Flight Safety Information - February 19, 2021 No. 037 In This Issue : Incident: Lufthansa A359 near Boston on Feb 6th 2021, odour in cabin : Air Force T-38 Trainer Jet Suffers Landing Gear Mishap; No Injuries Reported : FAA using satellite technology to monitor every Boeing 737 MAX in flight : AFGSC begins retirement of B-1 aircraft, paving way for B-21 : The Prius of airplanes : Hawaiian tourists bribed an airport screener with $3,000 to bypass covid-19 protocols, police say : The TSI Instructor Qualification & Excellence Course : ERAU - Research Study Incident: Lufthansa A359 near Boston on Feb 6th 2021, odour in cabin A Lufthansa Airbus A350-900, registration D-AIXJ performing flight LH-413 from Newark,NJ (USA) to Munich (Germany) with 41 people on board, was climbing to FL350 just about to reach the flight level about 10nm south of Boston,MA (USA) when the crew advised they had some smell in the back of the cabin and would like to maintain minimum speed (0.73 mach) to solve the smell issue. A few minutes later, about 25nm east of Boston, the crew advised they still had the smell in the cabin and decided to not continue their flight to destination but to return to Newark. They expected a normal landing, then requested to speed up the arrival in Newark so that they were able to get the passengers off at the gate as quickly as possible. Two passengers reported they felt headaches, cabin crew reported the smell was like tigerbalsam, not like smoke, something different to smoke. The crew again requested to make sure they had a gate to arrive there as quickly as possible and de-board the passengers. The aircraft landed safely on Newark's runway 22R about 80 minutes after departure and taxied to the gate. The aircraft remained on the ground in Newark until Feb 9th 2021, then departed for Munich again as flight LH-413. On Feb 18th 2021 The Aviation Herald learned that the odour of Tiger Balm was first noticed about 15 minutes into the flight and continued to intensify. The passengers disembarked normally after the return to Newark. A congested water drain in the aft galley produced an unpleasant odour, in addition a good number of wipes with disinfectants were found in the waste trolley. The drain was cleaned, the wipes removed and the aircraft subsequently operated without further odour. http://avherald.com/h?article=4e31afee&opt=0 Air Force T-38 Trainer Jet Suffers Landing Gear Mishap; No Injuries Reported A U.S. Air Force T-38 Talon trainer jet out of Beale Air Force Base, California, experienced a landing gear mishap when touching down at Sacramento's Mather Airport, the service said Thursday. The two pilots aboard sustained no injuries during the accident, base officials said in a release. The aircraft, which took off from Beale for routine training, belongs to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, the release adds. The twin-engine jet came down at the airport with its landing gear up at approximately 9:00 a.m. The facility, roughly 50 miles from the base, is often used by military aircraft for touch-and-go landings and takeoffs, 9th Reconnaissance Wing spokeswoman Kathryn Miller told Military.com. Read Next: 'They Know All About It': Pentagon Report Details Military Reach of Supremacist Groups She said she could not provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation into the incident. The base is best known for its U-2 Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft. It operates T-38s for its companion aircraft training program, according to the service. Some of the Northrop Grumman-made T-38s date to the mid-1960s. Pilots have noted feeling strain when conducting basic maneuvers in the T-38 because its shape -- most notably its stubby wings -- gives it unforgiving tendencies. The aircraft performs best at high speeds and is much more challenging to fly when pilots are working on slow-speed fundamental skills, a former T-38 instructor told Military.com last year. The Air Force is preparing to replace the aging T-38s with new trainer jets. In September 2018, the service awarded Boeing Co. a $9.2 billion contract to build a replacement aircraft, known as the T-X program. In 2019, the Air Force rebranded the T-X as the T-7A Redhawk, named in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen. The first T-7A is expected to be delivered in 2023, along with new flight training simulators. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/02/18/air-force-t-38-trainer-jet-suffers-landing- gear-mishap-no-injuries-reported.html FAA using satellite technology to monitor every Boeing 737 MAX in flight The first commercial flight of the Boeing 737 MAX in Canada since the aircraft was cleared to fly again in Canadian airspace lifts off in Calgary... (Jeff McIntosh / The Associated Press) More Using a technology that streams data from an airplane via satellites, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now monitoring every Boeing 737 MAX on every flight worldwide to check on the performance of the MAX fleet as the jet returns to service. The system “will flag deviations from certain parameters during all phases of flight and alert the FAA’s aviation safety division,” the federal agency said. “Safety engineers and inspectors will use the early notification to further analyze the incident.” Following the two MAX crashes that killed 346 people and grounded the commercial fleet worldwide for 20 months, even routine problems in flight as the planes return to the skies are likely to gain outsize attention and cause concern for air travelers. The FAA is using the data to keep a close eye on the performance of the MAXs and to try to detect any issues early. The agency has never before conducted such real-time scrutiny of a single model of airplane. It has contracted with McLean, Virginia-based Aireon to use a system called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, to