Flight Safety Information March 19, 2019 - No. 058 In This Issue Sensor cited as potential factor in Boeing crashes draws scrutiny Data shows angle of attack similar in Boeing 737 crashes -source Boeing under increased scrutiny as new details surface about approval of crashed jet Incident: Lufthansa Cityline CRJ9 at Munich on Mar 17th 2019, gear disagree after departure Incident: Sunwing B738 over Atlantic on Mar 7th 2019, near collision with weather balloon at FL360 Incident: FlyEgypt B738 at Hurghada on Mar 17th 2019, tail scrape on departure Incident: Emirates B773 at Rio de Janeiro on Mar 14th 2019, bird strike Bombardier BD-100-1A10 Challenger 300 - Ground Collision with vehicle (Malaysia) IAI 1124 Westwind - Fatal Accident (Oklahoma) Cessna 680 Sovereign - Runway Excursion on Landing (Mexico) Federal investigators reportedly suspect that pilot error played a role in the fatal Amazon Air cargo Canada TSB Begins Special Study of Air-taxi Safety Embraer To Name New Chief Executive Women in aviation: Why a diverse workforce is necessary to drive tech innovation Super fast travel using outer space could be $20 billion market, disrupting airlines, UBS predicts GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Aircraft Cabin Air Conference ISASI-Mid-Atlantic Regional Chapter (MARC) Dinner/Meeting--2 May 2019 Sensor cited as potential factor in Boeing crashes draws scrutiny An Indonesian aviation official holds an angle-of-attack sensor shortly after it was recovered from the Lion Air crash off Indonesia last October. In 2014, Lufthansa Flight 1829 took off from Bilbao, Spain, and was ascending normally when the plane's nose unexpectedly dropped. The plane - an Airbus A321 with 109 passengers on board - began to fall. The co-pilot tried to raise the nose with his controls. The plane pointed down even further. He tried again. Nothing, according to a report by German investigators. As the Lufthansa plane fell from 31,000 feet, the captain pulled back on his stick as hard as he could. The nose finally responded. But he struggled to hold the plane level. A call to a ground crew determined the plane's angle-of-attack sensors - which detect whether the wings have enough lift to keep flying - must have been malfunctioning, causing the Airbus's anti-stall software to force the plane's nose down. The pilots turned off the problematic unit and continued the flight. Aviation authorities in Europe and the United States eventually ordered the replacement of angle-of-attack sensors on many Airbus models. Today, aviation experts say that the angle-of-attack sensor on Boeing jets will get fresh scrutiny after two Boeing 737 Max airplanes crashed, in Ethiopia last week and in Indonesia in October. Accident investigators have raised concerns about the role of the sensor - a device used on virtually every commercial flight - in the October crash of Lion Air Flight 610. There are concerns it may have sent the wrong signals to new software on the flight that automatically dips the plane's nose to prevent a stall. It is not clear whether the angle-of-attack sensor played a role in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg said Sunday that his company is finalizing software updates and pilot training protocols to address problems that have emerged "in response to erroneous sensor inputs." He did not specify which sensors. Details emerge of Boeing 737 crash in Ethiopia Investigators continue to look for clues in the March 10 crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8 in Ethiopia. (Reuters) Muilenberg's comments followed a statement by Ethiopia's transportation secretary earlier Sunday that the plane's black boxes showed "clear similarities" between the Indonesian and Ethiopian crashes. Aviation authorities worldwide grounded the Boeing 737 Max last week out of concern about the plane's safety. In interviews late last week, aviation experts said there was no reason for broad alarm about the sensors. But six experts said that the risks posed by a faulty angle-of-attack sensor are amplified by the increasing role of cockpit automation. It is an example of how the same technology that makes aircraft safer - automated software - can be undone by a seemingly small problem. "The sensor going out is serious," said Clint Balog, a test pilot and associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "But it can be made critical by software." Most commercial pilots today know how to respond to a malfunctioning sensor, said Shem Malmquist, a Boeing 777 captain and a visiting professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. But potential complications arise with how software interprets what the sensor tells it. "When you introduce computer controls, you start to get interactions that are hard to anticipate," Malmquist said. Angle-of-attack sensors have been flagged as problems more than 50 times on U.S. commercial airplanes over the past five years, although no accidents have occurred over millions of miles flown, according to reports made to the Federal Aviation Administration's Service Difficulty Reporting database. That makes it a relatively unusual problem, aviation experts said - but also one with magnified