Flight Safety Information June 23, 2016 - No. 123 In This Issue EgyptAir Crash Investigators Yet to Access 'Black Box' Data EgyptAir A320 recorders undergoing circuitry tests US air/safety experts join EgyptAir crash investigation Onboard 'Verbal Disturbance' Prompts F-16 Fighter Jets to Escort Diverted Delta Flight to Tucson JetBlue flight from Boston turned around due to cracked windshield Cooperation Key To Latin America Safety, But Infrastructure Remains A Challenge Singapore trains 13 Nigerian Aerodrome safety inspectors VLM Airlines Files for Bankruptcy, Cancels All Flights Virgin Atlantic just used behavioral science to 'nudge' its pilots into using less fuel Thai Air Force's first female pilots begin training ARGUS Charter Operator Flash Survey PhD Research Survey (I) PhD Research Survey (II) EgyptAir Crash Investigators Yet to Access 'Black Box' Data Egyptian officials appear to be struggling to prepare the damaged devices for analysis An EgyptAir plane taxis at London Heathrow. The reason for last month's crash of Flight 804 remains unknown, and investigators appear to be struggling with the damaged "black boxes." Almost a week after recovering the "black boxes" from EgyptAir Flight 804, investigators have yet to download their data, slowing efforts to determine why the plane plunged into the Mediterranean Sea last month. Search teams on Thursday retrieved the Airbus Group SE A320's cockpit voice recorder and a day later recovered the flight-data recorder. Those were handed to the Egyptian-led team investigating the crash, which began tests on the devices on Sunday. The crash probe Wednesday said it was "conducting thorough inspection and tests on the electronic boards of both" the recorders "in order to start the uploading process of the data." The team gave no timeline for when the analysis would start. The black boxes offer the best clues to determining why Flight 804 crashed May 19, killing all 66 people on board. The plane was headed to Cairo from Paris when it deviated from its course while cruising at 37,000 feet, first turning left before rolling to the right and completing a full circle, investigators have said. Accident investigators haven't ruled out any cause for the crash. Crash probes sometimes can identify the likely cause for a crash within days if not hours of extracting data from the black boxes. Egyptian officials appear to be struggling to get the devices, which sustained some damage, ready for analysis. "Inspection and removal of salt accumulations for more than 200 electrical circuits are undergoing to determine the circuit that doesn't function properly in order to reach accurate reading of the memory units of the recorders," Egyptian officials said, adding the process was being witnessed by French and U.S. officials. A flight-data recorder is designed to store technical parameters for the last 25 hours of a plane's operations. It monitors basic information such as aircraft speed and altitude, but also smoke alarms, autopilot mode and control inputs made by the crew. The cockpit voice recorder retains the last two hours of crew conversation. Egyptian officials last week said the data analysis could "take several weeks." Flight 804 broadcast a number of fault messages before all contact was lost indicating possible smoke in the nose of the plane, including a critical electronic-equipment hub beneath the cockpit. The messages alone haven't proved sufficient to determine a likely cause for the crash, investigators have said. Radar data also indicated there wasn't a sudden explosion that tore the plane apart midair. The flight's black box data should allow investigators to determine the sequence of events on board and what actions the crew may have taken to deal with them. Investigators also said that a specialized vessel, the John Lethbridge, belonging to Deep Ocean Search Ltd., was continuing to map the debris field of the plane's wreckage for potential recovery later. The ship was used to recover the black boxes from a depth of depth of around 3,000 meters (9,843 feet). http://www.wsj.com/articles/egyptair-crash-investigators-yet-to-access-black-box-data- 1466610173 Back to Top EgyptAir A320 recorders undergoing circuitry tests Investigators are cleaning and testing the circuit boards of the crashed EgyptAir Airbus A320's flight recorders ahead of attempting to extract their data. Both the cockpit-voice and flight-data recorder were retrieved from the wreckage of flight MS804 about a month after the jet came down in the Mediterranean Sea on 19 May. The Egyptian civil aviation ministry says it is carrying out "inspection and removal of salt accumulation" on more than 200 electrical paths, to ensure that the circuitry is functional so that accurate data can be downloaded. French and US investigators are overseeing the process. The ministry says work to map the crash site and distribution of wreckage is continuing, with a view to "retrieving [debris at] a later stage". www.flightglobal.com Back to Top US air/safety experts join EgyptAir crash investigation According to Bloomberg, US air-safety experts have joined an investigation into the cause of the crash of an EgyptAir Airbus A320 plane that killed all 66 people on board on May 19, 2016. Egypt´s Ministry of Civil Aviation said the Airbus A320´s data recorders are expected to continue emitting signals until June 24. Without the pings, which were initially detected two weeks ago, locating the devices becomes more difficult. The US National Transport Safety Board asked to join the Egypt-led investigation because the plane´s engines were built by a consortium led by American company Pratt & Whitney, the Egyptian ministry said. The agency will send an expert to assist with the probe, which also includes French air-accident