Flight Safety Information July 2, 2019 - No. 132 In This Issue American Airlines is suspending its first route because of the 737 Max grounding Incident: Electra B734 at Cologne and Tel Aviv on Jul 1st 2019, burst tyre on departure Accident: Spicejet B738 at Mumbai on Jul 1st 2019, overran runway on landing Incident: Emirates A388 at Osaka on Jun 29th 2019, unsafe gear on approach Incident: Lufthansa Cityline CRJ9 at Nuremberg on Jul 1st 2019, smoke in cockpit and cabin Incident: Yemenia A313 at Cairo on Jun 30th 2019, engine problem results in blown tyres on landing Incident: India Express B738 at Kozhikode on Jul 1st 2019, tail scrape on landing NTSB investigators recover cockpit voice recorder in plane crash that killed 10 Plane stowaway's body lands next to man sunbathing in London backyard Pilots get into fight mid-air, leave cockpit unattended Boeing admits falsifying documents of Air Canada Dreamliner? United apologizes after mother says unaccompanied minor put on wrong international flight Kenya Airways and GE Aviation Sign Digital Flight Operations Agreement NASA is testing how its new deep-space crew capsule handles a rocket emergency GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Position Available: Adviser - Investigations Manager MITRE - SMS Course - September 2019 Human Factors in Accident Investigation 'Leading Change within a Safety Management System' AVIATION COMMUNICATION: STRATEGY AND MESSAGES FOR ENSURING SUCCESS AND PREVENTING FAILURES Join us in Washington, D.C., on July 15-18 for ALPA's annual...Air Safety Forum American Airlines is suspending its first route because of the 737 Max grounding An American Airlines Boeing 737 Max. Joe Raedle/Getty Images • American Airlines has suspended its Oakland-Dallas/Fort Worth flight from July 6 to September 4. • The airline has canceled 115 daily flights because of the 737 Max grounding, covering other routes with different aircraft. This is the first time it has had to suspend an entire route. • Passengers traveling between the two cities can connect in Phoenix or take a direct flight to Dallas/Fort Worth from nearby San Francisco or San Jose, California. For the first time since the Boeing 737 Max aircraft was grounded worldwide, American Airlines has suspended a route as a direct cause of the dormant planes. The airline will suspend flights between Oakland and Dallas/Fort Worth from July 6 to September 4 due to the Max grounding, a spokesperson for the airline confirmed to Business Insider. Although American's Oakland-Dallas/Fort Worth flight is operated by a 737-800, a different version of the 737 airframe that is not affect by the grounding, the fact that American's 24 737 Max aircraft are unable to fly means that the airline has had to be strategic with its other aircraft to ensure full coverage. "A flight that was not scheduled as a MAX flight might be canceled to enable our team to cover a MAX route with a different aircraft, said the American spokesperson. "Our goal is to minimize the impact to the smallest number of customers." American has cancelled around 115 individual daily flights due to the unavailability of the Max, according to the spokesperson, but this is the first time that the airline has completely suspended a route. American has extended those cancellations several times as the Max grounding continues, currently through September 3. However, the Max is forecast to remain grounded through at least this fall. American has three to four daily flights from Oakland. Passengers seeking to travel from the city to Dallas/Fort Worth can either connect in Phoenix, or take a direct flight from nearby San Francisco or San Jose. https://www.businessinsider.com/american-airlines-oakland-dallas-route-canceled-737-max-grounded-2019-7 Back to Top Incident: Electra B734 at Cologne and Tel Aviv on Jul 1st 2019, burst tyre on departure An Electra Airways Boeing 737-400, registration LZ-EBA performing flight EAF-102 from Cologne (Germany) to Tel Aviv (Israel) with 152 people on board, departed Cologne's runway 32R and was climbing out of Cologne, when tyre debris was found on the departure runway. The crew was informed about the debris and elected to continue to Tel Aviv. The aircraft entered a hold at FL080 on approach to Tel Aviv, Israeli fighter aircraft inspected the aircraft. A massive emergency response, more than 100 ambulances were put on stand by at the airport, was initiated, the airport was closed for the emergency and arriving flights redirected. The aircraft landed on Tel Aviv's runway 26 (length 4030 meters/13,300 feet) and came to a stop on the runway short of the intersection with runway 12/30 with a damaged left main tyre. Emergency services checked the aircraft. