Flight Safety Information September 7, 2016 - No. 176 In This Issue The FAA Is Considering a Ban on Samsung's Exploding Smartphones Africa: Experts Call for Urgent Action to Boost Aviation Safety San Jose airport completes new fencing to keep trespassers out Chinese man spends $325 million on private Dreamliner aircraft China's much-delayed C919 jet may make maiden flight by end-2016 ExpressJet Signing...Lehigh Carbon Community College NEW GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY The FAA Is Considering a Ban on Samsung's Exploding Smartphones Samsung Galaxy Note 7 after sustaining fire damage from its battery (Twitter) Last week, Samsung recalled roughly 2.5 million smartphones after it was discovered that at least 35 of the devices had spontaneously burst into flames. Make that 35 and counting. But don't worry, if you'd like to bring your Galaxy Note 7 onto a flight, the FAA still hasn't decided whether it should ban the devices on planes. The agency is thinking about it, however. Gizmodo reached out to the FAA, TSA, and major US airlines this holiday weekend about whether they will restrict the devices from being carried onto flights. Tonight, the FAA finally told us that it's still working on exploring the issue but that no final decision has been made. Any official recall for a battery-powered device like this could mean that the devices wouldn't be allowed on future flights. "The FAA and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration are working on guidance related to this issue," an FAA spokesperson told Gizmodo over email. "If the device is recalled by the manufacturer, airline crew and passengers will not be able to bring recalled batteries or electronics that contain recalled batteries in the cabin of an aircraft, or in carry-on and checked baggage." If this sounds confusing, that's because it is. Samsung has already "recalled" the Galaxy Note 7, but the South Korean company hasn't actually recalled it the right way. The proper way to institute a recall is to get the US Consumer Product Safety Commission involved from the beginning. Samsung didn't do that. And now, federal agencies like the FAA are left scrambling and days behind, trying to figure out what to do. Samsung has sold about 1 million Galaxy Note 7 devices worldwide since the new model's introduction in August, and it's voluntarily recalling about 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 devices that have been produced. Samsung is offering consumers refunds and a replacement product that the company says should be available in a few weeks. But the devices are still for sale in some retail outlets around the United States since Samsung didn't initiate an official recall with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. When reached for comment in the past few days none of the major US-based airlines had any plans to ban the phones. Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines told Gizmodo that they did not have any specific plans to ban the Galaxy Note 7 on their flights. Other major airlines didn't return our messages, presumably because "new phone who dis?" But a ban from the FAA-should that come to pass-would be observed by all the airlines. In late 2015, the FAA banned so-called hoverboards, the self-balancing scooters that became infamous for containing batteries that would overheat and literally burst into flames. The hoverboards were restricted from flights, prompting notable hotheads like Russell Crowe to figuratively burst into flames. It's not clear how a hypothetical ban on a specific model of phone would be enacted. Would TSA agents look at each phone very carefully? One imagines it wouldn't be that much harder than making sure your toothpaste is in a 3.4 ounce tube rather than a 3.6 ounce tube. Your potentially explosive Galaxy Note 7 is still welcome on all flights, both domestic and international, as far as the FAA and major US airlines are concerned. At least for now, it is. But please remember that your 3.5-ounce container of toothpaste is a danger to everyone on board. There have been precisely zero cases of toothpaste containers spontaneously bursting into flames in the past month, to our knowledge, but you can never be too careful. http://gizmodo.com/the-faa-is-considering-a-ban-on-samsungs-exploding-smar- 1786250063 Back to Top Africa: Experts Call for Urgent Action to Boost Aviation Safety Regional governments have been urged to expedite efforts to establish a satellite air navigation based system to boost aviation safety and efficiency on the continent. Experts say the states should increase support to the EGNOS-Africa Joint project, a pan- African entity and part of the Africa-European Union (EU) long-term strategic partnership to enhance safety in air transport. According to aviation experts, the project is expected to benefit regional airports by enabling safer landings, increased efficiency, reliable services for passengers and better access to remote regions with less well equipped airports. The experts are currently meeting in Rwanda to deliberate on how to expedite the project and make the continent's aviation more safe and competitive. Ladislaus Matinda, the Director for EGNOS in Africa, said there is need for more political support for the EU based system to be able extend it to the whole of Africa. "It has become a global initiative to move away from the grand based aviation to amore digitized satellite technology to enhance safety and efficiency of the airline business," Matinda said adding that the three-year project is funded by the European Union and financed from the 10th EDF Intra ACP envelope worth 3.7 million euros. Building a satellite based augmentation services in Eastern Africa will enhance navigation safety, efficiency, airspace capacity and environmental