Flight Safety Information July 8, 2016 - No. 133 In This Issue Possible wreckage from EgyptAir crash washes up in Israel Boeing Unveils Touch-Screen Flight Deck For 777X Lessons From Aviation For Tesla And Self-Driving Cars The Strange Way Aircraft Crashes Attract Human Attention on the Web Congressional Report Says TSA Misconduct Threatens Safety of Air Travelers AIRLINES ALLOWING FREQUENT FLIERS TO USE MILES TO PAY FOR TSA PRECHECK Cathay Pacific pilots reject new roster system Fiji and Japan sign new aviation deal Aviation job fair at AirVenture Boeing's test pilots just released a mesmerizing 787 Dreamliner stunt video Airbus Is Running Out of Buyers for Its Enormous A380s Embry-Riddle Female Pilots Sweep Top Spots in Historic Air Race Classic Sky Aviation Academy Launches FAA Aircraft Dispatcher and ICAO English Certification Courses The July/August 2016 issue of FAA Safety Briefing NTSB Safety Alert dealing with FOD in the aviation maintenance environment ISASI 2016, Reykjavik, Iceland...17 to 20 October, 2016 Possible wreckage from EgyptAir crash washes up in Israel JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Debris apparently from the crash of EgyptAir MS804 was found on a beach north of Tel Aviv on Thursday, an official in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said. Netanyahu, who was briefed about the discovery during a visit to Ethiopia, instructed Israeli authorities to hand over the material to Egypt, possibly as early as Friday, for further analysis, the official said. The Airbus A320 plunged into the eastern Mediterranean en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19. All 66 people on board were killed. The cause of the crash remains unknown. Last week, debris from the jet was brought to Cairo airport, where investigators will try to reassemble part of the frame to help establish what might have caused the disaster. The Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said "parts of an airplane" were discovered on the seashore in Netanya, a Mediterranean resort town about 30 km (18 miles), north of Tel Aviv. "They were collected and it turns out there is a very high probability that they are from the Egyptian plane," the official said, without elaborating. "In accordance with international procedures, France, the aircraft's departure point, and Egypt, were informed." On Tuesday, sources on the crash investigation committee said audio from the flight deck voice recorder indicates an attempt to put out a fire on board the aircraft before it plunged into the Mediterranean. https://www.yahoo.com/news/possible-wreckage-egyptair-crash-washes-israel-192149678.html Back to Top Boeing Unveils Touch-Screen Flight Deck For 777X The flight-deck displays of Boeing's 777X stretched twinjet will incorporate touch screens, marking the first time this technology will be featured on the fixed displays on a commercial transport aircraft. Boeing says the decision to use touch-screen technology, currently targeted at high-end business jets and turboprops, reflects the consensus of its launch airline customer group. "They all want to go forward to a future where they have touch capability in the flight deck," says the 777X vice president and general manager, Bob Feldmann. "We think we [will have] the first airplane to make it [seem] like something they . . . use in their daily lives." All five of the 777X flight deck's Rockwell Collins 15.1-in. landscape-format displays will have digital resistive multi-touch-screen capability that will click on "finger lift." Feldmann says the identity of the touch-screen component supplier has not yet been released. Rockwell Collins has launched touch-screen technology as part of its Pro Line Fusion upgrade package, while Honeywell has developed the feature for the Symmetry flight deck on Gulfstream G500/G600 business jets. The interactivity element follows that of the original 777 flight deck, on which the concept of a cursor device was introduced into a Boeing commercial aircraft. The pedestal-mounted cursor control devices (CCD), which include a wrist rest to steady control in turbulence, will be eliminated from the 777X cockpit. In place of the CCDs, two rotary cursor control knobs will be located on either side of the central pedestal. The devices will enable pilots to move the cursor across active areas, just as in the 787 flight deck. Two control knobs will also be on the electronic flight information system glareshield panel to provide dedicated interaction with the screens in navigation display format only. To prevent inadvertent entries, Boeing is "looking at what to do with the bezel design to make sure the crew has the ability to [maneuver] it without false touches," says Feldmann, adding that if there is turbulence, the crew can use a tab to click through the options, as on the 787. "Our airlines are anxious for this and, just like on the iPhone and iPad, this is multi-touch so you can size the display," explains Feldmann, who notes that Boeing "worked hard with industry" to provide the capability. Referencing electronic flight bags, which include installed Class 3 devices with touch-screen features as standard, Feldmann points out: "You have all this capability, and on the flight deck our customers expect more of us. We are at the right time in the program where we have to make a configuration decision, and we have and are moving out on this." www.aviationweek.com Back to Top Lessons From Aviation For Tesla And Self-Driving Cars By: Christine Negroni CONTRIBUTOR I write about aviation and travel. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The inside of a Tesla vehicle is viewed as it sits parked in a new Tesla showroom and service center in Red Hook, Brooklyn on July 5, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) For more than a year, my friend Adam Cogan, a Tesla owner from Sydney, Australia, has been a regular user of the beta software that allows autopilot operation of his Model S. In April, he accompanied me on an assignment to the town of Tumbarumba, in a remote area of New South Wales where charging stations were unlikely to be found. So, he opted to take a Toyota SUV and leave his Tesla at home. Just hours into the drive, he found it tough going. "I was completely unable to remain engaged," he said of the mostly highway route from Sydney to Canberra. "I had to drive it all the time and make the constant minor adjustments and I wasn't used to doing that," he told me. Of driving the conventional car, he said, "It requires 100 percent of your attention and when you are driving a Tesla you are running at eighty percent attention." As the name "autopilot" suggests, car manufacturers are repurposing technology developed for aviation, and not unexpectedly, they are encountering the same issues, as illustrated in the death of Joshua Brown in the May 7 crash of his self-driving Tesla. What the auto industry does not have is aviation's safety infrastructure or its appreciation of how humans behave in an automated environment. In aviation, autopilot lightens the pilots' workload while enhancing precision, efficiency and safety. Autopilot delivers what the human cannot; relentless attention to the tedium of unchallenging airspace. ACTIVE CONVERSATION Brock Lesnar-Randy Orton Match Will Save WWE From Current Ratings Slump And while the automation of flight has contributed to commercial aviation stellar safety record, there are downsides. The modern airliner has become so complex; pilots can sometimes become confused about what the airplane is doing. Then there is a seemingly contradictory problem in which pilots become complacent, mentally disengaging from a plane that is flying itself. Just as many airline pilots started their flying career as teenagers in small airplanes, my friend Adam learned to drive on his family farm before he was ten. And yet, on the ground or in the air, removing the hands-on act of operating the vehicle can cause even well-developed skills to deteriorate. Several fatal airliner accidents feature these factors, including the 2009 crash of an Air France flight from Rio to Paris and the crash landing of an Asiana Boeing BA +0.17% 777 in San Francisco in 2013. In another case that ended without injury, two pilots on a Northwest flight flew past their destination airport on autopilot, because they were mentally checked out, distracted by something they were doing on their laptops. Pilot in the cockpit (Christine Negroni)Between 2005 and 2008 an airline industry group found sixteen similar cases, including one in which a captain returned from the bathroom and found the first officer with his back to the instruments chatting with the flight attendant. The autopilot had disconnected and the plane was in danger of stalling. It is easy to conclude that these aviators ought not be flying, but the issues are more complicated than that, according to Missy Cummings a systems engineer and director of Duke University's Humans and Autonomy Lab. Her studies show people are unable to give unrelenting focus to routine tasks. "The human mind craves stimulation," Cummings said. Failing to find something to latch onto, the mind will wander. It is how humans are designed. No less an authority than Chesley Sullenberger, the now retired US Airways captain who successfully landed an airliner in the Hudson River in 2009 told me, "Automation introduces other possibilities for error that do not exist in more conventional aircraft. It makes possible other kinds of errors." For automation to work properly this conundrum needs attention. Good automation requires not just an understanding of the machine and the human, but how the two will interact. That the dilemmas are still without resolution in aviation does not bode well for the auto industry. Aviation's robust safety system steps in and fills the gaps in areas where weaknesses are discovered but the auto industry has nothing like that. For example, the world's airspace is a highly regulated highway in the sky where no one veers out of their lane. Roads are chaotic and unpredictable. Compare also the rigorous selection and training of pilots to the paltry standards for getting and keeping a driver's license. In their analysis of the world's first fatal self-driving car accident, automakers may be tempted to confine their focus to the technical doodads that allow automation, but if they do, they will have missed the most important lesson. As complex as humans and machines can be individually, it is the interaction between the two that really counts. My new book, The