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Tel Aviv about 8 hours after landing. The tyre seen after landing: http://avherald.com/h?article=4c9ded45&opt=0 Back to Top Accident: Spicejet B738 at Mumbai on Jul 1st 2019, overran runway on landing A Spicejet Boeing 737-800, registration VT-SYK performing flight SG-6237 from Jaipur to Mumbai (India), landed on Mumbai's runway 27 at about 23:51L (18:21Z) in heavy rain but overran the end of the runway at about 80 knots over ground and came to a stop about 160 meters past the runway end with the nose gear collapsed, the passenger oxygen masks had come down during the overrun. There were no injuries, the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The runway needed to be closed. The airline reported the aircraft landed in heavy rain and overran the runway. The passengers disembarked normally, there were no injuries amongst passengers and crew. Mumbai had received the heaviest rainfalls in a decade on Sunday and Monday (Jun 30th and Jul 1st). http://avherald.com/h?article=4c9e333b&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Emirates A388 at Osaka on Jun 29th 2019, unsafe gear on approach An Emirates Airlines Airbus A380-800, registration A6-EDD performing flight EK-316 from Dubai (United Arab Emirates) to Osaka Kansai (Japan) with 472 people on board, was on final approach to Kansai's runway 24R when the crew initiated a go around due to an unsafe indication for the nose gear. The aircraft climbed to 7000 feet, positioned for another approach to runway 24R about 30 minutes later and stopped on the runway. Emergency services reported an oil leak from the nose gear. The aircraft was towed to the apron. Japan's Ministry of Transport reported the crew received indication of a hydraulic problem, after landing a leak from the nose gear was detected. The runway was closed for about 2 hours. The occurrence aircraft returned to service about 39.5 hours after landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4c9df29b&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Lufthansa Cityline CRJ9 at Nuremberg on Jul 1st 2019, smoke in cockpit and cabin A Lufthansa Cityline Canadair CRJ-900, registration D-ACKI performing flight LH-144 from Frankfurt/Main to Nuremberg (Germany), was on approach to Nuremberg when the crew reported smoke in cockpit and cabin. The aircraft continued for a safe landing on Nuremberg's runway 28, stopped on the runway and performed a rapid disembarkation onto the runway. The passengers were bussed to the terminal, the aircraft was towed off the runway. The return flight was cancelled, the occurrence aircraft positioned back to Frankfurt after about 4 hours on the ground and has not yet resumed service about 11 hours after landing in Nuremberg. http://avherald.com/h?article=4c9df08d&opt=0 Back to Top Back to Top Incident: Yemenia A313 at Cairo on Jun 30th 2019, engine problem results in blown tyres on landing A Yemenia Airbus A310-300, registration 7O-ADR performing flight IY-609 from Cairo (Egypt) to Aden (Yemen), was climbing out of Cairo's runway 05L when the crew stopped the climb at about 4000 feet due to a problem with one of the engines (PW4156) and decided to return to Cairo. The aircraft landed on Cairo's runway 05R about 12 minutes after departure but blew both right hand forward main tyres and became disabled on the runway. The passengers disembarked via mobile stairs. A replacement A320-200 registration 7O-AFC was dispatched to Cairo, resumed the flight about 10 hours after landing back, climbed to FL330 and was enroute at FL330 about 210nm southeast of Cairo when the crew decided to return to Cairo. The aircraft burned off fuel at FL090 and landed safely back about 2:20 hours after departure. 7O-AFC now remained on the ground in Cairo for about 14.5 hours, then departed again and reached Aden. Passengers reported they returned to Cairo several times. On first departure there was a problem with an engine prompting the return, the passengers believe one of the engines was shut down. On the second departure a medical emergency of a special person on board prompted the return. Media in Yemen partly claim the occurrence aircraft returned due to a medical emergency, others claim the occurrence aircraft returned due to a technical defect. The occurrence A310 is still on the ground in Cairo about 35 hours after landing back. The damaged tyres: http://avherald.com/h?article=4c9de456&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: India Express B738 at Kozhikode on Jul 1st 2019, tail scrape on landing An Air India Express Boeing 737-800, registration VT-AXM performing flight IX-382 from Dammam (Saudi Arabia) to Kohzikode (India) with 180 people on board, landed on Kozhikode's runway 28 at about 09:17L (03:47Z), however, the tail contacted the runway surface. The aircraft rolled out without further incident and taxied to the