to devote to salaries and benefits. And even those regional airlines that have recently raised pilots' pay still can't fill positions. Aviation industry experts suggest that airlines need to start subsidizing and overseeing pilot training as in the so-called ab initio programs common in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Airlines like British Airways, Lufthansa and China Eastern Airlines pay all or part of new cadets' training, often at flight schools in the United States. Jet Blue recently announced that it would begin a trial ab initio program, but its recruits would have to pay $125,000 for the privilege. Airlines and airports, among other aviation interests, are lobbying in Washington to reduce the 1,500-hour rule to get aspiring aviators who have met certain training requirements into the cockpit sooner, which is already possible if you've flown for the military or attended an accredited aeronautical school. Researchers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the University of North Dakota, using training records from 22 regional airlines, found that newly hired pilots with 1,500 or fewer hours tended to need less training and were less likely to drop out than those with hundreds and even thousands more hours. "The sweet spot is 700 to 800 hours," said Elizabeth Bjerke, chairwoman of the aviation department of the University of North Dakota and an author of the study. "At that point they have experience but haven't developed bad habits. It's not quantity of hours but quality of hours." However, in testimony before the Senate last year, Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III said that had he or his co-pilot flown fewer than 1,500 hours (each had more than 20,000 hours), they would not have been able to put down US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River without fatalities after geese were sucked into the plane's engines on takeoff from La Guardia Airport in 2009. When a pilot "is in the 14th hour of his or her duty day, flying at night in bad weather into an airport he or she has never seen before, would I want my family on that airplane?" Captain Sullenberger asked. If the pilot had fewer than 1,500 hours, he said, his answer would be an emphatic no. The aviator and poet John Magee once described commanding an aircraft as "dancing the skies on laughter-silvered wings." Easing back the yoke and feeling gravity let go is indeed indescribably exquisite. But now, in aeronautical parlance, the drag of the profession threatens to overwhelm its lift, which could mean a hard landing for the industry. Kate Murphy is a journalist in Houston who writes frequently for The New York Times, and a commercial pilot. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/opinion/sunday/plenty-of-passengers-but-where-are-the- pilots.html?_r=0 Back to Top Airbus Sets Up Singapore Academy to Ease Asia Pilot Shortage * Singapore facility can cater up to 10,000 pilots for training * Airbus already trains pilots in Toulouse, Miami, Beijing Airbus Group SE is setting up its second academy to train pilots in Asia, where a rash of startup airlines and new aircraft coming in is causing a surge in demand for captains and first officers. Airbus will open the center in Singapore Monday in partnership with Singapore Airlines Ltd. The facility -- with eight simulators -- will add to the three the European planemaker has already set up in Toulouse in France, Miami and Beijing. The center will be able to offer training courses for as many as 10,000 pilots, according to Airbus. Two decades of economic growth in the region have spawned a dozen new airlines across Asia, which Airbus and Boeing Co. both forecast will become the world's largest travel and aerospace market in two decades. Airlines in Asia Pacific will need 226,000 new pilots by 2034, making up 41 percent of the global figure, according to Boeing's latest forecast. "Asia is moving towards a severe pilot shortage," said Mark D. Martin, a Dubai-based consultant to the airline industry. "Rapid steps will have to be taken immediately." Asia's travel boom is leaving several airlines desperately short of pilots. The region is transporting 100 million new passengers every year, according to Sherry Carbary, vice president of flight services for Boeing. Led by Asia, the global number of air travelers is expected to double to 7 billion by 2034, according to the International Air Transport Association. Airbus expects to have some 50 instructors and 25 support staff at its Singapore center, set up near the Seletar airport. The facility is only for airline pilots and not for students with no experience wanting to become pilots. Airbus also provides training service agreements with airlines, which could include providing advice and training programs designed by the planemaker. It has these agreements with such carriers as Indonesia's Lion Air and Vietjet in Vietnam. Chicago-based Boeing also has a training center in Singapore, a key regional hub for the aerospace industry. The U.S. planemaker has other facilities in Shanghai, and Incheon and Gimpo in South Korea, as well as Brisbane and Melbourne in Australia. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-17/airbus-sets-up-singapore-academy-as-asia-faces- pilots-shortage Back to Top Qualified Saudi female pilots get high-flying offer There is a global shortage in number of pilots, this shortage will reach to about 100,000 pilots by 2020. (Ercan Akçay/Turkish Airlines) Turkish Airlines General Manager Temel Kotil confirmed his readiness to appoint Saudi women as 'captain pilots' if they are qualified to fly planes. Kotil revealed Turkish Airlines' readiness to employ female Saudi pilots, if they have not found jobs in local airlines. His offer came at a press conference in Ankara in the presence of the chief adviser in the Turkish Agency for Supporting and Encouraging Investments. There is a global shortage in number of pilots. This shortage will reach to about 100,000 pilots by 2020," he said, while confirming there are opportunities for female Saudi graduates in aviation. He added: "There are types of aircraft that does not need physical strength to fly it, for which female pilots would be suited. In addition, we prefer to employ male and female Muslim