Flight Safety Information - November 22, 2022 No. 226 In This Issue : Incident: KLM Cityhopper E175 at Amsterdam on Nov 21st 2022, hydraulic failure : Incident: Iberia A333 over Atlantic on Nov 19th 2022, engine shut down in flight : Incident: Delta B753 at Minneapolis on Nov 19th 2022, flaps problem : T-38 Training Jet's Landing Gear Fails in Mississippi, Marking Second Incident This Month : Air India Plans To Hire Foreign Pilots For Boeing 777s : Safety agency: Wing broke before plane crash in Washington : China Tests Hypersonic Engine That Can Push Aircraft To 9 Times The Speed Of Sound : Aircraft Lessors Sue Insurers for $6.5 Billion Over Planes Trapped in Russia : We Need To Change The System That Keeps Pilots From Seeking Mental Health Care : ESASI – ‘FocusOn...ICAO’ - 7 December 2022 : GRADUATE RESEARCH STUDY Incident: KLM Cityhopper E175 at Amsterdam on Nov 21st 2022, hydraulic failure A KLM Cityhopper Embraer ERJ-175, registration PH-EXU performing flight KL-1181 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Linkoping (Sweden), was climbing out of Amsterdam's runway 18L when the crew stopped the climb at FL060 reporting they had lost a hydraulic system, they had lost nosewheel steering as a result and requested runway 18R, but accepted runway 18C on ATC query. The crew requested to burn off fuel, then proceeded for a safe landing on runway 18C about 45 minutes after departure. A replacement ERJ-175 registration PH-EXT reached Linkoping with a delay of about 3:10 hours. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground about 5 hours after landing back. A passenger reported they were towed to the gate. https://avherald.com/h?article=5016081a&opt=0 Incident: Iberia A333 over Atlantic on Nov 19th 2022, engine shut down in flight An Iberia Airbus A330-300, registration EC-LZX performing flight IB-6251 from Madrid,SP (Spain) to New York JFK,NY (USA) wiht 294 passengers and 11 crew, was enroute at FL360 over the Atlantic Ocean about 1300nm southeast of Halifax,NS (Canada) when the crew invoked Oceanic Contingency Procedures and subsequently drifted down to FL210. The crew decided to divert to Halifax reporting they had shut down engine #2 (CF6) due to a low engine oil pressure indication. The aircraft maintained FL210 until reaching Halifax and landed safely on runway 23 about 3:20 hours after invoking the contingency procedures. The aircraft vacated the runway, cancelled Mayday after landing and taxied to the apron. The remainder of the flight was cancelled. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Halifax about 48 hours after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=50160281&opt=0 Incident: Delta B753 at Minneapolis on Nov 19th 2022, flaps problem A Delta Airlines Boeing 757-300, registration N587NW performing flight DL-2145 from Phoenix,AZ to Minneapolis,MN (USA), was on approach to Minneapolis' runway 30L when the crew initiated a go around advising ATC they needed to run some checklists. The aircraft climbed to 4000 feet, subsequently declared emergency and positioned for another approach to runway 30L. The aircraft landed safely on runway 30L about 20 minutes after the go around. The aircraft vacated the runway and taxied to the apron. The aircraft remained on the ground for about 14 hours before returning to service. A passenger reported the crew announced there was an issue with the flaps. https://avherald.com/h?article=5015ee67&opt=0 T-38 Training Jet's Landing Gear Fails in Mississippi, Marking Second Incident This Month An Air Force pilot's landing gear failed at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi on Friday, forcing the airman to skid the belly of the T-38C Talon training jet across the runway to land safely. "A T-38C from Columbus AFB experienced an in-flight emergency at approximately 10:45 a.m.," a news release from Columbus Air Force Base said. "The T-38C suffered a malfunction of the landing gear system and was forced to execute a gear-up landing." The pilot was not injured, a base spokeswoman told Military.com, and the cause of the incident is under investigation. The T-38C's in-flight emergency marks the second incident with a training jet from Columbus Air Force Base this month, and some experts say it underscores the long-standing worries officials have with the age of the aircraft. Earlier this month, on Nov. 7, an instructor pilot had to eject from his jet when it was "rendered inoperable and unrecoverable upon initial takeoff," Col. Jeremy Bergin, Columbus Air Force Base vice wing commander, told reporters. In that incident, two T-38Cs took off, each with one person, an instructor, aboard. They were flying in a formation when one of the jets experienced the malfunction. The jet crashed at a private property about 30 minutes south of the base. The instructor was taken to a nearby hospital and there were no fatalities, according to a press release. There