Flight Safety Information - December 20, 2022 No. 244 In This Issue : Incident: United A320 at Mexico City on Dec 17th 2022, engine problem : Incident: American A321 at Aruba on Dec 17th 2022, door indication : Boeing 767-322ER (WL) - Engine Surge (Hong Kong) : How To Address The Challenges Pilots Face – Airmanship : Congress clears FAA to certify Boeing 737 MAX 7, MAX 10 unchanged : B-2 nuclear bomber fleet grounded amid search for safety defects : Five injured after 'severe turbulence' on United Airlines flight into Houston : An airport security makeover is long overdue : NTSB Releases Details of Caravan Crash That Killed 4 : Turkish Airlines to employ thousands more pilots, cabin crew in 2023 : 2nd Australian-Based Pilot Investigated for Helping Train Chinese Fighter Pilots : Students can earn college credits, get pilot's license after Sunlake High expands aeronautics magnet program (Florida) : Is China’s W-15 engine to power J-20 stealth fighter jet nearing completion? : FAA clears Rocket Lab for first launch from U.S. spaceport Incident: United A320 at Mexico City on Dec 17th 2022, engine problem A United Airbus A320-200, registration N495UA performing flight UA-718 from Mexico City (Mexico) to San Francisco,CA (USA), was climbing out of Mexico City when the crew determined there was an imbalance of fuel pressure between the engines (V2527), stopped the climb at FL290 and returned to Mexico City for a safe landing on runway 05R about 45 minutes after departure. A replacement A320-200 registration N476UA reached San Francisco with a delay of about 6:15 hours. The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground for about 18 hours before returning to service. https://avherald.com/h?article=5028816f&opt=0 Incident: American A321 at Aruba on Dec 17th 2022, door indication An American Airlines Airbus A321-200, registration N167AN performing flight AA-534 from Aruba (Aruba) to Philadelphia,PA (USA), was climbing out of Aruba when the crew stopped the climb at FL180, declared emergency reporting they had a door issue and needed to return to Aruba. The aircraft landed safely back on runway 11 about 35 minutes after departure. A replacement A321-200 registration N904AA reached Philadelphia with a delay of 7 hours. The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground for about 17 hours, then positioned to Miami,FL (USA). https://avherald.com/h?article=50288d42&opt=0 Boeing 767-322ER (WL) - Engine Surge (Hong Kong) Date: 20-DEC-2022 Time: 10:50 Type: Boeing 767-322ER (WL) Owner/operator: United Airlines Registration: N648UA C/n / msn: 25285/443 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Unknown Location: Hong Kong-Chek Lap Kok International Airport (HKG/VHHH) - Phase: Initial climb Nature: Passenger - Scheduled Departure airport: Hong Kong-Chek Lap Kok International Airport (HKG/VHHH) Destination airport: Guam-A.B. Won Pat International Airport (GUM/PGUM) Confidence Rating: Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources Narrative: United Airlines flight UA2831, a Boeing 767-322ER, suffered a no.2 engine surge during departure from Hong Kong-Chek Lap Kok International Airport (HKG/VHHH). http://www.aviation-safety.net/wikibase/302835 How To Address The Challenges Pilots Face – Airmanship Looking at the list of accidents in part two, what we saw was a consistent pattern of poor airmanship. But what is airmanship? It’s a word I’ve used several times and a bit of a nebulous term to outsiders of the profession. But one definition that I like is this: “Airmanship is the consistent use of good judgment and well-developed skills to accomplish flight objectives.” There are two key components to this definition, good judgment and well-developed skills and each requires work to develop. Let’s start with those well-developed skills. This starts with the fundamental ability to control the airplane and make it do what you want it to do. It includes an understanding of aerodynamics and aircraft systems and how they work. Getting pilots to the point where their ability to fly can be considered well-developed does not happen overnight. And for airlines facing a shortage of pilots, it is going to be expensive to develop these skills. Here is what I think needs to change. 1. A greatly increased emphasis on the ability to fly the airplane without all the automation. For airlines, every training cycle should include significant time flying the aircraft in both normal and abnormal (like an engine out for example) configurations without any automation. 2. Extensive training in recovering from unusual altitudes along the lines of what’s already being done in the US. This has to be done in simulators that can fully and faithfully replicate actual aircraft performance in these flight regimes. 3. The end of scripted and constantly repeated training programs. Yes, there are maneuvers like V1 cuts that need to be trained every cycle but the practice at many airlines of running their pilots through the exact same syllabus the exact same way year after year cannot be allowed to continue. A good training syllabus needs to include the “startle factor” that presents pilots with the unexpected and trains them to deal with it. The point is to develop a “been there done that” response when things go wrong out on the line. Training should be tough and initial training programs at airlines should not be designed to help weak pilots get through but rather to identify and correct, if possible, those weaknesses before they show up at the worst possible moments. If those weaknesses can’t be corrected it is even more critical that this be identified before a pilot makes it out on the line. 4. There needs to be much more extensive training on the autopilot and autothrust systems; how they work, their possible failure modes, and how to address them. With proper training and the application of that training the Ethiopian 737 MAX crash for example should never have happened. Teaching Good Judgment What about good judgment? How do we teach that? First and foremost, we as professional pilots have to recognize that we are just that, professionals. This means a dedication to our craft that goes beyond simply showing up to work day after day. It means studying accident reports to learn from the mistakes of others. It means thinking through the various things that can and have gone wrong and trying to figure out in advance how we might bring those events to a successful conclusion. It means we must take responsibility for ensuring that no matter what we have the best possible chance of bringing our aircraft and passengers safely home. We need to regularly shut off the automation and ensure our hand flying skills have not atrophied. We must study the aircraft we fly so that when things fail we understand how it is going to impact the flight. For the airlines, it means they need to spend time teaching people good decision-making. That means taking time during the training cycle to review accidents and incidents and talk through how they were handled. The goal here again is to create a been-there-done-that effect when things do go wrong. Because if the problem you’re facing is one you’ve thought about and talked about with your fellow professionals the odds are much greater that you are going to have a successful outcome. Airlines that are hiring pilots with low levels of experience (like those MPL candidates) need to develop mentorship programs. This means selecting and training a