apron. There were no injuries. The aircraft remained on the ground for about 6.5 hours, then returned to service. http://avherald.com/h?article=4c9de14c&opt=0 Back to Top NTSB investigators recover cockpit voice recorder in plane crash that killed 10 (CNN)Investigators have found the cockpit voice recorder of a plane that crashed during takeoff in Addison, Texas, plowing through an airplane hangar and killing all 10 people aboard, National Transportation Safety Board officials said Monday. The recordings on the so-called black box were being downloaded and analyzed in Washington, DC, Jennifer Rodi, a senior air safety investigator with the NTSB, told reporters during a news conference. The recorder is expected to provide details of conversations between the crew and air traffic control, as well as conversations between the crew members. "What we know at this point, the communication seemed to be completely normal," NTSB Vice Chair Bruce Landsberg said. "We are not aware of any additional communications between the crew and air traffic control." Investigators are also interested in what was said between the pilot and copilot in the minutes before the Beechcraft Super King Air 350 aircraft crashed and killed them and the eight passengers aboard. Five of the 10 victims have been identified and next of kin notified, according to the Dallas County medical examiner's office. They have been identified as Brian Mark Ellard, 53; Stephen Lee Thelen, 58; Matthew Palmer, 27; Alice Maritato, 15, and Dylan Maritato, 13. The plane did not have a data recorder, Landsberg said. The plane was scheduled to fly from Addison -- about 15 miles north of Dallas -- to St. Petersburg, Florida, according to investigators. Video taken from the airport's cameras show the plane "had gotten airborne, then veered to the left of the runway and then rolled to the left," Landsberg said. "It was in the process of rolling left when it impacted with the hangar." The plane crashed through the hangar and burst into flames, according to witnesses. A drone used by the NTSB to view the crash site showed that the debris field is contained, meaning that the major pieces of the aircraft are in one location, Rodi said. No cause for the crash is known, but a preliminary report is expected in two weeks, Landsberg said. Investigators will review the airplane's maintenance records, as well as the records of the flight crew and their training, knowledge and experience with the aircraft, she said. The plane recently changed hands, and investigators will also talk with the previous owners. Investigators will be "looking into the man, the machine and environment," Rodi said earlier Monday of the scope of the NTSB investigation. https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/us/texas-private-plane-crash-investigation/index.html Back to Top Plane stowaway's body lands next to man sunbathing in London backyard A Kenya Airways plane is seen at a departure terminal at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi London -- The body of a suspected stowaway who fell to his death from a Kenya Airways plane landed next to a man sunbathing in his garden in south-west London, a neighbour said. Police believe the victim fell into the property in Clapham from the landing gear compartment of a plane heading to Heathrow Airport. A neighbour told the Press Association news agency that he heard a "whomp" when the body hit the ground on Sunday afternoon, and went upstairs to look out of a window. "At first I though it was a tramp asleep in the garden. He had all of his clothes on and everything," the neighbour, who asked not to be named, was quoted as saying. "One of the reasons his body was so intact was because his body was an ice block." "I had a closer look and saw there was blood all over the walls of the garden... His head was not in a good way. I realized immediately that he had fallen," the neighbour said. He then went outside and saw the "very shaken" man into whose backyard the body had fallen. "He had been sunbathing and he landed one metre away from him," the neighbor said. The neighbour told CBS News partner network BBC News that a hobbyist plane spotter, who had been following the flight on a plane-tracking app from nearby park Clapham Common, saw the body fall. The plane spotter got to the house where the body fell into the garden at about the same time as the police, and told them he'd seen it fall from a Kenya Airways flight. Police said on Monday that a bag, water and some food was found in the landing gear compartment of the plane once it arrived at Heathrow. Officers are now working to identify the victim. Many stowaways do not survive due to the lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures in the wheel-wells of aircraft flying at high altitude. Several bodies