Flight Safety Information - December 28, 2022 No. 249 In This Issue : Accident: Lufthansa B748 near Chicago on Dec 26th 2022, laptop fire : Incident: Delta B752 near Nashville on Dec 26th 2022, engine shut down in flight : Incident: Ethiopian B738 at Mogadishu on Dec 26th 2022, rejected takeoff due to bird strike : Embraer EMB-505 Phenom 300 - Runway Excursion (California) : Pentagon grounds some F-35s after pilot gets ejected : U.S. safety experts dispute aspects of Ethiopia 737-MAX air crash findings : Financial audit of airlines will enhance air safety : Why Southwest is melting down : FAA Survey Reveals Concerns About Its Approach To Southwest Airlines' Safety : Australia grants extradition of former U.S. pilot over China military training - ABC : GE Aerospace donates multi-million dollar jet engines to Cincinnati State : NTSB POSITION AVAILABLE: AEROSPACE ENGINEER (SYSTEMS), GS-0861-14 Accident: Lufthansa B748 near Chicago on Dec 26th 2022, laptop fire A Lufthansa Boeing 747-8, registration D-ABYJ performing flight LH-457 from Los Angeles,CA (USA) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany), was enroute at FL350 about 220nm northwest of Chicago,IL (USA) when the crew decided to divert to Chicago reporting a passenger laptop had caught fire in the cabin. During the approach the crew advised the laptop fire was out. The aircraft landed safely on O'Hare's runway 28C about 55 minutes after leaving FL350. The airline reported the aircraft diverted as a precaution after an overheated passenger laptop caused a small fire in the cabin, the fire was out by the time of landing. Two flight attendants needed to be treated for smoke inhalation. The passengers are being rebooked onto other flights. The aircraft remained on the ground in Chicago for about 4 hours, then departed as flight LH-9925 to Frankfurt. https://avherald.com/h?article=502e8192&opt=0 Incident: Delta B752 near Nashville on Dec 26th 2022, engine shut down in flight A Delta Airlines Boeing 757-200, registration N6708D performing flight DL-356 from Atlanta,GA to Sacramento,CA (USA) with 202 people on board, was climbing through FL270 out of Atlanta when the crew stopped the climb reporting they had needed to shut an engine (PW2037) down. On approach to Nashville the crew advised they were in icing conditions and due to the nature of the engine shut down could not continue in icing conditions. The aircraft continued for a safe landing on Nashville's runway 20L about 30 minutes after stopping the climb. A replacement Boeing 757-200 registration N6715C reached Sacramento with a delay of 6 hours. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Nashville about 27 hours after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=502e7e80&opt=0 Incident: Ethiopian B738 at Mogadishu on Dec 26th 2022, rejected takeoff due to bird strike An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration ET-APL performing flight ET-379 from Mogadishu (Somalia) to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) with 112 people on board, was accelerating for takeoff from Mogadishu's runway 05 when the crew rejected takeoff at high speed (about 130 knots over ground) due to a bird strike into one of the engines (CFM56). The aircraft slowed safely and returned to the apron. The flight was cancelled. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Mogadishu about 28 hours after the rejected takeoff. https://avherald.com/h?article=502e7972&opt=0 Embraer EMB-505 Phenom 300 - Runway Excursion (California) Date: Tuesday 27 December 2022 Time: 18:29 Type: Embraer EMB-505 Phenom 300 Operator: Registration: N16DF C/n / msn: 50500167 First flight: 2013 Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PW535E Crew: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 7 Aircraft damage: Substantial Location: Hawthorne Airport, CA (HHR) ( United States of America) Phase: Landing (LDG) Nature: Domestic Non Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Jackson Hole Airport, WY (JAC/KJAC), United States of America Destination airport: Hawthorne Airport, CA (HHR/KHHR), United States of America Narrative: An Embraer EMB-505 Phenom 300 suffered a runway excursion after landing on runway 25 at Hawthorne Airport (HHR), California, USA. There were no reported injuries. The aircraft landed on runway 25, with a Landing Distance Available (LDA) of 4193 feet (1278 meters) but overshot and went through the Localizer antenna array. The nose landing gear collapsed and the aircraft came to a stop against the perimeter fence along Prairie Avenue. http://www.aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20221227-0 Pentagon grounds some F-35s after pilot gets ejected The F-35 Joint Program Office has grounded a handful of newer F-35 Joint Strike Fighters following an incident weeks ago in which a fighter pilot tipped over on a Texas runaway and was ejected from the aircraft. The unknown number of newer F-35s will be grounded at least until January, per the guidance it issued on Tuesday, according to a Defense News report. The office declined to specify the number of F-35s that were grounded. It also didn’t say what caused those that were grounded to be at a higher risk for incidents. “The F-35 Joint Program Office has issued a Time Compliance Technical Directive (TCTD) to restrict some aircraft, which have been evaluated to be of higher risk, from flight operations while the investigation into the mishap on December 15 continues and until procedures can be developed for their return to flight. The affected aircraft have been identified, and the JPO will work with the [U.S. military] services and [international] partners to ensure compliance with the TCTD," the JPO told the outlet. On Dec. 15, a video was posted on social media at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas that showed a pilot’s successful ejection after the fighter’s nose descended, bounced off the ground, and tipped forward, which was then followed by the nose and right wing touching the ground before the pilot exited the aircraft. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/pentagon-grounds-f-35-pilot-ejected U.S. safety experts dispute aspects of Ethiopia 737-MAX air crash findings NAIROBI, Dec 28 (Reuters) - U.S. air safety experts say Ethiopian inspectors investigating the cause of an Ethiopian Airlines' crash that killed nearly 160 people in 2019 did not pay enough attention to crew training and emergency procedures in their report. The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in dissenting comments included in the Ethiopian report, disagreed with at least two key findings of the investigation into the crash of a Boeing 737-MAX flight. The accident led to the grounding of similar jets. The NTSB is involved as Boeing is a U.S. company. Fight 302 crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa in March 2019, killing all 157 people on board. Ethiopia's Aircraft Investigation Bureau released its long-delayed report last Friday. It blamed the accident on "uncommanded" inputs from Boeing's Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS. The inputs, which were caused by faulty data from an underlying sensor, sent the plane's nose down repeatedly, leading to loss of control as the pilots tried to deal with several warnings in the cabin, the report said. But in its comments, the NTSB said it found the faulty sensor may have been damaged by a bird strike soon after take-off, an assertion that was ignored by the Ethiopian investigators. The Ethiopians did not find any evidence that the sensor was damaged in flight due to lack of any physical clues like a dead bird in the vicinity of the flight's path, their report said. The NTSB, however, said the sensor was never recovered at the crash site in spite of a partial search by both sides a week after the accident. Boeing has previously said the MCAS was a safety feature and the issues identified after the crash of flight 302, which followed one of a similar plane in Indonesia five months earlier, have been rectified. The NTSB also accused their Ethiopian counterparts of focusing on the contributions of the design issues to the accident at the expense of the crew's own training and reaction to the emergency that arose. "Discussion of crew resource management and performance were still not sufficiently developed in the draft final report," the NTSB said. The pilots were supposed to manually reduce throttle after the erroneous feeds from the sensor interfered with the expected automatic sequence, it said. In their report, the Ethiopian investigators found that the crew members were licensed and qualified for flight in accordance with the existing Ethiopian Civil Aviation Rules and Standards, but were startled by the unprecedented change of events and "confusing alerts", and blamed it all on the plane's design. "Flight crew situational awareness and ability to perceive each and every thing to the detail was greatly affected with the ever changing flight scenario and unsettling warnings and flight deck effects," the report said. The investigation bureau referred Reuters to NTSB's statement when asked for further comments. The accident involving Flight 302 followed another incident five months earlier, when the same model crashed in Indonesia, killing 189 people. The accidents exposed a problem with a system on the plane, and the model was grounded worldwide, costing Boeing some $20 billion and prompting court cases that exposed shortcomings with the certification process. Operators have since resumed flying the 737-MAX after the plane's 20-month grounding. Ethiopia was among the last countries to return the 737 MAX to service. https://www.reuters.com/world/us-safety-experts-dispute-aspects-ethiopia-737-max-air-crash-findings-2022-12-28/ Financial audit of airlines will enhance air safety When airlines face revenue pressures, they tend to curtail budgets, especially those relating to maintaining safety standards The year gone by has not been a delightful one for civil aviation in India. There was no major accident, but a series of trends and incidents cast an interrogation mark over safety in the air. There was a case of smoke in the cabin of a SpiceJet flight, an Air Asia India flight lost a fairing pane in the air, incidents of non-compliance with laid down safety-related procedures and several alarming in-flight events. The pressures are revenue driven. Some of the underlying issues relate to non-availability of engines and other spares and components for some airlines which have grounded aircraft. As a result, airlines are being forced to take shortcuts and tweak utilisation rates (number of hours an aircraft is utilised in a calendar day) of the unaffected aircraft on their fleets thus leading to flight delays. SpiceJet appeared to be under huge financial pressure as it reported heavy losses, especially in quarter-ended June 30, and struggled to meet vendor and aircraft lessor payments, with one lessor approaching the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to register three aircraft leased to SpiceJet and two banks, classifying their loans to SpiceJet as ‘high