Flight Safety Information December 16, 2016 - No. 250 In This Issue Fire from e-cigarette causes emergency landing for Indy-bound American Airlines plane Pillsbury: Global, Top-Ranked, Non-Stop Service Regionals increase pilots' pay, but will it be enough to end shortage? Fighting For You: Liability insurance and private pilots RESEARCH STUDY SURVEY Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship Graduate Research Survey Fire from e-cigarette causes emergency landing for Indy-bound American Airlines plane INDIANAPOLIS - A plane on its way to Indianapolis made an emergency landing in Little Rock Thursday after a passenger's electronic cigarette caught fire. "I started saying a prayer. That's all I could do and believe that we were going to land... and we made it," said Cindy Nelson, a passenger on the flight. The plane, carrying 137 passengers, departed from Dallas around 12:50 p.m. and made the landing in Little Rock about an hour later, according to officials at American Airlines. Officials said the passenger was attempting to use the cigarette in the airplane's bathroom, which started a fire. The fire was put out with extinguishers and did not cause any injuries, according to American Airlines. The incident was reported to the Federal Aviation Administration. "We saw the flight attendants frantically grabbing fire extinguisher." said Susan Karimi. "There was just a lot of panic in the plane and we just really quickly realized that we were going to do a quick descent. We still didn't know what was going on and so we made the fastest descent I have ever experienced," said Nelson. A replacement plane was sent to Little Rock to help passengers continue their flight to Indianapolis. The TSA blog notes e-cigarettes, vape pens and other nicotine systems are permitted on planes, but the lithium batteries used in the devices are fire hazards and should not be packed in baggage. According the FAA, "these devices are battery powered and have a heating element that vaporizes liquid." FAA rules include: Devices are prohibited in checked baggage and may only be carried in the aircraft cabin (in carry-on baggage or on your person). They may not be used or charged on the aircraft. When a carry-on bag is checked at the gate or planeside, all electronic cigarette and vaping devices, along with any spare lithium batteries, must be removed from the bag and kept with the passenger in the aircraft cabin. http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/fire-from-e-cigarette-causes- emergency-landing-for-indy-bound-american-airlines-plane Back to Top Back to Top Regionals increase pilots' pay, but will it be enough to end shortage? A pilot at SkyWest Airlines, one of the carriers that has offered substantial pay increases for its pilots since fall 2015. Pilots flying for many regional U.S. airlines saw substantial pay increases in the past 14 months, but experts say that while those increases offer incentives for people to consider a career as a commercial pilot, they won't on their own put an end to the nationwide pilot shortage plaguing regional carriers. The pay hikes, meanwhile, could make it harder for regional carriers to turn a profit. "It clearly means baggage fees are not going away," said Louis Smith, president of Fapa.aero, a career and financial planner for professional pilots. This fall, American Airlines' wholly owned regional carriers -- Envoy, PSA and Piedmont -- increased starting salaries by between 32% and 47% while implementing signing bonuses of $20,000. As a result, first-year pilots make nearly $60,000 American's subsidiaries followed a move by Delta's wholly owned Endeavor Air in January, which raised starting salaries by 20% while offering retention bonuses for four years of $20,000, an effective doubling of starting pay, according to Dan Akins, a transportation economist and the founder of Flightpath Economics. Republic and SkyWest, the nation's two largest regional carriers, also implemented substantial pilot pay increases since the fall of 2015, as did other carriers, including the SkyWest subsidiary ExpressJet. Many regional carriers, including the ones owned by major airlines as well as Republic and SkyWest, work under contracts with the legacy carriers, shuttling passengers on United Express, Delta Shuttle and American Eagle routes. The surge of substantial pay increases at the regional carriers came in response to growing recruitment difficulties as low pay, combined with the expense of getting the federally required 1,500 hours of training, caused the pilot pipeline to dry up. In response, regional airlines have been forced to cut routes. SeaPort Airlines, which operated out of the West Coast and Midwest, closed this year, citing the pilot shortage. Republic filed a preemptive bankruptcy early this year as a way of extracting concessions from American, United and Delta on reimbursement rates and on route cutbacks. Small airports are another primary victim of the pilot shortage as regional airlines have cut routes and shifted toward larger airplanes to remain viable. Between the second quarter of 2013 and the end of 2015, 29 small airports in the continental U.S. lost commercial service, according to the trade group American Association of Airport Executives. Chad Kendall, chief instructor at the Jacksonville University School of Aviation in Jacksonville, Fla., said the pay jumps will be a boost for the regional airlines. Aspiring pilots typically must spend