Flight Safety Information - October 20, 2021 No. 211 In This Issue : Incident: Morning Star AT72 near Winnipeg on Oct 13th 2021, electrical problems : Incident: Itapemirim A320 at Brasilia on Oct 14th 2021, rejected takeoff due to bird strike : Incident: Yakutia DH8C near Srednekolyomsk on Oct 16th 2021, engine shut down in flight : Incident: Pegas B763 near Rostov on Oct 19th 2021, electrical problems : McDonnell Douglas MD-87 - Runway Overun on Takeoff ((Houston) : 'Get out, get out, get out': Everyone survives after plane's 'horrific' failed takeoff in Texas : Australia Wants Airline Pilots To Learn Stall Recovery : Middle East region to need 3,000 new airplanes by 2040 : Former lead Virgin Galactic test pilot takes new gig at Blue Origin : Southwest scraps plan to put unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave : Senate budget committee tells NASA to select two developers for lunar lander program Incident: Morning Star AT72 near Winnipeg on Oct 13th 2021, electrical problems A Morning Star Express Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-200, registration C-FTMN performing flight MAL-7088 from Calgary,AB to Winnipeg,MB (Canada) with 2 crew, was descending through FL230 towards Winnipeg when the crew received a fault indication for "EMERGENCY BATTERY CHARGE". The crew worked the related checklist, switched to the #2 DC Bus, declared PAN PAN and decided to return to Calgary due to moderate icing at Winnipeg. The aircraft landed safely back in Calgary. The Canadian TSB reported maintenance inspected the electrical system and replaced the emergency battery fault selector switch. http://avherald.com/h?article=4eee5962&opt=0 Incident: Itapemirim A320 at Brasilia on Oct 14th 2021, rejected takeoff due to bird strike An ITA Transportes Aereos (Itapemirim) Airbus A320-200, registration PS-SFC performing flight 8I-5610 from Brasilia,DF to Recife,PE (Brazil) with 157 passengers and 7 crew, was accelerating for takeoff from Brasilia's runway 11L when the crew rejected takeoff at high speed (about 100 knots over ground) due to a bird strike into the right hand engine (V2527). The aircraft slowed safely and returned to the apron. The right hand engine received damage to several fan blades. The aircraft remained on the ground for 36 hours before returning to service. http://avherald.com/h?article=4eee3c9d&opt=0 Incident: Yakutia DH8C near Srednekolyomsk on Oct 16th 2021, engine shut down in flight A Yakutia Airlines de Havilland Dash 8-300, registration VQ-BVJ performing flight R3-9731 from Yakutia to Pevek (Russia) with 44 people on board, was enroute near Srednekolyomsk (Russia) when the crew reported an oil pressure drop in the right hand engine (PW123) and shut the engine down. The aircraft diverted to Srednekolyomsk for a safe landing about 45 minutes after the crew reported the problem. http://avherald.com/h?article=4eee162a&opt=0 Incident: Pegas B763 near Rostov on Oct 19th 2021, electrical problems A Pegasfly Boeing 767-300, registration VQ-BTQ performing flight IK-1811 from Moscow Sheremetyevo (Russia) to Antalya (Turkey), was enroute at FL350 about 160nm north of Rostov on Don (Russia) when the crew requested a descent to FL310 advising that a generator as well as the APU had failed. Subsequently a diversion to Rostov was initiated, the aircraft descended to FL180. The crew advised that they had managed to restart their generator and wanted to continue to destination. The aircraft climbed to FL270, however, about 40 minutes after the first descent and about 50nm south of Rostov the crew advised their generator had failed again and requested to divert to Rostov. The aircraft landed safely on Rostov's runway 23 about 25 minutes after the second failure of the generator. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Rostov about 9 hours after landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4eee1505&opt=0 McDonnell Douglas MD-87 - Runway Overun on Takeoff ((Houston) Status: Preliminary Date: Tuesday 19 October 2021 Time: 10:00 Type: McDonnell Douglas MD-87 Operator: 987 Investments LLC Registration: N987AK MSN: 49404/1430 First flight: 1987 Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney JT9D-219 Crew: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 18 Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 21 Aircraft damage: Destroyed Aircraft fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Houston Executive Airport, TX ( United States of America) Phase: Takeoff (TOF) Nature: Domestic Non Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Houston Executive Airport, TX (KTME), United States of America Destination airport: Boston-Logan International Airport, MA (BOS/KBOS), United States of America Narrative: A corporate McDonnell Douglas MD-87 burst into flames after coming to rest in a field near Houston Executive Airport, TX. All 21 are said to have evacuated safely with two people being injured. The aircraft was attempting to take off from runway 36 at Houston Executive Airport at the time of the accident. The aircraft went through a fence and took down powerlines before it came to a stop about 500 m past the end of the runway. https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20211019-0 