Flight Safety Information February 3, 2020 - No. 024 In This Issue Accident: ACT B744 at Dammam and Jeddah on Feb 1st 2020, tail strike on departure Accident: Westjet DH8D at Terrace on Jan 31st 2020, nose gear collapse on landing Incident: Iran A319 at Kermanshah on Feb 1st 2020, overran runway on landing Leaked Air Traffic Recordings Show Iranian Pilot Knew Ukrainian Jet Was Hit by Missile The Bahamas Signs Bilateral Air Transport Agreement With The USA UN Aviation Agency Slammed for Excluding Taiwan From Virus Policies Gas mask-wearing man removed from aircraft for causing panic China Eastern Airlines suspends flights to US due to coronavirus Kobe Bryant crash renews battle over rejected safety regulations Torqued: Why Does FAA Still Rate Indonesia Category 1? Senator wants probe of Hawaii FAA office after 3 crashes FAA, EASA Argue Over MAX Wiring Issue Ryanair makes Boeing offer for new MAX order Helicopter Accident Investigation from SCSI Investigation Management from SCSI MITRE - SMS Course - March 2020 ACSF Safety Symposium Accident: ACT B744 at Dammam and Jeddah on Feb 1st 2020, tail strike on departure An ACT Airlines (aka MyCargo Airlines) Boeing 747-400 freighter on behalf of Saudia Arabian Airlines, registration TC-MCT performing flight SV-919 from Dammam (Saudi Arabia) to Zaragoza,SP (Spain), struck its tail onto the runway during departure from Dammam's runway 16R at 02:43L (23:43Z). The crew stopped the climb initially at 7000 feet, later climbed to FL100 and subsequently decided to divert to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). The aircraft climbed to FL150 and further to FL180 for the flight to Jeddah and landed in Jeddah without further incident about 2:50 hours after departure. The aircraft is still on the ground in Jeddah about 21.5 hours after landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d2bf0d1&opt=0 Back to Top Accident: Westjet DH8D at Terrace on Jan 31st 2020, nose gear collapse on landing A Westjet de Havilland Dash 8-400, registration C-FKWE performing flight WS-3107 from Vancouver,BC to Terrace,BC (Canada) with 42 passengers and 4 crew, landed on Terrace's runway 33 at 21:06L (Feb 1st 05:06Z) but suffered the collapse of the nose gear and came to a stop on the runway. The passengers disembarked onto the runway and were taken to the terminal. The airline reported a partial nose gear collapse. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d2c3005&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Iran A319 at Kermanshah on Feb 1st 2020, overran runway on landing An Iran Air Airbus A319-100, registration EP-IEQ performing flight IR-283 from Tehran Mehrabad to Kermanshah (Iran) with 150 people on board, landed on Kermanshah's runway 29 at about 02:30Z but overran the end of the runway by about 6 meters/20 feet and came to a stop with the nose gear on soft ground. There were no injuries, the aircraft sustained minor if any damage. Iran's AIB reported the aircraft was to turn off the runway via taxiway A and came to a stop between taxiways A and B. The airline reported there had been no technical defect, the aircraft skidded when it attempted to turn onto the taxiway. http://avherald.com/h?article=4d2bad6d&opt=0 Back to Top Leaked Air Traffic Recordings Show Iranian Pilot Knew Ukrainian Jet Was Hit by Missile A pilot for Iran's Aseman Airlines who witnessed the Ukrainian plane explosion called out to Tehran air controllers: 'A series of lights like ... yes, it is missile, is there something?' A leaked recording of an exchange between an Iranian air-traffic controller and an Iranian pilot purports to show that authorities immediately knew a missile had downed a Ukrainian jetliner after takeoff from Tehran, killing all 176 people aboard, despite days of denials by the Islamic Republic. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged the recording's authenticity in a report aired by a Ukrainian television channel on Sunday night. In Tehran on Monday, the head of the Iranian investigation team, Hassan Rezaeifar, acknowledged the recording was legitimate and said that it was handed over to Ukrainian officials. After the January 8 disaster, Iran's civilian government maintained for days that it didn't know the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had shot down the aircraft. The downing of the jetliner came just hours after the Guard launched a ballistic missile attack on Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for an earlier American drone strike that killed the Guard's top general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad. UK, US, Canadian and Australian officials now say it is "highly likely" an Iranian missile accidentally shot down the plane: http://po.st/QANtZM A transcript of the recording, published by Ukrainian 1+1 TV channel, contains a conversation in Farsi between an air-traffic controller and a pilot reportedly flying a Fokker 100 jet for Iran's Aseman Airlines from Iran's southern city of Shiraz to Tehran. "A series of lights like ... yes, it is missile, is there something?" the pilot calls out to the controller. "No, how