Flight Safety Information [October 15, 2020] [No. 209] In This Issue : Incident: Wisconsin CRJ2 at Chicago on Oct 14th 2020, electrical problems : ProSafeT - SMS, Quality & Audit Management Software : Accident: Aer Caribe AN32 at Iquitos on Oct 14th 2020, landed besides runway or went off runway : Incident: UPS A306 at Louisville on Oct 13th 2020, hydraulic problems : A man flying in a jetpack has been spotted again in the skies over Los Angeles : How investigators found a jet engine under Greenland's ice sheet : One Billion People Have Traveled by Airplane This Year, With Only 44 Documented Cases of Coronavirus Transmission : DGCA will assess 737 Max to certify its airworthiness (India) : Parachute Saves Lives Of Three People On Board Small Airplane In Sutter County : Summit Aviation Adds 8th Phenom 300 With Addition of Brand New Enhanced Phenom 300E : The Administration Allowed Aviation Companies to Take Bailout Funds and Lay Off Workers, Says House Report : Copa Airlines Progressively Increases International Operations : GE Aviation to enhance Uber Air’s safety with flight data monitoring : Virgin Galactic readies first spaceflight from Spaceport America for 'later this this fall' : A Soyuz capsule just made a record-breaking 3-hour flight to the International Space Station : SCSI Online Courses - Aircraft Accident Investigation : RTCA - free webinar: Modernizing the NAS October 21, 1pm ET Incident: Wisconsin CRJ2 at Chicago on Oct 14th 2020, electrical problems An Air Wisconsin Canadair CRJ-200 on behalf of United, registration N442AW performing flight UA-3765 from Chicago O'Hare,IL to Appleton,WI (USA) with 34 people on board, was climbing out of O'Hare's runway 28R when the crew stopped the climb at about 10,500 feet, declared emergency and decided to return to Chicago due to electrical problems. The aircraft returned to Chicago for a safe landing on runway 22R about 25 minutes after departure. A replacement CRJ-200 registration N457AW is estimated to reach Appleton with a delay of 3:45 hours. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AWI3765/history/20201014/1920Z/KORD/KATW http://avherald.com/h?article=4ddddc55&opt=0 Accident: Aer Caribe AN32 at Iquitos on Oct 14th 2020, landed besides runway or went off runway An Aer Caribe Antonov AN-32, registration OB-2120P performing a cargo flight from Lima to Iquitos (Peru) with 4 crew, was on approach to Iquitos's runway 06 at about 13:21L (18:21Z) but reported mechanical problems with the landing gear. The aircraft subsequently ended up at the side of the runway, broke up and burst into flames. The 4 crew were rescued and taken to a hospital with minor injuries. The aircraft was destroyed. Peru's Government announced OB-2120P on a cargo flight from Lima to Iquitos suffered a mistake at Iquitos during landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4dddc907&opt=0 Incident: UPS A306 at Louisville on Oct 13th 2020, hydraulic problems A UPS Airbus A300-600 freighter, registration N153UP performing flight 5X-2327 from Orlando,FL to Louisville,KY (USA) with 3 crew, was on approach to Louisville maintaining 3000 feet when the crew declared emergency reporting a hydraulic issue and requested delay vectors to work the checklists. The crew subsequently advised they needed to lower the gear manually, would not have steering available after landing and therefore needed to be towed off the runway. The aircraft landed safely on runway 17R about 20 minutes after declaring emergency though the brakes locked up during landing causing a number of tyres to blow. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground about 21 hours after landing. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UPS2327/history/20201013/1613Z/KMCO/KSDF http://avherald.com/h?article=4ddda6b7&opt=0 A man flying in a jetpack has been spotted again in the skies over Los Angeles • A second sighting of a man flying near LAX using a jetpack was reported Wednesday. • (CNN)An unidentified man was seen flying in a jetpack near the Los Angeles International Airport ... again. The man was spotted by a flight crew around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to CNN. "A China Airlines crew reported seeing what appeared to be someone in a jet pack at an approximate altitude of 6,000 feet, about seven miles northwest of Los Angeles International Airport," the FAA said in a statement. The FAA said it alerted local law enforcement agencies and are investigating the report. Similar sightings of a man in a jetpack near LAX were reported to the FAA in September. An American Airlines flight was the first to report a "guy in a jetpack" at the plane's' altitude of 3,000 feet above Los Angeles International Airport on September 1. The aircraft's crew said that the man was approximately 30 yards away from the aircraft. About 10 minutes later, another plane spotted the man. • A man flying a jetpack was reported by pilots above Los Angeles "The FBI is in contact with the FAA and is investigating multiple reports of what, according to witnesses, appeared to be an individual in a jetpack near