specialists since Airbus Group SE is based in the country. Radar images show the plane bound for Cairo from Paris deviated from its course, veered sharply left and then rolled to the right in a complete circle before plunging into the sea, Egyptian investigators said, confirming earlier statements from Greek officials. Flight MS804 also broadcast a series of error messages minutes before contact was lost, while the crew didn´t send a distress signal. The cause of the May 19 crash is likely to remain a mystery until the black boxes are found and decoded. The French ship La Place has received signals from the seabed in the search area, and the John Lethbridge, a vessel from Deep Ocean Search Ltd., has joined the hunt to scan the ocean floor for the voice recorders. http://www.financial-news.co.uk/35426/2016/06/us-airsafety-experts-join-egyptair-crash- investigation/ Back to Top Onboard 'Verbal Disturbance' Prompts F-16 Fighter Jets to Escort Diverted Delta Flight to Tucson F-16 fighter jets, seen here, escorted a Compass Airlines aircraft operating as a Delta Airlines jet to Tuscon International Airport, after it was diverted to the Arizona airport after an incident with a passenger.more A Los Angeles-bound Compass Airlines aircraft operating on behalf of Delta Airlines was diverted to Arizona's Tucson International Airport Wednesday afternoon, following an onboard "verbal disturbance" involving a passenger, the FBI and Tucson Airport Authority confirmed. Specifics about the disturbance were not made available. NORAD confirmed to ABC News that it scrambled two F-16 fighters to intercept the jet, which was carrying 80 people, including passengers and flight crew. The plane's flight crew notified the captain and copilot of the disturbance, leading to the F-16 fighter escort. The NORAD spokesman did not have details on the disturbance itself but said whatever it was met the criteria to launch the fighters, which monitored the plane until it landed in Tucson. Citing "operational security", they won't say where the F-16s launched from. The Embraer 170 aircraft was was en route to Los Angeles International Airport from San Antonio, Texas, according to the FAA. The Tucson Airport Authority Police confirmed that one of its uniformed officers escorted and handcuffed the suspect along with an FBI agent, who took the individual into federal custody because of the "verbal disturbance," a spokesperson told ABC News. All passengers were taken off the plane and re-screened by TSA. The FBI's Phoenix office said it was investigating the incident, but said there was no threat to public safety. The FAA identified the aircraft as Compass flight 5720; it landed without incident at 4:35 p.m. PT. One the passengers on the plane, Ryan Healy, tweeted a series of photos, video and posts detailing how FBI agents entered the plane's cabin and removed the individual, and how the plane was escorted by fighter jets. http://abcnews.go.com/US/onboard-verbal-disturbance-prompts-16-fighter-jets- escort/story?id=40061239 Back to Top JetBlue flight from Boston turned around due to cracked windshield A JetBlue Airways flight out of Boston had to turn around because of a cracked windshield Wednesday morning, landing safely at Boston Logan International Airport more than an hour after it first took off. JetBlue flight 1285 originally left Logan for Pittsburgh around 6:25 a.m., according to JetBlue. It returned to Boston at 7:35 a.m. after crews reported windshield issue. According to JetBlue's flight tracker, the flight left again at 8:39 a.m. and is scheduled to land in Pittsburgh at 10 a.m. It was not immediately clear whether the aircraft remained in service. The FAA is investigating. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/06/22/jetblue-flight-from-boston-turned-around- due-cracked-windshield/GKkZIOLIX87hU4L3CL0P3N/story.html Back to Top Cooperation Key To Latin America Safety, But Infrastructure Remains A Challenge PANAMA CITY-Latin America's safety record is the result of a variety of factors, including cultural affinity among the countries in the region, the age of the fleet and strong cooperation between governments, industry and ICAO, industry experts said here at the ALTA Pan- American Aviation Safety Summit. According to IATA, the Latin America-Caribbean region now has the second-lowest accident rate in the world after North Asia, with 0.92 accidents per million flight-sectors. The accident rate has declined every year for the last seven years, IATA said in its 2015 Safety Report. ALTA, which represents Latin American and Caribbean airlines, said there has not been a fatal accident among its member airlines in eight years. This despite South America, in particular, having difficult terrain and unpredictable weather, and dozens of air-traffic-management jurisdictions. Despite having their own independent organizations overseeing safety and air-traffic management, the countries in Latin America are typically open to cooperation and are not faced with major language barriers. Industry leaders say that this contributes to the high level of safety. "The reasons for this record are complex, but perhaps the most important is cultural affinity," Santiago Saltas, ALTA industry affairs director, told Aviation Daily here. "The countries of Central and South America are linked by language, with the exception of Brazil, but all of them, including Brazil, share a cultural affinity," Saltas said. "This makes cooperation on issues like safety much easier." These cultural similarities-beyond language- make negotiating difficult topics easier, Saltas said. "We cannot diminish the importance of this cultural affinity," Rafael Restrello, head of safety for LATAM, said in an interview. "Our CEOs and all the safety experts