Flight Safety Information - August 4, 2021 No. 154 In This Issue : Incident: Austrian A320 at London on Aug 3rd 2021, no nose wheel steering : Incident: National B744 at Tokyo on Jul 29th 2021, cargo smoke indication : Incident: Nordwind A321 at Ekaterinburg on Aug 3rd 2021, hydraulic failure : Unvaccinated People Need to Bear the Burden : Jet Airways To Begin Hiring Pilots Following 2 Year Grounding : American Airlines Cancels Nearly 300 Flights, Most Due to Pilot Shortages : Passenger Arrives Taped to a Seat and Is Charged With Assaulting Flight Attendants : Brazil's GOL To Buy 28 Boeing 737 MAX-8 Aircraft : Boeing's Starliner ready for crucial do-over launch to orbit : Position: Apply Now! - Manager – Quality Control Incident: Austrian A320 at London on Aug 3rd 2021, no nose wheel steering An Austrian Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration OE-LBX performing flight OS-452 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to Vienna (Austria), was climbing out of London's runway 09R when the crew stopped the climb at FL070 reporting the nose gear doors had remained open and they had lost nose wheel steering. The crew advised they expected to be able to vacate the runway very slowly but could not rule out to become stuck while vacating the runway and requested no other aircraft behind them on approach. The aircraft burned off fuel and landed safely back on runway 09L about 65 minutes after departure. The aircraft remained on the ground in London for 3.5 hours, then departed again maintaining a maximum FL190 and low speed (about 300 knots over ground), currently passes about Frankfurt/Main (Germany) and is estimated to reach Vienna with a delay of about 6 hours. https://avherald.com/h?article=4eb429d1&opt=0 Incident: National B744 at Tokyo on Jul 29th 2021, cargo smoke indication A National Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter, registration N756CA performing flight N8-891 from Tokyo Narita (Japan) to Seoul (South Korea), was climbing through about FL270 out of Narita's runway 16R when the crew reported an aft cargo fire indication and decided to return to Narita. The aircraft landed safely on Nartia's runway 16R about 30 minutes after departure. The aircraft remained on the ground for about 4 days, then departed again for the flight and reached Seoul with a delay of 4 days https://avherald.com/h?article=4eb4198f&opt=0 Incident: Nordwind A321 at Ekaterinburg on Aug 3rd 2021, hydraulic failure A Nordwind Airbus A321-200, registration VQ-BOD performing flight N4-132 from Simferopol (Ukraine) to Ekaterinburg (Russia) with 148 passengers on board, was on final approach to Ekaterinburg's runway 26L when the crew initiated a go around at about 1600 feet MSL reporting a green hydraulic failure. The aircraft maintained FL060 and entered a hold while the crew worked the related checklists and recomputed landing performance. The aircraft subsequently landed safely on runway 26L about 40 minutes after the go around. Rosaviatsia reported the crew declared emergency, the aircraft stopped on the runway and was towed to the apron. The emergency was cancelled 25 minutes after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=4eb3fd3e&opt=0 Unvaccinated People Need to Bear the Burden Beyond limiting the coronavirus’s flow from hot spots to the rest of the country, allowing only vaccinated people on domestic flights will change minds, too. When you go to the airport, you see two kinds of security rules. Some apply equally to everyone; no one can carry weapons through the TSA checkpoint. But other protocols divide passengers into categories according to how much of a threat the government thinks they pose. If you submit to heightened scrutiny in advance, TSA PreCheck lets you go through security without taking off your shoes; a no-fly list keeps certain people off the plane entirely. Not everyone poses an equal threat. Rifling through the bags of every business traveler and patting down every preschooler and octogenarian would waste the TSA’s time and needlessly burden many passengers. The same principle applies to limiting the spread of the coronavirus. The number of COVID-19 cases keeps growing, even though remarkably safe, effective vaccines are widely available, at least to adults. Many public agencies are responding by reimposing masking rules on everyone. But at this stage of the pandemic, tougher universal restrictions are not the solution to continuing viral spread. While flying, vaccinated people should no longer carry the burden for unvaccinated people. The White House has rejected a nationwide vaccine mandate—a sweeping suggestion that the Biden administration could not easily enact if it wanted to—but a no-fly list for unvaccinated adults is an obvious step that the federal government should take. It will help limit the risk of transmission at destinations where unvaccinated people travel—and, by setting norms that restrict certain privileges to vaccinated people, will also help raise the stagnant vaccination rates that are keeping