have been other crashes involving the T-38 in recent years, too. Last year, on Feb. 19, two pilots in a T-38 from the base died during a training mission outside of Montgomery, Alabama, as the jet was making its way to Florida. Killed in the crash was Scot Ames Jr., an instructor pilot with the 50th Flying Training Squadron, as well as Renshi Uesaki, a student pilot who was a member of the Japanese Air Self Defense Force. In May 2018, two pilots ejected from their T-38 near Columbus AFB, and the plane crashed in a remote part of northeast Mississippi. In August the same year, the base halted flight operations for 24 hours after a T-38 ejection seat inadvertently fired while the plane was undergoing inspection. The Air Force has been flying the T-38 since the 1960s. The two-seat, supersonic jet trainer is used by the service, as well as the Navy and NASA, as part of pilot training. Since the Talon went into service, the Air Force has reported 211 Class A mishaps -- the term used by the military to describe the deadliest or costliest crashes, according to Air Force Safety Center data. There have been a total of 86 pilot deaths and 149 fatalities from the T-38 in its 62-year history. Jeremiah Gertler, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C., who specializes in aviation, told Military.com that, while it's not clear that the two incidents with the T-38Cs this month are connected, it is well known that aging aircraft are more prone to issues. "Things wear out," Gertler told Military.com. "Whether the accidents are related or not, they do have age in common. ... There have been incidents throughout its life." The service has been planning for several years to phase out the T-38. In September 2018, the service gave Boeing Co. a $9.2 billion contract to build a replacement aircraft, with a working name of T-X. In 2019, the Air Force rebranded the T-X as the T-7A Red Hawk, named in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen. The first T-7A is expected to be delivered sometime in 2023, along with new flight training simulators. And while the new training jet is expected to be superior to the T-38, experts say it won't be arriving any quicker as incidents continue to occur. "We can't get the T-7 faster; they're still in development," Gertler said. "If for some reason they grounded all the T-38s tomorrow, it still wouldn't get the T-7 here any sooner." https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/11/21/t-38-training-jets-landing-gear-fails-mississippi-marking-second-incident-month.html Air India Plans To Hire Foreign Pilots For Boeing 777s With several planes joining its fleet in the coming weeks and months, Air India is anticipating a shortage of pilots. Air India is going full steam ahead with its US expansion plans and looking to hire several widebody pilots to operate the ultra-long-haul flights. Reports of the carrier looking for pilots offshore come as it gets ready to welcome additional Boeing 777s to double down on US flights. Boeing 777 pilots needed for US operations Air India is facing a shortage of qualified pilots for Boeing 777 aircraft as it looks to ramp up services to the US. The airline is set to receive five Boeing 777-200LRs previously flown by Delta Air Lines and needs around 100 pilots with adequate skills and experience to fly these widebodies. A report by Mint quotes a person familiar with the matter as saying, “Air India was already facing a shortage of pilots and the recent announcement of the induction of 5 Boeing 777 planes in the next four months and new flights to the US have added to this shortage.” While the carrier is expected to place a consolidated firm order for airplanes in the near future, some sources reveal that it could add six to ten more widebodies on short-term leases. If that happens, its immediate requirements for pilots will increase significantly. Hiring at higher costs Hiring expatriate pilots is not new in India. In the past, airlines took this route when there weren’t enough experienced pilots in the country to fly its growing fleet. Air India itself has hired foreign pilots previously, but this is always more expensive than onboarding local talents. A source told Mint, “Air India has sought 100 pilots from the market. Though they say they will prefer Indian pilots, they are also open to hiring expat pilots. While these pilots come at 40% higher cost compared to the cost incurred on hiring an Indian pilot, it is also a fact that experienced wide-body pilots are not easily available in the domestic market.” The airline is engaging a placement firm to help find the cockpit crew for its fleet, and it is reported that the monthly salary offered will be $11,500 (net of taxes). Benefits will also include a payment of $133.30 per hour for flying more than 70 hours. However, this has not gone down too well with some Indian pilots who say that India has enough