Flight Safety Information - January 14, 2021 No. 011 In This Issue : Incident: Yamal A320 at Moscow on Jan 14th 2021, unreliable airspeed : Incident: Aeroflot A333 at Moscow on Jan 13th 2021, brakes problem : Airbus A320-251NX - Ground Damage during Taxi (India) : Indonesian airliner crash may be linked to plane being grounded for nine months during lockdown : Indonesia suspends dive search for crashed jet's cockpit recorder : How black boxes of crashed Indonesian jet will be handled : FAA PITCHES SAFETY REPORTING PROGRAM TO PART 135 OPERATORS : CASA appoints Acting Director of Aviation Safety (Australia) : NTSB to hold Feb. 9 hearing to determine cause of helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, 8 others : US Aviation Chief Orders 'Zero Tolerance' for Disruptive Airline Passengers : California man pleads guilty to assaulting flight attendants while on flight to NM : Airlines face more turbulence before vaccine relief : Gatwick: Norwegian axes 1,000 jobs at airport in long haul cuts : VietJet eyes aircraft purchases as it relies on vaccine rollouts to revive air travel : Intuitive Machines taps SpaceX for second lunar lander mission : Dream Chaser space plane's first flight slips to 2022 due to pandemic-related delays : RTCA Free Webinar, Jan. 21 1pm ET: Nancy Graham of Graham Aerospace presents – Stratospheric Operations : 2021 Aircraft Cabin Air Conference Incident: Yamal A320 at Moscow on Jan 14th 2021, unreliable airspeed A Yamal Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration VP-BBN performing flight YC-32 from Moscow Domodedovo to Salekhard (Russia) with 111 people on board, was climbing through FL220 out of Domodedovo's runway 14R when the crew stopped the climb reporting unreliable airspeed, descended to FL150 maintaining FL150 with deviations of up to +/- 200 feet for 70 mimutes. The crew subsequently performed an approach to Domodedovo's runway 14R but went around from about 1700 feet about 2 hours after departure. The aircraft climbed to FL170 (with deviations of -150 to +600 feet) and set course to St. Petersburg (Russia) and landed safely on St. Petersburg's runway 10R about 90 minutes after the go around and about 3.5 hours after departure. The Novourengoy Transport Prosecution Office reported the aircraft diverted to St. Petersburg due to technical reasons, the aircraft landed in normal mode. A safety check has been initiated. http://avherald.com/h?article=4e1affde&opt=0 Incident: Aeroflot A333 at Moscow on Jan 13th 2021, brakes problem An Aeroflot Airbus A330-300, registration VQ-BMY performing flight SU-1703 from Vladivostok to Moscow Sheremetyevo (Russia), was on approach to Moscow when the crew reported a brakes indication. The aircraft continued for a safe landing on runway 06R and taxied to the apron. Emergency services reported they were called into their stand by positions for an A330 with brakes problems. http://avherald.com/h?article=4e1a9dcf&opt=0 Embraer ERJ-170LR - Bird Strike (Zimbabwe) Date: 13-JAN-2021 Time: 15:55 UTC Type: Embraer ERJ-170LR Owner/operator: Airlink Registration: ZS-YBC C/n / msn: 17000006 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Unknown Location: Harare-Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport (HRE/FVRG) - Zimbabwe Phase: Initial climb Nature: Passenger - Scheduled Departure airport: Harare-Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport (HRE/FVRG) Destination airport: Johannesburg-O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB/FAOR) Narrative: Airlink flight 4Z103, an Embraer ERJ-170LR, returned to land at Harare following a bird strike. The flight departed at 15:52 UTC and safely landed back at Harare at 16:33 UTC. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=246727 Airbus A320-251NX - Ground Damage during Taxi (India) Date: 13-JAN-2021 Time: Type: Airbus A320-251NX Owner/operator: IndiGo Registration: VT-IUZ C/n / msn: 10155 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Aircraft damage: Minor Location: Srinagar Airport (VISR) - India Phase: Taxi Nature: Passenger - Scheduled Departure airport: Srinagar-Sheikh ul-Alam International Airport (SXR/VISR) Destination airport: Delhi-Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL/VIDP) Narrative: An IndiGo Airbus A320 plane contacted a snow berm with the no.2 engine during taxi at Srinagar Airport. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=246733 Indonesian airliner crash may be linked to plane being grounded for nine months during lockdown Officials investigating last Saturday's Boeing airliner crash in Indonesia are understood to be probing a possible link to the plane's prolonged grounding during last year’s Covid-19 lockdowns. The 27-year-old Boeing 737-500, which crashed into the sea off Jakarta with 62 people on board, spent nearly nine months out of service last year because of reduced flight timetables caused by the pandemic. While officials conducting the inquiry have not yet commented on the cause of the crash, experts are now speculating that it may be due to technical faults caused by the plane’s lack of regular use. “There’s a major problem starting to raise its head in terms of restoring these aircraft because while out of service for nine or 10 months, they need to be kept operating, otherwise they deteriorate,” said Hugh Ritchie, chief executive of Aviation Analysts International, an Australian air safety consulting firm. The Indonesian plane did not fly between March 23 and Dec 19 last year, and was then used 132 times after it resumed operating, according to aviation data provider Flightradar24. The exact cause of the crash is still unknown, however. On Tuesday, Indonesian navy divers recovered the "black box" flight data recorder from the plane, which abruptly plunged nearly 10,000 feet just minutes after