many miles? Where?" the controller asks. The pilot responds that he saw the light by the Payam airport, near where the Guard's Tor M-1 anti-aircraft missile was launched from. The controller says nothing has been reported to them, but the pilot remains insistent. "It is the light of missile," the pilot says. "Don't you see anything anymore?" the controller asks. "Dear engineer, it was an explosion. We saw a very big light there, I don't really know what it was," the pilot responds. The controller then tries to contract the Ukrainian jetliner, but unsuccessfully. Publicly accessible flight-tracking radar information suggests the Aseman Airlines aircraft, flight No. 3768, was close enough to Tehran to see the blast. Iranian civil aviation authorities for days insisted it wasn't a missile that brought down the plane, even after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. officials began saying they believed it had been shot down. Iranian officials should have immediately had access to the air-traffic control recordings and Zelenskiy told 1+1 that "the recording, indeed, shows that the Iranian side knew from the start that our plane was shot down by a missile, they were aware of this at the moment of the shooting." Ukraine's president repeated his demands to decode the plane's flight recorders in Kyiv - something Iranian officials had promised last month but later backtracked on. On Monday, Ukrainian investigators were to travel to Tehran to participate in the decoding effort, but Zelenskiy insisted on bringing the so-called "black boxes" back to Kyiv. "It is very important for us," he said. Iranian authorities, however, condemned the publication of the recording as "unprofessional," saying it was part of a confidential report. "This action by the Ukrainians makes us not want to give them any more evidence," said Rezaifar, the head of the Iranian investigators, according to a report by the semiofficial Mehr news agency. https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/leaked-air-traffic-recordings-show-iranian-pilot-knew-jet-was-hit-by-missile-1.8480326 Back to Top The Bahamas Signs Bilateral Air Transport Agreement With The USA The Bahamas is prohibiting Disney cruise ship passengers to disembark if they have visited mainland China in the past 20 days February 2, 2020 - The initial bilateral Air Transport Agreement between the Government of the United States of America (USA) and the Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas was announced on January 27, 2020. Signed in Nassau, The Bahamas, by the Assistant Secretary Manisha Singh and Bahamian Minister of Tourism and Aviation Dionisio D'Aguilar, the agreement establishes a modern civil aviation relationship with The Bahamas, consistent with U.S. Open Skies international aviation policy. This agreement includes unrestricted capacity and frequency of services, open route rights, a liberal charter regime, and open code-sharing opportunities. The Agreement commits both governments to high standards of aviation safety and security. As of February 1, 2020, the USA has reciprocal air transport agreements with over 125 partners. This is important news since the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation reported the highest number of international arrivals ever on March 21, 2019. Air capacity grew with a solid seat growth from the best-connected international markets - the U.S.A (+23.9%) and Canada (+12.7%). The US Department of State, working with the Departments of Transportation and Commerce, negotiates agreements with foreign governments that provide the framework for commercial air service. America's Open Skies policy has gone hand-in-hand with U.S. airline globalization. By allowing U.S. air carriers unlimited market access to our partners' markets as well as rights to fly to points in between and beyond, Open Skies agreements provide maximum operational flexibility worldwide for U.S. airlines. Last year, the State Department published various Travel Advisories for the Bahamas. On November 26, 2019, the Exercise Increased Caution advisory for the Bahamas is related to increased risks on some of the 16 islands. And recently, one of The Bahamas Caribbean neighbors the Republic of Cuba suspended most air carrier options with the USA. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced on January 10, 2020, the suspension until further notice all public charter flights between the USA and Cuban destinations, other than Havana's José Martí International Airport.' Furthermore, from a health-risk perspective, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) included The Bahamans in its January 3, 2020 'Global Measles Outbreak Travel Alert. The CDC also suggests various travel-related vaccines when visiting The Bahamas. And recently, guests sailing on the Disney Dream cruise ship received a letter in their stateroom on February 1, 2020, regarding a newly initiated travel restriction in The Bahamas, as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. According to this passenger notice, Disney's letter says 'The Bahamas will NOT allow anyone to disembark in a Bahamian port of call if they have been to mainland China in the past 20 days.' 