Flight Safety Information December 6, 2019 - No. 251 In This Issue FAA Issues Updated Equipment Rules for Boeing's 737 Max Jet Lynne Hopper named Boeing's first woman chief airplane engineer Boeing says 737 MAX approval delays could hit production Incident: Spicejet B738 near Muscat on Dec 4th 2019, smoke on board Incident: Skywest CRJ7 near Dallas on Dec 4th 2019, engine problem Incident: Lufthansa A321 at Munich on Dec 5th 2019, hydraulic failure Incident: Azimuth SU95 near Rostov on Dec 5th 2019, technical problem Incident: Delta A320 at Salt Lake City on Dec 4th 2019, cracked windshield Incident: Indigo A20N at Mumbai on Dec 5th 2019, engine vibrations Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk - Fatal Accident (Minnesota) Plane Diverted To Denver International Airport Because Of Disruptive Passenger Boeing tries to reassure airline industry leaders about Max Horizon Air warns about lax safety culture among its pilots Flight operations chief at Horizon Air raises alarm over pilots' safety culture Ex-FAA safety inspector sentenced to six years for accepting bribes from Florida firm Air Astana Completes First C-Check On an Airbus A320 TEXTRON AVIATION ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS Air Force Eyes Lifting More Flight Restrictions for Pregnant Pilots Airbus faces delivery challenge, poised to win jet order race Dragon soars on research and resupply flight to International Space Station Safety Management Systems Certificate Program from SCSI Business Aviation Safety Consortium (BASC) announces second Safety Dividend FAA Issues Updated Equipment Rules for Boeing's 737 Max Jet By Alan Levin • Proposals mark a step in returning grounded plane to service • U.S. regulator is revising aircraft's operational requirements In a small step toward returning Boeing Co.'s 737 Max to service, U.S. regulators are revising requirements for how airlines must operate the plane if equipment breaks down. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday issued proposed new rules for airline operations on the Max that adapt to the fixes being finalized for the grounded jetliner. The public will have 30 days to comment on the document, which was posted on the FAA's website. Boeing is finalizing changes to a flight-control system linked to two fatal crashes, in Indonesia and Ethiopia, that killed 346 people. The manufacturer is also altering the plane's flight-control computers after tests showed they were vulnerable to failure. The company must complete an audit of the software changes and test the revised system in flight simulators with a variety of pilots. In addition to signing off on the redesign, the FAA is also devising new pilot training. One of the more technical steps in the process is to revise what is known as the Master Minimum Equipment List, which lays out conditions under which an operator can fly the aircraft with a variety of malfunctions. Major breakdowns require that a plane get fixed before flight, but airlines can fly with relatively minor malfunctions if there are adequate backups and repairs are performed within a prescribed time. Because of revisions to the 737 Max's flight computers -- which will be checking each other in Boeing's proposed new design -- the FAA is changing requirements for how airlines operate if the computer or related functions aren't working properly. "This is a positive sign of the measured approach for ensuring the safe return to service of the 737 Max and the thorough approach by the FAA in this process," Boeing spokesman Paul Bergman said in an email on Thursday night. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-06/faa-issues-updated-equipment-requirements-for-boeing-s-737-max Back to Top Lynne Hopper named Boeing's first woman chief airplane engineer Lynne Hopper has been named the chief engineer for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. She will replace John Hamilton, who is retiring at the end of the year. The Boeing Commercial Airplanes' chief engineer who oversaw efforts to certify the 737 Max will retire at the end of the month, the company said Wednesday. The jet maker will replace chief engineer John Hamilton with Lynne Hopper. She will become the first woman to hold that position. Hopper also replaced Hamilton as vice president of engineering for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, a move the company made in March. A long-time senior Boeing engineer, speaking on condition they were not identified, was thrilled with the move. "Lynne has an incredibly strong technical background and tremendous people and leadership skills as well," the engineer said. "It's a fabulous move for the company, especially right now." Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal and Chief Technology Officer Greg Hyslop announced the news in an email to workers. They said that Hamilton had planned to retire last year, but Boeing asked him to stay on after a 737 Max crashed in October. A second crash happened in March, leading to the global grounding of the Max. "We are immensely grateful to John for lending his expertise and leadership during a very challenging time," the email states. Hamilton's 35-year Boeing career included stints as chief project engineer for the 757, the Next-Generation 737 and the P-8A maritime patrol and reconnaissance jet. "John's strong commitment to safety will be one of his lasting legacies," Deal and Hyslop said in the email to employees Hamilton appeared alongside Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg during congressional hearings into the crashes, which killed a combined 346 people. At the hearings, Hamilton was questioned about leaked messages in which Boeing engineers expressed concern about the jet's flight control system before the plane was certified to fly. Flaws with that software have been cited as factors in the crashes. Hamilton dismissed the concerns revealed in the memos, even as lawmakers called for Muilenburg to resign. The last few months have seen several changes to Boeing leadership. In October, Muilenburg was stripped of his role as board chairman and Deal took over for Kevin McAllister. Last month, the company announced that Anne Toulouse, a Chicago-based senior vice president of communications, will retire on Dec. 31 and brought in Conrad Chun to replace Linda Mills as vice president of communications for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Boeing also has overhauled the internal safety organization Hamilton previously led, giving the reins of the group to Beth Pasztor, Boeing's vice president of product and services safety. https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2019/12/04/lynne-hopper-named-boeings-first-woman-chief.html?ana=yahoo&yptr=yahoo Back to Top Boeing says 737 MAX approval delays could hit production FILE PHOTO: Aerial photos show Boeing 737 Max airplanes on the tarmac in Seattle SEATTLE (Reuters) - Significant additional regulatory requirements or delays in returning Boeing Co's 737 MAX to commercial service could cause it to cut or temporarily halt production of the aircraft, it said in an Oct. 18 letter released on Thursday. In its letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Boeing said it does not expect 737 MAX order cancellations due to the grounding of its best-selling single-aisle jet to have a material impact on revenues or earnings. It cited the size of the 737 order backlog and its ability to shift planned customer delivery dates. Boeing's letter was a response to requests from the SEC to clarify the company's comments in earlier financial filings on the 737 MAX grounding related to revenue and production. The correspondence was released on the Edgar filing system on Thursday. Boeing, the world's largest