Flight Safety Information - May 5, 2022 No.089 In This Issue : Incident: Alaska A320 at Portland on May 4th 2022, bird strike : Incident: Northern Cargo B733 at Honolulu on May 1st 2022, loss of right hand airspeed and altimeter : Virgin Atlantic flight turns back to London due to co-pilot’s training : Indian Regulator To Start Checking Aircraft On Night Stops : LATAM Cuts Aircraft Inspections To 40 Minutes With Drones Incident: Alaska A320 at Portland on May 4th 2022, bird strike An Alaska Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration N639VA performing flight AS-317 from Portland,OR to Burbank,CA (USA), was climbing out of Portland's runway 28L when the crew reported they had a bird strike at about 2800 feet MSL, it was a large bird directly onto the nose. They wanted to return for an inspection. The aircraft stopped the climb at 6000 feet and landed safely on Portland's runway 28L about 15 minutes after departure. A replacement A320-200 registration N848VA reached Burbank with a delay of 3.5 hours. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Portland about 20 hours after landing back. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f85b47a&opt=0 Incident: Northern Cargo B733 at Honolulu on May 1st 2022, loss of right hand airspeed and altimeter A Northern Air Cargo Boeing 737-300 freighter on behalf of Aloha Air Cargo, registration N360WA performing flight KH-44 from Honolulu,HI to Kona,HI (USA) with 2 crew, was climbing out of Honolulu's runway 08L when the crew reported they had lost primary instruments during climb and needed to return to Honolulu. The aircraft stopped the climb at about 7500 feet and positioned for the return, the crew subsequently declared emergency reporting they had lost the right hand airspeed indications and right hand altimeter indications. The aircraft returned for a safe landing on runway 04R about 11 minutes after departure. A replacement Boeing 737-300 registration N302KH reached Kona with a delay of about 90 minutes. The occurrence aircraft returned to service about 33 hours after landing back. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f85b26f&opt=0 Virgin Atlantic flight turns back to London due to co-pilot’s training The flight was scheduled to arrive at JFK airport in New York. A Virgin Atlantic flight to New York was forced to turn back to London when it became apparent that the co-pilot was not qualified to fly because he had not completed his final assessment, the airline said. The Airbus A330 was about 40 minutes into its flight to JFK Airport on Monday when the two pilots became aware of what the airline later called a “rostering error,” the Telegraph reported. The captain is not a designated trainer and was not qualified to fly with a co-pilot who had not completed Virgin Atlantic training protocols, according to the outlet. After returning to Heathrow, the first officer was swapped and the flight resumed its journey to the Big Apple, where it landed two hours and 40 minutes late. The company stressed that both initial crew members were fully licensed and qualified to operate the airliner – with the captain described by sources as “highly experienced” with “many thousands of hours of flight time during 17 years at Virgin Atlantic,” the Telegraph reported. After looping back to London, the flight resumed its path to New York. The flight eventually landed two hours and 40 minutes late. The first officer, who joined the airline in 2017, was reportedly pending a “final assessment” flight. “Due to a rostering error, flight VS3 from London Heathrow to New York-JFK returned to Heathrow on Monday 2nd May shortly after take-off,” an airline rep told the outlet. “The qualified first officer, who was flying alongside an experienced captain, was replaced with a new pilot to ensure full compliance with Virgin Atlantic’s training protocols, which exceed industry standards,” the spokesperson added. https://nypost.com/2022/05/05/virgin-atlantic-flight-turns-back-due-to-co-pilots-training/ Indian Regulator To Start Checking Aircraft On Night Stops The latest DGCA decision follows a series of events in the past few weeks. India’s aviation watchdog, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), plans to conduct an extensive examination of commercial airplanes in India. Focus will be more on aircraft that have been in service for a long time and have clocked considerable flying hours over the years to ensure their structural integrity is not compromised. DGCA springs into action following recent events Successive developments in the last few weeks have put the focus on the structural fitness of commercial aircraft in India. The DGCA has been particularly busy lately dealing with one situation after another, prompting it to thoroughly check older airplanes. Last month, authorities ordered a SpiceJet Boeing 737 airplane to be grounded following a passenger’s tweet, which contained not-so-impressive pictures of the plane. The images showed scruffy cabin interiors and questionable conditions of some panels that appeared broken or missing. A few days later, another passenger on an Air India flight took pictures of the Airbus A320’s shabby interiors, including a broken armrest, and posted them on social media. The DGCA asked the airline to check and rectify the problem as soon as possible. While the latest