'Get out, get out, get out': Everyone survives after plane's 'horrific' failed takeoff in Texas When rescuers arrived to the scene of a plane that had rolled off a Texas runway and caught on fire Tuesday morning, nearly two dozen people had already exited the burning aircraft, authorities said. There were no deaths or major injuries in the incident, but crews had to rush to extinguish the fire, which had engulfed the plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-87. Dramatic footage of the fire showed black smoke billowing from the charred remains of the aircraft as crews attempted to extinguish the fire. "I think we can all agree we can celebrate on today that no one was killed in this horrific incident," said Sgt. Stephen Woodard, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety. The plane, carrying 21 people and traveling from Texas to the AL Championship Series game in Boston, was attempting to take off from Houston Executive Airport and traveled about 500 feet on the runway before it rolled through a fence and caught fire in a field, officials said. "We did find that all the passengers had self-extricated," said Tim Gibson, director of Waller-Harris Emergency Services District 20. "We absolutely, positively got the best outcome we could have hoped for." One passenger reported back pain, Waller County Judge Trey Duhon said on Facebook. Duhon is the highest elected official in the county. Two people with minor injuries were taken to a hospital and returned to the airport, CNN reported. Cheryl McCaskill, who lives in the Houston suburb of Cypress, was aboard the plane. She told the Houston Chronicle that she felt “shaky and shocked” after running from the burning jet in her Astros jersey. “When it finally stopped, everyone went ‘get out, get out, get out.’ We jumped out on that inflatable thing and then everyone went ‘get away,’” McCaskill said. Gibson said crews assisted the passengers from the field after they got themselves out of the plane. "They were very, very stunned," he said. Emergency crews extinguished the blaze after employing "a lot of foam," Gibson said. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. Utility company CenterPoint Energy told ABC13 that the plane took out an overhead power line, temporarily disrupting service to about 1,800 customers. https://www.yahoo.com/news/plane-burns-horrific-failed-takeoff-225949707.html Australia Wants Airline Pilots To Learn Stall Recovery Australia’s aviation safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), will make Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (URPT) compulsory ten years after first recognizing a need for the training. Australian URPT rule to take effect in December First reported in Australian Aviation, CASA’s ruling kicks in on December 2 and will initially target pilots flying aircraft carrying 30 or more passengers or flying aircraft with a maximum take-off weight greater than 8,618 kilograms. The ruling will mean Qantas, Regional Express (Rex), Jetstar, Alliance Airlines, and Virgin Australia, among others, will have to build URPT into their training programs by March 31, 2022. The training gives pilots the skills to recognize, prevent, and recover from unanticipated airborne incidents. URPT specifically targets loss of control inflight (LOC-I). CASA notes LOC-I accidents often have catastrophic results with very few, if any, survivors. “Irrespective of a pilot’s license, experience, hours, or aircraft type, LOC-I has resulted in more lives lost than any other cause of accidents,” says specialist URPT provider UPRT Australia. “UPRT is recognized by ICAO, IATA, and global aviation safety regulators as the necessary building block to improve pilot skills in the prevention of a LOC-I accident.” CASA looks to ICAO and FAA guidelines on URPT The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has previously said that all pilots in its 190 plus member countries should incorporate UPRT in actual flight before commercial licensing. The training is required in the United States for pilots who fly aircraft with a seating capacity of more than nine seats. CASA told Australia Aviation the new local URPT had been heavily influenced by ICAO and FAA guidelines. One of the best-known recent LOC-I incidents was the 2009 Air France crash. The Airbus A330-200 stalled midway over the Atlantic on a flight between Rio de Janeiro and Paris. The pilots failed to recover from the stall, and the jet crashed into the sea, killing all 228 onboard. CASA says the causes of inflight loss of control, whether transitory or extended, are many but can be broadly categorized into three groups – aircraft systems induced, environmentally induced, and/or pilot/human-induced. The safety regular says pilot-induced accidents represented the most frequently identified loss of control cause. This mostly results from inappropriate flight control inputs, one or more flight crew members becoming spatially disoriented, poor aircraft energy management, one or more flight crew pilot members being distracted, and/or improper training. URPT puts a focus on managing stalls CASA’s new training requirements will follow the