Flight Safety Information - May 2, 2022 No.086


In This Issue 
: Accident: Spicejet B738 at Andal on May 1st 2022, turbulence injures passengers and cabin crew
: Accident: Aeromexico B788 near Mexico City on Apr 21st 2022, in flight damage to nose cone and wings
: Incident: KLM Cityhopper E295 near Dusseldorf on Apr 30th 2022, smell of smoke on board, transponder failure
: The Navy Extracted a Jet Fighter from 12,400 Feet below the South China Sea
: Pilot shortage will likely mean higher prices, more canceled flights
: American Airlines’ Flight Attendants Are Asking for a Two-Drink Alcohol Limit in Economy
: American Airlines, Southwest flight attendants want to be paid for boarding airplanes




Accident: Spicejet B738 at Andal on May 1st 2022, turbulence injures passengers and cabin crew

A Spicejet Boeing 737-800, registration VT-SLH performing flight SG-945 from Mumbai to Andal (India), was descending through about FL160 towards Andal when the aircraft encountered severe turbulence causing injuries to 14 passengers and 3 cabin crew. The aircraft continued for a safe landing on runway 16 about 15 minutes later. A number of occupants were taken to hospitals.

India's DGCA have opened an investigation into the occurrence.

Preliminary information suggests loose objects in the cabin caused head injuries to passengers. Several passenger mask compartments opened as result of the turbulence, parts of the cabin ceiling came down. None of the luggage lockers appear to have opened however.

ADS-B data suggest the aircraft was descending at about 3000 fpm through FL160 when the aircraft encountered sudden speed variations between 410 and 350 knots over ground associated with climb rates of up to 2000 fpm and descend rates of up to 3000 fpm.

The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground in Andal for about 7 hours, then positioned to Kolkata (India). The aircraft has not yet returned to service about 21 hours after landing in Andal.

https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f836f40&opt=0


 



 


Accident: Aeromexico B788 near Mexico City on Apr 21st 2022, in flight damage to nose cone and wings

An Aeromexico Boeing 787-8, registration N966AM performing flight AM-179 from Tijuana to Mexico City (Mexico), departed Tijuana's runway 27, climbed to FL390 enroute and at 18:50L (23:50Z) entered a number of holds on descent to Mexico City descending from FL270 to FL200 leaving the holds at about 19:15L (00:15Z Apr 22nd). The aircraft landed subsequently on Mexico City's runway 05R at 19:29L (00:29Z).

A post flight inspection revealed damage to the nose cone, left and right wing landing lights and multiple penetrations of flaps presumably caused by ice.

The aircraft is still on the ground in Mexico City more than 8 days later.

https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f81fbc1&opt=0


 


Incident: KLM Cityhopper E295 near Dusseldorf on Apr 30th 2022, smell of smoke on board, transponder failure

A KLM Cityhopper Embraer ERJ-195-E2, registration PH-NXF performing flight KL-1651 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Venice (Italy) with 120 people on board, was climbing through FL355 out of Amsterdam when the crew decided to divert to Dusseldorf (Germany) reporting the smell of smoke on board. Descending through FL290 towards Dusseldorf the Mode-S transponders stopped sending data. The aircraft landed safely in Dusseldorf about 55 minutes after departure. After landing the Mode-S transponders resumed operation.

Local Police reported the aircraft diverted due to the smell of smoke on board. All on board were able to disembark without injuries.

https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f823875&opt=0


 


The Navy Extracted a Jet Fighter from 12,400 Feet below the South China Sea

But the U.S. must probe even further to catch up with China’s access to the ocean’s deepest reaches

Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Defense suddenly faced the catastrophic prospect of forfeiting crucial defense technology to a rival when a military aircraft—packed with highly classified systems—vanished in the South China Sea. The disappearance of the single-engine stealth jet, an F-35C Joint Strike Fighter, triggered a major search-and-recovery effort by a little-known Navy organization that specializes in ocean retrieval. The mission was a high-stakes race to save a Pentagon crown jewel from the extreme depths, with their frigid temperatures and crushing pressure. And it shows why the Navy now wants its crack salvage team to be able to dive even deeper.

