Flight Safety Information September 19, 2016 - No. 184 In This Issue Malaysia Airlines MH370 plunged into ocean in a 'death dive' HNA business jet unit handed three year China suspension US Air Force grounds F-35 fighter jets Still Waiting on Safety Recommendations After Hudson Jet Landing 7 Years Ago AirAsia X under safety crackdown Flight response...An artificially intelligent autopilot that learns by example Russian airliner bumped into Polish plane in Warsaw airport United Airlines Flight Rolls into Grassy Area While Taxiing at Denver The FAA asks airlines to prohibit powering up or charging the Galaxy Note 7 on flights Jet Airways pilot grounded for being 'ghost' on Delhi-Bengaluru-Delhi flights Spare Electronics Battery Extinguished Aboard Delta Flight FAA awards Cleveland airport $8M to improve de-icing Turkmenistan Has Few Tourists But an Amazing New Airport Air India plans to reach out to pilots who had quit How the Air Force is scrambling to head off an exodus of fighter pilots Americana: The legacy of the glider pilots lives on in Lubbock, Texas Virgin Atlantic turned industrial waste into greener jet fuel Airlines Seek To Curb Service-Animal Rules Malaysia Airlines MH370 plunged into ocean in a 'death dive' The rate of descent of MH370 rules out a controlled ditch or glide into the Indian Ocean. Embed Feed Australia examines possible MH370 plane debris found in Tanzania IBTimes US Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plunged into the ocean in a 'death dive', according to new evidence. Further analysis of the Boeing 777 wing flap, washed ashore in Tanzania, revealed it was not deployed at point of impact, eliminating suggestions the aircraft with 239 passengers on board could have made a controlled landing. Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) confirmed after examination of identification numbers (in picture) on the flaperon found off the Tanzania coast that it belongs to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370Australian Transport Safety Bureau ATSB Peter Foley, the head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), reportedly told Australian Associated Press (AAP): "The rate of descent combined with the position of the flap - if it's found that it is not deployed [which since has] - will almost certainly rule out either a controlled ditch or glide. "If it's not in a deployed state, it validates, if you like, where we've been looking." It confirms previous analysis of the automated flight signals that the doomed aircraft could have dropped from a height of 35,000ft at a speed of up to 20,000ft a minute before crashing into the sea. The ATSB has led the A$180m ($134.9m, £103.8m) search, over 120,000km sq of sea floor, since the aircraft disappeared on 8 March 2014. Despite the recent findings of the pieces of debris said to be connected to the missing aircraft in Reunion Island near Madagascar and Tanzania, no confirmed trace of the aircraft has ever been found. It follows continuing allegations that Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah purposely veered the plane off course while on its way to Beijing. Malaysian officials admitted for the first time last month that data from Shah's flight simulator at his home in Kuala Lumpur included a flight path to the southern Indian Ocean. Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai told the local press : "Until today, (6 August 2016), this theory is still under investigation. There is no evidence to prove that Captain Zaharie flew the plane into the southern Indian Ocean. "Yes, there is the simulator but the (route) was one of thousands to many parts of the world. We cannot just base on that to confirm (he did it)." It has also been reported Captain Shah was separated from his wife Faizah Hanun although they still lived together at the time of the tragedy. According to Mail Online, her comments are said to be included in an interim report due to be released on the missing aircraft. More than 50 lawsuits from grieving families have been filed against Malaysia Airlines who are seeking compensation for the deaths of their loved-ones. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/malaysia-airlines-mh370-plunged-into-ocean-death-dive- 1581863?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=rss&utm_content=/rss/yahoous/ Back To Top HNA business jet unit handed three year China suspension The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has suspended Hongkong Jet from operating in Mainland China for three years as punishment for using false documents in its flight plan application. In a statement on its website, the CAAC says that the private jet charter operator, a unit of China's HNA Group, issued "false documents" when applying for a flight plan during a "state-level event." Flight Fleets Analyzer shows the Hong Kong charter operator with five in service aircraft. It has one Airbus ACJ318, two ACJ319s, one A330-200, and a Gulfstream 550. The four Airbus aircraft are registered in Bermuda. The Gulfstream is registered in China. Attempts by Flightglobal to reach Hongkong Jet were unsuccessful. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/hna-business-jet-unit-handed-three-year-china-suspe- 429465/ Back to Top US Air Force grounds F-35 fighter jets Washington (CNN)The US Air Force said Friday it has grounded 10 of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, just over a month after they were declared "combat ready." The decision affecting the most expensive weapons system ever was made "due to the discovery of peeling and crumbling insulation in avionics cooling lines inside the fuel tanks," the Air Force said in a statement, describing the action as a temporary pause in flight operations." The faulty cooling lines affected a total of 57 aircraft, the statement said. Only 15 of those planes had been fielded with the remainder still on the production line and will be fixed there. The plane's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, has delivered 108 F-35As. The Air Force plans to buy 1,763 of the jets. Of the 15 grounded aircraft already in the field, 10 had been declared combat ready, one was being used in testing, and the final four were for training, with two of those four training aircraft belonging to the Royal Norwegian Air Force. "While nearing completion, the F-35 is still in development and challenges are to be expected," the Air Force said. Representatives from the Air Force and Lockheed Martin's F-35 program told CNN that the defective cooling lines were not found in all the aircraft. They said the use of the faulty part was limited to one sub- contractor that did not work on all the planes. "Safety is always our first consideration and Lockheed Martin is committed to resolving this issue as quickly as possible to return jets to flying status," Michael Rein, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, told CNN in a statement. The F-35 jet has been described as the most expensive weapons system in history with a program cost estimated to be $400 billion. The F-35A is the Air Force's version of the jet, the US Marines and Navy will also have their own F-35 variants. Neither of the latter services' aircraft were affected. Upon the Air Force F-35's receipt of initial operational capability status in August, Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said: "The F-35A will be the most dominant aircraft in our inventory because it can go where our legacy aircraft cannot and provide the capabilities our commanders need on the modern battlefield." http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/16/politics/us-air-force-grounds-f-35/ Back to Top Still Waiting on Safety Recommendations After Hudson Jet Landing 7 Years Ago By JOAN LOWY More than seven years after an airline captain saved 155 lives by ditching his crippled airliner in the Hudson River, now the basis of a new movie, most of the safety recommendations stemming from the accident haven't been carried out. Of the 35 recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board