pilots." This article was first published by the Saudi Gazette on April 17, 2016. http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2016/04/17/Qualified-Saudi-female-pilots-get-high-flying- offer.html Back to Top Stateside Air Force drone pilots can now log combat time for overseas flights Airmen flying remotely piloted aircraft will now be able to log combat hours while flying in hostile airspace, no matter where they are physically located, even if it's a base in the continental U.S., the Air Force announced Monday. Previously, RPA operators logged "combat support time." It's part of a series of initiatives designed to change the career field and bolster a beleaguered and stressed workforce. "The airmen who perform this essential mission do a phenomenal job, but we learned from the RPA pilots, sensor operators and their leaders that these airmen are under significant stress from an unrelenting pace of operations," Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said in a statement. "These policy changes are steps toward addressing issues highlighted by RPA operators in the field." The changes came following a review by Air Combat Command that looked into how to reduce stress on RPA airmen. According to information provided to Air Force Times by the Air Force, the change in language is a reflection that the aircraft may be exposed to enemy fire, as opposed to a combat support role which is defined as action "by aircraft against an enemy ... that operate outside the designated hostile airspace, where there is no risk of exposure to hostile fire." However the change will not affect the pay for RPA operators, nor result in any automatic bonuses, Capt. Trisha Guillebeau, an Air Force spokeswoman, told Air Force Times. The change to logging combat hours also will not impact the medals process, she said. Part of ACC's effort to "normalize and improve operations as a whole in the RPA community...includes properly recognizing our RPA aircrews' contribution to combat operations," Guillebeau said. "Logging combat flight time similarly to other pilots and in accordance with the guidelines established in the regulations provides recognition of the burdens our airmen bear in providing combat effects for joint warfighters around the world." The Air Force is also re-designating eight reconnaissance squadrons as attack squadrons. The change is due in part to the service's plans to retire the current MQ-1 Predator and move all airmen over to the MQ- 9 Reaper, and also in recognition of the fact that intelligence-gathering remotely piloted aircraft regularly carry out airstrikes. The re-naming will affect an estimated 700 enlisted airmen and 600 officers at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico; Whiteman AFB, Missouri; and Creech AFB, Nevada, the service said. http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2016/04/16/stateside-air-force-drone-pilots-can-now-log- combat-time-overseas-flights/82902954/ Back to Top German Parliament Toughens Drug Controls for Pilots Germany's parliament has toughened the rules regarding alcohol and drug use by pilots following the suicidal crash of a co-pilot who flew a Germanwings plane into a mountainside in the French Alps last year. The German news agency dpa reported Thursday that according to the new law, the airlines have to check pilots at the start of their shifts if there is a relevant indication that they may be under the influence of medication, alcohol or other psychoactive substances. There will also be random controls in the future. On March 24, 2015, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked Germanwings Flight 9525's captain out of the cockpit and deliberately set the plane on a collision course with the mountain. All 150 people aboard, including Lubitz, were killed. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/german-parliament-toughens-drug-controls-pilots-38389446 Back to Top Allegiant Air Says It's Boosting Safety After Mishaps * Regulators increased oversight of some operations last year * Flight incidents in 2015 may have discouraged some travelers Allegiant Airlines, which came under special scrutiny by federal safety regulators last year, said operations are improving after it increased spending on safety management, training facilities and younger aircraft. "We're investing in everything we know to invest in," Chief Operating Officer Jude Bricker told reporters Wednesday. "Most of the indicators we watch are positive. Everything is moving in the right direction." The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration stepped up oversight at some areas of the airline last year after a mechanical failure caused the nose of an Allegiant jet to rise off the ground prematurely before takeoff from Las Vegas, defying the crew's attempts to push it down. The carrier later discovered that a critical piece of equipment in the tail of the Boeing Co. MD-83 had come loose. FAA officials said in October that the agency intensified its scrutiny of Allegiant's "flight operations and aircraft maintenance programs" as a result. When the airline inspected all its MD-80s after the incident, it found three jets with bolts that weren't properly secured to aircraft control systems, according to repair logs obtained by Bloomberg. Outside Auditor Following last year's incidents, Allegiant hired an outside auditor to review its safety programs and regulatory compliance and invested in an extensive safety database and risk assessment system. It also has added pilot training beyond FAA requirements, actively encouraged employees to report concerns and stepped up oversight of contractors that work on engines, airframes and aircraft components. The airline said it's seen a decrease in the rate of flight interruptions -- maintenance-caused diversions, turn backs after takeoff or aborted takeoffs in excess of 80 knots -- to 1.37 per 1,000 flights in March from 2.81 per 1,000 in April 2015. Engine failure rates are steady or declining, said Eric Gust, vice president for operations. The carrier, a unit of Allegiant Travel Co., also said it's resolving a pilot shortage that stemmed from adding flights faster than it could train employees. Reports about last year's difficulties have led to more questions from passengers