have been found along the Heathrow flight path in west London, according to aviation expert Alastair Rosenschein. "The problem occurs because of lack of security at a number of airports around the world and also the immigration draw," he told BBC radio. "It is believed that these are primarily illegal immigrants who are trying to get into this country by climbing into the undercarriage bay of aircraft." A Kenya Airways spokesman told BBC News that the 4,250-mile flight from Nairobi to London takes almost nine hours. "It is unfortunate that a person has lost his life by stowing aboard one of our aircraft and we express our condolences," the airline said. "Kenya Airways is working closely with the relevant authorities in Nairobi and London as they fully investigate this case." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kenya-airways-body-of-stowaway-lands-near-london-man-sunbathing-clapham-garden-2019-07-01/ Back to Top Pilots get into fight mid-air, leave cockpit unattended This month, two Indian pilots reportedly got into an altercation during a flight and left their cockpit unattended. File Photo by Jim Bryant/UPI | License Photo Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Two Indian pilots have been fired after they reportedly got into a physical altercation and left the plane's cockpit unattended during a flight from London to Mumbai. The Jet Airways pilots -- a man and a woman -- got into an altercation on Jan. 1 with 324 passengers on board. According to the Times of India, the male co-pilot slapped the female commander while they were in the cockpit. When she left the cockpit in tears, the male co-pilot left the cockpit unattended on two occasions to persuade her to come back. "The cockpit fight was a shocking and a very serious incident," said an official from India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation. "Both the pilots were out of the cockpit a couple of times and there was no one there. What if they had been locked out of the cockpit? This is unheard of and calls for extreme action." While both pilots were fired by the private airline, the DCGA revoked the male co-pilot's pilot license immediately. The female commander's license status is still under review but preliminary investigations indicate no further action will be taken. "It is alleged the lady commander was hit by the co-pilot and she left the cockpit," the official said. "As per rules, one pilot can leave the cockpit as long as another is there. So she left when one pilot was still on the controls." Jet Airways told the BBC it had "zero tolerance for any action of its employees that compromises safety". "At Jet Airways, safety of guests, crew and assets is of paramount importance," a spokesperson said. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/01/10/Pilots-get-into-fight-mid-air-leave-cockpit-unattended/4681515567886/ Back to Top Boeing admits falsifying documents of Air Canada Dreamliner? Among the reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is starting to investigate the production of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a specific manufacturing incident involving the aircraft has come to light. Boeing seemingly admitted that some documents regarding a Dreamliner sold to Air Canada had been falsified. That same plane experienced an oil leak, after ten months of service. On June 29, 2019, Boeing sent a statement to CBC News where it admitted the falsification of several certificates of the 787 Dreamliner, registered C-GHPQ, which was the first to be delivered to Air Canada. After only ten months of service, the aircraft was affected by an incident. On February 10, 2015, the Air Canada Boeing 787 registered was performing flight AC-3 from Vancouver, Canada to Tokyo Narita, Japan, when "the pilot [received] oil indicators from one of the engines," according to Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick. The plane diverted to Anchorage, Alaska, and a new aircraft was dispatched to take the passengers to Narita. Boeing admitted that documents falsely claimed that the manufacturing work had been completed. However, the manufacturer said it was an isolated occurrence, and "immediate corrective action was initiated for both the Boeing mechanic and the Boeing inspector involved". After opening an investigation regarding the Boeing 737 MAX, the U.S. Department of Justice seemingly extended its safety inquiry to the 787 Dreamliner. The department reportedly issued subpoenas on records regarding the production of the aircraft in the Boeing South Carolina assembly site. Anonymous sources cited by The Seattle Times state that multiple subpoenas on documents linked to the production of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina were issued by the Department of Justice in early June 