take-off. Officials believe they have also located the second black box — a cockpit voice recorder — about 50 feet away from the flight data recorder. Indonesian officials have said that the plane passed safety inspection checks on December 2 - including for engine corrosion - and was declared airworthy on December 14. Sriwijaya Air, the local airline that operated the plane, also has a good record of service. It is not unusual for 27-year-old aircraft to be in service in the region, nor for 132 flights to be made within weeks of being pressed back into service. "This is pretty standard for this airline and this part of the world," Ian Petchenik, a Flightradar24 spokesman, told the Wall Street Journal. "Because aircraft are the main source of connectivity, there are a lot of short routes with high frequencies." But he said that problems caused by the airliner's prolonged "storage" period would be among the scenarios that the flight crash investigators would be looking into. More than 3,600 rescue personnel, plus 13 helicopters and 54 large ships have been scouring the area where the airline sank on Saturday afternoon, in water 75 feet deep. The search has been hampered by bad weather, but large numbers of bodies have already been found. The chairman of Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, Soerjanto Tjahjono, has ruled out a possible mid-air breakup after seeing the condition of the wreckage found by searchers. He said the jet was intact until it struck the water, concentrating the debris field. The disaster has re-ignited concerns about airline safety in Indonesian airlines, which were banned from operating in the EU between 2007 and 2018. John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, said that long-grounded jets required up to a fortnight's worth of enhanced maintenance checks to two weeks to ensure that electronic, hydraulic and fuel systems had not deteriorated. Mr Goglia said that his initial thought on learning about the Indonesian plane's long grounding “was if they did the proper due diligence...because sometimes that stuff doesn’t show up for a little while.” Mr Ritchie added that it was important also to ensure that pilots too needed to ease themselves carefully "back into service" after prolonged periods of inactivity due to the Covid lockdown. The pilot in command of Saturday's crashed flight had spent much of his time last year in flight simulator sessions to maintain his skills. https://www.yahoo.com/news/indonesian-airliner-crash-may-linked-165635818.html Indonesia suspends dive search for crashed jet's cockpit recorder JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia on Wednesday temporarily suspended a search by divers for the cockpit voice recorder of a Sriwijaya Air that crashed with 62 people on board shortly after takeoff. The search in the Java Sea had to be halted due to bad weather that whipped up waves of up to 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) in height, officials said. Earlier on Wednesday, divers retrieved more debris and a damaged Identity card of one of the victims, Navy official Abdul Rasyid told reporters on board the Indonesian navy ship Rigel. Divers retrieved the plane's flight data recorder (FDR) from the seabed on Tuesday and officials said they had also found the beacon that was attached to the cockpit voice recorder (CVR). A remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV) will be deployed to scour the seabed on Wednesday, Abdul said, adding that the search had been made more complicated because no pings were now being emitted after the beacon detached from the CVR. "We have the ROV that will confirm the location again and tomorrow we will dive and comb that location again," he said. Military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said on Tuesday he had "high confidence" of finding the recorder soon. The Boeing 737-500 jet crashed into the Java Sea on Saturday four minutes after takeoff from Jakarta's main airport. Investigators will rely heavily on the two black boxes to determine the cause of the crash. Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) expects to download the FDR data within two to five days. The FDR contains about 25 hours of data on eight tracks and the CVR has 30 minutes of conversation, according to the final report on a similar model of a Boeing 737 which crashed in 2008. A team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will be traveling to Jakarta in coming days to help with the investigation. The KNKT's initial findings showed the plane's engine was running when it hit the water, based on the damage seen on jet parts retrieved from the sea. Indonesia's transport ministry said on Tuesday the plane, which was grounded during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, had passed an airworthiness inspection on Dec. 14 and had returned to service shortly after. https://www.yahoo.com/news/indonesia-confident-finding-second-black-031018904.html How black boxes of crashed Indonesian jet will be handled (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities have retrieved one of two black boxes, the Flight Data Recorder, from a Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 that crashed into the Java Sea on Saturday. This is how the black box readout process works. WHAT ARE BLACK BOXES? They are not actually black but high-visibility orange. Experts disagree how the nickname originated but it has become synonymous with the quest for answers when planes crash. Many historians attribute their invention to Australian scientist David Warren in the 1950s. They are mandatory. The aim is not to establish legal liability, but to identify causes and help prevent future accidents. HOW HAVE THEY EVOLVED? The earliest devices recorded limited data on wire or foil. Models like