Crash Detectives Investigating the World's Most Mysterious Air Disasters will be published by Penguin in September 2016. Pre-order here. http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinenegroni/2016/07/07/danger-lurks-at-intersection-of-human-and- self-driving-car/#662f6c4f5d68 Back to Top The Strange Way Aircraft Crashes Attract Human Attention on the Web Traffic to Wikipedia pages about aircraft crashes varies in unexpected ways, say Internet researchers. On a fateful evening in November 2015, suicide bombers detonated explosives in one of the world's great cities. The attack killed dozens of people, injured hundreds, and wreaked havoc throughout the region. But this wasn't Paris. The attack took place in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon in the Middle East, about 24 hours before the Paris attacks in which dozens more were killed. And yet Western coverage of the Beirut attacks was muted in comparison. In the first few hours, fewer than 450 media outlets on the Web covered the Beirut attack, compared to more than 4,500 for the Paris attacks, according to this research. And that raises an important question. What determines the level of coverage that news events receive on the Web? Today we get an answer of sorts thanks to the work of Ruth García-Gavilanes, Milena Tsvetkova, and Taha Yasseri at the University of Oxford in the U.K. They've studied how aircraft crashes in different parts of the world are recorded on Wikipedia and say this shows how attention is biased by the severity of the disaster, where it occurred, and which language version of Wikipedia it was recorded on. But this attention changes in a way that is quite unexpected. The team started by crawling the English and Spanish language versions of Wikipedia for all the aircraft crashes recorded there. In the process, they found around 1,500 articles in English and 500 in Spanish, which they downloaded along with the date and location of the accident, the origin of the airline, and so on. They then divided the crashes by region: Europe, Asia, North or Latin America, and so on. And they compared the number of incidents recorded on Wikipedia with the total recorded by the Aviation Safety Network. Finally, they downloaded the traffic for each Wikipedia Web page so they could see how quickly the page was set up after an accident and how traffic, and hence interest, varied over time. The results make for interesting reading. One obvious hypothesis is that people should be more interested in crashes in their part of the world. And indeed, this seems to be borne out by the data. "English Wikipedia tends to cover more events in North America, while Spanish Wikipedia tends to cover more events in Latin America," say García-Gavilanes and co. But there are some counterintuitive results, too. Another seemingly obvious hypothesis is that the attention a crash receives should scale with the number of deaths involved. But García-Gavilanes and co say the evidence points to something more complex. Below some critical number of deaths, the amount of traffic that an aircraft crash page receives does not depend on the number of dead. Instead, factors such as the level of media coverage and the location and the people involved seem to determine attention levels. However, this changes for bigger crashes that kill more people. In that case, attention scales with the number of dead. The threshold occurs around crashes that kill about 40 people. For some reason, crashes that kill more receive a different kind of attention. Why this happens isn't clear. But it raises the possibility that the Beirut attacks, which killed 43, did not pass the required threshold to generate worldwide interest. By comparison, the Paris attacks led to the deaths of 130 people. Finally, the team say that human attention is fickle, regardless of the severity of a crash. People simply lose interest quickly, regardless of the number of deaths. "We show that the rate and time span of the decay of attention is independent of the number of deaths and the airline region," say García-Gavilanes and co. That's fascinating work with the potential to reveal some of the biases that people act out on the Web. However, there are caveats to bear in mind. One is that Wikipedia editors and readers are well known to be biased in a colorful variety of ways. For example, Wikipedia editors tend to be men and Wikipedia as a whole seems to be biased toward Western media. The possibility that the findings are in large part the result of these biases rather than broader human attention patterns isn't clearly factored in. García-Gavilanes and co themselves point to several important crashes that did not feature in their data set from Wikipedia. These include the three different crashes that led to the deaths of the ex-presidents of Ecuador (Jaime Roldós), of the Philippines (Ramón Magsaysay), and of Iraq (Abdul Salam Arif). Just why these crashes did not have their own Web pages on Wikipedia isn't clear. But the fact that none of these leaders was from Europe or North America is probably an important warning about the nature of the Wikipedia data set. Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1606.08829: Dynamics and Biases of Online Attention: The Case of Aircraft Crashes https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601859/the-strange-way-aircraft-crashes-attract-human-attention- on-the-web/ Back to Top Congressional Report Says TSA Misconduct Threatens Safety of Air Travelers PHOTO: TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger. (Photo courtesy of Miltary.com) Security lines are a hassle most fliers believe to be a necessary evil, but a pattern of misconduct on the part of the Transportation Security Administration may actually be threatening the safety of air travelers and making those hassles less effective. Following a six-month investigation, a report completed by the House Homeland Security Committee admits that some changes have been made by administrator Peter Neffenger, but calls the organization a "bloated bureaucracy" and takes it to task over failing to punish or rein in "corrupt" and "insolent" airport screeners, claiming that misconduct on the part of the TSA rose 29 percent between 2013 and 2015. More troubling yet, the report says that disciplinary actions and investigations into misconduct on the part of the TSA have actually decreased during that same time period, revealing that not only is the institution failing to police itself, but that it may be purposefully fostering the bad behavior. This report on TSA misconduct comes less than a year since the House Homeland Security Committee reported that the United States is in the "highest threat environment since 9/11," via The Washington Post. How does that misconduct effect travelers? READ MORE: Can Airports Really Dump TSA If They Want?[/READMORE Last year, it was reported that undercover operatives made it through airport security with weapons and fake bombs more than 95 percent of the time and were able to carry weapons or bomb-like material through checkpoints in 67 of 70 attempts last year. The report identified several areas in which the TSA could shore up their handling of misconduct, chief of which would be putting a top-level executive in charge of the process and taking care of systemic retaliatory issues dealt with by whistleblowers from their superiors. Recent testimony from three TSA executives-turned-whistleblowers alleged that top TSA officials actually encouraged disciplinary forced transfers, inflated bonus payments to those who kept matters quiet and outright ignored massive concerns in security matters, preferring to sweep matters under the proverbial rug. Neffenger has attempted to stymie some of these issues and has cut back top-level executive bonuses as well as stopped forced relocations, but his cleaning up of the mess from previous administrators may not be having the immediate impact House investigators would like. In testimony before the committee, via The Washington Times, Neffenger highlighted ongoing efforts to strengthen the agency's effectiveness, including hiring initiatives, automation, enhanced deployment of canine teams and redefining how they focus on busy times and airports with the most traffic. http://www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/congressional-report-says-tsa-misconduct-threatens-safety-of- air-travelers.html Back to Top AIRLINES ALLOWING FREQUENT FLIERS TO USE MILES TO PAY FOR TSA PRECHECK New TSA pre-enrollment center opens near Midway Signing up for the TSA's PreCheck program is now cheaper for frequent fliers on certain airlines. Southwest and JetBlue are letting loyal customers pay for the TSA PreCheck program with miles. The normal cost is $85 to register. TSA PreCheck allows customers to speed through security without removing their shoes or liquids from their bags. "What will happen is you'll be able to cash in 9,000 of your Rapid Rewards Points, depending on where you actually use those points towards a voucher for TSA Pre-Check," said Joe Mirander of Southwest Airlines. The program is only being offered for a limited time. http://abc7chicago.com/travel/airlines-allowing-fliers-to-use-miles-to-pay-for-tsa-precheck/1417209/ Back to Top Cathay Pacific pilots reject new roster system and ban on new industrial actions until 2019 Disappointed airline vows to continue its focus on operations and growth Cathay Pacific Airways pilots have narrowly defeated a proposal that would have introduced a roster system to curb fatigue on condition they halt their long-running industrial action and that their union would launch no additional actions until 2019. The rejection meant the work-to-rule action, ongoing since December 2014, would continue at Hong Kong's flagship airline. Cathay Pacific has already drastically scaled back its expansion plans this year, which included new international routes, because of the action. The Post has learned that, of the 2,004 pilots who cast ballots, 53 per cent voted against the proposal and 46 per cent for it. The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, representing 2,100 of the airline's 2,900 pilots, wrote to its members on Friday: "While many of you may be disappointed given the tremendous amount of work that has gone into the agreement, as well as the potential benefits for both parties, a majority of you have decided that this deal is inadequate and have rejected it as such." The union's general secretary Chris Beebe told the Post the union would collect pilots' views as