importance because of its prominent role in flight software. "It is notable," said David Soucie, a former FAA maintenance safety inspector. The sensor is especially helpful for nighttime flying, Soucie said, but its loss alone should not create problems that pilots are unable to handle. The FAA reports include 19 reported cases of sensor trouble on Boeing aircraft, such as an American Airlines flight last year that declared a midflight emergency when the plane's stall-warning system went off, despite normal airspeed. The Boeing 737-800 landed safely. Maintenance crews replaced three parts, including the angle-of-attack sensor, according to the FAA database. In 2017, an American Airlines-operated Boeing 767 headed to Zurich declared an emergency and returned to New York. Another angle-of-attack sensor was replaced. And an American Airlines 767 was forced to return to Miami in 2014 after a midflight emergency because of a faulty angle-of-attack sensor. A Boeing spokesman declined to comment for this report. The FAA did not respond to a request for comment. The angle-of-attack sensors on the fatal Lion Air flight were made by Minnesota-based Rosemount Aerospace, according to a photograph of the part that was shown by Indonesian officials to reporters after the recovery of the wreckage. It is a model commonly used on commercial aircraft. A spokeswoman for Rosemount's parent company, United Technologies, declined to comment. The angle-of-attack sensor measures the amount of lift generated by the wings. The name refers to the angle between the wing and oncoming air. Its main purpose is to warn pilots when the plane could stall from too little lift, leading to a loss of control. Many of the sensors include a small vane attached to the outside of a commercial aircraft. Most planes have two or three vanes as part of a redundant system. But they are not complicated machines. The Wright brothers used a version on their first flight. Placing too much trust in the sensors also can cause trouble. One of the most serious accidents tied to angle-of-attack sensors occurred in 2008, when XL Airways Germany Flight 888T crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, killing seven people. French authorities blamed water-soaked angle-of-attack sensors on the Airbus 320 plane, saying they generated inaccurate readings and set up a chain of events that resulted in a stall. According to investigators, the downed airplane's sensors were made by Rosemount, the same company that made the sensors on the Lion Air crash. At the time, Rosemount was also called Goodrich, the company that owned the aerospace manufacturer at the time. In the Lion Air crash, pilots struggled for control with the 737 Max's automated flight controls - the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS. Faulty readings from the angle-of-attack sensors may have led the MCAS to believe the aircraft was in danger of stalling just as it was taking off from Indonesia, according to the preliminary report by Indonesian investigators. Gaining speed by diving can prevent a stall. After the crash, the FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive in November for 737 Max 8 and 9 models that warned a mistakenly high reading from one angle-of- attack sensor "could cause the flight crew to have difficulty controlling the airplane." Less is known about the Ethiopian Airlines crash. But it involves the same type of aircraft and crashed at a similar point in its flight path as the Lion Air plane, according to investigators. Both planes were equipped with the MCAS, which uses angle-of-attack sensors to determine whether a plane is nearing a stall. Airbus equips many of its commercial jets with its own anti-stall software that relies on an automated process. During the Lufthansa flight in 2014, faulty information from the angle-of-attack sensors triggered the software, pushing the plane's nose down, according to German aviation investigators. The program thought the plane was nearing a stall. The captain was eventually able to override the automated system, and the pilots, after talking with a maintenance crew, identified the likely problem and continued the flight to Munich. Investigators later found that two of the angle-of-attack sensors were blocked, probably by frozen water, and generated improper readings. European authorities and the FAA issued airworthiness directives over several years aimed at addressing sensor problems on Airbuses. Airbus A320 planes with certain sensors made by two companies - United Technologies, parent company of Rosemount, which makes Boeing sensors; and Sextant/Thomson - "appear to have a greater susceptibility to adverse environmental conditions" than sensors made by a third company, the FAA said. One important difference between the Lufthansa incident and the two 737 Max accidents, aviation experts said, was where they occurred. The Lufthansa plane was soaring at 31,000 feet when it launched into a steep dive. It dropped 4,000 feet in less than a minute before the pilots wrestled back control. If the sensor problem had hit soon after departure, as investigators suspect it did with the Lion Air crash, that incident could have