2019. It is not clear whether they were issued by the same federal prosecutors in charge of the 737 MAX investigation. On April 20, 2019, an investigation carried out by the New York Times had already revealed that several employees of the group's state-of-the-art factory of South Carolina doubted of the aircraft's safety. They were allegedly pushed to speed up the production output after Boeing failed to meet delivery deadlines. The research was based on internal e-mails, administrative documents, and interviews of several employees. The ramp-up led to metal debris being found in the wiring of some of the delivered aircraft, and even a ladder and work lights near the gears of a horizontal stabilizer. Qatar Airways allegedly stopped accepting planes from this specific factory after manufacturing accidents damaged jets and delayed deliveries. The airline did not confirm this information. At the time, Boeing denied all the allegations in a corporate letter. Brad Zaback, Vice President and general manager of the 787 Program even claimed that "our quality metrics show that we are performing at all-time high levels as well". But manufacturing defects are not limited to Boeing South Carolina. The United States Air Force interrupted the deliveries of the KC-46 Pegasus tanker aircraft twice, on February 28, 2019, and on March 23, 2019, after foreign object debris (FOD) and loose tools were found in the tankers they received. The aircraft had been assembled at Boeing Everett Factory, the company's biggest production plant. Here again, the quality discrepancies could be attributed to a deliberate will to speed up production, as the KC-46 deliveries were already running late by several years. While presenting its financial results for the first quarter of 2019, Boeing estimated the price of the 737 MAX grounding since mid-March at $1 billion. This number only takes into account an increase in production costs for the aircraft. Possible compensations for the victims' family and the airlines are left out for now. While recently, the 737 MAX controversy has put the manufacturer under increased scrutiny, Boeing's failures to comply with safety processes have been observed by the FAA for years. In 2015, the planemaker had to pay $12 million to the authority after several investigations found recurring safety issues. Under the supervision of the FAA, Boeing signed to a five-year agreement to resolve "two initiated cases and 11 other matters that were opened during the last several years". https://www.aerotime.aero/clement.charpentreau/22790-boeing-admits-falsifying-documents-of-air-canada-dreamliner Back to Top United apologizes after mother says unaccompanied minor put on wrong international flight A United Airlines flight takes off. A 14-year-old traveling alone from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Stockholm, Sweden, was put on the wrong connecting flight headed to Germany on Sunday, according to his mother. And United Airlines has issued an apology to the family. His flight leg from Raleigh to Newark, New Jersey, was on United Airlines, with the intention of connecting to Sweden on Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). However, a United Airlines employee brought him to the wrong flight, and he was put on a Eurowings flight to Dusseldorf, Germany instead, his mother said. A series of a dozen tweets by the teen's mother, Brenda Berg, detailed the incident. The first tweet was directed at United and SAS: "@United @SAS my son is in the wrong plane!!! EWR you put him on a plane to Germany!!!!" Berg's tweets detailed long wait times on the phone with United Airlines' customer service while trying to resolve the situation. She also sent direct tweets to United and Scandinavian Airlines requesting urgently to help her and with complaints about the unaccompanied minor fees she had paid without getting the service she expected. "The safety and well-being of all of our customers is our top priority, and we have been in frequent contact with the young man's family to confirm his safety and to apologize for this issue," Frank Benenati, a spokesman for United Airlines, told USA TODAY in an email Monday. "Once Eurowings recognized that he had boarded the wrong aircraft in Newark, the plane returned to the gate - before taking off," said Benenati. "Our staff then assisted the young customer to ensure that he boarded the correct rebooked flight later that evening. We have confirmed that this young customer safely reached his destination." So what happened? "We booked him through SAS to visit his grandparents in Sweden," Berg told USA TODAY in an email. She said the flight was a codeshare with United for the Raleigh-Newark leg - a partnership between airlines to market the same flight and allow for easier connections. "The Unaccompanied