Flight Safety Information - March 17, 2021 No. 055 In This Issue : Incident: Azul E195 at Alta Floresta on Mar 14th 2021, air data system failure : Accident: American B772 at Dallas on Mar 15th 2021, turbulence injures flight attendant : Accident: Virgin Atlantic B789 at London on Mar 15th 2021, laser injures captain : Incident: Eurowings A319 at Hamburg on Mar 16th 2021, gear problem on departure : Airlines face headache over 'use-by' date on some jet parts as pandemic grounds fleets : Woman with history of airliner stowaways arrested again : U.S. agency criticizes Hong Kong air carrier quarantine rules : Boeing Testing Dreamliner Cockpit Windows as Flaws Search Widens : Flight Safety Foundation and Partners Target Runway Excursion Prevention : HAI Expanding International Reach, Safety Programs : FAA Announces New Effective Dates For Drone Rules : Flight attendants have faced a rough year of health risks, layoffs and anti-maskers : MISSOURI UNIVERSITY CREATES NEW PROFESSIONAL PILOT PATHWAY : US astronaut launching next month may spend year in space : Graduate Survey Incident: Azul E195 at Alta Floresta on Mar 14th 2021, air data system failure An Azul Linhas Aereas Embraer ERJ-195, registration PR-AXH performing flight AD-4535 from Alta Floresta,MT to Cuiaba,MT (Brazil) with 59 passengers and 5 crew, was climbing out of Alta Floreste when the crew received an "ADS 1 FAIL" message. The crew worked the related checklists and returned to Alta Floreste for a safe landing. Brazil's CENIPA rated the occurrence an incident. https://avherald.com/h?article=4e47f3e0&opt=0 Accident: American B772 at Dallas on Mar 15th 2021, turbulence injures flight attendant An American Airlines Boeing 777-200, registration N789AN performing flight AA-1601 from Cancun (Mexico) to Dallas Ft. Worth,TX (USA), landed on Dallas' runway 31R at 14:59L (19:59Z), one flight attendant had received a serious injury in flight. The FAA reported: "AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED TURBULENCE ON FINAL, DALLAS, TX." however provided a time stamp of 18:24Z at which time the aircraft had been enroute at FL380 over the Gulf of Mexico about 260nm northwest of Cancun. The aircraft initiated a climb to FL400 about two minutes later. A flight attendant received a serious injury, the occurrence was rated an accident. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL1601/history/20210315/1724Z/MMUN/KDFW https://avherald.com/h?article=4e47df48&opt=0 Accident: Virgin Atlantic B789 at London on Mar 15th 2021, laser injures captain A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9, registration G-VDIA performing flight VS-453 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to Tel Aviv (Israel), departed Heathrow's runway 27L and was climbing out when a laser was pointed at the aircraft and hit the captain. The crew initially continued the flight. Enroute at FL410 over Paris (France) the crew however decided to return to London due to the captain being increasingly challenged. The crew declared PAN reporting the captain now could see with one eye only. The aircraft landed safely back on Heathrow's runway 27L about 75 minutes after departure. The airline reported a laser beam from the ground was shone into the cockpit upon departure. The crew swiftly reported the laser occurrence to ATC and police. Later the crew needed to return to London. The flight was postponed to the following day. Israeli media report, the perpetrator operating the laser was arrested. A replacement Boeing 787-9 registration G-VAHH reached Tel Aviv as flight VS-453A the following day with a delay of 12.5 hours. https://avherald.com/h?article=4e47d0dd&opt=0 Incident: Eurowings A319 at Hamburg on Mar 16th 2021, gear problem on departure A Eurowings Airbus A319-100, registration D-AGWU performing flight EW-7760 from Hamburg (Germany) to Zurich (Switzerland), was climbing out of Hamburg's runway 33 when the crew stopped the climb at FL100 due to a gear problem. The crew performed a low approach to runway 23 about 20 minutes after departure and made a safe landing on runway 23 about 35 minutes after departure. A passenger reported the crew announced they had a faulty sensor and were returning to Hamburg for a low pass to have the landing gear inspected from the ground. The aircraft subsequently landed safely. The aircraft is still on the ground in Hamburg about 8 hours after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=4e47ccc0&opt=0 Airlines face headache over 'use-by' date on some jet parts as pandemic grounds fleets (Reuters) - Airlines with planes idled by the pandemic are cutting costs by delaying some maintenance tasks like changing life vests, testing oxygen bottles and checking emergency exits under COVID-19 waivers from airplane manufacturers and regulators. The move allows airlines to stop the clock on a category of parts that would otherwise need checks or pass their "use-by" date without leaving the ground because of the huge number of planes parked during the pandemic. In special guidance to airlines, Airbus SE, Boeing Co, Brazil's Embraer SA and turboprop manufacturer ATR say there is no risk to safety because the work will be done before the planes return to the skies. But there are concerns that delays could trigger commercial disputes between airlines and their lessors and financiers if they breach contractual maintenance agreements. "I think there is going to be some argument," said Phil Seymour, president of aviation intelligence and advisory firm IBA. Delayed checks also mean it will take longer to reactivate planes. In the highly regulated world of airplane maintenance, the frequency of many tasks is determined by the number of take-offs and landings or flight hours. But others, such as life vests and portable oxygen bottles, have a fixed schedule for replacement. The world's two major aviation regulators in the United States and Europe have both provided COVID-19 related guidance on extending