qualified pilots to fly Air India’s 777. According to The Economic Times, one senior pilot lamented that Air India is willing to hire foreign crew at much higher prices even as Indian pilots are paid below global standards. Previous contract extension Air India has been preparing for a shortage of pilots for months now. In August, it was reported that the carrier will offer contractual employment to some of its best pilots post-retirement. Like all AI employees, its pilots also retire at the age of 58. However, anticipating the need for a qualified workforce to fly its incoming fleet of new airplanes, Air India offered an extension to pilots with good safety records. Under the agreement, Air India pilots can fly up to the age of 65. https://simpleflying.com/air-india-plans-to-hire-foreign-pilots/ Safety agency: Wing broke before plane crash in Washington SNOHOMISH, Wash. (AP) — A wing from a Cessna 208B broke away before the plane crashed Friday into a field northeast of Seattle, killing the four people on board, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday. The NTSB said the wreckage has been recovered and taken to a facility for reconstruction, The Seattle Times reported. A preliminary crash report is expected in two to three weeks and a full investigation could take up to two years, officials said. The small plane departed from Renton Municipal Airport around 9:30 a.m. and at about 10:20 a.m. crashed and then burned in a field east of Harvey Airfield in Snohomish County, the NTSB said. The names of the people on board haven’t been released. Raisbeck Engineering of Seattle in an emailed statement over the weekend identified them as two “highly experienced” test pilots, a flight-test director and an instrumentation engineer. The crew was flying the plane in preparation for modifying the aircraft, Raisbeck President Hal Chrisman said in the statement. NTSB investigators are collecting plane maintenance records and information about the pilots’ licenses, ratings and history, officials said. The Snohomish County medical examiner has not yet identified the victims. Chrisman declined to further comment to the newspaper on the people involved in the crash. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/safety-agency-wing-broke-before-plane-crash-in-washington/ar-AA14nUaW?li=BBnbfcL China Tests Hypersonic Engine That Can Push Aircraft To 9 Times The Speed Of Sound It uses aviation kerosene, which is far less explode-y than hydrogen. With most jets only touching Mach 2, Mach 9 would be astonishing. Chinese researchers claim to have successfully tested a hypersonic detonation engine that can push aircraft up to Mach 9, a blistering nine times the speed of sound. What’s more, the engine uses aviation kerosene as fuel, which carries neither the cost nor risk of explosion that hydrogen solutions do. Published in a peer-reviewed paper, the research states this is the first time a kerosene-based detonation engine has been publicly tested. A detonation engine uses a chain of shockwaves to propel the aircraft forward by injecting fuel into a ring-shaped channel, before igniting it to form a controlled explosion. The shockwave then ignites the next round of fuel injected into the channel, creating a cascade of detonations that self-sustain themselves while the combustion products are ejected out of the rear. These engines release more energy than hypersonic alternatives, namely the scramjet that the US are investing in, and are markedly more efficient at high speeds. For carrying cargo or significant journeys, this could mean astonishing cost savings. The tests used the JF-12 hypersonic shock tunnel, the largest shock tunnel in the world, that replicates hypersonic flight conditions. With a diameter of up to 3.5 meters (11.4 feet), the tunnel can simulate conditions from Mach 5-9, allowing the testing of hypersonic aircraft profiles and engines. Detonation engines are not a new concept, but the dream of using aviation kerosene has posed challenges for scientists, as it burns more slowly than hydrogen. Using kerosene would require a huge chamber that is ten times longer than current hydrogen engines, and you can’t simply make things bigger when it will be travelling at close to Mach 9. To get around this, Liu Yunfeng and colleagues from the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, came up with an ingenious but simple solution – a tiny bump (which they call a “bulge”) in the air inlet allows kerosene to detonate more readily. As air spins round the chamber at huge speeds, it collides with the bump to create a small shockwave that helps ignite the fuel. They tested their creation using RP-3 fuel and it was successful in creating powerful and sustained thrust. Hypersonic flight is rapidly becoming a smaller form of the space race, with nations around the world searching for hypersonic technologies that can power