Flight Safety Information - October 22, 2021 No. 213 In This Issue : Incident: JAL B773 at Los Angeles on Oct 15th 2021, engine failure : Incident: Lufthansa A320 at Rome on Oct 21st 2021, bird strike : Incident: Inuit B732 at Puvirnituq on Oct 16th 2021, flaps problem : US FAA to audit India's air safety from October 25 : Two jetliners had a close call above the Reno Tahoe International Airport : Dickson: FAA Progressing On Certification Reforms : Lawmakers concerned FAA not implementing safety reforms : NTSB: Plane that ran off runway in Brookshire had not flown in 10 months : Alaska Air turns its first unaided profit since 2019, but pilot unrest builds : Rolls-Royce Just Flew a Boeing 747 Jumbo Using 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel : Regional carrier SkyWest cancels 700 U.S. flights over technical woes : FlightSafety and GE Digital partner to leverage C-FOQA data for training insights Incident: JAL B773 at Los Angeles on Oct 15th 2021, engine failure A JAL Japan Airlines Boeing 777-300, registration JA740J performing flight JL-15 from Los Angeles,CA (USA) to Tokyo Haneda (Japan), was climbing out of Los Angeles' runway 25R when the right hand engine (GE90) emitted streaks of flames prompting the crew to declare emergency and stop the climb at 5000 feet. The crew requested to dump fuel and return to Los Angeles and advised they were able to climb 6000 feet, and were promptly cleared to 6000 feet for the fuel dump. The aircraft returned to Los Angeles for a safe landing on runway 25L and taxied to the apron. The owner of a car, that had been parked in the beach car park near the beach side market past the end of runway 25R, reported his car was damaged by debris falling off the aircraft http://avherald.com/h?article=4eec2f56&opt=0 Incident: Lufthansa A320 at Rome on Oct 21st 2021, bird strike A Lufthansa Airbus A320-200, registration D-AIWG performing flight LH-1874 from Munich (Germany) to Rome Fiumicino (Italy), landed on Rome's runway 16L but received a bird strike. The aircraft taxied to the apron. The return flight LH-1875 needed to be cancelled. The aircraft is still on the ground in Rome about 9 hours after landing. A passenger booked onto the return flight reported their flight got cancelled, they were told about a bird strike at the gate. http://avherald.com/h?article=4eefc260&opt=0 Incident: Inuit B732 at Puvirnituq on Oct 16th 2021, flaps problem An Air Inuit Boeing 737-200, registration C-GOPW performing flight 3H-780 from Montreal,QC to Puvirnituq,QC (Canada) with 4 crew, was on approach to Puvirnituq when the crew selected the flaps to 25 degrees but received a flaps asymmetry indication. The crew entered a hold to work the related checklists and noticed that the circuit breaker for the trailing edge flaps indication had tripped. The flaps did not appear to be asymmetric but also did not appear to be in their selected 25 degrees position. The crew reset the circuit breaker, however, the flaps indication remained erratic. Due to that indication and strong crosswings the crew declared emergency and subsequently managed a safe landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4eefbfbe&opt=0 US FAA to audit India's air safety from October 25 A team of FAA is likely to arrive in India during the next two days i.e. October 23 and October 24 to conduct the air safety audit in India. The US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expected to audit India's air safety mechanism next week, senior government officials told CNBC-TV18. A team of FAA is likely to arrive in India during the next two days i.e. October 23 and October 24 to conduct the air safety audit in India and the FAA team is expected to conduct the audit during the next week starting October 25, officials said. This audit is significant for India's aviation sector as it assesses the ability of Indian aviation regulator DGCA to follow safety processes and a good rating also helps Indian airlines in adding new flights to the US, smoother checks for existing flights and impacts code-share arrangements between US airlines and Indian airlines as well. The audit is likely to focus on areas such as aircraft airworthiness, flight operations and personnel among others. It is important to note that the most recent audit of India's air safety mechanism by FAA was done in 2018, where FAA had pointed out concerns related to regulatory and guidance material but it was soon addressed by DGCA post which in December 2018, FAA had retained the highest aviation safety ranking of Category 1 for India. The UN aviation body International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is also expected to conduct an audit of India's air safety readiness in 2022 and will focus on aerodromes, air navigation services, certification, aircraft airworthiness, flight operations, airlines, among others. https://www.cnbctv18.com/aviation/us-faa-to-audit-indias-air-safety-from-october-25-11195612.htm Two jetliners had a close call above the Reno Tahoe International