prescription in Section 208 of the United States’ Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act (2010). That mandates pilot ground training and flight training or flight simulator training that teaches them to recognize and avoid a stall of an aircraft or, if not avoided, to recover from the stall. The training will also teach pilots to recognize and avoid an upset of an aircraft or, if not avoided, to execute such techniques as available data indicate are appropriate to recover from the upset. “Continued emphasis on stall and recovery training is warranted in training programs to undo years of applying incorrect stall or upset recovery procedures and use of training devices incapable of adequately representing the characteristics of the aircraft in the post-stall warning regime,” says CASA in its URPT advisory circular. For the first phase of UPRT implementation in Australia, CASA expects all commercial domestic and international pilots to have commenced the URPT theory program by the end of March. https://simpleflying.com/australia-airline-pilot-stall-recovery/ Middle East region to need 3,000 new airplanes by 2040 Region's commercial jet and services market will be valued at more than $1.4 trillion in next 20 years One third of aircraft deliveries in the region will replace older airplanes with more fuel-efficient models such as the 737 MAX, 787 Dreamliner and 777X. Image: Boeing The Middle East region will need 3,000 new airplanes, valued at $700 billion, over the next 20 years, according to aviation manufacturing giant Boeing. The estimate was provided in the company’s 2021 Commercial Market Outlook report, which was released on Wednesday. As the airline industry continues to chart a course of recovery from the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Randy Heisey, Boeing managing director of Commercial Marketing for the Middle East, said it was heading in a “positive trajectory”. With $126bn in losses, airline industry confirms 2020 as the worst year on record for struggling sector During a media briefing he revealed that the Middle East’s passenger traffic and the region’s commercial fleet are projected to more than double between now and 2040. “The Middle East region’s role as a global connecting hub continues to be important for developing markets to and from Southeast Asia, China and Africa,” said Heisey. More than two-thirds of airplane deliveries to the Middle East will accommodate growth, while one-third of deliveries will replace older airplanes with more fuel-efficient models such as the 737 Max, 787 Dreamliner and 777X. Heisey said the savings in this region, as a result of the more efficient fleet, would amount to $3.5bn in fuel, almost $6bn in operating cost savings and a reduction of about 14 million tons of emissions. He explained that, in an ordinary year, between two and three percent of the active airplane fleet is retired. However, in the Covid-impacted last 18 months that has increased to between four and five percent, similar to that witnessed following the 9/11 attacks, the SARS outbreak and the financial crash in 2008. According to the Boeing forecast, the region will continue to see robust widebody demand, with 1,570 deliveries supporting a growing network of international routes. While the current single-aisle fleet of 660 airplanes is forecast to nearly triple to 1,750 jets. Two of the world’s top-five cargo carriers based in the region, Emirates and Qatar Airways. “We frequently talk about the Middle East being primarily a wide body region, but I'd like to highlight that 44 percent of today's fleet are single aisles, and 53 percent of the deliveries in the next 20 years will be in the single aisle segment. We're not seeing capacity constraints that would drive us to assume that there would be any a shift away from that,” said Heisey. Meanwhile, he said air freight represents an ongoing area of opportunity for Middle East airlines, with the freighter fleet projected to nearly double from 80 airplanes in 2019 to 150 by 2040 - air cargo traffic flown by Middle East carriers has increased since 2020 by nearly 20 percent, with two of the world’s top-five cargo carriers based in the region, Emirates and Qatar Airways. Heisey also said the region’s aftermarket services, such as maintenance and repair, will be worth $740bn by 2040. https://www.arabianbusiness.com/industries-transport/469948-middle-east-region-to-need-3000-new-airplanes-by-2040 Former lead Virgin Galactic test pilot takes new gig at Blue Origin Mark "Forger" Stucky, who for six years headed the test pilot program at space company Virgin Galactic before he says he was fired earlier this year, is taking a job with the company's chief competitor, Blue Origin. Stucky said he will join Blue Origin's "Advanced Development Programs" team, where he said in a statement to CNN that he will "do my best to contribute to [CEO Jeff Bezos'] amazing vision of humans not just having a continuous presence in space but truly becoming a space-faring species." Blue Origin confirmed Stucky's hiring in an email. Stucky piloted the first flight aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo that reached the edge of space in 2018. That