cadre of pilots who will fly with these low-time pilots through the first one to two years of their careers. These mentor Captains are going to be key in laying a foundation of good airmanship. It means turning the early years of these pilots’ careers into an extended training event that sets them up for success in the years ahead. As I talked about in part two, it is clear that the majority of accidents occurring these days are the result of poor airmanship. Preventing those accidents is going to require a focus on developing that essential quality and nurturing it throughout a pilot’s career. It’s going to require more than just the minimum of training and more rigorous checking. It’s going to mean for many non-US carriers a significant increase in what they spend to train their pilots. But the record has shown us over and over again that the failure to make this investment ends in broken airplanes and shattered lives. Lastly, regulators, constructors, and airlines need to get much better at learning from accidents and incidents and making changes as a result of lessons learned. The changes the FAA mandated in training as a result of Air France 447 are a perfect example of how it should be done. But the utterly unconscionable failure to make any changes to the Airbus 320 series Dual Engine Failure checklist after US Airways 1549 is an equally perfect example of how not to do things. Far too often fatal accidents have incidents that should have sounded the alarm and led to change but did not CONCLUSION It must be remembered that commercial flying despite the faults I’ve highlighted is still the safest form of transportation known to man. But that exceptional safety record does not mean that we can’t do better. We can and we must do better. The customers who set foot on our airplanes have a right to expect that we will. They have a right to expect a cockpit occupied by true professionals who no matter what will display the highest levels of airmanship. We owe it to them, we owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to our families to work to develop those skills to the utmost of our abilities. https://liveandletsfly.com/airmanship/ Congress clears FAA to certify Boeing 737 MAX 7, MAX 10 unchanged Congressional leaders reached agreement early Tuesday morning on an end-of-year government spending bill that includes an amendment to give Boeing the clearance it needs to get its 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 jets certified without further changes. The amendment ensures a deadline included in legislation passed in 2020 does not apply to the MAX 7 and MAX 10 models that have yet to enter service. Absent that waiver, with the deadline passed, the Federal Aviation Administration could not certify those two planes to fly passengers without an extensive design upgrade to the systems that alert the crew when something goes wrong in flight. While the crew alerting system upgrade won’t be required, the language in the new bill includes a condition proposed earlier this month by U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell that will require all airlines to retrofit two specific safety enhancements. Boeing developed those enhancements for the MAX 10. The bill requires them to be retrofitted to the MAX 7 and to the two earlier models already certified and in service, the MAX 8 and MAX 9 jets. The amendment gives Boeing three years after the MAX 10 is certified to retrofit those safety enhancements to all models of the MAX, after which none can be operated without them. The bill further requires Boeing to bear the cost of the retrofits. The legislative step provides relief to Boeing, which had lobbied hard for an amendment to avoid considerable additional costs and delay in getting the MAX 7 and MAX 10 into service. In July, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun had even hinted that without the waiver it might cancel the MAX 7 and 10 models. In a statement, Cantwell welcomed the inclusion of the condition she proposed rather than just granting Boeing a straight extension, as several Republicans have proposed since September. The legislation advanced Tuesday “is much stronger than the no-strings-attached approach that was first offered,” Cantwell said. “Passengers need to know that the entire MAX fleet will be uniform and safer.” Still, the condition Congress attached to the reprieve for Boeing merely mandates for U.S. airlines what Canadian and European aviation regulators have already said they will require of airlines in their jurisdictions. So Boeing would have had to offer the two safety enhancements as retrofits in any case. Intensive lobbying Both major Boeing unions wrote to Congress last week to support the jet maker’s appeal for relief to protect employment at the MAX final assembly plant in Renton and at suppliers across the nation. The head of the International Association of Machinists, Robert Martinez, wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., warning of job losses without a reprieve for Boeing and “devastating impacts on thousands of workers and their communities throughout the U.S.” Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers — the parent union of Boeing’s Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace — wrote to Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., advocating for the condition proposed by Cantwell. “We ask for your support for a remedy that advances aviation safety while also allowing the MAX-10 and MAX-7 variants an opportunity to complete the certification process,” Biggs wrote. The families of the victims of the two MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 have opposed the safety waiver. In an interview, Michael Stumo, whose daughter Samya Rose Stumo died on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, called Congress’ action “a total swamp move.” He said Congress is “reducing safety with pure political power and enabling Boeing’s profits over safety, without hearings, without data, without scrutiny.” In March, two technical experts critical of Boeing sent a proposal to the Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Cantwell, for a crew alerting system upgrade they deemed acceptably safe at a likely cost of at least $1 billion to the jet maker. That proposal failed to gain support. U.S. pilots unions have been divided on the issue. The union representing the 15,000 pilots at American Airlines, the Allied Pilots Association, opposes clearing the MAX 7 and 10 and wanted the crew-alerting system upgraded to make it safer. But the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, representing the 10,000 pilots at Southwest — the largest MAX customer, with 234 of the MAX 7 variant on order — explicitly asked Congress to grant Boeing the relief. And the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents more than 66,000 pilots in North America, also lined up with Boeing, issuing a statement that “we are confident in the safety” of the MAX. Known as the omnibus appropriations bill that funds government spending for the next year, the legislation is an all-or-nothing package of about $1.7 trillion that Congress must vote up or down in total without changes. A must-pass bill like this typically emerges into public view only after last-minute backroom negotiations over dozens of unrelated amendments. It doesn’t go to a vote without agreement among the top four congressional leaders — Pelosi, Schumer, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. We need your support In-depth journalism takes time and effort to produce, and it depends on paying subscribers. If you value these kinds of stories, consider subscribing. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chair of the House Transportation Committee that led the key congressional investigation into the MAX crashes, continues to oppose any waiver for Boeing on the crew-alerting system and a spokesperson for his committee said the language in the bill was included over his objection. However, Pelosi is unlikely to have advanced the bill without hearing from the chairs of all the key committees, including DeFazio, that they would at least not try to block the legislation. Boeing declined to comment. Two safety upgrade retrofits for all MAXs Boeing needed the reprieve because the Aircraft Certification, Safety and Accountability Act — passed in 2020 after the two MAX crashes that killed 346 people — requires all planes certified after the end of this year to have crew-alerting systems designed to the latest safety regulations. The MAX, a variant of the 1960s-era 737 design, doesn’t meet that standard. As Boeing introduced multiple new variants of the 737 over the decades, the FAA repeatedly waived the need to meet current standards on cockpit systems, instead grandfathering in the 737 design on the grounds that the airplane has proved largely safe in service. Certification of the MAX 7 is likely in the first quarter of next year, past the deadline. Boeing says the MAX 10 won’t be certified until late 2023 at the earliest. Without the deadline waiver in the omnibus bill, Boeing would have been forced to fully upgrade the crew alerting systems. As it is, though the jet won’t meet the latest crew alerting standard, the MAX 10 flight systems will have two significant enhancements. As a result of what happened on the two MAX crash flights, in addition to fixing the flight control system that was the primary cause of the crashes, Boeing developed these further system improvements and is flight testing them on the MAX 10. The first enhancement feeds to the jet’s flight computer a third measure of the jet’s angle of attack, the angle between the wing and the oncoming air stream, a key data point used in various control systems. The MAX has two physical angle-of-attack sensors. This would be a virtual cross-check of that measure calculated by the flight computer from a variety of other sensors and inputs. In the MAX crashes, the flawed flight control system depended on a single angle-of-attack sensor reading that proved false. The second enhancement is a switch that enables the pilot to silence an erroneous “stick shaker” — a stall warning that vigorously vibrates the control column. During the MAX crashes, a false stick-shaker alarm distracted the pilots throughout the flight. The omnibus bill amendment ensures those improvements will be on all MAXs flying in the U.S. within three years of the MAX 10’s certification. Both European and Canadian authorities had previously made clear they will also mandate that these two safety enhancements must be retrofitted to all MAXs in service. “It is Transport Canada’s expectation that these post return-to-service design improvements will be retrofitted to all Boeing 737-8 aeroplanes operating in Canada,” that agency confirmed via email last week. Likewise, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said this month that it has an agreement with Boeing that the safety upgrades on the MAX 10 will be retrofitted on the in-service fleet of MAX 8s and MAX 9s flying in Europe. Matching those mandates in the U.S. won’t add to Boeing’s design work. However, the three-year deadline to implement the retrofits will demand a fast pace of work on the aircraft fleet. Congress will vote on the omnibus bill this week, before the Christmas recess. Since voting it down would bring a government shutdown, the bill is all but certain to pass into law. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/congress-year-end-bill-clears-faa-to-certify-boeing-737-max-7-10-unchanged/ B-2 nuclear bomber fleet grounded amid search for safety defects All 20 of the Air Force’s B-2 Spirit bombers are grounded as the service hunts for potential safety defects, a spokesperson confirmed Monday. The stealth aircraft will be down until further notice. The Air Force paused the fleet’s operations after a bomber was damaged Dec. 10 at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. An undisclosed in-flight malfunction forced the crew to make an emergency landing on Whiteman’s runway, where firefighters extinguished flames at the scene, according to the 509th Bomb Wing. No one was injured. An investigation into what caused the accident is underway. The Air Force declined to provide further details about the incident or what, specifically, the safety inspections are looking to find. “Every incident is unique, and we are currently evaluating what went wrong and how we can mitigate future risk,” 509th Bomb Wing spokesperson Master Sgt. Beth Del Vecchio said. “We will resume normal operations once a safety investigation has been concluded.” The two-pilot B-2 ― the U.S. military’s most capable nuclear bomber at $1.2 billion per airframe ― has been in service since the 1990s. But the stand-down is a blow to a fleet that already struggles to stay ready for action: Air and Space Forces Magazine recently reported B-2 airframes are available for missions about half of the time they are needed. The mishap marks the second such incident in as many years, after another Spirit bomber’s landing gear failed and caused the plane to skid off of Whiteman’s runway. It came to rest with its left wing on the ground in September 2021, costing the Air Force nearly $10 million. The Air Force declined to answer whether that aircraft has returned to regular operations. B-2 accidents are rare: Before 2021, the most recent recorded incident was in fiscal 2015, according to the Air Force Safety Center, preceded by a fire that heavily damaged one bomber in 2010. One B-2 was destroyed in a crash upon takeoff in Guam in 2008. Whiteman has served as the B-2′s only home base since the 1990s. The service plans to retire the fleet in the next 10 years to make way for the more-advanced B-21 Raider now in production. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2022/12/19/b-2-nuclear-bomber-fleet-grounded-amid-search-for-safety-defects/ Five injured after 'severe turbulence' on United Airlines flight into Houston (CNN) — Turbulence on a United Airlines flight traveling into Houston Monday morning sent at least five people to the hospital, airport authorities said in an email to CNN. United Airlines flight 128 landed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport around 5:30 a.m. local time after traveling from Río de Janeiro, public information officer Augusto Bernal told CNN. "The flight experienced severe turbulence that resulted in five passengers being transported to the hospital once it landed in Houston," Bernal said. The airline said in a statement that the turbulence was unexpected. "United flight 128 encountered unexpected turbulence while en route to Houston. Upon arrival, two passengers and three crew members were met by medical personnel and taken to a local hospital with minor injuries," the statement said. "We're grateful to our crew for their efforts to ensure the safety of our employees and customers." The United flight comes a day after severe turbulence on a Hawaiian Airlines flight led to dozens of injuries. On Sunday, at least 36 people on Hawaiian Airlines Flight 35 were injured, according to Honolulu Emergency Medical Services, sending 20 people to emergency rooms. The plane encountered the rough air 30 minutes before landing in Honolulu. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/united-airlines-turbulence-injuries/index.html An airport security makeover is long overdue The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) anticipates that about 6,600 firearms will be detected at airport security checkpoints in 2022, an all-time single year record. This represents around 18 weapons per day out of on average 2 million people screened. The TSA response is to increase maximum penalties for such violations. The problem is that the preponderance of, if not all such violations are unintentional with no malicious intent. This means that deterrence will have little if any impact. An incident in November — in which a passenger had a box cutter on Fronter Airlines flight causing an abrupt landing — further highlights how screening can and does fail, which means that some weapons, including firearms are making it past security. What many travelers ask during this busy travel period is whether the current TSA airport security model is necessary, and does it really make air travel safer? The launch of TSA PreCheck in November 2011 began a new era in airport security, providing passengers the opportunity to gain access to expedited screening lanes in exchange for submitting to a background check and paying an enrollment fee. The program is enormously popular, with passengers permitted to keep their electronic devices in their carry-on bags, keep their shoes on and be screened through a walkthrough metal detector rather than a full body scanner. Financial companies saw this as a marketing opportunity, offering to cover the program fee as a benefit with their credit cards. The foundation of PreCheck is risk-based security, which aligns security risk with security resources. The background check that PreCheck qualified passengers undergo give them access to expedited screening lanes, effectively reducing the level of physical screening required at airports to buy down their risk. Physical screening requires technology, so with less physical screening, fewer technologies are needed. The TSA has been fascinated with advanced technology since its inception. ¬ but showed just a bit too much to infringe on personal privacy. The most recent technology added to the TSA screening arsenal has been computed tomography (CT) carry-on baggage screening devices. Their problem so far has been the speed at which they process items. The TSA continues to be enamored, to the point of obsession, with detection. Detection of prohibited items is just one layer of airport security. With so many layers in place, over-investment in and excessive attention on any one layer is imprudent, wasteful and potentially dangerous. One layer that does makes sense and supports risk-based security is Credential Authentication Technology. This technology confirms passenger identity, which is paramount to reducing risk. The delay in requiring REAL IDs for air travel weakens this important layer of security. What airport security does not need are more advanced technologies for detecting threat items. What it needs is a makeover. The foundation of this makeover should be investments that have been proven to work and are cost-effective. This demands expanding risk-based security strategies into other airport security operations, effectively tempering the need for more advanced technologies. How can this be done? First, offer TSA PreCheck at no cost to anyone who wishes to subject themselves to the requisite background check, rather than the current price of $78 for 5 years. This could increase the percentage of PreCheck screenings each day at airports from 50 percent to as much as 80 percent. The net effect of this would be the need for fewer screening devices deployed at airports and a commensurate reduction in the number of TSA officers. These cost savings would offset the cost of enrolling more passengers in PreCheck. Second, offer an enhanced level of PreCheck commensurate with how flight crew like pilots and first officers pass through security checkpoints. This would also require a more rigorous background check, effectively making them security equivalent to known crewmembers. These passengers would then be screened like flight crews, which means that at some airports, they would not be screened at all, with only their identity verified. Of this were offered, this passenger group could require a fee to be paid, which could be renewed annually rather than every five years as for the current PreCheck program. The net effect of such changes would be a makeover of airport security operations. There would be more TSA PreCheck expedited screening lanes, and fewer unknown risk passengers, which TSA officers can focus their attention on. There would be a reduced need for the volume of technologies currently deployed and fewer TSA officers needed to operate them. This means that the TSA budget could be reduced without compromising security, a benefit to taxpayers. The majority of passengers would be screened through expedited screening lanes, meaning less time spent at checkpoints, which all would welcome. The enhanced precheck passengers, likely to be high-frequency business travelers, will welcome the opportunity to pay for this privilege. The benefits of such a makeover are abundant. What are the risks? Someone with malicious intent may attempt to become PreCheck or enhanced PreCheck qualified. That risk already exists. However, there is a deterrence value in subjecting oneself to a background check that could expose a person’s background or intent. Setting the background check bar sufficiently high will increase the deterrence benefit and retain the risk reduction benefits they offer. After more than two decades of screening-as-usual at airports, it is time for a TSA makeover. Ironically, all the pieces are in place to begin such a transformation. What is needed is the willingness to begin the change, and the will to see it through. https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3780840-an-airport-security-makeover-is-long-overdue/ NTSB Releases Details of Caravan Crash That Killed 4 Inflight break up confirmed in turboprop that was intended for Raisbeck flight testing. A 2021 Cessna 208B EX Caravan was downed in Snohomish, Washington, after it experienced an inflight breakup during test flight maneuvers last month, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The NTSB confirmed the details of the November 18 accident that killed four people in a preliminary investigation report that it released Sunday. The aircraft, identified as Cessna 208B EX Caravan, N2069B, was on lease to Raisbeck Engineering, a Seattle-based company that specializes in aircraft modification systems for business and commercial aircraft to improve aircraft performance and efficiency. According to the NTSB, Raisbeck Engineering holds the supplemental type certificate (STC) for an aerodynamic drag reduction system (DRS) on the Cessna 208B. The purpose of the flight was to test the ability to expand the applicability of that DRS to the Cessna 208B EX model. QuickSilver Aero, another Seattle company, was contracted to