January 6, 2020 - No. 002 In This Issue Berry Aviation Expands Mx Capabilities with New Hangar A wheel fell off an Air Canada plane during takeoff Air India to clawback salary, benefits of employees who leave before stipulated period New Tech Will Take Center Stage at Singapore Southwest Airlines Buys More Land Near Dallas Love Field HQ Bahamasair 737-500s Prohibited From US Airspace After Missing FAA Deadline For ADS-B WIZZAIR PASSENGERS EVACUATED DUE TO WRONG IMPRESSION OF FIRE Northern airlines mum on impact of province's aviation fuel tax cut American Airlines Reported Over 1,600 'Smoke, Odor or Fume' Events Last Year. SpaceX's New Starship Prototype Could Fly in Just 3 Months Berry Aviation Expands Mx Capabilities with New Hangar Following the receipt of Part 145 repair station certification from the FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Berry Aviation has opened a 31,000-sq-ft maintenance hangar at San Marcos (Texas) Regional Airport. "Overall, these improvements have increased the company's ability to add new repair capabilities by tenfold," Berry Aviation president and chief operating officer Stanley Finch said. "That, coupled with the new certifications, allows us to operate on a much wider range of aircraft and parts." The new hangar offers 19,300 sq ft of aircraft maintenance space, as well as a 3,500-sq-ft component repair and overhaul area and 2,800 sq ft for a parts department. "This new hangar adds enough aircraft capacity to give us an estimated 75 percent increase in hands-on maintenance work," Finch added. "That added productivity expands our ability to service company aircraft and additional commercial maintenance customers." Its repair station certification includes airframe, powerplant, propeller, and accessories, with FAA authorization to work on Beechcraft King Airs, as well as some Cessna Citation and Bombardier Learjet models, among others. Founded in 1983, San Marco-based Berry Aviation provides a host of services, including government and defense charter services, on-demand cargo, MRO, and FBO. It operates a fleet of more than 25 aircraft, including Bombardier Dash 8s, Embraer EMB-120s, and Viking Twin Otters. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2020-01-03/berry-aviation-expands- mx-capabilities-new-hangar Back to Top A wheel fell off an Air Canada plane during takeoff An Air Canada Express flight lost a wheel shortly after takeoff from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, forcing the plane to turn back. Flight 8684 was heading to Bagotville, about 230 miles to the north, Friday when the incident occurred. No one was hurt. One of the 49 passengers on board captured video of the wheel detaching from the plane's left main landing gear and shared it on social media. The passenger paired the video with a sarcastic caption: "I'm currently on a plane that just lost a wheel. 2020 starting off well." Pilots were able to turn the Dash 8-300 around and land safely. "The experienced pilots maintained complete control of the aircraft," Manon Stuart, a spokesperson for Jazz Aviation, the operator of the flight, said in a statement. "Our pilots are well trained to deal with such situations and responded according to our standard operating procedures. " Emergency vehicles were called "as a precautionary measure." "Our maintenance personnel in Montreal are conducting a thorough inspection of the aircraft to determine the cause and proceed with the necessary repairs," Stuart said. https://www.erienewsnow.com/story/41521730/a-wheel-fell-off-an-air-canada-plane-during- takeoff Back to Top Air India to clawback salary, benefits of employees who leave before stipulated period State-owned Air India has warned Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) and aircraft maintenance engineers that if they leave the organisation after completing their aircraft training but without "completing their stipulated bond period", their salaries and benefits would be clawed back from them. "All such aircraft maintenance engineers would be required to refund the cost of training, hotel expenses, travel allowance/dearness allowance, salary for the training period, and the opportunity cost of training to the AIESL," an order from the office of Executive Director, Engineering, said. If the employee fails to pay the said amounts, it will be recovered from his final settlement, the order said. In November, Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri had informed the Rajya Sabha that he had "not heard of any single case where anybody has resigned" from Air India. The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), however, in a letter dated December 23, contradicted the minister's claims and said that as Air India pilots were being "paid only half of what other air carriers are offering", most of the CAT 3B qualified co-pilots were leaving to join other private carriers. "We are losing these experienced co-pilots to other carriers who value them and have understood their importance of their experience," the IPCA had said in its letter. The pilots association had, in its letter, also said that since the government had decided not to extend any further financial support to the debt-laden national carrier, they should be allowed to leave the organisation without serving any notice period. Air India, which has a debt of around Rs 54,000 crore, has been struggling to find buyers. Puri has earlier also said that if the airline did not find buyers, it would have to stop all operations and shut down. During another press conference on December 31, Puri had said that though there were no two thoughts that the