Flight Safety Information January 2, 2018 - No. 002 In This Issue Incident: Delta B739 at Atlanta on Dec 30th 2017, vibrations on airframe Incident: United B738 at Saint Lucia on Dec 30th 2017, gear problem on departure Incident: American B738 at New York on Dec 31st 2017, slat problem Aérospatiale AS 350B2 Ecureuil Accident (South Africa) Bell 412SP - Collision between an ultralight plane and a fire-fighting helicopter (Spain) American Airlines: Mechanical issue on plane at Logan sends 4 to hospital EVAS - Cockpit Smoke Protection Not One Person Died In A Commercial Jet Crash Last Year Air Crash Probe Begins After Compass CEO Killed in Sydney Caller threatens to blow up aircraft at Narita airport A US customs computer snafu caused major airport delays Complacency, disconnected EGPWS led to Trigana ATR crash Spartan's new maintenance program offers online start Aviation industry outlook: High single-digit growth expected This Is the Busiest Airplane Route in America EASA certifies higher-weight A350-1000 Cape to host critical test of Orion safety system Incident: Delta B739 at Atlanta on Dec 30th 2017, vibrations on airframe A Delta Airlines Boeing 737-900, registration N888DU performing flight DL-2109 from Atlanta,GA to Salt Lake City,UT (USA), was climbing out of Atlanta's runway 26L when the crew stopped the climb at about 12,000 feet reporting vibrations on the airframe and requested to return to Atlanta, no further assistance was needed. The crew subsequently reported the vibrations appeared to come from a nose gear door. The aircraft landed safely on runway 26R about 20 minutes after departure. A replacement Boeing 737-900 registration N818DA reached Salt Lake City with a delay of 2.5 hours. A passenger reported the captain announced shortly after takeoff they had strange vibrations and were returning to Atlanta. Emergency services inspected the aircraft, then the aircraft taxied to the gate. Eventually the passengers disembarked following an announcement the aircraft could not be repaired at the gate. The captain later announced the source of the vibration was identified as one of the nose gear doors. A replacement aircraft took them to Salt Lake City with a delay of 2.5 hours. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL2109/history/20171230/1455Z/KATL/KSLC http://avherald.com/h?article=4b3152f4&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: United B738 at Saint Lucia on Dec 30th 2017, gear problem on departure A United Boeing 737-800, registration N33266 performing flight UA-1643 from Saint Lucia Hewanorra (Saint Lucia) to Newark,NJ (USA) with about 150 people on board, was climbing out of Saint Lucia when the crew could not fully retract the landing gear, stopped the climb, burned off fuel and returned to Hewanorra Airport for a safe landing about 2 hours after departure. The flight was cancelled. http://avherald.com/h?article=4b314f0a&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: American B738 at New York on Dec 31st 2017, slat problem An American Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration N972AN performing flight AA-1609 from Bermuda (Bermuda) to New York JFK,NY (USA) with 144 people on board, was on approach to New York when the crew stopped the descent at 3000 feet reporting they had a flight control issue and might be declaring emergency. About 5 minutes later the crew explained the leading edge devices were stuck in the one o'clock position, declared emergency, requested emergency services to attend the aircraft and advised they were going to stop on the runway 31L for a brief inspection of brakes and checks for leaks. The aircraft landed safely on runway 31L at a higher than normal speed about 30 minutes after stopping the descent. The aircraft stopped on the runway, emergency services reported the brakes appeared hot but there were no leaks, emergency services followed the aircraft to the apron. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL1609/history/20171231/1620Z/TXKF/KJFK http://avherald.com/h?article=4b314cb8&opt=0 Back to Top Aérospatiale AS 350B2 Ecureuil Accident (South Africa) Date: 01-JAN-2018 Time: Type: Aérospatiale AS 350B2 Ecureuil Owner/operator: KwaZulu-Natal police Registration: ZS-RDL ? C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Substantial Location: Drakensberg, Cathedral Peak - South Africa Phase: En route Nature: Private Departure airport: Destination airport: Narrative: The police helicopter crashed while searching for a missing person. "We confirm the incident however no one died, only slight injuries sustained. There were four people and a rescue dog in the aircraft," said ZN police spokesperson . https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=203667 Back to Top Bell 412SP - Collision between an ultralight plane and a fire-fighting helicopter (Spain) Date: 30-DEC-2017 Time: 17:40 LT Type: Bell 412SP Owner/operator: Babcock (Inaer) Registration: EC-MMC C/n / msn: 33209 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Substantial Location: Alicante-Mutxamiel Airfield, Valenciana - Spain Phase: Landing Nature: Fire fighting Departure airport: Destination airport: Alicante-Mutxamiel (LEMU) Narrative: Collision between an ultralight plane and a fire-fighting helicopter. The pilot of the ultralight was seriously injured. The helicopter sustained damage to the main rotor, tail rotor, horizontal stabiliser and skids. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=203604 Back to Top American Airlines: Mechanical issue on plane at Logan sends 4 to hospital BOSTON (AP) - American Airlines says a mechanical issue has forced a plane to return to the gate at Boston's Logan Airport, and four people have been taken to hospitals to be evaluated. WCVB-TV reports the airline says passengers reported an odor in the cabin Monday before the plane was scheduled to leave Boston. It was headed to Charlotte. Officials say the plane returned to the gate and three crew members and a passenger were taken to hospitals. The Massachusetts Port Authority confirmed that four people were transported. The airline says the plane was taken out of service because of a mechanical issue and the passengers would be transported on a different plane. https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/01/01/american-airlines-mechanical-issue-on-plane-at-logan-sends-4-to-hospital Back to Top Back to Top Not One Person Died In A Commercial Jet Crash Last Year Fatalities on commercial jetliners have been falling for the past two decades. Last year was the safest on record for commercial jetliners, several industry groups reported. According to the Aviation Safety Network, no one died in 2017 due to an aviation accident aboard a commercial passenger jet. For trips made by cargo and commercial turboprop planes, there were 10 accidents in 2017 that resulted in 44 onboard fatalities and 35 on the ground. The most recent incident included in those numbers was the Dec. 31 crash in Costa Rica that killed 12 people, including 10 American tourists. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred shortly after takeoff. It was the deadliest such accident in Costa Rica since 1990. For the past two decades, there has been a downward trend in accidents and fatalities in the airline industry. "Since 1997, the average number of airliner accidents has shown a steady and persistent decline, for a great deal thanks to the continuing safety-driven efforts by international aviation organizations," Harro Ranter, president of the Aviation Safety Network, said in a statement. The agency also noted that as of Dec. 31, the world had gone 398 days without a passenger jet accident, and 792 days since a civil aircraft accident had killed more than 100 people. The last fatal airline passenger jet crash in the United States occurred in February 2009, when a flight operated by Colgan Air crashed in New York, Reuters reported. Forty-nine people were killed onboard and one person on the ground died. A separate airline monitoring agency, the Dutch group To70, estimated that there was just one fatal accident for every 16 million flights. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/commercial-jet-accidents_us_5a4b16d0e4b025f99e1d0c43 Back to Top Air Crash Probe Begins After Compass CEO Killed in Sydney • Recovery teams plan to raise plane from riverbed this week • Cousins, four family members and pilot died on New Year's Eve Richard Cousins Photographer: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg Investigators are piecing together the final moments of a Sydney seaplane flight that plunged into the water on New Year's Eve, killing Compass Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Richard Cousins and four members of his close family. Recovery teams plan to raise the plane from the bottom of the Hawkesbury River this week, Australian Transport Safety Bureau Executive Director Nat Nagy said at a media briefing on Tuesday. Dominic Blakemore, formerly Compass's chief operating officer for Europe, has taken over from Cousins, bringing forward a planned April 1 handover, the Chertsey, England-based company said in a statement. Cousins was due to step down as CEO of the world's largest caterer on March 31. Compass gained roughly 500 percent during Cousins' 11 years at the helm as he streamlined the formerly unwieldy company and pursued growth from blue-chip customers like Google, rather than mergers and acquisitions. The shares were down 0.5 percent early Tuesday in London, giving Compass a market value of about 25 billion pounds ($34 billion). Weekend Crash Cousins, 58, died along with sons William, 25, and Edward, 23, his fiancee Emma Bowden, 48, and her 11-year-old daughter, Heather, in the weekend crash. Six bodies, including the pilot, have been recovered, according to New South Wales police. In another crash involving a small aircraft, Bridgewater Associates executive Bruce Steinberg and his family died on Sunday when a charter plane crashed into a mountain in Costa Rica. Total SA CEO Christophe de Margerie died in October 2014 when his jet struck a snowplow on a Moscow runway. The entire board of Australian mining company Sundance Resources Ltd. perished in June 2010 when their plane crashed into dense jungle in the Republic of Congo. In the crash that killed Cousins, officials believe the single-engine aircraft took a right turn before nosediving into the water at Cowan Creek, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Sydney, shortly after 3 p.m. on Sunday. The DHC-2 Beaver Seaplane, built in 1963 and operated by Sydney Seaplanes, then sank quickly. The plane is largely intact and is lying inverted on the river bed, Nagy said. Search and rescue teams in Hawkesbury River, Australia on Dec. 31, 2017.Photographer: Australian Media Pool via AP Photo The