Flight Safety Information June 9, 2016 - No. 113 In This Issue UPS MD-11 Runway Excursion - South Korea Closing in on Egypt Air 'black boxes' Second specialist vessel to join EgyptAir search on Friday FAA Group Calls for More Mental-Health Support for Pilots Air safety bureau investigating incident on TAP flight to Cape Verde Flight Attendant Tells Passenger to 'Shut Up' After Argument Over Pasta Air India's Books Are So Bad, Nobody Will Buy It: Aviation Minister Russia rolls out MC-21 aircraft 2016 FAA Asia-Pacific Flight Standards Meeting July 19-21 ARGUS Charter Operator Flash Survey PhD Research Request UPS MD-11 Runway Excursion - South Korea Status: Preliminary Date: Monday 6 June 2016 Time: 22:45 Type: McDonnell Douglas MD-11F Operator: United Parcel Service - UPS Registration: N277UP C/n / msn: 48578/588 First flight: 1995 Engines: 3 Pratt & Whitney PW4460 Crew: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4 Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0 Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4 Airplane damage: Substantial Location: Seoul-Incheon International Airport (ICN) ( South Korea) Phase: Takeoff (TOF) Nature: Cargo Departure airport: Seoul-Incheon International Airport (ICN/RKSI), South Korea Destination airport: Anchorage-Ted Stevens International Airport, AK (ANC/PANC), United States of America Flightnumber: 5X61 Narrative: UPS flight 5X61 suffered a runway excursion and nose gear collapse in a takeoff accident at Seoul-Incheon International Airport (ICN). The aircraft, an McDonnell Douglas MD-11F cargo plane was bound for Anchorage, Alaska. Takeoff from runway 33L was aborted and the aircraft continued past the end of the runway. The nose gear collapsed and the no. 1 and 3 engines contacted the grass. The runway was Notamed closed after the accident: A0854/16 - RWY 15R/33L CLSD DUE TO ACFT ACCIDENT. 06 JUN 14:18 2016 UNTIL 06 SEP 14:17 2016. CREATED: 06 JUN 14:19 2016 https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20160606-0 Back to Top Closing in on Egypt Air 'black boxes' The Egypt Air disaster may have dropped out of the news briefly, but the investigation continues apace to find out why flight MS804 crashed. French investigators think they have heard locator-beacon signals from at least one of the "black box" flight recorders, and now salvage experts are heading to the site to take a closer look. Hearing the beacons is one thing, but they won't know for sure what they have found until they send down a robotic submarine armed with bright lights and cameras. "Black boxes" are, in fact, bright orange and have reflective strips, so they show up pretty well when you shine lights on them. The robotic submarine is on a special salvage ship, called the John Lethbridge. The sub has claws (manipulator arms) that can pick things up and bring them to the surface. I have spoken to a marine salvage expert, David Mearns, who has decades of experience looking for shipwrecks and lost aircraft. It had a different name then, but he used the John Lethbridge in 2001 to photograph the wrecks of the warships Bismarck and HMS Hood. This is also a man who once ran an operation to pick up every single piece of a crashed aircraft that had sunk 3,800m (12,500ft) to the sea bed on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea (actually the Tyrrhenian Sea off western Italy). It took his team two years to recover all the debris. Mr Mearns is not involved in this search, but he knows crew members on the John Lethbridge, and ocean recovery is a small, specialised world. His best guess, and it's just that because he doesn't know all the details, is that, with a fair wind, the team with the robot sub could be on site within three or four days. They have to stock up in port first. "If they're really lucky, they could find the black boxes on their first dive," he told me, "but it all depends." "It is not unusual for the underwater locater beacons, or pingers, to have been knocked off the black boxes during the crash." Where missing EgyptAir plane had been in past 24 hours In the meantime, Mr Mearns thinks that the ship, Lalplace, that initially heard the pingers, will have remained on site to sweep back and forth, listening out for more locator-beacon signals. They go in set patterns, figure of eights or clover leaves, "to get the best possible range and bearings from which they can calculate a more accurate position of the black boxes on the seabed". If they have found the plane, he says, investigators are faced with a choice. Potential crime scene "This is potentially a crime scene," he said. "So, they could decide to sonar map and photograph the entire debris field before touching anything. "That may be an area as small as 1km [0.6 miles] by 1km depending on how the plane broke up. "Or they may choose to bring the boxes up quickly, because that could give them an early answer." Recovering aircraft from under the sea is time consuming and complex. The robot subs, operated by experts on the surface, can bring up small pieces weighing maybe 100kg (15st) in their claws. You can also