track the MAXs in flight, streaming data from the aircraft every half second to the FAA Technical Center near Atlantic City, New Jersey. ADS-B is a more precise tracking system than radar and also transmits more data. And unlike radar, which cannot track aircraft far out over the oceans, the Earth’s poles or inaccessible mountain or jungle terrain, Aireon’s satellite system covers the globe. Every new Airbus or Boeing jet is equipped with an ADS-B transmitter that continually broadcasts the identity of each individual airplane, its accurate GPS position, its trajectory, its ground speed, its altitude, and its vertical rate of climb or descent, as well as any indication from the airplane systems of an emergency event — such as a code flagging a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) automatic warning. For the MAX tracking contract with the FAA, the scope of which the agency has extended after an initial 10-week trial, Aireon will provide daily health reports on the flights that took off the previous day. For each individual MAX jet, it will report how many times it took off, the duration of the flights and any anomalies detected. Aireon’s ambition is eventually to replace the world’s current radar-based air traffic control systems with a more precise and global ADS-B system. Its investors include some of the world’s leading air navigation authorities, including those of Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Italy. Its work with those authorities has already allowed air traffic controllers to shrink the spacing between aircraft flying across the North Atlantic. And the Canadian and British air traffic controllers are starting a trial to scrap the current system of organized tracks across that ocean in favor of more efficient individual airplane routings. ADS-B can also be used to track the precise location of a plane if it goes down. When a Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard — Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — disappeared in March 2014, this technology for precisely locating the jet was not in place globally. That jet crashed somewhere in the vast southern Indian Ocean and is still missing. The FAA has not yet committed fully to the Aireon system, but in November announced a strategic partnership that grants it broad access to Aireon’s real-time air traffic data to allow the agency to evaluate applications, including air traffic control automation, airspace safety analysis and accident investigations. The MAX tracking, an off-shoot of that partnership, will provide copious data on routine operations and flag anything out of the ordinary. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/faa-using-satellite-technology- to-monitor-every-boeing-737-max-in-flight/ AFGSC begins retirement of B-1 aircraft, paving way for B-21 In support of its efforts to modernize America’s bomber fleet, the Air Force will begin divesting 17 B-1B Lancers from its current fleet as authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act. This action will not affect the service’s lethality or any associated maintenance manpower. It will allow officials to focus maintenance and depot-level manpower on the remaining aircraft, increasing readiness and paving the way for the bomber fleet modernization ready to meet future challenges. “Beginning to retire legacy bombers, to make way for the B-21 Raider, is something we have been working toward for some time,” said Gen. Timothy Ray, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command. “Due to the wear and tear placed on the B-1 fleet over the past two decades, maintaining these bombers would cost tens of millions of dollars per aircraft to get back to status quo. And that’s just to fix the problems we know about. We’re just accelerating planned retirements.” The 17 B-1B aircraft will be retired from the current fleet of 62 B-1s, leaving 45 in the active fleet. Of the 17 B-1 aircraft, four will be required to remain in a reclaimable condition that is consistent with Type 2000 recallable storage. Continuous combat operations over the last 20 years have taken a toll on the airframe’s structure. Currently, a small portion of the B-1Bs are in a state that will require approximately ten to thirty million dollars per aircraft to get back to a status quo fleet in the short term until the B-21 comes online. “Retiring aircraft with the least amount of usable life allows us to prioritize the health of the fleet and crew training,” Ray said. “Our ability to balance these priorities will make us more capable and lethal overall.” With fewer aircraft in the B-1 fleet, maintainers will be able to give more time and attention to each aircraft. “The divestiture of the B-1 is necessary in order for the Air Force to create an even more lethal, agile and sustainable force with a greater competitive edge for tomorrow’s fight,” Ray said. https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2506903/afgsc-begins-retirement-of-b-1- aircraft-paving-way-for-b-21/ The Prius of airplanes Hybrid-electric aircraft will soon kick off a new era of cleaner air travel, just as the pioneering Toyota Prius heralded the start of the electric car movement 20 years ago. Why it matters: Replacing small regional planes that run on fossil fuels with hybrid or electric aircraft would help reduce climate-damaging CO2 emissions. It could also make air travel easier and cheaper for people living in smaller cities not served by major airlines. The big picture: CO2 emissions from aviation have risen rapidly over the past two decades, reaching about 2.8% of global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion, according to the International Energy Agency. And with passenger air travel growing at about 5% a year — except during the pandemic — airlines have been scrambling to lower their carbon footprint. State of play: Fully electric