THE LOST F-35
The fighter was attempting to land on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson on January 24. But coming in, it slammed its underbelly on the edge of the ship, careened across the short runway and spun 180 degrees before falling—intact—over the edge and into the sea. The pilot ejected and was transported, along with two deck crew, to Manila for medical treatment. Video of the mishap was leaked online within days, along with a photograph of the stricken aircraft, which appeared to float evenly on the turquoise sea before sinking. The 34,800-pound plane went down quickly, its engine thrust suffocated by seawater. With its movement now dictated by deep ocean currents that flow in layers, the jet likely zigged and zagged as it descended more than two miles to the pitch-black bottom, where it remained at a Titanic-like depth of 12,400 feet.

The F-35C is a state-of-the-art machine with systems and components that U.S. taxpayers have invested $76 billion to develop over nearly two decades. It is pivotal to nearly all Pentagon war plans, as well as those of more than a dozen allies, including NATO nations, Japan and Australia. The loss of this aircraft was particularly dangerous because it was within the grasp of a nearby nation with significant deep-ocean prowess: China.

Tai Ming Chung, an expert on China’s military modernization, who works at the University of California, San Diego, says Beijing’s ability to develop stronger weapons relies heavily on absorbing foreign technology and know-how. “If China somehow gained access to the crashed F-35C,” Chung says, “this would represent a major technology coup and allow the Chinese military aviation industry to gain insights to support its indigenous FC-31 fifth-generation fighter aircraft program—that is heavily influenced by the F-35.”

Despite the sunken U.S. plane’s exact whereabouts being unknown, its legal status was unambiguous. “Under general international law, the aircraft is considered sovereign property of the United States,” says Steven Honigman, who was formerly Navy general counsel during the Clinton administration. The problem is that the letter of the law is no guarantee against skullduggery on the high seas, notes David Concannon, a maritime attorney and deep-sea explorer. In the real world, the F-35 would not be safe if “China wanted to pick it off the bottom before the United States could get to it,” Concannon says. “In international waters, it is kind of a no-man’s-land—and there’s no restriction against recovering it.”

Indeed, when the technological prize is big enough, the sovereign status of a sunken object is often conveniently overlooked. In 1974, for instance, the CIA pulled off a bold mission to recover a sunken Soviet submarine in the Pacific: the agency purpose-built a special ship, ostensibly for deep-sea mineral mining but actually to haul up the stricken vessel—and enrolled businessman and aviation enthusiast Howard Hughes to provide cover for the secret mission.

In 2022 the swim fin was on the other foot—and the importance of the technological treasure sitting on the seabed was gargantuan. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the most expensive weapon system acquisition in history. The U.S. military alone plans to procure 2,456 F-35s at a cost of $322 billion, excluding research and development costs, over decades.

DEEP RETRIEVAL
The lost F-35C remained at the bottom of sea for about five tense weeks before the U.S. Navy managed to locate the aircraft and haul it up.

“The F-35C recovery was a tremendous team effort,” says Capt. Jay Young, director of ocean engineering and head of an entity called Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV). “Our team that conducted the search and recovery of that F-35C executed that operation flawlessly.”

SUPSALV, a Navy organization formed in the wake of Japan’s devastating 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, supports marine salvage operations, provides pollution abatement expertise and helps with underwater vessel repair. Within SUPSALV, a specialized team of 10 Navy sailors and civilians oversees about half a dozen ocean-floor object recovery missions each year at depths between 330 and 20,000 feet. They use a Navy-owned collection of deep-ocean salvage equipment—including a family of autonomous and remotely operated vehicles that, in tandem with a portable lift system, can pull up gear as large as a school bus. This machinery is maintained and operated under contract by a marine services company called Phoenix International, based in Largo, Md.

When assigned a salvage mission, Phoenix must contract with a commercial ship in the vicinity of the missing object. After the F-35C sank, Phoenix sprang into action and retained a commercial vessel called the Picasso. The company then has to bring specialized tools and experts to the scene; it takes time to transport Navy-owned salvage equipment from Maryland by truck or military air and find welders who can temporarily affix that equipment to a host ship’s main deck. As a result, this part of a salvage mission can take many weeks.

Once it was on the scene and operating under SUPSALV oversight, Phoenix began its hunt using the latitude and longitude coordinates taken by the Carl Vinson crew when the aircraft fell in water. An autonomous vehicle began surveying the area in what search and recovery experts call a “mowing the lawn” pattern of adjacent scans—a tactic that in March helped civilian searchers find explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, missing since 1915, deep beneath the waters of Antarctica. Young declined to provide more details of the F-35C mission. But he says that, once a search begins, the Navy can pinpoint a submerged asset within a 25-square-mile area in 24 hours. On March 2 a remotely operated vehicle called CURV-21 attached a hook to the newly found F-35C and lifted the sensitive salvage.