those typically found on the 1980s-designed Boeing 737-50 use magnetic tape. Modern ones use computer chips. The recordings are housed inside crash-survivable containers able to withstand 3,400 times the force of gravity on impact. The disappearance in 2014 of Malaysian Airlines MH370 triggered debate about whether data should be streamed instead. Airbus and France’s BEA are testing an alternative design in a floatable panel embedded in the aircraft’s fuselage. Bolts would retract and the device would fall away when the plane is about to crash on water, avoiding a deep-sea search. HOW BIG ARE THEY? They weigh about 10 pounds (4.5 kilos) and contain four main parts: * a chassis or interface designed to fix the device and facilitate recording and playback * an underwater locator beacon * the core housing or ‘Crash-Survivable Memory Unit’ made of stainless steel or titanium * inside there, the recordings on chips or older formats. There are two recorders: a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) for pilot voices or cockpit sounds, and a Flight Data Recorder (FDR). HOW WILL THE RECORDERS BE HANDLED? After a crash over the sea, the recorder is placed back in water to prevent damage from contact with air while being transported. Once dry, technicians peel away protective material and carefully clean and retrieve the recordings, which are copied. Lab experts sometimes use “spectral analysis,” a way of examining sounds that can pick out barely audible alarms or the first fleeting crack of an explosion. Indonesian investigators say the Sriwijaya jet appeared to be intact when it hit water. HOW MUCH INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE? The FDR contains about 25 hours of data on eight tracks and the CVR has 30 minutes of conversation, according to the final report on a similar model of Boeing 737 which crashed in 2008. Later models have two hours of cockpit recordings. In many countries, only the main investigator and a handful of people are allowed to hear the raw cockpit tapes. WHERE WILL THE DATA BE READ? Indonesian officials leading the probe have said they plan to perform the readout at their facilities. If recorders are badly damaged, the operation is occasionally delegated to an overseas agency like France’s BEA or the device’s manufacturer. Photographs of the Sriwijaya data recorder arriving at a port on Tuesday appeared to show its crash-resistant container intact. HOW LONG WILL THE RESULTS TAKE? Indonesia has said it will take 2-5 days to inspect and download recordings. Their analysis can take much longer. Interim reports are published after a month but are often sparse. Deeper investigations take a year or more to complete. Experts say air accidents are usually caused by a cocktail of factors. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-crash-blackbox-explainer/explainer-how-black-boxes-of-crashed-indonesian-jet-will-be-handled-idUSKBN29I0CU FAA PITCHES SAFETY REPORTING PROGRAM TO PART 135 OPERATORS AOPA is supporting an FAA outreach effort to encourage Part 135 air charter operators in Alaska to launch safety programs to help knock down the state’s higher-than-average fatal accident rate. In an effort to gauge interest, the FAA is asking Part 135 certificate holders to signal their willingness to establish an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) for their company. The objective of an ASAP is to encourage employees “to voluntarily report safety information that may be critical to identifying potential precursors to accidents,” the FAA said in a January 1 letter to the certificate holders. “Under an ASAP, safety issues are resolved through corrective action rather than through punishment or discipline. The ASAP provides for the collection, analysis, and retention of the safety data obtained through the reporting process,” the letter said. It requested that Part 135 operators respond with an indication of interest by February 28 to their certificate management team or the FAA Safety Assurance Office that oversees their operation. Commercial operators can also email the Alaska Air Carriers Association with any feedback they may wish to share about the safety programs. AOPA Alaska Regional Manager Tom George noted that ASAPs are similar to the Aviation Safety Reporting System—also known as NASA reports—by which pilots and others can report safety concerns, and in some cases, have penalties for infractions deferred. Citing NTSB statistics, George said Alaska’s accident rate is 2.35 times higher than the rest of the United States, and the fatal accident rate is 1.34 times higher. A characteristic of Alaska’s Part 135 operations is a substantial number of small operators, many with single-engine aircraft and a single pilot operating in remote areas with limited weather reporting, ADS-B ground stations, and other support. In 2020, the NTSB issued a safety recommendation that called for the FAA to “work with stakeholders that service the Alaska aviation industry to implement a safety-focused working group to review, prioritize, and integrate Alaska's aviation safety needs into the FAA's safety enhancement process.” AOPA Air Safety Institute Senior Vice President Richard McSpadden welcomed the FAA’s action. “The Air Safety Institute has been encouraging the FAA to implement an Aviation Safety Action Program specifically targeted to Alaskan Part 135 operators, and accessible to small operators,” he said. “We appreciate the FAA’s movement in that direction, and we encourage Part 135 operators of all sizes to respond to the FAA’s survey.” The Air Safety Institute analyzed NTSB data for 2019 that showed that Part 135 operations accounted for 18 percent of all general aviation accidents and 38 percent of fatal GA accidents in Alaska—a larger share than in GA operations in the United States. Contributing risk elements included dramatic and rapidly changing weather, hostile terrain, and mission pressures on pilots who provide service in remote areas with minimal infrastructure. George noted that AOPA continues to advocate for additional weather reporting and ADS-B infrastructure in Alaska. Recent FAA announcements “indicate that they are making moves to address those concerns,” he said. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2021/january/12/faa-pitches-safety-reporting-program-to-part-135-operators CASA appoints Acting Director of Aviation Safety (Australia) CASA has appointed Group Executive Manager Aviation Graeme Crawford to the position of Acting Director of Aviation Safety (DAS) and CEO until the position can be filled permanently. Former CEO Shane Carmody left CASA at the end of last year after electing not to renew his contract. The CASA board had not selected a successor before his departure. "In 2021 Crawford will maintain the focus on the transition of the sectors within the aviation industry to the new flight operations regulations, CASA’s continued organisational transformation, the on-going effective consultation with the Aviation Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) and their Technical Work Groups (TWG) and the evolution of CASA’s culture to become more inclusive," a CASA statement says. Crawford started his aviation career at Rolls-Royce in Scotland in 1979, and has since held management positions with Qantas, Pratt & Whitney, Goodrich Aerospace, Air Canada and General Electric. Prior to immigrating to Australia in 2007, he ran commercial aviation operations in Norway, USA, Canada and Scotland. Crawford is thought to be one of only two people left on the short list to replace Shane Carmody, with some industry commentators believing his appointment as Acting DAS puts him in the box seat to take on the role permanently. http://www.australianflying.com.au/latest/casa-appoints-acting-director-of-aviation-safety NTSB to hold Feb. 9 hearing to determine cause of helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, 8 others The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a hearing on Feb. 9 to determine the cause of the helicopter crash a year ago that killed Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others when it struck a fog-covered hillside in Calabasas. The NTSB, in a preliminary report, ruled out engine and mechanical failure on the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter. But it has yet to provide a probable cause for the Jan. 26, 2020 crash. More than 1,700 pages of investigative documents that examine all aspects of the crash of the chopper, however, strengthened a widely held view among helicopter experts that pilot Ara Zobayan may have become disoriented while he navigated through foggy conditions on the Sunday morning flight from Orange County to Camarillo. Zobayan told air traffic control they were “climbing” to 4,000 feet, when in reality the aircraft was descending. The NTSB’s aircraft performance study said the helicopter banked left and away from the 101 Freeway while communicating with the controller. According to the study, the pilot “could have misperceived both pitch and roll angles,” according to the NTSB documents. “When a pilot misperceives altitude and acceleration it is known as the ‘somatogravic illusion’ and can cause spatial disorientation,” the report said. In other words, acceleration could cause a pilot to sense his aircraft was climbing when it was not. The helicopter crashed into the hillside near Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street at 9:45 a.m. A witness on a mountain bike trail told investigators that the area was “surrounded by mist” and that he heard the sound of a helicopter and saw a blue and white chopper emerge from the clouds, passing from left to right. The NTSB reports noted that videos and photos from the public “depict fog and low clouds obscuring the hilltops.” The reports noted that the pilot had struggled with a “low cloud ceiling.” The NTSB’s operational factors and human performance report said, “Evidence of the accident pilot receiving a weather briefing from an approved source could not be determined.” The night before the crash, the broker arranging the flight had expressed concerns to the pilot that “weather could be an issue.” Zobayan assured the broker the next morning that it “should be ok,” according to text messages released by the NTSB. The 1991 Sikorsky S-76B was carrying parents, coaches and players to a youth basketball game at Bryant’s Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks. Besides Bryant and his daughter, those who perished in the crash were Christina Mauser; Payton and Sarah Chester; John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli; and Zobayan. John Altobelli was the longtime baseball coach at Orange Coast College. Text messages reconstruct copter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, eight others At the conclusion of the Feb. 9 virtual hearing to determine the probable cause of the crash, the NTSB will likely make recommendations to improve aviation safety going forward for such helicopters. Jennifer Homendy, an NTSB board member who led the on-scene investigation, has already said the helicopter did not have a terrain awareness system (TAWS) that may have helped inform the pilot of his nearness to the ground and was not required on that particular chopper under Federal Aviation Administration regulations. The NTSB has previously recommended such a system on all large passenger helicopters. The hearing is scheduled at 9:30 a.m., EST in Washington, D.C. and will be webcast. A link to the webcast will be available shortly before the start of the meeting at http://ntsb.windrosemedia.com/. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-13/ntsb-february-hearing-determine-cause-of-crash-killed-kobe-bryant-8-others US Aviation Chief Orders 'Zero Tolerance' for Disruptive Airline Passengers WASHINGTON - U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Steve Dickson signed an order Wednesday directing the agency to take a "zero tolerance policy" after supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump were disruptive on some recent flights. Dickson told Reuters the FAA’s special emphasis program would last through March 30 and warned that disruptive passengers could face up to $35,000 in fines and possible jail time. He emphasized the agency will not issue warning letters or negotiate penalties. "We will no longer adjudicate certain of these unruly passenger cases with counseling or warnings. We're going to go straight to enforcement," Dickson said in an interview. He said he briefed airlines on the new policy. "We've seen a disturbing increase in these incidents. ... We'll take the strongest possible enforcement action against any passenger who engages in it." Dickson said the FAA could refer cases for criminal prosecution to the Justice Department, which could seek sentences of up to 20 years for flight disturbances. The president of a large flight attendants' union, who has pressed authorities to take strong action against disruptive passengers, applauded the FAA's stance. "First strike, and you're out," Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA representing workers at 17 airlines, said in a statement. Numerous videos have been posted of unruly behavior on flights to and from Washington, including one American Airlines flight to Phoenix in which the pilot threatened to divert "to the middle of Kansas and dump people off." Nelson had urged airlines to bar Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol from flying out of Washington after exhibiting "mob mentality behavior" on flights into the region. On Friday, Alaska Airlines said it banned 14 passengers from future travel after "unacceptable" behavior on a flight from Washington to Seattle. U.S airlines and law enforcement agencies have bolstered security at Washington-area airports with Capitol Police now assigned to D.C. airports to ensure lawmakers’ safety after videos emerged of lawmakers being harassed in airport terminals. On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump supporters who breached the U.S. Capitol should be banned from flying and added to a government "no-fly" list. https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-aviation-chief-orders-zero-tolerance-disruptive-airline-passengers California man pleads guilty to assaulting flight attendants while on flight to NM ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A California man has pleaded guilty to assaulting two flight attendants while he was a passenger on a 2019 flight to New Mexico. Federal prosecutors said 43-year-old Alton James Johnson of Yuba City entered his plea Tuesday. Johnson will remain in custody pending sentencing and prosecutors said he’s facing a six-month prison sentence. The incident occurred on a Dec. 23, 2019, flight from San Diego to Albuquerque. Johnson was accused of repeatedly touching a female flight attendant up and down her legs. After she told him to stop, Johnson then grabbed the flight attendant inappropriately. When a second flight attendant stepped in and asked Johnson not to touch any flight attendants, prosecutors say he forcefully grabbed the second flight attendant by the arm. According to his plea agreement in the case, Johnson admitted to being under the influence of alcohol but conceded that he was in control of his actions when he committed the assaults. https://www.krqe.com/news/crime/california-man-pleads-guilty-to-assaulting-flight-attendants-while-on-flight-to-nm/ Airlines face more turbulence before vaccine relief PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - For a year expected to mark a turning point for pandemic-stricken European airlines, 2021 is off to a rough start. A resurgence of COVID-19 lockdowns has killed off a fragile bookings upturn, executives and analysts said, as insolvent Norwegian Air finally axed its long-haul operations on Thursday. The setbacks deal a blow to airline hopes that the promise of vaccines would put the worst of the crisis behind them, and set the stage for a summer rebound. New outbreaks and travel restrictions - some designed to curb the spread of a highly infectious virus variant detected in Britain - have hit forward bookings that are usually relied upon to bring in vital cash during the thin winter months. Global airline industry body IATA believes a return to positive cash flow “might not arrive before the end of the year,” Chief Economist Brian Pearce said. “Meanwhile the cash burn is going to continue” and may even in increase in Europe, Pearce told an online conference on Wednesday. Some carriers may yet run out of cash, he added. For bailed-out airlines like Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, a longer slump increases both debt and the likelihood more support will be needed. Europe faces the worst relapse - although hitherto buoyant Chinese and Russian domestic bookings have also been weakened by new restrictions. Intra-European bookings for the first half of the year stand at 22% of their level 12 months ago, Olivier Ponti of aviation data specialist ForwardKeys said. That compares with 36% for U.S. domestic bookings and 48% for flights within China. ‘CARNAGE IN EUROPE’ Airlines have responded by cancelling yet more services. Ultra-low-cost carrier Wizz Air, which has been expanding its fleet and network during the crisis, is suspending most UK routes and sees January capacity down 75%. “The lockdown puts strains on demand, and we’re