understand how to do business with each other, and the similar languages make it much easier to cooperate," he added. The ICAO Regional Aviation Safety Group-Pan-America (RASG-PA) is different from other RASGs worldwide, Saltas said. Governments and industry participate in the RASG-PA, while elsewhere in the world, industry representatives can only participate in RASGs as observers, said Saltas. This allows greater cooperation among the stakeholders in aviation safety and is key to explaining the region's low accident rate, Restrello said. The region's fleet also is among the world's youngest, with an average age of eight years, Saltas said. But there are significant challenges ahead. Governments in the region did not anticipate the growth in the region's passenger traffic when they were building infrastructure. Air-traffic- management systems and airports are reaching capacity, Saltas said. Governments, hamstrung by the region's economic travails, have underinvested in infrastructure. "We, the airlines, have gone as far as we can," Saltas said. "Now it is up to the governments to invest in modernization." Despite the high level of cooperation, each country managing its own air-traffic management and safety regulations is ultimately inefficient, Saltas added. Governments are beginning to cooperate. "In Central and South America, we are seeing the first steps toward harmonizing air-traffic management, safety, repair-station regulation and pilot licensing," Saltas said. "We are not there yet, but everyone recognizes harmonization on these issues will make the system safer." However, this extent of this regional cooperation is limited. "We have tried to do these things in the Caribbean," Saltas said. "But it will never happen." www.aviationweek.com Back to Top Singapore trains 13 Nigerian Aerodrome safety inspectors The Singapore Civil Aviation Academy has trained 13 Aerodrome safety inspectors working with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). The training hitherto carried out in Singapore took place at the NCAA conference facility in Lagos. According to the public relations head of NCAA, Sam Adurogboye, this will be the first time such a programme will hold in Nigeria. He described the programme as the pilot edition of the Safety Oversight Inspectors Course (Aerodrome) in Lagos. The Aerodrome course hitherto offered in Singapore Civil Aviation Academy was taken to diaspora for the very first time in its existence. He said: "This is cognizance of the importance of the course to global aviation safety, 40 participants from 15 African countries were in attendance for this maiden edition. "Nigeria provided the highest number of participants." According to Adurogboye, there were 13 persons from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and three from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). He said 14 other countries were similarly in attendance. They include: Burkina- Faso, Cameroon, Niger Republic, Congo, Mali, Cote De Voire, Togo, Senegal, Chad, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Gambia and Sierra Leone. The five-day Course was organized by the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). The training had as its focus vital areas of Aerodrome Oversight functions. Some of which include an overview of the states' Safety Oversight Obligations, Critical Elements of Safety System, Safety Management System (SMS), Airport Emergency Planning, Operational Services and Maintenance Practices, physical characteristics (runways, taxiways, clearways, stop ways and holding bays). Others are, visual aids for navigation, indicators and signaling devices, markings, lights, signs and markers, Aerodrome operational service, equipment and installations, rescue and fire- fighting, training programme (review, records and documentation), training of apron drivers, runway incursion prevention, wildlife and foreign object damage management inter alia. During the closing ceremony, the Director General, NCAA Capt.Muhtar Usman informed the Aviation Safety Inspectors (ASI) that the essence of the course was to enhance their Safety oversight management capacity of Aerodromes through a comprehensive system approach. The DG also posited that this opportunity given to the African Continent by delivering the course in Nigeria will enhance better understanding of roles and responsibilities of Aerodrome inspectors. It is expected that their knowledge of Aerodrome certification and surveillance will impact on safety and security of airline operations in Africa. In the areas of training and partnership, he said that NCAA has been a progressive partner with CAAS and AFCAC in different areas, specifically on Human Capital Development. Inspectors of the Authority have participated in several courses organized by these bodies; the most recent was the Dangerous Goods training in Niger Republic. Capt.Usman therefore commended the management of CAAS and AFCAC for granting NCAA the honor and privilege of hosting the course. He expressed optimism that the partnership will continue for the mutual benefit of all parties. http://thenationonlineng.net/singapore-trains-13-nigerian-aerodrome-safety-inspectors/ Back to Top VLM Airlines Files for Bankruptcy, Cancels All Flights Belgian air carrier VLM Airlines announced Wednesday the company has filed for bankruptcy and that all flights moving forward have been canceled. VLM Airlines filed a formal application asking for credit protection in May in order to avoid filing bankruptcy for six months. As time went on, the airline stated that it didn't have enough time to make up for the number of pilots who left the company or bring in the additional financial resources. In addition, VLM Airlines also reported that its planned sale-leaseback