sustainability, he added. The project seeks to bring more than twelve States under the East Africa module including Rwanda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo into the system. The objective is to create more awareness among member states to support and adopt internal decisions to participate in the creation of the satellite based technology. This technology already exists in Nigeria but does not cover the whole of Africa, he said. Dr. Alexis Nzahabwanimana, Rwanda's State Minister for Transport, said the implementation of the Africa and EU cooperation on satellite navigation has been going on since the adoption of the Second Action Plan (2011-2013) of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy by Heads of State and Governments of Africa and Europe in 2010. "The AU Space Policy and Strategy also recognises, in a particular way, satellite navigation systems and their applications to a wide range of economic sectors, especially in the field of transport," Nzahabwanimana said adding that It is evident the current capacity and efficiency of the air navigation system in Africa can be considered as one of the bottlenecks in the implementation of these policies and strategic decisions. Africa's current air navigation system's capacity and efficiency needs to be re-visited if Africa is to benefit from the agreed establishment of a single African air transport market, he advised. Aviation growth outlook for the next five years Africa's aviation is expected to post positive growth in the next 5 years with passenger numbers projected to increase by 4.8 per cent. The number of freights will also grow by 3.5 per cent in the next five years according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) statistics. Equally, the number of airline passengers in Africa is expected to increase by 4.2 per cent and the number of freights by 4.4 per cent. The growth in the number of freights will be far better than that of Europe, which will grow by 3 per cent, while passengers will inch up 2.6 per cent. The highest growth in passenger numbers will be in the Asia Pacific region at 6.3 per cent, and 3.8 per cent increase in the number of freights. http://allafrica.com/stories/201609070059.html Back to Top San Jose airport completes new fencing to keep trespassers out New security fences adjacent to Coleman Avenue in the public parking of Mineta San Jose International Airport in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, September 6, SAN JOSE -- Two years after a teenager hopped the airport's perimeter fence and sneaked into the wheel well of a Hawaii-bound jet, Mineta San Jose International has finished installing higher fencing topped with barbed wire and could soon install more security cameras. Though the airport's old 6-foot fences had met federal security standards, the airport's security was called into question after trespassers scaled the perimeter fencing numerous times in recent years. The highest-profile incident happened in 2014 when Santa Clara teen Yahya Abdi slipped past the fence and miraculously survived a 5 ½ hour-flight stowed away in a Hawaiian Airlines jet's wheel well. The boy said he hopped the fence to get back to his mother in Africa. "Despite the fact that we met all security standards, after that incident and a few others that happened over a year, we agreed we needed to do something different," said airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes on Tuesday. "We realized it was important for us to make changes." Other incidents included serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman who slipped past terminal security at the airport and got on an airplane that flew to Los Angeles in August 2014 and Miguel Zaragoza who was detained last November after he was caught trespassing on the private Atlantic Aviation ramp at the airport, an area not open to the public. Perimeter breaches have been a problem at airports nationwide. An Associated Press report after the Abdi incident found that there had been at least 268 breaches from the start of 2004 through early 2015 at San Jose and the nation's 30 busiest passenger airports. The San Jose perimeter project, completed last week, raised 8,600 feet of fencing at the airport's north and south ends from 6 feet to 10 feet and even 11 feet in key areas. It also topped the fence with a foot of razor wire, making it harder to penetrate. The project was paid for with $3.4 million in federal grants secured by a host of Bay Area congressional leaders, including Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin. The airport covered $1.8 million in related costs for the project. Swalwell on Tuesday said elected leaders have "no greater responsibility" than to protect the American people by ensuring airports aren't prone to trespassing. "Our enemies have told the world they want to bring down another U.S. airliner," Swalwell said. "One way to stop that is to protect our airport perimeters and not just in San Jose." The congressman said higher fences alone won't be enough. He supports using new technology to safeguard against those who bypass security measures to get access to a plane. And now that the fencing upgrades are finished, airport leaders hope to use high-tech solutions to further beef up security. Barnes said the airport is looking to install more security cameras around the perimeter as well as new motion sensors to catch trespassers trying to hop the fence. Vice Mayor Rose Herrera, who sat on a city committee under Mayor Chuck Reed that focused on increasing airport business, said the city has an obligation to keep residents and travelers safe. "We're a growing airport and we want to make sure the traveling public is protected," Herrera said. "The fence combined with the other technology is going to make it a pretty tough perimeter to