Minor (UM) attendant was supposed to deliver him to Flight SK904 to Stockholm," Berg told USA TODAY. "According to my son, the UM agent took him from the UM room at Newark to the Eurowings flight to Germany that he boarded. The United agent handed my son's paperwork to the agent at the gate, who immediately moved him onto the plane, apparently without looking at this UM paperwork." Berg told USA TODAY that her son realized that the flight was headed to Germany instead of Sweden. "Anton contacted a flight attendant, and the plane was turned around," she said. Berg told USA TODAY that SAS agents immediately rebooked her son after he was released from the Eurowings Germany plane, and he had to wait over five hours for the next flight to Stockholm. United Airlines' unaccompanied minor policy details that "this service is required for children ages 5-14 who are traveling alone." For $150 one way, the program includes a wristband for a child to wear and special bag tags so United representatives and flight attendants can clearly identify them as a child traveling on their own. The policy states: "Unaccompanied minors can only travel on nonstop United or United Express flights and United does not offer unaccompanied minor service connecting to or from other airlines' flights." https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2019/07/01/united-apologizes-after-mom-says-son-put-wrong-international-flight/1616641001/ Back to Top Kenya Airways and GE Aviation Sign Digital Flight Operations Agreement AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Maximizing Airline Efficiency with the Most Accurate Data and Analytics Kenya Airways adds to the 15,468 aircraft with GE Aviation's digital solutions Kenya Airways has selected GE Aviation for the Flight Operations suite of digital products across the airline's fleet of Boeing 737, 787 and Embraer E190 airplanes. Kenya Airway's fleet adds to the 15,468 unique aircraft assets that are connected to GE Aviation's digital solutions. Implementation is currently underway with completion this year. "Kenya Airways was looking for a way to monitor fleet performance, implement and track fuel saving initiatives across their network and empower their pilots to help drive efficiency," said John Mansfield, chief digital officer for GE Aviation. "The Flight Operations suite provides these insights and is scalable to provide additional functionality." The Flight Operations suite integrates GE's Event Measurement System (EMS), flight analytics, FlightPulse™ and fuel efficiency services. GE's EMS and FOQA systems are being used on 8,932 aircraft including flight analytics service integrating data sources like flight information, weather, navigation, flight plans, and other operational data to provide valuable insights for airline customers around fuel use and operations. Kenya Airway will add to the 57,702-airline crew relying on GE Aviation's Network Crew Optimization. Paul Njoroge, director of operations, Kenya Airways said, "The partnership with GE Aviation will empower Kenya Airways to optimise its fuel costs and excel in flight operations. GE brings a wealth of knowledge to help the airline fast track efficiencies enabling improvements in operations and customer experience." Clare Ward, chief information officer, Kenya Airways, noted that the airline chose GE Aviation because of its leadership and innovation in flight analytics and deep aviation experience. "By partnering with GE, Kenya Airways is accelerating the move to leading edge technologies in analytics and machine learning," she said. "Our aim is to help Kenya Airways reduce their multi-million-dollar fuel bill and increase their overall efficiency, said Mansfield. "The fidelity in our flight analytics, together with the team's experience from analyzing more than 175 million flights, will enable Kenya Airways to better manage operations with data-driven solutions. We are bringing together analytics with physical assets to help significantly reduce cost." About Kenya Airways Kenya Airways, a member of the Sky Team Alliance, is a leading African airline flying to 55 destinations worldwide, 43 of which are in Africa and carries over four million passengers annually. It continues to modernize its fleet with its 33 aircraft being some of the youngest in Africa. This includes its flagship B787 Dreamliner aircraft. The on-board service is renowned and the lie-flat business class seat on the wide-body aircraft is consistently voted among the world's top 10. Kenya Airways takes pride for being in the forefront of connecting Africa to the World and the World to Africa through its hub at the new ultra-modern Terminal 1A at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. Kenya Airways celebrated 42 years of operations in January 2018 and was