soon as possible. He respected the result, saying the vote came from a "democratic process". The work-to-rule action commenced in December 2014 over a pay-rise dispute. Although that issue had been resolved, pilots vowed to continue the action because of other disputes, focusing on what they claimed were poor roster patterns that had led to serious fatigue. The work-to-rule action required pilots to do the bare minimum as laid out in their contracts, including not working on their days off, as they typically had. Under the rejected proposal, a new computer-based rostering system would have been introduced. Pilots earlier complained that rampant fatigue had put aviation safety at risk. In addition, for the next two years, the cockpit crew were in line to receive a pay raise of 2.5 per cent. If the Consumer Price Index (C), measuring inflation rates for high income-earners, exceeded an agreed benchmark of 3 per cent, pilots would have received half of the percentage increase exceeding the 3 per cent benchmark. If the CPI (C) was 4 per cent, the extra raise would be 0.5 per cent. Cathay Pacific eliminates 17 jobs from its IT department amid continuing slowdown in passenger traffic The dominant complaint about the proposal related to a clause stipulating the union could not launch or support additional industrial actions until around mid-2019. But a source who backed the proposal said it did not actually ban union pilots from raising motions for industrial action. "It was a lack of trust in the airline management that led to the proposal's rejection," the source said. A Cathay spokesman said the airline was disappointed with the vote result. Swire Pacific Chairman says no plans for staff cutbacks at Cathay Pacific "A lot of work was put in by the negotiating teams to reach a Tentative Agreement that both the HKAOA General Committee and Cathay Pacific could work with, and it is very disappointing that we will not benefit from this," he said. "In view of the latest development today, Cathay Pacific will focus on continuing to run its operations effectively and meeting its growth targets." He also said the tentative agreement was reached to make sure the airline could continue to grow and make necessary changes to improve operations. "Industrial peace for the life of the agreement was an outcome that both sides agreed was important to enable all parties to move forward in a positive and constructive manner," he added. http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1987151/cathay-pacific-pilots-reject-new-roster- system-and-ban-new Back to Top Fiji and Japan sign new aviation deal Fiji and Japan have signed up to a new aviation agreement, the first update on the route since 1993. Fiji masi design Fiji Airways Fiji masi design Fiji Airways Photo: Alex Perrottet/RNZ It was to allow for designated airlines from both countries to operate three passenger or cargo flights per week between Fiji and Japan, increasing to four flights per week beginning in late 2019. The Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, FBC, reported the arrangements also provided for designated carriers to code-share. It also aimed to bring safety and security provisions more in line with international aviation industry standards. http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/308265/fiji-and-japan-sign-new-aviation-deal Back to Top Aviation job fair at AirVenture The job fair at EAA AirVenture, which brings together aircraft and aviation employers and job seekers, will now be open during the entirety of the World's Greatest Aviation Celebration. The fair will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 25-31 at AirVenture's Aviation Gateway Park, an area of the grounds that features education, innovation and technology. "EAA AirVenture has always been a place where the entire flying community gathers, so informal networking occurs at all levels along the flight line," said Dave Chaimson, EAA's vice president of marketing and business development. "The more structured job fair at Oshkosh is a great opportunity for companies and potential employees to create career connections. It's been so successful we're expanding it from a one-day event to a weeklong feature at Aviation Gateway Park." The fair will include companies ranging from airlines to avionics that are seeking candidates to fill the growing number of jobs in the aviation industry. The aviation industry alone offers 62.7 million jobs worldwide. In a survey of over 400 aviation companies done by JSfirm.com, a fast-growing, comprehensive aviation career website that matches job opening with candidates, it was found that 85 percent of aviation companies will hire and 76 percent are projecting growth within the next year. Maintenance technicians, avionics and pilots are in high demand, and will be for the next few years. JSfirm.com will assist and publicize the job fair throughout the activities at AirVenture. "There are so many job opportunities in the industry right now and we are very pleased to support EAA's efforts to match people and aviation jobs at AirVenture," said Abbey Hutter, marketing coordinator for JSfirm.com. "We stand firmly behind EAA's dedication and mission to growing participation in aviation, whether it's through recreational flying