provide instrumentation support for the flight test program. Lead Up to the Accident According to the NTSB, on November 15, the aircraft began a series of test flights that were conducted over multiple days with several test pilots. The first day’s flights consisted of three segments totaling 1.1 hours. The flights included pilot familiarity flight and a ferry flight to have the airplane’s weight and balance performed. On the second day, the aircraft was flown to establish baseline data for future test flights for both mid center-of-gravity (CG) cruise flight and forward CG stall speeds. The flights equated to a total of 4.6 hours of flight time. The day prior to the accident, two more test flights were performed. The first flight, totaling 1.2 hours, was testing aft CG static stability. The last flight of the day ended short, totaling 1.4 hours, with only about half of the planned test maneuvers completed because a crewmember in the back of the airplane was feeling ill. Day of the Accident The purpose of the accident flight was to complete the test maneuvers from the day prior, which consisted of testing the aircraft’s stall performance. The radar track of the Caravan shows the aircraft took off from Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT) around 9:25 a.m. and headed north. The conditions were VFR and the airplane continued in a gradual climb to about 9,500 feet msl, and began a series of turns and other maneuvers. The airplane flew for about 45 minutes, varying in altitude between about 6,500 feet to 10,275 feet. At 10:17 the track data indicated the airplane was climbing to an altitude of 9,700 feet and turning to the left. According to the radar data, the aircraft made a near 360-degree turn and then at 10:19:06, there was a sharp 180-degree left-turn. The track continued west until the last recorded hit at 10:19:18. During the last 12 seconds the track indicated that the airplane’s descent rate exceeded 14,000 fpm and gradually lessened to 8,700 fpm at the last report. The main wreckage was located about 2,145 feet east of the last recorded track data. The pilot who had flown the test flights the day before the accident reviewed the radar track information. He told investigators that prior to the accident, it was likely the flight crew were conducting the second-to-last maneuver on the card which specified: 96 kts indicated airspeed; flaps in landing configuration; 930 ft-lbs of torque; propeller rpm fully forward; and accelerated 30-degree bank to the left. Accident Details Several witnesses on the ground reported seeing a white plume of smoke when they observed the airplane break into pieces. A security camera recorded a low-quality image of the airplane rotating about its longitudinal axis in nose-low attitude. According to information recorded by FlightAware.com, the aircraft entered into a series of turns, climbs, and descents with airspeed fluctuations before it plunged to the ground. The flight had been in the air for approximately 55 minutes. The main wreckage came down in an agricultural field 2 nm east of Harvey Field (S43). The NTSB’s initial investigation revealed that the right wing of the 2021 Cessna 208B was found some 200 yards from the main fuselage of the aircraft, indicating it had separated from the airframe before impact. The left-wing flap was attached to the main wing and in the flap was in the retracted position. The main wreckage—consisting of the engine, cockpit, cargo pod, cabin, vertical stabilizer, and rudder—was partially consumed by fire. The right-wing strut separated from the fuselage attachment point, but remained attached to the wing. The right flap was separated into numerous pieces and scattered among the debris field. After the accident, Hal Chrisman, president of Raisbeck Engineering, noted the aircraft “… at the time of the crash was under the command of two highly-experienced test pilots, both with over 10,000 flight hours. The purpose of the flight was to collect baseline aircraft performance data. The entire crew of four also included a flight test director and an instrumentation engineer.” Chrisman stated the flight was conducted prior to the installation of a Raisbeck modification, which is “standard industry practice that allows aviation engineering firms to establish baseline aircraft performance under a highly structured flight profile to later measure and compare the change in performance after any proposed modifications are installed. The aircraft was in this initial testing phase and had not yet been modified in any way.” https://www.flyingmag.com/ntsb-releases-details-of-caravan-crash-that-killed-4/ Turkish Airlines to employ thousands more pilots, cabin crew in 2023 National flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) is set to recruit 2,600 new cabin attendants and 1,200 new pilots in 2023, its General Manager Bilal Ekşi said Saturday. Speaking at the Türkiye Nation Branding Forum, organized by the Presidency's Directorate of Communications, Ekşi touched upon THY's achievements, maintaining that the company would continue “to fly high.” In 2003, the number of THY cabin crew was only 1,579, the official said, noting: “With the number that has grown eight times since then, we have 12,841 cabin crew members working currently.” And while the company was employing 651 pilots in 2003, this has also grown approximately ninefold to reach 5,793 at the moment, he added. Highlighting that the carrier rose to third place globally while flying to 129 different countries and 340 different destinations around the world, Ekşi noted that the company is looking for growth of over 10% in 2023. The company manager added that while THY had only 65 aircraft in its fleet back in 2003, this number also stands at 390 now. "This is the result of our strategy of transitioning from local to global, and having a strong network and a strong fleet," Ekşi appreciated. Pointing out that THY has grown by 10% every year since 2003 and that it is the second-best-known airline brand worldwide, Ekşi noted that the carrier is predicted to close the year by serving around 74 million passengers. Meanwhile, the flag carrier targets at hosting 80 million passengers for 2023. https://www.dailysabah.com/business/transportation/turkish-airlines-to-employ-thousands-more-pilots-cabin-crew-in-2023 2nd Australian-Based Pilot Investigated for Helping Train Chinese Fighter Pilots • A second former Australian-based pilot is being investigated for allegedly training Chinese fighter pilots. Keith Hartley, living in South Australia, is being investigated by authorities for his role as chief operating officer at the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA), a flying academy that British authorities have warned is an intermediary for Beijing to recruit retired pilots. The UK Ministry of Defence issued an intelligence alert in October after up to 30 former UK military pilots were believed to be recruited by the Chinese regime to train members of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAA). It is believed the Chinese regime’s recruitment drive is to help PLAAA fighter pilots understand how Western forces operate, which could be crucial in any potential conflict. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided the 73-year-old’s Adelaide Hills home last month and seized materials at his Woodside home, reported The Australian newspaper. Having flown some of the fastest military jets in the world for the British Royal Air Force, Harley has worked recently in Australia as a pilot. Ex-US Marine Pilot Faces Conspiracy Charges The investigation comes as Hartley’s friend, Australian-based former U.S.