flight was widely considered to be the first crewed mission to space to launch from US soil since NASA's Space Shuttle Program retired in 2011, and it earned him a pair of commercial astronaut wings. He was also a key figure in "Test Gods," a recent book by New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle, which mapped out previously undisclosed issues with a 2019 flight of SpaceShipTwo. In the book, Stucky also speaks candidly about the risks involved with the spacecraft, including a vivid account of a 2011 test flight Stucky piloted during which SpaceShipTwo, which requires two pilots to operate, began spinning out of control. Stucky's co-pilot "was sure they were going to die" before Stucky was able to regain control of the plane by deploying a special braking system, called the "feather," according to the book. Stucky announced he was leaving Virgin Galactic shortly after Branson's flight to space in July in a brief LinkedIn post, saying "If life throws you lemons then maybe it's time to learn to juggle." He added that his departure was not on his own timeline. "I'll leave it to Virgin Galactic to explain the reason for my termination as they never explained it to me," he said in a statement to CNN. "It's only logical to assume it was due to the book 'Test Gods' as the work environment completely changed after its publication. The same supervisor that told me I was indispensable, undervalued, and underpaid in April never really talked to me again after the book release in May." The company declined to comment on Stucky's departure. Since leaving Virgin Galactic, Stucky has become more critical of the company on social media. In one tweet, responding to an article that revealed Branson's own spaceflight did not take the proper trajectory due to what the company said were strong upper winds, Stucky tweeted "the most misleading statement today was @virgingalactic's." "The facts are the pilots failed to trim to achieve the proper pitch rate, the winds were well within limits, they did nothing of substance to address the trajectory error, & entered Class A airspace without authorization," he wrote. Virgin Galactic did not respond to additional requests for comment about that specific incident. But in a September statement, the company had said that "although the flight's ultimate trajectory deviated from our initial plan, it was a controlled and intentional flight path that allowed Unity 22 to successfully reach space and land safely at our Spaceport in New Mexico. At no time were passengers and crew put in any danger as a result of this change in trajectory." The statement added that the pilots of the spaceplane encountered high-altitude winds, and "responded appropriately to these changing flight conditions." The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial space flights, grounded the company in early September while it investigated the issues surrounding Branson's flight. The investigation found that it flew outside of its designated FAA airspace for nearly two minutes and that the company failed to notify the FAA about the deviation in the flight path. The FAA closed the investigation and cleared Virgin Galactic for flight after the company agreed to change how it communicates with the FAA during flight operations. Virgin Galactic was planning to launch its first crewed mission since Branson's flight in October. But the company now says the flight's been postponed until after a "planned vehicle enhancement and modification period," further delaying its plans to begin flying paying customers. Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement about the delay last week that the "decisions are driven by detailed and thorough analysis, and we fly based on the most accurate and comprehensive data available." He added that Virgin Galactic vehicles "are designed with significant margins for safety, providing layers of protection that far exceed loads experienced and expected to occur on our flights." While Stucky says he's "extremely grateful" to be joining Blue Origin, the new job means he may no longer get to fly to space because Blue Origin does not currently operate a vehicle that requires pilots. New Shepard, the suborbital space tourism vehicle that took Bezos to space shortly after Branson's flight in July, is fully autonomous. "There is no flight promise," he said. "But never say never is a carrot that works for some of us." https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/19/tech/virgin-galactic-blue-origin-mark-forger-stucky-scn/index.html Southwest scraps plan to put unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave Southwest Airlines will not place unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave as they wait for their exemption requests to be reviewed, the company said. Under President Joe Biden's mandate for federal contractors, employees must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by Dec. 8 unless they have received medical or religious exemptions. Southwest had said employees who did not meet the requirement by the deadline would be placed on unpaid leave, but it recently changed course, CNBC reported. Airline officials told employees in