airline has to be privatised, the government could not be "slave to deadlines". "Air India is a first-class airline, but there are no two views that privatisation has to be done. We are not slaves of certain deadlines," Puri had said. A senior Air India official had on December 31, however, warned that the airline might have to to shut down by June unless it finds a buyer as "piecemeal" arrangements cannot be sustained for long. https://indianexpress.com/article/business/aviation/air-india-to-clawback-salary-benefits-of- employees-who-leave-before-stipulated-period-6201406/ Back to Top New Tech Will Take Center Stage at Singapore Following the government's vision to embrace the new digital industrial revolution for the transport sector, the Singapore Airshow 2020 is expected to put innovation and new technologies at center stage at the biennial event from Feb. 11 to 16, 2020 at the Changi Exhibition Centre. Organizer Experia Events told AIN today's aviation industry is increasingly transformed by digitalization and use of artificial intelligence, along with other disruptive technologies such as autonomous flight systems and hybrid/electric propulsion technologies. IATA's latest 2019 Global Passenger Survey also emphasizes the need for governments and the industry to work together on new innovation to improve overall passenger experiences and examine infrastructural efficiency to cope with future travel demand. "In 2020, we can not only expect new products and deliveries, but also technological advances in areas ranging from electric, hybrid and unmanned craft, to data analytics, AI, and the digitalization of MRO services," said Leck Chet Lam, managing director of Experia Events. A preview of what's to come was highlighted at the Rotorcraft Asia 2019 show, also organized by Experia, where it showed a strong presence of urban air mobility solutions by Volocopter and Airbus, to name a few as well as a high-level conference on the topic. Experia also added that next generation maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) topics will be part of the business forums agenda discussing the digital MRO world and the effects of new OEM business models on suppliers and manufacturers. Singapore Airshow 2020 will also see the first Innovation Forum, featuring talks by entrepreneurs and inventors who will discuss breakthrough innovations and leading-edge concepts in aviation that are shaping the future of flight. Experia also revealed that the show is playing its part in environmental sustainability efforts, where for the first time the event will be held under a fully solar-paneled roof, with 15,000 solar panels, that has a maximum capacity of 6.3 megawatts at its peak and is expected to produce over 7,840 megawatt-hours of power annually. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aerospace/2020-01-03/new-tech-will-take-center-stage- singapore Back to Top Southwest Airlines Buys More Land Near Dallas Love Field HQ Southwest Airlines snatched up more land near Dallas Love Field as 2019 ended, continuing the company's expansion near its corporate headquarters. Dallas-based Southwest bought 3 acres along with an office building at 9080 Harry Hines Blvd. from Arizona real estate investment firm Spirit Master Funding. The newly purchased property is immediately next to Southwest's growing corporate campus. A selling price on the property was not available, but county appraisal records valued it at just over $8 million. A Southwest Airlines spokesman was not able to give more details on Southwest's intentions for the property Thursday. Southwest has been expanding aggressively in the area with training and operations buildings for the company's 62,000 employees, including 10,000 in Dallas. In October, the company announced plans to build a 141,000-square-foot facility for pilot training that should be completed in fall. That will give it more pilot briefing and training rooms as well as space for eight more flight simulators, bringing its total to 18. In 2018, Southwest finished a $250 million, 414,000-square-foot facility called the "Wings" building that houses 2,200 employees and includes flight operations, training, regulatory, compliance, technology and other offices. That building is connected to Southwest's "Leads" building, another corporate office. Also on that piece of property is Southwest's flight attendant training facility, known as "Tops." Southwest's corporate buildings are on two adjacent pieces of land. The corporate headquarters and maintenance base are on a piece of property owned by Dallas Love Field and the city of Dallas. The second part is privately owned by the airline and is south of Denton Drive and north of Harry Hines Boulevard. The 3-acre property Southwest bought this week contains a 36,750-square-foot office building and was formerly part of the Pine Creek Medical Center campus. The building shares a parking lot and is connected by a breezeway to the medical center, a doctor-owned hospital that settled a kickback scheme with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2017 for $7.5 million. Both the office building and the hospital are vacant. https://www.aviationpros.com/airlines/news/21119859/southwest-airlines-buys-more-land-near- dallas-love-field-hq Back to Top Bahamasair 737-500s Prohibited From US Airspace After Missing FAA Deadline For ADS-B A ten-year deadline was not enough time for Bahamasair to make the avionic upgrades necessary to use United States airspace after Jan 1, 2020. As a result, the flag carrier of the Bahamas cannot fly three of its four jet aircraft into US airspace and may not solve the problem until