Flight Safety Information - April 21, 2022 No.079 In This Issue : Incident: Pascan SF34 at Montreal on Apr 7th 2022, auto-trim failure : Incident: Malta Air B738 at Berlin on Apr 19th 2022, nose gear problem after landing : Incident: German Airways E190 at Milan on Apr 18th 2022, unreliable airspeed : Incident: Delta B764 near Dublin on Apr 18th 2022, smell of smoke in cockpit : RDU’s new runway will be exactly 639 feet longer than the existing one. Why that matters. : Jet crash mystery remains after China’s one-page initial report : Struggling Air Zimbabwe banned from flying in EU airspace for safety reasons : California woman opens emergency exit, flees airplane down inflatable slide : Call for Nominations For 2022 Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award : Safeskies Australia - 2022: Call for papers Incident: Pascan SF34 at Montreal on Apr 7th 2022, auto-trim failure A Pascan Aviation Saab 340B, registration C-FKSL performing flight P6-581 from Montreal St. Hubert,QC to Quebec City,QC (Canada) with 12 passengers and 3 crew, was climbing out of Montreal's runway 06L when the crew activated the autopilot but received a Master Warning followed by an Auto-Trim Advisory. The crew disengaged the autopilot, resumed manual control of the aircraft and declared PAN PAN. The crew stabilized the aircraft and returned to St. Hubert Airport for a safe landing on runway 06L about 26 minutes after departure. The Canadian TSB reported the flight control computer was replaced. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f7b279c&opt=0 Incident: Malta Air B738 at Berlin on Apr 19th 2022, nose gear problem after landing A Malta Air Boeing 737-800 on behalf of Ryanair, registration 9H-QEL performing flight FR-268 from Corfu (Greece) to Berlin (Germany), landed on Brandenburg Airport's runway 07L but needed to stop on the runway due to problems with the nose gear. Maintenance replaced both nose gear tyres on the runway before the aircraft was towed to the apron about 90 minutes after landing. The aircraft returned to service the following morning about 16.5 hours after landing, but departed for its first flight of the day with a delay of 2 hours. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f7b1a11&opt=0 Incident: German Airways E190 at Milan on Apr 18th 2022, unreliable airspeed A German Airways Embraer ERJ-190 on behalf of Italia Trasporto Aereo, registration D-AMWO performing flight AZ-146 from Milan Linate (Italy) to Luxembourg (Luxembourg), was climbing out of Linate's runway 36 when the crew observed the indications of left and right hand airspeed indicators disagreed, autopilot and autothrottle disengaged automatically. The crew stopped the climb at 6000 feet and entered a hold to prepare the return to Linate. The aircraft landed safely on Linate's runway 36 about 40 minutes after departure. The aircraft is still on the ground in Milan about 48 hours after landing back. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f7b1792&opt=0 Incident: Delta B764 near Dublin on Apr 18th 2022, smell of smoke in cockpit A Delta Airlines Boeing 767-400, registration N833MH performing flight DL-4 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to New York JFK,NY (USA), was enroute at FL320 about 290nm westnorthwest of Dublin (Ireland) about to enter Oceanic Airspace when the crew reported there had been a loud bang at the left hand side of the aircraft followed by the smell of smoke in the cockpit. The crew turned around and diverted to Dublin for a safe landing on runway 28L about 70 minutes after turning around. The aircraft remained on the ground in Dublin for about 4.5 hours, then continued the journey and reached New York with a delay of about 7 hours. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f7a5f23&opt=0 RDU’s new runway will be exactly 639 feet longer than the existing one. Why that matters. The new main runway at Raleigh-Durham International Airport will be longer than the one it replaces, though still not as long as the airport had once hoped. The Federal Aviation Administration now says RDU can build a 10,639-foot runway to replace the aging 10,000-foot strip on the west side of the airfield in front of Terminal 2. That added length is important, said Michael Landguth, RDU’s president and CEO. “Adding more than 600 feet of takeoff distance to RDU’s future runway will allow existing airlines to carry more passengers and cargo,” Landguth said in a written statement. “It will also provide greater economic opportunities for Triangle-area businesses and communities.” RDU had once planned to replace its 10,000-foot main runway with one that is 11,500 feet long. That length would ensure that large jets loaded with passengers, luggage and fuel bound for Asia would have enough room to safely take off in all kinds of weather. The sharp decline in air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic caused RDU to scale back its ambitions. Replacing the planned runway with one the same size also would help get the work done faster and at lower cost, airport officials said a year ago. But Alaska Airlines, which operates daily flights between RDU and Seattle, sought a longer runway to allow it to carry more passengers, cargo and fuel to the West Coast on its fleet of Boeing 737-900s. The FAA cited information provided by the airline in authorizing the extra 639 feet, according to RDU. Business and community groups led by the Regional Transportation Alliance and North Carolina’s U.S. senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, also lobbied the FAA. RDU spokeswoman Stephanie Hawco said the planned length, down to the foot, came out of a “complex FAA model that considers aircraft type and weight, the number of takeoffs and landings, the FAA’s design criteria for runways and many other factors.” RDU’s existing main runway was completed in 1986 and is nearing the end of its useful life. Contractors have replaced hundreds of slabs of crumbling concrete in recent years, working mostly at night when the runway isn’t needed. At 