a note Friday that they could continue to work and get paid but would have to follow masking and social distancing guidelines if their requests for exemptions were pending. "This is a change from what was previously communicated," said the airline's senior vice president of operations and hospitality, Steve Goldberg, and its vice president and chief people officer, Julie Weber. "Initially, we communicated that these employees would be put on unpaid leave and that is no longer the case." CNBC said it had reviewed the note. Southwest said that if a worker's request is denied, it will continue working with the employee "as we coordinate with them on meeting the requirements (vaccine or valid accommodation)." Employees would also be able to reapply for exemptions if they have new information they want the company to consider. Southwest is giving its employees until Nov. 24 to apply for exemptions. NBC News has not reviewed the letter. A company spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that the policy was changed last week. "If an accommodation has not been reviewed or approved by December 8, the employee will continue to work, while following all Covid mask and distancing guidelines applicable to their position, until the accommodation has been processed," the spokesperson said in a statement. "While we intend to grant all valid requests for medical and/or religious accommodations, in the event a request is not granted, the company will provide adequate time for an employee to become fully vaccinated while continuing to work and adhering to safety protocols." https://www.yahoo.com/news/southwest-scraps-plan-put-unvaccinated-174233998.html Senate budget committee tells NASA to select two developers for lunar lander program The Human Landing System saga is far from over. Senators on Monday released a draft version of the appropriation bill that governs NASA’s budget for fiscal year 2022, directing the agency to select two teams for the Human Landing System (HLS) program -- but only giving the agency an additional $100 million to do so. The total funding for the program would stand at $1.295 billion, with NASA receiving an overall budget of $24.83 billion for the next fiscal year. “Using this funding, NASA is expected to ensure redundancy and competition, including robust support for research, development, testing, and evaluation for no fewer than two HLS Teams,” the draft bill says. “The [Senate appropriations] Committee expects real investments in development rather than additional studies.” The directive is clear. What’s not clear is how NASA expects the agency to fund two HLS teams without a commensurate increase in funding. First, a little refresher: The HLS is a critical part of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon for the first time since the Apollo space program days. Back in April, NASA selected Elon Musk’s SpaceX -- and only SpaceX -- to develop the landing vehicle for astronauts under Artemis. The company beat out defense contractor Dynetics and Blue Origin, which developed a “national team” that included aerospace primes Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper, for the award. In the past, NASA had generally operated by choosing at least two vendors to encourage competition, and as a hedge in case one company’s project doesn’t pan out. That was how it operated with the Commercial Crew program for the International Space Station, when NASA awarded both SpaceX and Boeing contracts to build astronaut transport spacecraft. So, it’s fair to say that the agency did veer from historical precedent in selecting only SpaceX. Since April, Blue Origin has mounted a campaign protesting NASA’s decision, first by disputing the contract award to government watchdog the Government Accountability Office and then -- when GAO rejected the company’s protest -- via a complaint filed in a federal claims court. NASA maintains that it selected SpaceX because the company offered the most robust lander proposal at the lowest price, given budgetary constraints: only $2.9 billion, compared to the price tags of Blue Origin’s proposal ($5.9 billion) and Dynetics ($9 billion). Given the significant difference in cost between the three proposals, it’s unclear how the Senate’s increase to the HLS program --which is only $100 million -- will enable NASA to select an additional team. NASA administrator Bill Nelson seems confident that the agency will eventually get the funding it needs. “I think at the end of the day, after all the shouting is over, after all the pushing and tugging, a lot of which has nothing to do with NASA, you will see that NASA will have the funds that it needs,” he said in an interview with SpaceNews, According to the bill, “having at least two teams providing services […] should be the end goal of the current development program.” If this version of the bill makes it into the final budget -- which is unclear, as it would still need to be negotiated with the House -- NASA would have 30 days to explain to Congress and the public how it plans to comply with the new directive. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/senate-budget-committee-tells-nasa-145005846.html Curt Lewis