The total time between crash and recovery: 38 days and 37 nights. By traditional Navy standards, this would be considered a success. But in recent years, technology for moving through the deepest parts of the ocean has improved—including technology developed by China. That means equipment that could once remain at the bottom of the ocean for weeks and be considered out of reach will, in future, be more accessible to organizations other than SUPSALV.

DIVING DEEPER
“Mission success counts for a lot, and they were able to locate and recover the wreck at that very deep depth,” says Victor Vescovo, a record-setting civilian deep-sea explorer and former naval intelligence officer. “But if it happens again, or if it happens in even deeper water, would that [response time] be sufficient?”

This question is critical because, although about 98 percent of the world’s ocean is no deeper than 20,000 feet, the other 2 percent holds trenches that can plunge to 36,000 feet. These valleys, formed where tectonic plates have collided and created the inverse of a mountain range, have long enticed explorers. In 2019 Vescovo set the record for the deepest ocean dive when he piloted his personal submersible to 35,853 feet in the Mariana Trench near Guam. The following year China sent a crewed submersible, the Fendouzhe, to a point nearly as deep on a scouting mission that included prospecting for new mineral sources.

After these two dives, the U.S. Navy determined that it, too, now needed the ability to search and salvage in such trenches. In January 2021 a top admiral changed the salvage requirement to “full ocean depth.” The Navy provides few specific details about how it plans to achieve this goal, but spokesperson Alan Baribeau says SUPSALV will need to integrate several key technologies that will add an extra $700,000 per year to the $6-million budget of SUPSALV’s Deep Ocean program.

“It's really just being prepared for the day when something goes down below 20,000 feet, and we want to be prepared to be able to recover” items from those depths, Young says. Investing in faster and deeper underwater response technology could help prevent a future scenario where other nations manage to beat the Navy to valuable lost equipment. “That could cause a very interesting incident on the high seas in the future,” Vescovo says. “How would we interact with countries that are claiming salvage rights over something that we believe is ours? Do you end up with some sort of conflict near the bottom of the ocean, wrestling for this wreckage and the very sensitive electronics and other things that people want to extract from it? It’s completely unknown territory.”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-navy-extracted-a-jet-fighter-from-12-400-feet-below-the-south-china-sea/


 



Pilot shortage will likely mean higher prices, more canceled flights

As airlines predict the most profitable summer ever, a massive pilot shortage could mean higher prices and more cancellations for customers.

Why it matters: The U.S. will lose about half of its pilots to retirement in the next 15 years, according to ABC News. Fort Worth-based American Airlines expects more than one third of its 15,000 pilots to retire in the next seven years.

Fewer pilots will mean fewer flights, which will likely lead to pricing spikes.
What's happening: Thousands of pilots chose early retirement at the beginning of the pandemic. The FAA also requires commercial pilots to retire at age 65. The major airlines are also struggling with a shortfall of flight instructors.

Between the lines: Pilots are also tired. The pilots union for Dallas-based Southwest Airlines recently told the company's executives that "Fatigue, both acute and cumulative, has become Southwest Airlines' number-one safety threat."

American Airlines pilots have picketed at several airports across the country.
Context: Pilots unions for both American and Southwest are negotiating new contracts.

The American Airlines pilots union recently sued the airline over its new pilot-training plan.
Details: Regional airlines will be hit the hardest by the pilot shortage. American Airlines is busing some customers from smaller airports to larger hubs.

What they're saying: "The airlines are underwater and trying to breathe through a straw," American 737 captain and union spokesperson Dennis Tajer told ABC. "Airlines are poaching each other's pilots. It's stunning the level of aggression."

The other side: "I'm confident that the quality of life and the compensation for pilots is going to attract people to the industry," American Airlines CEO Robert Isom, who took charge at the end of March, said on a recent earnings call. "It may take some time to work through, but it will happen."

A Southwest spokesperson tells Axios that the airline "appreciates being an employer of choice for pilots," and that the company "received approximately 3,000 applications for the 120 first officer positions hired in 2021."

The bottom line: If you're thinking about becoming a pilot, you have a pretty good chance of getting a job.

https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2022/05/02/pilot-shortage-mean-higher-prices-canceled-flights


 



American Airlines’ Flight Attendants Are Asking for a Two-Drink Alcohol Limit in Economy

The union thinks it could help curb unruly passenger incidents. 