missiles, passenger planes, and more. Aircraft travelling at that speed are almost unstoppable with current technology, so the appeal to create viable engines is rapidly coming to the forefront of research and development. The research was published in the Journal of Experiments in Fluid Mechanics. https://www.iflscience.com/china-tests-hypersonic-engine-that-can-push-aircraft-to-9-times-the-speed-of-sound-66297 Aircraft Lessors Sue Insurers for $6.5 Billion Over Planes Trapped in Russia Aircraft leasing firms are suing dozens of insurers for around $6.5 billion in a string of lawsuits over the loss of hundreds of aircraft stuck in Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. More than 400 leased planes worth around $10 billion are unable to leave Russia after European Union sanctions forced the termination of their leases. Lessors argue the aircraft are covered by policies against war or theft, but insurers point out the planes are undamaged and might yet be returned. Aircraft Lessors Begin ‘Vigorous’ Pursuit of Insurance Claims for Seized Jets in Russia Here is a list of claims filed against insurers in London, Dublin and the United States, with the most recent filing listed first. CDB AVIATION VS 18 INSURERS Irish-based lessor CDB Aviation, owned by the China Development Bank, filed a claim in the Irish High Court against 18 insurers on Nov. 15 over jets stuck in Russia. CDB Aviation recognized an 747 million yuan ($104 million) asset write-down in August but said this was not the full value of the jets. BOC AVIATION VS 16 INSURERS BOC Aviation has begun legal action against 16 insurers, according to an Irish High Court filing on Nov 3. Singapore-based BOC recognized an $804 million asset write-down in August relating to the 17 aircraft it owns that remain in Russia, saying it was unlikely to be able to recover the jets “in the foreseeable future, if ever.” AVOLON VS 15 INSURERS Avolon is taking legal action against 15 insurers in the Irish High court, a filing showed on Nov. 3, after the aircraft lessor recorded a first-quarter impairment of $304 million to cover the financial impact of having 10 jets stuck in Russia. AIRCASTLE VS 30 INSURERS Aircastle filed a claim against more than 30 insurers with the Supreme Court of the State of New York in late October over nine aircraft and other equipment stranded in Russia. Aircastle said earlier this year it had booked $252 million in impairment losses for the jets. CARLYLE VS 30 INSURERS Carlyle Aviation Partners filed a $700 million claim in Miami-Dade County, Florida, against more than 30 insurers that failed to pay out over 23 aircraft stuck in Russia, it said in late October. DUBAI AEROSPACE VS 11 INSURERS Dubai Aerospace Enterprise filed a London lawsuit against 11 insurers, including Lloyd’s of London SOLYD.UL, AIG AIG.N, Chubb CB.BN and Swiss Re SRENH.S in October, two months after it wrote off almost $600 million for 19 aircraft stuck in Russia. AVIATOR CAPITAL VS 15 INSURERS Aviator Capital brought a $147 million claim against Chubb, Hive Underwriters, HDI Global and a dozen Lloyd’s of London syndicates in a Florida court in August for failing to pay out on claims for four commercial aircraft and three engines leased to Russian airlines. AERCAP VS AIG, LLOYD’S OF LONDON Aercap filed a $3.5 billion London lawsuit against AIG and Lloyd’s in June over 141 aircraft and 29 aircraft engines owned by Aercap and on lease to Russian airlines. ($1 = 7.1653 Chinese yuan renminbi) https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2022/11/22/696197.htm We Need To Change The System That Keeps Pilots From Seeking Mental Health Care As travel ramps up again, our data show that many pilots refuse to seek health care out of fear they will be pulled from flying By 29 years old, Chris Daniel felt he had it all: a wife, two beautiful children and fulfillment of his lifelong dream of becoming a U.S. airline captain. But in the spring of 2022, after years of flying, Chris knew something was not right. Shadows from his past were reemerging, strained by post-COVID travel demand and long, taxing weeks on the road. Years earlier, Chris’s physician had suggested that his low mood and trouble sleeping might be symptoms of mild depression. But like many pilots, he balked at the idea. If a doctor diagnosed depression or if he sought help, Chris assumed he would never be able to fly again. Seeking help seemed unthinkable because losing flying was akin to losing everything; being a pilot was who he was. Chris’s story is not unusual. While mental health symptoms are common in airline pilots, getting help can affect their ability to work in a big way. Airline pilots are required to meet certain medical standards in order to maintain an active flying status, and disclosing a new symptom or condition to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) puts them at risk of losing, usually