Airport RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has confirmed that two jetliners had a close call above the Reno Tahoe International Airport. According to the FAA, the incident happened on September 11, 2021, shortly before Noon. Southwest Airlines Flight 3271 was cleared by air traffic controllers to take off on Runway 16-Left. At the same time, the air traffic controller also cleared Delta Flight 2666 to land on the same runway. As directed, both aircraft were traveling north to south with the Delta flight decending while the Southwest flight was accelerating for departure. According to an FAA statement, “The controller maintained radio contact with both pilots and issued instructions to ensure the airplanes remained safely separated. The FAA determined that the closest distance between the two aircraft was 3,500 feet horizontally and 400 feet vertically.” The Delta jet was directed to abort its landing and circled back around. A YouTube account, VASAviation, posted the air traffic control radio chatter and a radar mashup of the incident. In the recording, after the air traffic controller cleared the Southwest jet for takeoff, the pilot of the Delta flight could be heard asking, “how is that going to work?” After approximately 13 seconds of silence, the air traffic controller can be heard ordering the Delta pilot to circle around. https://www.kolotv.com/2021/10/21/two-jetliners-had-close-call-above-reno-tahoe-international-airport/ Dickson: FAA Progressing On Certification Reforms The administration’s relationship with Boeing has been ‘reset,’ Administrator Dickson told House lawmakers Thursday. Steve Dickson, seen here speaking at last week's NBAA event in Las Vegas, testified before the House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee on Thursday.Courtesy: NBAA After two crashes of Boeing 737 Max aircraft that claimed 346 lives, the Federal Aviation Administration has changed its relationship with Boeing amid the agency’s overhaul of its certification and oversight process, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson told House lawmakers Thursday. “When I came on board as FAA administrator almost two and half years ago now, the first thing I did was reset the relationship with Boeing,” Dickson said. “I have made it clear to them continually that we will continue to exercise a high level of scrutiny.” Dickson was called to testify before the House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee to discuss the agency’s progress toward implementing the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act, a 2020 bipartisan aviation reform law resulting from the incidents. How We Got Here In October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea minutes after departing an airport in Indonesia, killing 189 passengers and crew. An investigation revealed the 737 MAX aircraft, which had been in service two months, incurred flight control problems and instrument and angle of attack (AoA) sensor failures, which were exacerbated by a new maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) and pilot response to the malfunctions. Less than five months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed under similar circumstances, killing all 157 passengers and crew, eventually prompting regulators around the world, including the FAA, to ground all 737 Max aircraft. The crashes prompted international civil aviation, FAA and National Transportation Safety Board investigations, as well as an 18-month congressional probe that culminated with the passage of the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act. It was the first major piece of federal legislation in a decade targeting aviation safety. “The committee’s thorough investigation uncovered flawed management decisions and inadequate organizational structures at Boeing and the FAA that were necessary to confront,” House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee Chair Rick Larsen (D-Washington) said Thursday. INSIDE THE ACT The Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act aims to establish transparency and accountability in the FAA’s regulation of U.S. aircraft manufacturers through a laundry list of requirements including: • Restoring FAA approval of organization designation authorization (ODA) unit members • Enabling direct FAA oversight and communication • Enabling direct FAA oversight and communication • Requiring integration of safety analysis of design changes for all new and derivative aircraft • Ensuring new and derivative aircraft comply with latest flight crew alerting regulations • Mandating safety management systems (SMS) for manufacturers • Requiring disclosure of safety-critical information • Prohibiting interference with FAA designees • Prohibiting incentives for FAA employees based on industry schedules • Repealing authority for industry to set FAA performance goals • Requiring up-front review of design assumptions and new and novel aircraft technologies • Creating new safety reporting