Flight Safety Information January 16, 2020 - No. 012 In This Issue Incident: Aeroflot SU95 at Moscow on Jan 12th 2020, engine cowl separated in flight Accident: Jin 738 at Kitakyushu on Jan 12th 2020, turbulence injures flight attendant FAA: Delta pilots didn't seek permission before dumping fuel that rained on school kids Boeing Reorganizes Pilots After Max Crisis Exposes Dysfunction More people tried to bring guns through airport security in 2019 than the year before NTSB releases preliminary report on Kauai tour helicopter crash Chicago-Bound Flight Diverted to New Mexico Due to Unruly Passenger FAA Picks Raytheon to Refresh STARS This is the worst airline in America, according to the Wall Street Journal Analyst sees 737 MAX production restarting at fewer than 20 aircraft per month Astronauts upgrade space station batteries in second all-woman spacewalk Aircraft and Helicopter Accident Investigation from SCSI DTI Training Canada Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship RESEARCH SURVEY Incident: Aeroflot SU95 at Moscow on Jan 12th 2020, engine cowl separated in flight An Aeroflot Sukhoi Superjet 100-95, registration RA-89112 performing flight SU-1368 from Moscow Sheremetyevo to Stavropol (Russia) with 55 passengers and 6 crew, was climbing out of Sheremetyevo's runway 24L when the crew stopped the climb at FL070 after the left hand engine cowl had partly separated from the engine. The aircraft entered a hold to burn off fuel and returned to Sheremtyevo for a safe landing on runway 24R about 50 minutes after departure. Rosaviatsia reported the aircraft was climbing through 4000 feet when the flight crew was informed about the missing left engine cowling. The crew burned off fuel and returned to Sheremetyevo. A post flight inspection revealed the engine access doors were ripped off, a dent at the inboard leading edge of the left wing was also found. The airline reported the engine is very close to the ground and the access door hooks hard to see if one doesn't know where to exactly look. The engine (Photo: Aeroflot): http://avherald.com/h?article=4d1fedb4&opt=0 Back to Top Accident: Jin 738 at Kitakyushu on Jan 12th 2020, turbulence injures flight attendant A Jin Air Boeing 737-800, registration HL8243 performing flight LJ-262 from Kitakyushu (Japan) to Seoul (South Korea), was climbing out of Kitakyushu's runway 36 when the aircraft encountered turbulence causing injuries to a flight attendant. The aircraft continued to Seoul for a safe landing about 65 minutes after departure. Japan's TSB reported the flight attendant received serious injuries during an upset during the climb out of Kitakyushu. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d1fd6d2&opt=0 Back to Top FAA: Delta pilots didn't seek permission before dumping fuel that rained on school kids The Delta pilots who bombarded elementary school playgrounds with jet fuel before making an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport failed to notify air traffic control of the need to jettison fuel and did not dump it at an optimal altitude, the FAA said Wednesday. Pilots typically are directed by controllers to an appropriate area to dump fuel, a protocol that did not occur Tuesday, the FAA said in a statement. "The FAA is continuing to investigate the circumstances behind this incident," the statement said. Delta made national news Tuesday when pilots of Flight 89 bound for Shanghai dumped the fuel before making an emergency landing moments after takeoff. Delta said the twin-engine Boeing 777 had experienced engine problems. Scores of people on the ground, including students at multiple elementary schools, were treated for eye and skin irritation, Los Angeles County fire officials said. Decontamination stations were set up, but no injuries required hospitalization, authorities said. Peter Goelz, a former managing director for the National Transportation Safety Board, said it might be too early to judge the decisions of a pilot trying to ensure the safety of his passengers and crew. "A 777 flying nonstop to Shanghai is absolutely loaded with fuel," Goelz said. "So loaded that to land right away after takeoff poses a significant danger." Goelz, who is not involved in the investigation, said guidelines usually call for fuel to be dumped over water and/or at an altitude of 10,000 feet so it can disperse and minimize environmental damage. But the rules change for a very heavy plane that needs to get back on the ground, he said. Goelz said every pilot knows the story of Swissair Flight 111, a Geneva-bound MD-11 out of New York that plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, 1998. None of the 229 people aboard survived. The crew had called in an emergency but was flying away from an airport so it could dump fuel over water when it crashed. "Pilots know that when you have a problem that threatens the aircraft and you have to get rid of fuel, you get rid of it fast," he said. "You don't want things like this (contamination) to happen, but the alternative is too dire." The FAA said it was investigating the fuel dump, noting that procedures call for fuel to be dumped over "designated unpopulated areas, typically at higher altitudes so the fuel atomizes and disperses before it reaches the ground." Delta said the unexplained engine issue required the plane to "return quickly" to LAX. "The aircraft landed safely after