temporarily, their ability to work and fly. This is particularly true for mental health symptoms. The FAA bars pilots from the cockpit if they report seeking regular talk therapy for even mild anxiety or depression; this may last for months and sometimes even years based on the assumption they pose an unacceptable risk to safety. In fact, pilots find themselves among only a handful of professions that require disclosure of any encounter with the health care system, including mental health visits. While it makes sense to ground a pilot in distress, the current system often fails to recognize the dynamic and often situational nature of mental health symptoms and often drives pilots from seeking care. Time off the job can have negative repercussions such as loss of pay and need for recurrent training, and the expenses of additional medical evaluations required by the FAA often fall onto the pilot. All of these together result in a population of pilots working the fleet who are suffering in silence and fearful to get the help they need. We must rethink the system that drives pilots from attending to their mental health and change what seeking mental health care services means in aviation. Data my group and others have gathered are beginning to reveal the scope of this problem. Our findings demand attention. In our recent study of more than 3,500 US pilots, 56 percent reported behavior that we classify as avoiding health care (for example, getting health care outside the traditional system to avoid its documentation) specifically because they feared the loss of their clearance to fly. Interestingly, 26 percent of pilots reported that they had withheld information during their FAA health checkups for the same reason: the fear of losing their medical clearance. This is sometimes called “losing their wings.” In a sister study, more than half of pilots in our sample had something they felt needed to get checked out—maybe it was mental health related, perhaps a knee injury, or even just a rash—but waited or decided against it because they worried about their career. While our studies focused on overall health care, we suspect this finding also applies to mental health. Many pilots have reasonably good access to health care. This includes health insurance, paid time off and sometimes other union protections. Instead, these data suggest a barrier exists because pilots are asked to weigh the benefits of seeking help against the professional costs that they alone bear. How bad does mild anxiety need to become to warrant a prolonged absence from work? For most pilots, very bad. The growing demand for pilots in our travel-hungry, COVID-endemic world is likely to make this problem more complicated. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects 18,100 new pilot jobs each year for the next decade, precipitated by the continued growth of air travel. As compensation has soared in 2022, more is being asked of pilots, including longer and more frequent trips to keep pace with passenger demand. This is in the context of other airline professions—such as maintenance and administrative staff—facing major personnel shortages, placing further strain on a system already operating at its limits. Higher demand on pilots can lead to additional time away from family and friends, leading to an even greater need for mental health care services. Simply put, pilots’ need for mental health care is likely to only grow in the coming years. While on the surface it might seem that increasing the pool of pilots would ease the situation, more pilots won’t fix the existing challenges in the system. Flight training programs are expanding, and some airlines are taking the unprecedented step of establishing their own training programs. But, while class sizes are growing, they are being filled by a younger and more diverse generation of student pilots who may not be as willing as their predecessors to quietly suffer. In fact, emerging data suggest the willingness of current pilots (who are still largely in the 40-to-60 age range) to avoid health care for job security may not be as true for the next generation. “Younger pilots are different from past generations and are more willing to identify as needing help when it comes to their mental health,” John Dulski, 21, an aviation student at the University of North Dakota and advocate for aviation mental health reform, told me during a recent phone call. “Many are more willing to choose to get care at the risk of stepping away from flying.” The answers to why such a phenomenon is occurring remains an open question that our research group is trying to understand. Could it be related to social media lowering the stigma of mental health or the influences of growing up through the pandemic? We hope future research will reveal the answer. A new generation of Gen Z airline pilots more open to stepping away from flying to seek mental health