strap bigger parts, weighing about 500kg, to the subs. But the really big pieces, such as the engines or tail for example, require specialist heavy lifting equipment. First, they have to confirm they have heard a "black box". Then, they have to find it, recover it, dry the circuits out - that takes a day or two - and download the data. There are two boxes on board. The cockpit voice recorder should reveal what the crew thought was happening. You would hear what they said to each other, plus all the alarms in the background. The flight data recorder should reveal what the plane's computers thought was happening. The limited evidence so far points to an on-board fire. But the "black boxes" might not be able to tell us whether it was started deliberately or not. They may end up having to recover large parts of the aircraft to know for sure, and that is a long job. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36481749 Back to Top Second specialist vessel to join EgyptAir search on Friday File photo of an Egyptian military search boat takes part in a search operation for the EgyptAir plane that disappeared in the Mediterranean Sea in this still image taken from video May 19, 2016. Egyptian Military/Handout via Reuters TV A second ship equipped with specialist search devices will join the hunt for the "black box" flight recorders and the wreckage of an EgyptAir jet on Friday, the head of France's air-accident investigation agency said on Thursday. A French naval supply vessel picked up a signal from one of the two recorders on June 1, and Egypt has chartered a second vessel operated by Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search, equipped with sonar equipment and an underwater vehicle. Remi Jouty, director of the BEA air accident agency, which is advising Egypt on the underwater search, said the first ship continued to pick up locator signals from the first recorder, whose location had been narrowed to within 1 to 2 kilometres. Pending the search for the two recorders, the Egyptian-led investigation is still "very far" from understanding why Flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19, killing all 66 people on board, Jouty told aviation journalists in Paris. Each recorder, one containing cockpit voice recordings and the other data from the Airbus A320 jet, is attached to a beacon designed to emit acoustic homing signals for 30 days, giving search teams limited time to detect the second box. Jouty said he was sorry that French recommendations to extend the battery life to 90 days, first made in December 2009 following the Atlantic crash of an Air France jet and still not implemented worldwide, had taken so long to be acted on. The new rules take effect in 2018 [nL5N18J0JP]. Each recorder is contained inside a strong bright-orange housing and attached to a beacon, or pinger, which sends out acoustic signals about once a second after a crash. To recover the black boxes from the seabed 3,000 metres below the surface, investigators will need to narrow the signals to within a few metres and establish whether the pingers are still connected to the recorders, Jouty said. How long it takes after that to recover the crucial pieces of evidence will depend partly on whether they are accessible or trapped inside the aircraft's structure, he told Reuters. "It is difficult to imagine the recovery taking less than a week once they are located," he added. Once recovered, the recorders would be handed to Egyptian authorities, who are expected to read them in the country's air crash investigation laboratory in Cairo. If they are damaged they could be sent abroad for further analysis or back to their U.S. manufacturer, Honeywell. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egyptair-airplane-france-idUSKCN0YV0R2 Back to Top FAA Group Calls for More Mental-Health Support for Pilots Advisory group to urge stepped-up training for physicians to spot pilot mental stress By ANDY PASZTOR The Federal Aviation Administration is slated to release an advisory group's recommendations Thursday calling for stepped-up peer-support programs to help U.S. airline pilots who may be wrestling with psychological problems, according to people familiar with the matter. The view from inside a Boeing 787 full-flight simulator in Renton, Wash. The Federal Aviation Administration is scheduled to release an advisory group report urging enhanced peer support for pilots' mental fitness but doesn't include major shifts in mental-health screening. ENLARGE FAA chief Michael Huerta and leaders of the committee are scheduled to hold a press conference at the agency's headquarters to discuss the findings, these people said, which stop well short of calling for major changes in professional mental-health screening of commercial aviators. Instead of urging big shifts in the nature or timing of recurrent medical exams, they said, the group's report emphasizes the importance of voluntary, nonpunitive programs-especially at smaller airlines- intended to identify and help pilots with psychological or substance-abuse issues. Such initiatives