some time-related tasks while a plane is stored. "Prior to an aircraft return to service from storage, all scheduled maintenance tasks that were scheduled during the non-operational status must be performed," a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said. In a sign of the scale of the issue, Boeing put an engineering team to work analysing all of the roughly 1,400 tasks per model to help airlines keep costs down and delay work that was not deemed urgent or safety-critical. That allowed the maximum extension of 10% beyond the scheduled time to be increased to as much as 12 months for grounded planes not subject to passenger foot traffic, cargo carriage, and other wear and tear. "The unique, individual assessments for each Boeing model accounted for all climates around the world and can support all operators," a Boeing spokesman said. Airbus also analysed calendar-driven tasks to give more flexibility to customers, said Airbus head of scheduled maintenance services Claire Kauffmann. "This ensures that the task is performed in a safe way and that they have proper time and staff to do that," she said. An ATR spokesman said airlines had used a three-month "clock stoppage" on parked planes to ensure time-driven tasks were not scattered over a longer schedule. Consulting group Oliver Wyman said in a recent report that the mass return to service of grounded aircraft expected over the next two years could create a maintenance-demand bubble. Although the airline industry does not expect passenger traffic to rebound to 2019 levels until 2024, Oliver Wyman forecasts spending on airframe maintenance will recover to 2019 levels by 2022. The decision by many airlines to spread their limited flying among more planes than usual to be ready for a sharp increase in demand could also drive more maintenance spending as manufacturers consider requiring some work to be done regardless of flight hours. For example, most of the tasks related to the air conditioning system need to be done every 2,000 flight hours, normally about six months. But if the plane only flies 400 hours in six months, the check might be moved up to 1,600 hours to account for the longer passage of time, Kauffmann said. "Here we would actually recommend increasing the number of tasks to be performed if you have a low utilisation," she said. "This is always an engineering driven and safety driven analysis." https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/airlines-face-headache-over-date-034059227.html Woman with history of airliner stowaways arrested again CHICAGO (AP) — A woman with a history of stowing away on airliners was arrested Tuesday for attempting to sneak onto a flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, authorities said. The arrest of Marilyn Hartman, 69, came two weeks after a judge rejected a plea deal that would have given her probation for a previous attempt to stowaway on a flight. Hartman is being held on a trespassing charge. Hartman allegedly left the facility where she had been staying while on electronic monitoring. The device allowed Cook County sheriff’s deputies to track her as she headed for O’Hare. Deputies activated an alarm on Hartman’s device as she neared Terminal 1, where she was arrested. Officials of the Cook County Sheriff’s Department say plans are to seek a felony escape charge for Hartman. Hartman’s arrest comes two weeks after a court hearing in which Hartman’s attorneys and prosecutors said they reached the plea deal on a pending case that would have imposed 18 months of probation, plus court-ordered mental health treatment. Formal plea proceedings had not begun, but Judge Peggy Chiampas put attorneys on notice that she was not inclined to agree to that sentence. Hartman, was arrested at O’Hare in October 2019 just as she was trying to pass the second of two security checkpoints, according to court records. She was released from Cook County Jail about a year ago in an effort to release low-risk detainees from contracting COVID-19. The 2019 arrest violated her probation sentence for sneaking past O’Hare security in January 2018, boarding a jet and flying to London’s Heathrow Airport without a ticket. https://www.yahoo.com/news/woman-history-airliner-stowaways-arrested-032318798.html U.S. agency criticizes Hong Kong air carrier quarantine rules WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Transportation Department (USDOT) warned it could limit flights by carriers based in Hong Kong after the Asian financial hub imposed quarantine rules that have impacted U.S. cargo carrier FedEx Corp. USDOT issued an order on Tuesday requiring Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Limited to file flight schedules for all U.S. flights within seven days to determine if any are "contrary to applicable law or adversely affect the public interest." Hong Kong in January issued new rules requiring that locally-based air crews observe quarantine when returning to Hong Kong from international locations, but exempted flights between Hong Kong and Anchorage, Alaska's biggest city. The USDOT order was issued in reaction to Hong Kong's quarantine restrictions that exclusively benefit Hong Kong carriers and "impaired the operating rights of U.S. carriers," USDOT said. While FedEx’s Hong Kong-based crews serve only intra-Asia routings and therefore do not benefit from the Anchorage exception, USDOT said, Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific operates a large transshipment operation at Anchorage. "This carve out effectively provides Cathay Pacific with the ability to continue those operations without impact from the new crew quarantine requirements," said USDOT. Cathay Pacific did not immediately comment. The order also applies to Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express, but they are not currently operating U.S. flights. As a result of the quarantine rules, FedEx is incurring "significant operational costs and personal burden on its Hong Kong crewmembers," the Transportation Department said. It said FedEx had temporarily relocated its Hong Kong-based crews to San Francisco "in order to maintain the viability of critical operations in its intra-Asia network." On Tuesday, a FedEx spokesman said it hoped the USDOT order "will aid in resolving this matter" and added it was working with U.S. and Hong Kong authorities and the Air Line Pilots Association "to address Hong Kong’s entry and quarantine requirements for locally-based crew members." In a previously unreported Feb. 26 letter, USDOT urged Hong Kong authorities "to restore the level playing field in the U.S.