'For Disney Cruise Line guests, this notice will also apply to Nassau, and Castaway Cay.' The Bahamas travel medication and vaccine news published by Vax-Before-Travel. https://www.vaxbeforetravel.com/bahamas-prohibiting-disney-cruise-ship-passengers-disembark-if-they-have-visited-mainland-china-past Back to Top UN Aviation Agency Slammed for Excluding Taiwan From Virus Policies Critics pointed out that Taiwan is being excluded by a UN civil aviation agency from important air safety information. The organization responded by mass blocking them. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency overseeing international air transport, continues to exclude Taiwan from its coronavirus cooperation. With over 7,700 reported cases worldwide and likely more to follow, Taiwan's 23.8 million population and its role as an international air traffic hub have been neglected, as the country has not been part of ICAO since 2013. As journalists and scholars took to social media to confront the organization, ICAO responded by blocking critical voices on Twitter. The uproar started a week ago after Jessica Drun, a non-resident fellow at Washington-based think tank Project2049, launched the following tweet: Want to drive the point home that two orgs, @WHO & @icao, refuse to share knowledge w/ Taiwan authorities. This means civil aviation authorities for one of busiest regional airports do not receive up-to-date info on any potential ICAO-WHO efforts. But also--since we're talking about international space, guess which airport is a major regional transportation hub (answer: Taoyuan) & aviation authorities in Taiwan ALSO don't have a seat at the table? Any coordination between @icao & the @WHO should include Taiwan's input. 2/ Drun highlighted the dangers of leaving out Taiwan in the fight against the global health threat. Being excluded from the communication, Taiwan is now forced to gain vital information through inconvenient loopholes, she said. The Montreal-based UN agency cultivates the coordination and growth of international air transport and watches over aviation safety. Furthermore, it keeps airports up to date with the latest information from any ICAO-WHO joint operations. Taiwan has been excluded from the UN General Assembly ever since after a resolution passed in 1971, which recognised Beijing over Taipei as the legitimate representative of China in the council. ICAO's response to the subsequent avalanche of criticism was to block the Twitter accounts involved. The agency then tweeted that they were dealing with "large amounts of spam", further angering critics. "Calling genuinely concerned queries 'spam' is purely evil and unprofessional," William Yang, DW News' East-Asia Correspondent, wrote on Twitter. This is not the first time ICAO attempted to silence critics. In March 2019, the agency also garnered criticism from academics and activists on its environmental policy. They similarly labeled the critics as "fake news" and "spam" and tweeted a poem in response: Lev Nachman, a Fulbright research fellow in Taiwan, called ICAO's official response "disappointing but not surprising, given how they behaved online." He told The News Lens that he is "less upset at ICAO and more thrilled at the amount of online mobilization around the issue. Their bad response only made more people aware of Taiwan's position." The Office of the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General responded to the social media fiasco that the "Twitter campaign" launched against ICAO was "communicating misinformation" and that the agency's actions were in line with its policies for handling such situations. The UN agency's rigid reaction to the incident will likely draw more attention to Taiwan's exclusion. Both the top executive and the social media manager of ICAO are Chinese nationals, a trend that's also growing in other UN agencies, including International Telecommunication Union and the Industrial Development Organization. Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport is among the world's busiest airports, handling over 46 million passengers annually. The ICAO, whose priority is to coordinate international aviation standards and practices, will leave millions of travelers exposed to health threats if it keeps on pushing Taiwan out of the conversation. The U.S. House of Representatives foreign affairs committee also commented on the ICAO's handling of criticism and tweeted, "The United Nations @icao plays a valuable role in ensuring aviation security. But silencing voices that oppose ICAO's exclusion of Taiwan goes against their stated principles of fairness, inclusion and transparency." https://international.thenewslens.com/article/130610 Back to Top Gas mask-wearing man removed from aircraft for causing panic Panic on aircraft, gas mask-wearing man is removed from flight DALLAS - A man wearing a gas mask was taken off a Houston bound flight Thursday after causing a panic, according to KTRK. American Airlines flight 