Flight Safety Information - April 30, 2021 No. 088 In This Issue : Incident: ULS Cargo A313 at Budapest on Apr 28th 2021, engine shut down in flight : FAA auditing Boeing minor design change process after 737 MAX issue : Pilot, other man detained after TSA finds gun at JAX : Airbus Signals Intention to Build a Widebody Freighter Aircraft : Lufthansa loses hope over summer travel rebound : Embraer inks 30-plane order as losses narrow to $90 mln in Q1 : Senate confirms former Florida Sen. Bill Nelson to lead NASA : NASA's Ingenuity helicopter just failed to lift off from the Martian surface, but it will try again on Friday Incident: ULS Cargo A313 at Budapest on Apr 28th 2021, engine shut down in flight An ULS Airlines Cargo Airbus A310-300 on behalf of Turkish Airlines, registration TC-VEL performing flight GO-6392/TK-6392 from Budapest (Hungary) to Istanbul Ataturk (Turkey) with 4 crew on board, was in the initial climb out of Budapest's runway 13L when the crew reported an engine problem (CF6) with an engine "pounding like a steam engine" clearly heard in the background of the transmission, subsequently they reported they had an engine (CF6) stall indication, no fire indication, and would need to return for a single engine landing. The crew stopped the climb at 4000 feet, positioned for an approach to runway 13L and landed safely about 11 minutes after departure. The aircraft taxied to the apron. https://avherald.com/h?article=4e6a883f&opt=0 FAA auditing Boeing minor design change process after 737 MAX issue WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is auditing Boeing Co's process for making minor design changes across its product line after a 737 MAX manufacturing issue grounded dozens of planes, the regulator said on Thursday. The FAA is also investigating the origin of the electrical manufacturing issue disclosed on April 7 that led to the grounding of 109 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft worldwide, including 71 in the United States, it added. The audit's goal is to identify "areas where the company can improve its processes," it said. Boeing responded that it looks "forward to ongoing engagement with, and direction from, the FAA as we continuously improve safety and quality in our processes." The FAA has scrutinized other Boeing production issues. In September, the FAA said it was investigating manufacturing flaws involving some Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Last month, the agency confirmed it was retaining authority to issue airworthiness certificates for four 787 aircraft. The FAA on Wednesday ordered Boeing to fix bonding issues in the electrical systems in some 737 MAX planes that could lead to a loss of engine ice protection loss and critical functions on the flight deck. The FAA warned the issue could impact "engine ice protection, and result in loss of critical functions and/or multiple simultaneous flight deck effects, which may prevent continued safe flight and landing." The FAA said the affected airplanes were made after a design change in early 2019. Boeing must also fix more than 300 additional undelivered planes, according to FAA documents and people briefed on the matter. Boeing said Wednesday it had "been working closely with the FAA and our customers to finalize two service bulletins that will ensure a sufficient ground path in those areas."https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/faa-auditing-boeing-minor-design-185617548.html https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/faa-auditing-boeing-minor-design-185617548.html Pilot, other man detained after TSA finds gun at JAX Because gun’s owner had concealed carry permit, he was not arrested but could face a fine JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – When a viewer alerted News4Jax that two men in pilot uniforms were detained by authorities near the TSA checkpoint at JIA at around 7 a.m. Thursday, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority confirmed that a loaded gun was found in one of the men’s carry-on bags. The men, one of them a part-time employee of a St. Augustine flight school called Florida Flyers, were in separate TSA security lines about 7 a.m. when a revolver was indicated on the X-ray screen of the pre-check line. According to the incident report, the firearm turned out to be a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson that had five rounds in the cylinder. A 59-year-old Ponte Vedra Man in the pre-check security line told officers the bag belonged to his “co-pilot,” who was going through a separate line. Airport police located the second man, a 71-year-old from Jacksonville, who admitted the gun belonged to him and he forgot it was in his bag. Both men were taken to the airport police office where it was determined they were not trying to intentionally bring the gun through the checkpoint