-Hong Kong market; otherwise, the department may have no choice but to consider regulatory action." https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/u-agency-criticizes-hong-kong-032841019.html Boeing Testing Dreamliner Cockpit Windows as Flaws Search Widens (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. is scrutinizing the flight-deck windows of some of its 787 Dreamliners as the beleaguered planemaker expands its search for potential manufacturing flaws that have delayed deliveries of its marquee jetliner, according to people briefed on the matter. Chicago-based Boeing has been testing the cockpit windows in a limited batch of aircraft after learning a supplier modified its production process, two of the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is sensitive. Boeing wants to ensure the windows still meet its requirements after the change, but the testing isn’t expected to affect March deliveries, one of the people said. The emergence of yet another potential glitch comes as Boeing’s mechanics and engineers work furiously to try to restart 787 Dreamliner deliveries by the end of this month, in line with what executives promised during a January earnings call. The U.S. manufacturer hasn’t handed over any of the jets since October after discovering more of the tiny dimples in the inner lining where the carbon-fiber fuselage barrels are fused to form the jet’s frame. New issues with the plane could pose problems for shipments beyond this month, making it more difficult for Boeing to meet its delivery target for the year. When asked about the window checks, a Boeing representative referred back to the company’s March 9 statement that said it is “progressing through inspections and rework as necessary on undelivered airplanes.” “Based on our current plans, we continue to expect to resume delivering 787s by the end of March; however, we will continue to take the time necessary and will adjust any delivery plans as needed,” the company said in the statement. A supplier revising its manufacturing methods typically wouldn’t make headlines. But with Boeing under scrutiny from regulators and customers after two fatal crashes involving its 737 Max and a slew of production glitches, officials need to ensure the modified processes still meet all requirements. The testing of flight-deck windows in other batches of Dreamliners is still ongoing, one of the people said. Boeing dropped 3% to $257.79 at 11:07 a.m. in New York, logging the sharpest decline on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Boeing had advanced 24% this year through Monday, while the Dow industrials climbed 7.7%. Aircraft Financing The production disruptions have forced Boeing to store more than 80 Dreamliners around its factories and in the California desert, creating a new worry just as the crisis surrounding its 737 Max subsides. For some customers, the delays threaten to hamstring aircraft for which financing is already lined up, while for others, the expanding inspections provide an excuse to avoid taking expensive new jets at a time when international travel has been laid low by Covid-19. Boeing has been working with its suppliers since late last year to find the source of manufacturing flaws with its 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc., which makes the Dreamliner’s nose and cockpit, said last month that it’s conducting an engineering analysis of so-called “noncomformities” on its portion of the carbon-fiber frame. A key 787 buyer, Air Lease Corp., has cautioned that production issues “seem to have mushroomed” for the twin-aisle jet. “There’s just greater and greater levels of inspections going on,” said John Plueger, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles-based aircraft lessor. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/boeing-testing-dreamliner-cockpit-windows-151045519.html Flight Safety Foundation and Partners Target Runway Excursion Prevention Of accidents between 2005 and 2019, 23 percent included a runway excursion. By Rob Mark GAPPRE is a mouthful even as an acronym. But the Flight Safety Foundation and its partner groups are hoping the Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Excursions will help create solutions to one of the most serious accident risks to both large and small aircraft, as well as their occupants. The International Air Transport Association reported that between 2005 and the first half of 2019, 23 percent (283) of accidents in the IATA’s global accident database involved a runway excursion. By definition, an excursion is any time the PIC loses control of an aircraft on the runway during takeoff or landing. In a news release during the week of March 8, the foundation said GAPPRE is the foundation’s latest initiative related to approach and landing safety. It offers recommendations to individual segments of the industry based on years of research. Groupings include airport operators, air navigation service providers, aircraft operators, airframe manufacturers, national regulators, and ICAO. Some of those recommendations include for airport operators, ensuring when the runway is active, that runway centerline lighting is turned on whenever the edge lights are also in use. Aircraft manufacturers should consider making on-board, real-time stabilized approach