between $160,000 and $200,000 to get licensed to fly commercial planes. "I'm seeing enthusiasm for students who are looking at regionals, even people going into the airlines as a second career," Kendall said. "Seeing these base-level salary increases is very attractive to them." But others in the industry said that it will take more than just extra pay to alleviate the pilot shortage. Akins projects that over the next 10 years approximately 18,000 pilots will retire from the four largest U.S. carriers: American, Delta, Southwest and United. That's as many pilots as staff the entire regional U.S. network, which also serves as the predominant recruiting network for the mainline carriers. This year, the Big Four, along with JetBlue, Alaska, Spirit and cargo operators FedEx and UPS, will hire more than 4,200 pilots, according to a Fapa.aero analysis, with thousands of those coming from the regional ranks. Smith said that while pay raises will increase the number of pilots willing to take jobs at regional carriers, more needs to be done. Two significant steps, he said, would be for Congress to reduce the number of flying hours a pilot must have to get a commercial license and for major airlines and their regional partners to offer more defined pathways up the pilot ladder. American has done that over the past couple years, adding flow-through to the mainline for pilots at Piedmont and PSA, meaning that once hired at the regional carrier, pilots can work their way up to American's aircraft based upon seniority, without having to sit for an interview. "We see flow-throughs developing at various smaller airlines, and I expect it will be industry practice very soon, by necessity," he said. Numerous regional airlines also work with flight-training schools to offer partial tuition reimbursement. For example, Horizon, SkyWest and Mesa are among 11 airlines that offer at least $11,000 reimbursement to students at the ATP Flight School, which has 40 training centers across the U.S. Akins said airlines need to go further, training pilots entirely out of their own coffers, before pilot supply can begin catching up with demand. In the meantime, he said, the market forces that have led to the surge in regional pilot pay are also changing the carrier's business models, which had depended on low wages to keep operational costs lows. The result is likely to be more turmoil in the regional industry in the near-term as the carriers, most of which are independently owned, struggle to make a profit. "On the one hand, they need to raise wages to get new hires to operate," Akins said. "On the other, increased wages could kill business." http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Regionals-increase-pilots-pay- but-will-it-be-enough-to-end-shortage Back to Top Fighting For You: Liability insurance and private pilots Driving without liability insurance? That's against the law. But what about flying without insurance? You may be surprised to learn private pilots aren't required to carry liability insurance to cover injuries to passengers or a third party on the ground. Fighting For You was contacted by a St. Clair County plane crash victim unable to collect damages. Melissa Freeman recounted the harrowing experience four years ago. She was a passenger in a small plane that crashed in Margaret, Alabama barely missing homes. "The first impact, I hit the windshield and second one I hit the door," remembers Freeman. With injuries to her hand and shoulder, she couldn't get out of the plane. She says pilot James Chapman didn't even bother to help her. She says he crawled over her to get out the side door. Neighbors who had rushed to the scene pulled her out. Today she's left with medical bills and lost her career as a surgical nurse due to her injured hand but says she still thanks God every day to be alive. She won a judgment from a jury in St. Clair County of $205,000 against Chapman but so far has not seen a dime. "Typically when you survive a plane crash you send the pilot flowers instead of a lawsuit," says plaintiff attorney Nate VanDerVeer. He says the fault clearly rests on Chapman's shoulders for running out of fuel in the air. It would be helpful if Mr. Chapman takes some responsibility for closure so she can move on," remarks VanDerVeer. The attorney says they offered to work with Chapman on a partial payment but he won't respond. We caught up with Chapman at the Margaret City Council meeting where he has served for ten years. He also owns a local heating and air company. As we tried to speak with him after the meeting, Chapman walked off offering no comment. The plane Chapman was flying was registered to a family member. The insurance policy was ruled invalid due to no required inspection or medical certificate. But no law was broken. FAA Spokeswoman Kathleen Bergin confirms private pilots who fly general aviation, don't have to have insurance. We questioned longtime pilot and head of the Shelby County Aviation Association about the lack of oversight. "I can't imagine myself going up without insurance. I don't know anybody that does that," says Charles Weldon. He owns several planes. And while most believe the majority of pilots do carry insurance, nobody really knows for sure the numbers. So the accountability is in a very gray area when there are deaths, injuries or property damage. "She's got medical bills; she's not working; she's in a bad spot as a young woman. If she's guilty of anything, it's