deal for several aircraft in its fleet fell through due to an unsuccessful re-capitalization, as well as several charter clients canceling contracts. "We realized that all restructuring measures we had implemented from January onward had been come too late for a sustainable restructuring," VLM Airlines CEO Hamish Davidson said in the statement. In addition, the airline tweeted out the following: VLM Airlines was originally established in 1993, and operated 11 Fokker 50s aircrafts. In 2015, the airline carried 300,000 passengers and employed 160 workers. http://www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/vlm-airlines-files-for-bankruptcy-cancels-all- flights.html Back to Top Virgin Atlantic just used behavioral science to 'nudge' its pilots into using less fuel. It worked A Boeing Co. 787-9 Dreamliner passenger aircraft, operated by Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., takes off over a row of passenger aircraft operated by British Airways, a unit of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG), at Heathrow airport, in London, U.K., on Tuesday, March 29, 2016. (Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg) In an unusual experiment that could have major implications for the role of corporations in fighting climate change, Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways recently teamed up with economists to try to "nudge" the company's pilots to use less fuel, using a variety of behavioral interventions. And it apparently worked. The intervention was so cost effective, the researchers say, that it "outperforms every other reported carbon abatement technology of which we are aware." The study suggests that Virgin - which has long had a sustainability program, and whose founder is a major champion of climate change action - could prove a model for others in the airline industry, and beyond, when it comes to shaping how employee behavior (including very high-level, skilled employees) affects the environment. The Virgin Atlantic experiment involved a huge volume of data - from 40,000 flights made by 335 captains in 2014. Pilots' fuel use was measured during three separate flight phases: before the plane takes off, while it is operated in the air and then on the ground post-landing. The results, authored by Greer Gosnell of the London School of Economics and Political Science along with two University of Chicago economists, were just released as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Virgin Atlantic has also released its own description of the research here. "When the university team approached us about doing an evidence-based study on employee engagement on sustainability, we saw it as a fantastic opportunity to work more effectively with our pilots on fuel and carbon efficiency," Emma Harvey, who heads Virgin's sustainability team, said in a press statement. "They were certainly up for the challenge." "These small-cost interventions can really have large ramifications for savings, not only for the airline, but for society," added Robert Metcalfe, one of the study's authors and an economist at the University of Chicago. The cost was so low, he said, because the study consisted of simply sending Virgin's pilots various types of communications about their fuel use by mail to their home addresses. It was by providing this information about fuel use, combined with a variety of additional messages or incentives, that led pilots to change how they operated in a way that led to substantial fuel savings. The work also comes at a time when emissions from the global airline industry are drawing more and more scrutiny amid projections for far higher air travel volumes (and hence, emissions) in the future. Other airlines, such as United, are experimenting with biofuels to try to offset some of their carbon emissions - and at the experimental extreme, battery powered or solar aircraft are also being tested out. Still, all expectations are that most airlines, for some time, will run on petroleum-based fuels - leading not only to continuing carbon dioxide emissions, but also subjecting airlines to considerable price volatility from the global oil market. All of which makes changing how pilots operate the aircraft and shape its fuel consumption very important. Virgin's pilots are highly skilled and well-compensated professionals, whose salaries average $ 175,000 to $ 225,000 per year, according to the study. And they have a great deal of control over precisely how much fuel they use in flight. Before takeoff, captains can decide how much fuel to put on the plane; during flight, they can make a number of decisions involving speed, altitude, route, and other factors that conserve fuel; and while taxiing, they can shut off one or more engines. All of these choices affect the amount of fuel burned. And while circumstances sometimes force pilots into routes or choices that burn additional fuel, their decisions still matter substantially. All 335 of Virgin Atlantic's pilots were part of the experiment, and they were randomly assigned to four separate research groups. At minimum, in what is dubbed the "control" group, the pilots were informed that a study of their fuel use was happening. Then, they received no further information about it. Nonetheless, this simple alert about being part of a study had a dramatic effect, leading to substantially lower fuel use. "We were open with the captains, saying, 'We're going to randomize you,'" said the University of Chicago's Metcalfe. "So what we find is, especially for how efficiently they flew the plane, and the engines being used in taxi in, the control group significantly increased their [fuel efficient] behavior." But pilots in the three additional groups in the study actually did better than those in the