Flight Safety Information July 5, 2017 - No. 134 Incident: Frontier A320 near Kansas City on Jul 2nd 2017, cracked windshield Incident: AirAsia X A333 at Coolangatta on Jul 3rd 2017, bird strike Gulfstream G-III Ditching (Venezuela) The people suspected of shooting down the MH17 passenger jet are being put on trial in the Netherlands Forced retirement at 65 for pilots is valid, says Luxembourg court Stowaway: Nigeria launches investigations into teenager's alleged survival on London flight FAA Offers To Delete Names, Refund Drone Hobbyists Alaska Air : Horizon Air names new vice president of maintenance and engineering Incident: Frontier A320 near Kansas City on Jul 2nd 2017, cracked windshield A Frontier Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration N203FR performing flight F9-722 from Denver,CO to Washington National,DC (USA), was enroute at FL350 about 80nm northwest of Kansas City,MO (USA) when the crew reported a cracked windshield and decided to divert to Kansas City for a safe landing about 30 minutes later. A replacement A320-200 registration N236FR reached Washington with a delay of 3:20 hours. Back to Top Incident: AirAsia X A333 at Coolangatta on Jul 3rd 2017, bird strike An AirAsia X Airbus A330-300, registration 9M-XXT performing flight D7-207 from Coolangatta,QL (Australia) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) with 345 passengers and 14 crew, was in the initial climb out of Coolangatta's runway 32 when the crew stopped the climb at 4000 feet reporting problems with the right hand engine (Trent 772) and decided to divert to Brisbane,QL (Australia), located 50nm north of Coolangatta, where the aircraft landed safely about 20 minutes after departure. The airline reported the crew diverted to Brisbane as result of a suspected bird strike into the right hand engine. Two dead birds were recovered from the departure runway. Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Agency reported carcasses of plovers were found on the runway. Australia's Transportation Safety Board (ATSB) reported the crew elected to divert to Brisbane following an engine fault, the aircraft sustained minor damage. The occurrence was rated a serious incident and is being investigated by the ATSB. http://avherald.com/h?article=4ab26714&opt=0 Back to Top Gulfstream G-III Ditching (Venezuela) Status: Preliminary Date: Tuesday 4 July 2017 Time: 13:43 Type: Gulfstream Aerospace G-1159A Gulfstream III Operator: SATA-Serv. Coord. de Transp. Aéreo del Ejecutivo Nac'l Registration: YV2896 C/n / msn: 469 First flight: 1986 Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants: Total: Fatalities: / Occupants: 9 Airplane damage: Unknown Location: 50 km (31.3 mls) WNW off Macanao ( Venezuela) Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: Unknown Departure airport: Caracas-Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS/SVMI), Venezuela Destination airport: Porlamar-del Caribe Santiago Mariño International Airport (PMV/SVMG), Venezuela Narrative: A Gulfstream III corporate jet with nine persons on board, ditched into the sea off Macanao, Venezuela. ONSA Venezuela, the maritime SAR agency, stated that, according to preliminary information, the flight reported a hydraulic failure and control difficulties while 40 Nautical Miles from the Porlamar Airport. In less than three minutes the crew reported being at 3000 feet, preparing to ditch. https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20170704-0 Back to Top The people suspected of shooting down the MH17 passenger jet are being put on trial in the Netherlands MH17 investigation A man in uniform picks through the still-burning wreckage of MH17. AP/Dmitry Lovetsky The suspects who brought down the MH17 passenger jet over Ukraine in 2014 will be tried in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has announced. All 298 passengers on the Malaysia Airlines flight died when it crashed into a field in the war-torn eastern region of Ukraine on 17 July 2014. Some 196 of those on board were Dutch. The service was travelling from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport to Kuala Lumpur when it was knocked out of the sky. Dutch officials promised prosecutions days after the disaster - but even now they have yet to name any individual suspects. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement makes repeated references to "the suspects." It is not clear if or when officials will name those they believe are responsible for the disaster. Last year prosecutors named two Russian speakers -Andrei Ivanovich and Nikolai Fyodorovich - who they wanted to speak to in connection with the crash, but stopped short of accusing them of direct involvement. Tjibbe Joustra, the chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, told the Volksrant newspaper that actual punishments being handed out to individuals was unlikely, and that suspects were more likely to be convicted and sentenced in their absence. A report by Dutch air investigators in 2015 concluded that the Boeing 777 was most likely destroyed by a missile fired from a Russian-made Buk launcher. A second international investigation in 2016 said it was fired from a field controlled by pro-Russian separatists. BUK missile launched A stock image of a Russian Buk missile launcher. AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko Investigators struggled to properly access the crash site given that it was in the middle of a war zone. Fragments of airline and the remains of victims were strewn across a huge field, posing a huge challenge to experts trying to piece together what happened. First responders also struggled initially to reunite families with the remains of their loved ones, which initially had to be hauled out of Ukraine on a giant refrigerated train. Eventually, surviving fragments of the