trusting a person with a level of trust in the community," says VanDerVeer. Figures from the NTSB show there were roughly 1,200 small plane crashes in 2015, with 376 fatalities. http://abc3340.com/news/fighting-for-you/fighting-for-you-liability-insurance-and- private-pilots Back to Top RESEARCH STUDY SURVEY Hello, I'm Dr. Tim Holt and I'm currently the Program Chair for Aeronautics and an Associate Professor with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ. In this position I'm responsible for faculty, curriculum, course updates, course alignment, etc... Furthermore, I teach undergraduate courses in aeronautics, safety, unmanned systems, and airport management for the Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics program. To this day, there are no reported statistics of general aviation pilots that have survived hypoxia during normal flight operations. More often than not there are tales of pilots getting themselves into a hypoxic situation and not surviving; rarely do people hear of those that survive. This leaves the aviation community unsure of the common circumstances that these pilots find themselves that create a hypoxic state, as well as whether or not that reported the occurrence to the proper establishments. The data collected from this survey issued to general aviation pilots, will hopefully give insight as to how best to prevent these occurrences from happening, as well as promote a healthy safety culture to report these events. It is with this in mind that we decided to embark on this research study. This survey is completely anonymous and individual responses will not be recorded. It should only take 5-10 minutes to complete. The link to the survey will provide you the Informed Consent and contact information of the researchers involved in the study. Thank you in advance, it's truly appreciated. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GAHYPOXIA Back to Top Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship The Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship was established by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to shape the next generation of aviation researchers, honoring the late Najeeb Elias Halaby, an eminent aviator and administrator, for his vision and more than five decades of extraordinary contributions to aviation (http://www.ral.ucar.edu/halabyfellowship.pdf). The Fellowship The recipient of a Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship will spend three months (in 2017 or early 2018) in residence with NCAR's Aviation Weather Research Program, which Mr. Halaby was instrumental in establishing in the 1980s. As the nation's leader in addressing aviation weather research, NCAR plays a unique role in meeting user needs by transferring research results to operations through its Research Application Laboratory (http://www.ral.ucar.edu/). The Fellow will conduct research broadly aimed at improving the integration of weather into decision support tools for enhanced mitigation of weather sensitivities (e.g., weather impact avoidance) and management of air traffic. The Fellowship will provide: * a monthly stipend for three months, including temporary living expenses * round-trip travel expenses to and from Boulder, CO * travel to a conference to present results * page charges for one publication of key results Eligibility and Application The Halaby Fellowship targets graduate students (late Masters or early PhD level) enrolled in an aviation-relevant department or program of a domestic or international university. Interested candidates should have advanced research skills, far-reaching vision, and dedication to get things accomplished. Consideration for this Fellowship will be given to candidates based on the following submitted material: * Curriculum vitae * Proposal (maximum five pages) presenting the research to be conducted at NCAR, the anticipated outcome of that, and how the proposed effort ties into the candidate's ongoing graduate research project(s) * Contact information for three references (one of which should be the student's primary advisor) NCAR will accept applications for the Halaby Fellowship each year. Email Applications by February 28, 2017 to halabyfellowship@ucar.edu Back to Top Graduate Research Survey HI! My name is Amber L. Hulsey, A.B.D. and I am currently working on my dissertation for my Ph.D. entitled, "Human Trafficking: Flying Under the Radar." My dissertation examines the extent to which human trafficking occurs by air as a mode of transportation compared to land and sea. Additionally, the study examines the actions that can be taken to combat human trafficking into and within the United States. The theoretical lens to which this study uses is Human Security Theory. This survey is completely anonymous, has undergone Institutional Review Board and has been approved. If you have any questions or would like to contact me for any reason, please email me at amber.hulsey@usm.edu. The survey will be open from December 7- December 21st. Please share this on all social media accounts, with your friends, family, and with your colleagues. Upon completion of this study, I will share the findings with various government and NGO's to aid in eradicating human trafficking. Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HTinUSA Thank you so much for taking the time to complete this survey and more importantly, for helping aid in the research to combat human trafficking by air. Curt Lewis