in response to the incident involving US Airways Flight 1549, only six have been successfully completed, according to an Associated Press review of board records. Fourteen of the recommendations issued to the Federal Aviation Administration and its European counterpart, EASA, are marked by the NTSB as "closed-unacceptable." One has been withdrawn, and the rest remain unresolved. The movie "Sully," which opened in theaters last week, celebrates how veteran pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, played by Tom Hanks, along with his co-pilot, flight attendants, air traffic controllers, ferry boat operators and first responders did their jobs with professionalism and competence, averting a potential tragedy. The plane lost thrust in both engines after colliding with a flock of Canada geese shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York. No one died, and only five people were seriously injured. "The FAA was very upset back then that we made any recommendations at all," recalled Tom Haueter, who was the NTSB's head of major accident investigations at the time. "They thought this was a success story." But to investigators, the event turned up problems. "This could happen again and we want to make sure that if it does, there are some better safety measures in place," Haueter said. Recommendations that got an "unacceptable" response deal with pilot training, directions for pilots facing the loss of power in both engines, equipping planes with life rafts and vests and making it easier for passengers to use them, among other issues. The untold story of the "Miracle on the Hudson" was the part luck played in preventing catastrophe on that freezing afternoon in January 2009. The wind chill was 2 degrees and the water temperature was 41 degrees, raising the risk of "cold shock," a condition in which people lose the use of their arms and legs, usually drowning within 5 minutes. It was sheer chance that the plane, an Airbus A320, was equipped with rafts, life vests and seat cushions that can be used for flotation. The equipment is only required on "extended overwater" flights, and not on Flight 1549's New York to Charlotte, North Carolina, route. The NTSB recommended requiring life vests and flotation cushions on all planes, regardless of the route. But the FAA responded that it was leaving that up to the airlines. The board also recommended that all passenger safety briefings by flight attendants include life-vest demonstrations, and that vest storage be redesigned for easier retrieval. Demonstrations are still only required on extended overwater flights, although many airlines include them on all flights. The board's investigation found that only 10 passengers retrieved their life vests and not all of them put them on correctly. Despite some changes by the FAA, the board says it still takes more than a few seconds to retrieve vests, which is all the time passengers will take to get them when exiting a plane filling with water. Because Flight 1549's descent was faster than the plane is designed to handle for a ditching, the underside of the aircraft was damaged when it hit the water. The two rear slides-rafts were submerged and unusable. That left only the two forward life rafts, which are designed to hold a maximum of 110 people _ well short of the 155 on board. Many of the passengers wound up standing on the wings as the plane gradually sank into the river. The NTSB recommended changing the location of rafts and slides that double as rafts to ensure capacity for all passengers, since it's unlikely the rear rafts would be available. The FAA rejected that, saying that if Sullenberger had followed Airbus' directions on descent speeds for ditching, the rear rafts would have been usable. The NTSB replied that the ability of pilots to achieve those descent speeds has never been tested and can't be relied on. Some passengers wound up using the inflated ramps as rafts even though they're not designed for that. But passengers weren't able to release the ramps from the plane, running the risk that the ramps would be pulled underwater along with it. The NTSB recommended requiring quick-release attachments for the ramps. The FAA rejected the advice, saying its analysis showed that the attachments were likely to be fully or partially underwater. NTSB said its investigation showed that wasn't the case. In the movie, immediately after Flight 1549's engines quit, first officer Jeff Skiles, played by Aaron Eckhart, began going through a checklist of procedures for restarting the engines. Pilots are trained to do that in an emergency when they don't know how to fix a problem, but Skiles was only able to get through a fraction of the checklist items before the plane landed in the river. The NTSB's investigation showed the procedures were designed for a dual-engine failure at a cruising altitude above 20,000 feet, high enough for pilots to complete the list while descending and still have time to regain altitude. But Flight 1549 collided with the geese at an altitude of only 2,818 feet. Among NTSB's closed-unacceptable recommendations are that the FAA require airlines to include procedures for a low- altitude, dual-engine failure in checklists and pilot training. http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2016/09/19/273543.htm Back to Top AirAsia X under safety crackdown AirAsia X, which operates a double daily Perth-to-Kuala Lumpur service, has been under heightened surveillance by the air safety regulator since one of its planes leaving Sydney was diverted to Melbourne after the crew, trying to correct an error, affected key systems. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has confirmed the Kuala Lumpur-based budget airline has been subject to increased checks since the captain inadvertently entered the wrong longitude in the flight navigation system in March last year. The error, outlined in an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report published last week, placed the Kuala Lumpur-bound plane 11,000km away from its actual location, prompting it to turn the wrong way after taking off and cross the departure path of an adjacent parallel runway. The crew did not detect the navigation problem until the plane was airborne. The plane was not fitted with an upgraded flight management system that would have prevented the data- entry error. Their attempts to fix the problem made matters worse by affecting key flight guidance and control systems. At one point, the captain's primary display lost all information except airspeed and vertical speed while the first officer's display showed incorrect information and no usable map. The problems meant the plane could land only in visual conditions and, when bad weather prevented it from doing so in Sydney, air-traffic controllers used radar to divert the flight to Melbourne. A CASA spokeswoman said it was standard policy to review all safety incidents involving foreign operators in Australian airspace. She said AirAsia X had been involved in two incidents in the past 18 months, including the one involving the departure from Sydney Airport. The second involved proximity between an AirAsia A330 and an Airbus A320 on the Gold Coast on July 21 that was still under investigation. The AirAsia group was also involved in a serious incident in Perth in February when the pilots of an Indonesia AirAsia flight approaching the airport at night were told to abort their landing because they were 300m too low. Last year, an investigation byThe West Australian revealed that an Indonesia AirAsia plane involved in a fatal crash in December 2014 between Surabaya and Singapore had flown 38 return trips between Perth and Bali with the same recurring fault that started the events that led to the plane crashing, killing all 162 people aboard. AirAsia X said it had upgraded flight management systems before the publication of last week's ATSB report. It had developed a training package for crew on correct operation and alignment of air data and reference systems. "We