ended in disaster. The Washington Post Back to Top Data shows angle of attack similar in Boeing 737 crashes -source PARIS, March 18 (Reuters) - Investigators probing the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX jet eight days ago have found strong similarities in the 'angle of attack' data recorded by the doomed aircraft's cockpit recorder and data from a Lion Air jet of the same model that crashed in October, a person familiar with the matter said. Graphs of the two sets of data are "very, very similar," the person said on Monday, asking not to be identified because the matter is still in the early stages of investigation. The angle is a key flight parameter that must remain narrow enough to preserve lift and avoid an aerodynamic stall. A computer's response to an apparently faulty angle of attack reading is at the centre of an ongoing probe into the Lion Air disaster. (Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Georgina Prodhan) Back to Top Boeing under increased scrutiny as new details surface about approval of crashed jet The Justice Department probe of the FAA certification process is highly unusual, and it could raise questions about President Trump's involvement Photo by Stephen Brashear / Getty Images The Department of Transportation's inspector general is probing the Federal Aviation Administration's approval of Boeing's 737 Max 8 aircraft after new reports raised questions about the FAA's reliance on the aircraft manufacturer during its certification process. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors are also looking into Boeing. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a subpoena has been issued to at least one person involved in the Max 8's development. The DOT's investigation is focused on the FAA's Seattle office, which certifies the safety of new aircraft. The subpoena is seeking documents from the office, including emails, correspondence, and other messages, the Journal reports. FAA MANAGERS PUSHED THE AGENCY'S SAFETY ENGINEERS TO DELEGATE SAFETY ASSESSMENTS TO BOEING ITSELF Over the weekend, The Seattle Times reported that FAA managers pushed the agency's safety engineers to delegate safety assessments to Boeing and to speedily approve the resulting analysis. Under pressure to catch up to Airbus to approve its new 737 Max jets, Boeing turned in a safety assessment to the FAA that was riddled with errors, the Times reported. The Chicago-based company is under increased scrutiny after two of its Max 8 jets crashed within five months of each other. Last Sunday, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed a few minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. This followed the October crash of Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia that killed all 189 passengers and crew. On Wednesday, the FAA ordered the plane to be grounded. In the aftermath, investigators have focused on an anti-stall feature known as Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). A preliminary report from Indonesian investigators indicates that Lion Air 610 crashed because a faulty sensor erroneously reported that the airplane was stalling. The false report triggered MCAS, which tried to point the aircraft's nose down so that it could gain enough speed to fly safely. Boeing's safety assessment of MCAS understated the system's power and failed to account for how it could reset itself after each time a pilot responded. Black box data retrieved after the Lion Air crash indicates that a single faulty sensor triggered MCAS multiple times during the deadly flight. This led to a struggle between the pilots and the plane, as the system repeatedly pushed the nose of the plane down and the pilots wrestled with the controls to pull it back up before the final crash. THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PROBE OF THE FAA CERTIFICATION PROCESS IS HIGHLY UNUSUAL The Justice Department probe of the FAA certification process is highly unusual, and it could raise questions about President Trump's involvement. According to The Washington Post, Trump was the "key arbiter" in the decision over the Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 jets. Trump participated in phone conversations with top Boeing executives and other stakeholders, offering his thoughts on the aviation industry. But since then, he has faced criticism that his over-involvement stymied the FAA from acting sooner. Boeing declined to comment on the subpoena from federal investigators. In a statement, the company said: "The FAA considered the final configuration and operating parameters of MCAS during MAX certification, and concluded that it met all certification and regulatory requirements." On Sunday, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg issued a statement describing steps the company was taking to update its technology. "While investigators continue to work to establish definitive conclusions, Boeing is finalizing its development of a previously- announced software update and pilot training revision that will address the MCAS flight control law's behavior in response to erroneous sensor inputs," Muilenburg said. https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/18/18270910/boeing-faa-investigation-max-8- mcas-trump Back to Top Incident: Lufthansa Cityline CRJ9 at Munich on Mar 17th 2019, gear disagree after departure A Lufthansa Cityline Canadair CRJ-900, registration D-ACNQ performing flight LH-2308 from Munich (Germany) to Amsterdam (Netherlands), was climbing out of Munich when the crew received a gear disagree indication, stopped the climb at FL080 and returned to Munich for a safe landing about 25 minutes after departure. The rotation to/from Amsterdam was cancelled. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground about 30 hours after landing back. http://avherald.com/h?article=4c58dc6a&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Sunwing B738 over Atlantic on Mar 7th 2019, near collision with weather balloon at FL360 A Sunwing Boeing 737-800, registration C-FFPH performing flight WG-746 from Toronto,ON (Canada) to Nassau (Bahamas) with 180 passengers and 6 crew, was enroute at FL360 over the Atlantic Ocean about 395nm north of Nassau when the flight crew reported a near collision with a weather balloon. The crew continued the flight to Nassau for a safe landing. The Canadian TSB reported the crew informed ATC about the "near miss" with a weather balloon about 395nm north of Nassau. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWG746/history/20190307/1120Z/CYYZ/MYNN http://avherald.com/h?article=4c58da40&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: FlyEgypt B738 at Hurghada on Mar 17th 2019, tail scrape on departure A FlyEgypt Boeing 737-800, registration SU-TMK performing flight FT-3043 from Hurghada (Egypt) to Graz (Austria), was departing Hurghada's runway 34R when upon rotation a loud bang was heard on board of the aircraft. The crew continued takeoff, climbed to about 7500 feet MSL and returned to Hurghada for a safe landing on runway 34R about 20 minutes after departure. A passenger a loud bang from the back of the aircraft could be heard as the aircraft rotated for departure, the passenger immediately assumed a tail strike had occurred. A post flight inspection revealed damage to the tail skid assembly. A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration SU-TMI reached Graz with a delay of about 4 hours. The tail skid assembly of the occurrence aircraft is being replaced. The aircraft is still on the ground in Hurghada about 41 hours after landing back. http://avherald.com/h?article=4c58d0ea&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Emirates B773 at Rio de Janeiro on Mar 14th 2019, bird strike An Emirates Boeing 777-300, registration A6-ECL performing flight EK-247 from Dubai (United Arab Emirates) to Rio de Janeiro Galeao,RJ (Brazil), was on approach to Galeao's runway 28 when a bird impacted the aircraft. The crew continued for a safe landing. The aircraft was unable to continue its schedule, the onward leg to Buenos Aires Ezeiza as well as the return legs needed to be cancelled. The aircraft remained on the ground for about 28 hours, then departed Rio de Janeiro for Buenos Aires. http://avherald.com/h?article=4c582fa5&opt=0 Back to Top Bombardier BD-100-1A10 Challenger 300 - Ground Collision with vehicle (Malaysia) Date: Monday 18 March 2019 Time: 03:12 Type: Bombardier BD-100-1A10 Challenger 300 Operator: Berjaya Air Registration: 9M-TST C/n / msn: 20135 First flight: 2006 Crew: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Aircraft damage: Substantial Location: Kuala Lumpur-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SZB) ( Malaysia) Phase: Landing (LDG) Nature: Executive Departure airport: Jaipur-Sanganer Airport (JAI/VIJP), India Destination airport: Kuala Lumpur-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SZB/WMSA), Malaysia Narrative: A Bombardier Challenger 300 corporate jet sustained damage to the left-hand wing after colliding with an airport engineering vehicle after landing on runway 15 at Kuala Lumpur-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Malaysia. The driver of the vehicle was critically injured. https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20190318-0 Back to Top IAI 1124 Westwind - Fatal Accident (Oklahoma) Date: 18-MAR-2019 Time: 15:37 Type: IAI 1124 Westwind Owner/operator: Sundance Airport FBO LLC Registration: N4MH C/n / msn: 232 Fatalities: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Sundance Airport (KHSD), Yukon, Oklahoma City, OK - United States of America Phase: Landing Nature: Unknown Departure airport: Panama City-Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, FL (ECP/KECP) Destination airport: Oklahoma City-Sundance Airpark, OK (HSD/KHSD) Narrative: The aircraft rolled inverted seconds before touchdown at Sundance Airport (KHSD), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The airplane impacted runway adjacent airport terrain inverted, sustaining substantial damage, and the two occupants onboard received fatal injuries. UPDATE: One dead, one critical following small plane crash in OKC (FNN) https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=223208 Back to Top Cessna 680 Sovereign - Runway Excursion on Landing (Mexico) Date: 18-MAR-2019 Time: 14:29 Type: Cessna 680 Sovereign Owner/operator: Private Registration: XA-HIT C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Unknown Location: Toluca International Airport - Mexico Phase: Landing Nature: Private Departure airport: Miami, USA Destination airport: Toluca International Airport Narrative: The airplane sustained a runway excursion upon landing. There were no personal injuries. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=223211 Back to Top Federal investigators reportedly suspect that pilot error played a role in the fatal Amazon Air cargo crash black box atlas air Atlas Air Flight 3591 black box. NTSB/Flickr * The Wall Street Journal reported that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is suspecting pilot error in the Atlas Air Flight 3591, which crashed on February 23 in Texas, killing all three on board. * The plane was carrying US Postal Service and Amazon cargo. * Several pilots told Business Insider that the pilot's actions that the NTSB reported happening were unusual. * Inspectors with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) suspect that pilot error - not aircraft malfunctions - led to the deadly Atlas Air crash on February 23, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. All three people on board died in the crash. The NTSB said on March 5 that the Boeing 767-300 cargo jet entered some turbulence shortly before the plane's crash landing. Then, the engines increased to maximum thrust, after which the airplane pitch turned slightly up. That "startled the cockpit crew," The Journal reported, citing several sources familiar with the details. The crew then tried to push the nose of the plane down. At a 49-degree angle, this caused an unusually steep descent, The Journal reported. The NTSB said the plane accelerated to 495 mph as it dropped. The crew pulled the plane up to a 20-degree angle. Ultimately, in the last 18 seconds of the plane's descent, the crew lost control of the plane, the NTSB said. The plane then nosedived into a muddy bay some 30 miles southeast of Houston George Bush International Airport. An NTSB spokesman told The Associated Press that the agency is still investigating why the plane underwent a sharp change in pitch. Read more: Pilots likely lost control of the plane carrying Amazon cargo before the crash killed all 3 on board, according to an initial review of the cockpit recording Pilots told Business Insider that the actions taken during the flight were "perplexing" and not akin to typical flight maneuvers. "I can't imagine," a pilot and former aviation-safety officer in the US military told Business Insider. "It sounds so off to me - totally counter to my instincts and training. I'd kick the autopilot and auto throttles off pretty darn fast." "Obviously, going 49 degrees nose down is beyond a radical move," Todd Curtis, a former Boeing safety engineer who runs AirSafe.com, told The Associated Press. "That's not something an airplane should be doing, especially at that altitude." Robert Sumwalt, the NTSB's chairman, predicted it would take more than a year of work to determine the cause of the crash, Flying magazine reported. "This seems to be very much a mystery," Sumwalt said, according to the magazine. "But the NTSB has 52 years of experience solving such mysteries, and I'm confident we will get to the bottom of this." Atlas Air pilots Capt. Ricky Blakely and First Officer Conrad Jules Aska, as well as Mesa Airlines Capt. Sean Archuleta, who was riding in the jump seat, died in the crash. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been affected," Bill Flynn, Atlas Air's CEO, said in a statement on February 24. "This is a sad time for all of us. Our team continues to work closely with the NTSB, the FAA and local authorities on the ground in Houston. We would like to commend the efforts of all of the first responders. We sincerely appreciate their efforts and support in the investigation." https://www.businessinsider.com/pilot-error-amazon-air-atlas-air-crash-ntsb2019-3 Back to Top Canada TSB Begins Special Study of Air-taxi Safety Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB) has launched a special study of air-taxi operations following its collection of data that shows over the last 15 years, the segment has seen 813 accidents resulting in 242 fatalities (an average of 16.1 annually) and 162 serious injuries. These deaths represent 62 percent of all commercial aviation fatalities. In Canada, air taxis are regulated under Part 703 and cover piston- and turboprop- powered airplanes and helicopters only. Jet-powered aircraft cannot be operated as air taxis. As such, they are not included in Canada's air-taxi accident statistics. On-demand charter operations in Canada are operated under Part 704 commuter regulations. The TSB said its investigation reports have repeatedly drawn attention to critical safety issues that contribute to air-taxi accidents. "In spite of this, the air-taxi sector continues to have the highest number of commercial aviation accidents and fatalities." To identify and communicate the underlying systemic safety issues that need to be addressed, the TSB has launched a special investigation into the industry. TSB statistics