planemaker, is trying to rebuild trust with customers, regulators and the flying public in the wake of twin 737 MAX crashes in the span of five months that killed 346 people. Boeing has said extra delays or a cut in production are possible as regulators around the world evaluate the 737 MAX, including Boeing's proposed upgrade of software at the center of both crashes and complementary training materials. Boeing said last month that it expected the Federal Aviation Administration would lift the grounding around mid-December, though it did not expect the agency to complete its review of revised training requirements until January. In the October letter, Boeing also said it does not expect a shortage of space to store parked 737 MAX jetliners - which continue to roll out of a its Seattle-area factory - would limit its ability to continue their production. The contents were released a day after Boeing wrapped up two days of meetings with consultants, pilots and other "select aviation leaders" it hosted in the Seattle area to discuss 737 MAX preparations, according to an invitation seen by Reuters and one person who attended the meetings. Events included a demonstration in a flight simulator, meetings with Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg and other Boeing executives, and a tour of the 737 factory in Renton, south of Seattle, the person added. Media were not invited to the two-day summit. Boeing was planning a separate session with journalists at a later date, a Boeing spokesman said. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/significant-regulatory-delays-737-max-171001570.html Back to Top Incident: Spicejet B738 near Muscat on Dec 4th 2019, smoke on board A Spicejet Boeing 737-800, registration VT-SZI performing flight SG-18 from Dubai (United Arab Emirates) to Kochi (India), was enroute at FL350 about 30nm south of Muscat (Oman) when the crew decided to divert to Muscat. The aircraft landed safely on Muscat's runway 26R about 50 minutes later. A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration VT-SLE reached Kochi with a delay of 12.5 hours. The airline reported a technical problem prompted the diversion to Muscat. A replacement aircraft was dispatched to Muscat. Passengers reported smoke was detected on board prompting the diversion. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Muscat 45 hours after landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d0319bf&opt=0 Back to Top Back to Top Incident: Skywest CRJ7 near Dallas on Dec 4th 2019, engine problem A Skywest Canadair CRJ-700 on behalf of United, registration N790SK performing flight UA-5718 from Houston Intercontinental,TX to Aspen,CO (USA), was enroute at FL310 about 40nm southwest of Dallas,TX (USA) when the crew drifted the aircraft down to FL250 due to an engine (CF34) problem. The crew subsequently decided to return to Houston for a safe landing about 50 minutes after leaving FL310. A replacement CRJ-700 registration N780SK reached Aspen with a delay of 3.5 hours. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/SKW5718/history/20191204/1545Z/KIAH/KASE http://avherald.com/h?article=4d0327b7&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Lufthansa A321 at Munich on Dec 5th 2019, hydraulic failure A Lufthansa Airbus A321-200, registration D-AIRX performing flight LH-2083 from Hamburg to Munich (Germany), was on approach to Munich descending through about FL080 when the crew aborted the descent and decided to divert to Nuremberg (Germany) reporting a hydraulic failure. The aircraft climbed to FL120 for the diversion and landed safely on Nuremberg's runway 28 about 32 minutes after aborting the descent into Munich. The aircraft was towed off Nuremberg's runway. The aircraft is still on the ground in Nuremberg about 15 hours after landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d032443&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Azimuth SU95 near Rostov on Dec 5th 2019, technical problem An Azimuth Airlines Sukhoi Superjet 100-95, registration RA-89121 performing flight A4-608 from St. Petersburg to Elista (Russia) with 64 people on board, was enroute at FL350 about 140nm north of Rostov (Russia) when the crew decided to divert to Rostov. The aircraft landed safely in Rostov about 30 minutes later. A replacement SU-95 registration RA-89095 reached Elista with a delay of 4:45 hours. The airline reported the aircraft diverted due to a technical issue. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d03222a&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Delta A320 at Salt Lake City on Dec 4th 2019, cracked windshield A Delta Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration N324US performing flight DL-1268 from Salt Lake City,UT to Seattle,WA (USA), was climbing out of Salt Lake City when the crew stopped the climb at FL220 due to the captain's side window developing cracks. The aircraft returned to Salt Lake City for a safe landing about 50 minutes after departure. A replacement A320-200 registration N354NW reached Seattle with a delay of 7 hours. The occurrence aircraft returned to service about 14 hours after landing. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1268/history/20191205/0009Z/KSLC/KSEA The cracked side window: http://avherald.com/h?article=4d031e6c&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Indigo A20N at Mumbai on Dec 5th 2019, engine vibrations An Indigo Airbus A320-200N, registration VT-IVU performing flight 6E-236 from Mumbai to Bangalore (India), was climbing out of Mumbai's runway 27 when the crew stopped the climb at FL110 due to engine (PW1127G) vibrations. The aircraft returned to Mumbai for a safe landing on runway 27 about 30 minutes after departure. A replacement A320-200 registration VT-IGH reached Bangalore with a delay of 2.5 hours. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Mumbai about 15 hours after landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d031b6b&opt=0 Back to Top Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk - Fatal Accident (Minnesota) Date: 05-DEC-2019 Time: 14:15 Type: Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk Owner/operator: Minnesota National Guard Registration: C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Kimball, Stearns County, MN - United States of America Phase: En route Nature: Test Departure airport: St. Cloud Municipal Airport, MN (STC/KSTC) Destination airport: Narrative: A Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk of the Minnesota National Guard 34th Combat Aviation Brigade crashed into a gravel pit in Kimball, Stearns County, Minnesota. The three occupants were killed. Minnesota National Guard Master said the UH-60 Black Hawk was conducting a maintenance test flight. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/231156 Back to Top Plane Diverted To Denver International Airport Because Of Disruptive Passenger DENVER (AP) - A Frontier Airlines plane was diverted to Denver after a passenger became disruptive during the flight, airline officials said Thursday. Law enforcement officers removed the passenger Wednesday evening when the plane traveling from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Las Vegas landed at Denver International Airport, Frontier said in a statement. It was not immediately clear what the passenger was doing to disrupt the flight or whether the person was taken into custody. The flight plane stayed in Denver a little over an hour and arrived in Las Vegas just after midnight Thursday, according to the website FlightAware. https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/12/05/disruptive-passenger-frontier-airlines-plane-diverted-denver-international-airport/ Back to Top Boeing tries to reassure airline industry leaders about Max FILE - In this April 10, 2019, file photo, a Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane being built for India-based Jet Airways lands following a test flight at Boeing Field in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File) DALLAS (AP) - Boeing is reassuring airline industry leaders about the safety of the grounded 737 Max as it continues working to get the plane back in service. The aircraft maker invited about 30 union officials, safety experts and others to the Seattle area for two days of meetings with Boeing executives and factory tours. The event shows how motivated Boeing is to get the Max back in the air quickly, says Lori Bassani, president of the union that represents American Airlines flight attendants. Bassani said Thursday that Boeing gave no new details on how soon it expects regulatory approval of changes it is making to the Max after two crashes that killed 346 people. Reporters were not allowed at the event, which wrapped up Wednesday. Guests included former Federal Aviation Administration chief Randy Babbitt. The participants heard from CEO Dennis Muilenburg, other Boeing executives and test pilots. Boeing hopes to enlist pilots and flight attendants in its effort to convince the public that the plane will be safe after changes are made to flight-control software that was implicated in the crashes. "I have had a few (flight attendants) come up to me and say, 'Please don't make me get on that plane,'" Bassani said. She isn't sure how widespread that fear is - the union has not surveyed its members. Two other unions that represent flight attendants at other carriers also attended the event. Pilot unions were not invited, although they have attended previous Boeing meetings on the Max and taken turns in a flight simulator. Airlines can't fly their Max jets - even without passengers - without special permission from the FAA, but they are taking some steps to prepare the planes for service. American Airlines has 16 Max jets in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and eight in Roswell, New Mexico. Crews run the engines every few days and taxi the planes on the ground, but don't take them up in the air. American, Southwest and United have removed the Max from their schedules into early March. Last month, Boeing came up with a checklist before the Max can fly. It is currently performing tests with airline pilots to measure their response to emergencies this week. Among the remaining items are a certification flight with the FAA, and FAA approval of updated pilot training for the Max. https://komonews.com/news/local/boeing-tries-to-reassure-airline-industry-leaders-about-max Back to Top Horizon Air warns about lax safety culture among its pilots SEATTLE (AP) - Horizon Air's head of flight operations recently warned of a a lax safety culture among the airline's pilots and called for urgent action to prevent a serious air accident. The Seattle Times reported that John Hornibrook, the Seattle-based airline's president of flight operations, wrote in an internal Nov. 27 email message: "If we sit back and do nothing, we will have an accident. Nothing good can come of the trajectory we are currently on." The email was sent to top airline managers and pilot leaders. The incidents Hornibrook listed ranged from pilots going over airspeed limits to aircraft approaching stalls, and also included weather-induced threats that perhaps could have been avoided. In an interview with the newspaper, Hornibrook and Horizon president Joe Sprague said the distribution of the email should be seen as an example of Horizon's high safety standards. "The memo was meant to respond to the spike we saw in irregular events," Hornibrook said. "I'm not sitting back and waiting for something bigger." Horizon Air's pilots fly Bombardier Q400 turboprops and Embraer E175 jets on routes that link smaller cities into a feeder network for Alaska Airlines. The only serious accident in the airline's passenger service history happened in 1988, when a Q400 crash-landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after an engine fire. Four passengers suffered serious injuries. In 2017, a major pilot shortage at Horizon caused hundreds of flight cancellations. In response, Horizon raised pilot pay, added signing bonuses and boosted recruitment. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/horizon-air-warns-lax-safety-163030660.html Back to Top Flight operations chief at Horizon Air raises alarm over pilots' safety culture A Bombardier Q400 operated by Horizon Air takes off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. (Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times) In an urgent internal message on the eve of Thanksgiving, Horizon Air's head of flight operations warned that a lax safety culture among the airline's pilots had led to multiple potentially dangerous incidents in recent days. He called for urgent action to prevent a serious air accident. "We should be very uncomfortable with what has happened over the past two days," wrote captain John Hornibrook, Horizon Air's vice president of flight operations, in a Nov. 27 email message to handful of top managers and pilot leaders. "If we sit back and do nothing, we will have an accident. Nothing good can come of the trajectory we are currently on." "We do need to use the past 48 hours as a (wake-up) call before we have a more serious event," added Hornibrook, who oversees about 800 pilots flying to more than 45 cities for the regional airline owned by Seattle-based Alaska Air Group. "The leadership team needs to get the pilots heads in the game before we have an accident." The incidents Hornibrook listed ranged from pilots going over the airspeed limits to aircraft approaching a stall, and also included weather-induced threats that perhaps could have been avoided. Though the email suggests some alarm about pilot safety standards, in an interview Wednesday both Hornibrook and Horizon president Joe Sprague downplayed its significance and declared it a sign of Horizon's high safety standards. "The memo was meant to respond to the spike we saw in irregular events," said Hornibrook. "I'm not sitting back and waiting for something bigger ... I wanted everybody to take a pause, take a hard look at what was going on, refocus, and get back to the Safety First philosophy." Sprague added that "a safe airline recognizes a spike and takes proactive action." "That's a positive from a safety culture standpoint," he said. "Horizon is a safe airline. This internal communication was a good sign of that." In contrast, a Horizon pilot - who declined to be identified out of fear of losing his job - said he thought the memo was "incredibly melodramatic" and evidence of a disconnect between Horizon management and its pilot cadre. A litany of safety incidents Horizon Air pilots fly Bombardier Q400 turboprops and Embraer E175 jets on routes that link smaller cities into a feeder network for Alaska Airlines. The only serious accident in the airline's passenger service was in 1988, when a De Havilland Canada DHC-8 - a precursor model to the Q400 - crash-landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after an engine fire. Four passengers suffered serious injuries. In Dec. 2017, another Horizon Q400 inadvertently landed on a taxiway instead of the runway at Pullman in eastern Washington. The taxiway was unoccupied and the aircraft rolled out without further incident. The only fatality on one of Horizon's planes came in August 2018 when one of the airline's ground-crew employees, Richard Russell, stole a Q400, then crashed the plane into a wooded area of Ketron Island in south Puget Sound, killing himself. In 2017, a major pilot shortage at Horizon