also wish to reiterate that we have in place robust management systems to monitor and prevent similar incidents from reoccurring,'' it said. "The airline has regularly passed safety and security audits conducted by various international regulators. We remain committed to ensuring our compliance to all safety and security regulations.'' The airline had not responded to a request for comment on CASA's oversight last night. https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/32598441/airasia-x-crackdown/#page1 Back to Top Flight response An artificially intelligent autopilot that learns by example ON JUNE 1st 2009, an Air France airliner travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris flew into a mid-Atlantic storm. Ice began forming in the sensors used by the aircraft to measure its airspeed, depriving the autopilot of that vital data. So, by design, the machine switched itself off and ceded control to the pilots. Without knowing their speed, and with no horizon visible in a storm in the dead of night, the crew struggled to cope. Against all their training, they kept the plane's nose pointed upward, forcing it to lose speed and lift. Shortly afterwards the aeroplane plummeted into the ocean, killing all 228 people on board. French air-accident investigators concluded that a lack of pilot training played a big part in the tragedy. As cockpits become ever more computerised, pilots need to keep their flying skills up to date. But pilots are also in short supply. In July Airbus predicted that 500,000 more will be needed by 2035 to keep pace with aviation's expected growth. That means there is pressure to keep aircrew in their cockpits, earning money, rather than in the simulators, taking expensive refresher courses. Help may be at hand, though, from artificial-intelligence (AI) experts at University College London (UCL). Inspired by the Air France tragedy, Haitham Baomar and his colleague Peter Bentley are developing a special kind of autopilot: one that uses a "machine learning" system to cope when the going gets tough, rather than ceding control to the crew. Today's autopilots cannot be trained, says Mr Baomar, because they are "hard coded" programs in which a limited number of situations activate well-defined, pre-written coping strategies-to maintain a certain speed or altitude, say. A list of bullet points (which is what such programs amount to) does not handle novelty well: throw a situation at the computer that its programmers have not foreseen, and it has no option but to defer to the humans. Mr Baomar suspected that a machine-learning algorithm could learn from how human pilots cope with serious emergencies like sudden turbulence, engine failures, or even-as happened to the Air France jet-the loss of critical flight data. That way, he says, the autopilot might not have to cede control as often, and that, in turn, might save lives. AI takes off Machine learning is a hot topic in AI research. It is already used for tasks as diverse as decoding human speech, image recognition or deciding which adverts to show web users. The programs work by using artificial neural networks (ANNs), which are loosely inspired by biological brains, to crunch huge quantities of data, looking for patterns and extracting rules that make them more efficient at whatever task they have been set. That allows the computers to teach themselves rules of thumb that human programmers would otherwise have to try to write explicitly in computer code, a notoriously difficult task. UCL has lots of experience in this area. It was the institution that spawned DeepMind, the company (now owned by Google) whose AlphaGo system this year beat a human grandmaster at Go, a fiendishly complicated board game. The UCL team has written what it calls an Intelligent Autopilot System that uses ten separate ANNs. Each is tasked with learning the best settings for different controls (the throttle, ailerons, elevators and so on) in a variety of different conditions. Hundreds of ANNs would probably be needed to cope with a real aircraft, says Dr Bentley. But ten is enough to check whether the idea is fundamentally a sound one. To train the autopilot, its ten ANNs observe humans using a flight simulator. As the plane is flown-taking off, cruising, landing and coping with severe weather and aircraft faults that can strike at any point-the networks teach themselves how each specific element of powered flight relates to all the others. When the system is given a simulated aircraft of its own, it will thus know how to alter the plane's controls to keep it flying as straight and level as possible, come what may. In a demonstration at a UCL lab, the system recovered with aplomb from all sorts of in-flight mishaps, from losing engine power to extreme turbulence or blinding hail. If it were to lose speed data as the Air France flight did, says Mr Baomar, the machine would keep the nose low enough to prevent a stall. The newest version will seek speed data from other sources, like the global positioning system (GPS). To the team's surprise, the system could also fly aircraft it had not been trained on. Despite learning on a (simulated) Cirrus light aircraft, the machine proved adept with the airliners and fighter jets also available in the database. That is a good example of a machine-learning phenomenon called "generalisation", in which neural networks can handle scenarios that are conceptually similar, but different in the specifics, to the ones they are trained on. UCL is not the only institution interested in better autopilots. Andrew Anderson of Airbus, a big European maker of jets, says his firm is investigating neural networks, too. But such systems are unlikely to be flying passenger jets just yet. One of the downsides of having a computer train itself is that the result is a black box. Neural networks learn by modifying the strength of the connections between their simulated neurons. The exact strengths they end up with are not programmed by engineers, and it may not be clear to outside observers what function a specific neuron is serving. That means that ANNs cannot yet be validated by aviation authorities, says Peter Ladkin, a safety expert at Bielefeld University in Germany. Instead, the new autopilot will probably find its first uses in drones. The system's versatility has already impressed delegates at the 2016 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Virginia, where Mr Baomar presented a paper. The system's ability to keep control in challenging weather might see it used in scientific investigations of things like hurricanes and tornadoes, says Dr Ladkin-some of the most challenging flying there is. From the print edition: Science and technology http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21707187-artificially-intelligent-autopilot- learns-example-flight-response Back to Top Russian airliner bumped into Polish plane in Warsaw airport - TVN24 Russian plane after the collision in Warsaw airport (TVN24 photo) No one was injured, but passengers now need to wait 8 hours till the next flight An Airbus of the Russian airline Aeroflot collided witha smaller plane standing on the Chopin Airport airfield, TVN24 informs. The flight to Moscow is delayed by 8 hours. Passengers will have to wait until 20.30 for the arrival of another aircraft. "Airbus 320 taxied for takeoff. Catching the tip of the main wings of smaller aircraft SprintAir airlines (Polish local airlines - UT). There are no problems at the airport itself. SprintAir airplane was empty. The passengers were in Russian plane, but nothing serious occured. Passengers must wait for the substitution of new aircraft at 20.30," airports spokesman Przemyslaw Przybylski specified. Some 100 passengers were onboard the Russian plane during the collision, report says. People told TVN24 journalist, that Aeroflot hadn't given them any information about their next flight, nor proposed hotel or hot meals. Any information they are getting now comes from airport services. Some of the passengers flying