for FAA employees • Repealing authority permitting self-certification by industry • Repealing authority for automatic delegation of certain functions • Providing expert project teams to advise on certification • Strengthening international standards • Requiring FAA to review and verify human factor assumptions • Establishing a national air grant program • Identifying emerging safety trends in a new biennial report to Congress submitted by the Transportation Research Board • Requiring an annual assessment of FAA safety culture • Building FAA expertise for emerging technologies • Facilitating continuing education of FAA certification employees • Establishing a new center of excellence (COE) on flight automation and human factors • Increasing funding for research on composites and advanced aviation materials • Strengthening FAA's direct oversight of aircraft certification • Implementing new integrated system analyses of new and derivative aircraft • Requiring aircraft manufacturers to disclose technological changes to aircraft • Implementing new safety reports requirements and whistleblower protections “This legislation should prevent the FAA and Boeing from committing egregious acts, omissions, and errors similar to those that caused those two tragedies and claiming more lives in the future,” House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) said in a statement. In the nearly three years since the Lion Air incident, the FAA has made “significant progress” on addressing findings and recommendations stemming from numerous investigations, Dickson told lawmakers. “We will continue to prioritize our work to improve aviation safety to make sure this never happens again,” he said. “We’re committed to the robustness of the certification process, including our oversight of the functions that we delegate to aircraft designers and manufacturers,” Dickson said. What’s Being Done The FAA is now delegating fewer responsibilities to manufacturers, and is demanding more transparency from them, Dickson told the House panel. Proposed system changes are evaluated from a whole aircraft perspective, including the human interface elements. The agency is also promoting the use of SMS and created guidance for voluntary SMS programs, he said. Four aircraft manufacturers have already voluntarily adopted SMS programs, and six others are “in the pipeline,” Dickson said. Other ongoing FAA initiatives, according to Dickson, include: • Pursuing rulemaking to standardize guidance for system safety assessments on transport aircraft • Taking a “fresh look” at human factor assumptions used by the agency for design and certification of transport aircraft including pilot response times • Expanding data collection and analytics tools in order to more effectively share safety data within the agency and among stakeholders Call for ‘More Accountability’ Dickson’s testimony comes a week after a federal grand jury indicted former Boeing 737 Max chief technical pilot Mark Forkner, who is accused of scheming to defraud Boeing customers and deceiving the FAA. Last January, Boeing agreed to pay a fine of more than $2.5 billion as part of a deal to resolve criminal prosecution from the U.S. Department of Justice. More accountability is needed, DeFazio said. “The fact that one person has been indicted, [and] Boeing was slapped with a fine that’s insignificant in terms of their revenues. I’m concerned that we haven’t seen a major change in the culture there,” DeFazio said of the aircraft manufacturer. The new aviation safety law, however, ensures continued pressure on the agency from lawmakers going forward. “It’s a mandate from Congress that the culture at the FAA is going to change,” DeFazio said. “The scrutiny is going to change.” https://www.flyingmag.com/story/news/dickson-faa-reforms/ Lawmakers concerned FAA not implementing safety reforms WASHINGTON (Nexstar) — On the three year anniversary of the first Boeing 737 Max jet crash lawmakers in Washington held a hearing due to concerns that require safety reforms aren’t being implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration. In 2018 and 2019, 346 people died as a result of two Boeing 737 Max jet crashes. Lawmakers now say the FAA isn’t implementing sweeping safety reforms they passed a year ago. “I see the timelines drag out one, two years,” said Rep. Peter Defazio. “I get pretty tired of this process, particularly when lives are at stake – potentially at stake.” In the aftermath of the crashes, Congress approved legislation that includes whistleblower protections and changes to the way planes and systems are certified for safety. This came after lawmakers found the relationship between the FAA and Boeing was too cozy. FAA adminsitrator Steve Dickson said changes are happening. “Safety is a journey not a destination,” he said. “One of the things I did as administrator is make it clear that we are the regulator and I reset the relationship with Boeing. “But lawmakers say the changes by the FAA so far don’t meet the