2212 was delayed in Dallas-Fort Worth for at least an hour because a passenger donned a gas mask while wearing a black beanie. The mask did not have a filter which confused passengers. "I had a seat in the back. I was sitting there. I was talking to the lady next to me. We heard a little bit of commotion. I looked up and saw a guy coming onto the plane wearing a full gas mask, which was kind of odd. He didn't have a filter, which I thought was more strange," Joseph Say told KTRK. After the person was escorted of the plane, the flight continued on to Houston according to KPRC-TV. https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/gas-mask-wearing-man-removed-aircraft-causing-panic/EFAN4P7QXBEBFMN66W66RFKXWU/ Back to Top China Eastern Airlines suspends flights to US due to coronavirus China Eastern Airlines announced that it is suspending its flights from Shanghai to New York and other US cities due to the rapidly spreading Wuhan coronavirus. The carrier canceled flights from the sprawling Chinese city to the Big Apple and Los Angeles through Feb. 10, citing "the recent public health incident," according to a notice circulated to travel agents, CNN Business reported. The company also is canceling flights from Shanghai to San Francisco on Thursday and Sunday, to Chicago on Saturday and to Honolulu from Monday until March 27, according to the notice. Several flights to LA, San Francisco and Vancouver that originate in Chengdu or Kunming with layovers in Nanjing or Qingdao also have been canceled this week, CNN reported. "In the days to come, China Eastern will pay close attention to the epidemic, and may further adjust the arrangements of flights," according to the notice. Hawaii Lt. Gov. Josh Green, a physician, said "it's a good thing that China Eastern has suspended their flights, but we still need to be vigilant about any passengers that are redirected through other countries to our state," according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The US has declared a public health emergency due to the outbreak, placing a temporary ban on foreigners who recently traveled to China - other than immediate family of US citizens and permanent residents. The federal government also ordered a 14-day quarantine of those who visited Hubei province - where the epicenter city of Wuhan is located - within two weeks. There are 3,000 American citizens potentially returning from China, but most live on the mainland and will require self-quarantine, Green told the news outlet. Major international airlines including Air Canada, British Airways, Delta, Lufthansa and Qatar also have suspended all flights to mainland China amid the outbreak. https://nypost.com/2020/02/03/china-eastern-airlines-suspends-flights-to-us-due-to-coronavirus/ Back to Top Kobe Bryant crash renews battle over rejected safety regulations Kobe Bryant and eight others were killed in a Jan. 26 helicopter crash in Calabasas.(National Transportation Safety Board) After the deaths of Kobe Bryant and eight others in a helicopter crash on a Calabasas hillside last week, a National Transportation Safety Board member said federal aviation regulators had previously rejected an NTSB recommendation to require a terrain warning system, a safety feature that might have saved their lives. It was hardly the first time the NTSB had publicly questioned the Federal Aviation Administration's decisions. For decades, the two federal agencies have clashed on a range of issues, including smoke detectors in airline cargo holds and crashworthy fuel tanks on light helicopters. Although both agencies tout their close working relationship, neither disputes that it can be contentious. The NTSB, which investigates aviation accidents, has made thousands of safety recommendations over the years but has no power to enforce them. The FAA, which has sole authority to set the rules, has accepted about 75% of them, according to the FAA's most recent tally of closed cases in late 2018. "The two agencies share a common goal: promoting aviation safety and preventing aircraft accidents, although they occasionally have different views on the most appropriate course of action," the FAA said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. Fatal accidents that have occurred on the heels of rejected or long-delayed safety recommendations have sometimes served as major friction points in the complicated relationship between the agencies. "When the FAA says, 'Thank for your interest in aviation safety' and 'We'll study your recommendation,' and then they study it and study it and study it, and then another accident happens. ... If you're the NTSB, it's pretty frustrating if it's something you've been talking about for 10 years," said Greg Feith, a former NTSB senior accident investigator. Criticism of the FAA from various quarters goes back to the Eisenhower administration, when Congress created the agency in 1958 with a dual and often conflicting mandate to ensure the safety of civil air travel and to promote the aviation industry. Old Luxury had a long run. Welcome to the new era of Young Luxury. For