have been under way for many years at major U.S. carriers, with good results. But the advisory group has discussed ways to enhance them and to encourage smaller, commuter carriers, which sometimes lack the required resources for advanced mental-health programs, to implement more-effective intervention efforts. In addition, the recommendations include enhanced training for FAA-designated doctors, called medical examiners, to be able to spot mental and emotional stress affecting pilots, according to one person familiar with the details. Those physicians aren't specialists in psychiatry, but part of their job is to make referrals to mental-health specialists if they spot problems during routine checkups. U.S. airline pilots are required to have a physical exam once or twice a year, depending on age. But those routine checkups often don't delve deeply into psychological issues. The committee also is expected to call for enhanced pilot training so aviators can better recognize the signs of mental or emotional stress themselves. Drafted by airline representatives, medical experts and pilot-union leaders, the report was requested by the FAA more than a year ago in the wake of a Germanwings flight that European investigators determined was flown intentionally into a French mountainside by a severely depressed co-pilot. All 150 people on board the jetliner were killed, and the crash sparked a world-wide debate over screening pilots for mental- health problems. The latest findings, which aren't binding on FAA regulators, are expected to mirror many of the recommendations previously released by European safety experts. Details of the report to the FAA, however, weren't available, and the committee's meetings were closed to the public. The FAA on Wednesday didn't even disclose the subject of the anticipated press conference. But according to people familiar with the process, leaders of the advisory committee are expected to focus on peer-run intervention programs-run by pilots with the blessing and cooperation of airline management- as essential tools to ensure aviators are fit to fly when they get behind the controls of commercial planes. Voluntary peer-support efforts, sometimes called mentoring or professional standards initiatives, are designed to provide help for pilots who may have substance-abuse or psychological issues. The programs typically rely on support and monitoring by fellow pilots and, depending on the circumstances, mandatory treatment by mental-health professionals. The panel wants the FAA to devise strategies to promote such voluntary programs, particularly among regional airlines, according to one person involved in the deliberations. Safety regulators, medical experts and pilot unions on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as many other regions, have endorsed such an approach. They contend that fears of punishment, or worries about automatically losing jobs once pilots acknowledge psychological difficulties, tend to drive problems underground-resulting in less likely treatment and heightened risks for passengers. Historically, FAA officials largely have agreed with those concepts Martin Chalk, president of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations, previously stressed the focus ought to be on improving nonpunitive airline assistance programs, ensuring "some level of support before a problem manifests itself on the flight deck." When he set up the U.S. advisory panel in May 2015, Mr. Huerta asked it to consider, among other things, if there were "barriers that prevent pilots from reporting medical conditions, including emotional and mental health issues." The FAA also tasked the panel to consider whether pilot training or testing improvements could help identify budding psychological problems and if medical examiners should receive additional training. Unlike European pilots, U.S. commercial aviators for years have been permitted to fly while taking certain antidepressant medications so long as they are under a doctor's care and their condition is assessed regularly. From the beginning of the debate sparked by the tragedy of Germanwings Flight 9525, medical and safety experts have argued against making recurrent medical exams substantially longer or much more detailed. Large segments of the medical community doubt the feasibility of reliably spotting suicidal tendencies among pilots through those techniques because mental illnesses can change in severity over weeks or months. Previously, a separate advisory panel of European safety experts endorsed relatively modest changes in the training and psychological monitoring of the region's airline pilots, including greater emphasis on voluntary programs for aviators to report their own psychological problems. As part of their final Germanwings report, French air-crash investigators recommended enhanced pilot-to- pilot support programs and stepped-up medical evaluations of pilots with previously diagnosed psychological problems. The report also urged that European aviators be allowed to continue flying even as they start using