monitoring systems that provide alerts when aircraft stray from stable approach criteria. Additionally the foundation’s Approach and Landing Accident Reduction Toolkit—first issued in 1998 and updated in 2010—is one of the most widely circulated and utilized efforts in the foundation’s history. More recently, the recommendations contained in the Go-Around Decision-Making and Execution Project report have gained traction with several international operators. Flight Safety Foundation’s president and CEO Dr. Hassan Shahidi said, “Reducing runway excursions and continuing to improve the overall safety of the approach and landing phases of flight continue to be a primary area of focus for the foundation. We are gratified by the efforts of the many safety professional who gave of their time and expertise to make the GAPPRE a reality. I want to thank our partners at EUROCONTROL, ACI, CANSO, EASA and IATA for their continuing commitment to safety collaboration.” https://www.flyingmag.com/story/news/flight-safety-foundation-runway-excursion-prevention/ HAI Expanding International Reach, Safety Programs James Viola, who became president and CEO of HAI in January 2020, has kept a busy agenda in his first year despite events such as the pandemic that could not have been foreseen when he took the role. When James Viola accepted the position of president and CEO at Helicopter Association International (HAI) in late 2019, he expected to have a long transition period as he paved the way for the association’s goals of extending its reach internationally and building on its well-established safety programs. A year later, HAI has made strides towards those goals: initiatives are underway to strengthen the association’s presence before the International Civil Aviation Organization, establish new relationships throughout the globe, expand the membership beyond traditional rotorcraft, add new and revisit safety programs, and consolidate safety and other initiatives under a newly rebranded Vertical Aviation Safety Team (VAST). But getting there wasn’t quite the path that Viola expected. Viola came into HAI with a strong pedigree in rotorcraft and safety expertise. A former U.S. Army special operations MH-6 and MH-47 helicopter pilot, he spent more than a decade with the FAA, most recently as director of General Aviation Safety Assurance, managing 78 Flight Standards District Offices. He also helped launch the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) as the initial government co-chair. As such, he was pretty much looked at as the “helicopter guy” at the FAA. So, it was ironic that almost immediately after he had quietly applied for the HAI position, his colleagues came to him asking if he knew of anybody who might be qualified for the post. Viola thought there might have been a link—that someone had learned of his application—but his colleagues were just seeking his input because of his already strong ties to the industry. “I had to come clean and tell them I wanted the job,” Viola told AIN. When he took the position, the plan was to introduce him to the industry as the successor of long-time chief Matt Zuccaro and that after about six months, Viola would fully take the reins. But Zuccaro’s contract actually was up in mid-January of 2020, so it made sense for Viola to step in much sooner. He noted that took a bit of a turnaround in preparation for the January 2020 Heli-Expo, because instead of shadowing Zuccaro as the heir-apparent, he was now to step in the forefront as the association’s leader. And then the accident happened. Two days before the Heli-Expo show floor was to open in Anaheim, California, a Sikorsky S-76B carrying basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others crashed in nearby Calabasas, California, killing all aboard. On the day prior to the convention, HAI had scheduled a briefing with National Transportation Safety Board officials discussing the March 11, 2018, fatal doors-off helitour photo flight that crashed into New York’s East River. However, those officials were all called to the Calabasas accident scene. HAI went ahead with the briefing on its own, Viola recalled. That afternoon a press event had been scheduled to introduce Viola as president. However, unsurprisingly, the focus of the event immediately turned to the crash. But Viola, already well versed in HAI’s safety programs after years of working closely with the association, said it actually helped to have the reporters come in and see all that the industry and the various safety organizations were doing on the rotorcraft front. “When the reporters came in and saw all of the safety items on the agenda, they understood that a big part of the association is the education piece and the safety piece,” he said. Viola said reporters saw the poor weather during the time of the accident and it also became readily understood that “this was not something new” and this became another reminder of the importance of preparation for inadvertent VFR into IMC. It also underscored the association’s Land & Live efforts. “A precautionary landing doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong,” Viola said. “We are working to make people understand what a precautionary landing is.” Also, during that time, Zuccaro had handed Viola a “box of hats” he was to wear in his new role, he said. This included involvement in organizations such as the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team and the International Helicopter Safety Foundation, among many others. Zuccaro had planned to continue his role with the foundation. But his health had given way, leading to his passing on February 25, 2020. Following the convention, Viola was tasked with sorting through these various roles and evaluating the association’s involvement in each these. He also faced tackling the pressing issue of pilot and mechanic shortages, an issue that was side-tracked for other sectors during the pandemic for some