decades, the FAA battled the perception that it put commerce before safety, especially when rejecting corrective actions as too expensive for airlines and other industry players. The FAA is required by federal law to base safety decisions on risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis, a major difference between it and the NTSB. One of the FAA's most controversial and ill-fated decisions came in 1993, when it rejected an NTSB recommendation to require smoke detectors and fire-suppression systems in airplane cargo holds that are inaccessible to the crew during flight. The requirement would have cost the airline industry more than $350 million and "would not have provided a significant degree of protection" to those aboard the planes, the FAA said at the time - and would soon regret. In 1996, oxygen canisters stowed in the hold of a ValuJet DC-9 caught fire and caused it to crash in the Florida Everglades, 10 minutes after takeoff from Miami International Airport. "They decided not to mandate it, and then we lost a ValuJet," Feith, who investigated the Flight 592 disaster, said in an interview. "We lost 110 people." The NTSB's final accident report cited the FAA's failure to require smoke detectors and fire suppression systems as one of the main causes of the crash. Under public pressure to reform the FAA, Congress amended the Federal Aviation Act in October 1996 to delete references to the agency's "promoting" of the aviation industry, while underscoring and expanding the safety aspects of its mission. The FAA relented on its earlier opposition and adopted the NTSB recommendations on smoke detectors and fire suppression systems in cargo holds. The NTSB and the FAA also have clashed over the years on several issues involving Robinson Helicopters, manufactured by the family-owned company in Torrance. The agencies have been at odds over safety concerns on rotor blades and in-flight vibrations, as well as more-crashworthy fuel tanks for the Robinson R44, the world's most popular civilian helicopter. Two months after the four-seat model was introduced in 1993, three men died when the all-aluminum fuel tank on an R44 ruptured and caught fire in a crash on the runway at El Monte Airport, just after takeoff. The three were the first of dozens of people killed or seriously injured when R44s caught fire in otherwise survivable accidents. It would take Robinson 16 years to begin fitting new R44s in 2009 with more-crashworthy tanks lined with flexible bladders. In 2010, the company recommended the bladders as a retrofit for existing R44s, and offered them as a kit for $6,800. But many owners did not make voluntary retrofits, and fatal post-crash fires continued to occur. In 2012, an Orange County attorney and private pilot, Jim Bechler, died when his R44's tank breached and caught fire in a low-impact accident at the Corona Airport. By 2013, Australian aviation authorities had become so alarmed by fatal R44 fires that they grounded them until their tanks were reinforced with flexible bladders. Within weeks, officials in New Zealand and South Africa issued similar orders. The European Aviation Safety Agency, with 32 member countries, also took steps to speed up retrofits. In 2014, the NTSB expressed its own concerns about the vulnerability of R44 tanks and asked the FAA to also make the retrofits mandatory in the United States. "In a number of cases, the occupants have survived the initial accident, only to sustain serious or fatal injuries in the post-crash fire," the NTSB noted. Even Robinson Helicopter asked the FAA to make the retrofits mandatory, according to an email from the company's chief engineer to an agency official. But the FAA rejected the NTSB recommendation. Based on an analysis of five years of data, the agency concluded that R44s "had no statistically higher percentage of fatalities as a result of post-impact fires" than other helicopters designed and certified before 1994. That was the year that the FAA, in an attempt to reduce post-crash fire deaths, required more resilient fuel systems, including tanks, to be included in all new helicopter designs. But helicopters designed and certified before 1994 were exempt from the new standards, regardless of when they were built. The FAA defended its decision in a statement to The Times in 2018. "The FAA believes NTSB recommendations concerning Robinson helicopters have been effectively addressed," it said. The NTSB - an independent board that was created in 1967 and also investigates railroad, maritime and some other transportation accidents - has encountered strong resistance to some of its safety recommendations not just from the FAA but from other regulators. Prior to one of the worst maritime disasters in California history, a Labor Day blaze last year that killed 34 people aboard the dive boat Conception near Santa Cruz Island, the board had made repeated calls over a span of 20 years for improved fire-safety measures for such vessels. But a recent Times review of federal documents found that the U.S. Coast Guard, which inspects and regulates those