Flight Safety Information September 28, 2016 - No. 191 In This Issue Corporate Pilots Found to Skip Safety Checks on 18% of Flights Black box inventor honoured with ICAO award Thailand's Aviation Standard Likely To Be Soon Upgraded FAA touts Data Comm installations at 45 US airport ATC towers Airplane Bomb Threat Hoax Gets Man Year In Jail Qatar Airways to pioneer real-time aircraft tracking UBER IS WORKING ON A VERTICAL-TAKEOFF AIRCRAFT Delta Mulls $2.3 Billion Plane Purchase for Regional Fleet GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY ERAU Crisis Communication & Media Aviation Management Services Corporate Pilots Found to Skip Safety Checks on 18% of Flights Alan Levin The plane crash at Hanscom Field that killed seven, including Lewis Katz. Photographer: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Corporate pilots routinely take off without performing required safety checks, a study of thousands of flights by a trade group has found. Prompted by the 2014 crash of a corporate jet that killed billionaire Lewis Katz, which occurred after pilots neglected to ensure their flight controls worked, the National Business Aviation Association discovered that similar lapses are common. The group representing corporate flight departments reviewed data from almost 144,000 flights during three years and found that in more than 25,000 cases, or 17.7 percent, pilots failed to complete the same routine check of a plane's flight controls that doomed Katz and six others on the plane. "It's very concerning, a rate that high with professional pilots like these guys are," Michael Barr, an instructor at the University of Southern California's Aviation Safety and Security Program, said in an interview. "These aren't weekend pilots. They are professionals who do it for a living." Checking to ensure that a plane's flight controls work properly is required before all flights. A failure to perform the checklists containing such tests and other safety-critical tasks "is one of the mortal sins of flying," Barr said. 'Disturbing' Findings The NBAA said in the report, which was undertaken at the request of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board following its investigation into the Katz crash, that the findings should be used to raise awareness among pilots. The results were "disturbing" and "the data highlights a lack of professional discipline among some crews in not accomplishing manufacturer-directed checklists -- particularly safety-of-flight critical items," the report said. "This report should further raise awareness within the business aviation community that complacency and lack of procedural discipline have no place in our profession," Ed Bolen, president of the Washington-based NBAA, said in comments attached to the report. A Bloomberg News review last year of business aviation accidents, including both private flights like Katz's and charter flights, found repeated examples of pilots skipping rudimentary safety checks, working fatiguing schedules and overlooking hazards such as ice on wings. There were five times more fatal accidents involving high-end corporate jets and turboprops piloted by professional crews from 2000 through 2014 than of passenger airlines, which have many more flights, NTSB records showed. In 2007, deaths from crashes of these planes began to surpass those on passenger airlines -- a reversal of the trend stretching back to the dawn of the jet age. In the May 31, 2014, accident that killed Katz in Bedford, Massachusetts, pilots neglected to release a device known as a gust lock, which holds a plane's flight controls in place on the ground to prevent damage from winds. The pilots would have known that the controls were locked and the plane couldn't take off if they had performed a required check, the NTSB found. The pilots had also failed to complete the checks on all but two of the 176 flights captured on the Gulfstream IV's flight data recorder, or 99 percent, according to NTSB. 2,923 Flights The NBAA reviewed flight data captured on 379 corporate aircraft from 2013 through 2015. In 2,923 cases, pilots performed no check of the flight control surfaces. On another 22,458 flights, pilots did only a partial check that wasn't complete, according to the report released on the trade group's website Sept. 20. While complete failures fell from 2.8 percent to 1.5 percent after details of the Katz accident were released by NTSB, there was no change in the total rate of all failures. "This report to the NBAA membership is not only intended to provide closure action to the NTSB recommendation, but also to raise awareness to the broader business aviation community that complacency and lack of procedural discipline have no place in our profession," the group said in the report. While airlines have numerous layers of protections designed to limit the chances pilots will overlook a safety-critical flight check, corporate flight departments may not always have the same diligence, Barr said. Such human failures remain one of the biggest challenges to aviation safety, he said. "How you change human behavior is your problem here," he said. "All you can do is educate, educate." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-27/corporate-pilots-found-to-skip- safety-check-on-17-7-of-flights Back to Top Black box inventor honoured with ICAO award A file image of Dr David Warren with a prototype of the black box recorder. (Defence) Australian scientist David Warren AO has been recognised for his work that led to the development of the flight recorder or "black box" with an award from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAO has posthumously conferred the Edward Warner Award to Dr Warren at its 39th assembly meetings in Montreal. Dr Warren died in 2010. He was 85. The official citation of the award said the development of the flight recorder had created an "legacy of safety for the travelling public". The 'Black box' was invented by Dr David Warren in the 1950s while working at a DSTO predecessor organisation. (Defence) "The international aviation community owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to Dr Warren for the vision and tenacity exemplified in his conceptual work and prototype development of what is known today as the aircraft 'black box' flight recorder," the official citation read. "Dr Warren's innovative work continues to this day to influence ICAO's initiatives in the field of aircraft accident and incident investigation. Dr Warren, who joined the Department of Defence in 1949 and became principal research scientist at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in 1951. At the official award presentation, ICAO president doctor Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu outlined how Dr Warren came up with the idea of the flight recorder during an investigation into mid-air explosions being experienced by the world's first commercial jet aircraft, the de Havilland Comet. "Having recently observed one of the world's first miniature recorders being demonstrated at a trade fair, he began to imagine how such a device could be adapted for use in the cockpits of aircraft, continually recording details which could be recovered after an accident," Dr Aliu said. "While today we all understand and appreciate the safety benefits of Dr Warren's inspiration, like many innovations his was first met was skepticism. "But consistent with his passion for innovation and his commitment to help present aircraft accidents and save lives, Dr Warren preserved with his idea and designed and built a first demonstration unit using steel wire as the recording medium. "This original 'ARL Flight Memory Unit', as it became known, was successfully demonstrated in the United Kingdom, and it was so well-reviewed that the British authorities soon made his recorder mandatory in their civil aircraft." Dr Aliu presented the award - comprising a medal and a diploma - to Dr Warren's two sons Graham and Peter and daughter Jenny. Dr Warren was admitted as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2002. His name also appears on the fuselage of one of Qantas's Airbus A380s - VH-OQI - and on a Defence building in Canberra. Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester described Dr Warren's invention as one of the greatest single innovations to improve aviation safety around the world. "This award highlights Australia's long history of innovation and invention, with the black box flight recorder among the most recognised and used technologies throughout the world," Chester said in a statement. The award, established 41 years ago, is named after ICAO's first president Edward Warner. http://australianaviation.com.au/2016/09/black-box-inventor-honoured-with-icao-award/ Back to Top Thailand's Aviation Standard Likely To Be Soon Upgraded BANGKOK, Sept 28 (Bernama) -- It is expected that Thailand's aviation standard will be soon upgraded by the United States' Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Thai News Agency (TNA) reports that the upgrade will be from the existing Category 2 to the Category 1, and by the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 2017. Deputy Transport Minister Ormsin Chivapruck on Tuesday explained that Thai Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith is now in Canada for an international aviation meeting and he has learned about the positive prospect. "As far as we have known, it is possible that the US-FAA will soon raise Thailand's aviation standard from Category 2 to Category 1", Ormsin stressed. Ormsin said the FAA's decision, if officially announced, would enable Thai Airways International (THAI), the national flag carrier, to resume its flights to the United States as of next month without waiting for any similarly-positive decision by ICAO. According to the deputy transport minister, major aviation agencies, namely the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB), the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), have expressed their appreciation to Thailand's solutions to aviation issues in both the short term and the long term. It is, thus, expected that ICAO should revoke its warning "red flag" imposed on Thailand in 2017. The deputy transport minister acknowledged that Thailand welcomes both ICAO and FAA to help strictly review the Thai aviation standard in their next inspections scheduled for 2017 and 2018. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v8/wn/newsworld.php?id=1286645 Back to Top FAA touts Data Comm installations at 45 US airport ATC towers United Airlines chief technical pilot-communications Chuck Stewart speaks about the benefits of Data Comm at Washington Dulles International Airport. Enabling controllers at airport air traffic control (ATC) towers to transmit flight clearance information to pilots via text message will reduce flight delays and potentially expand capacity at crowded airports, according to FAA. The agency is touting the installation of Data Comm at 45 US airport ATC towers as a key component of its NextGen ATC modernization effort. The agency demonstrated the technology for media Sept. 27 at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), where Data Comm has been operational for three weeks. United Airlines and United Parcel Service (UPS) Airlines participated in the demonstration. Data Comm is expected to be installed at more than 50 US airport ATC towers by the end of 2016. After airport ATC installations, FAA plans to implement the technology at its en route ATC centers, enabling inflight voiceless communication between pilots and controllers in domestic airspace starting in mid-2019. FAA, United and UPS said the use of Data Comm for controller-pilot ground communications at busy airports like IAD is already increasing efficiency and safety. Text-based flight clearance is "delivering real benefits, particularly during busy times of the day and in bad weather," FAA assistant administrator-NextGen Jim Eck told reporters at IAD. Rather than controllers and pilots going back and forth by voice, especially when controllers need to send re-routing details to the flight deck, information can now be sent and confirmed with the "touch of a button," Eck said. Information can be sent to multiple aircraft simultaneously, with copies of the information automatically going to airline flight dispatchers. "We've already seen a great deal of operational benefits," United chief technical pilot- communications Chuck Stewart said. United has all of its Boeing 787s, 777s and 767s equipped for Data Comm and is in the process of rolling out the technology on 757s and 737s. On equipped aircraft at airports where ATC towers are using Data Comm, the process of getting flight clearance information from controllers can be reduced from about 5 minutes communicating "the old school way" to 30 seconds to 1 minute using voiceless communication, Stewart explained while sitting in the cockpit of a United 777 parked on IAD's tarmac. FAA Data Comm program manager Jesse Wijntjes said Data Comm allows for "a much more efficient way of delivering re-routes to the flight deck," calling the technology "a quantum leap in how we move aircraft around." However, only about 10%-20% of the 1,000 daily flight operations at IAD are now flown with Data Comm-equipped aircraft, according to IAD controllers, meaning most flights at the airport are still receiving flight clearance information via voice. Wijntjes said he expects the number of equipped aircraft to rise, but explained that FAA decided it made sense to move forward with the technology on "a critical mass of aircraft" short of full equipage. There is no FAA mandate requiring aircraft to equip with Data Comm technology. UPS is moving to equip its entire fleet with Data Comm capability by 2021, and officials from the cargo carrier predict more airlines will install the technology on more aircraft as they see the operational benefits. UPS currently has 38 MD-11Fs, 13 747-400Fs and 59 767Fs equipped for Data Comm and is preparing to add the technology to the cockpits of 75 757Fs and 52 Airbus A300-600Fs over the next couple of years. "I have easily seen [Data Comm] save me 7 to 15 minutes" in getting clearance for takeoff, UPS MD-11 captain Gregg Kastman told ATW. "For UPS, we really have a time- critical sort. Every minute I'm delayed could affect the transfer of packages onto 40 aircraft waiting [at UPS Airlines' global headquarters facility] in Louisville." UPS advanced flight systems manager Christian Kast said the cargo airline saves 15 gallons of fuel for each minute reduced in the departure process. "In the express cargo business, seconds matter," he said. "So when you talk about minutes saved, this becomes a game changer for us." FAA administrator Michael Huerta has said FAA estimates Data Comm will save operators more than $10 billion over the next 30 years. http://atwonline.com/connected-aerospace/faa-touts-data-comm-installations-45-us- airport-atc-towers Back to Top Airplane Bomb Threat Hoax Gets Man Year In Jail If you are running late to your flight and don't think you will make it, we suggest getting in touch with the airline and looking for another means of departure. Because doing something insane like calling in a bomb threat will get you a year in prison. Such is the plight for Michael Howells whose ridiculous ploy to halt his 2014 flight out of Canada's Kelowna Airport with a bomb threat hoax has cost him a year in jail and CA$3,844.88 (or about $2,911) - although the fine and duration includes punishment for drugs also found on his person at the time of the event. The Telegraph catches us up on an ill-fated decision employed by the brilliant Mr. Howells back in October 2014, a decision of which Howells just now pled guilty. As noted, the traveler was late for his WestJet flight out of Kelowna, so he decided to take matters into his own hands and attempt an anonymous call that explosives were on the plane. As officials explains, that plane, which was inbound at the time, was diverted to another area for inspection. As for Howells, officials tracked the mobile phone that was used to make the call and scooped up the man in question the same day. The report explains: "In order to locate Howells, an announcement was made about the indefinite cancellation of the flight - and police officers checked the passports of all male passengers as they left the airport. Howells was identified when he later approached a policeman to enquire if his flight had been cancelled." An unbelievable story gets better, or worse depending on how you are scoring at home. This particular knucklehead not only thought calling a bomb threat in was a good idea but he also decided traveling with drugs was an ingenious way to move about the country. Officials confiscated what are described as bags of methamphetamine and heroin. And, as