March. The US Federal Aviation Administration mandated in 2010 that aircraft be equipped with hardware to use the FAA's more sophisticated satellite-based air traffic control management system, NextGen, that replaces traditional ground radar technology. This step of the transition requires aircraft to have Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out (ADS-B) capability either at time of manufacture or retrofitted with a kit. "The supplier was unable to provide the kit in time," Bahamasair Chairman Tommy Turnquest told the Bahamas' Eyewitness News. A backup plan to equip its three 737-500s did not materialise in time. "We have been trying to find an alternate supplier. Because the 737-500s are so old we've had a great difficulty in finding a supplier," Turnquest said. "We've taken those three jets off of the South Florida and Orlando routes," Turnquest said of the 737-500s. Bahamasair only flies to Florida in the US. "We've put on the 737-700 and the ATRs on those routes into Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and West Palm Beach." Bahamasair's sole 737-700 and five ATR turboprops are ADS-B equipped. "Those six planes are able to go to the USA," Turnquest said. The 737-500s flew US routes on January 1 but not January 2 when the ADS-B rule commenced, according to flight tracking site Flightradar24. The ATRs have a smaller passenger capacity than the 737-500s Bahamasair cannot fly to the US. Bahamasair may have difficulty transporting passengers this weekend since it is the end of the New Year travel period, and the airline has an existing commitment with Club Med, Eyewitness News said, speculating Bahamasair may use wet-lease capacity from Miami Air. Travel demand is slower in January and February, and Bahamasair already planned for one of its 737-500s to be out of service while undergoing maintenance in Costa Rica. Two of Bahamasair's 737-500s were manufactured in 1993 and the third in 1997, and all three flew with other airlines before arriving at Bahamasair between 2012 and 2014, according to Air Fleets. Southwest Airlines had operated a large 737-300/500 fleet but retired them by the end of 2017. Bahamasair's 737-700 NG was manufactured in 2003 and flew with other airlines before Bahamasair acquired it in 2018, when it expected to take two more 737NGs in 2019. It is unclear what happened to the plan, but last year's grounding of the 737 MAX increased demand and prices for 737 NGs, which are not part of the MAX grounding. Turnquest did not comment if Bahamasair requested an exception from the FAA, which last March made provisions for aircraft without ADS-B to be authorized to use US airspace with just one hour's notice. Requests would be handled by air traffic control (ATC) on a case-by-case basis. "ATC might not be able to grant authorizations for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to workload, runway configurations, air traffic flows, and weather conditions," the agency said. But the FAA warned "an exception...was designed to accommodate unforeseen or rare circumstances" and not be used for ongoing approval, which Bahamasair may need. Turnquest said Bahamasair on January 2 received a quote from a new supplier to equip the three 737-500s with the ADS-B kit, each of which costs $195,000. "We should have it in about three weeks if we agree," he said, estimating Bahamasair may not have US airspace access for its entire fleet until March. There is some exasperation in the FAA's guideline for exceptions. "Operators have known for over eight years that authorization requests...will be handled on a case-by-case basis," the agency wrote. "Relying solely on an ATC authorization-which may not be granted-to operate a non- equipped aircraft in ADS-B Out airspace would put the operator's scheduled operations in jeopardy." "The FAA will be very unlikely to issue routine and regular authorizations to scheduled operators seeking to operate non-equipped aircraft," the agency wrote. Yet by pre-empting potential disruptions there appears to be a larger short-term disruption by Bahamasair not flying its 737- 500s to the US. Bahamasair and the FAA were not immediately available to comment. The FAA's prohibition of aircraft not equipped with ADS-B does not reflect the FAA determining the aircraft or airline to be unsafe. Turnquest said the 737-500s being taken off US routes will instead fly intra-island services and flights to Cuba, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos Islands. ADS-B equipage was expected to be more problematic with business jet operators, who even last year were unaware of the rule, postponed installation in hopes of securing cheaper services, or planned to sell their aircraft and wanted the new buyer to pay for the retrofit. One maintenance company said last October that 23% of the business jet fleet and 49% of general aviation turboprops were not equipped, while another company estimated 5,000 non-commercial aircraft would miss the January 1, 2020 deadline. https://www.forbes.com/sites/willhorton1/2020/01/03/bahamasair-737-500s-prohibited-from-us- airspace-after-missing-faa-deadline-for-ads-b/#2581ca776605 Back to Top WIZZAIR PASSENGERS EVACUATED DUE TO WRONG IMPRESSION OF FIRE Just hours ago, passengers on WizzAir flight W67876 were evacuated via emergency slides. This flight was supposed to bound for Paris Beauvais Airport, but had to abort takeoff at Debrecen Airport in Hungary. It was believed that a fire arose from the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU). This may explain why passengers were seen evacuating only at the front of the aircraft. No one was injured in the incident. At