crash site is at the center of a vast expanse of unspoiled national park peppered with sheltered inlets at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. Cousins and his family had taken a sightseeing flight from Sydney and had eaten at a restaurant on the banks of the river. They were on the return leg when the plane crashed. Investigators are devising a plan to raise the plane from the water using air bags, cranes, or a combination of the two, Nagy said. Then data-retrieval experts will analyze the aircraft's instruments as well as passengers' phones, tablets and video cameras for clues, he said. "Once we've done that, we're able to put a picture together of what's happened," Nagy said. Sydney Seaplanes, which has been in operation since 2005, said it had a clear safety record until the Dec. 31 incident. It has suspended all operations. Restored Seaplanes The 44-year-old pilot, Gareth Morgan, was "extremely experienced," the company said. He had more than 10,000 hours of flying time, about 9,000 of that on seaplanes. Morgan had flown Sydney Seaplanes Managing Director Aaron Shaw and his family to a beach not far from the crash site just before Christmas, the company said in a statement. The DHC-2 Beaver first flew in 1947 and production ceased about 40 years ago. The models operated by Sydney Seaplanes were restored and could seat seven passengers and one pilot, the company said. The planes are "professionally maintained to manufacturer's specifications," it said. It's not unusual for decades-old planes to still be operating, ATSB's Nagy said. "We don't have any systemic evidence that there's any reliability issues with the aircraft," he said. The ATSB will submit a preliminary report into the accident in 30 days. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-02/sydney-air-crash-probe-begins-after-compass-ceo-cousins-killed Back to Top Caller threatens to blow up aircraft at Narita airport Narita airport outside Tokyo received what police believe was a crank call on Monday threatening to blow up aircraft unless the airport operator suspends plans to extend the runways. According to the police, the message recorded in a woman's voice was received by the airport's flight information service at around 4:50 p.m. and claimed that explosives had been placed inside aircraft of several budget carriers operating out of Narita. Police say no explosives were found in any of the planes of carriers named in the recording, but Jetstar Japan canceled a flight for Matsuyama, western Japan, due to the threat. At Narita airport, plans are being discussed to build a new runway and extend one of the two existing runways. https://japantoday.com/category/crime/caller-threatens-narita-airport Back to Top A US customs computer snafu caused major airport delays Service has been restored and the outage "wasn't malicious in nature." US Customs and Immigration computers went down at various airports around the US yesterday, causing some havoc for travelers returning from holidays. It left hundreds of folks stuck in lines for a couple of hours in a part of the airport where there's normally not a lot to do. The agency didn't say what caused the problem, but said "there is no indication the service disruption was malicious in nature." As Reuters notes, a similar outage occurred at the same time last year, so it might be that the customs systems were slammed with Christmas travelers and couldn't handle the excess traffic. Agents were still able to process passengers using an alternative system, albeit at a much slower rate. Passengers depend heavily on some pretty wonky airport tech. Many airlines use ancient reservation systems, and even new ones like the Amadeus Altea system can go down, causing airport chaos. Despite those inconveniences, let's not forget that 2017 was the safest year for flying ever, with zero fatalities on scheduled passenger jets. https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/02/a-us-customs-computer-snafu-caused-major-airport-delays/ Back to Top Complacency, disconnected EGPWS led to Trigana ATR crash The final report into the fatal crash of a Trigana Air ATR 42-300 in 2015 has highlighted crew, equipment, and organisational issues. The disaster occurred when the aircraft (PT-YRN) flew into Tanggo Mountain at an elevation of 8,300ft on 16 August 2015, killing all 49 passengers and five crew on board. The aircraft was operating a Sentani-Oksibil service in the Indonesian province of Papua, and Oksibil was experiencing cloudy conditions the day of the crash. In its final report, Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) highlighted two direct contributory factors: deviation from visual approach guidance and visual flight rules without regard to the weather and terrain; and the absence of enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) alerts. A factor underlining both immediate causes was the safety culture at the airline. The report's findings were based purely on the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) as the flight data recorder was damaged in the crash and had a long and problematic maintenance history. Neither Indonesian nor French officials were able to glean useful data from the device. Complacency may have played a role in the crash. The crew had already conducted a service on the same route that day when they had flown directly to a base leg to runway 11. The