and both had Florida concealed-carry permits. The gun’s owner was allowed to secure the gun and continue on to his flight to Washington, D.C., but he could face a fine of up to $13,669. “This civil penalty is independent of whether you are arrested or face criminal charges from our law enforcement partners. Fines may also be assessed for other threat items brought to the checkpoint such as illegal knives or martial arts devices,” the TSA said in a statement. “Passengers are responsible for knowing what the laws are on each side of their trip. This is especially important if you are leaving the state. Even after learning that you may bring your gun to your destination, the only way it can be transported is in checked luggage. The gun must be declared to the airline at check-in, unloaded and placed in a locked, hard-sided case.” “Very alarming,” is how traveler Monica Bernhardt described seeing the men led away in handcuffs. Bernhardt said she made small talk with the pilots minutes before the incident happened. “They were talking about how they gained the ‘COVID 30′ and they had lost it and just had a few pounds left to go,” Bernhardt said. “I joked with them. ... There was nothing weird about them when they were walking down to security.” News4Jax left messages for both men involved. The flight school sent a statement saying their employee was not on duty at the time and do not wear pilot uniforms when on the job. “We believe he was working as a pilot for a separate employer during this morning’s incident,” Florida Flyers wrote. One traveler passing through the airport later Thursday called this “irresponsible behavior.” “It’s just another example of why we have to be more careful with firearms when traveling on an airplane,” Rosemarie Mazor said. According to TSA data, this was the ninth gun discovered this year at Jacksonville International. In 2020, 36 guns were stopped by security screeners at JAX -- the 24th highest number of all United States airports. https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2021/04/29/flight-school-pilots-detained-after-tsa-finds-gun-at-jax/ Airbus Signals Intention to Build a Widebody Freighter Aircraft Airbus CEO Gauillaume Faury remains tight-lipped about whether the company has started work on the development of a freighter version of the A350, though he did confirm Thursday that the European airframer wants to end Boeing’s dominance of the all-cargo aircraft market, a segment in which he admitted Airbus “traditionally has been weak”—particularly with its widebodies. “We do not like the idea to remain weak in that segment in the future. I think we have the right product to be able to be more aggressive in that market,” Faury said, speaking during Aribus's first-quarter results presentation. He declined to specify which Airbus widebody model he was referring to—the A330, A350, or A380—and also remained vague on the timeframe. “When it comes is not yet defined,” he acknowledged, while stressing he believes it is “not healthy to have only one player exclusively in a segment that is actually very significant and has been resisting well in the pandemic.” Reuters last month reported that Airbus started gauging customer interest in a potential freighter version of its A350 passenger airliner. The proposed A350-950F would fit between the A350-900 and the larger A350-1000 in size. The development of the A350 derivative for freighter use would cost an estimated $2 to $3 billion, and Airbus would need to secure orders for 50 aircraft before launching the program. Airbus delivered 125 aircraft in the first quarter—consisting of nine A220s, 105 A320 family aircraft, one A330, and 10 A350s—and the pace of shipments have gradually increased during the period, from 21 aircraft during the traditionally slow month of January, to 32 planes in February, and 72 units to 34 customers in March. Its March performance brought deliveries almost on par with March 2019, when Airbus handed over 74 aircraft to 40 customers, and the first-quarter delivery tally exceeded the 122 handovers in the first three months of 2020. The commercial aircraft delivery performance helped the group to return to profit in the quarter, Faury said, though he warned that the “crisis is not yet over for our industry.” Airbus reported a €362 million ($438 million) profit in the quarter, reversed from a €481 million loss in the year-ago period. Commercial aircraft contributed €7.2 billion to the group revenue of €10.5 billion in the first quarter and the bulk, almost three quarters, of its consolidated operating profit of €0.5 billion. “The path to recovery will not necessarily be, what we call, linear” owing to the different speeds of national Covid-19 vaccination program and the emergence of new variants, Faury said. He pointed to strong capacity deployment on domestic routes in China, which he said now