the point of writing, WizzAir did not release any media statement with regards to this incident to confirm the reported facts above. Based on aeroinside records, WizzAir have 11 reported incidents in 2018 alone - some of which seem to be technical related problems. According to the latest Hungarian media coverage, the airline has confirmed that there was no fire. Following the incident, the airport fire department and maintenance personnel have thoroughly inspected the aircraft and confirmed that there was no fire. It was suspected that de-icing activities may have given a fake impression of fire smoke. When the incident happened, airport fire brigades and police arrived at the scene within seconds and attempt to extinguish the "fire". Police and airport staff were seen rushing the passengers away from the aircraft as well. https://samchui.com/2020/01/05/passengers-evacuated-due-to-fire-on-wizzair- flight/#.XhMPh_LYrnE Back to Top Northern airlines mum on impact of province's aviation fuel tax cut The cost of fuelling up airplanes in northern Ontario went down with the turning of a new year, but there are doubts those savings will be passed down to consumers. The Progressive Conservative government carried through with a promise to reverse a 4 cent per litre increase on aviation fuel purchased north of Parry Sound that the Liberals brought in five years ago. CBC requested an interview about this with Northern Development Minister Greg Rickford, but he hasn't been made available for the past month. "As part of our plan to make life more affordable, we are proposing to reduce the aviation fuel tax rate in the North to 2.7 cents per litre from 6.7 cents per litre," reads a statement from the ministry. "As we fulfil another promise we made during last year's election, we will continue to put more money back in people's pockets every opportunity we get." If aviation companies in northern Ontario are planning to lower their prices for passengers and cargo due to this tax cut, they aren't saying. CBC contacted Air Canada, Bearskin Airlines, Air Creebec and North Star Air and received no response. Thunder Air declined a request for comment. Porter Airlines provided the following statement: "Porter is supportive of any initiative that helps reduce the tax burden and we believe this is an important step by the provincial government. It helps offset other costs that are increasing and contributes to keeping fares lower," the statement reads. "This also makes operating in Northern Ontario more sustainable. It gives us greater confidence that recent investments we've made through opening maintenance bases in Thunder Bay and Sudbury, and a crew base in Thunder Bay are the right decisions." CBC also contacted Northern Stores, which is the main retailer of food and other goods in Ontario's far north, to see if this change would lead to lower prices. There was no response. Gilles Bisson, the New Democrat MPP for Timmins who is also a pilot, calls the tax change "symbolic." "This will just be another one of those things where we give money away and we have no mechanism to ensure there's a savings passed on to the consumer," he says. Bisson says a better way to help northerners make ends meet would be to expand natural gas services in the region or find a way to lower electricity costs. For the communities of the far north, Bisson says the province should provide a cost-of-living subsidy, since the cost of food and other goods in most of Ontario is already subsidized by the public dollars invested in the network of provincial highways. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/aviation-fuel-tax-northern-ontario-1.5414124 Back to Top American Airlines Reported Over 1,600 'Smoke, Odor or Fume' Events Last Year... And That's an Improvement In the 12-months from January to December 2019, American Airlines is said to have reported a total of 1,644 so-called 'Smoke, Odor or Fume' (SOF) events occurring onboard its aircraft. That works out to nearly five reported fume events every single day throughout the whole of last year. Yet, the number of fume events reported in 2019 is actually an improvement on the number reported the year before. SOF events are sometimes referred to as "toxic fume events" because of claims that dangerous chemicals can become vaporised and inhaled by passengers and crew. However, OneWorld partner British Airways points out that fume and odor events can be caused by a whole range of issues with examples cited by the airline including strongly-smelling food in cabin bags, burnt food in the oven, aerosols and even e-cigarettes. While some critics accuse the aviation industry of burying its head in the sand over the growing problem of fume events, American Airlines says the issue is a "top priority" and that its actively studying all scientific developments on the issue. "Cabin odors are a priority for American's leadership team at the highest level of the organization," a spokesperson told us in an emailed statement. "We will continue to apply our industry-leading techniques and monitor all scientific, engineering and medical resources available. It cannot be emphasized enough that the health and welfare of our crews and customers continues to be our top priority," the statement continued. Over recent months, a number of passengers and flight attendants have either been hospitalised or treated by Paramedics following several high-profile SOF events on American aircraft. On December 26, an American Airlines operated Boeing 737 bound for Mexico City diverted to McAllen, Texas a short time after departing Dallas Fort Worth with reports of smoke in the cabin. In