on the Russian plane had transfers planned to another flights to India, Beijing or Ulan Bator. http://uatoday.tv/society/russian-airliner-bumped-into-polish-plane-in-warsaw-airport-749210.html Back to Top United Airlines Flight Rolls into Grassy Area While Taxiing at Denver International Airport (DENVER) -- United Airlines Flight 296 rolled into a grassy area while taxiing on Sunday night, according to officials at Denver International Airport. There were no reported injuries. The Airbus A319 aircraft was en route to Reno, Nevada, when it "partially rolled off the taxiway prior to making its turn onto the runway," according to a statement from United. According to the Federial Aviation Administration, the brakes failed causing the aircraft nose wheel to roll into the grass. http://www.wbal.com/article/190359/109/united-airlines-flight-rolls-into-grassy-area-while-taxiing-at- denver-international-airport Back to Top The FAA asks airlines to prohibit powering up or charging the Galaxy Note 7 on flights A day after the Consumer Product Safety Commission formally issued a recall of Samsung's occasional explosion-making Galaxy Note 7, the FAA is offering a more strictly worded warning against the troubled phablet. A week or so ago, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a fairly benign suggestion, "strongly advis[ing] passengers not to turn on or charge these devices on board aircraft and not to stow them in any checked baggage." Today's statement takes things a step further, but doesn't go so far as issuing a full ban on the device, which has had at least 35 reported instances of battery problems, according to Samsung's own numbers. The administration is asking airlines to prohibit passengers from powering on or plugging in their Galaxy Note 7 on a flight. The notice continues, Passengers must also protect the devices from accidental activation, including disabling any features that may turn on the device, such as alarm clocks, and must not pack them in checked luggage. The FAA adds that the regulation do not prohibit specific airlines from placing their own additional bans on specific devices/batteries. https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/16/faa-note/ Back to Top Jet Airways pilot grounded for being 'ghost' on Delhi-Bengaluru-Delhi flights * A Jet Airways pilot allegedly operated a Delhi-Bengaluru-Delhi flight without a valid flying licence * Then he erased the flight records that showed he was flying that plane * This is a serious security lapse, says an aviation official NEW DELHI: In the old days, stowaways would travel unnoticed by hiding in obscure corners of ships. But the commander of a leading Indian airline managed to travel in the cockpit twice - even flying the aircraft once - without leaving any trace he was ever on board. While the mystery of the 'ghost pilot' has left aviation circles baffled, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has grounded the man in question - one of the senior-most commanders of Jet Airways. In the first instance, he allegedly operated a Delhi-Bengaluru-Delhi flight without a valid flying licence and to cover it up, erased the flight records that showed he was flying that plane. The same pilot is alleged to have later flown from Delhi to Bengaluru to appear for an exam to keep his flying licence valid, again without leaving any record anywhere. "We are treating it as a serious security lapse as it is a test case to examine how one can manipulate all records to fly without leaving any trace. Our initial probe has shown he was in the cockpit in both instances. The case will be referred to the Bureau for Civil Aviation Security and exemplary action will be taken," a senior aviation official said. The aviation regulator is examining how the pilot managed to fly virtually as a stowaway - not hidden in the landing gear 'wheel well' in the undercarriage but in the cockpit of the Delhi-Bengaluru flight during the second instance. Pending investigation, the commander, who is also an examiner and trains and certifies other pilots, has been grounded. A Jet Airways spokesperson said: "As this matter is currently under investigation we cannot comment on the details. We are extending full cooperation to DGCA for the investigation. At Jet Airways, the safety of our guests and staff is of paramount importance." The case began unfolding some months ago when the captain allegedly operated a flight with a lapsed pilot proficiency check (PPC) test. The PPC certifies that a pilot's knowledge is up to date, and only those with a valid PPC are allowed to fly passengers. Pilots flying with lapsed PPC is a common occurrence as the test is to be given periodically, and action is taken accordingly. But a cover-up is unprecedented. "When the pilot realised he has flown with a lapsed PPC, he got the flight records erased completely to remove his name from all places that he had operated that flight. We are trying to find out who erased the records," said a senior official investigating the case. Later, the pilot flew from Delhi to Bengaluru to give his PPC test. "His name does not appear in the passenger manifest of that flight (list of people on board); the additional crew member list (travelling in cockpit but on the two seats behind the controls but does not operate a flight) or even on the crew list. With absolutely no paper, how did this pilot clear airport security, enter the aircraft and fly to Bengaluru? This is unheard of," the official said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Jet-Airways-pilot-grounded-for-being-ghost-on-Delhi-Bengaluru- Delhi-flights/articleshow/54385224.cms Back to Top Spare Electronics Battery Extinguished Aboard Delta Flight The incident comes amid a recall of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 smartphones; company says no indication fire is related A Delta jet takes off at LaGuardia Airport in this file photo. A spare electronics battery aboard a Delta commercial flight from Norfolk, Va., started smoking and was extinguished by flight attendants Friday morning. A spare electronics battery aboard a commercial flight started smoking and was extinguished by flight attendants Friday morning, Delta Air Lines Inc. said, again prompting concerns over batteries' vulnerabilities on flights. The incident comes amid a recall of Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy Note 7 smartphones due to battery fires. That device doesn't have a removable battery, so it likely wasn't related to Friday's incident. A Samsung spokesperson said the company has "received no information to indicate that this is related to a Samsung device." Friday morning, flight attendants aboard a 5:12 a.m. ET flight to Atlanta observed smoke in the rear of the aircraft and "acted quickly to immediately dissipate the smoke," Delta said. The source of the smoke was from a "spare battery not affixed to a device" and the company said it was working to determine the source and type of the battery. Delta Flight 2557 carried 143 customers and five crew members from Norfolk, Va., to Atlanta as planned. The Virginian-Pilot first reported news of the incident Friday morning. Lithium-ion batteries power many of today's mobile electronic devices and they have been known to catch fire or explode. The FAA said they have recorded 171 smoke, fire or explosion incidents involving batteries aboard aircrafts from 1991 to January of this year, including those used on laptops, electronic cigarettes, smartphones and USB battery packs. Last week, the FAA said the Galaxy Note 7 was a potential airborne fire hazard and urged passengers to avoid using the devices entirely on board airliners, and to not to turn on, charge or stow the devices in checked luggage. Earlier this year, the aviation arm of the United Nations banned all cargo shipments of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries from the bellies of passenger airliners until at least 2018. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said earlier this year that typical fire-suppression systems on jetliners using halon gas are "incapable of preventing" explosions caused by lithium batteries held in cargo. http://www.wsj.com/articles/spare-electronics-battery-extinguished-aboard-delta-flight-1474038636 Back to Top FAA awards Cleveland airport $8M to improve de-icing CLEVELAND The Federal Aviation Administration is giving Cleveland Hopkins International Airport an $8 million grant to prevent the recurrence of runway de-icing problems that resulted in unsafe conditions at the airport over the winter. Cleveland.com reports the funds will be used to construct a 124,000-square-foot building to house new snow removal equipment. Toledo Democratic U.S. Rep Marcy Kaptur says the grant is on top of more than $22 million that the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded Hopkins in July to improve the airport's snow removal fleet and improve sight lines for pilots and airfield crews. The city agreed last year to pay the FAA a $200,000 fine to settle four cases that cited the city for poor airport snow removal. http://www.vindy.com/news/2016/sep/18/faa-awards-cleveland-airport-8m-improve-de- icing/#sthash.9ukHFmxy.dpuf Back to Top Turkmenistan Has Few Tourists But an Amazing New Airport A view of the new international airport terminal outside Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The capital of Turkmenistan, a country largely closed to outsiders, has opened a $2.3-billion terminal at its international airport in the shape of a flying falcon. Associated Press Talk about a mixed message: Look at this beautiful airport but don't come through it. - Jason Clampet The capital of Turkmenistan, a country largely closed to outsiders, has opened a $2.3 billion terminal at its international airport in the shape of a flying falcon. The terminal, whose roof in profile resembles a bird with spread wings, adds to Ashgabat's vast array of idiosyncratic buildings. The terminal that officially opened on Saturday is designed to process at least 1,600 passengers every hour. Strict visa regulations in Turkmenistan mean relatively small numbers of tourists and businessmen ever visit the isolated, energy-rich Central Asian nation. In 2013, the Guinness World Records recognized Ashgabat as having the greatest density of marble-clad buildings - estimated at more than 540. Many official buildings are noteworthy for literal or eccentric designs. The state publishing house, for example, is in the shape of a book. https://skift.com/2016/09/17/turkmenistan-has-few-tourists-but-an-amazing-new-airport/ Back to Top Air India plans to reach out to pilots who had quit NEW DELHI: Air India plans to reverse poach senior pilots and commanders, who had switched to other Indian and foreign airlines earlier and on whom the staterun carrier had spent a lot of money to train them. As part of the strategy to hire over 500 pilots, the public sector carrier would also focus on hiring those who had left it in the past for various reasons and moved to other carriers, sources said. The move, which has the "consent" of Air India Chairman and managing Director Ashwani Lohani, is aimed at saving both money and time as these already trained pilots can be deployed for operations immediately, they said. Air India has already offered jobs to 13 pilots it had sacked for participating in a twomonth strike in 2012, sources said, adding most of them were "considering" the proposal though three pilots are not willing. As many as 173 Air India pilots have resigned from the national carrier since 2012 till last year, with most of them being those operating the narrowbody Airbus A320 family of aircraft, as per official figures early this year. A recruitment drive to hire 534 A320 pilots is currently on. Air India also needs around 150 widebody pilots to expand its international operations further, including planned flights to Washington and several European destinations. "We have immediate requirement of around 150 widebody pilots, besides the over 500 pilots being hired for the A320s, for medium and long haul operations. If we take back those pilots who have left us in the past, we will not only be saving huge cost on training them but also save a lot of time which goes down in the induction process," sources said. At present, the cost of training a pilot for an Airbus A320 family of planes stands a little over at Rs four lakh per pilot while the type rating cost per pilot comes to nearly Rs 23 lakh. While those who join the Dreamliner fleet from B777 widebody planes are imparted a 4 5 week training costing around Rs 25 lakh per pilot, pilots coming from the narrow body planes (A320 family) are given a threemonth training at a whopping cost of Rs 80 lakh per pilot, according to sources. "We have not been able to finalise the Washington and other proposed international flights because of shortage of B777 and B787 pilots only. If the plan to hire such pilots materialises, we can commence these destinations in a short time," they said. Madrid, Barcelona, Copenhagen and Stockholm, besides Washington, are the destinations that Air India is looking at as part of its international expansion plans, Air India Director for Commercial Pankaj Shrivastava had said sometime back. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/air-india-plans-to-reach- out-to-pilots-who-had-quit/articleshow/54393981.cms Back to Top How the Air Force is scrambling to head off an exodus of fighter pilots After devoting eight years of his life to the Air Force, John Weigand was tired. He loved flying F-15s and T-38 trainers, and he loved serving his country since joining the service in 1984. But the high operations tempo of the early '90s was starting to wear on him - not only deployments to help enforce the no-fly zone above Iraq, but also Red Flag training exercises, and TDY after TDY, which kept him away from his family. So in 1992, when the Air Force offered then-Capt. Weigand a pilot retention bonus that would have incurred a seven-year service commitment - and in those days, turning the bonus down likely would have meant the end of his career - he decided it was time to trade in his Air Force blues for the uniform of a United Airlines pilot. Instead of being on call round-the-clock, and away from his family for months on end, Weigand settled into the comfortable life of knowing his flying schedule two weeks in advance and having long periods at home, not to mention a higher salary than the Air Force could ever offer. "There was no comparison from a quality of life" standpoint," said Weigand, who is now also a United recruiter, trying to attract more pilots. Weigand's story is common - and the Air Force is growing increasingly concerned that the lure of civilian airline jobs will become even stronger in the months and years ahead. The Air Force is scrambling to head off what could be a major exodus of fighter pilots for the private sector, which would exacerbate an already-serious shortfall of fighter jocks. And if the Air Force can't hold on to its front-line pilots, that could have dangerous repercussions for the United States' ability to fight and win wars. "Air superiority is not an American birthright," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said at the State of the Air Force press conference Aug. 10. "It's actually something you have to fight for and maintain." The "quiet crisis" of the fighter pilot shortage is the most serious manning shortfall the Air Force is currently facing, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said. It has grown from about 500 to 700 over the past year, James and Goldfein said in a July Defense One op-ed - representing roughly 21 percent shortfall. In an Aug. 23 interview at the Pentagon, Maj. Gen. Scott Vander Hamm, assistant deputy chief of staff for operations at Air Force headquarters, said that if nothing is done to stop it, the shortage could swell to about 1,000 pilots by 2022. Civilian airlines are hiring about 3,000 to 3,500 pilots annually, said Lt. Col. John Hale, commander of the 77th