LAX, including one today reported by a China Airlines crew," FBI Los Angeles Field Office spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said Wednesday. CNN has reached out to LAX for comment. There are no additional details at this time. CNN obtained the audio between air traffic control and American and JetBlue flight crews from the September 1 incident. According to the communications, air traffic control warned a JetBlue flight to "use caution... person on a jetpack reported 300 yards south." After the plane acknowledged the instruction, the controller concluded with: "Only in LA." https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/14/us/jetpack-guy-back-lax-trnd/index.html How investigators found a jet engine under Greenland's ice sheet New York (CNN Business)Four hours into a September 2017 Air France flight 66 from Paris to Los Angeles, one of the aircraft's four engines spontaneously exploded. "IS THERE A PROBLEM," read the message from air traffic controllers to the pilots. The plane, with over 500 people onboard, was flying four thousand feet below its previous altitude and, indeed, there was a problem. The front portion of an engine had fallen off, plummeting more than seven miles to the frozen Greenland ice sheet below. The pilots were greeted by a smattering of flashing warning lights, but they did not grasp the scope of the problem until one of the flight attendants made their way to the cockpit, according to report about the incident from French regulators. They brought a phone from one of the passengers, and on it was a photo of the damage to the engine, which was easily visible from passengers' windows on the right side of the cabin. The plane, an Airbus A380, which was supposed to be cruising comfortably at 37,000 feet, made an emergency landing in Canada two hours later, and no one was injured. But regulators warned the incident could have played out much differently if debris from the explosion had hit the aircraft instead of plunging to the ground. The ordeal set French authorities on a years-long mission to find the lost engine pieces and pinpoint the root cause of the problem, requiring investigators to survey miles of terrain made perilous by deep, invisible cracks in Greenland's ice sheet and the constant threat of polar bear attacks. The endeavor was also hampered by months of inhospitable storms, limited daylight and low visibility. Researchers ultimately found the key piece of debris — the engine's fan — by accident, when a robot mapping glacial crevasses happened to roll over the spot where it was buried nearly two years after it had fallen from the sky, said Austin Lines, a US-based engineer who aided the recovery effort. It was packed in four meters (or about 12 feet) of snow and ice. The excavation effort turned out to be pivotal, authorities revealed last month. Studying the recovered debris showed the engine wasn't damaged during maintenance, as investigators initially predicted. Rather, the problem seemed to be linked to weakness in the metal used to create the engine's giant front fan — indicating what first appeared to be a freak accident may not be an isolated incident, according to a September report from France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety, or BEA, which led the investigation. Engine manufacturers have already worked to address the problem, but the BEA is now calling on regulators in the United States and Europe to take a closer look at how aircraft engines are designed, manufactured and certified for flight — hoping more careful scrutiny can root out such defects before they happen. In-flight engine failures remain extremely rare, according to US and European authorities. But the unexpected conclusions from the BEA's investigation highlight how an excruciating, 21-month search for a lost engine part was key to understanding how to prevent the same disaster from striking twice. Searching Greenland's tundra The day after the 2017 Air France flight, BEA investigators and representatives from the plane's and engine's manufacturers, which included Airbus, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, gathered at the Canadian airport to survey the plane's damage. "It was determined quite early on in the investigation that the recovery of the missing parts and in particular, the fragments of the fan hub, was essential to establish the circumstances and factors explaining this accident," according to the BEA report. Investigators pored over data in the aircraft's flight data recorder — or "black box" — to hash out exactly when the explosion occurred and determined the debris likely landed about 60 miles from Narsarsuaq in the southwest of Greenland. Within days, helicopters were dispatched and investigators scoured the pure white landscape for signs of the large fan. But after one week and three unsuccessful search flights, the terrain was already buried in fresh layers of snow. With months of harsh winter weather ahead, investigators decided to resume their search the following spring. They would use aircraft equipped with synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) — the same type of radar used to create 3D maps of the Earth — that would attempt to search for unseen objects beneath the surface of the ice sheets. A team of investigators would also join the effort on foot, wielding ground penetrating radar, a device that looks like a lawnmower and is commonly used by archaeologists searching for buried artifacts. They zeroed in on spots that the airborne radars indicated might be the resting place of the engine debris while bracing against the freezing temperatures and dodging large and often hidden cracks in the ice sheets, called crevasses. But both of those initial efforts failed, in part because the radars weren't searching deep enough below the icy surface. With another brutal winter looming, the search was once again put on pause. Lines told CNN Business that at one point, investigators dropped a replica of the engine fan into the snow, just to make sure the radars they were using for the search could accurately detect the buried metal. But they couldn't. And for months, the replica debris was lost, too. France's Onera research lab, which was behind the effort to use SAR radar on aircraft to locate the debris, also found the data it collected was too messy — or "noisy" in engineering terms — and the Onera team spent months developing new ways of analyzing the information before finally narrowing down the search field to a handful of possible locations, according to the BEA report. Lines, who developed a four-wheeled robot called FrostyBoy that's designed to map crevasses, was tapped by the BEA to help the recovery effort — but the robot ended up being the lynchpin for the entire project. While searching for cracks, the rover's sensors picked up an abnormal reading, reavealing the robot had — by pure happenstance — rolled over the engine fan's exact resting place. "We're ridiculously lucky that it happened the way it happened," Lines said of FrostyBoy's chance detection. It gave his robot, a project he worked on while pursing his PhD at Dartmouth, a small but bizarre claim to fame. "I don't think anyone would care that much if a bunch of dudes went out with a robot and didn't do much with it," he joked. Actually retrieving the fan hub fragment, however, presented its own set of problems. It was buried less than 20 feet away from a 13-foot-wide crevasse that could have been hundreds of feet deep, according to BEA documents. The dig In June last year, a five-person team, including Lines and a team of Icelandic mountain guides, flew by helicopter to the excavation site. A small dome-shaped tent built to withstand the severe winds sheltered them during their three-day-long excavation effort. At night, they slept with rifles next to their sleeping bags — a precaution for a polar bear attack. Hidden crevasses posed the constant risk of the ground beneath the crew's feet caving in, and they used metal rods to check the ice's depth before trekking onto new territory. An unseen crevasse could have even been hidden underneath the dig site, so they wore harnesses with ropes attaching them to a nearby anchor point as they shoveled snow. Lines, who had earlier helped dig the engine fan replica out of the ice sheet, was the only member of the five-team recovery crew that had been part of that effort and knew how grueling the work would be. The first few meters of snow and ice above the engine fan shoveled out easily, but Lines used a chain saw to hack apart the thick, compacted layers of frost further down. The crew carved a ramp into the excavation site so that a sleigh operated by a pulley system could be used to shuttle about 20 metric tons of snow out of the pit. "We had a lot of sunshine because the sun doesn't really set [that time of year]," Lines said. "So we just worked through the night, and then went to bed for a few hours and then woke up and just started digging again." Finally, on day three, the tips of the engine's fan blades came into view. An industrial heater was used to melt ice away from the fan before the makeshift pulley system hauled it out to surface level. In footage of the excavation captured by the team, Lines and the rest of the crew whoop and applaud as a helicopter airlifts the giant fan fragment, which was mangled and slightly warped from the 2017 explosion but still largely intact. The battered piece of debris later proved crucial in understanding what actually went wrong on the 2017 Air France flight. Investigators determined that it wasn't a maintenance issue, as previously thought. The engine actually failed because of a phenomenon called "cold dwell fatigue," which caused the metal in the engine's fan to fail far sooner than anticipated. Part of the problem could have stemmed from the fact that jet engine designers didn't fully understand the limits and weaknesses of the type of titanium — called Ti-6-4 — that was used in this engine. The material is also extremely common across the aerospace industry. In fact, according to the final BEA, report, "the mechanisms at the origin of the initiation of a cold