show that of the 183 airplane fatalities, 48 occurred in turboprop accidents and 135 in accidents involving reciprocating-engine aircraft. In total, turboprops suffered 133 accidents and recips 411 mishaps. Because there are four times as many air-taxi turboshaft rotorcraft as recips (1,306 versus 329), the accident fatalities are skewed more heavily toward turboshafts. The TSB reported that over the last 15 years, there were five fatalities and 29 total accidents involving recips, compared with 54 fatalities and 240 total accidents of turboshaft helicopters. "If we uncover serious safety deficiencies during the course of our investigation, we will not wait until the public report to make them known," the TSB said. "We will inform industry and the regulator, as well as the public, as quickly as possible." https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2019-03-18/canada-tsb- begins-special-study-air-taxi-safety Back to Top Embraer To Name New Chief Executive Embraer will name a new CEO on or before its Ordinary General Assembly on April 22, following the end of Paulo Cesar Silva's two-year elected term, the Brazilian company announced Tuesday. The company added the board will recruit a new chief executive externally. "Paulo Cesar idealized the partnership with Boeing and led the negotiation process of the transaction that will bring Embraer and Brazil to a much more competitive and prominent level in the global aviation industry," said Embraer chairman Alexandre Silva. CEO Silva joined Embraer from the financial market 22 years ago to structure the company's sales financing area. For six years he served as president and CEO of Commercial Aviation and in 2013 he launched the E2 program, the latest iteration of the E-Jet narrowbody line. Silva became president and CEO of the Embraer Group in 2016, at which time his administration established three key initiatives involving "value creation" and the sustainability of the company, led by the Boeing transaction. The second initiative involved the creation of the Passion for Excellence program, a structural transformation project focused on reducing costs and increasing operational efficiency and generating significant annual recurring savings. The third centered on the creation of EmbraerX, responsible for "disruptive" innovation and the development of future projects as the eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle) partnership with Uber. Embraer invited Silva to serve as a senior advisor to the board, in which he has agreed to help with the transition to the future president and CEO and counseling the board on the asset monitoring and segregation of resources as part of the process of concluding the partnership with Boeing. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2019-03-18/embraer-name- new-chief-executive Back to Top Women in aviation: Why a diverse workforce is necessary to drive tech innovation The dearth of women in leadership positions is felt throughout all sectors of travel - including in the aviation industry, which has a particularly male-dominant image to shake (just 5% of all pilots are women, for example). Compared to other areas of travel, aviation is also perceived as often slower to latch onto technology innovations, which many carriers are aiming to rectify with a renewed focus on improving the customer experience through areas like retailing. Having a diverse talent pool - including more women in senior and executive roles - is critical to driving these technology advancements, says Elena Avila, executive vice president of airlines, Americas, at Amadeus, who spoke with PhocusWire after moderating a panel on Women in Aviation at the Aviation Summit 2019 in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. "A technology group is no longer just a group of geeks doing back-end development; it's rather a lot more than that," Avila says. The panel brought together four female airline CIOs, including Catherine Dyer of Air Canada, Charu Jain of Alaska Airlines, Maya Leibman of American Airlines Group and Kathleen Wayton of Southwest Airlines, as well as Dr. Ellen R. Stofan of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, to discuss the technology priorities for airlines as well as what the industry needs to do to cultivate women talent. The tech agenda How the role of IT in the aviation industry - specifically for airlines - is changing was a key theme from the panel, Avila says. "IT is changing to be very much more at the core of and driving business strategies," she says. "The link between IT and business is stronger than ever." Airlines are changing their business models to become more of a retailing player, and they need the support of the industry to get there, she says. "IT is now - if not leading, certainly close to leading - business decisions and agenda, which I don't think is always necessarily well-known." All CIOs on the panel were in agreement that using tech to transform the guest experience is a priority for their businesses. Cybersecurity, too, is a major agenda item for the executives, particularly as the industry moves more and more digital. Closing the gender gap Up until recently, the airline