Fighter Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, in an Aug. 30 interview. The Air Force, which turns out between 1,000 and 1,200 pilots per year, is seen as an ideal place for airlines to recruit, he said. "It's almost an unprecedented hiring boom with the airlines," Hale said. "There are very attractive civilian opportunities right now, which, it's difficult to argue, are luring away service members - especially pilots and fighter pilots." The Air Force is pulling out all the stops to try to fix the problem. James is pushing Congress to double pilots' Aviator Retention Pay from the current $25,000 annual maximum to $48,000. This would be the first increase in 17 years - and it means that some pilots who sign up for the maximum nine-year commitment could net $432,000. As the retention bonus has stagnated since 1999, its effect has been dulled by inflation, James said. The effect is shown in alarmingly low "take rates" of pilots from all backgrounds who decide to accept the six- figure bonuses. The problem is especially acute for fighter pilots - and growing worse. In fiscal 2013, 62 percent of the fighter pilots offered retention bonuses accepted, which was about 5 percent higher than the average number of bonuses accepted by fighter pilots over the previous five years. But by fiscal 2015, that rate had plunged to 47.8 percent, the Air Force said. And as of Aug. 1 - the latest information available - only 34.4 percent of fighter pilots had accepted the bonus. Since there were still two months left in the fiscal year, those numbers are incomplete and could rise - but there's not much time left. Air Force wants to nearly double fighter pilot retention pay - to $432,000 In fact, take rates for all pilots are also pretty bad. The Air Force has an overall target of 65 percent, but only hit 55 percent last year, and had recorded 42.9 percent for the first 10 months of 2016. But fighter pilot rates are by far the lowest. Hale said the Air Force estimates that upping the pilot retention bonus could boost the take rate by roughly 10 percentage points. PILOT TAKE RATES The Air Force offers some pilots Aviator Retention Pay of up to $225,000 if they commit to serving up to nine years more, but leaders are concerned that many pilots are turning them down. The service hopes 65 percent of pilots take the bonus, but is often missing the mark -- and in the case of crucial fighter pilots, falling far short. Type of pilot 2015 2016 Bomber (11B) 57.1 38.5 C2ISR (11R) 55.3 53.7 Fighter (11F) 47.8 34.4 Mobility (11M) 55.7 42.2 Rescue (11H) 78.4 73.8 SOF (11S) 56.0 43.6 Unmanned (11U) 60.9 55.2 Overall take rate 55.0 42.9 The pilot shortfall is straining the Air Force in several places, James said. Pilots are already dealing with frequent deployments overseas that separate them from their families, she said, and when they return home, they often have to turn right around and head to another training exercise stateside - the same kind of operations tempo that convinced Weigand to leave more than two decades ago. But James lauded short-staffed pilots for getting the job done under tough circumstances. "It's the busiest Air Force that I have certainly ever seen in my 35 years of working on defense matters," James said. "But they are doing it." Goldfein cited the recent two-week experience of the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath to illustrate the pressures wings are under these days. In the first week, Goldfein said, 48th Wing Commander Col. Evan Pettus deployed a squadron on short notice to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Within 24 hours of their arrival, that squadron was attacking the Islamic State militant group in northern Syria, he said. In the second week, Pettus deployed another squadron to attack a high-value target in Libya. And 24 hours after that Libya strike, a team arrived to give the wing a major nuclear surety inspection. "That's the kind of op tempo that we're dealing with," Goldfein said. "Very often, to be able to get the level of readiness we need forward, to be able to engage where the combatant commanders need us the most and the quickest, we end up absorbing that risk [of lower staffing levels] in home station." The Air Force not only needs to keep up its abilities to fight violent extremist groups such as ISIS, Goldfein said, but also needs to be ready to respond to other potential flare-ups with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Vander Hamm said the Air Force has frontloaded all of its pilots into operational combat squadrons, so they aren't undermanned. As a result, he said, other duties such as staff positions, training and testing end up bearing the brunt of those shortages. But if the Air Force doesn't pull itself out of this dive in pilot staffing, operational squadrons could eventually start falling short as well. "It could translate to, we don't have enough, in about 18 months, to fully man those frontline operational squadrons," Vander Hamm said. He worries that keeping operational squadrons at 100-percent manning while pilots are short-staffed is wearing out his fliers, but said that is the least-bad option available to the Air Force. "They're tired," Vander Hamm said. "We have tired iron, we have tired people. But it's the right thing to do to man those units at 100 percent. If we manned them any less, it would only be worse." The Air Force's steep reduction in fighter force structure has also contributed to the problem, Vander Hamm said. In the Desert Storm era, the Air Force had 134 frontline operational squadrons, but that's now down to 55 squadrons. Despite that reduction in capacity, the Air Force continues to see a great deal of demand for airpower. Hale said the 77th is now fully manned, but when he came on about a year ago, the squadron was facing some shortages. He would not say how many fighter pilots there are at the 77th, or estimate how short the squadron was. But Air Combat Command responded quickly to address the pilot shortfall problem when it was brought to their attention, and got the 77th up to full strength. Prior that, however, the squadron's pilots had to make do. "Anytime there's a shortfall, there are a couple of areas where individuals in the organization end up getting increased responsibilities," Hale said. "There's increased administration that the squadron members have to carry out. There's also increased flying, which is a double-edged sword. Increased flying is good because preparedness and readiness are high. However, there are other duties that my fighter pilots have to do that sometimes take a hit because of the increased load of flying." James and Goldfein's recent moves to end some of those additional duties or reassign them to support staff are a positive change, Hale said. "A lot of those duties that were burdening my pilots, especially when there may be a shortfall, are now being realigned, removed or put in a position where they do not fall on the actual fighter pilots," Hale said. "So we are freeing up additional duties to allow fighter pilots to fight and train. That would be a huge relief." One such duty is unit deployment manager, the individual responsible for much of the paperwork and administration required to move the squadron to a temporary duty location or deployment theater, and keep records on each pilot in the squadron, Hale said. But now, the squadron's administrative section will do that job, and he hopes that before long, a civilian permanently assigned to the squadron will take over. The population of pilots hardest-hit by airline recruitment is senior captains, who are about to become majors - those who are nearing the end of their service commitment and becoming eligible for the retention bonus. When asked how the Air Force can halt the exodus of fighter pilots, Goldfein said leaders must focus on improving both their quality of service and quality of life. "We've been through this before," Goldfein said. "Airlines have been in hiring mode before, and we've had to work our way through that." But this time, Goldfein