10,000 feet, the runway is long enough for the largest planes that land there, including cargo carriers, nonstop flights to Paris and London and the occasional visit from Air Force One and military aircraft. The airport’s other commercial runway, on the east side of the airfield, is 7,500 feet long, sufficient for most domestic flights. RDU is still doing environmental studies for the new runway. Assuming the FAA and other agencies approve the project and the airport can put together the financing, RDU expects to begin construction in 2023 and open the new runway in 2027, Hawco said. https://www.yahoo.com/news/rdu-runway-longer-existing-one-211410589.html Jet crash mystery remains after China’s one-page initial report Chinese authorities said they need more time to determine what caused a China Eastern Airlines Corp. jet to plunge into a hillside last month, offering few new clues to a mystery that resulted in the deaths of 132 passengers and crew. Investigators are still analyzing data from the two black boxes on the Boeing Co. 737-800 NG aircraft, according to a one-page summary of the report posted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. No evidence has emerged of any pre-flight mechanical failure, weather issue or problem with the pilots’ qualifications, it said. The lack of concrete findings after a month of poring over wreckage and other available data suggests that China is being particularly cautious about the investigation and public disclosures. “After all this waiting, to just have four or five paragraphs that don’t really explain any potential scenario, perhaps that’s by design,” said Jeffrey Guzzetti, the former chief accident investigator at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Normally, investigators would have been able to determine many clues from wreckage, such as whether engines were functioning at the time of impact or how various equipment was set, Guzzetti said. The summary report included no such findings. Work to gather data from jet’s two black-box recorders, which were severely damaged in the high-speed impact, is still underway, the report said. Notably, it didn’t say the data was unrecoverable. Under the Chicago Convention, nations in charge of an investigation must submit a preliminary report to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency, within 30 days of the date of the accident. Altitude Deviation The report said the plane entered Guangzhou air traffic space at 2:17 p.m. and that Guangzhou air traffic control then realized it was deviating from the altitude it should have been on. Air traffic controllers radioed the flight deck but received no response, according to the document. Flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou fell from the sky about 100 miles from its destination. The last radar recorded from the jet was at 2:21 p.m., the report showed. The report’s lack of detail drew immediate reaction on social media in China, with some expressing disappointment and frustration. “Nothing’s useful in there,” said one. While preliminary reports, which may be marked as confidential or remain public at the investigating state’s discretion, contain some information about what was happening on board at the time of the incident, they generally don’t include any formal conclusions as to the cause of the crash. However, they can provide a detailed account of what happened. A full report is due within 12 months. The main search-and-rescue effort in southern China’s Guangxi region ended late last month and the plane’s black boxes were sent to the U.S. President Xi Jinping called for information about the cause of the crash to come in a timely, accurate and transparent manner, according to earlier Xinhua reports. A team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing traveled to China to work on the probe, but returned April 14, the agency said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “The NTSB has an excellent relationship with CAAC,” the agency said in the statement. Resumed Flights The jet was flying level at a cruising altitude of 8,900 meters (29,192 feet) when it suddenly dropped, according to the CAAC. Video images of the plane appeared to show it hurtling toward the ground. Data from Flightradar24 indicated it was traveling far faster than normal. The jet “disintegrated” on impact, the CAAC said. China Eastern resumed flights using the same type of plane over the weekend, a sign the airline is working toward putting the entire fleet back in the air. The carrier is gradually restarting operations for its 737-800 fleet after carrying out checks over the past two weeks, China News Service reported, citing company representatives it didn’t identify. For now, any scenario that could explain the jet’s unusual, high-speed dive in benign weather remains on the table, Guzzetti said. They include some type of unusual mechanical failure, a pilot miscue or even an intentional act by someone in the cockpit, he said. https://ajot.com/news/jet-crash-mystery-remains-after-chinaas-one-page-initial-report Struggling Air Zimbabwe banned from flying in EU airspace for safety reasons Air Zimbabwe may not fly over EU countries. Zimbabwe's national airline, Air Zimbabwe, has been banned from flying in EU airspace because it does not meet international safety standards. The struggling airline is listed on the EU Commission air safety list of carriers banned or restricted from operating in the EU. More than 100 airlines have been listed, among them 21 Russian-certified airlines. The commission said the 117 airlines are banned for “not meeting international safety standards”. The commission said in a statement: “Ninety airlines certified in 15 different states, due to inadequate safety oversight by the aviation authorities from these states; 21 airlines certified in Russia, as well as six individual airlines from other states, based on serious safety deficiencies identified: Avior Airlines (Venezuela), Blue Wing Airlines (Suriname), Iran Aseman Airlines (Iran), Iraqi Airways (Iraq), Med-View Airlines (Nigeria) and Air Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe).” “Two additional airlines are subject to operational restrictions and can only fly to the EU with specific aircraft types: Iran Air (Iran) and Air Koryo (North Korea),” read the EU communique. The commission said the updated EU safety list was made with the help of national aviation safety experts. Air Zimbabwe, a state-owned airline, is saddled with huge debts, owing foreign and domestic creditors more than US$300m. In 2019, the airline was suspended by Airports Company SA (Acsa) over nonpayment of airport charges. Last year the airline resumed flights after a one-and-half year break due to operational challenges and the Covid-19 pandemic. In the past, the airline has been grounded for engine failures and malfunctions. https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/africa/2022-04-20-struggling-air-zimbabwe-banned-from-flying-in-eu-airspace-for-safety-reasons/ California woman opens emergency exit, flees airplane down inflatable slide A California woman went on a tirade against airline workers and escaped an airplane through the emergency exit and inflatable slide just before takeoff in Buffalo, New York on Tuesday. The woman, Cynthia McKnight, reportedly ran around on the airport tarmac before being apprehended by police, according to WIBV 4. McKnight’s flight was on board an American Airlines flight bound for Chicago. “Cynthia McKnight faces a number of charges including disorderly conduct, harassment, trespass and criminal mischief,” NFTA Director of Public Affairs Helen Tederous told News 4. “According to detectives, McKnight actually opened the cabin door of the plane. The American Airlines flight was on route to Chicago.” Spencer Brown, an offensive tackle for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, was on the plane and tweeted about the incident afterward. “Sitting on a plane. A lady is pissed. Lady pulls the emergency inflatable slide to escape the plane. Lady is running wild through the tarmac currently. Cops have arrived. Flight ruined. Memories made. Noice,” he tweeted, followed by a thumbs up. The pilot was forced to return the plane to the gate following the incident. McKnight’s daring escape comes as airline workers are seeing an uptick in unruly passengers, with many of the encounters centering on masking. Major airlines ended mask requirements on Monday after a federal judge in Florida struck down President Joe Biden’s mask mandate covering airplanes, airports, and public transportation. https://nypost.com/2022/04/20/california-woman-opens-emergency-exit-flees-airplane/ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | March 28, 2022 CONTACT: Philip Barbour, 205-939-1700, 205-617-9007 Call for Nominations For 2022 Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2022 Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award, honoring a leader in global aviation safety. The Award is scheduled to be presented during Flight Safety Foundation’s annual International Air Safety Summit this fall. Presented annually since 1956, the Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award recognizes notable achievement in the field of civil or military aviation safety in method, design, invention, study, or other improvement. The Award's recipient is selected for a "significant individual or group effort contributing to improving aviation safety, with emphasis on original contributions," and a "significant individual or group effort performed above and beyond normal responsibilities." Mechanics, engineers, and others outside of top administrative or research positions should be especially considered. The contribution need not be recent, especially if the nominee has not received adequate recognition. Nominations that were not selected as past winners may be resubmitted for consideration in subsequent years. Please note that self-nominations will not be considered. The Award Committee, composed of leaders in the field of aviation, meets each year to conduct a final review of nominees and selection of the current year's recipient. Please help us identify and honor this year's most deserving recipient. Nominations, including a 1-to-2-page narrative, can be submitted via the Laura Taber Barbour Foundation website at http://ltbaward.org/the-award/nomination-form/. Nominations will be accepted through June 3, 2022. For more information, including a complete history of Award recipients, see www.ltbaward.org. About the Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Foundation and Award The Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award's story dates back more than 75 years. On April 14, 1945, after visiting family in Pittsburgh, Laura Taber Barbour was aboard a Pennsylvania Central Airlines DC-3 when it crashed into the rugged terrain of Cheat Mountain near Morgantown, West Virginia. All passengers and crew were killed. In 1956 her husband, Dr. Clifford E. Barbour and son, Clifford E. Barbour, Jr., in close association with The Flight Safety Foundation, established the Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award in her honor. For the past 65 years, this distinguished award recognizing outstanding achievements in aviation safety worldwide has been presented at Flight Safety Foundation’s International Aviation Safety Seminar. In 2013, The Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Foundation was formed as an independent non-profit charitable organization composed of members of the Award Board, the aviation community, and the Barbour family. In addition to the annual presentation of the award, in 2019 the Foundation initiated a scholarship program that supports worthy students pursuing professional aviation studies. As the Foundation broadens its scope, the Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award will continue to recognize those who significantly contributed to aviation safety. For more information on the Foundation, the award, and past winners, visit http://LTBAward.org Curt Lewis