named Africa Leading Airline 2018 by the World Travel Awards. For more information, please visit www.kenya-airways.com About GE Aviation GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (GE), is a world-leading provider of commercial and military jet engines, avionics, digital solutions and electrical power systems for aircraft. GE is the world's Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.geaviation.com/digital https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kenya-airways-ge-aviation-sign-151200406.html Back to Top NASA is testing how its new deep-space crew capsule handles a rocket emergency Can Orion keep future astronauts alive during a failed launch? Update July 2nd, 7:35AM ET: The abort test appeared to work as intended, with all three motors firing in the sky and the Orion test capsule slamming into the water. Now NASA will try to collect the boxes of data the capsule jettisoned during the test to determine how well the vehicle held up. Original story: On Tuesday morning NASA will test its new deep-space crew capsule to see if the vehicle can keep people safe during a botched launch. The agency will activate a special emergency system on the capsule designed to carry the vehicle away from a malfunctioning rocket, to safety. If all goes well, it'll show that the capsule is ready for flight and pave the way for its first mission to space within the next couple of years. The crew capsule enduring the test is NASA's Orion, a key spacecraft the agency has been developing to send crews of four into deep space. Orion is designed to launch on top of a rocket NASA has also been developing called the Space Launch System, or SLS. Together, the spacecraft are meant to transport people to the vicinity of the Moon, all part of NASA's newly minted Artemis program to return humans to the lunar surface. But before astronauts are frolicking in Moon dust again, the Orion and SLS need to fly together for the first time. Their inaugural voyage will be an uncrewed mission around the Moon called Artemis 1. And Tuesday's test is the last big milestone that Orion must pass before Artemis 1 can take place. DESIGNED TO CARRY THE VEHICLE TO SAFETY, AWAY FROM A MALFUNCTIONING ROCKET The test will be checking out Orion's "Launch Abort System," a special setup that's supposed to kick in mid-flight in case of an emergency. It looks like a tower that's stacked on top of Orion whenever the vehicle launches on the SLS. Within the tower are three different motors that all work in tandem to rapidly rip the Orion away from the SLS during flight if the rocket starts to misbehave. The motors will transport the Orion to a minimum safe distance away - typically several miles away - where the capsule's parachutes can safely deploy and gently lower the vehicle to the ground. "After the Columbia accident, NASA specified that the next human system needed to be 10 times safer on launch than the Shuttle was," Mike Hawes, the Orion program manager at Lockheed Martin, which is building the capsule, tells The Verge. "And the way we do that with Orion is with this style of launch abort system." SpaceX and Boeing's crew capsules will use a similar system in times of an emergency during flights to the International Space Station. Lockheed Martin already tested an early version of the abort system once before at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, but that test was performed on the ground. NASA wants to see how this system performs in the air, which is why the agency will be sending Orion up to 31,000 feet for the exam. The capsule will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on top of a special rocket booster provided by Northrop Grumman that will propel the capsule to more than 1,000 miles per hour. About 55 seconds after launch, the first of the tower's three motors will start up, pulling Orion away from the booster. At that moment, the capsule will be feeling the highest forces from atmospheric pressure and intense temperatures. "It's really a test of how well the system operates in its highest stress environment," says Hawes. "IT'S REALLY A TEST OF HOW WELL THE SYSTEM OPERATES IN ITS HIGHEST STRESS ENVIRONMENT." The motor firing is so intense that the capsule will reach up to 7 Gs, or seven times Earth's gravity. Future astronauts will need to be prepared for this sudden explosion of gravity, but they won't feel it for long. "The 7 Gs is what's going to get your attention the quickest, because it happens very quickly," Randy Bresnik, a NASA astronaut explained during a press conference. "But it's a short duration." For comparison, the Russian Soyuz capsule that astronauts currently use to travel to and from the International Space Station can reach above 5 Gs during the descent to Earth. Once the capsule is separated, the second