caused hundreds of flight cancellations. In response, Horizon raised pay, added signing bonuses and boosted recruitment. Since then, there's been an influx of new, young pilots. As major U.S. airlines have begun to expand rapidly since then, more experienced pilots have jumped to those much higher-paying jobs. As a result, all regional airlines are finding it harder to hold onto experienced pilots. This year, 90 longer-serving pilots have upgraded from Horizon to Alaska Airlines. An Alaska Airlines pilot who moved up from Horizon said that while the vast majority of the pilots hired are very professional, Horizon has been forced by the shortage and the competition for pilots to recruit people with only the minimum flying experience. "They are hiring people they would not have hired 10 years ago," he said. Sprague said that Horizon's pilots have average experience of about 3,000 flight hours, twice the minimum required by the FAA to fly for an airline. The average time for Horizon captains who command aircraft is more than 4,000 flight hours, he said. They are "a very professional group of qualified pilots," he said. Still, Hornibrook's email cited the two days before Thanksgiving as "the most difficult 48-hour period I have seen in my tenure with Horizon Air" and listed a series of safety-related incidents. One aircraft had exceeded its maximum operating speed. Another had exceeded the maximum speed allowed with the wing flaps deployed. Exceeding those speeds for an extended period would stress and damage the airframe. "We have set speed limits of 10 knots below any maximum speed and this rule needs to be followed," Hornibrook wrote. He wrote that pilots need to be reminded that anytime the pilot flying the plane lowers the flaps or the landing gear, the co-pilot must say "speed check" to ensure such a check is done. And he urged his team to remind pilots of the speed limitations, particularly coming in on the Q400 turboprop airplanes at an altitude of around 8,000 feet when speed is supposed to drop in case of bird strikes. In other incidents he cited, two pilots had experienced "stick shakers," a noisy vibration of the control column that warns pilots the plane is close to a stall. And one flight out of Paine Field in Everett had discovered a 4.5-ton discrepancy in weight after take-off. Pilots must enter the total weight of their aircraft - including passengers and luggage - into the flight control computer before take-off because the weight affects the plane's performance. It determines, for example, how quickly the plane could climb away if the pilot had to abort a landing at the last minute or how much runway it will need to come to a stop. "Thank god this airplane was 9000 pounds under weight and not the other way around," Hornibrook wrote. In addition, in the same two days, pilots had failed to avoid dangerous weather. One flew into severe turbulence near Palm Springs and two more aircraft were hit by lightning strikes. Hornibrook ended his litany of safety incidents by noting that one passenger was transported to the hospital after falling on the ramp in Spokane. "We have a problem. Most of these mistakes could have been prevented if our crews would have followed process," Hornibrook wrote, adding that stick shakers and excessive speed "are caused by the pilot's lack of attention to the state of the aircraft." Penalizing pilots Apologizing for sending out such a downbeat message the day before Thanksgiving, Hornibrook said the situation was dire enough that he didn't feel it could wait until a mandatory meeting already scheduled for Dec. 9 "on safety and the current culture of our pilot group." We need your support In-depth journalism takes time and effort to produce, and it depends on paying subscribers. If you value these kinds of stories, consider subscribing. The Horizon Air pilot who spoke anonymously said he and his peers work hard to fly the planes according to procedures and with "good airmanship." He said standards are high enough that about 5-to-10% of those inducted into Horizon's training program flunk out and never become line pilots. And he said none of the incidents listed by Hornibrook "struck me as on the precipice of a disaster." He said no pilot would intentionally fly into severe turbulence or lightning and that most such encounters are not the fault of the pilot. And he said pilots provide only some of the data for the calculation of the plane's weight. They have little control over other input supplied by flight attendants and baggage handlers, with no ability to cross-check the final number that's sent to them electronically. The pilot also questioned Hornibrook's citing of incidents of excessive speed, saying that slight overspeeds for short periods are not uncommon and not very significant. He said Horizon changed its policy so that any pilot exceeding 10 knots below the posted limit is now penalized, even though a gust of wind or wake turbulence could easily increase air speed by more than 10 knots and lead to a momentary overspeed. "You cannot start penalizing pilots for flying the aircraft in a normal state," the pilot said. A veteran captain with Alaska Airlines backed up the Horizon pilot's account. He said airplane manufacturers have built in a margin of around 15 knots beyond the posted limit, and that going a few knots over the posted limit for a few seconds "happens routinely and is in general not a big deal." When it does happen, never intentionally, the relevant overspeed data has to be reported after landing, and the maintenance technicians then take a look. Usually, depending on the altitude and flight condition when the speed passed the limit, no action is needed, the Alaska captain said. On the evidence of Hornibrook's memo however, Horizon management is feeling the need to tighten control over pilot performance. He urged the pilot leadership team to sit in the jumpseat whenever possible when flying Horizon so they could point out to the flight crew any mistakes and "remind the pilots to strictly adhere to procedures." "Our pilot group needs to be more professional and this team needs to hold the pilots accountable," Hornibrook wrote. "I am concerned we continue to make these mistakes as a group." https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/flight-operations-chief-at-horizon-air-raises-alarm-over-pilots-safety-culture/ Back to Top Ex-FAA safety inspector sentenced to six years for accepting bribes from Florida firm A former federal aviation inspector said at his sentencing Thursday that he was actually promoting safety when he pocketed more than $150,000 in bribes from a South Florida government contractor in exchange for supplying costly repair manuals and inspection alerts. "I was promoting aviation," Manuel R. Fernandez, the former Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector, told U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke. Fernandez's defense attorney, Ronald Gainor, was even more effusive about his convicted client: "This man furthered aviation safety, and he did it with a passion." But Cooke, who presided over Fernandez's trial in June when he was found guilty of a bribery conspiracy and multiple related charges, said his conduct amounted to "thievery." He was convicted of selling stolen avionics repair manuals while working as a safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration and moonlighting for an FAA-certified contractor in Doral that paid him the bribes. "He wanted to play both ends against the middle," Cooke said, "and that's wrong." Cooke imposed a prison sentence of six years and three months and a fine of $10,000, but the judge allowed Fernandez to surrender to prison authorities on Jan. 6. Fernandez must also pay restitution to Honeywell and other manufacturers of the avionics repair manuals and a forfeiture judgment to the U.S. government, which must still be decided at a later hearing. The judge's punishment was about one year less than the prosecution's recommendation of between seven and nine years in prison. Fernandez's lawyer asked for 2 1/2 years. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Davis mocked assertions by Fernandez and his lawyer that the defendant was promoting aviation safety while he was committing his crime. "He was serving as a fox in a hen house," Davis told the judge. "He was betraying the public trust and public safety. ... He sold them [the repair manuals] after he stole them. He was lining his pockets. He was not advancing aviation safety. He was impeding it." Fernandez, 42, who had worked at the FAA for seven years and earned more than $100,000 annually, was charged in 2017. His attorney, Gainor, attempted to describe him as a hard-working father who cared for his immediate family and parents. About 20 supporters showed up for his sentencing hearing. In June, Fernandez was found guilty of taking cash bribes for three years as an FAA safety inspector and arranging for his mother to work as a "ghost" employee for the FAA-certified contractor in Doral to receive some of the payments for him. Fernandez didn't disclose that he was moonlighting for the avionics electronics repair company and didn't reveal the money he made in unlawful bribes while he was employed by the FAA between early 2010 and mid-2013. In exchange for the payoffs, the 12-person federal jury found, Fernandez supplied a variety of aviation maintenance manuals that normally cost from $100 to $15,000 to AVCOM Avionics and Instruments in Doral, according to court records. He also provided insider information about pending FAA safety inspections of its warehouse facility, which specialized in repairing aviation electronics equipment. During closing arguments at trial, prosecutors depicted Fernandez as a "corrupt public official" who "lined his pockets" at the expense of aviation safety. "He sold out on his official duties," said Davis, who prosecuted the FAA case with Assistant U.S. Attorney Yeney Hernandez. The U.S. Attorney's Office, along with federal agents from the FBI and Department of Transportation, made the case against Fernandez by initially flipping a co-owner of AVCOM, Rolando Suarez, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison. His ex-wife, Patricia Suarez, also an AVCOM co-owner, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years' probation before Fernandez's trial. Both were ordered to repay the U.S. government more than $700,000, including money from the bribery scheme. The company is still in business but under different management. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/doral/article238004019.html Back to Top Air Astana Completes First C-Check On an Airbus A320 The certificate allows Air Astana to perform heavy maintenance (C-check) on Airbus A319/A320/A321 aircraft. Air Astana completed its first independent C-check at its base at Almaty Airport, Kazakhstan in November 2019. Its Airbus A320neo aircraft, registration P4-KBH, delivered three years ago, was selected for this C-check. Air Astana received certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in October to perform this advanced level of maintenance. The certificate allows Air Astana to perform heavy maintenance (C-check) on Airbus A319/A320/A321 aircraft. The C-check was performed in 10 days under the guidance of S7 Technics specialists, with Air Astana engineers and support teams successfully carrying out over 170 safety checks, as well as minor cabin restoration. In preparation for this significant maintenance work over the past 11 months, Air Astana engineers received training at S7 Technics' base in Moscow. Last year Air Astana and S7 Technics signed a memorandum of understanding to establish C-check maintenance at Air Astana's bases in Almaty and Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana). Under the agreement, S7 Technics provides consulting services as well as training of Air Astana specialists to expand their repair capabilities. The partnership involves the sharing and exchange of tools and equipment between the Air Astana maintenance base and S7 Technics' bases. https://www.aviationpros.com/aircraft/commercial-airline/press-release/21117038/air-astana-air-astana-completes-first-ccheck-on-an-airbus-a320 Back to Top TEXTRON AVIATION ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS Textron Aviation announced layoffs in its Wichita, Kansas-based engineering and professional support workforce to take effect at year's end. The personnel reduction at the manufacturer of Cessna, Beechcraft, and Hawker aircraft "does not affect the company's direct workforce," a company spokesperson said. "As we continue to operate with efficiency, Textron Aviation is reducing some professional positions effective December 31, 2019, the majority of which are located at the company's headquarters in Wichita, Kansas," Textron Aviation said in a statement emailed to AOPA on December 5. "The positions impacted are primarily in engineering, and additional business support functions. Last month, Textron Aviation offered a Voluntary Retirement Program (VRP) with limited eligibility for salaried exempt employees only." The statement did not disclose the number of "separations" ordered in its engineering and professional support ranks, but said Textron Aviation "remains focused on our long-term strategic workforce plan and will continue hiring as needed for skilled advanced aviation manufacturing positions such as composites, tooling, A&P mechanics, avionics technicians, and other direct manufacturing and customer support jobs." According to a company overview, Textron Aviation has more than 12,000 employees worldwide, and has 19 aircraft types in current production, from piston singles to business jets. The 483-knot Cessna Citation Longitude jet, flagship of its Cessna lineup, recently received its type certificate. In October 2018, company veteran Ron Draper took over as president and CEO, noting that Textron Aviation was "on solid footing with a very bright future," after emerging from a challenging period for the industry. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/december/05/textron-aviation-announces-layoffs Back to Top Air Force Eyes Lifting More Flight Restrictions for Pregnant Pilots 71st Rescue Squadron (RQS) pilots prepare for takeoff in the cockpit of an HC-130J Combat King II before of the airframe's first flight to be operated by an all-female aircrew Sept. 6, 2019, at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. (U.S. Air Force photo/Kaylin P. Hankerson) Air Force pilots know what to expect when they're expecting: a whole lot of time on the ground. But that could be changing, as the service undertakes a review to determine whether flight restrictions on pregnant pilots can be safely minimized or lifted. Lt. Col. Jammie Jamieson, the first female pilot to fly the Air Force's F-22 Raptor and a member of the Air Force Women's Initiative Team, said Wednesday that the service is looking to do away with any limits not justified by current science. "We are actively conducting an ongoing policy review at this time, over the next quarter, to ensure that our aeromedical policy ... reflects current science, data and also balances operational risk management," she said at the quarterly meeting of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, held near Washington, D.C. "The overall goals of this review are to, wherever possible, remove pregnancy as disqualifying for flight ... improve retention rates along our