about safety issues, Bricker said. The Las Vegas-based airline will operate 333 daily nonstop flights at 113 airports as of July, primarily ferrying passengers from smaller cities to leisure destinations such as Las Vegas, San Francisco and New Orleans. While sales haven't fallen, "we take it on faith" that the incidents discouraged some travelers from flying Allegiant, Bricker said. FAA Reprimand The FAA reprimanded Allegiant last year because of a July incident in which two of its pilots declared they were so low on fuel they needed to make an emergency landing in Fargo, North Dakota. The agency issued a formal letter of correction, something short of an enforcement action, in which the agency could assess a civil fine. Allegiant said it implemented new procedures and training after the incident. The Aviation Mechanics Coalition, a nonprofit that was previously aligned with the Teamsters union, issued a report last month saying it documented 98 instances of preventable maintenance issues during a five- month period at Allegiant, including 35 related to engine function. About 12 percent of the affected flights were diverted and 16 percent returned, said the report, which covered September 2015 to January 2016. "I'm confident all of the write-ups we got were absolutely correct," Chris Moore, chairman of the coalition, said in an interview Thursday. "I know we don't have all of them. Based on the reports I got, it looks to me very much the same as it did almost two years ago. That doesn't mean those systems aren't in place and won't pay dividends at some point." Fleet Renewal Allegiant is retiring its oldest planes -- the MD-80s with an average age of 26 years and Boeing Co. 757- 200s at nearly 23 years -- and replacing them with younger used planes made by Airbus Group SE. The carrier will add 23 Airbus A320s to its fleet by 2018 and remove the 757s by early that year, said Tom Doxey, vice president of fleet and corporate finance. The MD-80s will probably be replaced closer to the end of the decade. Eventually, Allegiant will fly only Airbus A320s and A319s. The FAA currently is conducting a National Certificate Holder Evaluation Program at Allegiant. The agency conducts the review at all airlines at specific intervals. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-15/allegiant-air-says-it-s-bolstering-safety-after-flight- mishaps Back to Top Airplane Stowaway Turns Out to be FedEx Worker Who Fell Asleep A FedEx ground worker fell asleep on a plane in Memphis Friday morning and went unnoticed before he woke up mid-flight on the way to Texas, triggering a police response when the aircraft landed, authorities said. The ground crew member, who works two jobs, apparently became overcome with exhaustion while inside the plane and the plane's crew then took off for Lubbock, failing to notice they'd locked him inside. Toward the end of FedEx Flight 1459, the worker, whom officials did not identify, woke up and knocked on the cabin door. "And of course the crew did not open the door," said Kelly Campbell, executive director of Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. The crew was able to communicate with the worker, she said, and notified air traffic control at 5:17 a.m. "Knowing that it was a FedEx employee, they instructed him to get into the jump seat and buckle up. They were almost here anyway," Campbell said. Airport police responded to the plane after it touched down around 5:30 a.m., the city of Lubbock said in a statement. They determined that the worker hadn't meant any harm, and so was not arrested. He was instead released to local FedEx officials. The Airbus A310 left Memphis just after 4 a.m., according to flight tracking site FlightAware. FedEx told NBC affiliate KCBD in a statement Friday: "We are aware of an incident involving FedEx Flight 1459 from Memphis to Lubbock. There was never any danger to our employees or cargo. We are fully cooperating with investigating authorities." Campbell said she could not recall another similar incident in the 15 years she has been at the airport. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/airplane-stowaway-turns-out-be-fedex-worker-who-fell-asleep- n556821 Back to Top Video shows 24 hours of flight traffic in 1 minute At any given moment, some 5,000 airplanes are crisscrossing the skies over the United States, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Now, thanks to Flighttradar24, a flight-tracking service that offers real-time updates on air traffic worldwide, you can see what that looks like in an animation compressed down to one quick minute. On April 1, the company tracked 164,209 flights around the world, including tens of thousands that flew over the U.S. The yellow, animated airplane symbols that represent each flight look like a swarm of bees buzzing around the North American continent. Check out the video below: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/video-shows-24-hours-of-flights-over-the-u-s-in-1-minute/ Back to Top PhD Research Request Fellow Helicopter Crewmember, This is a request for you to participate in a research study for my doctoral degree. The purpose is to study the relationship between safety management systems, incidents and accidents, and company performance for small helicopter companies with less than 5 aircraft and in the last 10 years. This research is in conjunction with safety efforts by the US Helicopter Safety Team and the Helicopter Association International. There are series of questions regarding safety management systems, incidents and accidents, and company performance. To participate, you must be between age 21 to 60, had some aircrew experience with a small civil helicopter organization (less than 5 aircraft) and in the United States in last 10 years. Current helicopter student pilots can participate. Please follow the link below and fill but if you start, please finish the survey. It will only take about 12 minutes to complete. The survey does not include any identifiable data about the crewmember, places of employment, or OEM. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5VPCZZ5 Thank you very much for your participation! Principal Investigator Scott Burgess Doctoral student at Northcentral University S.Burgess4793@email.ncu.edu Curt Lewis