motors will fire, steering Orion through the air and reorienting it in the direction it needs to go. At this point, the extra Gs begin to subside. Once the system is well enough away from the booster, the third and final motor fires, releasing the Orion from the tower and dropping it to the ground. During this part of the abort, normally Orion would deploy its parachutes to lower itself down gently into the ocean. But for this test, NASA opted to not add parachutes to make the test less complex and less expensive. That means the capsule is going to slam into the Atlantic at 300 miles per hour once the test is over. The Orion test capsule, the Launch Abort System, and the Northrop Grumman booster that will be used for the test. Image: NASA All in all, the entire procedure will last just three minutes. The capsule will have a lot of sensors on board to gather data from the flight and let Lockheed Martin know how the vehicle performed. Before Orion hits the ocean, the capsule will eject boxes containing the flight data so that the company can more easily collect them in the water. After this test is over, the abort system might never see action. "The full abort sequence - which we actually hope to not have to use ever again - is only if there is a problem with the booster," Hawes says. Signals from the booster, indicating some kind of malfunction, can initiate the system in fractions of a second. The crew can also initiate the system if they notice the rocket is deviating from its planned course. But if it's a smooth flight, the system will stay quiet. "WE'RE PRETTY MUCH ALL BUT HEADED TOWARD THE ARTEMIS 1 MISSION." Once this test is over, Orion's next big mission will be Artemis 1. That flight is currently planned for summer of 2020, though a recent audit from the Government Accountability Office claims the mission will mostly likely take place as late as June 2021, due to schedule delays from SLS development. Lockheed Martin still has a lot of testing to do before the flight can take place, but Hawes says the company is adding the finishing touches to the crew capsule that will be used for Artemis 1. They plan to hand the capsule to the NASA ground crew by the end of the year. "We're pretty much all but headed toward the Artemis 1 mission," says Hawes. NASA has a four-hour launch window for the abort test on Tuesday, which opens at 7AM ET. The agency plans to stream the whole thing live starting at 6:40AM ET, so check back then and stay tuned to watch a very fast three-minute test in the skies above Florida. https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/1/20676939/nasa-orion-crew-capsule-launch-abort-system-test-emergency Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Dear Pilots, My name is Lakshmi Vempati. I am a doctoral candidate in the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University PhD in Aviation program, and I am working on my dissertation under the guidance of Dr. Scott Winter. We are interested in understanding pilot perspectives for operating in unmanned aircraft system (UAS) integrated airspace and airports. You can help this research by participating in this electronic questionnaire. The study is anticipated to take approximately 15 minutes to complete. In order to participate, you must be 18 years of age, and a current civilian pilot with any rating, and experience level who has flown within the last six months. Participants will have an opportunity to participate in the drawing to win a DJI Tello Quadcopter Drone. If you have any questions regarding the study, or the questionnaire in particular, please contact the researcher, Lakshmi Vempati, at vempatil@my.erau.edu or the dissertation committee chair, Dr. Scott Winter, at winte25e@erau.edu. Please find the electronic questionnaire at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LVPilotSurvey Please feel free to forward the link to other pilots who you think might be interested in participating. Sincerely, Lakshmi Vempati, Doctoral Candidate ERAU PhD in Aviation ISASI 2019 is pleased to announce that the technical program is now posted on the seminar website at www.isasi2019.org Choose the "Program" page and "Program Review" for the most up to date information. It will be necessary for you to click on the program icon to open the full program. Dates to remember: July 28 - Final date for registration for the MH 17 Master Class. Please register for the seminar first and then contact Daan Zwart at D.Zwart@vnv.nl for more information. July 28 - Final date for Early Bird pricing. August 4 - Deadline for hotel reservations. After this date we will not be able to guarantee the seminar rate. We look forward to seeing many of you in The Hague! Back to Top Join us in Washington, D.C., on July 15-18 for ALPA's annual Air Safety Forum Curt Lewis