aviation workforce for females and identify and document for all our aviators, male and female, the unknown occupational hazards to which they're exposed and eliminate potential barriers to aviator recruitment." Earlier this year, the Air Force took the first steps toward eliminating excessive regulation on pregnant pilots, doing away with a medical waiver requirement for those who wanted to continue flying longer. It also expanded the standard window for flight duty, allowing pilots to fly from weeks 12 to 28 of gestation, where previously they had been limited to weeks 13 to 24. Officials emphasized, however, that no airmen would be forced to fly while pregnant. Jamieson said the existence of the pregnancy restrictions serves as a deterrent to some would-be Air Force aviators. "If our young women in pre-accession or accession programs essentially perceive that being a parent and being a pilot are incompatible occupations, they tend to not opt in at all," she said. In the last year, she said, there were nearly 400 pregnant Air Force aviators "that were by policy prohibited from maintaining basic aviation qualifications." At any given time, roughly 10% of female Air Force pilots are pregnant. By contrast, commercial aviation under the Federal Aviation Administration cannot sideline female employees due to pregnancy. Jamieson, a mother of three, discussed personal frustration earlier in her career when she found herself sidelined, as a pregnant instructor at the Air Force Academy, from flying the Cirrus SR-20, an aircraft with a parachute actually built into the frame as a safety mechanism. While the Air Force wouldn't let her fly it, she said, she could drive a few miles down the road to Meadow Lake Airport in Colorado and rent and fly the same plane "for as many hours as I wanted to." "And so we're trying to update our policies to, you know, be able to compete with the civilian workforce, but also to be informed by what we know what we don't know," Jamieson said, "so we can inform the service and the members, and people can make informed choices." https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/12/05/air-force-eyes-lifting-more-flight-restrictions-pregnant-pilots.html Back to Top Airbus faces delivery challenge, poised to win jet order race PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus (AIR.PA) must hand a record number of aircraft to customers in December to meet delivery goals, company data showed on Thursday, and is all but certain of winning an annual order race against Boeing. FILE PHOTO: An Emirates Airline Airbus A380-800 takes off from Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates February 15, 2019. REUTERS/Christopher Pike The European planemaker has been facing production snags in its best-selling A321neo jet, due in part to the introduction of a complex new flexible cabin, but has said it is confident of meeting a goal of 860 jets in 2019, revised down from 880-890. To reach that target it must deliver 135 jets in December, beating a previous record of 127 December deliveries by 6%. Airbus delivered 77 aircraft in November to reach 725 for the year so far, according to Thursday's progress report. Airbus has a track record of achieving a late surge in deliveries, though it is also working to spread deliveries more evenly over the year in future to smooth earnings and avoid quality problems that can creep in when it is working flat out. Whether or not it meets targets, Airbus is set to regain the crown as the world's largest commercial plane producer this year as U.S. rival Boeing (BA.N) approaches nine months without deliveries of its 737 MAX, grounded after two crashes. Boeing is expected to jump back into the lead next year as projected deliveries include 737 MAX jets parked during the grounding, while remaining ahead on larger jets, but the timing of the 737 MAX return to service depends on global regulators. Airbus is also on course to win an annual order contest between the plane giants after booking orders for 222 aircraft in November, driven mainly by last month's Dubai Airshow. Emirates ordered 50 A350-900 jets at the show as part of a fleet shake-up that also saw the world's largest wide-body operator cut a remaining order for A380s and reduce its requirement for Boeing 777X jets, while adding the Boeing 787. Airbus sold a total of 940 jets in January-November, or 718 after cancellations, leaving it well ahead of Boeing (BA.N), whose year has been derailed by the grounding of the 737 MAX. In the latest period for which data is available, Boeing sold 180 jets in the first nine months or 45 after cancellations. The latest figures were released days after Airbus won a sale of 50 A321XLR jets to United Airlines UAL.N, narrowing the potential market for a mid-market plane that Boeing has been studying, while slowing those discussions during the MAX crisis. United also delayed delivery of 45 A350s by several years to 2027 and beyond. UK analysts Agency Partners said on Thursday that this could put pressure on A350 output in coming years. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aircraft-orders/airbus-faces-delivery-challenge-poised-to-win-jet-order-race-idUSKBN1Y92DS Back to Top Dragon soars on research and resupply flight to International Space Station SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket soared into space Thursday on a resupply flight to the International Space Station. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now A commercial Dragon supply freighter built and owned by SpaceX rocketed into a clear blue sky over Florida's Space Coast Thursday with a menagerie of research experiments and holiday surprises heading for the International Space Station. Scientists loaded 40 genetically-engineered into the Dragon capsule to help gauge the effectiveness of an experimental drug to combat muscle and bone atrophy. There's also an experiment sponsored by Anheuser-Busch to study the malting of barley in microgravity, which could lead to the brewing of beer in space, the company says. A combustion experiment to be delivered to the station will guide research into the behavior of flames in confined spaces in microgravity. NASA and commercial teams have disclosed seven CubeSats stowed inside the Dragon spacecraft for deployment in orbit, including the first nanosatellite built in Mexico to fly to the space station. And there are a few holiday treats in store for the space station's six-person crew. "As far as presents and so forth, I'm not sure I want to divulge anything, but I think I would tell you that Santa's sleigh is certified for the vacuum of space," joked Kenny Todd, manager of space station operations and integration at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Crammed full of 5,769 pounds (2,617 kilograms) of equipment, the automated cargo freighter blasted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 12:29:24 p.m. EST (1729:24 GMT) Thursday to kick off a three-day trek to the space station. The 213-foot-tall (65-meter) Falcon 9 launcher ignited nine Merlin 1D main engines to climb away from pad 40 with 1.7 million pounds of window-rattling thrust. A clear autumn afternoon sky greeted the kerosene-fueled Falcon 9 as it turned northeast from Cape Canaveral to align its flight path with the space station's orbit. The takeoff occurred a day behind schedule after extreme high-altitude winds prevented the Falcon 9 from launching Wednesday. But the upper level winds subsided enough Thursday to permit the Falcon 9's fiery departure, and the commercial launcher successfully delivered its Dragon cargo payload into a preliminary orbit eight-and-a-half minutes later. The Falcon 9's first stage did the first bit of lifting before detaching two-and-a-half