penetrate." Local lawmakers will seek more federal funding to pay for the technology upgrades, including cameras and sensor devices. The airport is seeking $8.1 million in federal grants for the enhancements and would cover an additional $2 million in costs from airport funds. The airport's passenger traffic climbed to 10.3 million passengers in July from 9.6 million in 2014-15 and continues to grow as it landed five new flights to international flights to locales like Beijing, Shanghai, London, Vancouver and Germany. http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_30334745/san-jose-airport-completes- new-fencing-keep-trespassers Back to Top Chinese man spends $325 million on private Dreamliner aircraft A Chinese businessman spent $325 million to buy a Boeing 787 Dreamliner for himself. He paid $100 million extra to refit the aircraft according to his taste. The cabin of the airliner is more than 200 square meters. "The design of the aircraft took into account specific wishes of the customer. Inside the aircraft, there is a living room, a kitchen, a dining room, a bedroom and a medical office. The customer spent an additional $100 million to fit the aircraft," a representative of Kestrel Airlines said. The businessman's name has not been exposed. Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed by US-based company Boeing. The company claims that the Dreamliner aircraft is more economical than the previous model. Pravda.Ru http://www.pravdareport.com/news/society/stories/06-09-2016/135539- dreamliner_china-0/ Back to Top China's much-delayed C919 jet may make maiden flight by end-2016 China's long-delayed C919 jet may make its maiden flight by the end of this year, state- owned planemaker Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd (COMAC) said on Wednesday. "We are working hard to achieve our maiden voyage by around the end of 2016," Lu Zheng, COMAC's deputy head of marketing, said at a press conference in Beijing. The C919 narrowbody jet is currently undergoing rigorous testing and is the first large- scale Chinese civilian plane developed in accordance with international test-flight standards, Lu said. China is keen to establish itself as a global supplier of aircraft and it hopes the C919 will compete with Boeing Co's 737 and Airbus Group SE's A320. It also plans to produce a larger widebody plane in a joint venture with Russia. However, it has been held back by inexperience, a shortage of local aerospace design and engineering talent, as well as a lack of home-grown companies with the technology to help drive the project, say aerospace industry sources familiar with its programmes. The challenges have led to multiple delays for the C919, as well as the ARJ-21 which made its maiden commercial flight in June. (Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Additional reporting by Adam Jourdan in Shanghai; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) http://www.reuters.com/article/china-jet-idUSL3N1BJ2EA Back to Top ExpressJet Signing Lehigh Carbon Community College of Schnecksville, Pennsylvania has signed a partnership agreement with ExpressJet Airlines. The agreement offers aviation students at the college a potential career progression with the airline. ExpressJet Airlines (which is affiliated with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines) has partnerships in place with most of the major aviation training programs in the U.S. Through this pilot pathway agreement, a student who completes the professional pilot two-year degree program at LCCC will receive a guaranteed early interview at ExpressJet. The program is designed to provide opportunities for future employment for graduates of the LCCC program and to build a hiring pool of pilots for the airline. Upon successful completion of the interview, the student will be offered a conditional offer of employment with ExpressJet. They would continue to flight instruct as a Certified Flight Instructor for LCCC until they meet the required hours to be hired at ExpressJet. ExpressJet's Airline Pilot Pathway Program, coupled with the college's recent approval by the FAA to certify graduates for the Restricted Airline Transport Pilot (R-ATP) certificate, provides a clear path for students to go from the training environment to the right seat of a regional jet. For more information on LCCC's aviation program, located at the Lehigh Valley International Airport (KABE), contact Aram Basmadjian, chief flight instructor, at abasmadjian@lccc.edu. Back to Top NEW GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Dear colleague in the aircraft ground handling industry My name is Mario Pierobon and I am conducting a doctoral study on aircraft ground handling safety at Cranfield University. As part of my research I have developed a survey that requires you to consider 40 different hazards that are peculiar to the aircraft ground handling environment and for each of them perform two exercises. The first exercise is about assessing the level of control an aircraft ground handling company has over a given hazard. The second exercise concerns establishing a relationship between the hazard (a situation or a condition that can lead to an accident) and a predetermined series of accident outcomes in terms of which accident outcomes a given hazard is likely to be associated with. In order to participate to this survey you are requested to have a management role in the aircraft ground handling industry. The survey may be accessed at the following link https://cranfielduniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3abRtXF0f6D7oEJ Thank you in advance for your kind support, if you need any additional information you may reach me at m.pierobon@cranfield.ac.uk. Kind regards Mario Pierobon PhD Candidate (air safety), Cranfield University Curt Lewis