requirements Congress approved in a bipartisan way.” Rep. Sam Graves asked, “Can I get your commitment today that FAA will no longer view some of the mandates in law as suggestions?” “The FAA is absolutely committed,” Dickson said. While reassuring lawmakers – he wants to meet the mandate, Dickson blamed red tape for any delays in implementing them. “It has to be legally defensible,” he said. “And we have not been relieved of requirements of administrative procedures act.” https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/washington/washington-dc/lawmakers-concerned-faa-not-implementing-safety-reforms/ NTSB: Plane that ran off runway in Brookshire had not flown in 10 months NTSB officials also detailed how those aboard exited the aircraft and the status of the black boxes recovered Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board held a news conference Thursday to discuss their investigation into the plane accident that occurred Tuesday in Brookshire. During the briefing, officials said the aircraft had not been flown since December 2020. They also detailed how those aboard got out of the aircraft and provides a status update on the black boxes recovered from the wreckage. The NTSB is charged by Congress to investigate all civil aviation accidents. NTSB opened their investigation into the Brookshire accident Wednesday. During a news conference Thursday, Michael Graham, a board member with the NTSB, said the investigation is in its early stages. “Our team methodically and systematically reviews all evidence and considers all potential factors to determine the probable cause of an accident,” Graham said. “We will not jump to any conclusions.” A team will remain onsite to gather evidence for one to two weeks. The NTSB investigator in charge is Dan Bauer. Assisting him is Senior Investigator Michael Huhn. Bauer and Huhn will be joined by several other NTSB investigators and plan to investigate the plane’s air-worthiness, its engines, accident survival factors, as well as operational factors including performance, among other things. Graham said NTSB is analyzing the video of the MD-87 that KPRC 2 obtained yesterday and which shows the MD-87 run down the runway in an attempt to take off from the Houston Executive Airport. The footage was captured by Harry Johnson, a pilot who works out of the Houston Executive Airport. About eight seconds into the video, a puff of smoke can be seen coming out of one of the aircraft’s engines. “Fortunately, the engines are in good condition on the tale at the wreckage site and will allow for a thorough examination,” Graham said. According to NTSB, the accident flight on Tuesday was the aircraft’s first flight since December 2020. NTSB investigators are reviewing the plane’s maintenance history. Airworthiness investigators are at the wreckage scene identifying the components they will remove from the tail section to examine further. The investigative team assessed the runway Wednesday and documented the tire marks on the runway’s surface. Graham said the tire marks indicate hard breaking application and good tire contact with the runway’s surface and added that all tires were in contact with the runway when the aircraft ran off the runway. “We have approximately 1,200 feet of distinct tire marks from both main landing gears on the runway,” Graham said. The NTSB did not find any debris on the runway. Investigators are currently interviewing the MD-87′s pilot, first officer and flight mechanic and is reviewing passenger and witness statements in preparation to interview them. Graham said NTSB determined how the passengers and crew members got out of the plane following the accident -- The flight mechanic opened the main cabin door at the front left of the aircraft and all aboard exited the main cabin door using the automatically-inflated evacuation slide. NTSB personnel recovered multiple black boxes from the wreckage yesterday. The CVR recorded media appears to be in good condition though NTSB is still working to download the data from it. The flight data recorder also appears to be in good condition. Graham said Thursday’s briefing would be it’s last at the scene. All new information about the status of the investigation will come out of NTSB headquarters in Washington D.C. Anyone with photos or videos of the accident is urged the share them with the NTSB by emailing them to witness@NTSB.gov. What happened? At approximately 10:08 a.m. Tuesday, an MD-87 attempted to take off from runway 36 at Houston Executive Airport in Brookshire. The aircraft ran off the paved runway and struck the perimeter fence of the airport, crossed a road, hit another fence and took out the power lines between two power poles and came to a rest, NTSB officials said. The debris path suggest the plane’s left wing struck trees before the plane came to a rest in a field. A majority of the fire damage occurred after the plane came to a rest. There were 18 passengers and three crew members onboard. The crew members consisted of two