you would expect, Howells admitted that he was under the influence when he decided to try stall his plane in one of the most disreputable means possible. This should be a lesson for the rest of you. If you are about to miss your plane, just let it go. http://www.travelpulse.com/news/impacting-travel/airplane-bomb-threat-hoax-gets- man-year-in-jail.html Back to Top Qatar Airways to pioneer real-time aircraft tracking Qatar Airways will become one of the first airlines to monitor all of its aircraft constantly, wherever they are in the world. The national carrier has signed on as the launch partner for a new system called GlobalBeacon, the airline announced this week. Starting in 2018, the technology will give the carrier minute-by-minute updates on the location of its planes, even if they are in remote areas. The airline was inspired to take action after the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in 2014. Despite extensive searches and analysis of satellite communication data, MH370 has still not been found. This is partly because it was flying over open ocean from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, out of the reach of radar. In a statement this week, CEO Akbar Al Baker said: "I am proud of Qatar Airways' leadership in this vital area of aviation safety and awareness." New tracking requirements The missing plane has also prompted an industry-wide rethink about current monitoring technologies. For example, the United Nations' civil aviation body has stated that by November 2018, all commercial aircraft flying over oceans should be able to report their positions every 15 minutes. The ICAO has also introduced a requirement that all new aircraft manufactured after Jan. 1, 2021 have autonomous tracking devices that can send location information at once a minute when an aircraft is in distress. For Qatar Airways, its forthcoming GlobalBeacon system helps it meet the requirements well before deadline, according to designers Aireon and FlightAware: "GlobalBeacon will provide a permanent, real-time reporting capability, far exceeding the ICAO recommendation," the companies said in a statement. 'Vital area' of aviation safety Last year, Al Baker indicated that his airline was planning to introduce real-time flight monitoring on all Qatar Airways aircraft. At a press conference, he disclosed that the airline was engaged in trials of a new tracking system. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker Qatar Airways/Flickr Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker Al Baker added that he and fellow board members of IATA (the International Air Transport Association) were "very aggressive in pursuing this matter." And this week, he said: "We will be the first airline in the world to have the capability to use worldwide satellite air surveillance to support our airline operations and to achieve the highest level of flight tracking standards ahead of the ICAO 2021 mandate." http://dohanews.co/qatar-airways-to-pioneer-real-time-aircraft-tracking/ Back to Top UBER IS WORKING ON A VERTICAL-TAKEOFF AIRCRAFT MIGHT SETTLE ON AUTONOMOUS HELICOPTERS INSTEAD Ehang 184 Passenger Drone Uber is looking for a VTOL aircraft, but they might instead settle on an autonomous people-carrying helicopter, like the Ehang 184 picture. Uber, the hungry Silicon Valley company that turned people with cars and smartphones into a transportation fleet to rival taxis (while skirting things like labor regulations in the process), has set its sights on something much larger. Uber is already working on driverless cars, which happily for the company exist outside of labor law, but not even unmanned driving machines are enough to satisfy Uber's ambitions. The company wants a flying car. Specifically, Uber products head Jeff Holden is looking at VTOL -- "vertical takeoff and landing" -- technologies. Holden expressed this interest during an interview with Recode executive editor Kara Swisher at the Nantucket Conference last Sunday. As Swisher reports: Holden said that he has been researching the area, "so we can someday offer our customers as many options as possible to move around." He added that "doing it in a three-dimensional way is an obvious thing to look at." Holden said in the interview that such technology could be in use within a decade, which is an aggressive prediction, given the issues around the complexity of movement in the air above densely populated areas. (Also, you know, the possibility of these VTOL vehicles crashing into each other.) The advantages of VTOL vehicles are many: they can land and take off using small pads, like helicopters, instead of the large and inconvenient runways of airplanes. And once in the air, VTOL craft often convert to plane-like flight, maximizing efficiency as they soar through the sky with wings, not spinning blades, providing lift. VTOL is also, it's worth mentioning again and again, hard. There is a "V/STOL Wheel of Misfortune," maintained by the American Helicopter Society, that documents 45 different attempts at vertical or short takeoff and landing aircraft. Almost all are failures, with a couple of successes mixed in. Those successes did not come easy. Perhaps the most famous VTOL aircraft, the V-22 troop transport used by the United States Marine Corps and Air Force, had four crashes resulting in 30 total deaths before it was improved and finally declared operational, 16 years after its first flight. The F-35B, the Pentagon's VTOL variant of its expensive F-35 fighter program, is the most expensive of the bunch. DARPA is experimenting with new VTOL concepts. Bell Helicopter hopes to