-military pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan faces charges of conspiracy to unlawfully export defence services to China, and for violating the U.S. Arms Export Control Act. Duggan, who holds both American and Australian citizenship, was arrested on Oct. 21 in the regional city of Orange in New South Wales. U.S. authorities allege that Duggan broke arms control laws by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers on three separate occasions in 2010 and 2012. Duggan, who operated an adventure flight company in Australia called Top Gun Australia, also faces additional charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States by unlawfully exporting defense services to China, conspiracy to launder money, and two counts of violating the arms export control laws and international arms trafficking regulations. Harley, however, claimed the incident as “intensely political.” “Dan’s case is very different from ours,” he told The Australian. “I have to say, it’s a much more complex thing that he’s involved in.” “It’s stuff that I haven’t been involved in or the company (TFASA) hasn’t been involved in.” Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles has ordered an investigation of the country’s defence force to ascertain whether former Australian pilots have been involved in training Chinese pilots. In an email to The Epoch Times, Marles said that he had “asked the [defence] department to investigate these claims and come back to my office with clear advice on this matter.” “When our ADF personnel sign up to the Defence Force, they do so to serve their country, and we are deeply grateful of that,” he said. “I would be deeply shocked and disturbed to hear that there were personnel who were being lured by a paycheck from a foreign state above serving their own country.” The growing controversy over Beijing’s recruiting former pilots from Western countries coincides with the impending visit to China by Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and commentary from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, both seeking to improve bilateral ties after three years of trade bans by the communist regime. https://www.theepochtimes.com/2nd-australian-based-pilot-investigated-for-helping-train-chinese-fighter-pilots_4934211.html Students can earn college credits, get pilot's license after Sunlake High expands aeronautics magnet program (Florida) • Pasco high school students can earn pilot's license LAND O' LAKES, Fla. - Pasco County students can earn college credits and get a pilot’s license before graduating high school after Sunlake High School expanded its aeronautics magnet program this year. Matthew Santos, 17, is one of several seniors working toward his private pilot’s license through the dual enrollment program with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "When I first joined this, I had no idea how to control a plane all that much outside of video games," said Santos, who attends Sunlake High School. "The program is very fun, especially if you put your time and effort into it. You’ll enjoy it a lot. You’ll learn a lot." Their teacher, Air Force veteran and aviation instructor Mark Aragon, said he can make a pilot out of anyone. "I would have loved to have something like this myself, being a pilot already, but I struggled to get there," said Aragon, and adjunct professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "It wasn’t an easy step like it would be for the kids that are coming to Sunlake." Aragon teaches through a dual-enrollment program between Pasco County schools and Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach. This year, they expanded the program, offering even more opportunities. "Whether it’s the unmanned program, whether it’s the manned pilot, whether it’s engineering, we have a lot of kids that are interested in NASA as well," said Aragon. It has pushed teens like Isabella Eby to try something new. "My first year I was one of the only girls in the program to begin with, and I still am. So it was little intimidating at first having a lot of the boys in," said 17-year-old Eby. "As I started learning more and more, I realized I’ve got this. You know, I can do it. The students have big dreams to fly and learn a lot of background in the classroom before taking those lessons out into the real world. Their work helps solve a larger problem, like the demand for pilots. "Since COVID, a lot of the pilots have been furloughed, and they didn’t come back. Or some of them were close to retirement, and they retired," said Aragon. "You think, ‘Well okay, it’s just a pilot shortage.’ But pilots are everything not just in the transportation of people but also goods and services." Every lesson is valuable, so some are going an extra step. "My end goal is to become an Air Force officer and work in air battle management," said sophomore Christopher Claudio. Claudio, 15, joined the school’s Civil Air Patrol cadet program and hopes to become a private pilot. "When I came into this program originally, I really didn’t know much about aviation. Just for someone who’s interested, I really knew nothing," said Claudio. "My parents were flight attendants. A few family friends have served in the Air Force. They’ve been my main inspiration for doing this program, actually." No matter their career path, the students said boys and girls should try out dual enrolling. "Don’t let them intimidate you. If you start doing it, and you like it, keep doing it. And then if it’s not for you, we have four different classes that branch out with aerospace," said Eby. Pasco County schools said the aeronautics magnet program has been around for at least eight years, and it’s open to any Pasco high school student who applies. The Sunlake High School principal said this year is the first year for Sunlake High as a magnet school, and they hope to get some space classes in the program soon. https://www.fox13news.com/news/students-can-earn-college-credits-get-pilots-license-after-sunlake-high-expands-aeronautics-magnet-program Is China’s W-15 engine to power J-20 stealth fighter jet nearing completion? • Video footage of speech by one of the country’s top aviation engine designers suggests maiden flight earlier this year • Analysts say while the WS-15 appears to be near the end of its development stage, it is too early to predict when it will be put into service A top adviser to China’s aircraft engine design programme appears to have unwittingly revealed that the WS-15 – specifically designed to support the PLA Air Force’s most advanced stealth fighter, the J-20 – completed its maiden flight this year. It is unclear if the engine was tested on a J-20 Mighty Dragon but defence experts said that while the news hinted the powerful engine was nearing completion, it was too early to predict when it would be put into service. Liu Daxiang, a professor with the school of energy and power engineering at Beihang University – previously known as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics – revealed the development late last month, during a keynote speech at an air show in Nanchang, Jiangxi province. Last week, video footage of Liu’s speech started circulating on Chinese social media platform WeChat. It was widely shared among