said, the Air Force has been in combat mode for roughly a quarter century. The higher operations tempos mean more time away from home, which is straining fighter pilots, and contributing to the crisis the service is facing. If the Air Force can beef up its bonuses and lessen some of the financial strain pilots may be feeling that could cause them to go elsewhere, Goldfein said, "our studies have shown that the force will respond." But beyond money, the Air Force must also demonstrate that it cares for deploying pilots and their families, to ensure their quality of life doesn't suffer and cause them to lose their enthusiasm for the service, he said. "The Air Force is a family, and we take care of each other," Goldfein said. "There's a culture in the Air Force such that, when an airman is deployed, we take care of that family. And that doesn't happen always in the private sector." The Air Force also needs to give pilots some flexibility in their assignments to hold on to them, Vander Hamm said. And the Air Force must make sure pilots have enough time home with their families by being smarter about how it schedules training exercises, so when airmen are not deployed, they're actually home. To improve pilots' quality of service, Goldfein said, the Air Force needs to focus on keeping them in the air. "The reality is, pilots who don't fly, maintainers who don't maintain, [air traffic] controllers who don't control, are not going to stay with the company, because we're not allowing them to be the very best they can be," Goldfein said. It's not merely airline hiring causing the problem, James said. The Air Force needs to up its pilot production, and Air Force leaders are already working on it. The service will soon announce the standup of new F-16 training units, and expects to announce the locations of those units by December, she said. The Air Force hopes to increase the number of pilots it produces each year from roughly 1,200 to about 1,400 to help replace those who leave, Hale said. While the Air Force has been able to man graduate pilot training units - the ones that teach green pilots how to be fighter pilots - at 100 percent, it doesn't have enough fighter pilots to do undergraduate training, teaching new pilots the basics of flying in the T-6 and T-38 trainers, Vander Hamm said. As a result, the service has had to rely on other types of pilots, such as mobility and bomber pilots, to teach undergraduate pilot training. But Weigand is confident the airlines will have a strong hand to play when trying to lure pilots - no matter what the Air Force does. United alone expects to hire several thousand new pilots over the next five years. Throw other major airlines such as American and Delta in the mix, each with their own hiring needs, and the pilot community is looking at a major seller's market. "Military guys can do math," Weigand said. "The law of supply and demand will tell you that there's going to be a struggle here. $48,000 a year ... will pale in comparison to what they could do if they came to the carriers, based on today's collective bargaining agreements." Hale, however, disagrees. "I have accepted the retention pay," he said, "and all things considered, especially when you factor in the services the Air Force provides my family, I think anyone could argue that I make just about as much as an airline pilot. However, I have the satisfaction of serving my country. The satisfaction of serving is something that you really can't get anywhere else." According to pay charts provided by the aviation consulting firm KitDarby.com, pilots at Delta, American and United can earn over $200,000 after just a few years on the job. In the Air Force, when flight pay and basic allowance for housing are factored in, captains and majors with a decade of flying under their belts, earn salaries of roughly $100,000 to $120,000. A $25,000 annual retention bonus makes up a little of that pay gap, but a $48,000 bonus would go a lot further. To no one's surprise, the military is seen by airlines as a very fertile ground for pilot recruitment. "When we recruit pilots, we know that the military pilot offers a known quantity, a known background," Weigand said. "Military pilots are trained with rigor and discipline. Not that civilian folks are not, but the discipline and rigor that [military pilots] learn from the very start of their pilot training ... is excellent. There are so many [civilian pilot training programs] that sometimes we don't know what we're getting." An Air Force veteran with 1,000 flight hours in the cockpit of a fighter jet - who has dealt with the high stakes and immense pressure that come with military service - is seen as a much safer bet than someone who has 1,000 hours in less demanding circumstances. Military pilots are also valued for their ability to learn and quickly adapt to changing circumstances, Weigand said, as well as for their leadership and communication abilities. The stellar reputation military pilots have means they can get their full air transport pilot license - which allows them to fly commercial airlines and which usually requires 1,500 flight hours - with just 1,000 flight hours. Military pilots could even get a restricted license with as few as 750 flight hours, although they wouldn't be able to fly internationally until they get more experience. Not a few pilots try to get the best of both worlds. Hale said he's had several colleagues leave active duty for the airlines. But many of them opted to stay in the Guard or Reserve, so the Air Force isn't entirely losing their experience. Life at an airline differs from being in an Air Force operational squadron in many ways, Weigand said. Today, when his on-call days are up, "you put your flying bag down and come home." he said. United pilots commonly have 14 or 15 days off a month - usually scattered throughout the month, although some do get their two weeks off all in a row. As pilots advance in their careers with airlines, they can bid for days off, bid for flying larger airplanes, which pays more, or perhaps select where they want to live. Making the adjustment from flying a 68,000-pound F-15 to a roughly 175,000-pound Boeing 737 was somewhat tricky for him - but doable, Weigand said. He also had to adjust to the responsibility of safeguarding the lives of about 200 people aboard an airliner, as opposed to just himself and maybe one co-pilot in the F-15. "Obviously, performance-wise, it's a completely different platform than the F-15," Weigand said. "My first six to eight months at the airline were a challenge, flying that big of an airplane compared to what I had been flying. It's not harder, it's just a different challenge." https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/the-fight-for-pilots Back to Top Americana: The legacy of the glider pilots lives on in Lubbock, Texas Genuine glider planes are a metal and wood frame covered in canvas. [Photo by Beth M. Stephenson, for The Oklahoman] Another Sept. 11 has passed, and I am musing on the sacrifices of those Americans called upon to defend freedom and human rights in the world. My uncle Harold flew a fighter plane in the Pacific theater and my husband's grandfather, Delbert "Bus" Bingham, flew a glider into Holland for Operation Market Garden. On a recent visit to the Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, Texas, I learned a bit more about World War II gliders and their pilots. A plane with no engine makes no noise and is invisible on radar. A glider is nothing more than a frame with treated canvas stretched over it. It's maximum load was thirteen soldiers or even a Jeep with five soldiers plus a pilot and co-pilot. The tow plane would haul the glider near the front lines, drop the tow rope and the glider pilot would guide the plane to a predetermined site where they would, more or less, crash land. There were skids on the front of the craft so that they would ski along the ground without flipping. Photo - This photo taken inside the glider shows the cockpit in the background and