corners of the industry, but not rotorcraft. “Our members were still flying,” Viola said, stressing the need to continue those efforts. He also faced working through his first budget, which he conceded was a tough sell with the HAI board. In March 2020, Viola attended a final session of the then-current board (he noted the board turns over mid-year). The final meeting is always held in the hometown of the chair, and in this case, it was Jan Becker, CEO of Becker Helicopters in Australia. During that meeting, he said, the World Health Organization officially declared Covid-19 a pandemic, and then it became a scramble for everyone to get home before everything shut down. Soon after, he had a meeting with the association’s attorneys to discuss how to handle the workplace during this time. HAI was an association where everyone typically worked in the office. But in Viola’s previous role, he had already adapted to having remote staff, so the solution was easy: everyone was to stay home. He was asked how he wanted that transition. His answer, he said: “We are going 100 percent remote right now.” The association worked with staff to facilitate the sudden change. But at the same time, the association turned to work with its members, who were facing myriad struggles as a result of the wave of restrictions. This included working with the FAA to ensure HAI members could continue to operate despite the difficulties obtaining medicals and check rides, stepping up outreach with webinars, and deploying other methods of information dissemination. Also, the decision was made early on to cancel all in-person events for six months and present as much online as possible. He noted that he wanted to “lean in” and make it simpler for planning purposes. HAI soon discovered a benefit to the move online. This opened the door to new attendees who otherwise would not be able to participate and brought in international interest. The first such event was HAI’s annual firefighting event that was usually held in Boise, Idaho. That event tends to draw between 300 and 400 registrations and 200 attendees. The online event drew 1,000 registrations and 508 attendees. However, like many other associations and organizations, the pandemic took its toll, necessitating the layoff of 10 employees. Viola said he wanted to make just one set of cuts and move forward. But the association also was able to make two new hires, bringing people on board with strategic backgrounds, in areas such as the emerging eVTOL field. Meanwhile, throughout most of the year, Viola was coordinating in various roles involving the International Helicopter Safety Foundation. There was turnover at the foundation, leading organization officials to ask Viola to take a deeper role. This turned into an opportunity for Viola to pursue his desire to broaden the scope. Viola believed the foundation should be more inclusive. “My vision was that we should be everything that flies below 3,000 feet, slower than 250 knots, and doesn’t need an airport for takeoff and landing.” This view initially received some pushback. But by the beginning of this year, Viola had prevailed. And that culminated in the renaming of the organization to VAST, replacing the reference of helicopters with vertical aviation. HAI is launch the newly branded VAST in early to mid-April At the same time, Viola was looking to step up the presence of the industry at ICAO, including having VAST as an advisor. This was important because, working with the ICAO regional team as well as regional organizations in the rotorcraft world, there are gaps, he said. Standards varied by region and some countries aren’t participating in the industry at all. “Some countries are many years behind because they don’t take advantage of the rotorcraft capability because they think they are unsafe.” As an example, he said he had a number of discussions with officials in India who see a need to expand their law enforcement and air ambulance capabilities but are stymied by regulations. His goal is to develop a harmonized safety rating, which was a focus of a recent meeting of VAST. In addition, he stressed the need to get in on the ground floor of the eVTOL sector to ensure it grows in a safe manner with all the necessary protocols found in the rest of the industry. A number of other safety efforts were on the table for HAI, including facilitating the use of the FAA's Aviation Safety Action Program voluntary reporting program through a partnership with the Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF). Colorado Heli-Ops was the first of its members to participate in the HAI/ACSF joint effort that is anticipated to kick off this month. Viola also began to question the HAI Safety Accreditation program because it had limited participation. Viola said his initial reaction was to consider whether it was necessary. But then he was having a discussion with NTSB officials, who suggested that HAI should adopt an accreditation program—not knowing that one was already in place. Now, Viola said, he is looking at ways where it could be more accessible and better serve the needs of HAI’s members. While discussions were underway on the various safety programs, preparations continued for the 2021 Heli-Expo, which was to have been held in New Orleans this month. Viola noted that in December, he attended the National Agricultural Aviation Association’s Ag Aviation Expo in Savannah, Georgia. That event drew 800 people and it did not appear to have any Covid issues. That encouraged him about prospects for Heli-Expo, which had 370 exhibitors signed on. Also in December, he visited New Orleans “and they showed us all the great things they were doing” to enable the convention. “I was pretty excited about rolling forward with Heli-Expo.” But as January rolled in and the pandemic seemed to make another turn, “the writing was on the wall” for some of those exhibitors, particularly the major ones worried about the safety of