both the economy and society from fully recovering. Flying is not a right, and the case for restricting it to vaccinated people is straightforward: The federal government is the sole entity that can regulate the terms and conditions of airline safety. And although air-filtration systems and mask requirements make transmission of the coronavirus unlikely during any given passenger flight, infected people can spread it when they leave the airport and take off their mask. The whole point of international-travel bans is to curb infections in the destination country; to protect itself, the United States still has many such restrictions in place. Beyond limiting the virus’s flow from hot spots to the rest of the country, allowing only vaccinated people on domestic flights will change minds, too. Polls suggest that vaccine holdouts have a variety of motivations: genuine concerns about side effects; skepticism of shots not yet fully approved by the FDA; a general aversion to vaccines; a desire to stick it to the libs; a reluctance to decide—even now. In a recent New York Times and Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 46 percent of unvaccinated people who consider themselves in the “wait and see” category disclosed that they would stop waiting if they could get a shot from their personal physician. Forty-four percent agreed that the FDA’s full approval of the vaccines would motivate them. And 41 percent said that a prohibition on airline travel would get them closer to their shots. Tellingly, 11 percent of those adamantly opposed to vaccination would also be motivated by a travel ban—a larger effect for these respondents than full FDA approval or the ability to get vaccinated at their doctor’s office would have. More than another recitation of statistics about vaccines’ benefits or yet another appeal to the common good, the deprivation of movement will win over doubters. Some unvaccinated Americans in areas where vaccination seekers face scorn among their peer group may even be happy to have an excuse to protect themselves. The public debate about making vaccination a precondition for travel, employment, and other activities has described this approach as vaccine mandates, a term that, to conservative critics, suggests that unvaccinated people are being ordered around arbitrarily. What is actually going on, mostly, is that institutions are shifting burdens to unvaccinated people—denying them access to certain spaces, requiring them to take regular COVID-19 tests, charging them for the cost of that testing—rather than imposing greater burdens on everyone. Americans still have a choice to go unvaccinated, but that means giving up on certain societal benefits. Nobody has a constitutional right to attend The Lion King on Broadway or work at Disney or Walmart. Employers and entertainment venues are realizing that they can operate more easily without the hassle of planning around unvaccinated employees and customers. Amid a global health crisis, people who defy public-health guidance are not, and do not deserve to be, a protected class. David A. Graham: Delta is ruining the summer, and it’s anti-vaxxers’ fault For the privilege of flying, Americans already give up a lot: We disclose our personal information, toss our water bottles, extinguish our cigarette butts, and lock our guns in checked luggage. For vaccinated people, having to show proof of vaccination when flying would be a minor inconvenience. The Biden administration could give unvaccinated Americans a brief window in which to get shots. A travel rule that took effect by October would cover those who hope to visit relatives during the holiday season. Vaccine verification and legitimate exceptions for age or preexisting health conditions can be part of airline databases, as are other security features. The current reliance on paper vaccination cards makes for a clumsy system, but better public- and private-sector systems are likely to emerge if employers, entertainment venues, and the TSA all seek to verify individuals’ status. Some people may try to lie and cheat their way around a TSA requirement, but violating federal aviation-safety measures is generally a crime. Relying so heavily on mask requirements to protect the flying public has had a distinct downside. The duty of preventing viral transmission has fallen to gate agents and flight attendants, who must enforce mask rules, and whom angry passengers have in turn subjected to harassment. Moreover, masks can provide protection only during a flight, but for passengers, the whole point of flying is to take part in life outside the destination airport’s grounds. By requiring proof of vaccination for flights, the U.S. government will better protect society and get out of the business of helping the coronavirus proliferate in another place. People who still want to wait and see about the vaccines can continue doing so. They just can’t keep pushing all the costs on everyone else. https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/619643/ Jet Airways