outfit the Marines with VTOL attack drones and the Army with a new VTOL transport or attack helicopter. These are expensive projects, with tricky aerodynamics, and none are designed to navigate a crowded street filled with pedestrians after last call. That's assuming Uber goes for true VTOL, where the aircraft takes off like a helicopter and transitions to more efficient, plane-like flight. If Uber is simply interested in helicopter-like flying machines, that idea is already out in the world. China's Ehang 184 is a "human- carrying drone," or perhaps, a driverless sky-car. The passenger-carrying quadcopter is cleared for testing in Nevada, where it may some day see use returning the drunk and wealthy from spots along the Strip to waiting penthouse helipads. It's helicopters like the Ehang-184, and not Osprey-like planes, that I'd expect to see Uber investing in. Anything else just seems like a VTOL tale. http://www.popsci.com/uber-wants-vtol-aircraft Back to Top Delta Mulls $2.3 Billion Plane Purchase for Regional Fleet Delta Air Lines Inc. is studying a purchase of roomier regional jets with a list value of as much as $2.3 billion -- provided the company can get the pilots' union to accept an overhaul of the small-plane fleet. The Atlanta-based carrier told the Air Line Pilots Association it wants the option of adding as many as 50 more planes in the 70- to 76-seat range, according to a union memo sent to pilots on Sept. 10. Those aircraft, which can accommodate coach and first-class cabins, are more fuel-efficient and profitable than the all-economy 50-seaters now flying many short hops. Delta also told the union it may eliminate the smaller planes without giving a timeline, according to the memo, which was obtained by Bloomberg News. The potential cost of buying larger regional jets is based on list prices for aircraft in the 70-seat range made by Embraer SA and Bombardier Inc., before discounts that are customary for large orders. Pilots' acceptance of the planes is crucial, because the current labor contract gives the union a say over which aircraft can be flown by Delta's lower-cost commuter partners. Delta is among the U.S. carriers cutting back on cramped 50-seaters in favor of more- efficient regional models. The union has objected to any additional 70- or 76-seat jets being flown by Delta's affiliate airlines, ALPA Chairman John Malone said. A spokesman for Delta declined to comment. Adding Luxury U.S. airlines have been switching to larger planes and cutting their use of 50-seat jets, where passengers have complained about small cabins and all-coach seating limits potential revenue. Delta had 153 of the aircraft as of July, compared with 309 three years ago, according to regulatory filings. Exclusive insights in your inbox, from our technology reporters around the world. While they cut the smaller models, airlines are adding some luxury to their larger 70- and 76-seat aircraft to resemble longer-haul planes more closely. In March, Delta announced an 18-month plan to spruce up its two-class regional jets by adding leather seats and in- seat power to first-class cabins and enhanced economy areas, as well as installing new carpet and overhead bins throughout the plane. The 50-seat jets are flown by Delta's regional affiliate airlines under the Delta Connection brand. Any new 76-seat aircraft would also be flown by the affiliates. So-called "scope clauses" in Delta pilots' union contract spell out rules on which aircraft can be flown by the affiliate airlines. Pilots for major airlines generally object to the practice of outsourcing any flights to the regional carriers and prefer that they be given all flights, said Louis Smith, president of consulting firm Future & Active Pilot Advisors. A looming shortage of people qualified to fly commercially may give pilots' unions more clout, he said. "With the bargaining power of mainline pilot unions increasing, I don't foresee any pilot group relaxing any of the rules related to scope clauses," Smith said. In the long term, Delta probably will bring more flying in-house and cut down on the use of regional carriers, said Michael Boyd, president of aviation consultant Boyd Group International. Pay and costs are rising among the smaller airlines, making them less attractive, he said. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-27/delta-mulls-2-3-billion-regional- jet-purchase-in-fleet-shift Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Dear Airline colleagues, I would be very grateful if airline staff among you accept this invite to complete my short online survey on "exploring the influence of emotionally intelligent leadership on airline safety culture". https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/EI-INTEL The survey is an element of my final project which explores how safety leadership who utilize or exhibit emotional intelligence leadership qualities can influence the organisations safety culture. Safety leadership in this context is taken as all management and supervisory staff who act as, or should act as safety leaders in their teams. I am researching to see if the leadership qualities of each individual safety leader can impact safety culture. Emotional intelligence markers are embedded in 10 of the survey questions. The survey contains an introduction and explanatory page, followed by 14 questions and should only take 8 to 10 minutes. If you would like to make any comments on the project, or have any questions, please contact me at Patrick.Morris.1@city.ac.uk. Thank you in advance and best regards. Pat Morris. MSc Student, City University of London. Curt Lewis