pilots and one flight mechanic. Everyone on board evacuated the aircraft and only two minor injuries were reported, Graham said. The aircraft is owned by 987 Investments LLC. -- State records show J. Alan Kent owns the LLC. https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/10/21/watch-live-ntsb-officials-discuss-investigation-into-brookshire-plane-accident/ Alaska Air turns its first unaided profit since 2019, but pilot unrest builds Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci called the financial results a “strong foundation for growth in 2022 and beyond.” Unlike most major U.S. carriers, Alaska Air Group, parent company of Alaska Airlines and regional carrier Horizon Air, made a third-quarter profit, spurring management on Thursday to confidently reiterate aggressive growth plans that should see it hire about 3,000 people next year and more beyond. Even as the Alaska Airlines pilots union called a news conference the same day to complain of stalled contract talks and unhappiness in the pilot ranks, executives spoke of plans to pay cash for dozens of new Boeing 737 MAX jets and to resume returning cash to shareholders next year. The quarterly profit of $194 million, or $1.53 per share, was the first unsupported by government grants since the end of 2019 and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. A year ago in the same quarter Alaska reported a deep net loss of $431 million, or $3.49 per share. On Thursday’s earnings teleconference with Wall Street analysts, CEO Ben Minicucci said the return to profitability “marks an inflection point on our path to recovery.” “Despite the transient choppiness we’re experiencing from the delta variant, our plan is to return to our pre-COVID size no later than next summer, and then to grow from there,” he said. The majority of Alaska employees have by now returned from extended leave, so that the airline group now has more than 20,300 working employees, compared with 16,000 a year ago and 22,500 pre-pandemic. In an interview Thursday, Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett said the airline plans to hire “something like 3,000 net new people next year” and so will exceed its pre-pandemic size. And he said that with Alaska’s plans for substantial fleet growth — taking delivery of 63 new Boeing 737 MAXs in the next two years — the airline’s employee count should grow “pretty aggressively” from there. Despite upward pressure on wages for ramp workers and other entry-level jobs, a looming pilot contract that will increase salaries, and spiking fuel prices, Tackett said on the earnings teleconference that Alaska is in solid financial shape. It plans to pay $1.5 billion in cash next year to take delivery of the Boeing MAXs and “north of that” for airplane deliveries the following year. Tackett said the company expects to resume returning cash to shareholders in the form of dividends or buybacks “towards the end of next year.” Minus support, airlines struggle Data released Thursday shows Alaska carried 9.8 million passengers in the third quarter, more than two-and-a-half times the 3.6 million it had in the same period last year. In pre-pandemic 2019, it carried 12.6 million that quarter. Total third-quarter revenue was nearly $2 billion — still down from $2.4 billion in the same quarter of 2019. Since the trough in business last year, Alaska has been adding planes back into its fleet. Yet the third-quarter fleet capacity, measured as 11.6 million available seat miles, remains significantly lower than the 2019 figure of 17.5 million. (Available seat miles, the standard industry measure of an airline’s fleet size, is the number of seats available multiplied by the number of miles flown.) Before the pandemic, in the third quarter of 2019, Alaska made a profit of $322 million, or $2.60 per share. Alaska recorded a profit in the second quarter this year, but only because it received $664 million in government grants and loans through the Payroll Support Program. Without that, and other onetime items, it would have lost $38 million. Unlike the other major U.S. airlines, Alaska received no further PSP support during the third quarter. Excluding the benefit of that government support, only Delta among the other majors managed a third-quarter profit. Excluding $1.3 billion in government support, Delta reported a net profit of $216 million, a 2.6% pre-tax profit margin compared to Alaska’s 12% pre-tax margin. In contrast, excluding government support and one-time adjustments in the third quarter, Southwest reported a net loss of $135 million, American Airlines a net loss of $641 million, and United a net loss of $349 million. Alaska’s return to profit from operations came despite a moderate decline in bookings in August and September as COVID-19 case counts rose around the country. Planes were 88% full in July but only 72% full in September. Minicucci said the financial results and the planned 737 MAX deliveries “position us for significant growth as demand comes back, which we