adjusting capacity according to demand,” Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi told Reuters. “It’s going to be a difficult quarter.” Data provider OAG, which tracks airline schedules, predicted “carnage in Europe” after airlines slashed western Europe capacity by a quarter. “A loss of some 1.5 million seats in a week is staggering,” analyst John Grant said. With another 580,000 dropped in eastern Europe, “expectations for the next few months are grim”. Recovery hopes have driven a share rebound for European airlines since the first vaccine breakthrough in November, before lockdown setbacks pared average gains to 30%, based on the Stoxx Europe airlines index. More bullish investors may be getting ahead of themselves, some analysts caution. European aviation is “primed for disappointment”, Citi analyst Mark Manduca said. “We see recovery risks into summer because (pre-flight) testing will in our view likely stifle demand,” he added in a note. “Slower-than-expected rollouts of vaccines to corporate populations will likely continue to strangle a business-demand recovery.” ‘DESTROYS CONFIDENCE’ The volatile outlook hugely complicates all-important summer schedule planning, as airlines must decide several months ahead whether to commit cash to bringing back and overhauling parked jets and rehire staff. Wheel out too much capacity and the unfilled seats will deepen losses. An airline that underestimates demand, on the other hand, risks handing badly needed business to rivals. Nearly three-quarters of European routes are now under restrictions, according to UBS research - a higher proportion than at the height of the pandemic’s first wave last March-May. Airlines are growing exasperated with governments’ refusal to drop quarantines for pre-flight COVID-19 testing. When Britain added testing requirements on top of a quarantine, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary decried “another shambolic measure”. “What this does is it destroys all confidence in bookings,” he told the BBC on Friday. Similar moves by Canada, Germany and Japan have drawn fire from the industry. “These governments are not interested in managing a balanced approach to the risks,” IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac said on Tuesday. “The industry’s situation is still perilous - in fact it got worse over the year-end holiday period.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-airlines-risks/airlines-face-more-turbulence-before-vaccine-relief-idUKKBN29J1A2 Gatwick: Norwegian axes 1,000 jobs at airport in long haul cuts Budget airline Norwegian has axed its long-haul network, leading to the loss of 1,100 pilot and cabin crew jobs based at Gatwick Airport. The carrier's board of directors said it will continue to operate with a "simplified business structure". It comes following the "profound" impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the aviation industry, the board said. A Gatwick spokeswoman said the demand for slots at the airport remained strong. The airline will now focus on its European short-haul network, using smaller aircraft. Norwegian shook up the UK's long-haul aviation market in recent years by offering transatlantic flights at knockdown prices. Some of its most popular deals included £99 trips to New York. But its entire Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet has been grounded since March 2020. In August 2020, the airline announced it needed financial support to get through the pandemic, after a loss of £442m for the first six months of the year. Chief executive Jacob Schram said: "By focusing our operation on a short-haul network, we aim to attract existing and new investors, serve our customers and support the wider infrastructure and travel industry. "Our focus is to rebuild a strong, profitable Norwegian so that we can safeguard as many jobs as possible." 'Variety of choice' A Gatwick spokeswoman said the airport would remain "an important part" of Norwegian's future plans. "The demand for slots at Gatwick - both long and short-haul - remains very strong," the spokeswoman added. "We will continue to pursue new opportunities with Norwegian and other airlines to offer passengers a variety of choice for their 2021 future travel plans." Fighting for survival Norwegian wasn't the first airline to try to prove that low cost and long haul could go together on international flights - but for a while it seemed to be the most credible. The company was determined to prove that a new generation of fuel-efficient aircraft could make cheap transatlantic services viable, in a way that had not previously been the case. Using a fleet of Boeing 787s to fly routes such as London Gatwick to New York JFK, it did at one point seem to have established long distance carriers thoroughly rattled - even attracting a couple of takeover bids from British Airways' owner IAG. However, all was not well. Rapid expansion had left the airline weighed down with debt and struggling to make money, even before the Covid pandemic plunged the entire industry into a deep crisis. Norwegian has been a hair's breadth from collapse for months, and is still desperate for new investment. And so a business model which looked questionable even during the good times has been cast aside in a simple bid for survival. About 2,160 jobs will be lost around the world - including at Gatwick - as the firm also has long-haul bases in France, Italy, Spain and the US. Customers with affected bookings will be contacted by the airline and refunded. The firm has resumed talks with the Norwegian government about further state support. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-55660837 VietJet eyes aircraft purchases as it relies on vaccine rollouts to revive air travel HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese budget carrier VietJet Aviation plans to expand its investment in new aircraft and technical facilities this year after reporting a small profit in 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic, its chief executive officer said. “In 2021, we expect to continue to receive new modern planes and will invest in maintenance and training facilities, and the investment will be higher than in 2020,” VietJet President and CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said in an interview recorded on Jan. 9 and broadcast on Thursday at the Reuters Next conference. VietJet said separately on Wednesday it raised $28 million via a bond issuance last month to fund its development plans in 2021. It did not provide further details about the bond sale. Vietnam has been successful in containing the coronavirus with a series of quarantine and tracking measures. With just over 1,500 infections and 35 deaths in total, it has resumed economic activities earlier than much of Asia. While all international commercial flights have been suspended since late March, domestic air travel has been subjected to few restrictions. VietJet’s cargo transport in 2020 rose 75% from 2019, she said, adding that its overall domestic operations recorded positive growth in 2020, without giving comparative figures. With the early COVID-19 vaccine roll-out around the world, Thao expects the global aviation industry to recover rapidly. Vietjet’s Thai unit increased its aircraft fleet to 15 last year, while its market share there also increased, she added. “Air travel demand is extremely high for business, investment, education and healthcare purposes, and we have been actively conducting flights to repatriate Vietnamese people from overseas,” Thao said. She said the company is considering options to raise fundsfor its investment plans for this year, though she did not name an amount. “Our debt-to-equity ratio is 1.0, compared with over 3.0 for the aviation industry, so we have room to mobilise funds for our development,” Thao said. The airline continued to take delivery of Airbus SE narrowbody jets last year despite some supply chain interruptions at the manufacturer but Boeing Co did not meet its delivery schedule, she said. VietJet has 200 737 MAX jets on order, according to Boeing, but the plane has not yet returned to service in Asia following a near two-year global grounding. ($1 = 23,050 dong) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietjet-ceo/vietjet-eyes-aircraft-purchases-as-it-relies-on-vaccine-rollouts-to-revive-air-travel-idUSKBN29J0TA Intuitive Machines taps SpaceX for second lunar lander mission VIDEO The first commercial lunar landers are set to start making their trips to the moon as early as this year, and now another one has a confirmed ride booked: Intuitive Machines is sending its second lander aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, with a projected launch time frame happening sometime around 2022 at the earliest. Intuitive Machines has already booked a first lander mission via SpaceX, which is also hosting payloads for other private companies seeking to make lunar landfall under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander can carry up to 100 kg (around 222 lbs) of cargo to the moon's surface, and can communicate back to Earth for transmitting the results of its missions. It has both internal and surface-mounting capacity, and will carry science experiments for a variety of customers to the lunar surface through NASA's commercial partnership program, partly to support future NASA missions including its planned Artemis human moon landings. The first Intuitive Machines lunar lander mission, which will also use a Nova-C lander, is set to take place sometime in the fourth quarter of 2021 based on current timelines. It'll include a lunar imaging suite, which will seek to "capture some of the first images of the Milky Way Galaxy Center from the surface of the Moon," and the second mission will include delivering a polar resource mining drill and a mass spectrometer to the moon's south pole on behalf of NASA, in addition to other payloads. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/intuitive-machines-taps-spacex-second-153128364.html Dream Chaser space plane's first flight slips to 2022 due to pandemic-related delays Delays related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic have pushed back the anticipated flight date of Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane to 2022. Dream Chaser is one of the NASA-selected cargo vehicles that, once it begins to fly, will resupply the International Space Station (ISS), along with SpaceX's Dragon and Northrop Grumman's Cygnus capsules. But even as the space plane's launch is delayed, its parent company continues to aim towards sending humans to the moon and, eventually, Mars. "We've got this vision of the future here with our technology that we're already creating," Neeraj Gupta, director of programs for Sierra Nevada Corporation's Advanced Development Group, said during a November press conference. "What we really see is this kind of vibrant, bustling commercial space economy developing." Dream Chaser is a cornerstone of that vision, Gupta said. Another key element is the Large Inflatable Fabric Environment (LIFE) habitat, a three-story structure capable of housing explorers on the moon or Mars for up to 90 days. Dream Chaser was supposed to make its first of six flights transporting cargo for NASA to and from the ISS late this year. But during the briefing, Sierra Nevada said delays have pushed the launch back to 2022. "This has been a trying year with the COVID restrictions and quarantines," Steve Lindsey, senior vice president for strategy at Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems, said at the same event. Pandemic