industry has been very operational in nature, with men filling roles such as technicians, pilots, ramp agents and so on, Avila says. That male-dominant perception has carried on, and it's one many male leaders may not be as aware of. "They're not as open to try and include more diversity in their teams, so they push and promote similar types of roles," she says. "We're late to the game in aviation, but we are becoming more customer-minded, customer-focused and digital ... and that starts to demand, frankly, a broader set of quality in a leadership team, which may be more critical thinking or a bit more emotional intelligence or a bit more self-awareness." In order to promote and retain women in the industry, all panelists agree it starts with education, not just at the college level - where many airlines have scholarship and work initiatives in place - but even younger, at the primary school level. "It's about trying to make sure young girls are exposed early to these types of roles ... so they're not unconsciously biased toward more traditional female roles. There was a strong consensus [among panelists] that it's something that needs tackled from early days," Avila says. She says it's also about creating role models and making those role models visible, plus aviation companies need to consciously look for a balance in job candidates, which if they have trouble accomplishing on their own, they can look to outside recruiting firms for help. "Not using women to their full potential is negating 50% of the talent pool," Avila says. "The fact that we're having so many discussions is great - it's creating consciousness around it - but we now need to make it really, truly happen. "It will take some time, clearly, because we need to bring all these young generations in and start working for us. It's not going to happen overnight." https://www.phocuswire.com/women-in-aviation-drive-tech-innovation Back to Top Super fast travel using outer space could be $20 billion market, disrupting airlines, UBS predicts * In a decade, high speed travel via outer space will represent an annual market of at least $20 billion and compete with long-distance airline flights, UBS says. * UBS expects the broader space industry, which is worth about $400 billion today, will double to $805 billion by 2030. * Long haul airplane flights that are more than 10 hours in duration would "be cannibalized" by point-to-point flights on rockets, UBS said. Virgin Galactic's First Spaceflight on December 13th 2018 Source: Virgin Galactic UBS believes there will be very lucrative ramifications from the space flight efforts currently led by Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin. A lengthy UBS report published on Sunday found that, in a decade, high speed travel via outer space will represent an annual market of at least $20 billion and compete with long-distance airline flights. Space tourism will be a $3 billion market by 2030, UBS estimates. "While space tourism is still at a nascent phase, we think that as technology becomes proven, and the cost falls due to technology and competition, space tourism will become more mainstream," UBS analysts Jarrod Castle and Myles Walton wrote in the note. "Space tourism could be the stepping stone for the development of long-haul travel on earth serviced by space." UBS expects the broader space industry, which is worth about $400 billion today, will double to $805 billion by 2030 when accounting for these innovations. While these sub- sectors would be a small part of that, Castle and Walton said "the outlook for the space economy, space tourism and long-haul travel using space has become much more bullish." Private space companies "are investing aggressively across the space opportunity," UBS said, and the firm believes access to space "is the enabler to broader opportunities for investment." Revolutionizing long distance travel Long haul airplane flights that are more than 10 hours in duration would "be cannibalized" by point-to-point flights on rockets, UBS said. The firm pointed to SpaceX's plans to use the massive Starship rocket it is building to fly as many as 100 people around the world in minutes. SpaceX said that Starship would be able to fly from New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes, rather than the 15 hours it takes currently by airplane. A rendering of SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket (BFR). SpaceX UBS estimates that there are more than 150 million passengers a year that fly routes longer than 10 hours. Last year, those routes saw 527,000 routes on airplane that had an average of 309 seats, UBS said. "If we assume that 5 percent of these flights in the future are serviced by space at $2,500 per trip, the revenue opportunity as of today would be more than $20 billion per year as of today," UBS said "Although some might view the potential to use space to service the long-haul travel market as science fiction, we think ... there is a large market," UBS said. UBS noted that "it is unlikely that a rocket will carry over 300 people anytime soon," so the Starship's capacity of 100 will be the maximum for the foreseeable future. However, UBS believes there may