their customer base. While there was a mixed response, enough exhibitors pulled out that the convention was no longer doable. HAI opted against a full virtual convention but instead has decided to ensure the programming such as manufacturers' technical briefs and refresher courses would continue. HAI also pushed forward with its awards program but is rolling it out through a series of webinars instead of a single event. Moving forward, Viola concedes he has a full plate as the safety programs continue to progress. He sees a large task ahead in his outreach to the various regional helicopter groups and building on those relationships. In addition, he is working with those groups to help a struggling international community. While the U.S. has provided some relief aid through various Covid bills, he said HAI needs to look at where the international community can get assistance. "We've got to get them through this year to make sure they are around when the pandemic is over." He also recognizes the need to provide information to help small businesses build and strengthen, and particularly flight schools as the community needs a steady flow of student starts. In addition, Viola remains aware of the need to help the FAA work through its backlog in areas such as check rides. In addition, Viola is stepping up efforts on the safety management system front to ensure his members are ready for looming requirements. Eyeing that rulemaking process, he said, “We need to make sure its adaptable” to even the smallest operator. Community relations also is at the forefront and infrastructure, particularly in hotbed areas in New York, California, and Hawaii that want to take impose further restrictions on the industry. “When we get 50 states saying they all want to control some part of the intermodal transportation, that’s going to be a problem,” he said. As far as growing its membership base, HAI is “trying to do our outreach a little differently.” On the international front, that means looking at what the industry needs in specific locations and how HAI might be able to assist. This also means looking at the new and emerging entrants to the market, such as in the eVTOL space. This is an area “we absolutely want to be involved in,” he said, reiterating his view that vertical aviation must have a broader scope. While he conceded that there is a sentiment in this field that advanced air mobility may replace helicopters, Viola said he disagrees. “I tell them, no. My helicopter operators are going to fly your aircraft. We need to work together. There’s no replacing each other. It’s another segment,” he said. “I’m excited that there’s lots of room for growth and coordination.” https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/general-aviation/2021-03-17/hai-expanding-international-reach-safety-programs FAA Announces New Effective Dates For Drone Rules The FAA has announced that the final rules covering remote identification of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drones) and drone operations over people will now go into effect on April 21, 2021. The original effective date for both rules was March 16, 60 days after they were published in the Federal Register. According to the FAA, the date was pushed back to “afford the President’s appointees or designees an opportunity to review the rule and … allow for consideration of any questions of fact, law, or policy that the rule may raise before it becomes effective.” The Remote Identification of Unmanned Aircraft rule requires drones in flight to broadcast identification and location information along with requiring similar location data from the aircraft’s control station or takeoff point. Unmanned aircraft operating at FAA-recognized identification areas (FRIAs) are exempt from Remote ID requirements. While the Remote ID rule goes into effect on April 21, operators will have 30 months from the date the rule was published in the Federal Register—January 15, 2021—to comply with the new regulations. The Operation of Small Unmanned Aircraft Over People rule applies to Part 107 operations and includes provisions for flights over people, over moving vehicles and at night. In addition, it requires remote pilots to pass an “updated” initial knowledge test or complete an online training course prior to operating under the new regulations. The FAA says the knowledge test and training course will be available on April 6, 2021. https://www.avweb.com/flight-safety/faa-regs/faa-announces-new-effective-dates-for-drone-rules/ Flight attendants have faced a rough year of health risks, layoffs and anti-maskers "I’m upside down, don’t have a job, don’t have health care, stuck with nothing to look forward to,” said one furloughed flight attendant. Flight attendants say they’re battling Covid-19 risks, depression and erratic schedules and pay, all while being treated as the “mask police” by a hostile public. Many said they have added new steps to their routine. They carry two sets of hand sanitizer, in case one pops from cabin pressure. They avoid eating or drinking on the plane — but if they do, they try to “dip and sip,” briefly lowering their mask to take a swig of water. When they enter a hotel for a layover, they wipe down every knob and light switch with a Clorox wipe, and try to use an app to change the TV channels to avoid touching the remote. To avoid expensive food and decrease the risk of contamination, they’ve snapped up Hot Logic warming lunch bags that let them reheat and even make food in their rooms. When they get home, they strip off their uniform in the garage and spray it down with Lysol before greeting their families. Over 3,500 flight attendants have tested positive for Covid-19 over the course of the pandemic and an estimated 20 have died, according to the latest figures tracked by the Association of Flight Attendants union (AFA-CWA). Mitra Amirzadeh, a 38-year-old flight attendant and mother of an eighth grader, said her