aircraft were pieced back together inside a hanger, allowing scientists to establish what may have happened. MH17 plane wreckage A reconstruction of fragments of the Boeing 777 airliner. REUTERS/Michael Kooren Dutch officials swore to launch criminal action against those responsible the day after the crash. But it has taken almost three years for the process to be agreed. An attempt in 2015 to set up an international court to deal with the attack was blocked by Russia. A statement from the Dutch foreign ministry, published on Wednesday morning, said the five countries most involved in the investigation had agreed that the Netherlands is the best location to hold the trials. The statement said: "The JIT [Joint Investigation Team] countries have now decided that the suspects should be prosecuted in the Netherlands, a process that will be rooted in ongoing international cooperation and support." The JIT consists of Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine, all of which had a significant number of citizens on board. Below is a breakdown of the nationalities on board, released by Malaysia Airlines in the days after the crash. It is not clear why it does not tally exactly with the later Dutch figure of 196. It is possible that dual nationals could be counted different ways, or that those originally listed as unverified have been confirmed as Dutch. Here is the list: 189 Netherlands 44 Malaysia (includes 15 crew members) 27 Australia 12 Indonesia 9 UK 4 Belgium 4 Germany 4 unverified 3 Philippines 1 Canada 1 New Zealand TOTAL: 298 http://www.businessinsider.com/mh-17-trials-held-in-netherlands-2017-7 Back to Top Forced retirement at 65 for pilots is valid, says Luxembourg court A European Union law that forces passenger airline pilots to retire at 65 is valid, the EU's top court in Luxembourg said on Wednesday. German flight instructor Werner Fries took his case to a German labour court in 2013 after his employer, Lufthansa, ended his contract when he turned 65, in line with EU law. The German court referred the case to the European Court of Justice in Kirchberg, the EU's highest court, which ruled that the action was legal. Flight crew health is a sensitive issue in Germany after a Germanwings co-pilot suffering mental health problems slammed his plane into the Alps in 2015, killing all on board. While it is "true that the age limit at issue establishes a difference in treatment based on age," that difference "is justified by the aim of ensuring civil aviation safety in Europe," the ECJ in Luxembourg said in a statement. "It is undeniable that the physical capabilities essential to the profession of an airline pilot diminish with age," it added. https://www.wort.lu/en/business/ecj-forced-retirement-at-65-for-pilots-is-valid-says- luxembourg-court-595cb4bba5e74263e13c38cd# Back to Top Stowaway: Nigeria launches investigations into teenager's alleged survival on London flight The Nigerian authorities on Wednesday launched investigation into claims that a teenager survived 12 hours hidden in the wheel compartment of a plane between Lagos and London. Sam Adurogboye, spokesperson of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, confirmed the investigation on Wednesday. The boy, said to be aged 15, was reportedly discovered in the wheel compartment of a Med-View Airline Boeing 747 which made the trip on Saturday. But speaking to AFP Wednesday, Mr. Adurogboye said the authorities were disturbed by the incident because of its implications for air safety, saying how the teenager survived at an altitude of 32,000 feet (9,754 metre) was a mystery, "We are looking into the incident to find how it happened and to prevent a recurrence," he added. Earlier, Oyibotha Obuke, spokesperson of the airline, had said that it was cooperating with the relevant authorities. Hypoxia or oxygen deficiency normally sets in from about 10,000 feet and would quickly render a person unconscious. Temperatures at that altitude plunge to -48 degrees Celsius (-55 degrees Fahrenheit), causing hypothermia. There have however been previous examples of stowaways surviving in the wheel compartment of passenger jets. According to an October 1996 report by the US Federal Aviation Administration, "Survival at High Altitudes: Wheel-Well Passengers", there were five survivors between 1947 and 1993. Three of them were teenagers, one aged 13 and two aged 17. Similarly, in April 2014, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said a 16-year-old boy survived a five-and-a-half-hour flight from California to Hawaii at altitudes of up to 38,000 feet. In October 2007, a 27-year-old man was charged with entering Singapore without a valid pass or permit, after stowing away on a 35-minute flight from Kuala Lumpur. In March 2016, the body of a stowaway was discovered in the undercarriage of an Arik Air jet flying from Lagos to New York. Also, another body was found on an Arik Air flight from Lagos when it landed in Johannesburg in November 2016. http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/235925-stowaway-nigeria-launches- investigations-teenagers-alleged-survival-london-flight.html Back to Top FAA Offers To Delete Names, Refund Drone Hobbyists Complying with a recent appellate court ruling, the FAA said it will delete the registration information it has collected from recreational drone users and return the $5 fee at their request. On July 3, the agency made available a "registration deletion and self- certification" form that registrants must complete and mail to the FAACivil Aviation Registry in Oklahoma City. The FAA's offer to de-list drone hobbyists acknowledges a May 19 finding by a three-judge panel of the U.S.Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that its online registration system is unlawful. The agency had 45 days from the date of the ruling to seek a rehearing before the full court, but the court has now issued a final order, Forbes reported. Reacting to a rash of rogue-drone sightings by pilots and others near airports, the Department of Transportation and the FAA used an expedited rulemaking process to establish the registry of recreational drone users in December 2015. But the D.C. Circuit Court, in the case of Taylor v. Huerta, determined that the registry violated a provision of 2012 FAA reauthorization legislation-Section 336-that prevents the agency from regulating model aircraft as long as they are flown safely. As of the court's decision, the FAA had collected names, addresses and other information from 763,678 drone hobbyists. During a presentation at the Paris Air Show in mid-June, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta disclosed that the agency was considering a way for drone hobbyists to "de- register" their names in light of the court's decision. Observers expect the FAA will try to revive the registry in the next reauthorization bill, and Huerta suggested that it will strictly interpret Section 336 language that excuses from regulation those hobbyists who operate within the programming of a "community-based organization" such as the Academy of Model Aeronautics. "What the court invalidated," Huerta said, "was the applicability of the registry for a subset of hobbyists that are not in compliance with a specific requirement that they be part of a community-based organization that has standards for safety." In the latest registration-deletion announcement, the FAA states that owners of model aircraft "which are operated in compliance with Section 336 are not required to register. Owners of all other small unmanned aircraft, including newly-purchased unmanned aircraft not operated exclusively in compliance with Section 336, remain subject to the registration requirement." The agency said that it continues to encourage voluntary registration by the owners of small unmanned aircraft. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/general-aviation/2017-07-03/faa-offers-delete- names-refund-drone-hobbyists Back to Top Alaska Air : Horizon Air names new vice president of maintenance and engineering PORTLAND, Ore., July 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Horizon Air's board of directors has elected George Knobloch as vice president of maintenance and engineering, effective immediately. In his new role, Knobloch will oversee maintenance and engineering operations at the airlines' six maintenance facilities and a team of more than 400 employees. Knobloch will be based in Portland, Horizon Air's maintenance and engineering hub. "George is an outstanding leader with an excellent vision for our maintenance program. His attention to the safety of our guests and teammates will continue to be an asset in this role," said David Campbell, president and CEO of Horizon Air. Knobloch joined Alaska Air Group in 2002 as the manager of line operations for Alaska Airlines in Seattle. Since joining the Air Group, he has held various positions of increasing responsibility, including director of maintenance operations and outstations, with responsibility for Alaska Airlines' staffed stations; maintenance control; technical training; and contract maintenance providers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. He most recently served as managing director of maintenance and engineering at Horizon Air. While in this role, Knobloch held the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) required position of director of maintenance on the airline's operating certificate. Knobloch has a rich history in the airline industry. Prior to joining Alaska Air Group, he worked for U.S. Airways as a technical instructor before serving as line maintenance manager in San Diego, Los Angeles and Boston. While there, he also received several awards from the FAA in support of FAA flight standards safety program and the FAA aviation education program. Knobloch retired from the U.S. Navy Reserve as a command master chief after a 30-year career serving in a leadership capacity with several aviation commands across the country and overseas. During his time with the U.S. Navy, he maintained several different types of military aircraft including H3 helicopters, A4 fighters, F18 fighters, C130 and C9 cargo aircraft. Connect with Knobloch on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-knobloch- 39a48439/. Horizon Air is a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group and flies to 39 cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Alaska Airlines, together with Virgin America and its regional partners, flies 40 million guests a year to 118 destinations with an average of 1,200 daily flights across the United States and to Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica and Cuba. With Alaska and Alaska Global Partners,guests can earn and redeem miles on flights to more than 900 destinations worldwide. Alaska Airlines ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Carriers in North America" in the J.D. Power North America Satisfaction Study for 10 consecutive years from 2008 to 2017. Alaska Mileage Plan ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Airline Loyalty Rewards Programs" in the J.D. Power 2016 Airline Loyalty/Rewards Program Satisfaction Report for the last three consecutive years. Learn more about Alaska's award-winning service and unmatched reliability at newsroom.alaskaair.com and blog.alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines, Virgin America and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK). To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news- releases/horizon-air-names-new-vice-president-of-maintenance-and-engineering- 300482791.html SOURCE Alaska Air Group, Inc. Curt Lewis