certain antidepressants under the care of a physician. Investigators also recommended rolling back existing medical privacy laws in Germany and throughout Europe to make it easier for physicians to alert authorities about pilots posing potential threats to public safety, though those proposals have gained little traction. But European authorities are working on changes that would ensure pilot-license limitations due to psychological issues are shared among countries. http://www.wsj.com/articles/faa-set-to-release-advisory-group-report-prompted-by-germanwings-crash- 1465471520 Back to Top Air safety bureau investigating incident on TAP flight to Cape Verde Portugal's air safety bureau, the GPIAA, is reportedly investigating an incident in which a TAP flight from Lisbon to Cape Verde had to cancel takeoff at the last minute after a loud bang was heard from one of the engines as it accelerated down the runway. Aviation website Aviation Herald said according to the French BEA, Portugal's Bureau for the Prevention and Investigation of Accidents Involving Aircraft (GPIAA) has rated the incident on 21 May as "serious" and is investigating. According to Aviation Herald, the TAP Airbus A320-200 was accelerating down the runway "when the crew rejected takeoff at high speed following a loud bang from the left hand side, loss of thrust on the left hand engine (...) and associated yaw of the aircraft" as well as receiving an engine failure warning. The aircraft "slowed safely" but emergency services reported seeing smoke and flames coming from the affected engine. "Although no fire warning was active in the cockpit, the crew stopped the aircraft and performed the fire drill shutting the engine down and activating the engine's fire suppression. Subsequent assessment by emergency services indicated it was safe to tow the aircraft to the apron, where passengers disembarked through the right hand doors via stairs", Aviation Herald reports. A passenger, who was on the flight with his wife, commented on the website: "Excellent pilot who did what he had to do. Used the brakes the right way and brought us back safely to the terminal. "There was no panic in the cabin. It was clear that the pilot had everything under control. The cabin crew was very professional. A voucher for a meal at the airport was handed to the passengers. Other airlines could learn from that." http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/air-safety-bureau-investigating-incident-on-tap-flight-to-cape- verde/38487 Back to Top Flight Attendant Tells Passenger to 'Shut Up' After Argument Over Pasta A planes cabin with closely packed seats is seen in this undated file photo.Getty Images A midflight dustup over pasta boiled over earlier this month when a flight attendant told a passenger to shut up - an incident that was caught on camera. The spaghetti spat erupted on an American Airlines flight from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, to Miami on June 5, when the crew ran out of pasta for business class customers, according to passenger Ra Nath. Nath tells ABC News he asked a flight attendant why his row, the second row of the section, was served last. According to the passenger, the flight attendant then became aggressive. "I just wanted to know why my row got asked last. I mean, I was in the second rows of business class, and the rows behind me and in front of me were asked," the passenger wrote in a blog post. "That is no order that makes sense in my mind." Nath tells ABC News that the flight attendant attempted to explain to him that the meals depend on the direction of the plane and to "do your research." At one point, Nath began to record with his camera, asking the flight attendant for his name. "Shut up and don't talk to me again, OK?" the flight attendant said, according to the video. "If you talk to me again, I tell the cops, and you get arrested in Miami." In the video, a person, apparently Nath, can be heard repeatedly asking for the flight attendant's name. Nath was not detained and says another flight attendant spoke with him. "There was a female flight attendant who was also taking care of business class, and she was so friendly and understanding. She apologized on his behavior, and we talked about the whole experience. She was exactly the type of flight attendant that is ideal for a situation like that," Nath says. Regarding his initial question, Nath says, "Maybe I could have asked in a nicer way, but I wasn't aggressive like he was." An American Airlines spokesman told ABC News that it is reviewing the incident internally. http://abcnews.go.com/US/flight-attendant-tells-passenger-shut-argument-pasta/story?id=39704050 Back to Top Air India's Books Are So Bad, Nobody Will Buy It: Aviation Minister The national carrier has a debt of some Rs 50,000 crore. (PTI photo) Air India has been in red since 2007 Air India-Indian Airlines merger. It managed an operational profit of Rs 6-8 crore in last fiscal. As per latest figures, the national carrier has market share of 15. Air India's "books are so bad" that nobody will buy it even if