dwell fatigue crack were still not completely understood at the time of the accident and are still not understood today." https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/14/tech/airbus-jet-engine-greenland-ice-sheet/index.html One Billion People Have Traveled by Airplane This Year, With Only 44 Documented Cases of Coronavirus Transmission Roughly 1 billion people have traveled by plane since the beginning of 2020, and just 44 coronavirus cases were confirmed among them, according to the results of a recent study. "One of the things about air travel that people need to know...over a billion people have traveled by air this year, over 1 billion," said Ed Bastian, CEO at Delta Air Lines, during an appearance on CNBC's Squawk on the Street Tuesday morning. "There's only been 44 documented cases of suspected COVID transmission amongst those billion, and virtually all of those happened in the early weeks of the pandemic." Bastian cited figures in a report published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) last week. The report detailed the association's analysis of aircraft manufacturer studies that looked at the risks of in-flight virus transmission. The IATA examined the reported incidence of coronavirus cases linked to air travel, using data collected from Airbus, Boeing and Embraer, three of the largest commercial aircraft manufacturers. Delta planes are manufactured by Airbus and Boeing. The IATA said its "outreach to airlines and public health authorities combined with a thorough review of available literature has not yielded any indication that onboard transmission is in any way common or widespread." However, it recognized that "there is no way to establish an exact tally" of positive coronavirus cases connected to air travel. On Tuesday, Bastian pointed out that protocols, such as mandatory use of face coverings by aircraft passengers and staff, were not yet implemented when most of the documented cases were confirmed. In a statement, Dr. David Powell, a medical adviser at the IATA, said "the vast majority" of cases were confirmed "before the wearing of face coverings in-flight became widespread." Delta announced its face mask mandate at the end of April, and requirements went into effect during the first week of May. The airline now requires passengers and employees to wear face coverings while aboard aircraft, in addition to Delta-operated airport areas. These requirements are similar to those established by other major airlines. As airline companies continue to report declining revenues during the pandemic, Bastian said travelers' reluctance to fly—relative to previous years—is not necessarily motivated by fears about virus transmission. He discussed Delta's third-quarter earnings and the pandemic's impact on profits on Squawk on the Street soon after Delta reported a net loss of $5.4 billion between late June and late September of this year, compared with the third quarter in 2019. Acknowledging the pandemic's financial consequences, Bastian suggested that "consumers are feeling really safe with travel" and called forecasts for the upcoming holiday season "encouraging." While customers may be deterred from air travel because of mitigation protocols or coronavirus transmission rates in their desired destination areas, trends indicate that consumers' confidence in air travel has increased steadily throughout the year, he said. https://www.newsweek.com/one-billion-people-have-traveled-airplane-this-year-only-44-documented-cases-coronavirus-1538723 DGCA will assess 737 Max to certify its airworthiness (India) In India, no-frills carrier SpiceJet is the only sole operator of 737 Max planes; it has 12 such aircraft in its fleet The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will conduct its own due diligence before allowing the grounded Boeing 737 Max planes to return to Indian skies, a DGCA official said, seeking anonymity. The ill-fated Boeing 737 Max planes, grounded since March 2019 following two fatal crashes, may be allowed to operate, with the US aviation regulator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), releasing proposed 737 Max training guidelines for pilots. Many regulators, including the FAA, are reviewing the aircraft and the new training methods before approving the aircraft to fly again. The FAA has, however, not given a time frame for service resumption. “We are looking forward to approvals from US and European agencies like FAA and EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency) for the return of 737 Max planes. Pilots flying the 737 Max aircraft in India will mandatorily have to undergo simulator training before being allowed to operate them," the official said. Last week, the FAA had proposed new minimum training for 737 Max pilots, including several scenarios in full-flight simulators, preceded by reviews of related checklists and materials, according to a 6 October report by the agency. A copy of the FAA report was reviewed by Mint. “Boeing is working closely with the FAA and other global regulators to meet their expectations as we