conditions have forced the company, like many others, to seek out creative solutions to continue meeting deadlines. "We're going to keep fighting through the COVID challenges, get this thing built, and we're going to get it flown as soon as we can do so safely," Lindsey said. Sierra Nevada has not announced when in 2022 Dream Chaser will attempt to make its first flight, but Lindsey described how pandemic restrictions prevented engineers from being on site for structural testing of the cargo model. Instead, engineers remotely oversaw the tests from a mission control center in Colorado. While the workaround allowed testing to continue, it took three or four times as long as it should have, Lindsey said. Other delays came from supplier shutdowns due to COVID-19 outbreaks. Technical challenges not related to the pandemic also caused problems, though Lindsey did not elaborate. "All of those things have conspired to move the date a little bit," Lindsey said. Chasing dreams Dream Chaser is designed to make trips into space more accessible by landing on any runway that can welcome a Boeing 737 aircraft. The reusable spacecraft is also fairly modular, allowing it to accommodate a wide range of cargo that would be easily accessible soon after landing. Sierra Nevada currently holds a NASA contract for a minimum of six missions to the ISS, and those missions are the primary pushfor the Dream Chaser team right now, Lindsey said. But the space plane was designed to be far more accommodating. "When you're going to do something commercial like we're trying to do, you have to take the long view, and that starts with your design," Lindsey said. Although the company remains committed to the ISS, they are also searching for other potential customers. "We believe that the market demand is out there," Lindsey said. The company's biggest success on that path to date is the United Nations, which in 2019 announced its plan to allow Dream Chaser to carry experiments from member countries, planned for 2024. While the first Dream Chaser plane, named Tenacity, is currently moving towards its final stages, a second vehicle is also currently in production, Lindsey said. Both vehicles are built to endure 15 missions. The company is also considering a crewed version of Dream Chaser, although it does not yet have a contract for such a vehicle. A crewed ship would be very similar to the cargo plane, with seating and life support added, as well as an abort system, which would allow astronauts to quickly and safely escape during an emergency. And a human-ready version remains an important part of the Dream Chaser vision, Lindsey said. "We will never lose our drive to eventually make this vehicle crewed," he said. Even as Sierra Nevada faces delays with Dream Chaser, it continues to press on toward creating a space environment. The LIFE habitation, originally one of five concepts considered by NASA for its Artemis program architecture, is an inflatable living structure that can be used in orbit or on the surface of a moon or planet. "It's basically a skyscraper for space," Gupta said. The inflatable habitat starts out compact enough to fit inside an 18-foot (5.40 meter) rocket fairing, eventually expanding to a 27 by 27 foot (8 by 8 m) fabric building. "We can launch this on a commercially available launch vehicle today," Gupta said. The habitat extends the amount of time humans can stay on the surface of the moon, to at least 90 days, and potentially longer. "The first step is getting people there, the first woman and next man to the surface of the moon," Gupta said. "But the next piece is staying there." But while the outpost is currently aiming for the moon, Mars remains in its sights. Gupta said the habitat's ability to expand from a small package is a plus for long journeys to the Red Planet, when space will be at a premium. https://www.space.com/sierra-nevada-dream-chaser-delayed-coronavirus RTCA Free Webinar, Jan. 21 - 1pm ET: Nancy Graham of Graham Aerospace presents – Stratospheric Operations: New air vehicles and High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) are advancing current operations in the national and international airspace every day. What new skills, both from regulators and industry, may be needed to cooperatively manage this airspace? Session followed by a Tech Talk: Stephen Timm, President of Collins Aerospace presents: The Contactless Passenger Journey. Free to attend. Details & Register 2021 Aircraft Cabin Air Conference Registration Now Open ** Thanks to our generous sponsors, registration is currently free, so book today! ** 2021 Aircraft Cabin Air Conference 15 to 18 March 2021 1500 to 2000 GMT daily via Zoom (0700 to 1200 PST) Four online days of powerful talks given by industry and subject matter experts. Registration is open and currently FREE, so book today! https://www.aircraftcabinair.com/ Following on from the success of the 2017 and 2019 Aircraft Cabin Air Conferences, the 2021 conference will be an essential four-day free modular online event via Zoom. Providing an in-depth overview or update for all those seeking to understand the subject of contaminated air, the flight safety implications, the latest scientific and medical evidence investigating the contaminated air debate and the emerging solutions available to airlines and aircraft operators. The 2021 conference will be the biggest conference ever held on the issue. Who should participate? Airline Management - Aircraft Manufacturers - Safety equipment providers - Health & Safety Regulators - Maintenance Companies - Airline Safety Departments - Air Accident Investigators- Crew & Unions - Policy Makers- Press & Media - Aircraft Insurers - Leasing Companies - Scientists - Occupational Health Professionals - Academics & Researchers - Engineers Register Curt Lewis