March 9, 2020 - No. 017 In This Issue ABARIS TRAINING Aviation maintenance student accused of bribing Duluth mechanic on FAA test HCC and PIA sign agreement to benefit students Delta Highlights Gender Diversity On International Women's Day Palantir Awarded Contract to Support U.S. Navy NOBLE System Amid coronavirus scare, DGCA issues instructions for checking aviation personnel. Some Airlines Request Delays To Embraer Deliveries Due To Virus ACI Jet Establishes Bombardier Parts Depot Former AA Mechanic Sentenced For Attempting To Destroy An Aircraft Mongolian maintenance specialist provides first service to Ukraine International The first SpaceX Dragon capsule is taking its final flight. Aviation maintenance student accused of bribing Duluth mechanic on FAA test An aviation maintenance student faces a federal charge after allegedly trying to pay a test administrator $2,500 for a passing grade on his Federal Aviation Administration exam, prosecutors said. Frank A. Jalion Amaro, 21, of Las Vegas, faces one count of criminal information with bribery after authorities said he came to Duluth and paid the test administrator to pass him on the agency's Airframe and Powerplant test.The FAA requires mechanics to obtain the certification in order to perform aircraft maintenance and approve equipment for returns to service. Mechanic students must take 1,900 hours of classroom and practical training before passing several tests covering 43 technical subjects, authorities said. Amaro was a student at an aviation maintenance school in Las Vegas. In November 2019, he allegedly contacted the Atlanta-based mechanic examiner and tried to bribe him for the certification.The administrator immediately notified authorities of the solicitation attempt and agreed to work with them, prosecutors said. Over the next few weeks, Amaro and the test administrator agreed that he would take the Airframe and Powerplant examination in Duluth on Dec. 16, authorities said in a news release. In exchange for a passing score, Amaro allegedly offered the man $500 up front and another $2,000 on the day of the test."The integrity of America's civil aviation system is of paramount importance," U.S. Attorney BJay Pak said. "By allegedly trying to bribe his way into obtaining an FAA certification to repair aircrafts, Amaro put his personal ambitions ahead of the safety of others." https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/aviation-maintenance-student-accused-bribing-faa-mechanic-duluth/5myynzlPVeCNUllmPsK54L/ Back to Top HCC and PIA sign agreement to benefit students Officials at Hagerstown Community College and the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics recently signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a pathway for PIA graduates to earn a degree at HCC. Students who complete a program of study through PIA and have received the corresponding industry-recognized technical license or certification may be awarded up to 18 credits at HCC, to be granted toward the associate of applied science degree in applied technology. PIA students will work with a faculty advisor at HCC to create a customized program of study that will complement the PIA program and round out the AAS degree. "The demand for aviation mechanics is significant," said HCC President Jim Klauber. "We're excited about this agreement, which is long overdue, as it creates a new opportunity for these students to be better prepared for the competitive workforce." The Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics is a not-for-profit school of aviation maintenance and aviation electronics under the Federal Aviation Administration. The main campus is in West Mifflin, Pa. The Hagerstown branch was opened in April 2011. The PIA campus in Hagerstown offers a 16-month aviation maintenance technology program, which prepares students to test for the FAA Airframe and Powerplant License. HCC offers associate degrees, certificates and workforce development training. HCC is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and is a Maryland state-supported institution. https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/local/hcc-and-pia-sign-agreement-to-benefit-students/article_4cad2ffa-c1cb-540d-9e52-bd6ad44d5fc6.html Back to Top Delta Highlights Gender Diversity On International Women's Day On International Women's Day, Delta highlighted its progress in gender diversity. Over the last two years, the airline has worked to hire more women in a number of positions- including Senior Vice Presidents. Simple Flying takes a look. Delta strives for gender diversity Over the last two years, Delta announced that it had doubled the number of women Senior Vice Presidents. There are 25 women working for the carrier in officer positions. While increasing the number of women in officer positions is a good step forward, Delta is also recognizing other obstacles in the pipeline and working to remove those. In addition to senior roles, 41% of Delta's employees are female- a fantastic number in a field that has historically been male-dominated. Creating more opportunities Delta's Chief People Officer, Joanne Smith, had the following to say on Delta's progress on creating opportunities: Our efforts to seek diversity and promote inclusion are a marathon, not a sprint. We are extremely focused on the health of our pipeline, whether that's through adopting more inclusive hiring practices to manage out unconscious bias or developing unique programs that introduce women to aviation earlier in life. With over 30-years of