Air travel is booming once again, with airlines expanding their route networks and restoring in-flight perks, like three-course meals and onboard cocktails. But there's one airline that is still limiting booze for fliers in coach. 

American Airlines has a plan to phase in alcoholic beverages to economy class, with potential new limitations. In a first-of-its-kind policy, the airline’s flight attendants union is requesting American implement a two-drink maximum for all economy passengers.

"Our customers have expressed that having these options onboard is important to their experience with us,” American Airlines said of alcoholic drinks in a statement released earlier this month, adding that alcohol and light snacks would be made available for purchase on flights more than 250 miles starting April 18. Just as quickly, the union representing American Airlines flight attendants, The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, requested the airline institute a two-alcoholic drink limit per passenger, per flight.

The new limit would be part of an ongoing effort to curb unruly and violent passenger incidents, which began spiking during the pandemic and often involved drunk fliers. Previously, American had strategically set the return of alcohol sales to the same date the Federal Transportation Mask mandate was set to expire. As the mandate was extended, so was American’s return to alcohol sales. However, that changed, also on April 18, when the federal mask mandate was repealed.

Some American flight attendants continue to question “if the invasive, abusive and violent behavior [will] leave with the [mask] mandate, or whether this has become the norm,” according to responses on a union “hotline” for American flight attendants based in Los Angeles. The union cites the drink limit as a way to mitigate whether the mask mandate, alcohol, or a combination of both were to blame for the spike in unruly passengers.

Despite the union’s position, the airline’s flight attendants appear to be split over whether limiting alcohol intake will truly result in a smoother flight experience for passengers and crew. “Love it! Too many problems with alcohol” is one comment I received when I posed the question of whether or not the limit should be implemented to a group of American Airlines flight attendants. “I applaud trying…despite naysayers,” said another crew member.

There’s no doubt that intoxicated airline passengers are a complex issue, one that airlines struggled with even before COVID. Pre-pandemic, it wasn’t uncommon for lawsuits to be filed against airlines—and flight attendants specifically—for “over-serving” passengers. Various suits alleged alcohol played a role in sexual harassment on and off the plane, drunk driving incidents, and even domestic violence after the plane had landed, to name a few. Federal regulations have always stated that it’s against the law for a passenger to board an airplane if they appear to be intoxicated, and it’s also against the law to drink alcohol on board that wasn’t served by the airline. But these situations are sometimes hard to catch.

For their part, airline leaders worry about making such an accusation against a passenger. During flight attendant training, new hires are strictly told they cannot say someone is “drunk” or “intoxicated,” but they have to phrase it as the passenger “appears to be” under the influence of alcohol or another substance. There are also specially trained employees at each airline to handle the situation if the airplane is still on the ground at the gate, but once in the air, trainees are taught that they and their fellow crew members should work together, observe the passengers in question, and decide if they should suspend serving them any further alcoholic beverages.

Many flight attendants feel as though the two-drink limit is not a necessity. “I disagree with a limit, 100 percent,” says Kristin, an American Airlines flight attendant. “The bad passengers should not be able to ruin it for the good ones. When a passenger appears to be drunk, we stop serving them. Sometimes it’s before we’ve served them one drink on the plane,” Kristin says, noting that an unknown amount of beverages could be served at home or at airport bars and lounges prior to boarding. The majority of the comments I received from flight attendants echoed the feeling that cabin crew members had been dealing with alcohol-related unruly passengers before the pandemic, and they’ll still encounter them post-pandemic, regardless of a limit, but they can manage and handle it. Most don’t see the surge in unruly passenger incidents over the past two years as a reason to impose a limit on the service they provide.

On that topic, it should be noted that crew members as a whole worry about overall customer satisfaction. As Chuck, an American captain, explained: “The customer will win, by letting management know that they don’t appreciate the limits being imposed on them, most likely by going somewhere else.”

If instituted, it’s unclear how—or if—the limit would be levied on American Airlines’ highest paying premium business and first-class passengers. During the suspension of alcohol sales in the main cabin, those seated in premium cabins did still receive alcoholic beverages on request. American Airlines’ “Main Cabin Extra” product, or domestic premium economy, is advertised as also having “complimentary beer, wine and spirits” included, but read the fine print for all cabins of service on American Airlines and you’ll find the disclaimer: “The number of drinks served may be limited.”