minutes into the flight. The first stage booster flew itself back through Earth's atmosphere and landed on SpaceX's drone ship "Of Course I Still Love" parked in the Atlantic Ocean east-northeast of Jacksonville, Florida, marking the 46th time SpaceX has recovered one of its boosters intact for reuse on a future flight. The first stage flown on Thursday mission made its first trip to space and back. Meanwhile, the Falcon 9's second stage lit its single Merlin engine to inject the Dragon supply ship into orbit. A minute later, the cargo capsule deployed from the second stage of the Falcon 9, and a forward-mounted camera showed the Dragon flying away from the rocket against the inky blackness of space. SpaceX confirmed the supply ship extended its power-generating solar panels to a span of 54 feet (16.5 meters), and all of the ship's Draco maneuvering thrusters were primed to begin a series of maneuvers to rendezvous with the space station early Sunday. A forward-facing video camera on-board the Falcon 9's second stage showed the Dragon capsule separating from the rocket nearly 10 minutes after liftoff. Credit: SpaceX After releasing the Dragon spacecraft, the Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage was expected to continue on an extended-duration coast lasting nearly six hours. SpaceX intended to collect thermal data and other information on the performance of the stage during several orbits of the Earth, before the Merlin engine reignites for a long disposal burn to drive the rocket body back into Earth's atmosphere for a destructive re-entry over the far southern Indian Ocean. SpaceX said the long-duration experiment is necessary to verify the upper stage's readiness to support future missions that might require the rocket to coast in the extreme environment of space for up to six hours. Missions that require that capability include high-altitude orbital injections for U.S. military and National Reconnaissance Office satellites. The extended flight of the upper stage was expected to take up some of the Falcon 9's excess fuel capacity, leaving insufficient propellant in the first stage to allow the booster to return to a landing at Cape Canaveral. Instead, SpaceX landed the rocket at sea. The launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket clears the way for two other major spaceflight activities on opposite sides of the world. At Cape Canaveral, United Launch Alliance is readying an Atlas 5 rocket for an 11-hour mock countdown Friday to rehearse procedures for the first launch of Boeing's Starliner crew capsule later this month. The countdown exercise will include filling of the Atlas 5 with liquid propellants at Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 launch pad, a little more than a mile away from SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch facility at pad 40. The Atlas 5's practice countdown at pad 41 could not go ahead the same day as SpaceX's launch from the neighboring pad. Russian teams in Kazakhstan plan to launch a Soyuz booster at 4:34 a.m. EST (0934 GMT) Friday with a Progress resupply and refueling freighter. The Progress cargo mission is scheduled to dock with the space station early Monday, roughly 24 hours after the arrival of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. An aft-facing camera captured this view of the Dragon spacecraft with its solar panels extended shortly after arriving in orbit Thursday. Credit: SpaceX Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA flight engineer Drew Morgan will man the space station's Canadian-built robot arm to capture the Dragon supply ship Sunday. The robotic arm will position the Dragon spacecraft on the station's Harmony module, where astronauts will open hatches and begin unpacking the cargo inside the supply ship's internal compartment. The Dragon cargo capsule launched Thursday is making its third voyage to the space station, following two previous round-trip flights in 2014 and 2017. This mission is SpaceX's 19th resupply flight to the station under a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA. Here is a break-down of the Dragon spacecraft's 5,769-pound (2,617-kilogram) supply load. The figures below do not include the mass of cargo packaging, which is included in NASA's overall payload mass: • Science Investigations: 2,154 pounds (977 kilograms) • Vehicle Hardware: 675 pounds (306 kilograms) • Crew Supplies: 564 pounds (256 kilograms) • Spacewalk Equipment: 141 pounds (65 kilograms) • Computer Resources: 33 pounds (15 kilograms) • Unpressurized Payloads: 2,037 pounds (924 kilograms) Eight of the 40 mice launched toward the space station Thursday have been genetically-engineered to lack myostatin, a protein that acts to limit muscle growth in animals. The muscle-bound, myostatin-free mice - or "mighty mice" - are joined by four other groups of rodents, including groups that will be given an experimental drug in space to block myostatin activity and promote muscle growth. All 40 mice will return to Earth alive on the Dragon capsule in early January. Scientists will administer the same myostatin protein blocker to some of the mice after they are back on the ground to assess how the drug affects their rate of recovery. "The focus of this project is going to be to determine whether getting rid of myostatin in mice that we send to the International Space Station can prevent, or at least mitigate, the loss of muscle due to microgravity," said Se-Jin Lee, professor at the Jackson Laboratory and University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and principal investigator for the rodent research experiment. The drug trial to be administered to the mice on the space station also inhibits activin, a protein that regulates bone mass. "By blocking activin with this drug, bone density increases significantly," said Emily Germain-Lee, a co-investigator on the experiment and professor at University of Connecticut School of Medicine. "And as you probably know, astronauts who spend a lot of time in space lose not only muscle mass, but also bone mass. "Anything that can be done to prevent muscle and bone loss would be very important to maintaining the health of astronauts during space travel," Germain-Lee said. "But ... loss of bone mass is also a huge health problem for people here on Earth. There are actually lots of diseases that lead to bone loss in both children and adults. And, of course, osteoporosis is a big health issue for people who are elderly or bedridden. "By testing this experimental drug in life subjected to microgravity, we hope to be able to test the therapeutic strategies for combating both the bone loss and muscle loss that occur in lots of different conditions," Germain-Lee said. Gary Hanning, director of global barley research at Anheuser-Busch, said the company's malting experiment aboard the Dragon cargo mission is the third in a series of investigations looking at how the environment of space affects brewing processes. "This series has been constructed to look at the impact of space environment on the germination process of barley," Hanning said. "So the germination processes is taking seed and creating the new plant from that, and so that's a very key step in the life cycle of any plant, and particularly important to malting barley. So much of our research on earth is focused on seed germination and the environmental impacts that would affect seed germination, as well as physiological effects." Hanning said Anheuser-Busch's experiments in space have given the company's research team a new perspective. "From our previous studies on the space station, we've noted that the gene expression - that's the genes that are turned on or turned off and to what degree - are different