military enthusiasts but was soon deleted because of its sensitivity. Liu was a team leader for Asia’s first high-altitude aircraft engine simulation test stand in the 1980s and a top adviser to state-owned Aero Engine Corporation of China. “The engine with a push-to-weight ratio of 10, developed for our country’s J-20, [has not been] put into service, but it has completed the maiden flight,” he said, according to the video, recorded at the three-day China Aviation Industry Conference and Nanchang Air Show. While Liu did not identify the engine by name, the thrust-weight ratio – similar to the US’ most advanced Pratt and Whitney F119 engine for the Lockheed Martin F-22 – indicates that it is the WS-15. State broadcaster CCTV boasted in 2017 that the performance of the WS-15 was a match for the F119 engine. In a documentary aired in May that year, CCTV claimed the engine would be widely used in the J-20 by 2020, a schedule which has not been met. Military experts and sources said Liu’s remarks indicated that the WS-15 had entered its last development stage. “Aircraft engine development needs to go through five stages: ground tests, wind tunnel tests, high-altitude simulation tests, flight tests, and then enter the final small-lot production for product acceptance tests,” said Fu Qianshao, a retired PLA Air Force equipment specialist. All the tests are complex and the engine must meet strict standards, he added. “The latest news shows the WS-15 is quite close to powering the J-20, even though it’s not clear whether the Mighty Dragon was involved in the maiden flight.” A military insider told the South China Morning Post that it might take several years for the WS-15 to become a mature and reliable fighter jet engine. “For safety considerations, the maiden flight could be taken by a four-engine cargo plane, with one being the WS-15 engine,” said the insider, who refused to be named because of the issue’s sensitivity. “After that, the engine should pass another round of extreme tests, including flights to snowy mountains, deserts, high humid and salty South China Sea and other areas.” Beijing has been stepping up development of sophisticated jet engines since the turn of the century, spending at least 900 billion yuan (US$129 billion) in the past decade, according to a military source close to the PLA Air Force. Developer Aero Engine – formed in August 2016 through the merger of 24 AVIC subsidiaries with about 10,000 employees – has led China’s development and production of aircraft engines and gas turbines in recent years. One of the former AVIC subsidiaries, Shenyang Aeroengine Research Institute, developed the WS-10 and WS-15. Pratt & Whitney and General Electric in the US spent more than 12 years developing prototypes for the F119 engine in the 1980s, followed by another 14 years of testing after its maiden flight – fitted to an F-22 – in September 1997. Since 2018, the US has been deploying advanced F-35s at its military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, forcing the J-20 to use two stopgap alternatives, the Russian AL-31 engine and later the Chinese WS-10C, a thrust-vectoring engine modified from the WS-10 that also powered the PLA’s J-10, J-11, J-15 and J-16. In September, the PLA Air Force said that all of its newest batch of J-20s were powered by WS-10C engines, while state media reports showed world-class pulsating production lines working to speed up deliveries of the Mighty Dragon stealth jet fighters. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3203866/chinas-w-15-engine-power-j-20-stealth-fighter-jet-nearing-completion FAA clears Rocket Lab for first launch from U.S. spaceport Rocket Lab said Saturday that the company received final approval from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration to launch their first mission from the United States on Sunday, clearing final regulatory and technical hurdles with a new autonomous range safety destruct unit that delayed the launch more than two years. There is a two-hour launch window Sunday, opening at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT), for liftoff of Rocket Lab’s Electron booster from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. Forecasters at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility predict a 90% chance of favorable weather for launch Sunday, with only a slight concern for thick clouds. Rocket Lab and NASA range teams will monitor high-altitude winds during Sunday’s countdown to ensure conditions in the upper atmosphere will permit the Electron rocket to safely climb into space with three small satellites for HawkEye 360, a U.S. company building a satellite constellation to detect and locate the source of terrestrial radio signals. Rocket Lab has its corporate headquarters in Southern California, and operates two rocket factories in California and in New Zealand. The company’s Electron rocket has flown 32 times since 2017 from a privately-owned spaceport on the North Island of New Zealand, delivering 152 satellites to orbit on 29 successful missions. “The final licensing paperwork for launch is complete and we are 100% go for launch tomorrow,” tweeted Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder and CEO, on Saturday evening. “Huge thanks to NASA Wallops and the FAA. Time to fly, this time from the northern hemisphere.” Rocket Lab says the Electron launcher and its three commercial satellite payloads are ready for blastoff. The launch was delayed from Friday to wait for final certification of the rocket’s autonomous flight termination system software. The Rocket Lab mission from Virginia will be the first space launch to use a NASA-developed customizable flight safety system designed to provide autonomous flight termination capability to a range of different commercial launch vehicles. Other companies, like SpaceX, have developed proprietary autonomous flight termination systems for use on their own rockets. The NASA Autonomous Flight Termination Unit, or NAFTU, can be adopted by multiple launch service providers. But software problems with the NAFTU system delayed the debut of Rocket Lab in Virginia more than two years. “I have to say it feels great to be at this point,” Beck said Dec. 14 in a pre-launch press briefing. “Obviously, it’s been a long road. We built the launch site around about three years ago. It was a super-quick build, but … there have been lots of challenges along the way with AFTS (Autonomous Flight Termination System) and COVID, and all the rest of it, but I’m very pleased to say that today we’re all done, which is great. The rocket is ready, it’s on the pad. The team is ready, and it’s time to fly. “This flight just doesn’t just symbolize another launch pad for Rocket Lab,” Beck said. “It’s the standing up a new capability for the nation. It’s a new AFTS system being brought online for the industry, and it’s a new rocket to Virginia and to the Wallops Flight Facility.” NASA developed the NAFTU system in partnership with the U.S. military and the FAA. It’s designed to help streamline rocket operations from Wallops and other launch ranges around the country. David Pierce, director of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, said the rocket-agnostic autonomous flight termination system will help enable “responsible launch capability for the United States.” “It’s been nothing short of a herculean effort to get us to this point, which I view as a turning in launch range operations, not