Flight Safety Information - May 24, 2022 No.099 In This Issue : Incident: TAP A21N at Ponta Delgada on May 13th 2022, cleared to land on occupied runway : Incident: Batik A320 at Surabaya on May 22nd 2022, runway collapses during line up : Incident: Kalitta B744 at Cincinnati on May 22nd 2022, gear problem : Incident: Lufthansa B748 near Nantes on May 19th 2022, burning odour in cockpit and cabin : Incident: Jetblue A320 at New York on May 19th 2022, hydraulic overheat : The US Pilot Shortage: Everything You Need To Know : Virginia State Police aircraft suffers laser attack Incident: TAP A21N at Ponta Delgada on May 13th 2022, cleared to land on occupied runway A TAP Air Portugal Airbus A321-200N, registration CS-TJI performing flight TP-1869 from Lisbon to Ponta Delgada (Portugal) with 180 passengers and 6 crew, was cleared to land on Ponta Delgada's runway 30 and was already in the flare when the pilot monitoring spotted a white van at the right hand side of the runway about 650 meters down the runway (just after the last fixed distance marker), the crew initiated a go around. Only after the aircraft initiated the go around tower advised of the vehicle on the runway. The aircraft climbed to 5000 feet, positioned for another approach and landed without further incident, the vehicle had sped off the runway after being overflown by the Airbus, about 15 minutes after the go around. Portugal's GPIAA reported the estimated separation between aircraft and vehicle reduced to 280 meters/920 feet, the occurrence was rated a serious incident and is being investigated. Tower had cleared the maintenance vehicle, tasked to perform scheduled maintenance work on the glidepath transmitter of ILS runway 30, onto the runway about 30 minutes prior to the approach of the A21N. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f94ae73&opt=0 Incident: Batik A320 at Surabaya on May 22nd 2022, runway collapses during line up A Batik Air Airbus A320-200, registration PK-LUJ performing flight ID-6309 from Surabaya to Jakarta (Indonesia), was lining up Surabaya's runway for departure when the crew felt the aircraft was not responding properly to the steering inputs and stopped the aircraft. A subsequent inspection of the landing gear revealed the runway had partially collapsed underneath the aircraft. The aircraft was towed to the apron. A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration PK-LZZ reached Jakarta with a delay of 3:40 hours. The occurrence aircraft was examined with no damage found and returned to service about 4 hours after the line up. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f9419e3&opt=0 Incident: Kalitta B744 at Cincinnati on May 22nd 2022, gear problem A Kalitta Boeing 747-400 freighter, registration N709CK performing flight K4-856 from Cincinnati,KY (USA) to Seoul (South Korea), departed Cincinnati's Covington Northern Kentucky Airport's runway 27 and climbed to FL300. Enroute at FL300 the crew reported they had no positive indication the landing gear was up and locked and were talking to dispatch and maintenance. The aircraft descended to FL250 and entered a hold, then the crew advised they had been advised to return to Cincinnati by their dispatch. The aircraft returned to Cincinnati for a safe landing on runway 27 about 2 hours after departure. The aircraft is still on the ground in Cincinnati about 12 hours after landing back. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f9425c4&opt=0 Incident: Lufthansa B748 near Nantes on May 19th 2022, burning odour in cockpit and cabin A Lufthansa Boeing 747-8, registration D-ABYP performing flight LH-506 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to Sao Paulo Guarulhos,SP (Brazil), was enroute at FL310 about 90nm southwest of Nantes (France) over the Gulf of Biscaya when the crew decided to return to Frankfurt due to a burning odour, that initially was noticed in the cockpit and spread into the cabin. The cabin was powered down. The aircraft descended to FL260 and landed safely back on Frankfurt's runway 07R about 90 minutes after the decision to turn around. The aircraft remained on the ground for about 20 hours, then departed again for flight LH-506 of the next day. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f92af00&opt=0 Incident: Jetblue A320 at New York on May 19th 2022, hydraulic overheat A Jetblue Airbus A320-200, registration N709JB performing flight B6-163 from New York JFK,NY to Sarasota,FL (USA), was climbing out of JFK's runway 22R when the crew requested to stop the climb at 7000 feet advising they needed to work a checklist. They subsequently declared emergency reporting they had an hydraulic overheat meaning they also would have no nosewheel steering on landing. The aircraft returned to New York for a safe landing on runway 22R about one hour after departure. A replacement A320-200 registration N564JB reached Sarasota with a delay of about 4 hours. The occurrence aircraft returned to service after about 15 hours on the ground. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f942f88&opt=0 The US Pilot Shortage: Everything You Need To Know Is there really a pilot shortage in the US? There has been an ongoing conversation about a pilot shortage in the United States for quite some time. But is this shortage real? Let's have a look. Is the pilot shortage real? The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issues ATPs, Airline Transport Pilot certificates, the highest level of certification a pilot can receive. The certification is for pilots, what a Ph.D. is for scientists. In 2021, the FAA only issued 4,928 ATPs, less than half the estimated number of pilots that the industry plans to hire this year. “The pilot shortage for the industry is real, and most airlines are simply not going to be able to realize their capacity plans because there simply aren’t enough pilots, at least not for the next five-plus years." - Scott Kirby, CEO, United Airlines United recently became the first major United States airline to reach an agreement on a new contract with its pilots' labor union, the Air Line Pilots Association, International. United CEO Scott Kirby posted on LinkedIn, “United Airlines was the only airline to work with our pilots union to reach an agreement during COVID. It’s not surprising that we are now the first airline to get an Agreement in Principle for an industry leading new pilot contract.” Airlines are having difficulty keeping aircraft in service because of the shortage of pilots, with many announcing reductions to summer schedules to keep their pilots from being overworked. Recently, Alaska, JetBlue, American, and Southwest announced cutbacks in their summer schedules. Alaska reduced its summer flying by 12% and JetBlue by 10%. Having reported pilot training backlogs, American and Southwest announced a reduction in capacity of six and five percent, respectively. "Pilots were stuck in the school house. So we're de-risking the operation a little bit to give our pilots schoolhouse just a little bit of breathing room as we train them." - Ben Minicucci, CEO, Alaska Airlines Is the pilot shortage the root of airlines' issues? The ALPA has denied a shortage of pilots in the United States. The union claims that operational issues and schedule cuts result from mismanagement on the airlines' part, canceling flights to improve financial results. ALPA president, Captain Joseph DePete, wrote a letter earlier this month asking other airlines to 'stop the spread of misinformation. He states that the federal relief packages provided to airlines, amounting to $63 billion, were to ensure that airlines were prepared to meet an increase in air travel demand when it arose. "With the $63 billion in relief that U.S. airlines received, U.S. taxpayers gave your members an advantage that no other business sector received during the pandemic and responded to the sacrifice and advocacy of airline workers. As you well know, we worked together during the worst of the pandemic to ensure the aviation industry would survive and be positioned to meet the critical air transportation needs of our nation. ALPA is prepared to collaborate with anyone who comes to the table, in good faith, and work together to help our industry navigate this challenging period. However, we will not allow airline CEOs who seek to exploit this current moment to divert attention away from their mismanagement of the pandemic relief, while lobbying to weaken critical lifesaving pilot qualification and training requirements."- Captain Joseph DePete Although the ALPA recently agreed on a new contract for United Airlines pilots, Captain DePete makes his point very clear and adds, "I can assure you that ALPA will give no ground—and we will call out every instance of false rhetoric about pilot supply for what it is: an attempt to distract and deceive the flying public and members of Congress about the airlines’ mismanagement of the government bailout provided to ensure our industry would not only survive the pandemic but be ready to thrive once the recovery we are seeing today took hold." Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many pilots took early retirement packages, further accelerating the need for new pilots to be trained and hired by airlines. There have been many captains leaving regional airlines to go to mainline carriers, which no doubt puts a strain on regional carriers' operations. There are more stringent requirements for captains, who need 2,500 flight hours to reach the status of captain, whereas first officers only need 1,500 flight hours to become first officers. Southwest Boeing 737 MAX8 landing at LAS The ALPA strongly believes that there is no airline pilot shortage in the United States. Pilots can leave airlines with two-week notices, while it takes airlines about six months to certify a new captain. The process of certifying first officers takes just about four months. In addition to pilots leaving, a limited number of flight instructors or simulators can also cause quite an issue. Republic Airways has recently sought practical solutions to the growing pilot shortage problem and requested that the Department of Transportation (DOT) reduce the minimum number of flight hours required for its pilots. The airline asked that the reduction be 50% for its pilots trained in-house. The regional carrier has a flight school and claims its training requirements are on par with military-based training. There has been a recent surge of foreign pilots applying for United States visas. Ana Barbara Schaffert, an attorney at AG Immigration Group, stated that the supply and demand for pilots in the United States are rapidly growing apart, creating opportunities for highly experienced foreign pilots. "While the US has a major shortage, in the rest of the world pilots are out of jobs." - Ana Barbara Schaffert, attorney, AG Immigration Group United Boeing 737-900 landing at LAS United Airlines is the only major US airline to own a flight school, the United Aviate According to a recent Reuters report, Schaffert has received more than 8,000 consultation requests and has over 2,000 resumes to sort through from foreign pilots seeking employment in the United States. This number is nearly double what she was receiving pre-pandemic. Breeze Airways, SkyWest Airlines, and CommutAir have all been actively recruiting pilots from Australia. Australian pilots can obtain special occupations visas in the United States, and Australian certifications are recognized in the US. Is hiring foreign pilots an acceptable alternative? Do you believe there is an actual pilot shortage in the United States, or are airlines truly mismanaging resources as the ALPA claims? https://simpleflying.com/us-airline-pilot-shortage-guide/ Virginia State Police aircraft suffers laser attack A Virginia State Police aircraft suffered a laser attack while participating in a search operation near the town of Crewe on Monday 16 May The plane’s pilot was temporarily blinded by a laser pointer while supporting Nottoway County Sheriff’s Office in the pursuit and search for a suspect. The crew were able to identify the source of the laser strike following the return of the pilot’s vision and relayed an exact location and address to ground-based police. Following the initial attack, the laser continued to track the plane as it continued to assist the search. Local and state police officers who arrived at the scene later arrested a woman found with a laser pointer, charging her with one felony count of ‘interfering with the operation of an aircraft’. Authorities have notified the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the incident, and a formal investigation is underway. A similar incident occurred in Florida earlier this month In a separate incident in Florida, a 19-year-old was arrested on Monday 2 May for allegedly pointing a green laser at a Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) helicopter. The aircraft reportedly came under attack by laser at around 01:00 hrs near Miami Gardens, during which the pilot was ‘struck in the eye’ by the beam. The pilot was later able to identify the vehicle from which the laser strike originated and requested assistance from police officers on the ground. The suspect, Yeneisy Valdera, was found in the rear left passenger seat of the vehicle when police arrived at the scene, and a laser pointer was confiscated from her. Police say that the aircraft’s camera showed Valdera pointing the laser at it, and she has now been charged with one count of ‘misuse of a laser lighting device’. The FAA has warned of a significant rise in laser strikes on aircraft across the US, with 9,723 incidents were reported across the country in 2021 – a 41-per-cent increase in 2021 compared with the number of incidents recorded in 2020 (6,852), and more than triple the incidents reported (2,776) when records began in 2010. https://www.airmedandrescue.com/latest/news/virginia-state-police-aircraft-suffers-laser-attack Curt Lewis