removable benches which had shoulder straps for 13 soldiers. Photo - The glider's nose would have lifted for the Jeep to drive out. Upon landing, since every flight was one-way, the pilots became foot soldiers. [Photo by Beth M. Stephenson, for The Oklahoman] Photo - Genuine glider planes are a metal and wood frame covered in canvas. Almost before they halted, they'd have the nose of the plane up and the cargo dispatched. It goes without saying that such a voyage was incredibly dangerous. When gliders were first used in Sicily, 139 gliders went in, but when there was heavy fire from the ground, the tow planes dropped the lines too early and only 49 of the gliders made it to shore. It nearly cost the Army the glider program. Most of the American glider pilots were trained in Lubbock. A genuine WW II glider reposes in the Silent Wings Museum there. As I stroked the flimsy canvas skin, surveyed wooden benches where the troops sat and gazed into the back of the cockpit, Grandpa Bingham's stories came to life. He told of being stationed in North Africa, waiting to be sent into battle. The men he had trained with in Lubbock had become his dear friends. Then one night after about two weeks of waiting, his squad was called up to be ready to leave before dawn the next day. But Bus woke with flu-like symptoms. He assured the commander that it would pass, but he was running a high fever and was commanded back to bed. His friends and comrades flew the mission without him. None of them returned. It was Operation Market Garden in Holland when Bus finally got to test his wings. He described the exhilaration as the glider was pulled into the sky. As they approached the target, a bullet from the ground pierced the canvas between the co-pilot's feet, struck the co-pilot through the chin and straight up into his brain. He was killed instantly. Bus flew on. There was no turning back in a plane without an engine. He found the target landing spot but until they had landed, they did not know that the enemy lines had shifted several miles during the night and Bus and his cargo of soldiers were in enemy territory. They could hear the battle going on ahead of them. They hid during the day and zigzagged their way to friendlier turf. Back in Ogden, Utah, his loved ones and sweetheart read his name on the list of Missing in Action. Grandpa didn't often tell his war stories. When his progeny asked questions about the war, he'd answer briefly. Only in his last years did he elaborate with more details. He realized that young Americans, who have never known want or war needed to know the price of freedom. The pilots, along with uncounted others, offered their lives on the altar of human rights in the cause of human liberty and justice. I wandered through a multitude of exhibits in the city where the glider pilots once learned the knack of crashing with grace. Silver wing pins with a "G" in the middle identified the gliders. Some say the "G" stood for "guts." Now, Grandpa Bingham and most of the 6,000 World War II glider pilots have made their last flight into heaven. But, may the legacy of those freedom lovers never die. Only in America, God bless it. http://newsok.com/article/5518729 Back to Top Virgin Atlantic turned industrial waste into greener jet fuel The company's partnership with LanzaTech could cut airline carbon emissions by 65 percent. Illinois-based LanzaTech and Virgin Atlantic have been working on an alternative fuel source for Sir Richard Branson's flagship airline since 2011. This week, the two companies announced a breakthrough that could drastically reduce the airline industry's carbon emissions. LanzaTech has produced 1,500 US gallons of jet fuel derived from the industrial gases given off by steel mills. The LanzaTech fuel was created by capturing these gases, which would have otherwise been dispersed into the atmosphere, and converting them to a low-carbon ethanol called "Lanzanol" through a fermentation process. As the New Zealand Herald reports, the Lanzanol was produced in China at the Roundtable of Sustainable Biomaterials-certified demonstration center in Shougang and then converted to jet fuel using a process developed alongside the Pacific Northwest National Lab and the US Department of Energy. While initial tests show the Lanzanol fuel could result is as much as 65 percent less carbon emission than conventional jet fuel, it will need to pass a few more tests before it can be used in an commercial setting. Still, Branson believes Virgin Atlantic could make a Lanzanol-powered "proving flight" as early as 2017. According to LanzaTech, the company could implement their technology at 65 percent of the world's steel mills, allowing the company to produce 30 billion gallons of Lanzanol annually. That's enough to create 15 billion gallons of cleaner-burning jet fuel and replace about one-fifth of all the aviation fuel used yearly worldwide. https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/16/virgin-atlantic-lanzatech-industrial-waste-low-carbon-jet-fuel/ Back to Top Airlines Seek To Curb Service-Animal Rules WASHINGTON-Major U.S. airlines are hoping to restrict the types of animals that passengers are legally allowed to bring on board an aircraft. As part of a Transportation Department (DOT) committee reviewing accommodations for disabled passengers, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines and several international carriers are favoring a ban on so-called "emotional support animals" (ESA), that are used to in some cases to reduce the likelihood of panic attacks for their owners, either in the aircraft or at the destination. Examples of unusual animals transported as ESAs include potbellied pigs and turkeys. At the heart of the issue are differences between the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the 1986 Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). The ADA, as interpreted by the Justice Department, provides a person with the right to travel with a trained dog (called a "service animal") or a miniature horse, but does not recognize ESAs, a position taken by both the Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Transit Administration. Foreign airlines, in many cases, limit service animals to dogs, do not recognize ESAs and require third-party generated documentation. The ACAA, by contrast, recognizes ESAs as service animals, meaning U.S. airlines by law must transport any ESA except for "unusual" animals-including snakes, ferrets, rodents and spiders. Carriers can require certain documentation showing the need for the ESA, plus advanced notification. One key complaint from airlines is that passengers will often fraudulently claim their pets as ESAs in order to bypass normal protocols for transporting animals, for instance in the cargo hold. The DOT in April this year launched an Accessible Air Transportation Advisory Committee to study certain aspects and unfinished business in the ACAA as it relates to passengers with disabilities, including the definition of service animals, lavatory access on single-aisle aircraft and accessibility of inflight communications. The committee, holding its final meeting in October, is to make recommendations for a "negotiated rulemaking", a proposed rule based on consensus recommendations of the government and industry committee created in April. Committee members advocating for keeping ESAs argue that animals other than dogs would have to be transported in pet carriers, limiting the size of the animals. Once in flight however, the advocates would allow an animal to be taken out of its cage for "disability mitigation." "That exception completely swallows the rule," the air carriers said in response. "Any passenger willing to fraudulently claim he or she is disabled and needs to travel with an ESA would certainly be wise enough to also claim that the animal provides disability mitigation during a flight." http://awin.aviationweek.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/ArticlesStory.aspx?id=ee249acb-7865-46d3- aeeb-066ef35f9bc9 Curt Lewis