or as a career." http://www.fdlreporter.com/story/entertainment/2016/07/06/aviation-job-fair-airventure/86766294/ Back to Top Boeing's test pilots just released a mesmerizing 787 Dreamliner stunt video Boeing 787 Dreamliner Farnborough (YouTube/Boeing) In what is becoming an annual tradition, Boeing's intrepid team of test pilots are back with another stunning aerobatic stunt video staring the company's 787 Dreamliner. Released on Thursday, the latest video shows Boeing test pilots Capt. Randy Neville, Capt. Van Chaney, and Capt. John Misuradze putting an All Nippon Airways 787-9 through its paces over Moses Lake, Washington. The routine, which pushes the plane far beyond its normal operating conditions, is a practice run for a performance at next week's Farnborough Airshow. The flight performance is similar to the ones Boeing put on at the Paris Air Show last year and the Farnborough show in 2014. The major highlights of the demonstration are the near vertical take off - which is more commonly performed by high-performance fighter jets - and a touch-and-go landing then takeoff. Although the technical demonstration will surely wow the air show crowds, it's almost designed to show off the $265 million 787-9 performance and capabilities to prospective buyers. Farnborough is traditionally a hotbed for major deals involving Airbus, Boeing and their many customers. The 2016 Farnborough International Airshow runs from July 11-17 in Farnborough, England. Check out the full video here: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/boeings-test-pilots-just-released-140900355.html Back to Top Airbus Is Running Out of Buyers for Its Enormous A380s Orders for the superjumbo are drying up as airlines shift to more efficient planes. Since its commercial introduction in 2007, the Airbus A380 has brought a long-lost sense of glamour back to travel. Its first-class cabins feature private showers and buttery leather armchairs. It sports in-flight lounges where bartenders mix bespoke cocktails. A broad staircase reminiscent of a 1920s ocean liner links the two decks. Financially speaking, it's a disaster of similarly grand proportions. An initial flood of interest from airlines has turned into a slow drip, and Airbus is leaning heavily on one customer, Emirates, for sales. Not a single U.S. carrier has bought one, and Japanese airlines, among the biggest cheerleaders for huge planes, have taken just a handful. Airbus has delivered 193 A380s-early on it predicted airlines would buy 1,200 supersize planes over two decades-and has only 126 in its order book, to be built over the next five years or so. Worse, many orders appear squishy, because airlines are shifting away from superjumbos. As the aviation world starts gathering on July 11 for the Farnborough International Airshow in England, where carriers often announce big orders, there's little indication any A380 contract will be unveiled. Airbus concedes its timing was off with the A380, which lists for $433 million but almost always sells at a discount. The financial crisis hit just as production was picking up in 2008, and soaring oil prices made airlines reluctant to buy the four-engine behemoth. The company only last year managed to start breaking even on production, and it's acknowledged it will never recoup the €25 billion ($32 billion) it spent on development. Zafar Khan, an analyst at Société Générale, says the concern is that if production slips far below 30 planes a year, the program could fall back into the red. "The crying happens when it's losing money," Khan says. Axing the A380 outright is hard to do. Besides the embarrassment of admitting defeat on the program, Airbus would need to write off factories across Europe and redeploy thousands of workers. Airlines would see the resale value of their A380s plummet, and the plane's demise would leave airports worldwide questioning the wisdom of facilities constructed to accommodate it; Dubai, for instance, built a dedicated terminal for the A380. Airbus says 10 years is too short a time to determine its fate. While Chief Executive Officer Thomas Enders said in December the company would assess the plane's future "in cold blood," sales chief John Leahy has pledged to continue the program. "The A380 is here to stay," he says. "We are maintaining, innovating, and investing in it." With its short snout and upper deck crouching above the cockpit, the A380 can't match the distinctive profile of Boeing's humpbacked 747. Nonetheless, the A380 has largely sucked the life out of Boeing's jumbo-perhaps the biggest Airbus success with its plane. Since 2012, when Boeing started deliveries of the latest passenger version, the 747-8, it has done far worse than the Airbus double-decker, with just 40 sold and 11 more on order. Four-engine planes have become a tough sell because of their high fuel consumption. Airbus in 2011 scrapped the A340, its other four-engine model, as carriers gravitated to smaller, more economical widebodies such as the Airbus A330 or Boeing 777; and adding more fuel-efficient engines to the A380, an upgrade Airbus has pulled off for smaller planes, remains risky with so few orders coming in. Although the A380 is popular with passengers for its spacious interior and smooth flight, carriers find it