vessels, rejected many of the NTSB recommendations, sometimes calling them too burdensome or duplicative of existing regulations. "When NTSB makes recommendations, the Coast Guard carefully considers the proposed measures and is required to weigh the benefits and impacts of implementation, " a spokesperson told The Times last year. Last week, Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB board member who led the panel's investigation into the Conception fire, was back on center stage in Southern California for the helicopter crash last Sunday that killed Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and all seven others aboard. She told reporters that the NTSB had long argued that terrain awareness and warning systems, or TAWS, should be required on helicopters that accommodate six or more passengers, such as the Sikorsky S-76 that was headed in heavy fog to Bryant's Thousand Oaks sports center. "Certainly, TAWS could have helped to provide information to the pilot on what terrain the pilot was flying in," she said. The NTSB began pushing for mandatory TAWS after a Sikorsky similar to the one Bryant chartered plunged into the Gulf of Mexico in 2004, 70 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas. Two pilots and eight passengers bound for an offshore oil rig died. A subsequent review of 55 previous helicopter and plane crashes determined that 17 might have been prevented by TAWS, the NTSB said. In 2000, the FAA required airplanes carrying six or more passengers to be outfitted with TAWS, and 14 years later it mandated the alert system for helicopter air ambulances. But the FAA kept TAWS optional for commercial helicopters, prompting the NTSB to label that decision "unacceptable." As it has in other disputes with the NTSB, the FAA defends its decision in this one. "Many helicopter air ambulance operations are conducted at night and from unimproved and unfamiliar landing areas," the FAA said in a statement. "By contrast, on-demand operations tend to occur in populated areas, relying on a robust network of routes and landing facilities." The FAA statement noted that safety improvements "do not only result from new rules." It also said that over the last two decades, the U.S. helicopter fatal accident rate has been cut in half, from 1.27 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours to 0.63. Some aviation experts have questioned whether TAWS would have prevented last week's crash, particularly if the pilot was disoriented in the fog. The investigation into the cause is still in its early stages. For its part, the NTSB continues to call for mandatory TAWS and flight data recorders, or black boxes, on charter helicopters, air taxis and other for-hire helicopters. The issue is on the 2019-2020 NTSB Most Wanted list of transportation improvements. The list notes that the FAA does not require the same safety measures for those helicopters as it does for commercial airlines. "Regardless of the purpose of the flight or the type of aircraft," the list's website says, "all flights should be safe-right now they may not be." https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-02/kobe-bryant-faa-ntsb-safety Back to Top Torqued: Why Does FAA Still Rate Indonesia Category 1? by John Goglia I know the FAA is facing a lot of harsh criticism since the two Boeing 737 Max accidents less than six months apart: the Lion Air Flight 610 crash in Indonesia in October 2018 and the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash in March 2019. But those criticisms have focused on the FAA's certification of the Boeing 737 Max and its oversight of Boeing. Some of that criticism is justified, in particular, allowing the aircraft to be certified with just one angle-of-attack (AOA) sensor for its MCAS-flight control software-system. One sensor for a critical component is a design failure that Boeing and the FAA should never have allowed. But there are more questions that the FAA needs to answer as a result of these accidents and their aftermath. While Boeing and the FAA made their share of mistakes in certifying the 737 Max, my review of the available public information shines an even harsher light on Lion Air and its operation of revenue service flying passengers. And it begs the question, why has the Indonesian government failed to take strong action in light of the glaring maintenance and other errors revealed by its own accident report? And, if the accident report wasn't enough, a New York Times investigation of the airline should be. If reporters could find these problems, one would hope the government agency entrusted with ensuring aviation safety in Indonesia could, as well. PRE-EXISTING ISSUES First, the accident report prepared by the Komite Nasional Keselamatan Transportasi (KNNT)-the Indonesian equivalent of the U.S. NTSB-contains information that should call into question Lion Air's qualifications to fly and Indonesia's oversight of the airline. Most troubling for me, as a long-time airline mechanic and accident investigator, is the history of maintenance problems before the 737 crashed on October 29. Those