control group, showing additional, if smaller, fuel saving gains. Here, the study fits part of a trend in psychology and behavioral economics, sometimes dubbed "nudging," in which subtle shifts in in the environments in which actors make decisions are meant to promote more beneficial outcomes. In one of the experimental cases, pilots were given monthly assessments of their fuel conservation performance during an eight-month period in 2014. In another, they received these assessments and also were given an explicit goal for cutting down fuel use, and received either praise when they succeeded or more encouragement to do better if they didn't. And finally, in the last case, the company also made a charitable donation on their behalf if they met their goals - 10 pounds per month for hitting targets in each of the three fuel conservation areas. This the researchers dubbed the "prosocial group," based on the idea that making pilots feel altruistic would influence their fuel saving behavior. All three experimental groups saved fuel even beyond how well the control group had done. And the groups that received targeted goals, or that received these goals and also saw charitable donations made if they met them, performed the best of all. As it turned out, however, the "prosocial" group didn't perform any better overall than the group that was given clear improvement targets. However, pilots in this group did report the highest level of job satisfaction after the study period had ended. Overall, the experiment saved 6,828 metric tons of fuel for Virgin Atlantic, worth 3.3 million pounds (at a time when fuel costs were higher than now), according to the airline. That also prevented the emission of 21,507 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The vast majority of this impact came simply from the captains in the control group knowing that Virgin Atlantic was studying their behavior, but the actual experimental interventions pushed the savings up still further. The research is only the beginning, said Metcalfe - there could be big gains in other transportation related industries, too. In particular, he singled out the global shipping industry, which is also a major polluter and which has drawn increased attention for that reason in recent years. "I think this is our first foray into this environment, but I hope it's going to spur much more research," he said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/22/virgin-atlantic- just-used-behavioral-science-to-nudge-its-pilots-into-saving-lots-of-fuel/ Back to Top Thai Air Force's first female pilots begin training The Royal Thai Air Force's first female pilots made history on Wednesday, starting their training in an altitude chamber. The five women are the Air Force's first female recruits in its over 100-year history, as one of Asia's earliest established air forces in 1913. First 5 female Air Force pilots start first day of training today simulating altitude in a hyperbaric chamber. The women were announced earlier this month: two of them, Sireethorn Lawansatian and Chonnisa Supawannapong, are civilians. The other three - Karnchanok Janyarak, Peerasri Jalpaisarn and Chanakarn Sornjarn - are officers in the Air Force. The two civilians have obtained commercial pilot licences already, and are required to undergo a month of military training, after which they will receive the rank of pilot officer, said The Bangkok Post. The three officers were in non-combat roles before this. Janyarak was a language teacher in the Air Force's education department; Jalpaisarn was a financial and welfare officer; and Sornjarn was also with the education department. They are set for a year-long training course. The chamber they started training in is used to simulate the effects of high altitude on the body, which fighter pilots are often subjected to during flight. It marks the start of a year-long training course at Wing 6 Air Force headquarters in Bangkok, after which the pilots will fly transport aircraft and helicopters. Their appointment to the air force was hailed as a win for equal rights in the male-dominated aviation industry. According to the Thai Office of Civil Aviation, 5,000 men obtained commercial pilot licences from 2003 to present, while only 92 women have done so in the time. http://mashable.com/2016/06/23/thai-first-female-pilots/#LDZBgCE7mZqE 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/start Back to Top PhD Research Survey (I) Cranfield University Research: Do you or have you worked in aerospace design, manufacturing, or test engineering? My name is Steve Daniels, PhD researcher at Cranfield University, and ground crew for Lightning T-5 XS458. As part of my PhD, I am investigating how many aircraft design professionals have had some form of flying experience, and what effect this may have. If you currently work, or have previously worked in aerospace design, manufacturing, or test engineering (e.g: Conceptual Design, Aerospace Engineering Consultancy, Structural Engineering, Systems/Sub-Assembly Engineering, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Tooling Design, Flight Testing) I'd be grateful if you could spare some time to complete the survey by following the link below. If you know of anyone working in these areas who might also be interested, please share the link: https://cranfielduniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_82LinCFK4OdpEJn This research has been approved by the University's ethics committee, and will not record sensitive personal or commercial data. If you have any queries or comments, I welcome any contact at - s.daniels@cranfield.ac.uk Back to Top PhD Research Survey (II) Survey Link: https://cranfielduniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_d4IlfWhuMW3RgRn Curt Lewis