experience in the travel industry, Joanne Smith has received a multitude of awards and honors including being on Wall Street Journal's Top Women to Watch list among others. Recently, Delta has supported a number of different initiatives when it comes to bringing more women into the aviation world. This includes programs like the Propel Pilot Career Path Program which works to help participants who face barriers to becoming a pilot. In addition, Delta has also invested in close to 50 training programs for Aviation Maintenance Technicians. Moreover, Delta has also partnered with Girls Who Code and the Society of Women Engineers to build up Delta's workforce of women in STEM paths. Working as a mother Unfortunately, for a number of women around the world, becoming (or being) a mother has led to a fair bit of discrimination in hiring and work practices. But, Stephanie Asbury, Senior Vice President - Global Talent, instead found success at work as a mother: I became a better leader when I became a mom. I learned how to better prioritize, organize and multitask. It taught me how to lift up and recognize what's important. I learned to be more planned so I could always be present: when I'm at work I'm 'all in' in whatever I'm doing, and when I'm at home I'm 'all in' with my kids. The busier I got the better I got. It forced me to close out of my work before I left and do the same at home. Overall While the aviation world as a whole has a lot of work to do to achieve true gender parity, Delta has made strides toward bringing more women into its workforce at all levels. https://simpleflying.com/delta-gender-diversity/ Back to Top Palantir Awarded Contract to Support U.S. Navy NOBLE System Palantir today announced that they have been awarded a contract to support follow-on production work under the US Navy's Naval Operational Business Logistics Enterprise (NOBLE) Family of Systems (FoS). Under this contract, Palantir will deliver its commercial software to serve as NOBLE's Integrated Data Environment (IDE) - providing an open architecture for data ingestion, integration, management, and analytics capabilities to service the Navy's supply and operational maintenance communities both at shore-based sites and on platforms deployed at sea. In this new phase, the Palantir IDE will continue to interoperate with several other modern commercial software Programs of Record (PoR) that comprise the larger NOBLE architecture: Naval Operational Supply System (NOSS): Provides Naval Operational Forces (NOF) a single end-to-end auditable Financial and Supply Chain Management (SCM) capability. Naval Aviation Maintenance System (NAMS): Provides NOF a single enterprise-wide Aviation Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) capability. Naval Operational Maintenance Environment (NOME): Provides NOF a single enterprise-wide Maritime MRO capability. This award follows Palantir's participation in an initial 6-month competitive prototyping phase under which the Navy pursued an innovative acquisition approach using Other Transaction Authority (OTA), allowing for faster delivery timelines and higher risk reduction via a focus on continuous delivery and evaluation of working software rather than traditional, paper-based competitive procedures. Under this approach, Palantir provided monthly, live demonstrations of its capabilities utilizing real data and use cases to a diverse group of Navy stakeholders from NAVWAR PMW 150, OPNAV N4, US Fleet Forces Command, and others. By providing a modern IDE to support NOBLE's PoRs, Palantir will assist the Navy in modernizing and streamlining its current legacy architecture and systems, the largest of which is the Naval Tactical Command Support System (NTCSS). NTCSS houses a suite of maintenance, supply, and administration capabilities to generate and sustain operational readiness of Naval forces - including surface ships, submarines, and aviation squadrons. Under NOBLE, Palantir will work in conjunction with other solutions to facilitate the phased transition from the legacy architecture, which is comprised of data and functionality from over 700 disparate applications and databases. NOBLE will provide a more modern, flexible, and open "data-oriented-architecture" (DaaS), including the use of Government-certified commercial cloud infrastructure, to align with the Navy's emerging needs and broader trends and best practices from the commercial marketplace. About Palantir Technologies Palantir Technologies is a software company that builds enterprise data platforms for use by organizations with complex and sensitive data environments. From building safer cars and planes, to discovering new drugs and combating terrorism, Palantir helps customers across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors transform the way they use their data. Additional information is available at https://www.palantir.com. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/palantir-awarded-contract-support-u-000100647.html Back to Top Amid coronavirus scare, DGCA issues instructions for checking aviation personnel Stepping up efforts to curb spreading of coronavirus, aviation watchdog DGCA on Friday said aviation personnel will be examined for cold, fever and other symptoms before they are subject to breath analyser tests. Flight crew and people working on the airside are among the aviation personnel. Breath Analyser (BA) is applicable for air traffic controllers, flight dispatchers, aircraft maintenance personnel and aerodrome operation personnel, among others. In an order, the regulator said a doctor or medical personnel would scan a "person for the symptoms of fever, cough, cold, running nose, congested eyes before carrying out a BA test". Persons having such symptoms would be "exempted from the BA test and removed from duty", it added. "Such person shall undergo a detailed examination and shall return to duty only after having been declared fit," the regulator said in the order. A record of such cases would also be maintained. "Such cases will not be treated as missed BA test," it added. DGCA said the latest instructions would be in force till March 13. According to a senior DGCA official, the complete process would be supervised by a doctor or paramedic and the same would be recorded on video. BA test is done to check whether a person has consumed alcohol. In the case of pilots, the test is performed both prior to and after operating a flight. Recently, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered breath analyser tests for various sections of airside employees, including air traffic controllers (ATCs). https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/amid-coronavirus-scare-dgca-issues-instructions-for-checking-aviation-personnel-1653220-2020-03-06 Back to Top Some Airlines Request Delays To Embraer Deliveries Due To Virus This week, news has come out indicating that Embraer is receiving requests to defer the delivery of new aircraft. The requests are due to the impact of the coronavirus and the slowdown of global travel. Requests for deferments "We had some inbound requests for relatively short-term deferments, but nothing that would push aircraft [delivery] out of the calendar year. We are talking about a delay of a few weeks or a month," - John Slattery, Embraer Commercial Aircraft president and CEO via AIN The remarks were made to AIN during an aviation summit organized by Brussels-based airline trade association Airlines For Europe (A4E). Slattery says that his company will be accommodating these requests where possible. So far, Embraer has not experienced any outright order cancelations from any of its customers. Embraer has recently launched the E-Jet E2 - a regional jet with increased fuel efficiency compared to its predecessors. The latest product and its three variants have roughly nine different customers sharing over 170 aircraft orders. Supporting customer airlines Slattery also told AIN that the scheduled operations of airlines have been reduced by 20-90 percent depending on the part of the world they are based in. He continued by saying: "Our focus now is trying to support our airlines from an operational perspective as they deal with this...We are trying to make more resources available," A key form of support that Embraer is providing includes facilitating maintenance for the grounded fleets of its customers. Although maintenance is less intensive for aircraft that remain on the ground, it still needs to take place in various ways. This may include the flushing and replacement of normal operational fluids with ones made more for long-term preservation. Not just Embraer receiving requests Embraer isn't the only aircraft manufacturer getting requests for deferred deliveries. In fact, long-haul budget carrier AirAsia X has said that it will defer delivery of 78 Airbus A330neo aircraft as it makes changes to its fleet to reduce costs. The airline says that the ongoing impact of coronavirus is forcing the airline to reconsider its plans as it continues to operate at a loss. The airline plans to use its smaller Airbus A321s in place of the A330s on medium-haul routes. Conclusion As airlines around the world continue to struggle with decreased demand and comply with travel restrictions put up by various countries, there has been far less need for aircraft new or old. This is having far-reaching effects throughout the industry as staff are being asked to take voluntary or involuntary leave and airports are being asked to relax their policies on slot management. If deliveries are deferred long enough, then manufacturers may also face their own staffing issues - further impacting the global economy. Thankfully it has not yet come to that. https://simpleflying.com/embraer-delayed-deliveries/ Back to Top ACI Jet Establishes Bombardier Parts Depot With a more than $1 million investment in parts inventory, along with additional stock inventoried by Bombardier Aviation, California-based ACI Jet has opened a 5,000-sq-ft parts depot at its San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport (SBP) headquarters. The facility, which has more than 3,000 part numbers in stock, will serve Bombardier Global and Challenger owners and operators. ACI's parts depot complements its Bombardier-authorized service facility at SBP, where it also maintains an FBO and aircraft charter/management base. "Bombardier's support network on the West Coast has grown to include full-service light and medium line maintenance and inspections through ACI Jet's authorized service [facility]," said ACI senior v-p of maintenance Dave Jensen. "The addition of a parts depot featuring the most common and mission-critical parts and components for Bombardier aircraft means that their customers have a much wider net of support." In addition, ACI operates FBOs and charters and manages aircraft from three other California locations: Orange County, Paso Robles, and Oceano. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2020-03-05/aci-jet-establishes-bombardier-parts-depot Back to Top Former AA Mechanic Sentenced For Attempting To Destroy An Aircraft A former American Airlines mechanic was sentenced to 37 months in prison on Wednesday for "attempted destruction of an aircraft." Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, 60, had previously pleaded guilty to tampering with the air data module (ADM) on American Airlines Flight 2834, which was scheduled to fly from Florida's Miami International Airport (MIA) to Nassau, Bahamas, on July 17, 2019, with 150 people on board. A cockpit error message alerted pilots to the problem before the aircraft left the ground and it returned for maintenance. Alani, who began working for American in 1988, was arrested on July 18 after being identified on security camera footage. As previously reported by AVweb, he told investigators that his intention was to cause the flight to be delayed or canceled so he could collect overtime pay to make up for financial hardship caused by stalled contract negotiations between American Airlines and its mechanics union. Wednesday's ruling found that there was no evidence to support allegations made by prosecutors that Alani might have links to terrorist organizations. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/aviation-law/former-aa-mechanic-sentenced-for-attempting-to-destroy-an-aircraft/ Back to Top Mongolian maintenance specialist provides first service to Ukraine International MIAT Technics, the maintenance division of Mongolia's national carrier MIAT Mongolian Airlines has, for the first time, completed a C-check on an aircraft operated by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA). In doing so, the maintenance specialist based at Ulan-Bator's Chinggis Khaan airport (IATA: ULN), is continuing to add more customers from the former Soviet Union to its growing portfolio. Ukraine's flag carrier ferried its 1991-produced Boeing 767-300ER wide-body for base maintenance from Kyiv to Ulan-Bator, a 5,300 km flight. The aircraft, with registration number UR-GEA, underwent maintenance procedures at MIAT Technics' facility in the period from January 23 to February 4, 2020, the company's technical director Ayush Tuvd has revealed to Russian Aviation Insider. The ban imposed on Ukrainian aircraft overflying Russian airspace did not bring substantial additional costs to the airline, he reports. All works were completed in time under MIAT Technics' own EASA Part 145 approval. UIA is now the westernmost customer in MIAT Technics' history, surpassing the Moscow-based Royal Flight that, according to Ayush Tuvd, means this Russian leisure carrier is continuing its cooperation with the Mongolian MRO partner, which is expecting another of Royal Flight's Boeing 767s for a C-check in the near future. MIAT Technics' relationship with Russian airline customers dates back to 2016. As well as Royal Flight, the MRO specialist has been entrusted with the continued airworthiness of the aircraft of Utair, Alrosa and Yakutiya Airlines. According to Tuvd, MIAT Technics now has 12 clients in its portfolio. Apart from its MIAT Mongolian Airlines parent, it serves four airlines from Russia, one from Ukraine and six operators from Asian countries. Last November the company has won approval to provide aircraft line and base maintenance services on aircraft listed on the Russian register. http://www.rusaviainsider.com/mongolian-maintenance-specialist-provides-first-service-to-ukraine-international/ Back to Top The first SpaceX Dragon capsule is taking its final flight Last night, SpaceX launched its first generation Dragon capsule on its twentieth - and final - resupply run to the International Space Station. The launch marks the Dragon's last mission as the capsule makes way for SpaceX's updated and improved Dragon 2 capsule, which will begin making resupply runs to the space station in October. Alongside cargo to resupply the ISS, the Dragon will be bringing along payloads for experimental research aboard the space station. Including an Adidas experiment to see how it can manufacture midsoles in space; a project from the faucet maker, Delta, to see how water droplets form in zero gravity; and Emulate is sending up an organ-on-a-chip to examine how microgravity affects intestinal immune cells and how heart tissue can be cultured in space. It's been twelve years since SpaceX first won a $1.6 billion contract to resupply the space station, and over that time, the space industry has changed dramatically. The company's technical innovations around manufacturing and reusing rocket components revolutionized the space industry and created an environment where entrepreneurs believed in the possibility of competing with industry giants like Aerojet Rocketdyne, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. Since SpaceX first emerged to challenge those longtime government contractors, which had a lock on government space missions, a wave of commercial activity has emerged around the International Space Station, supporting the creation of new industries. Earlier this week, Axiom Space announced that it would be using SpaceX to ferry the first entirely private crew of passengers to the International Space Station for a ten-day trip (albeit at a cost of $55 million). Axiom's vision of building a private orbiting space station off of the existing International Space Station is a bold step forward for the commercialization of space - and one which would be less likely if not for SpaceX's work and the success of the first Dragon. https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/07/the-first-spacex-dragon-capsule-is-taking-its-final-flight/ Curt Lewis