the government wanted to sell off the national carrier, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said today. Ruling out disinvestment in the carrier that has a debt of some Rs 50,000 crore, Mr Raju at the same time made it plain that the taxpayers' money cannot be committed "for eternity". "Its (Air India) books are so bad. I don't think that even if it is offered, anybody would come for it," he said. Grappling with mounting debts and tough business conditions, Air India has been in the red since the merger of then Air India and Indian Airlines in 2007 and is staying afloat on a Rs 30,000-crore bailout package extended by the UPA government. Asserting that unlike others, he would not like to get into "Air India bashing," the minister also said that the carrier needs to function in a more cohesive manner to deliver on its turnaround goals. "It is a nice airline. I like Air India but I can't commit taxpayers' money for eternity. That is not done," Mr Raju told Press Trust of India in an interview. Buoyed by improving financial situation and high growth potential of the domestic aviation market, Air India is putting in plans to expand its fleet by another 100 aircraft in the next four years. "My feeling is that the cohesiveness of the team has to increase and where they have worked as a team, they have delivered, and where they have not worked as a team, they have pulled in different sides. Nobody can put the clock back. The quicker they realise it the better," he noted. While there has been no official announcement so far, the airline has managed to eke out an operational profit of around Rs 6-8 crore in the previous financial year. "The fact that they have not made an operating loss speaks volumes," Mr Raju said. Confident that the national airline has the capability of flying high, the Minister said it is working in that direction and in a veiled reference to criticisms, emphasised that he does not like the idea of Air India "bashing". As per the latest Directorate General of Civil Aviation data, Air India ferried a total of 11.98 lakh passengers on its domestic network in April, cornering a market share of 15.1 per cent during this period. http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/air-indias-books-are-so-bad-nobody-will-buy-it-aviation-minister- 1417224 Back to Top Russia rolls out MC-21 aircraft Russian state-owned United Aircraft Corporation has rolled out its forthcoming MC-21 passenger aircraft for the first time. The aircraft was unveiled at an official ceremony at Irkutsk Aviation Plant, attended by Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev. The MC-21-300 aircraft will be used for flight tests, and is designed to accommodate up to 211 passengers, competing with the Airbus A320neo, and Boeing's B737 MAX aircraft. MC-21-300 Two other versions of the MC-21 are also planned - the MC-21-200 carrying up to 176 passengers, and the longer MC-21-400 carrying up to 230 passengers. First delivery is currently slated for 2017. Unveiling the test aircraft Medvedev said: ""The creation of MC-21 aircraft is the tremendous victory of aviation industry, the victory of Irkut Corporation, our scientists, designers, our engineers, and workers. "You've done the great job for our country, I would better say - just outstanding job!" UAC has 175 firm orders for the aircraft, including 50 from Russian flag carrier Aeroflot. http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/russia-rolls-out-mc-21-aircraft Back to Top The deadline is fast approaching to reserve your hotel room for the 2016 FAA Asia-Pacific Flight Standards Meeting July 19-21 at the Westin City Center Hotel in Washington, DC. A special discounted rate of $174/night (exclusive of taxes) has been reserved for conference participants. This rate includes daily breakfast for one person. Click here to reserve your room now! To receive this special rate, you must reserve your room by June 18(subject to availability). Still haven't registered to attend the conference? Please visit the conference website to get the latest information and to register: www.regonline.com/2016-AsiaPacificFlightStandardsMeeting. The deadline to register for the conference is Wednesday, June 29. Questions? Email us at ConferenceSupport@sidemgroup.com. Back to Top ARGUS Charter Operator Flash Survey Dear Air Charter Operators, We are asking for your help in collecting some quick metrics to assess revenue vs. non-revenue flight activity within the charter industry. This is a very short one-question survey that will take less than a minute of your time! Survey Link: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07ecqh07moiomz0q4d/_tmp/questions 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 of which 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. To participate, you must be between age 21 to 60 (federal/university requirement), had some type of 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 for your participation! Principal Investigator Scott Burgess Doctoral student at Northcentral University S.Burgess4793@email.ncu.edu Curt Lewis