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/american-airlines-flight-attendants-are-asking-for-a-two-drink-alcohol-limit-in-economy


 



American Airlines, Southwest flight attendants want to be paid for boarding airplanes

Flight attendants don’t start accruing regular pay until planes pull back from airport gates, even though boarding is “one of the hardest times” for those aviation workers.

Flight attendants at American Airlines and Southwest Airlines are pushing to end a decades-old practice of not getting paid during boarding, even though they are required to be in the cabin 30 minutes to an hour before the plane takes off and the clock starts on their regular pay.

Boarding pay has become a hot-button topic as flight attendants across the country enter contract negotiations in a new era for flying following two years of pandemic chaos and a shift in worker power with labor shortages across the globe.

“Boarding for us is one of the hardest times during our flights,” said Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Attendants, which represents about 24,000 American Airlines employees. “We are getting everyone seated and you’ve seen the last two years what happens when we are on the ground.”

Facing union drive, Delta says it’ll pay flight attendants during boarding
It’s a notable change for U.S. airlines, where pay for flight attendants starts when all the passengers are seated and the plane’s doors close.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines recently announced it would start paying flight attendants for the 35-40 minutes of preflight time they are required to be on a plane before takeoff, an industry first. Delta is facing a fierce union organizing battle among flight attendants, the only major flight attendant group in the country not represented by a labor union.

Delta’s move gave a boost to efforts already underway for unions at Fort Worth-based American Airlines and Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, who now expect boarding pay to be a part of their contracts now being negotiated.

“Pay for boarding has set a new industry standard,” said Lyn Montgomery, head of Southwest Airlines’ flight attendants union.

The Association of Flight Attendants, which is pushing to organize Delta flight attendants, took credit for the boarding pay. Flight attendants at Seattle-based Alaska Airlines also are pushing for boarding pay after Delta’s move.

“Flight attendants definitely deserve boarding pay, and boarding pay will be in our opening proposal to management,” said a statement from the Association of Flight Attendants at Alaska Airlines.

Boarding pay is an official part of the contract proposal for APFA flight attendants negotiating with American Airlines, and TWU Local 556 at Southwest Airlines said the issue will shape its contract priorities, too.

The boarding pay issue isn’t as simple as it seems and involves questions about the complicated ways that flight attendants are compensated, relying mostly on a high rate of pay when they are in the air and little when they are on the ground, whether that’s in an airport or on the other side of the world on a trip.

Their hourly pay doesn’t begin until an aircraft pulls back from the gate, even though they are legally required to be in the plane before then.

Flight attendants are given some pay from the time they arrive at airports until the time they leave the airport at the end of a one- to five-day trip. But that rate is often about $2 an hour and is mostly an incentive to make sure that airlines build efficient schedules to get flight attendants back home as quickly as possible. There are also per diems paid for meals and other benefits.

Pilots are paid in a similar manner but don’t have as many passenger-facing responsibilities as flight attendants. The average annual pilot pay is also about four to five times higher than flight attendants.

In 2019, the average American Airlines flight attendant was paid about $69,600 in salaries and benefits, according to MIT’s Airline Data Project. That was the highest rate in the industry.

The average Southwest Airlines flight attendant made about $56,000 in salary and benefits.

However, average numbers don’t take into account how often flight attendants work or seniority. The average pay for American Airlines flight attendants spiked in 2020 to more than $103,000 in a year as senior flight attendants with higher pay rates grabbed the bulk of the flying when airlines slashed flights during the pandemic. American also furloughed thousands of flight attendants in late 2020.

Delta’s move to pay flight attendants for boarding isn’t as simple as it sounds. Delta said it will pay flight attendants 50% of their regular rate for the 35- to 40-minute boarding window. Delta also gave employees across the company, excluding pilots, a 4% pay bump in March.

Pay for boarding has been a growing issue at American Airlines since 2018-19, when delays and cancellations piled up and often forced flight attendants to spend extra time taking care of passengers as they sat on taxiways. The last two years of pandemic flying has only increased responsibilities for flight attendants before flights, including more than a year of enforcing COVID-19 face mask requirements.

But since flight attendants at most airlines, excluding Delta, are covered by union contracts, the boarding pay issue hasn’t been a high priority in past negotiations as flight attendants simply pushed for higher pay and better benefits.

“Our flight attendants have definitely let us know that this is really important to us,” Hedrick said. “It’s always been a topic that’s been discussed, but prior to this, I don’t ever recall it going anywhere.”

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2022/05/02/american-airlines-southwest-flight-attendants-want-to-be-paid-for-boarding-airplanes/


 



Curt Lewis