care services may only further strain the shortage of pilots. But more importantly, it should call for industry to rethink what it means for an airline pilot to be mentally fit and what services they should be able to receive while still working the fleet. We can all agree that safety in aviation should be the foundation for meaningful change. Certainly, a pilot with a severe mental health condition shouldn’t be flying. But the opportunity lies for pilots with mild symptoms. These are high-performing professionals who are perhaps facing one of life’s usual stressors—a divorce, a family death or even just the chronic stress of the job. How might we rethink a system that enables this group to seek mental health care services in hopes of sidestepping a diagnosis that could go on to fully pull them from flying? One answer is clear. The FAA should change policy to permit pilots with mild symptoms to seek professional regular, and if needed prolonged, talk therapy without loss of their medical certification. Such a change would have major benefits for people on both sides of the flight deck door, including treatment to prevent symptom worsening, and regular pilot assessment by a professional mental health provider. Recognizing that mental health is on a dynamic spectrum and that many pilots could benefit from talking to a professional mental health provider at some point in their career has the potential to keep pilots flying healthy while also increasing safety in the system. Pilot unions and airlines should fuel this movement by raising awareness about the problem their pilots face and by lobbying for an alliance of stakeholder to determine how best to safely enact this change. While credit is due to the FAA for recently making several positive policy changes related to mental health, there is still work to do and time is of the essence. Chris Daniel never did get help for his mental health symptoms, and despite an excellent flying record, he died of suicide in June 2022. While we believe suicide is relatively rare among pilots, this extreme outcome is in part why we must create positive change. With the use of appropriate supervision and reevaluation, aviation’s safety culture should shift to thinking of mental health care services as a marker for wellness and prevention instead of risk and disease. This change would not only benefit pilots, but also the 2 million U.S. passengers who trust the aviation system every day. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-need-to-change-the-system-that-keeps-pilots-from-seeking-mental-health-care/ ESASI – ‘FocusOn...ICAO’ - 7 December 2022 ESASI FocusOn...ICAO will take place on 7 December 2022, which is the 78th anniversary of the signing of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. The aim of this free session is to increase the understanding of aviation safety investigators on the breadth of ICAO’s activities relative to accident investigation. Speakers and Content The principal speakers are: Padhraic Keller, President of the Air Navigation Commission; Thor Thormodsson, Air Accident Investigator, ICAO Air Navigation Bureau; Arnaud Desjardin, Safety Officer ICAO EUR/NAT Regional Office Paris; Olivier Ferrante, Chair ICAO Accident Investigation Group Panel; and Simon Lie, Annex 13 Research Group. The session will be chaired by Dr David King, Visiting Professor at Cranfield University, Ex Chief Inspector of UK AAIB. FocusOn...ICAO will cover the ICAO organisation from the 1944 Chicago Convention, through its structure, guidance material, circulars, State Letters and Annexes. It will look at its implementation and explore the Annexes particularly relevant to the air accident investigation community, which includes Annex 13. The session will conclude with an open discussion on the topics covered. Format FocusOn...ICAO will be hosted on Zoom and start at 1400 UTC on Wednesday 7 December 2022. The formal session will be kept to a maximum of two hours and the virtual meeting room will be opened from 1300 UTC to allow you to meet and enjoy a coffee (also free!). We also intend to keep the virtual room open for a further 30 minutes at the end of the session to allow members, who so wish, the opportunity to continue informal discussions. Invitation If you are interested in joining FocusOn…ICAO, then please send an email to registrations@esasi.eu to obtain a link to the meeting and details of Zoom meeting good practices. GRADUATE RESEARCH STUDY Good day, I am a B777 Captain flying for one of the worlds major airlines studying for a degree in Aviation Management through a University based in the United Kingdom. I am studying levels of burnout and fatigue within the industry, please can I get a few minutes of your time to fill out this survey to find out how you are being or have been affected by this. Thank you. Captain William Oliver https://forms.gle/XBMyeniKaqQwwfQr9 Curt Lewis