tough to fill in turbulent economic times. Malaysia Airlines learned this the hard way when, in the wake of a pair of fatal crashes involving other aircraft, it couldn't draw enough traffic to fill the half-dozen A380s it had bought. The airline is trying to offload two of them but can't find buyers. Lately, Airbus has seen a hemorrhaging of contracts that once seemed solid. In the past two years, three A380 customers have dropped their orders because of financial difficulties or shifts in strategy. Leasing company Amedeo three years ago announced plans to buy 20 A380s, but it's failed to find a single airline willing to lease them and has delayed deliveries. The plane's biggest fan by far is Emirates, with 81 flying and an additional 61 reserved, which adds up to 45 percent of the A380s Airbus has delivered or has on order. The carrier is fretting about the jumbo's future. "I think the size of the plane scares most of the airline world," says Emirates President Tim Clark. The A380 was a prestige-fueled project for Airbus and the European governments that backed the program. The company had been successful with its A320 single-aisle jet introduced in the 1980s, but it wanted a bigger piece of the lucrative long-range market. With the managers who hatched the plan two decades ago long gone, the ardor has abated, says Richard Aboulafia, a longtime critic of the plane and vice president of aviation consultant Teal Group. "Nobody seems to want this plane other than Emirates," he says. "The A380 might just make it until 2020, but even that's almost optimistic at this point." The bottom line: A decade after the Airbus A380's debut, its future is in doubt as airlines shift to more efficient planes. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-08/airbus-is-running-out-of-buyers-for-its-enormous- a380s?hl=1&noRedirect=1 Back to Top Embry-Riddle Female Pilots Sweep Top Spots in Historic Air Race Classic Daytona Beach Team Earns First Place in Collegiate Division and Overall in Cross-Country Flight Competition; First-Time Faculty Racers Finish 3rd Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach Campus pilots Emmy Dillon and Abbie Pasmore were named winners not only in the collegiate division of this year's Air Race Classic (ARC) but also secured first place overall, besting 50 teams for the first time in the school's history participating in the cross-country, all-female air trek. Four teams consisting of female student pilots and flight instructors represented Embry-Riddle's residential campuses in the flight competition that kicked off June 21 at the university's Prescott, Ariz., campus and ended June 24 in Daytona Beach. Winners of the 2,716-mile race featuring more than 100 women were announced Sunday during an awards banquet in Daytona Beach. Another first in the university's history included an independent team (Team Bernoulli) featuring two Daytona Beach Campus College of Engineering faculty Naiara Petralanda and Virginie Rollin who finished third overall in their first attempt at the race. Embry-Riddle Prescott's team of Hannah Rooney and Rachel Hutzell finished in seventh place in collegiate competition and 16th overall, and the team of Shelby King and Hannah Burright were ninth in collegiate and 23rd overall. Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach pilot Sarah Wendt and co-pilot Sojung An as the Riddle Racer Blue Team received numerous nods in the leg/stop competition and finished 16th in collegiate and 42nd overall after having to make a safety stop for maintenance issues. "We're incredibly proud of our pilots," said Dr. Karen A. Holbrook, Interim President of Embry-Riddle, which was the start and terminus host sponsor of this year's race. "To be part of an event such as this that empowers and inspires women is an honor, and it exemplifies the core values of our university - that there are no limits to what you can achieve." With a theme of "Collegiate Cross Country," the annual race was a salute to aviation programs at universities across the country. Other universities that finished in the top 10 in the collegiate division were Indiana State University, University of North Dakota and Liberty University. As Embry-Riddle celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, it also marks 20 years since a similar route for ARC was run between the two campuses in 1996. One of this year's stops along the route was in Albuquerque, N.M., where Embry-Riddle Worldwide offers courses at Kirtland Air Force Base. The women were selected for this prestigious competition by Embry-Riddle College of Aviation administrators from each campus on the basis of their piloting skills, their competitive spirit and their knowledge of aviation, safety, navigation, meteorology and crew resource management. All Embry-Riddle teams flew Cessna 172 aircraft from the university's fleet. Nearly two dozen female pilots with connections to Embry-Riddle as former faculty, graduates of all campuses including Embry-Riddle Worldwide and current students participated in this year's race. Current sophomore and aeronautical science major at the Daytona Beach Campus, Cara Baldwin also competed for the fifth time as part of team Baldwin Family Flyers with her grandmother and aunt. The three generations of women