that incident, two passengers had to be assessed by Paramedics but thankfully no further treatment was required. And in July, American Airlines flight AA728 from Philadelphia to London had to declare a medical emergency when the smell of old musty socks in the cabin made all nine flight attendants and several passengers unwell. In that incident, the Airbus A330 diverted to Boston where the flight attendants were transported to the hospital for assessment before later being released. Perhaps most troubling of all though was an incident in October when two flight attendants passed out for a short period when they apparently became overpowered from the smell of industrial- strength cleaning fluid. American Airlines flight AA729 from London Heathrow to Philadelphia diverted to Shannon where the crew and several passengers were treated for eye irritation and coughing. While the official cause of the accident was put down to aircraft cleaners at the airport accidentally leaving the chemical solution in a lavatory by mistake, sources quoted by the BBC said it "was 'inconceivable' that dish soap (cleaning solution), or any other cleaning product approved for use on aircraft, could cause two people to pass out." No wonder, Captain Dan Carey of the American Airlines pilots union previously warned a toxic fume event could "result in immediate incapacitation and have a long-term adverse impact, and it can affect everyone on board." The American Airlines flight attendants association, however, says the carrier has recently become more proactive in dealing with the threat of fume events and is a lot more transparent about the issue than what it has been in the past. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) currently advises its members to seek specialist treatment and medical testing within four hours of suspected exposure but does not currently recommend flight attendants wear protective equipment should a fume event occur. "Flight Attendants have detailed procedures in their Flight Attendant Inflight Manual, including an Odor in Cabin chart and Fume/Odor Category Identification Chart," a spokesperson for the airline told us. "Flight Attendants are instructed to use their charts when relaying odor issues to the flight crew and our maintenance teams." https://www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/2020/01/04/american-airlines-reported-over-1600-smoke- odor-or-fume-events-last-year-and-thats-an-improvement/ Back to Top SpaceX's New Starship Prototype Could Fly in Just 3 Months, Elon Musk Says SpaceX's newly redesigned prototype of its Mars-colonizing Starship craft could get off the ground for the first time just two or three months from now, company founder and CEO Elon Musk said. SpaceX initiated that redesign after the first full-size Starship prototype, called the Mk1, blew its top during a pressurization test in November of last year. Construction of the new test vehicle, known as the SN1, is underway at the company's site near the South Texas village of Boca Chica, Musk said via Twitter last week. "We're now building flight design of Starship SN1, but each SN will have at least minor improvements, at least through SN20 or so of Starship V1.0," Musk tweeted on Dec. 27, 2019. In another tweet that day, Musk posted a short video showing production of Starship tank domes, which he called "the most difficult part" of the vehicle's primary structure. A tank dome, or bulkhead, seals off a Starship propellant tank; it's the part that went flying during that November Mk1 pressure test. All of this activity could result in a debut flight for the SN1 (which presumably stands for "serial No. 1") before winter even melts into spring, Musk said in another Dec. 27 tweet: "Flight is hopefully 2 to 3 months away." SpaceX had been building Starship prototypes at its facilities both in Boca Chica and Cape Canaveral, Florida; the intracompany competition would end up improving the final Starship design, Musk has said. But that plan has been shelved, at least for now, the billionaire entrepreneur revealed in another tweet on Dec. 29. "We're focusing on Boca right now for Starship, & Cape is focused on Falcon/Dragon," Musk wrote. Falcon refers to rockets - the company's workhorse Falcon 9 launcher and the newer, more powerful Falcon Heavy. Dragon is the capsule that ferries cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. SpaceX has also developed a crewed variant of Dragon under a different NASA deal, and the company is gearing up for that capsule's first astronaut-ferrying test flight. That Crew Dragon flight to the ISS, known as Demo-2, could happen quite soon. There's just one major milestone to check off first: an in-flight demonstration of the spacecraft's emergency-escape system, which is scheduled to take place on Jan. 11. SpaceX's overall Starship architecture consists of the 165-foot-tall (50 meters) Starship spacecraft and a giant rocket known as Super Heavy. Both of these vehicles will be fully and rapidly reusable, potentially slashing the cost of spaceflight enough to make Mars colonization and other ambitious exploration feats economically feasible, Musk has said. SpaceX representatives have said that the first operational Starship flights, which will likely loft commercial communications satellites, could come as early as 2021. And the company already has one crewed Starship mission on its docket: Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa booked an around-the-moon voyage on the craft, with a target launch date of 2023. https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-prototype-first-2020-flight-soon.html Curt Lewis