work to safely return the 737 MAX to service," said a spokesperson of the planemaker in an email response. The DGCA will conduct its own tests before re-certifying these planes for Indian skies. In India, no-frills carrier SpiceJet Ltd is the sole operator of Boeing 737Max planes. The airline has taken delivery of 12 Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes so far, which are at present grounded. A SpiceJet spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comments. The 737 Max was grounded by the DGCA on 13 March after global aviation regulators did the same following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max near Addis Ababa on 10 March 2019, killing 157 people. This followed the crash of a Lion Air plane on 29 October 2018 that killed 180 people in Indonesia. https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/dgca-will-assess-737-max-to-certify-its-airworthiness-11602732637671.html Parachute Saves Lives Of Three People On Board Small Airplane In Sutter County SUTTER COUNTY (CBS13) — A small plane carrying three people had to deploy its parachute and make an emergency landing in rural Sutter County, authorities say. The plane after it had landed on Tuesday (Credit: Trey Shannon) The plane landed in a rice field near the 3900 block of Schlag Road, about 10 miles southwest of Yuba City, just after 5 p.m. Tuesday. According to the FAA, a single-engine Cirrus SR-22 pilot reported that he had run out of fuel while flying to Colusa County Airport from Hollywood Burbank Airport. The pilot then deployed the plane’s parachute and the craft came to a rest in a field about eight miles southwest of Sutter County Airport. From pictures taken after the plane touched down, it appears the aircraft landed upside-down. All three people on board were not hurt in the emergency landing, the FAA says. The plane suffered minor damage. Mike Shannon says he’s never seen a plane with a parachute attached. “This is a first for us,” he said. He’s certainly never had one land in his rice field in Sutter County. “It almost hit the wires, got past the wires and all I know it was sitting in the rice field when we found it,” he said. Shannon rushed over to help the three people on board Tuesday night. “They just said we had a fuel leak and ran out of fuel, and didn’t make it to the airstrip,” Shannon said. Winds were strong enough to move the plane again on Wednesday. While the plane was moved from its original landing spot by Wednesday morning, winds in the area were strong enough to move the plane to another part of the field later in the day. The FAA will be investigating the incident. An FAA investigator who spoke with CBS13 on the scene says it was the parachute that likely saved their lives. Gerry Sevenau works on the property and saw the landing happen. “I thought at first they clipped the wires there, but when I looked at the plane this morning, it was on its belly. So I believe the parachute saved them,” he said. The parachute is attached to the airframe in the center of the plane. The pilot has access to a lever or a cord that can deploy the parachute in case of an emergency. In this case, the plane, a Cirrus SR-22T, was one of the first models to use this life-saving technique. One that aviation experts say you’ll now see more often. Augustine Joseph, CEO of JetExe Aviation said, “A lot of the newer airplanes are coming out with parachutes.” “I didn’t know they made airplanes with parachutes, Thank God, they did,” Shannon said. The FAA said they will need to use a crane to remove the plane from the property. https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2020/10/14/sutter-county-parachute-small-airplane/ Summit Aviation Adds 8th Phenom 300 With Addition of Brand New Enhanced Phenom 300E • Charter Operator Expands Nationwide Coverage as Charter Fleet Continues Growth BOZEMAN, Mont. (PRWEB) October 15, 2020 As Summit Aviation adds a fourth Embraer Phenom 300E to its fleet of charter aircraft, it marks the expansion of its overall charter fleet to nine aircraft. Summit's entire charter fleet is comprised of eight Embraer Phenom 300 series aircraft, as well as a Hawker 850XP. Three of the last four fleet additions, including this one, have been brand new 2020 Phenom 300E aircraft, the fastest and longest-ranged light jet, capable of reaching Mach 0.80. "This addition expands not only our coverage and service options, but also provides our customers the newest and most technologically advanced business aircraft in its class," said Ben Walton, President of Summit Aviation. The Right Tools For The Job The Embraer Phenom 300 has been the best-selling light business jet in the world for the past eight years, according to General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). "It's a fantastic aircraft," shares Walton, "it has the safety, performance and efficiency that are ideal for charter operations, especially when you're flying in and out of mountainous airports, which we do a lot. We always strive to provide an extraordinary aviation experience, and this beautiful new aircraft is