on the space station then they are on Earth," he said. "We think it's a response to the stress, because it's an abnormal environment, so there's a stress related there. So gene expression is a part of that cascade of events as part of germination." The experiment launching on SpaceX's next cargo mission will look at hardware solutions to support barley malting on the space station. "Malting is basically a biological process," Hanning said. "It is to convert barley into a product called malt, which is used in a lot of food and beverage applications. Malting is actually a three-step process," he added, beginning with the steeping, or hydration, of barley grains, followed by germination and drying. The Anheuser-Busch experiment launched with just 2.5 ounces (70 grams) of barley grains, separated into two units. Another research payload aboard the Dragon spacecraft will allow scientists to observe flame behavior in confined spaces in microgravity. The combustion package includes solid fuel samples that will be ignited inside a protective enclosure on the space station. "We want to study how solid materials burn in different confined conditions, and how fire interacts with its immediate surroundings," said Ya-Ting Liao, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Case Western Reserve University. "It turns out this is a very hands-on experiment," said Paul Ferkul, an investigator on the confined combustion experiment. "We're talking with the astronaut, we're interacting with him, we're telling him what to do, how to set the parameters. And he, in turn, tells us how it's looking, what he's experiencing, and the astronauts are very glad to do this. "It's way outside their usual routine on the space station, so that helps us a lot because they're enthusiastic for our work, and they make very good investigators because of that." The Dragon capsule's external cargo bay is loaded with a Japanese Earth-imaging instrument with high spectral sensitivity. The Hyperspectral Imager Suite, or HISUI, instrument will image Earth's surface in 185 spectral bands, allowing scientists to distinguish between the composition and type of a range of vegetation, soil, rocks, snow, ice, and human-made objects like buildings, roads and other structures. Using the robotic arm, the HISUI instrument will be mounted to a fixture outside the station's Japanese Kibo lab module. It's a follow-up to the Japanese-developed ASTER instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, which launched in 1999. A new lithium-ion battery for the space station's solar array truss is also stowed inside the Dragon capsule's unpressurized trunk. It will replace a battery flown to the station by a Japanese HTV cargo ship last year. That battery was damaged by an electrical short soon after it was installed on a spacewalk. Other equipment slated for delivery to the space station include a robotic tool stowage platform to store leak detectors outside the space station, and upgrades to allow scientists to make subtle measurements of gravity using the Cold Atom Laboratory, a research facility inside the orbiting lab. With the Dragon cargo launch out of the way, SpaceX is gearing up for its next Falcon 9 flight in mid-December from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral. A Falcon 9 rocket - without its payload - was seen rolling from SpaceX's hangar at pad 39A to nearby pad 40 Thursday afternoon, several hours after the previous Falcon 9 mission took off. The Falcon 9 appeared to feature a previously-flown first stage booster, with a new second stage attached to it. The rocket moved Thursday afternoon to pad 40 is likely assigned to launch the JCSAT 18/Kacific 1 communications satellite, a Boeing-built craft designed to relay broadband signals across the Asia-Pacific region. The launch of the JCSAT 18/Kacific 1 communications satellite was scheduled for no earlier than Dec. 15 after an unusually rapid turnaround following the CRS-19 cargo launch to the space station. It was not immediately clear whether the one-day slip in the CRS-19 launch this week might similarly delay the JCSAT 18/Kacific 1 launch. https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/12/05/dragon-soars-on-research-and-resupply-flight-to-international-space-station/ posted on December 5, 2019 12:00 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Business Aviation Safety Consortium (BASC) announces second Safety Dividend One of the initial long-term goals of BASC becomes a mainstay! BASC was designed to be a highly desired partner with world-class business flight departments that strive for excellence in Safety Management and Compliance. Coincidentally, BASC was also conceptualized to be of high value and provide for ease of budgeting. The Safety Dividend provision was implemented at the founding of BASC to return a portion of the members' annual investment when organizational performance provided that opportunity. Although a "for profit" entity, no reason could be found not to share and reward excellence, loyalty, achievement, continuous improvement and safety culture. Any current BASC full-service member, that has been with the organization for six months or greater, will receive a Safety Dividend in December 2019. Founder and President, Rick Malczynski, shared, "This is a great achievement for the BASC membership. We knew from the beginning that having a "killer" program was key, but what we also learned over the years was that treating our end users with respect, honesty, and transparency was the foundation of our previous successes. As a BASC member, we often get labelled as an "industry disrupter," and it is actually one of the highest compliments we receive. It is a pretty cool concept, when you just do your best, work with the smartest professionals in the industry, and treat everyone the way you wish to be treated...everyone grows together...and has a great time doing it! I could not be more enthused and proud regarding BASC and what the members have accomplished." Malczynski further commented, "2019 was an awesome year for us! Given current industry conditions and trends, the sustained growth was a given. However, I have to admit, the acceptance into the USAIG Performance Vector PLUS Program (which entitles flight departments to a 5% insurance premium return) was a huge accomplishment for the membership. USAIG thoroughly vetted us and approved us for this partnership. It could not have come at a more crucial time when claims and insurance costs are climbing. Additionally, the ongoing exploration of a Corporate Line Operations Safety Assessment/Audit (C-LOSA) program by actual BASC operators, is an excellent example of the forward leaning mentality and innovation the BASC program encourages, and provides a successful forum and organization in which to incubate creativity in SMS and excellence. We realized years ago that the frontline team members in corporate aviation are the most knowledgeable regarding SMS in the aviation industry. It was logical to quit beating professionals up with dated and sometimes arbitrary requirements when they had obviously mastered the concepts, processes, and execution. It is very exciting to experience first-hand progress that this new found creativity continually achieves! I guarantee 2020 will be a banner year!" ### About the Business Aviation Safety Consortium (AviationConsortium.com, LLC or BASC): Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, BASC serves as a logical partner for SMS, regulatory, and operational excellence verification for high performing business aviation organizations. BASC was founded in 2016 and accepted the first member in January of 2017. For more information, visit http://www.aviationconsortium.com Curt Lewis