CVR indicated that a similar approach was planned before the crash, although weather conditions had apparently deteriorated between the two flights. "The approach briefing should consist of minimum safe altitudes, and type of the approach, furthermore the pilot should maintain visual and special emphases must be placed on the familiarity with terrain," says the report. "The CVR did not record an approach crew briefing or specific discussions concerning to the minimum safe altitude and existing weather conditions." Ordinarily, an EGPWS alert would have sounded, but none were picked up on the CVR. The report disclosed that Trigana's ATR pilots, including the captain of the aircraft in question, had a custom of pulling the circuit breaker for this system to deactivate "nuisance warnings." "The investigation concludes that, most probably, the EGPWS power supply circuit breaker was pulled during the accident flight and the two previous flights, explaining the absence of altitude call out during the two previous approaches and warning prior to the impact." NTSC Assuming the EPGWS circuit breaker not been pulled, the NTSC raised doubts about whether it would have prevented the crash. It notes that its database might not have been up-to-date with the topography around Oksibil, and raised doubts that it was even connected to the aircraft's GPS system. Trigana's poor organisation oversight also came in for review. In addition to failing to remedy routine deviations by Trigana crews landing at Oksibil, there were problems with the carrier's maintenance of components and systems, and its documentation of maintenance work. Following the disaster, Trigana informed the NTSC of 20 actions it had taken to improve safety. These included better pilot training and oversight, improved documentation procedures, and improved maintenance of key components. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/complacency-disconnected-egpws-led-to-trigana-atr-444542/ Back to Top Spartan's new maintenance program offers online start Spartan adds flexibility with courses that start online Kevin Shields (left), Solomon Park, Lowell Blackwell and instructor Robert Wilson check parts on a small aircraft at Spartan College of Aeronautics When Joe Christopherson lived in Mississippi, he was a ramp agent at an airport and self-employed as a window washer. A portion of his third duty, which was advancing his education, was based out of state. Christopherson enrolled in a new hybrid maintenance program at Tulsa's Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology, coursework that allowed him to take the first part of the program online, reducing the time required on campus for traditional classwork. He completed his training in December. "It was wonderful," Christopherson said by phone. "It was perfect for me. I'm very happy." The first program of its kind approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, the hybrid curriculum lasts 20 months, with the opening, 13-month segment on theory occurring online, said Ron Worthington, Spartan vice president of curriculum development. The hands-on balance of the program is completed at the Tulsa campus, 8820 E. Pine St. Fifteen students graduate this week. "We have a great cadre of instructors who work with the students," Worthington said. "I've heard nothing but good reviews from the students. It seems to be working well." The hybrid program benefits high school students interested in entering aviation maintenance and/or adult employees making a career change. Currently it is only offered at the Tulsa campus, but plans call for it to expand, pending FAA approval, to Spartan sites in Denver and Los Angeles. If you care about business and this community, it's a small price to pay to be in the know. For a limited time, get a digital subscription for just $3.95 a month. Sign up now at tulsaworld.com/subscribe. "The whole objective of the program is to give young men and young women training required by the Federal Aviation Administration to be certified as airplane and power plant technicians," Worthington said. "Once they receive this FAA certification, it allows them to work on any U.S.-certified aircraft, its subsystems and components." Christopherson's family tree is aviation-friendly. His mother is retired from Northwest Airlines, his sister used to work for United Airlines and his brother-in-law is at Southwest Airlines. Christopherson, who had previous work stint at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, is contemplating two job offers, thanks in large part to his training at Spartan. "I just loved working around airplanes," he said. "It's not even like a job. When you enjoy what you do, it's like you don't have to work a day in your life." http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/tulsabusiness/spartan-s-new-maintenance-program-offers-online-start/article_3811c90b-d2f5-594f-924c-47f05faa84af.html Back to Top Aviation industry outlook: High single-digit growth expected There will be intense competition among airlines in Malaysia, says CAPA MALAYSIA'S aviation industry is likely to see high single-digit growth this year, based on the demand for inbound and outbound traffic. There would also be intense competition among airlines in the country, said Australia-based CAPA-Centre for Aviation chief analyst and Southeast Asia chief representative, Brendan Sobie. "The local