another way for us to do that." About Summit Aviation Founded in 2001, Summit Aviation, Inc. is a comprehensive aviation center specializing in aircraft sales, aircraft charter operations, aircraft management, and pilot training with retention. The company is one of the Northwest's premier charter operators and has become a leader in the general aviation safety community. http://www.flysummit.com https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/20/10/p17915596/summit-aviation-adds-8th-phenom-300-with-addition-of-brand-new-enhanced-phenom-300e The Administration Allowed Aviation Companies to Take Bailout Funds and Lay Off Workers, Says House Report Instead of using bailout money to keep workers, at least two companies restored the full pay of their top management. Thousands of aviation industry workers lost their jobs after the Trump administration mishandled a pandemic relief program, according to a new congressional investigation. In the spring, Congress created a program to save aviation worker jobs. Then the Trump administration undermined that program by granting hundreds of millions of dollars in relief to aviation companies for jobs they’d already largely eliminated, according to a House report released Friday. As a result, thousands of workers at airline caterers and other contractors are out of work while their employers received public funds that were supposed to be passed to workers. What’s more, at least two companies that received hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds restored full pay to management, the report found. The report follows a monthslong investigation that the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis launched in July, citing ProPublica reporting on the program. The $32 billion Payroll Support Program, part of the sweeping CARES Act to rescue the economy from the ravages of the coronavirus crisis, was designed so that money would pass through companies to workers in the hard-hit aviation industry. The federal government gave grants and some loans to airlines and their contractors, who were then meant to keep workers on their payrolls. The amount each company received would be based on six months worth of payroll from last year. In exchange, the companies had to agree not to conduct any layoffs until October, about six months after the CARES Act was passed. But ProPublica found that the companies laid off workers throughout the spring and then took the money intended to preserve the jobs they had already cut. The Treasury Department, charged with implementing the law, offered no incentive for the companies to rehire their workers. The select subcommittee’s report reached a similar conclusion. “Treasury’s implementation of the Payroll Support Program undermined the program’s job preservation purpose,” the subcommittee wrote. “Treasury permitted aviation contractors to lay off tens of thousands of workers through the worst months of the pandemic and still receive full payroll support calculated based on pre-pandemic workforce numbers — the same amount they would have received if they had not laid off a single worker.” In response to the report, a Treasury spokesperson wrote that “the Payroll Support Program has supported hundreds of thousands of aviation industry jobs, kept workers employed and connected to their healthcare, and played a critical role in preserving the U.S. airline industry. Implementation focused first on the largest employers to help stabilize an industry in crisis and support as many jobs as possible for as long as possible.” Congressional investigators obtained tens of thousands of pages of documents and interviewed Treasury Department and company officials. In the case of one contractor, Swissport U.S.A., the subcommittee uncovered correspondence in which a company executive instructed managers to “urgently” verify the employment status of a group of workers prior to finalizing the company’s Payroll Support agreement, and to let them go if they weren’t needed. “CARES is now imminent, and we need to ensure that we don’t incur unnecessary costs once the ink is on the paper,” the executive wrote, referring to the workers, weeks before the company received $170 million from the program. Swissport did not respond to a request for comment. The subcommittee also took to task two airline catering companies that ProPublica wrote about in July, Gate Gourmet and Flying Food Group, for taking advantage of the program. How the Trump Administration Allowed Aviation Companies to Keep Relief Money That Was Supposed to Go to Workers One of the most generous programs of the bailout was meant to help airline industry companies keep their workers on the payroll. Some laid workers off first and then got the money anyway. The report found that the companies drastically reduced their payroll ahead of applying for the relief funds, and continued to do so while their applications were pending. But once the agreements were finalized, neither restored employment to pre-pandemic levels. In fact, the subcommittee found that Flying Food Group, which received $85 million through the program, had not rehired a single worker out of the thousands it laid off or furloughed since the pandemic hit. Meanwhile, both companies have since restored cuts that had been made to management pay. Both expect the money they received from the Payroll Support Program to subsidize their payroll expenses well into next year, according to the report. Neither company responded to requests for comment. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who chairs the select subcommittee, has called for aviation companies to halt any additional layoffs until they have spent the remainder of the funds they received. However, since the Sept. 30 deadline for halting layoffs under the CARES Act expired, Flying Food and Gate Gourmet have already initiated hundreds of additional layoffs at airports across the country, according to official layoff notices issued by the companies in recent weeks. https://www.propublica.org/article/the-trump-administration-allowed-aviation-companies-to-take-bailout-funds-and-lay-off-workers-says-house-report Copa Airlines Progressively Increases International Operations Copa Airlines announced its first increase in international operations since November. The carrier plans to connect Panama City, Panama with 35 destinations all over America. The destinations span over a dozen countries from South America, North America and Central America. As the world economy continues to reopen, ALNNEWS highlighted the reliable track record of Copa Airlines. The airline was recognized this year by Cirium as, “The most punctual airline in Latin America,” for the seventh consecutive year, obtaining an on-time arrival index of 92.16%, the highest among the more than 500 airlines evaluated in different categories worldwide. For its part, the London Official Airline Guide also distinguished Copa Airlines as, “The second most punctual airline in the world.” Tocumen’s Operations Boost As announced, international operations in Panama resumed on Aug. 14, allowing the operations of limited commercial flights as well as connecting passenger traffic. Due to the Panamanian government’s order, entrance into Panama was allowed exclusively to Panamanian citizens or its residents, on flights previously authorized by the government. On Oct. 12, Tocumen International Airport restarted international flights to all passengers after a prior successful restart of international operations with only Panamanian citizens or its residents as passengers. For this reopening day at the airport, a formal ceremony was held, headed by the Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo, who emphasized that with the restart of Tocumen International Airport operations, the local economy and tourism will be boosted. Raffoul Arab, manager of Tocumen International Airport, highlighted to prensa that on the first day of the “new normal,” 80 daily operations were scheduled to 36 cities in 20 countries. These first “normal” flights were operated by seven airlines: Copa Airlines, Air France, Wingo, Iberia, United Airlines, KLM and Spirit. Arab added that 85% of the businesses that operate in the terminal also opened their doors. Arab stated that with the resumption of this operation at Tocumen International Airport, strict sanitary measures are being applied and that the Panamanian Ministry of Health is in charge of verifying that passengers entering the country have their negative PCR-RT COVID-19 test certificate. https://airlinegeeks.com/2020/10/15/copa-airlines-progressively-increases-international-operations/ GE Aviation to enhance Uber Air’s safety with flight data monitoring Uber has selected GE Aviation to provide the flight data monitoring program for its planned fleet of air taxis. Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) is the process of analyzing and reviewing routinely recorded flight data. Airlines and operators use FDM to identify and eliminate potential safety hazards in flight operations. Since its introduction in the airline industry more than 20 years ago, FDM has been widely credited with reducing incident and accident rates at airlines and aircraft operators where it has been adopted. The initial phase of this program will see GE Aviation’s engineers develop the requirements for the flight data monitoring program. Andrew Coleman, general manager of GE Aviation’s Digital Group said, “This partnership will help expand our digital innovation as the travel industry continues to evolve. We’re able to bring our experience in digital across the travel ecosystem by helping travelers reach their destination safely and efficiently.” Uber Elevate is part of the Uber taxi service company which is focused on developing an air taxi service “Uber Air”. The company plans to launch the service using eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft in Dallas and Los Angeles during 2023. GE Aviation’s FDM service is used by hundreds of operators worldwide and uses analytics software to combine meteorological information, navigation data, and terrain mapping to identify safety events on flights. John