husband was not very happy about her working during the pandemic but they didn’t have a choice. “The bills keep coming, regardless of whether or not we felt comfortable having me work,” said Amirzadeh, an AFA-CWA member based in Orlando, Florida, at a low-cost carrier. “It really wasn't an option. I had to work.” She wasn’t furloughed, but others who were had to take steps they never imagined just to survive as passenger traffic plummeted. Mitra Amirzadeh, a flight attendant at a low-cost carrier and AFA member. "They call me the warden," flight attendant Mitra Amirzadeh said of her approach to following mask rules. "I'm just trying to do my job."Courtesy of Mitra Amirzadeh In a typical week during the pandemic, flight attendants may find themselves packing twice as much, in the likely case their two-day trip ends up being six days due to cancellations and rescheduling. Having been told they are essential workers, many had to fly National Guard and Cleveland Clinic personnel to hot spots, while their families waited anxiously at home. Flight attendants were all given slips of paper to carry in case they were stopped that said they were essential and important to the work effort. Congress has passed $44 billion in payroll support for the airline industry in three waves since last March. The latest, passed as part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, provides an additional $14 billion in payroll support until September, funding about 60 percent of payroll costs, with restrictions on executive pay and share buybacks. The funding was originally conceived as a bridge last spring to what was predicted to be a return to normal by fall. However, despite employee reduction methods that included early retirement and buyouts, funding lasted only until last September. When the deadline hit, airlines were forced to furlough tens of thousands of employees who had little choice but to wait for political gridlock to ease and vaccinations to pick up. Brittany Riley, a United AFA flight attendant who went on voluntary furlough during the downturn, said her family started a GoFundMe page when her medical benefits expired and the family faced health expenses. She also had to swallow her pride and apply for SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps. “For so long I was able to take care of my family and myself because I was with a good company,” Riley told NBC News. “When that’s taken away from you, you feel defeated. I felt like a loser.” Flight attendants say they’re suffering from high levels of stress and depression. “Like many people, mental health really took a toll,” said Amanda Steinbrunn, also a United AFA flight attendant. She was exposed to Covid-19 during a flight to the U.K. early in the pandemic and had to quarantine. “The year before was a record high of pay and working. Now I’m upside down, don’t have a job, don’t have health care ... and terrified what my future could hold.” “I’m five years in and getting furloughed, while the year before was a record high of pay and working,” she said. “Now I’m upside down, don’t have a job, don’t have health care, stuck with nothing to look forward to and terrified what my future could hold.” Steinbrunn said she is waiting to be requalified to fly, but because of a backlog and reduced class sizes, it may be a few months. “I never encountered a thing before, besides 9/11, where in just a few days, everything in the world changed,” she said. “I really got into Doctor on Demand,” a telehealth app, “to talk to a licensed physician, have some therapy going on from home. I can’t go into an office,” Steinbrunn said. One of the biggest stressors for flight crews has been dealing with passengers who don’t want to follow the federal mask mandate. “I try to be relatable. I say it’s not my rule, please just work with me,” Amirzadeh said. “But if we get to the point where we're not working together, and being rude, it’s a whole different ball game,” she said. “My mom voice comes out.” She said she explains what will happen next if the passenger does not comply. Still, she’s had two passengers who had to be placed on the no-fly list. “I’m just trying to do my job,” she said. Flight attendants say prospects are starting to brighten as they and their colleagues receive vaccinations and are starting to be recalled from furlough thanks to the extension of payroll support, and air traffic picking up again. Last week, passenger totals hit their highest since the pandemic began. “Airports are starting to come to life,” said Bryon Sutherland, an American Airlines flight attendant, in an online message. “I’m grateful for full flights, and this weekend, my flights are packed.” https://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/flight-attendants-have-faced-rough-year-health-risks-layoffs-anti-n1261243 MISSOURI UNIVERSITY CREATES NEW PROFESSIONAL PILOT PATHWAY Ken Jackson wasn’t yet an employee at Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) when the pilot and retired Dexter, Missouri, public school superintendent pitched the university a Bachelor of Science aviation program that begins in the fall with at least 10 students pursuing a professional pilot pathway. Jackson earned a private pilot certificate in 2017 and soon after, he approached university president Carlos Vargas—an aerospace, science, and physics expert—with the idea of establishing a four-year college aviation degree program. “When I started flying about five years ago, I realized aviation has great career opportunities,” Jackson said. “Once I became a member of AOPA and started reading Flight Training magazine, I learned about the shortage of pilots. I researched it for about a year and then I said, ‘we can do this’ at Southeast Missouri State University.” Jackson counted off more than 100 Missouri-based aviation businesses and calculated that 18 million passengers go through the turnstiles of the state’s commercial airports yearly. When he learned