just at Wallops but across the United States,” Pierce said. Eighteen companies have requested access to the NAFTU software code to merge it with their launch vehicles. Rocket Lab uses the NAFTU software in a flight termination system system it calls Pegasus. Pierce said NASA has verified Rocket Lab meets all of the agency’s range safety criteria to launch from Wallops, located on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. NASA hoped to have the NAFTU software ready for Rocket Lab to launch its first mission from Virginia in mid-2020. But Pierce said engineers “discovered of a number of errors in the software code” during validation testing. NASA partnered with the Space Force and FAA to fix the software. “The certification process painfully took well over a year to develop the test procedures and all of the script that you would need to go with that software to ensure that it was safe to operate,” Pierce said. “In 2022, we were in a process where we began independent certification testing.” Engineers finished independent testing of the NAFTU software over the summer, then completed independent certification of the system in October, according to Pierce. That allowed NASA to hand over the software code to Rocket Lab, which modified it for integration onto the Electron launch vehicle. According to Pierce, the FAA asked NASA to complete a risk assessment report before giving final approval for the launch. “NASA is fully confident in Rocket Lab’s and NASA’s safety plans,” Pierce said. A flight termination system is a standard part of all space launches from U.S. spaceports, ensuring that a rocket can be destroyed if it veers off course and threatens populated areas after liftoff. With autonomous flight termination systems, range safety teams no longer need to be on standby to send a manual destruct command to the rocket. Pierce said the automated system lowers the cost of launch operations. Range teams at Cape Canaveral have said the introduction of autonomous flight termination systems by SpaceX allows for rapid turnaround between launches, reducing the previous two-day stand-down between rocket missions to less than an hour. The Space Force range team in Florida was ready to support two back-to-back launches of Falcon 9 rockets Friday just 33 minutes apart, but SpaceX delayed one of the missions to prioritize the other. The NAFTU works by tracking the rocket’s location using GPS signals, and then issuing a destruct command if it determines the rocket is outside of a predetermined safety corridor. Rocket Lab has used a similar automated flight termination system for most of its launches from New Zealand. “The NAFTU system is going to enable launch companies, venture class smaller launch companies, to come at Wallops and be able to launch at an increased cadence, but also enable lower cost launch operations,” Pierce said. “We estimate that this could reduce launch range costs by as much as 30% at our range.” The Space Force is requiring all rockets launching from military ranges in Florida and California to use autonomous flight termination systems beginning in 2025. United Launch Alliance still uses human-in-the-loop destruct systems, but will transition to automated flight safety technology on the company’s new Vulcan rocket. Rocket Lab’s launch pad in Virginia, called Launch Complex 2, will give the company three active launch pads, including two facilities at Rocket Lab’s New Zealand spaceport and one at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. The new Electron launch pad in Virginia is designed to support up to 12 launches per year, including “rapid call-up” missions, giving the military a quick-response launch option, Rocket Lab said when construction was completed at the new launch complex in 2019. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is run by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, or Virginia Space, an organization created by the Virginia legislature to promote commercial space activity within the commonwealth. The spaceport on Wallops Island now has three orbital-class launch facilities, one for Rocket Lab, one for Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, and another used to launch solid-fueled Minotaur boosters. Rocket Lab’s pad sits next to the Antares launch site on Wallops Island. Beck said the next Rocket Lab mission from Wallops is scheduled for early 2023. The rocket for that flight is scheduled for delivery to the launch site by the end of this year. Rocket Lab’s hangar at Wallops is designed to accommodate up to three Electron rockets at a time. With its new Virginia launch site online, Rocket Lab says it will have flexibility to move missions between different launch ranges. And some U.S. government customers prefer to launch their payloads from the United States. Rocket Lab also plans to launch its larger next-generation reusable rocket, called Neutron, from a new launch pad on Wallops Island. The company is building a factory and integration and test facilities for the Neutron program in Virginia, combining manufacturing and operations capabilities at the spaceport on the Eastern Shore. With the two-and-a-half year delay in beginning launches from Virginia, Rocket Lab had to move the launch of the U.S. military payload originally slated for the first Electron flight from Wallops to the company’s New Zealand spaceport. Three microsatellites for HawkEye 360, based in Northern Virginia, will instead ride into orbit on Rocket Lab’s Virginia launch debut. “We’re proud to be a Virginia-based company, with Virginia-developed technology, launching out of the Virginia spaceport,” said John Serafini, HawkEye 360’s CEO, in a press release. “We selected Rocket Lab because of the flexibility it enables for us to place the satellites into an orbit tailored to benefit our customers. Deploying our satellites on Rocket Lab’s inaugural launch is a giant leap in Virginia’s flourishing space economy.” The mission will mark the sixth launch of HawkEye 360 satellites, and is the first of three dedicated Rocket Lab missions contracted by HawkEye 360. All of HawkEye 360’s satellites so far have launched on rideshare missions aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. HawkEye 360 has launched 12 operational satellites since early 2021, helping detect, characterize, and locate the source of radio transmissions. Such data are useful in government intelligence-gathering operations, combating illegal fishing and poaching, and securing national borders, according to HawkEye 360. The satellites launching on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket will be deployed into a 341-mile-high (550-kilometer) orbit at an inclination of 40.5 degrees to the equator. Rocket Lab does not plan to recover the rocket’s first stage booster after liftoff, as it has tried doing following recent launches from New Zealand. The two-stage, 60-foot-tall (18-meter) Electron launcher will head east-southeast from the launch site in Virginia, powered by nine kerosene-fueled Rutherford engines. The carbon composite rocket’s second stage will take over the mission about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff to accelerate into a preliminary orbit, then yield to a kick stage for the final maneuver to inject HawkEye 360’s satellites into their final targeted orbit. https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/12/17/faa-clears-rocket-lab-for-first-launch-from-u-s-spaceport/ Curt Lewis