a release of fuel, which was required as part of normal procedure to reach a safe landing weight," Delta said. The airline said it was in touch with the airport and fire officials and expressed concern over "minor injuries" to adults and children. The smell of jet fuel wafted through some neighborhoods. The Los Angeles Unified School District said crews washed down playgrounds, play equipment, lunch tables and drinking fountains. it said air conditioning was left on at the affected schools overnight to thoroughly ventilate classrooms and other school buildings. Delta said it dispatched 13 cleaning crews to assist the district in the overnight cleaning job. School Board Vice President Jackie Goldberg was "shocked and angered" at the fuel dump over the Park Avenue Elementary School playground in Cudahy and promised to closely monitor the investigation. "I am sorry our school community had to go through this very scary incident today," Goldberg said. Goelz was willing to give the pilots the benefit of the doubt, at least for now. "Right off the bat, I would not be criticizing the crew until I have more information," he said. "It was not an easy call." https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/01/15/delta-dumps-fuel-expert-defends-pilots/4476137002/ Back to Top Boeing Reorganizes Pilots After Max Crisis Exposes Dysfunction • Shift will improve transparency with regulators, company says • Planemaker's new CEO has said he wants to simplify operations Boeing Co. is reorganizing its piloting staff into a more cohesive unit after a disjointed reporting structure contributed to communications lapses while the 737 Max was being developed. The move, effective Jan. 17, affects company aviators who train commercial airline pilots, prepare jets for delivery and develop training materials and flight crew manuals. Instead of being divided between two divisions, they will now join Boeing's elite flight-test pilots in a single unit, Boeing Test and Evaluation, according to an internal memo viewed by Bloomberg News. The shift is part of a broader shakeup of Boeing's engineering corps that was announced last September, after a special board committee delved into the cultural rifts that contributed to design oversights with the Max. A flight control sub-system, which wasn't disclosed to airline flight crews, played a role in two fatal crashes that killed 346 people and prompted a worldwide grounding. Combining the pilots in a single unit will "strengthen flight operations excellence across the enterprise, including by enhancing the rigor and transparency of our regulatory interactions," Ted Colbert, head of Boeing Global Services, said in the memo. 'Enterprise Realignment' The affected pilots had been part of Colbert's division, which sells services, maintenance and spare parts to airlines. "This action is not about any one set of discussions or events but is part of a larger enterprise realignment activity," a Boeing spokesman said by email. Dave Calhoun, Boeing's new chief executive officer, vowed to "simplify" the company's operations in his first message to employees this week. Former pilots and engineers described workplace tensions after Boeing shifted the teams of pilots who train customers and prepare safety manuals to a separate, profit-making entity. That organization, now part of Boeing Global Services, was trying to win a larger share of the market to train pilots worldwide. Boeing moved its Seattle-area flight simulators to a training center in Miami in the midst of Max development in 2013. The changes left the Max's cockpit designers and test pilots in Seattle with a lack of input from the instructors who regularly saw how the typical airline pilot responded to unusual situations, Bloomberg News reported in December. It was from a Miami hotel room that Mark Forkner, who then oversaw the team writing manuals and honing flight simulators as chief technical pilot, fired off messages to a colleague berating Max customers and designers. Internal Messages Some of his communications were included in internal messages that were revealed in October. Those discussions showed the pressure exerted by Boeing executives to get the Max into service quickly, said a key lawmaker in the U.S. Congress. Boeing disclosed another batch of internal memos and employee messages last week. While it's not clear if Boeing will shift trainers and simulators back to Seattle, combining pilots in the same group is an "improvement," said Ray Goforth, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, a labor union. Boeing shifted the training operation and equipment across the country to Florida in 2013, months after trainers and manual-writers voted to join the union. "While you've heard us complain a lot, some of us still hold out hope that Calhoun in his new role will actually put some of this nonsense aside and embrace unionized workers as workers," said Rich Plunkett, director of strategic development for the union. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-15/boeing-reshuffles-pilots-after-max-crisis-exposes-dysfunction Back to Top More people tried to bring guns through airport security in 2019 than the year before Travelers tried to bring more guns through Newark Liberty Airport security checkpoints last year than at any other metro New Jersey-New York airport, Transportation Security Administration said. Overall, TSA officers nabbed travelers with 26 guns in the New York City region's three major airports in 2019, which officials called a "notable increase" from the 20 caught in 2018. That reflected a national trend of an uptick in the number of firearms travelers have brought to airports over the past several years. Newark Airport bucked that trend with 11 firearms detected at checkpoints last year, a decline from the 14 guns TSA officers found in 2018, officials said. Still, screeners at Newark Airport saw more guns than the eight detected at John F. Kennedy Airport or the seven guns travelers tried to bring on airplanes at LaGuardia Airport. Travelers who bring weapons to a checkpoint are subject to federal civil penalties of up to $13,000. A typical first offense for carrying a handgun into a checkpoint is $3,900, TSA officials said. Nationwide, TSA officers detected more firearms at checkpoints in 2019 than ever before in the agency's 18-year history. A total of 4,432 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags or on passengers at checkpoints across the country last year, officials said. Of those firearms, 87% were loaded. The reason for the uptick? "More guns," said Lisa Farbstein, a TSA spokeswoman. Figures for how many of those detections resulted in arrests or criminal charges were not immediately available from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, operators of the airports. The three local airports didn't come close to being near the top 10 airports that had the most firearms detected. That distinction goes Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport where 323 guns were intercepted, an increase of 25 firearms from 2018. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport was second highest at 217 guns, officials said. How can you legally travel with a firearm? Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are unloaded, packed in a hard-side case, locked, and packed separately from ammunition. Ammunition must be in its original box and can be packed inside the hard-side case, next to the firearm. Airline officials should be notified about the gun when they check that bag, TSA officials said. https://www.nj.com/traffic/2020/01/bang-bang-youre-caught-tsa-nabbed-more-people-with-guns-at-the-airport-in-2019.html Back to Top NTSB releases preliminary report on Kauai tour helicopter crash HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - The pilot of a Kauai tour helicopter that crashed Dec. 26 was on his eighth and final flight of the day, according to a preliminary NTSB report on the incident. The crash killed all seven people onboard. The NTSB report, released Wednesday, did not indicate a possible cause but said a witness reported "adverse weather conditions" around the time of the crash. The pilot didn't make a "mayday" report or indicate any type of emergency before the crash. Safari Helicopters, which ran the tour, start "flight-locating procedures" at 5:31 p.m. on Dec. 26 - 10 minutes after the helicopter was due to return to Lihue. The chopper was found the following morning in remote, mountainous terrain inside Kokee State Park. The NTSB said the helicopter's pilot was last heard from at 4:45 p.m. as he reported that the helicopter was exiting Waimea Canyon and heading into Kokee State Park. At about 4:57 p.m., the NTSB has said, the helicopter hit a north-facing slope at an elevation of about 3,000 feet, burst into flames and came to rest about 100 feet below where the aircraft made impact. In the NTSB report, investigators said a witness who was about 1 1/2 miles from the crash site heard "what he described as a hovering helicopter followed by a high-pitched whine." At the time, the witness said, the weather had turned bad and visibility was at just 20 feet. "Knowing something was wrong, he attempted to locate the helicopter but was unable due to the adverse weather conditions and fading daylight," the NTSB said. While the wreckage was consumed by fire, investigators said, all the chopper's main components were located within the debris field. In addition to the 69-year-old pilot, a mother and daughter from Wisconsin and a family of four from Switzerland were killed in the crash. Investigators have said they'll be looking at a number of factors as they try to determine the cause of the crash, including weather conditions and the potential of mechanical issues or pilot error. A final report could take years to complete. https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/01/15/ntsb-issues-preliminary-report-kauai-tour-helicopter-crash-that-killed/ Back to Top Chicago-Bound Flight Diverted to New Mexico Due to Unruly Passenger The airline said that the flight landed in Albuquerque and took off again after the incident American Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-80s and Boeing 767 parked An American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Chicago was forced to divert to Albuquerque on Wednesday because of a disruptive passenger, the airline said. According to the airline, American flight 967 from LAX to O'Hare was diverted Wednesday afternoon due to an incident involving a passenger. The flight landed in Albuquerque, New Mexico just before 3 p.m., and took off after being met by law enforcement officials at the gate. According to television station KOB in Albuquerque, a person on the flight tweeted that the passenger struck a flight attendant, took his pants off, and kicked seats. It is unclear what charges the passenger will face. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-bound-flight-diverted-to-new-mexico-due-to-unruly-passenger/2202135/ Back to Top FAA Picks Raytheon to Refresh STARS The Federal Aviation Administration has chosen Raytheon Co. to improve the usability and cut operational costs for the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System, or STARS. "We want air traffic controllers to have the best tools available to manage the increasingly complex airspace around our airports," said Dave Wajsgras, president of Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. Ar traffic controllers across the U.S. use STARS to provide safe and efficient aircraft spacing and sequencing guidance for over 40,000 departing and arriving aircraft daily at more than 600 civilian and military airports, Raytheon said. "In partnership with the FAA, our STARS program has been deployed at 11 of the largest Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities that control 80 percent of U.S. air traffic," said Matt Gilligan, vice president of Raytheon IIS. Raytheon has installed the advanced STARS systems at TRACONS in New York, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, northern and southern California, St. Louis, Louisville, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Raytheon said its STARS team will continue to work with FAA's NextGen revamp effort to achieve a historic first - a single national software and hardware baseline across the country by the middle of 2020. https://washingtonexec.com/2020/01/faa-raytheon-stars/#.XiA3bP5KiUk Back to Top This is the worst airline in America, according to the Wall Street Journal The airline had problems with canceled flights, mishandled baggage, and more. American Airlines is the worst airline in America, according to the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper released its 2019 Airline Scorecard on Wednesday, which ranked American last out of nine U.S. airlines. The No. 1 airline in America, for the third year in a row, is Delta Air Lines, according to the report. The annual report ranks the airlines in the following seven areas: on-time arrivals, canceled flights, extreme delays, two-hour tarmac delays, mishandled baggage, involuntary bumping, and complaints. American, which has ranked last in three of the past five years, had the worst score in four of the seven categories: canceled flights, two-hour tarmac delays, mishandled baggage, and involuntary bumping. "For more than half of 2019, a contract dispute between American and its mechanics was essentially negotiated on the tarmac, with passengers paying a heavy price," the Wall Street Journal wrote. "From mid-February through late August, American had a high number of planes out of service each morning, forcing cancellations and delays and leaving customers stranded." Top-ranked Delta has an "industry-leading cancellation rate," according to the publication, and ranked the best in three categories: canceled flights, on-time arrivals, and involuntary bumping. JetBlue, Logan International Airport's largest carrier, ranked sixth and had the worst score for extreme delays. The report used data from masFlight and the U.S. Department of Transportation. This is the 12th year the paper has provided a scorecard of U.S. carriers. https://www.boston.com/travel/travel/2020/01/15/worst-airline-in-america-wall-street-journal-report Back to Top Analyst sees 737 MAX production restarting at fewer than 20 aircraft per month New production of the Boeing Co. 737 MAX has been halted as the company waits on global regulators to clear the troubled jet to return to service. Whenever production of the Boeing Co. 737 resumes, one aerospace analyst expects the initial output rate to be at least 60 percent lower than where Wichita ended on the program in 2019. And for suppliers ranging from Wichita's largest employer, Spirit AeroSystems Inc. - which last week announced 2,800 local layoffs due to the production freeze on the MAX - to the numerous smaller local companies that support it, an expectedly slow ramp back up in production from there will mean even more difficult days ahead. "The impact on suppliers is going to be profound," says Seattle-area analyst Scott Hamilton. "The slow ramp-up means recalling employees, at Spirit and any other supplier, will be a gradual return to previous employment levels. It will be challenging for small suppliers to stay in business." Hamilton, managing editor of the aviation-focused Leeham News and Analysis, writes on his website that of the multiple production scenarios being considered at Boeing (NYSE: BA) that his sources put the most likely return output at 10-15 aircraft per month. From there, he writes, a return to 42 per month isn't likely until 2021. That was the rate Boeing reduced to last year following the March grounding of the MAX after two crashes of the jet in five months killed all 346 people aboard the aircraft. But in Wichita, Spirit (NYSE: SPR) continued to build at the rate of 52 aircraft per month on the 737 program as part of staggered production plan designed to keep the linchpin supplier healthy in advance of potential future output increases. Spirit (NYSE: SPR builds 70 percent of the MAX in Wichita, including the aircraft's