SpiceJet incident of a 737 facing turbulence is not related to aircraft upkeep, it did raise questions about the practices of the maintenance department, which cleared the airplane to take off despite damage to its interiors being reported. So, what is the DGCA’s plan going forward? Night checks According to The Times of India, the aviation regulator plans to conduct extensive cabin checks on airplanes, particularly the older ones, when parked at night across major airports in India. A senior official was quoted as saying, “Now we will do this on a regular basis at night time when the planes are parked. If anything that could affect safety is detected, the planes will be grounded till the airline rectifies the deficiencies.” The authorities have kicked off the process by examining the entire fleet of SpiceJet, covering about half of its 70+ planes. They are identifying issues and looking at ways to address them. It must be noted that these checks are over and above the regular maintenance checks that these airplanes go through. The DGCA has made it clear to SpiceJet that they will need to loosen their purse strings and spend more on cabin upkeep to ensure the safety of flight operations. No leniency The DGCA plans to scrutinize old airplanes and airlines with weak finances more. Even before the pandemic, most airlines in India did not enjoy a healthy balance sheet, and COVID-19 put the brakes on any possible improvements. India’s aviation regulator wants to ensure that a lack of cash does not become the reason for a lax attitude toward aircraft maintenance. It realizes that aircraft may have to be grounded for repairs and fixes, possibly resulting in flight delays or even cancellation. But it wants to prioritize safety before regular operations. Hopefully, airlines will proactively fix these issues and be more vigilant in the future instead of DGCA having to ground planes. https://simpleflying.com/indian-regulator-checking-planes-nights/ LATAM Cuts Aircraft Inspections To 40 Minutes With Drones The use of drones is making maintenance tasks faster. LATAM Airlines Group is employing drones to inspect aircraft fuselages at its Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facilities in São Carlos, Brazil. By using this new technology, the South American airline is making the maintenance process faster and better. Let’s investigate further. Maintenance drones Doing maintenance check-ups is something all airlines have to do worldwide. The largest airlines like LATAM invest in building their own MROs to increase efficiency in-house and reduce costs. For example, one of LATAM’s Brazil rivals, Azul, has saved about US$40 million in the last two years by doing maintenance and repairs in-house. You can read Simple Flying’s tour of Azul’s hangar here. LATAM has its MRO located in São Carlos, Brazil. This is where the airline has been refurbishing its narrowbody fleet, composed of Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 aircraft. Earlier this week, Jerome Cadier, CEO of LATAM Airlines Brazil, released a video showing how the airline does maintenance checkups by using drones. This video shows a small drone flying around an Airbus A319 with a special livery promoting the Rock in Rio 2022 music festival. The drone can be seen taking photographs of the fuselage. How does it help? Drone technology is able to help in many areas of the economy. For example, users can employ drones to do maintenance flights in remote areas. In the case of the airline industry, drones can heavily reduce the time a company uses to do routine checkups. Jerome Cadier said, “A new wonder from our MRO: drone inspection! We always check every detail of the fuselage of our aircraft. Now look at the impact technology can have: now, we can do these maintenance checks with the help of a drone.” The drone automatically flies around the aircraft and takes around 2,000 detailed photos of the entire fuselage, which can later be analyzed. LATAM also keeps a digital archive of the plane. More importantly, using drones save time. Cadier added, “The work that two employees would have done in eight hours, using a platform, is now done in around 40 minutes (plus another hour to do the technical analysis." Other uses for drones Drones, airlines, and airports are usually a bad combination. We have seen incidents worldwide of drones flying nearby airports and shutting them down. Nonetheless, drones can be a very effective tool to improve many processes in the airline industry. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) used a drone as part of a simulated exercise last year. The FAA simulated the response to an Airbus A380 accident and fire on a taxiway at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. In the past, the airport’s aircraft rescue and firefighting responders (ARFF) could view an aircraft accident only from the ground, missing an important perspective. Now, the ARFF has a new vantage point by using drones hovering over the scene. The imagery provided by the drones gives better situational awareness. Brian McKinney, DFW’s fire chief, said having drones that can be deployed for incidents can be a massive benefit to the industry. “In an industry where every second counts, drones can be an integral part of any response.” https://simpleflying.com/latam-drone-aircraft-inspections/ Curt Lewis