problems, and the failures to properly document or correct them, indicate to me that the crew on the fateful flight was assigned an unairworthy aircraft. And no crew should have ever been given that aircraft to fly, let alone a scheduled airline flight with paying passengers. According to the accident report prepared by the Indonesian government, the maintenance issues with the AOA sensor began almost a month before the accident. Thereafter, on multiple flights, there were indications of problems with this sensor, as well as with the flight control system. Maintenance actions based on these reported problems were incomplete, inadequate, or non-existent. For example, in one case where maintenance was unable to rectify the problems, the crew was told to just fly the aircraft-with paying passengers-to the next station. It is shocking that maintenance asked the crew to do this and even more shocking that the crew did this. And most of you have probably read of the problems on the flights immediately preceding the accident flight, with the crew fighting to control the aircraft. In addition to the problems noted in the accident report, a subsequent investigative report by the NY Times found "based on interviews with dozens of officials and airline employees, including pilots and members of maintenance teams...that Lion Air has a track record of working its pilots to the point of exhaustion, faking pilot training certification and forcing pilots to fly planes they worried were unsafe, including the plane that crashed." The NY Times investigation further found that "just as the company does not seem pressed to adopt changes from the report...Indonesian officials were quick to defend a carrier that has had 11 accidents and incidents since its founding in 1999." The report concluded, "after a crash, a company and a government deny problems, deflect blame, and drag their feet on improvements." To date, there is no indication that Lion Air management or the Indonesian government are tackling the systemic problems that appear to exist at the airline. OUT OF ICAO COMPLIANCE It seems to me that from these reports that Lion Air is not planning to take significant action to correct its safety issues any time soon nor does it appear that the Indonesian government will force the airline to make necessary changes or shut the airline down until it does. If that's the case, then Indonesia is not in compliance with its responsibilities as a member of ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization. Under ICAO, member countries are responsible for complying with international aviation safety standards and overseeing compliance with those safety standards by their air carriers. Indonesia's apparent reluctance to take on safety problems at Lion Air should cause the FAA to revisit its Category 1 designation for Indonesia under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program. Indonesia was upgraded to Category 1 in 2016 after being designated Category 2 from 2007. According to the FAA, "while under a Category 2 rating, the country either lacked laws or regulations necessary to oversee air carriers in accordance with minimum international standards, or its civil aviation authority...was deficient in one or more areas, such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record-keeping, or inspection procedures." Until the Indonesian government shows a willingness to take on Lion Air's safety problems, it's hard to imagine that it deserves to be rated a Category 1 country. Under IASA, the FAA determines whether a country's civil aviation authority maintains oversight of its air carriers consistent with international aviation safety standards developed by ICAO. And while those ratings may not seem important now since no Indonesian airliner is flying directly into the U.S., an airline like Garuda, the national airline of Indonesia that is majority-owned by the government, could begin service at any time. Also, travelers to Indonesia might well rely on the FAA's ratings in deciding whether to fly Indonesian airlines-like Lion Air-domestically, especially since the U.S. State Department notes Indonesia's FAA safety rating on its travel advisory page. "The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has assessed the Government of Indonesia's Directorate General of Civil Aviation as being in compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) aviation safety standards for oversight of Indonesia's air carrier operations." The FAA owes it to American travelers to reassess Indonesia's compliance with international safety standards. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/blogs/torqued-why-does-faa-still-rate-indonesia-category-1 Back to Top Senator wants probe of Hawaii FAA office after 3 crashes HONOLULU - A whistleblower has told a Senate committee that a manager in the Federal Aviation Administration's Hawaii field office improperly let a helicopter tour company owner certify pilots for flight on behalf of the agency. The owner then approved a pilot, who was at the controls 10 days later in April 2019 when a company aircraft crashed, killing all three people on board. The allegation and others about managers at the Hawaii office, prompted a key senator to ask the Transportation Department's Inspector General for an investigation. Novictor Aviation has been involved in three crashes during the past two years, according to a Jan. 24 letter from Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who chairs the Transportation Committee. Two whistleblowers allege an inappropriately close relationship between FAA managers and Novictor. An FAA manager, in an interview Friday with The Associated Press, said the allegation that he improperly granted "check airman" status to Novictor's owner was incorrect. He accused the whistleblower of "making up stories again." John Cox, vice-president of safety for Novictor Helicopters, called the allegations "grossly misleading." "The relationship between the Honolulu office and Novictor is one of professional commitment to safety and regulatory compliance," Cox said in a statement. "A rogue, disgruntled inspector's opinion is not representative of the facts." Allegations raised by the whistleblowers also include managers directing that investigative reports be altered, and management retaliation against an employee who reported the problems, according to the letter from Wicker to Inspector General Calvin Scovel III. The committee says in a fact sheet on the case that its own investigation isn't complete, but it "raises significant concerns about the efficacy of FAA oversight in Hawaii." The FAA said Friday that it has been investigating on its own and already is taking steps to address problems that have been substantiated. https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2020/02/02/hawaii-news/senator-wants-probe-of-hawaii-faa-office-after-3-crashes/ Back to Top FAA, EASA Argue Over MAX Wiring Issue The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the FAA and EASA are at odds over a potential wiring issue that was flagged during ongoing review of certification procedures on the Boeing 737 MAX. Boeing recently alerted the FAA that a wiring bundle for tail section controls on the MAX and maybe the previous generation NGs might not have enough clearance from each other and may be at risk for short circuits. The fix would be relatively simple and inexpensive, taking about an hour or two to install a clamp. But the WSJ report, quoting unnamed sources, says the issue affects wiring at various locations from nose to tail and rerouting the wires could take about two weeks. EASA wants the wiring fixed before a return to service but Boeing and the FAA say the issue isn't that urgent. The FAA Administrator is expected to rule on the wiring issue in coming weeks. The WSJ says a compromise may be proposed where the 400 aircraft now in storage would be modified and those that have already been in service would get the rewiring when the aircraft are already down for scheduled maintenance or software upgrades. Although the issue hasn't been resolved, it has already affected the recertification schedule since it has prompted the FAA to delay setting a date for a recertification flight. It's not clear what impact, if any, the decision for MAX aircraft might have on NG models. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-easa-argue-over-max-wiring-issue/ Back to Top Ryanair makes Boeing offer for new MAX order DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair has submitted an offer to Boeing for a new order of its grounded 737 MAX jet but does not expect to finalise it until the plane returns to service, Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said on Monday. made the offer for an undisclosed number of 737 MAX 10 jets, a larger model than the MAX 200 model the Irish airline currently has on order, O'Leary said on a conference call following the release of financial results for the last three months of 2019 "We are already in discussions with Boeing. We have an offer on the table for an order for new MAX 10s, which is a 230-seat aircraft," O'Leary said. "To be fair to them I don't think the new management team is in a position to be able to talk to us about a new order," he said. "We understand that, but we have an offer in and we expect to be at the head of the queue." Ryanair is one of the biggest customers of the MAX, with 210 currently on order. It was due to take delivery of the first 55 in time for this summer but now expects them by the summer of 2021. "We expect to reprice the (MAX) 200 order we already have and we would expect to put in place or agree a deal with Boeing on new aircraft pretty soon after the return to service has been resolved," O'Leary said. "Airbus have now had a 12- and 18-month lead over Boeing in terms of aircraft orders and the new management team at Boeing need to be capturing back that lead and the starting point should be their biggest existing customers, which is Southwest and Ryanair," he said, referring to Southwest Airlines. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/ryanair-makes-boeing-offer-max-113243548.html Curt Lewis