full fuselage, as part of a 737 program that accounts for half of its annual sales. The company said at the time it announced the layoffs last Friday that it had not yet received information from Boeing on when production would restart or at what level. Wichita and Spirit AeroSystems Inc. have significant ties to the Boeing Co. 737 MAX. Click through the following slideshow for a look back at the Air Capital's role on the program and a timeline of events leading to a production halt on the MAX by Boeing. Prior to the grounding, plans and investment in workforce and facilities were already in place at Spirit to increase production on the 737 to a record rate of 57 per month in the middle of last year. While some industry observers have questioned if that rate will ever be met in the future, Hamilton forecasts it won't be until late 2022 at the earliest. Production of the MAX - which now almost exclusively drives the overall 737 program - has been halted for an unknown length of time by Boeing as it awaits re-certification of the aircraft by global regulators. Hamilton, who has been in aerospace news more than 30 years and is a former board member of the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance, notes that because of the uncertainty of when that return will happen that any production forecast, as well as any plans at Boeing, are subject to ongoing change. Also adding to the dynamic around how many new MAX jets the company will start building again is how long it will take Boeing to work through the nearly 400 aircraft it assembled but did not deliver to customers because of the grounding. There is also the matter of the nearly 100 completed fuselages that Spirit has built and is holding in inventory in Wichita. And lower production rates and potentially slipping delivery schedules will begin to reduce cash flow at companies from Boeing on down through the supply chain. It all points to even more challenging weeks and months ahead, Hamilton writes, for the individual aircraft program that has the most impact on the Wichita economy. "Boeing hasn't hit bottom yet," he says. "The worst is yet to come for suppliers." https://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/news/2020/01/15/analyst-sees-737-max-production-restarting-at.html?ana=yahoo&yptr=yahoo Back to Top Astronauts upgrade space station batteries in second all-woman spacewalk HOUSTON - The second all-female spacewalk in history continued the work of the first, as the same two NASA astronauts upgraded batteries outside the International Space Station. Jessica Meir and Christina Koch completed a 7-hour and 29-minute extravehicular activity (EVA, or spacewalk) on Wednesday (Jan. 15), replacing the batteries that store power for one pair of the space station's electricity-generating solar arrays. The excursion resumed the work that the two Expedition 61 flight engineers performed in October, which made headlines as the first spacewalk by two women. "It was truly amazing for Christina and me to be back out here today," Meir said during a live broadcast of the spacewalk. "We have been talking about it a lot and it was really something we were looking forward to." The spacewalk began at 6:35 a.m. EST (1135 GMT), when both Koch and Meir switched their spacesuits over to internal power. "It's a beautiful view out here," said Meir, soon after exiting the Quest airlock. The two spacewalkers removed three degraded nickel-hydrogen batteries and installed two more powerful lithium-ion batteries for the space station's port, or left side, outboard solar arrays. Meir and Koch stowed the older batteries, which had been in place for the past decade, on an external pallet for their later disposal and installed adapter plates to enable the new batteries to work with the orbiting laboratory's power system. NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (in foreground, in spacesuit with red stripes) and Christina Koch (in background, in spacesuit with no stripes) perform the the second all-female spacewalk in history, upgrading batteries outside of the International Space Station on Wednesday (Jan. 15, 2020). "Awesome job," radioed astronaut Stephanie Wilson from inside Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, from where she was helping to guide Meir and Koch through the spacewalk's tasks. "We made great progress toward upgrading the batteries on the 4B side. You're both awesome, nice work!" Each battery measures about half the size of a refrigerator, or 40 inches long by 37 inches wide by 19 inches high (101 by 94 by 48 centimeters). The old nickel-hydrogen batteries weigh 365 lbs. (165 kilograms) each. The lithium-ion replacements weigh 428 lbs. (194 kg). The work contributed to a larger, ongoing effort to replace all 48 of the station's degraded nickel-hydrogen batteries with the more capable lithium-ion units. One lithium-ion battery and one adapter plate can replace two nickel-hydrogen batteries. The work began with a series of spacewalks in January 2017 and has continued as Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicles (HTVs) have delivered the new batteries to the station. NASA astronaut Jessica Meir (left) holds a replacement lithium-ion battery to be installed on the International Space Station's port-side truss during her and Christina Koch's spacewalk on Wednesday (Jan. 15, 2020). Meir and Koch's