be an "increased frequency of space travel during the day to enable the same volume of passengers," the firm said. "Given the length of long-haul commercial travel, and the rules around crewing and take-off and landing time slot restrictions at airports, we think a re-usable rocket (especially if not land-based) would have materially better utilisation rates than a commercial plane," UBS said. As a result, UBS believes the $20 billion estimate "could prove conservative," the firm said. More than 10 percent of people in a recent UBS survey said they would choose a spacecraft over an aircraft for long distance travel. "While the timing of such a long haul service is uncertain, we think our base-case assumptions are conservative," UBS said. Space tourism's market potential The billions of dollars pouring into private space companies represents "a high level" of capital formation, UBS said. Even though space tourism "is still nascent," UBS said they believe the sub-sector "will become mainstream as the technology becomes proven and cost falls." To date, space tourism has largely been limited to the few flights organized by U.S.- based Space Adventures. Over the past two decades, the company has flown seven tourists using Russian Soyuz rockets. At a reported cost of more than $20 million per person, the private clients typically spent over a week on board the International Space Station. But now "there are a number of commercial space ventures to open up suborbital travel," UBS noted. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are leading those efforts, both getting steadily closer to launching paying tourists. "This area seems to be the market that has the greatest potential to gain traction quickly," UBS said. Virgin Galactic is deep into the development program of its spacecraft. Last month, the space venture owned by Sir Richard Branson sent test passenger Beth Moses on Virgin Galactic's spaceflight - a first for a private U.S. company. Virgin Galactic's spacecraft holds up to six passengers along with the two pilots. As the company has more than 600 would-be astronauts signed on to launch, Moses' work is key to preparing Virgin Galactic for commercial operations. Tickets for Virgin Galactic's flights are priced at $250,000 each. UBS believes Virgin Galactic's business model, as both a tourism company and manufacturer of spaceships, mimics the growth of businesses in the early days of aviation. "In this way history could repeat itself as United Airlines today can trace back its roots to the Boeing Aircraft & Transport Company," UBS said. Blue Origin, the company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is also nearing its first spaceflights with human passengers. Blue Origin is developing the New Shepard rocket system for the company's space tourism business. As both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin utilize reusable spacecraft systems, UBS believes the companies will be able to make space tourism "a more common occurrence" as reliability increases and prices decline. "We estimate space tourism will be a $3 [billion plus per year] opportunity growing at double digit-rates," UBS said. "This would be similar to what happened in commercial aviation, especially after the rise of low-cost airlines." SpaceX could also see significant cash flow from space tourism, UBS believes, through two different ventures. Elon Musk's company just completed a historic test flight of its Crew Dragon capsule, which will be able to send as many as four astronauts to the space station. UBS estimates that NASA will pay SpaceX about $58 million on average per astronaut, compared to the $81 million per astronaut for flights on Russian Soyuz rockets. The second SpaceX opportunity is for early flights of Starship to send tourists on missions beyond the Earth's immediate orbit. In September, Musk announced Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa signed with SpaceX to fly around the moon on Starship. Maezawa expects to fly in 2023, with six to eight guests joining him for the flight. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/18/ubs-space-travel-and-space-tourism-a-23-billion- business-in-a-decade.html Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Participants for a 5-minute survey regarding hypoxia and high altitude chamber training are being sought for a study assessing hypoxia perceptions and experiences related to hypoxia awareness training. To be eligible for participation, you must have previously completed high altitude chamber training. All responses are anonymous and no identifying information will be collected. The study is being conducted by Kasey Stevenson, a graduate student studying Aviation Management and Human Factors at Arizona State University. Kasey's research is being conducted at the Del E. Webb High Altitude Chamber; previously the Williams Air Force Base High Altitude Chamber. The research is being completed with the goal of improving hypoxia awareness and training methods, in an effort to reduce hypoxia-related incidents and accidents. The survey can be accessed at: https://asu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ealbH4xwJRL8P2J Curt Lewis