Illson, head of aviation safety with Uber Elevate said, “Safety is a core value for Uber Elevate – we are voluntarily implementing a safety management system and developing voluntary programs that have yielded proven safety benefits for the aviation industry.” https://www.aerospacetestinginternational.com/news/software/ge-aviation-to-enhance-uber-airs-safety-with-flight-data-monitoring.html Virgin Galactic readies first spaceflight from Spaceport America for 'later this this fall' Virgin Galactic is getting ready to fly its first mission to space from its Spaceport America facility in New Mexico. This is the site that the company will use to host all of its commercial flights, and making it to space from this launch locale is crucial to getting to that point. Earlier this year, Virgin Galactic successfully flew a number of tests of its SpaceShipTwo launch craft from New Mexico, but these didn't include a trip to space. That launch, which will be performed by two of the company's test pilots (while also carrying a number of experiments for the passenger hatch) should happen before the year is out, hopefully putting Virgin Galactic on pace to begin offering its commercial services next year to paying passengers. Those private astronauts will include one newly announced individual: Dr. Alan Stern, a noted and well-regarded planetary scientist who has held a number of positions, and is most recently the associate Vice President of South West Research Institute's Space Science and Engineering Division. Dr. Stern is the first researcher named to be flying on board Virgin Galactic's commercial spacecraft on a NASA-funded science mission. This won't be the first of SpaceShipTwo's commercial flights, it seems. Stern's trip will take place on a "yet unscheduled" suborbital flight from Spaceport America in the future. Stern will be conducting two key pieces of science aboard the spacecraft, including actually wearing instrumentation that monitors his vial signs throughout, as well as using a low-light camera to see how well observing space from the vantage point of inside the SpaceShipTwo cabin works. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/virgin-galactic-readies-first-spaceflight-180523714.html A Soyuz capsule just made a record-breaking 3-hour flight to the International Space Station • It's the fastest Soyuz crew trip ever. Three new crewmembers arrived at the International Space Station today (Oct. 14) after a record-breaking speedy flight to the orbiting lab. The Russian Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov docked with the space station at 4:48 a.m. EDT (0848 GMT), just 3 hours and 3 minutes after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz rocket. By coincidence, the rocket launched on Rubins' birthday (she turned 42), prompting congratulations from Russian flight controllers at the Roscosmos agency's Mission Control. "I would like to join in and say Happy Birthday to you. It's a beautiful day and you celebrated it wonderfully," one official said after the crew entered the station. "Thank you so much," Rubins replied. "It's been the best birthday I ever had." Typically it takes about six hours for a Soyuz spacecraft to chase down the International Space Station, and the Soyuz must complete about four orbits around the Earth. But the Soyuz MS-17 made it in only two orbits, making it the first crewed Soyuz spacecraft to try the "fast-track" rendezvous method. Russia has previously tested the two-orbit rendezvous method with its Progress cargo resupply spacecraft, which is nearly identical to the Soyuz spacecraft used to transport crew. So far five Progress missions have used the new, two-orbit rendezvous method to reach the space station. The fastest Progress flight so far, Progress 70, arrived at the space station 3 hours and 48 minutes after liftoff, in July 2018. Both Soyuz and Progress missions traditionally took about two days to reach the International Space Station. In 2013, the Soyuz spacecraft carrying three Expedition 35 crewmembers to orbit became the first to test out the new six-hour rendezvous. With today's flight, the Expedition 64 crew slashed that travel time in half. Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov will spend about six months working on board the orbiting lab as members of Expedition 64. They join NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, who arrived at the space station in April, bringing the total population of the station up to six crewmembers. https://www.space.com/soyuz-makes-fastest-space-station-crew-flight-record RTCA free webinar: Modernizing the NAS October 21, 1pm ET Moderated by Gene Hayman of Collins Aerospace, the panel will discuss how government and industry are collaborating on defining the future frameworks to create a more dynamic airspace (NAS) that enables the new capabilities needed for integration of new entrants. The panel is followed by a Tech Talk: Air Traffic Control during COVID-19. REGISTER: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4258446327551992590?source=Flight+Safety+Blog Curt Lewis