spacewalk on Wednesday proceeded mostly to plan, with the exception of a minor issue with Koch's spacesuit early in the EVA. "Christina's helmet lights are not attached," radioed Meir to Mission Control, as the assembly normally attached to the top of Koch's spacesuit helmet dangled from its power cable. "The cable is still attached, of course, but the camera and the helmet lights have been detached from her helmet." Meir attempted to reattach the light assembly, but it would not lock into place. The two lights are used as an aid when the space station passes into Earth's shadow and is not lit by the sun. "We think with the light locks installed you are not going to be able to get the helmet light seated onto the grooves. So instead, we would like to de-mate the power cable and completely remove the assembly," Wilson told the two spacewalkers. The spacewalk continued with Koch staying close to Meir so that she was aided by the lights still attached to Meir's helmet. Wednesday's EVA, which ended at 2:04 p.m. EST (1904 GMT), marked Koch's fifth and Meir's second career spacewalks. Meir, who served as EV1 (or lead spacewalker) and wore the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit with red stripes, has logged a total of 14 hours and 46 minutes on her two EVAs. Koch, who as EV2 wore the suit with no identifiers, has a total of 35 hours and 17 minutes spanning her five spacewalks. This was the 225th EVA devoted to the International Space Station since assembly of the orbiting outpost began in 1998. Meir and Koch are scheduled to again venture outside together on Monday (Jan. 20) to complete the replacement of the batteries on the port P6 truss. https://www.space.com/second-all-woman-spacewalk-success.html Back to Top Back to Top Back to Top Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship The Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship was established by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to shape the next generation of aviation researchers, honoring the late Najeeb Elias Halaby, an eminent aviator and administrator, for his vision and more than five decades of extraordinary contributions to aviation (https://ral.ucar.edu/opportunity/halaby-fellowship). The Fellowship The recipient of a Najeeb E. Halaby Graduate Student Fellowship will spend three months (in 2020 or early 2021) in residence with NCAR's Aviation Weather Research Program, which Mr. Halaby was instrumental in establishing in the 1980s. As the nation's leader in addressing aviation weather research, NCAR plays a unique role in meeting user needs by transferring research results to operations through its Research Application Laboratory (http://www.ral.ucar.edu/). The Fellow will conduct research broadly aimed at mitigation of weather sensitivities (e.g., weather impact avoidance) on aviation. We particularly encourage applicants interested in weather impacts on emerging modes of transportation, like unmanned aerial system operations and urban air mobility. The Fellowship will provide: • a monthly stipend for three months, including temporary living expenses • round-trip travel expenses to and from Boulder, CO • travel to a conference to present results • page charges (if necessary) for one publication of key results Eligibility and Application The Halaby Fellowship targets graduate students (late Masters or early PhD level) enrolled in an aviation-relevant department or program of a domestic or international university. Interested candidates should have advanced research skills, far-reaching vision, and dedication to get things accomplished. Consideration for this Fellowship will be given to candidates based on the following submitted material: • Curriculum vitae • Proposal (maximum five pages) presenting the research to be conducted at NCAR, the anticipated outcome of that, and how the proposed effort ties into the candidate's ongoing graduate research project(s) • Contact information for three references (one of which should be the student's primary advisor) NCAR will accept applications for the Halaby Fellowship each year. Email Applications by February 28, 2020 to halabyfellowship@ucar.edu Back to Top RESEARCH SURVEY SMS for small operators: does it make sense? As part of an independent research project at Lund University, we'd like to hear from small business/private aviation operators about their experience with Safety Management Systems (SMS). Does your organisation have an SMS, and a workforce of 20 or less? Does the SMS generate value? Do you think there might be a disconnect between the SMS requirements and t he capabilities of your organisation? Considering the current lack of scientific research and peer-reviewed literature for this particular sector of aviation, this is a rather unique opportunity to share feedback in complete anonymity and to help identify any issue requiring focused attention. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey now, but also to share the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RYDPYYT Any assistance to advance the industry's understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the SMS framework will be greatly appreciated! For any question or comment, please do not hesitate to contact st1830de-s@student.lu.se. Many thanks, and best wishes for 2020! Stéphane De Wolf MSc student, Human Factors & System Safety Lund University Curt Lewis