planes, while promising, are limited by available battery technology. Batteries cost less and pack more energy into a smaller package than they did a decade ago, but they're still too heavy to allow planes to fly long distances or carry heavy loads. They do work, however, in low-flying air taxis for short runs across a city or to the airport. These new electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft are getting a lot of attention on Wall Street, but they won't be widely available until around 2035, according to a Deloitte analysis. Yes, but: For medium distances of 50 to 500 miles — the city-hopping routes ignored by hub-and-spoke airlines — hybrids offer a practical solution that can be ready in just a few years. UBS, the Swiss investment bank, forecasts a $178 billion market for hybrid-electric aircraft. Driving the news: Surf Air Mobility, a regional air travel service, said this week it would acquire Ampaire, a developer of hybrid electric powertrains for aviation. Surf Air co-founder and CEO Sudhin Shahani called Ampaire's technology a step toward "the next great shift in air travel: sustainable aviation that's accessible to everyone." For now, the company's plan is to upgrade existing turboprop aircraft with Ampaire's hybrid technology on short, regional routes while the industry works toward fully electric aviation for all trips. How it works: Upgrading today’s aircraft for electric power is a relatively low-cost, low-risk path to aircraft certification, says Ampaire CEO Kevin Noertker. Its "Electric EEL," for example, is a retrofitted Cessna plane, with an electric motor in the nose and a traditional combustion engine in the rear. Both systems provide thrust, but in the air, the engine is mostly used to recharge the 50 kWh battery stored under the fuselage. In October, the EEL completed a 341-mile test flight between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ampaire also partnered with Hawaii-based Mokulele Airlines on a series of test runs between the islands’ small airports with mock payloads. What they're saying: "It is a very long time — well over a decade, maybe two — before your large trans-continental planes are electric," says veteran aviation executive Fred Reid, now president of Surf Air Mobility. "The beauty of a hybrid is that they're already flying. You can save 25 to 30 percent on operating costs and it makes a dent on the environmental problem." "We could upgrade 20-30,000 planes, and give them a shelf life for another 20 years." https://www.axios.com/airplanes-hybrid-electric-future-5a8cd60e-e65e-4eac-b33a- 6e667173a855.html Hawaiian tourists bribed an airport screener with $3,000 to bypass covid-19 protocols, police say The two travelers from Louisiana were promptly arrested and flown back to the mainland Two travelers visiting Hawaii from Louisiana were arrested on Friday and accused of offering a Honolulu airport screener $3,000 to let them pass without quarantining or providing the negative coronavirus tests required for entry, officials say. Johntrell White, 29, and Nadia Bailey, 28, were charged with bribery and flown back to the mainland. The two allegedly flew to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport without any coronavirus test results and told an airport screener not to alert officials in exchange for money. White is accused of offering the screener $2,000 to avoid quarantine, and Bailey offered the same screener an additional $1,000, the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office and Department of Public Safety reported in a covid-19 update from the governor’s office. “The screener alerted deputy sheriffs, who arrested them both for bribery. White and Bailey were booked and released and immediately flew back to the mainland,” the governor’s news update stated. “The attorney general’s investigation is continuing.” Bribery is punishable in Hawaii by up to 15 years in prison and can be fined up to triple the bribe amount. [Hawaii wants tourists. Tourists want Hawaii. But the rules are complicated.] Hawaii’s “Safe Travels” program requires all visitors to present a negative coronavirus test done by a state-approved lab within 72 hours of travel. Those who arrive with no test or a positive test are required to quarantine for 14 days. Travelers have been arrested in the past for breaking quarantine requirements on the island after arrival, and in December, two visitors from San Francisco who knew they had the coronavirus flew to Hawaii. On the same day that Bailey and White were charged with bribery, officials say, a man visiting from Wisconsin was also arrested and accused of breaking quarantine after he arrived without a coronavirus test. The man, Anthony Johnson, 44, checked into a hotel that was not his designated quarantine facility and attempted to go swimming. This Monday alone, Hawaii saw 11,591 passengers arrive from out of state. Officials say 6,870 of those arrivals were entering for a vacation; 1,484 were returning Hawaii residents. https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/02/18/hawaii-honolulu-airport-bribe-covid/ ERAU - Research Study Dear Pilot, You are being asked to participate in a research study of your opinions on urban air mobility. This study is expected to take approximately 10 minutes of your time. In order to participate, you must be at least 18 years old, a resident of the U.S., a certified pilot, and have piloted with the last 5 year. Participation in this study is voluntary, and you may choose to opt out of the study at any time. If you choose to opt out, your data will be immediately destroyed. We appreciate your consideration and time to complete our study. Please click on or copy and paste the URL below: https://forms.gle/PMY7C4fh9LL3VWUa9 For more information, please contact: Dr. Scott R. Winter scott.winter@erau.edu We appreciate your interest and participation! Curt Lewis