pilots received numerous awards at Sunday's banquet. In previous races, Embry-Riddle racers have delivered impressive results. A Daytona Beach team has participated every year since 2007, finishing four times previously as the No. 1 team in the collegiate division, and until this year, had finished as high as No. 2 in the overall competition twice. Prescott has taken part every year since 2009, ranking as high as No. 2 in the collegiate division and No. 4 last year in the overall competition. Media Contact: - Melanie Hanns, Director of Media Relations, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla.; Office: (386) 226-7538; melanie.hanns@erau.edu. http://news.erau.edu/headlines/embry-riddle-female-pilots-sweep-top-spots-in-historic-air-race- classic/#sthash.cXfH0bXI.dpuf Back to Top Sky Aviation Academy Launches FAA Aircraft Dispatcher and ICAO English Certification Courses at Fort Lauderdale International Airport and Hosts Aviation Career Day This Month FORT LAUDERDALE, FL--(Marketwired - Jul 7, 2016) - Sky Aviation Academy today announced the Company is launching its first classroom and online courses this month and holding an Aviation Career Day at its full service FAA Aircraft Dispatcher school located at Fort Lauderdale International Airport. Sky Aviation Academy is a full service FAA Aircraft Dispatcher academy that offers Aircraft Dispatcher, HAZMAT and ICAO Certified Aviation English Training. Aircraft Dispatchers are employed by individual airlines and work in an airline's operational control center, sometimes known as System Operations Control Centers, Flight Control, Flight Dispatch or just Dispatch. Dispatchers control and coordinate all functions of the airline, with dispatch serving as the airline's "Mission Control" or "Nerve Center." Sky Aviation Academy is the only Aircraft Dispatch school located at Fort Lauderdale International Airport. After opening in December of last year, Sky Aviation Academy has finalized its FAA certifications to run its courses and has been working closely with local organizations to establish programs to facilitate dispatch training and job placement for veterans at major airlines. With classes beginning at the end of July, early enrollment numbers indicate the FAA Aircraft Dispatcher classroom courses and the ICAO English training courses, which can be taken as online only courses, are the most popular offered by the school. In addition to its FAA Aircraft Dispatcher course, Sky Aviation Academy also offers Hazmat Training Courses, for companies that ship hazardous materials, and ICAO Certified Aviation English (Level IV) courses which provide English testing and training programs for individuals beginning their career in aviation, or for seasoned aviators who need to improve their communication skills, or to qualify for ICAO Level 4 proficiency. Sky Aviation Academy also has specialized courses for Cabin Crews, Passenger Service Agents, Air Traffic Controllers, and Pilots. AVIATION CAREER DAY Sky Aviation Academy is hosting an Aviation Career Day on July 16th for anyone interested in learning more about careers in the aviation industry. Airline pilots, flight attendants, A&P mechanics, and airline executives will be on hand to discuss their careers and answer questions from attendees. Register to attend for free by emailing info@aviationdispatcher.com or at Facebook at Sky Aviation Academy or by calling 954-315-2363. When: Saturday, July 16th from 12-4 PM Where: 610 SW 34th Street Suite 202 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315 For more information on Sky Aviation Academy visit www.aviationdispatcher.com or contact the company at 954-315-2363 or info@aviationdispatcher.com. ABOUT SKY AVIATION ACADEMY (www.aviationdispatcher.com) Sky Aviation Academy is a full service FAA Aircraft Dispatcher academy located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All instructors are full time, highly experienced airline professionals with several years of experience at major airline levels. Sky Aviation Academy is part of a global aviation company that operates in 15 countries worldwide. The Aviation English program follows the ICAO / FAA standards and syllabus, and the Hazmat program follows the IATA syllabus. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sky-aviation-academy-launches-faa-170000451.html Back to Top The July/August 2016 issue of FAA Safety Briefing http://www.faa.gov/news/safety_briefing/ Back to Top NTSB Safety Alert dealing with FOD in the aviation maintenance environment. http://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-alerts/Documents/SA_054.pdf Back to Top ISASI 2016, Reykjavik, Iceland 17 to 20 October, 2016 The International Society of Air Safety Investigators (ISASI) will hold their 47th annual seminar at the Grand Hotel Reykjavik, Iceland, from the 17 to 20 October 2016. The seminar theme is: "Every link is important" Papers will address this theme in conjunction with other contemporary matters on aviation safety investigation, including recent case studies, new investigation methods and aviation safety trends or developments. Registration and details of the main seminar, tutorial and companion programmes are available at www.esasi.eu/isasi-2016. We look forward to seeing you in Iceland Curt Lewis