expect will be in the back half of 2022.” Pilots unhappy The promising financial results spurred the pilots union Thursday to call for the company to make concessions and agree to a new labor contract. Negotiations on the pilot contract, which became amendable in April 2020, have been ongoing since a year before that, and recently stalled completely. The pilots want work rules in line with those at other major airlines that allow more flexibility in scheduling their flights and also provide job security by imposing so-called “scope clause” restrictions on who can fly the airline’s larger jets. Unrest among the pilots over management’s refusal to move on those issues has been building. The union, the Air Line Pilots Association, is unhappy that management this month kicked the contract negotiations out to the National Mediation Board. Capt. Will McQuillen, chairman of ALPA’s Alaska Airlines unit, said the NMB process typically takes two years and may be even slower because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. We need your support In-depth journalism takes time and effort to produce, and it depends on paying subscribers. If you value these kinds of stories, consider subscribing. “If Alaska wants to attract the pilots it needs to execute its growth plan, it’s going to have to address the better work rules and job security,” McQuillen said Thursday. The major U.S. airlines are seeking to hire about 8,000 pilots in 2022. Tackett in the interview said management accepts that a new contract will have to improve the basic work rules and will cost the company more, yet is leery of making excessive commitments during the “very choppy recovery.” “We don’t want to make mistakes as we set ourselves up under a new contract that won’t bode well for the business or pilots long term,” Tackett said. And Tackett said Alaska continues to attract pilots. “We are filling pilot classes today,” he said. “We’ve got more applicants than we’ve got slots.” Alaska Air shares fell Thursday $1.05, or 1.8%, to close at $56.20. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/alaska-air-group-turns-its-first-quarterly-profit-since-2019/ Rolls-Royce Just Flew a Boeing 747 Jumbo Using 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel The world may be one step closer to cleaner air travel thanks to Rolls-Royce. The company has just completed a successful test flight in a Boeing jumbo jet using 100 percent Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). The 747 in question was equipped with a Trent 1000 turbofan engine running solely on unblended SAF while the remaining three RB211 mills used standard jet fuel, according to Rolls-Royce. Boeing was on hand to provide technical support, while World Energy provided the low-carbon fuel for the flight. The aircraft flew from Tuscon airport in Arizona across New Mexico and Texas, before arriving back at the airport just shy of four hours later. Rolls-Royce said there were no engineering issues during the test, which is further proof that SAF is a viable alternative to fossil jet fuel and could be suitable for commercial use. Rolls-Royce To recap, SAF is made from waste materials, such as the cooking oil or animal fats used in restaurants. Instead of flooding landfills, the waste is turned into this sustainable jet fuel that reduces carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80 percent. The biofuel also results in 90 percent less particulate matter (that white stuff you see in the sky) and eliminates sulfur oxide. Aircraft are currently only certified to operate on a maximum of 50 percent SAF blended with conventional jet fuel, though Rolls-Royce says it continues to support efforts to green light non-blended SAF. In fact, just last week, the company announced plans to make all its Trent engines compatible with 100 percent SAF by 2023. “We believe in air travel as a force for cultural good, but we also recognize the need to take action to decarbonize our industry,” Simon Burr, Rolls-Royce’s director of product development and technology for civil aerospace, said in a statement. “This flight is another example of collaboration across the value chain to make sure all the aircraft technology solutions are in place to enable a smooth introduction of 100 percent SAF into our industry.” Rolls-Royce World Energy is the world’s first (and America’s only) SAF producer currently working on a commercial scale, though that may soon change. President Biden recently recognized the need to significantly increase the production of SAF, launching a sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge to produce 3 billion gallons of the fuel a year by 2030. This is part of a wider aviation climate action plan that is to be released in the coming months. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/rolls-royce-just-flew-boeing-210000133.html Regional carrier SkyWest cancels 700 U.S. flights over technical woes WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. regional air carrier SkyWest Airlines cancelled about 700 flights because of an internal computer issue that crippled operations for five hours before it was resolved, the airline said on Thursday. SkyWest provides regional service for key operators such as American Airlines, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines. A spokeswoman for SkyWest said the schedule changes included flight "cancellations into tomorrow morning, as we work to get crews and aircraft into position." SkyWest added it was working "to return to normal operations as quickly as possible." SkyWest confirmed the problem was a "server issue" that affected operations for about five hours. Earlier, United Airlines said on its website that SkyWest was "experiencing a server outage that has impacted multiple airlines." Aviation website FlightAware showed SkyWest flights beginning to resume late on Thursday. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/skywest-cancels-700-u-flights-035753700.html FlightSafety and GE Digital partner to leverage C-FOQA data for training insights Flight data trends will influence focus on areas of concern COLUMBUS, OH and SAN RAMON, CA (October 12, 2021) – Today, FlightSafety International, the premier professional aviation training company, and GE Digital, an industrial software leader with comprehensive safety analytics for the corporate jet space, announce the launch of their new partnership to use actual flight data to reduce flight risks through superior training delivery. In this partnership, unlike any other in the business aviation industry, GE Digital will provide data-driven C-FOQA insights to FlightSafety. FlightSafety will use these insights to enhance training and ensure pilots are prepared for any possible threat, before these risks are real. More than 300 operators and 1,000+ aircraft are part of the C-FOQA community, able to make use of automatic processing of flight data with a library of 200+ events and 2,000+ measurements that monitor everything from simple aircraft limitation exceedances to highly advanced risk-based modeling. “Actual flight data will allow us to tailor training to address safety threats before crews even experience them,” said Brad Thress, President and CEO of FlightSafety International. “FlightSafety employs a risk-based approach to training and partnering with GE Digital for their C-FOQA data will have incredible applications for us on approach stability, touch down point control, procedure compliance and runway safety, among others.” FlightSafety’s Executive Vice President of Safety & Regulatory Compliance Richard Meikle said, “We aim to train the most prepared pilots in the industry – proficient simply isn’t enough. Our partnership with GE Digital will provide evidence of threats to flight operations through the GE Digital Aviation Software data to construct precisely targeted scenarios to enhance safety. That’s much more than just checking boxes to complete requirements. This is a huge differentiator.” “GE Digital is honored to partner with FlightSafety to bring data-based training to corporate aviation,” said Andrew Coleman, General Manager of GE Digital’s Aviation Software business. “By applying our flight data expertise and airspace efficiency software to FlightSafety training, aviation professionals will be able to identify the safest way in and out of any situation.” The FlightSafety/GE Digital partnership will promote continuous improvement to proactively mitigate risks to flight operations. For more information, read up on the partnership on FlightSafety’s website. Media can contact Staci Perkins at FlightSafety or Ellie Holman at GE Digital. Available media assets: · Infographic, photos and other information available here · C-FOQA brief · C-FOQA value video About FlightSafety International FlightSafety International is the world’s premier professional aviation training company and supplier of flight simulators, visual systems and displays to commercial, government and military organizations. The company provides training for pilots, technicians and other aviation professionals from 167 countries and independent territories. FlightSafety operates the world’s largest fleet of advanced full-flight simulators at Learning Centers and training locations in the United States, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. For more details, please visit flightsafety.com. About GE Digital GE Digital transforms how our customers solve their toughest challenges by putting industrial data to work. Our mission is to bring simplicity, speed, and scale to digital transformation activities, with industrial software that delivers breakthrough business outcomes. GE Digital’s product portfolio – including grid optimization and analytics, asset and operations performance management, and manufacturing operations and automation – helps industrial companies in the utility, power generation, oil & gas, aviation, and manufacturing sectors change the way industry works. For more information, visit www.ge.com/digital. Curt Lewis