To Begin Hiring Pilots Following 2 Year Grounding Jet Airways is inching closer towards relaunching operation. The airline is currently in the process of hiring experienced pilots for operations, but is still quiet about which aircraft type, or types, it will operate. Let’s find out more. Ready After 27 months of dormancy online, Jet Airways’ Twitter account came back in action. The airline has begun directly communicating with the public again, providing updates about its offer to former employees, and confirming plans to restart flights. However, yesterday, it announced a big step in the process: hiring. Jet Airways has published a form to hire ‘experienced pilots’ for its operations. All interested pilots have to include details regarding their type rating, license validity, medical exam, flying hours, and more. It’s unclear how many pilots the airline is looking to hire and if it will prefer ex-Jet Airways employees. So which aircraft will the airline by flying? Well, Jet Airways is accepting applications for virtually aircraft type. The form accepts type ratings for the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, along with widebodies like the 787, A330, and 777. The end of the form only requests further details about the A320 and 737 ratings, which are the most likely aircraft to be chosen for restarting operations. Jet Airways previously operated all these planes except the 787, which was on order, and the A320 family. More to come One month after its plan was accepted by the bankruptcy court, Jet Airways is finally finding its feet. While the airline has been busy working on settling claims with its creditors and employees, it is now looking onward to actually kicking off operations. From the outset, the Kalrock-Jalan consortium has said that it will only rehire a handful of staffers back to the new airline. Only 50 out of nearly 4,000 employees who were holding out hope for a job with the new will find one. Most will likely have to reapply to the airline for limited positions available. The coming weeks will tell us more about if Jet Airways 2.0 will pick up more employees from application forms. However, given the fleet size is expected to be smaller than 30 aircraft at launch, positions will be few and heavily competitive. Tough market Jet Airways’ return to the market will coincide with many changes. After a tough year, the industry is rearing back to action and new entrants will likely struggle to secure a large market share early on. Moreover, news players like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air and potential TrueJet expansion will all make India a more crowded market. To stand out, Jet Airways will need to bring back loyal customers and double down on a full-service model. However, if this will work a second time, remains to be seen. https://simpleflying.com/jet-airways-hiring-pilots/amp/ American Airlines Cancels Nearly 300 Flights, Most Due to Pilot Shortages American Airlines had to cancel nearly 300 flights by early afternoon Tuesday, mostly due to a lack of pilots, the Associated Press reported. Airlines like American and Spirit are scrambling to deal with the increase in travel demand this summer as they have fewer employees than before the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. air travel has already recovered to about 80 percent of 2019 levels. The union representing American's pilots accused the airline's management for the shortage, claiming there was poor planning. "It's pretty simple," said union spokesman Dennis Tajer. "They don't have enough pilots, and they don't have modern scheduling practices to do more with what they have." He said that bad weather "hits every airline, but American is the last to recover. This has to change." https://www.newsweek.com/american-airlines-cancels-nearly-300-flights-most-due-pilot-shortages-1615877?amp=1 Brazil's GOL To Buy 28 Boeing 737 MAX-8 Aircraft (RTTNews) - Brazil's GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. (GOL) announced the acceleration of its fleet transformation for 28 additional Boeing 737 MAX-8 aircraft, which is expected to reduce the GOL's unit costs by 8% in 2022. GOL noted that total 28 B 737 MAX 8 aircraft will replace 23 B 737-800 NGs by the end of 2022. GOL currently operates 12 737 MAX aircraft, having returned 18 B737 NGs in the past 18 months. As a result of the new agreements, GOL will now end 2021 with 28 737 MAX aircraft, and by the year-end 2022 will have received delivery of 44 737 MAX aircraft. With its current 737 MAX commitments, GOL will meet its objective of having a 75% MAX fleet by 2030. The aircraft will be financed via 15 direct operating leases, nine sale-leasebacks and four finance leases. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/brazils-gol-to-buy-28-boeing-737-max-8-aircraft-2021-08-03 Boeing's Starliner ready for crucial do-over launch to orbit SEATTLE, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Boeing Co's CST-100 Starliner capsule is poised to blast off on Tuesday from Florida's Cape Canaveral bound for the International Space Station in a crucial do-over test flight following a near-catastrophic failure during its 2019 debut. Tuesday's planned uncrewed mission is a precursor to a closely watched crewed flight potentially to be conducted before the end of the year. It also marks a key trial for the U.S. aerospace giant after back-to-back crises - a pandemic that crushed demand for new planes and a safety scandal caused by two fatal 737 MAX crashes - that have damaged Boeing's finances and engineering reputation. If all goes according to plan, the Starliner capsule loaded with supplies will blast off atop an Atlas V rocket flown by the United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp, at 1:20 p.m. EDT (1720 GMT) from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch had been planned for last Friday https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/space-station-mishap-prompts-nasa-postpone-launch-boeing-starliner-2021-07-29, but was postponed by NASA after the space station was briefly thrown out of control with seven crew members aboard, a mishap caused by the inadvertent reignition of jet thrusters on a newly docked Russian service module. Russia's space agency blamed a software glitch. Atlas V's dual Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10A-4-2 engines are poised to shoot Starliner on a 113-mile (98 nautical miles/181 km) suborbital trajectory before the capsule separates and flies under its own power to the space station in a roughly 24-hour overall journey. The Starliner capsule headlined Boeing's efforts against billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX to be the first to return NASA astronauts to the space station from U.S. soil in nearly a decade. But a series of software glitches during the December 2019 debut launch resulted in its failure to dock at the orbital laboratory outpost. SpaceX's Crew Dragon has gone on to launch three crewed space station missions since 2020, with a fourth slated as early as Oct. 31, according to NASA. Boeing has spent a year and a half correcting issues flagged during NASA reviews, part of the U.S. space agency's strategy to ensure access to the sprawling international research satellite some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. NASA in 2014 awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to build their own capsules that could fly American astronauts to the space station in an effort to wean the United States off its dependence on Russia's Soyuz vehicles for rides to space following the end of NASA's space shuttle program in 2011. If all goes well, Boeing will bring the capsule home on Aug. 9, and then attempt the follow-on crewed mission that the company has said will take place no earlier than December. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/boeings-starliner-ready-crucial-over-100000259.html Apply Now! - Manager – Quality Control mba is seeking an experienced mid-career individual to manage its Quality Control function with respect to IOSA* (IATA Operational Safety Audit). The candidate must meet the following requirements, be a self-starter and a leader within the organization. • Must have aviation/airline quality control, operational and/or safety experience and be familiar with the IOSA Program. • Be familiar with Quality Control processes and methodology. • Manage and lead a team of experienced individuals in the performance of aviation safety focused audits. Duties and Responsibilities: Become familiar with IOSA Standards and Recommended Best Practices by discipline Interface with IOSA Auditors, as necessary, through the Quality Control process Together with Director of Audit Programs, responsible for IOSA Audit Report (IAR) production and Program Quality requirements, including: . • Structuring the QC process for IOSA reports; • Ensuring that a complete QC review of all IOSA Audit Reports is carried out in accordance with the IOM Quality Control procedures; and • Ensuring that published deadlines for report delivery and QC processes Maintain QC procedures and documentation support structures for auditors Monitor and administer the QC and continual improvement processes Review outputs from all phases of audit and administrative processes, measuring results, and suggesting improved processes, when appropriate Monitoring of AO and Auditor quality performance and provide feedback to Auditors by means of: • Performing analysis of the gaps in the internal QC process and Auditor QC performance; • Performing analysis of IATA AO monthly performance report biannual AO QC performance summary (Statistical analysis and performance results); • Identifying weaknesses in internal processes, repetitive errors, and auditor behavior or techniques; and • Identifying and recommend any training needs, provision of internal QC training, or any other action necessary to ensure IAR quality to VP of Technical and Quality APPLY NOW! *IOSA is a registered trademark of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Curt Lewis