aviation industry would see some expansion at AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines. Malindo Air's expansion is still unknown as its business plan is flexible and difficult to predict. "In some cases, the expansion includes new routes and existing routes. Airlines will also be taking delivery of new aircraft," he told NST Business recently. He said the local aviation sector recorded about 10 per cent growth last year, the fastest since 2013. Established in 1990, CAPA delivers market intelligence, research and data solutions that support strategic decision-making at organisations in global aviation. Sobie said there was no competition among aircraft manufacturers and airlines had to decide how best to deploy their assets. AirAsia has always been an Airbus customer while Malindo Air has a fleet of Boeing and ATR aircraft. Malaysia Airlines will take delivery of Airbus planes this year while the Boeing orders will be fulfilled in the future. There is a likelihood that these airlines will look for fleet replacement within five to 10 years. Sobie said airlines needed to be rational and disciplined on capacity. "Airlines should reduce their capacities in an overly-saturated market and re-look route expansion to gain more passenger traffic. They cannot simply add capacity and expect to be profitable," he said, adding that too much capacity in certain markets would impact profitability. Malaysian aviation advisory firm Endau Analytics concurs with CAPA's findings. Its founder, Shukor Yusof, said the Malaysian aviation industry would continue to grow in volume and traffic, driven by a firmer economy. "However, there will be intense competition and airlines that aren't well managed will suffer." https://www.nst.com.my/business/2018/01/320562/aviation-industry-outlook-high-single-digit-growth-expected Back to Top This Is the Busiest Airplane Route in America Regardless of how busy the cities themselves are, some airport pairs send more traffic back and forth than others. Can you guess the most popular route? Some cities are more popular destinations for fliers than others. For instance, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta is the busiest airport in America, according to the Airports Council International. But it isn't part of the most popular flight route between cities. Routes Online took data from air travel data company OAG's schedule analyzer to figure out the busiest route in the Americas. Between North and South America, the busiest flight route is between Sao Paulo Congonhas and Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont. The route between the Brazilian hubs sees more than 4 million passengers every year, according to Routes Online. (Every passenger should quit making these 16 airport mistakes before their next flight.) In just the United States, the most popular route by far runs between Los Angeles International and John F. Kennedy International in New York. In a single year, 2.9 million passengers take a flight from one to the other, making it the third most high-traffic plane route in the Americas. The 2,474-mile trip costs $337.66 on average. (Those 2,000 miles make it way longer than the shortest flight in America, which lasts just 16 minutes.) Another New York airport, LaGuardia, is part of the country's second most popular flight route, between LGA and Chicago O'Hare, which sees 2.4 million passengers every year. (LGA also happens to be the country's worst airport; find out what its $8 billion makeover has in store.) Los Angeles makes another appearance on the list, too, because the third most traveled air route goes between LA and San Francisco, with 2.2 million travelers. Here's a full list of the five busiest U.S. air routes: Rank Route between cities Number of passengers 1 Los Angeles International (LAX) and New York JFK (JFK) 2,873,316 2 New York LaGuardia (LGA) and Chicago O'Hare (ORD) 2,362,480 3 San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles International (LAX) 2,238,043 4 Los Angeles International (LAX) and Seattle-Tacoma (SEA) 1,990,802 5 San Francisco (SFO) and New York JFK (JFK) 1,844,864 For more airport facts, find out the cheapest and most expensive airports in America. https://www.rd.com/culture/most-popular-flight-route/ Back to Top EASA certifies higher-weight A350-1000 Europe's air transport safety regulator has certified a higher-weight version of the Airbus A350-1000. The -1000 secured certification at its basic 308t maximum take-off weight on 21 November. But the European Aviation Safety Agency has since updated the certification document to include a 311t version of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered twinjet. The higher-performance aircraft, weight variant 001, has a maximum landing weight of 236t and maximum zero-fuel weight of 223t. Airbus had disclosed last year that it was offering a 311t version of the A350-1000, but its own documentation on the aircraft had also briefly hinted at a possible 316t version. Qatar Airways is due to take delivery of the first A350-1000 but the handover, originally intended before the end of last year, has been postponed. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/easa-certifies-higher-weight-a350-1000-444543/ Back to Top Cape to host critical test of Orion safety system Kennedy Space Center teams have begun assembling the Orion exploration capsule. The capsule's 2,700-pound crew cabin was delivered Monday and was on display for the media. NASA is preparing for a dramatic, quarter-billion-dollar test of a system designed to save Orion astronauts' lives during a launch emergency. Targeted for April 2019, the test flight called Ascent Abort 2, or AA-2, will use a surplus missile stage to shoot a mock-up Orion capsule from state-run Launch Complex 46. Motors will yank the unmanned capsule from the booster at altitude, showing how astronauts could escape to safety if NASA's giant Space Launch System rocket suffered catastrophic problems after blasting off from Kennedy Space Center. "This is their ejection seat," said Don Reed, leader of Orion's flight test management office at Johnson Space Center. "Crew safety is dependent on this thing performing, and so we want to do a demonstration in a flight environment to ensure we haven't missed anything." Artist rendering of a Peacekeeper booster stage and Orion crew capsule mockup launching NASA's Ascent Abort-2 test flight from Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The unmanned, three-minute flight testing Orion's ability to escape from a failing Space Launch System rocket is targeted for April 2019. (Photo: NASA) The $256 million test was once planned a decade earlier under the Constellation program, which envisioned Orion crews launching on Ares I rockets. Canceled in 2010, a new program placed the capsule atop the 322-foot SLS rocket for launches into orbit around the moon, and hopefully one day to Mars. Astronauts aren't expected to fly until 2022 or 2023. But the launch abort system test is the last major flight test before Orion flies on the SLS for the first time, without a crew, no earlier than December 2019, according to NASA's latest projections. Artist rendering of a Peacekeeper booster stage and Orion crew capsule mockup at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 46. The 93-foot vehicle will test Orion's ability to escape from a failing rocket, a test flight called Ascent Abort-2 and targeted for April 2019. (Photo: NASA) Last month, NASA and Space Florida, the state's aerospace development body responsible for Launch Complex 46, formally signed an agreement giving NASA exclusive rights to the pad at the eastern tip of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The agreement followed a few months after the pad hosted its first launch in nearly two decades in August - the first flight of a Minotaur rocket from Florida. The same type of first stage that sent the Minotaur IV bolting from the Space Coast - a decommissioned Peacekeeper SR-118 intercontinental ballistic missile stage - will catapult the test capsule skyward. This booster will look short and stubby, resembling the Little Joe and Little Joe II rockets NASA launched to test Mercury and Apollo abort systems more than 50 years ago. The stage will be sheathed by a custom "aeroshell" more than doubling its girth to fit Orion's shape. At 16-and-a-half feet in diameter, Orion crew modules are supersized versions of their Apollo predecessors, with more than twice the interior volume. Here's how the AA-2 test will work: Shortly after sunrise, the booster provided by Orbital ATK will ignite with a half-million pounds of thrust. Fifty-one seconds later and 31,000 feet up, motors on the pointy abort tower topping the capsule will fire to pull it away from the rocket as it flies through the period of peak aerodynamic stress. The abort motors will whisk the capsule to nearly 44,000 feet at speeds exceeding 1,000 mph - a wild ride that would subject astronauts to G-forces making them feel eight or nine times their weight on the ground. "That all happens within about 15 seconds or so," said Reed. A final set of motors will fire to jettison the abort tower and free Orion to drop toward the water 12 miles offshore east of the Cape. On the way down, the crew capsule will eject a dozen data recorders - backups in case of any telemetry gaps - in pairs that two boats will chase down with GPS trackers. The remainder of the flight will not mimic a real-life abort, hopefully. To cut costs, the test Orion will not deploy parachutes that would ease astronauts to a gentle splashdown. Instead, having collected the essential data during the climb uphill, the capsule will plunge to an ocean impact at "terminal velocity," never to be recovered. Total flight duration: Less than three minutes. "This abort is a very complex test with very complex environments, and there's no way you can test this on the ground," said Reed. "We want to do a flight demonstration to ensure that we understand how all these loads, how all these environments interact." Various modifications will be made to Launch Complex 46 to support the test, including new access platforms and the addition of 190-foot-tall lightning towers. Completion of the AA-2 test will clear various KSC facilities for the flight version of Orion being readied for the unmanned test launch on SLS, called Exploration Mission-1, or EM-1. That mission aims to send the capsule Orion into orbit around the moon, at least 13 years after NASA first awarded the Orion contract to Lockheed Martin. Astronauts should follow on EM-2. "We're really looking forward to being down there and doing this launch," said Reed. http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2017/12/29/cape-host-critical-test-orion-safety-system/974673001/ Curt Lewis