exceeds pre-crisis levels, and the U.S., where airlines are looking at a strong summer and appear willing “to accelerate deliveries.” But the continuation or strengthening of travel restrictions in many European countries and the recent spike in Covid-19 infections in India “is reminding us of the fragility of the recovery,” he noted. Regional and domestic travel will lead the recovery and Faury expressed confidence the single-aisle segment will see a full recovery between 2023 and 2025. In the short term, even if the outlook is unpredictable, Airbus will proceed with the planned ramp-up of its A320 family output from 40 to 43 per month in the third quarter and to 45 in the fourth quarter. For the full year, Airbus is maintaining its delivery outlook and said it expects to ship the same number of commercial aircraft—566—as it delivered last year. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2021-04-29/airbus-signals-intention-build-widebody-freighter-aircraft Lufthansa loses hope over summer travel rebound The German airline said Thursday (April 29) that it had cut its capacity forecast for the year. It now expects to fly only about 40% of its pre-crisis capacity, down from earlier guidance of up to 50%. The group - which also includes Swiss and Austrian Airlines - still expects a 'significant' recovery in the second half of the year. It says bookings shoot up wherever restrictions are loosened. But Lufthansa has stepped up warnings to German unions over job cuts. The carrier says it's ready to used forced dismissals to reduce headcount. Over the first quarter, sales were down 60% on a year-earlier period only partially hit by lockdowns. Lufthansa's net loss halved to about 1.2 billion dollars, helped by job cuts and reduced operating costs. The firm's cargo businesses - a rare bright spot - posted a record quarterly profit. Lufthansa shares were down over 4% by lunchtime on Thursday. https://www.yahoo.com/news/lufthansa-loses-hope-over-summer-140428747.html Embraer inks 30-plane order as losses narrow to $90 mln in Q1 SAO PAULO, April 29 (Reuters) - Planemaker Embraer SA on Thursday said it had signed a firm order for 30 new E195-E2 jets, a milestone for the company after selling virtually no commercial planes so far during the coronavirus pandemic. Embraer also said it narrowed its losses to $90 million in the first quarter, compared to a loss of almost $300 million a year ago, thanks to higher deliveries of commercial aircraft as pandemic pressures ease. The company did not disclose who is buying the new planes. Until now, Embraer had only been able to secure firm orders for two commercial aircraft during the epidemic, a sign of how it has eroded future travel demand. Embraer said it will begin delivering the newly ordered planes, a deal that was signed only last week and not included in the first quarter financial results, from 2022. The planemaker's backlog, a measure of what future revenue investors can expect, stands at $14.2 billion as of March 31, but should go up in the second quarter thanks to the new orders. Embraer also said it had postponed the start of operations of its new generation E175-E2 jet to 2024 by one year, which it said was attributed to the pandemic although it did not disclose more details. The previous generation E175 plane is by far Embraer's best-selling commercial aircraft. It has yet to sign any firm orders for the newer model. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/1-embraer-inks-30-plane-104749009.html Senate confirms former Florida Sen. Bill Nelson to lead NASA WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed former Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, who once flew on the space shuttle, to be the next NASA administrator. Lawmakers agreed to President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the space agency by consensus late Thursday, without a roll call vote. “I am honored by the President’s nomination and the Senate vote,” Nelson said in a statement. “I will try to merit that trust. Onward and upward!” Nelson will become NASA’s 14th administrator, succeeding another former member of Congress, Jim Bridenstine, a Republican from Oklahoma. Nelson currently serves on the NASA Advisory Council. Nelson promised, when nominated, to “help lead NASA into an exciting future of possibilities.” The space agency is working to send astronauts back to the moon this decade. “Its workforce radiates optimism, ingenuity and a can-do spirit,” Nelson said. “The NASA team continues to achieve the seemingly impossible as we venture into the cosmos.” Nelson, 78, grew up near Cape Canaveral and was serving as a Democratic congressman when he launched aboard space shuttle Columbia on Jan. 12, 1986. His commander was Charles Bolden Jr., who later served as NASA administrator under President Barack Obama — at Nelson’s urging. Just 