how quickly another college’s flight classes filled up, it sealed the deal. Jackson said classes will begin in the fall. In-state tuition is $17,977 yearly, prior to scholarships. The “all-in” price for the professional pilot program is an additional $66,030 (excluding an optional multiengine instructor rating that costs $11,505) and includes flight training, instructor fees, aircraft rentals, simulator lessons, and checkrides. However, paying for pilot supplies like flight bags, plotters, and headsets is the student’s responsibility. Out-of-state tuition is $24,149 yearly, and students may apply for scholarships that can lower tuition to the in-state price. The plan is for college students to participate in ground school classes at the Seabaugh Polytechnic Studies building on campus and travel a few miles south to nearby Cape Girardeau Regional Airport to learn flying skills under tutelage from US Aviation Academy CFIs. The flight school operates a fleet of 100 aircraft nationwide and has pathway partnerships with Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, GoJet Airlines, Envoy Air, and other commercial air carriers. Students can expect to train in digital-equipped Cessna 172 Skyhawks with two Garmin G5s and a Garmin GTN 650. Spin training will be accomplished in Cessna 150/152 aircraft, and multiengine training will be in Piper Seneca twins. Because US Aviation Academy has been awarded self-examining authority by the FAA, students may save between $2,500 and $3,000 in potential checkride fees as they progress from private pilot through CFII certifications. Jackson stressed that the school’s relationship with the flight training academy benefits both institutions. “When we open our program at SEMO in August, it will be US Aviation’s first four-year aviation program.” He added that the aviation academy has experience training students from abroad and he anticipated it could benefit the Missouri university. “We think we can attract international students at some point in the near future.” Jackson said his involvement in flying made him realize that minorities and females are “grossly underrepresented in aviation,” so he is recruiting members of those groups and advocating for aviation careers they might not have considered. “I have a list in front of me with more than 30 aviation-related jobs,” Jackson said. “As I’ve told the students, someone has to maintain the airplanes, someone has to manage the airfield, and someone has to fly the airplanes. Corporate pilots, charter pilots, instructors—there are so many fields a student can move into” once they enroll in an aviation program. “We’re very interested in making this work.” https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2021/march/16/missouri-university-creates-new-professional-pilot-pathway US astronaut launching next month may spend year in space CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA may soon chalk up another one-year space mission thanks to an out-of-this-world Russian movie-making deal. Astronaut Mark Vande Hei learned just last week that he’ll launch April 9 on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station. The former station resident suspected that might happen and had been training just in case. In a news conference Monday from cosmonaut headquarters in Star City, Vande Hei said he may have to give up his return Soyuz seat in the fall to a Russian space tourist who's interested in filming up there. If that happens, he and possibly one of his two Russian crewmates would have to wait for the next Soyuz ride home — most likely in spring 2022. “Honestly, for me, it’s just an opportunity for a new life experience,” he told reporters. “I’ve never been in space longer than about six months, so if someone tells me I’ve got to stay in space for a year, I’ll find out what that feels like. I’m really enthusiastic about it." The movie is planned by Russia’s Channel One and a TV film studio. Tentatively titled “Vyzov," challenge in English, it’s meant to highlight Russian space activities and glorify the cosmonaut profession, according to a news release. Five years have passed since now retired astronaut Scott Kelly completed a 340-day space station mission, a U.S. record. Astronaut Christina Koch came close to that a year ago. NASA is eager for more extra-long missions to study the human body's adaptation to weightlessness, especially as it looks ahead to Mars expeditions of at least a few years. Space station missions typically last six months. Vande Hei was added to the next Soyuz crew — bumping a Russian — in order to keep a U.S. presence on the space station in the event SpaceX's next astronaut flight experiences a major delay. SpaceX is targeting no earlier than April 22. Until the private company began providing rides last year, Russia provided the only lift for space station crews once NASA's shuttles stopped flying. Operations on the U.S. side of the orbiting lab would be hampered if no Americans — only Russians — were on board, according to Vande Hei. It's also a symbolic issue after 20 straight years of U.S. astronauts in space, he noted. The astronauts there now are due to leave in April and May. The good news is that NASA managed to launch his clothes up there. Otherwise, the retired Army colonel would have been stuck wearing much bigger outfits meant for someone else. Vande Hei expects to get his second COVID-19 vaccine this week. He remains vigilant about wearing masks, even when he and his Russian crewmates are training in spacesuits. “It's not very comfortable, but it's the right thing to do,” he said. https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-astronaut-launching-next-month-185327083.html Graduate Survey Survey of Commercial and Airline Transport Pilot’s Perception of the Impact Cockpit Organizational Framework has on Flight Safety and Subordinate Pilot Behavior https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/COF-Survey Curt Lewis