10 days after their flight ended, the space shuttle Challenger failed shortly after liftoff and all seven astronauts were killed. Nelson, who has a law degree and is a former captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, served six terms in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1991. He was elected in 2000 to the Senate, where he served until his defeat in 2018 by former Florida Gov. Rick Scott. https://www.yahoo.com/news/senate-confirms-former-florida-sen-223727151.html NASA's Ingenuity helicopter just failed to lift off from the Martian surface, but it will try again on Friday A software issue may have prevented its flight computer from transitioning to flight mode. Ingenuity has just a week left for the two final flights that would push it to the limit. NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter was scheduled to embark on its most daring flight yet on Thursday. But it failed to lift off, so NASA plans to try again on Friday. Ingenuity made history when it flew for the first time on April 19 - a 10-foot hover that marked the first controlled, powered flight ever conducted on another planet. Since then, the 4-pound drone has completed two more flights, venturing farther and flying faster each time. Ingenuity was in good shape after its last flight, in which it traveled roughly 330 feet out and back. It was set to attempt an even more ambitious adventure on Thursday: a 117-second flight in which the little drone was supposed to reach a record speed of 3.5 meters per second. The plan was for the helicopter to climb 16 feet into the air, fly south for about 436 feet, and snap photos of the Martian surface along the way. It was then supposed to hover for more photos, turn around, and fly back to its original spot for landing. But Ingenuity's rotor blades didn't lift it up at all. The culprit is probably a software issue that first showed up during a high-speed spin test ahead of the chopper's first flight. That test failed because Ingenuity's flight computer was unable to transition from "preflight" to "flight" mode. Within a few days, NASA engineers resolved the issue with a quick software rewrite. But those engineers determined that their fix would successfully transition the helicopter into flight mode only 85% of the time. The data that Ingenuity beamed back on Thursday indicated that it couldn't get into flight mode - so it may have hit one of the 15% of instances in which the software patch doesn't work. "Today's delay is in line with that expectation and does not prevent future flights," NASA said. The helicopter is "safe and in good health," according to the agency, and it will reattempt its fourth flight on Friday at 10:46 a.m. ET. NASA engineers expect to receive the first data from that attempt about three hours later. The Ingenuity team has just one more week to complete two flights that would push the chopper to its limits. By the fifth and final flight, Ingenuity's controllers plan to push the helicopter as far and fast as it can go. In the process, they expect Ingenuity to crash. "We really want to push the rotorcraft flights to the limit and really learn and get information back from that," MiMi Aung, the project manager for Ingenuity, said in a press briefing last week. "That information is extremely important," she added. "This is a pathfinder. This is about, you know, finding if there any 'unknown unknowns' that we can't model. And we really want to know what the limits are. So we will be pushing the limits very deliberately." Ingenuity's flights are experimental, meant simply to test what rotorcraft technology can do on Mars. So NASA expected that some of the attempts might fail. It's all in the interest of gathering data to inform the development of helicopter missions on other planets, which could do all kinds of science and exploration that a rover mission can't. "We are aware that failure is more likely in this kind of scenario, and we're comfortable with it because of the upside potential that success has," NASA associate administrator Thomas Zurbuchen told Insider. Space helicopters similar to Ingenuity could someday survey difficult terrain from above, study large regions faster than a rover can, and even do reconnaissance for astronauts. Such space drones could fly "over ravines, down canyons, up mountains," Josh Ravich, the mechanical lead for the Ingenuity team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Insider. "Even rocky terrain is fairly inaccessible to the rovers but much more easily accessed by a rotorcraft." NASA already has one helicopter mission in development: A rotorcraft called Dragonfly is set to launch toward Saturn's moon Titan in 2027. It aims to investigate whether that methane-rich world could host alien life. https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-failed-lift-191226808.html Curt Lewis