risk’. Finally, the DGCA had to order the airline to slash flights to 50 per cent for eight weeks. At frequent intervals through the year, the Minister for Civil Aviation assured the public that surveillance had been stepped up and that there was no need to be concerned about air safety. In August, the DGCA began a two-month long special safety audit of all airlines; the last such audit had been conducted in the aftermath of the Kozhikode accident in which 19 passengers and the crew perished. The special audit involved a wide spectrum of assets and activities of all airlines. During November, the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) carried out an audit of DGCA under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) and gave it a 85.49 per cent score elevating it to 48th position in the global civil aviation community. This was still far from the top of the table but a great upward ascent from the 102nd position it occupied since the last audit in 2018. In the aftermath of the ICAO audit, news reports, no doubt furnished by SpiceJet, attributed the high rating to ICAO’s audit of the airline. This misinformation was immediately remedied by ICAO, clarifying that it only audits the regulator and did not visit any airline during its audit. An unusual clustering of safety related minor incidents could be coincidental or may be a portent of a major disaster lurking around the corner. However, as almost all airlines are under revenue pressures, a connection emerges between airlines’ financial state and safety related incidents. Perhaps the time has come for considering a financial audit of airlines from the air safety point of view. While routine surveillance by the DGCA scrutinises the availability of adequate skilled manpower, equipment, spares, internal processes, etc., it may be apposite to have a direct insight into how curtailed budgets lead to shortcuts, workarounds, subterfuges, and lip service to the letter of some regulations while ignoring the spirit behind them. The DGCA is unlikely to have the staff or the expertise to carry out such financial audits but the investment into a department for this purpose would pay dividends in terms of increased air safety and passenger confidence. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/financial-audit-of-airlines-will-enhance-air-safety/article66299353.ece Why Southwest is melting down A punishing winter storm that dumped multiple feet of snow across much of America led to widespread flight cancellations over the Christmas holiday. By Monday, air travel was more or less back to normal – unless you booked your holiday travel with Southwest Airlines. More than 90% of Tuesday’s US flight cancellations are Southwest, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Southwest canceled 2,500 flights. The next highest: Spirit Airlines with 75. Southwest warned that it would continue canceling flights until it could get its operations back on track. The company’s CEO said this has been the biggest disruption he’s seen in his career. The Biden administration is investigating. Southwest had a combination of bad luck and bad planning. The storm hit Chicago and Denver hard, where Southwest has two of its biggest hubs – Chicago Midway airport and Denver International airport. More bad luck: The storm hit just as the so-called tripledemic surged across America, leaving people and their families sick with Covid, the flu and RSV. Although Southwest says it was fully staffed for the holiday weekend, illness makes adjusting to increased system stress difficult. Many airlines still lack sufficient staff to recover when events like bad weather cause delays or flight crews max out the hours they’re allowed to work under federal safety regulations. Underinvestment But Southwest (LUV) also hurt itself with an aggressive schedule and by underinvesting in its operations. Southwest’s schedule includes shorter flights with tighter turnaround times, which are causing some of the problems, Kathleen Bangs, a FlightAware spokesperson, told CNN. “Those turnaround times bog things down,” Bangs said. Stranded customers have been unable to get through to Southwest’s customer service lines to rebook flights or find lost baggage. Southwest Airlines continues canceling flights as New Year holiday approaches Employees also said they have not been able to communicate with the airline, the president of the union that represents Southwest’s Flight Attendants told CNN Monday. “The phone system the company uses is just not working,” Lyn Montgomery, President of TWU Local 556, told CNN’s Pamela Brown. “They’re just not manned with enough manpower in order to give the scheduling changes to flight attendants, and that’s created a ripple effect that is creating chaos throughout the nation.” The problems Southwest faces have been brewing for a long time, said Captain Casey Murray, the president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association. “We’ve been having these issues for the past 20 months,” he told CNN. “We’ve seen these sorts of meltdowns occur on a much more regular basis and it really just has to do with outdated processes and outdated IT.” He said the airline’s operations haven’t changed much since the 1990s. “It’s phones, it’s computers, it’s processing power, it’s the programs used to connect us to airplanes – that’s where the problem lies, and it’s systemic throughout the whole airline,” he said. Southwest CEO Bob Jordan, in a message to employees obtained by CNN, acknowledged many of Murray’s concerns, and promised the company will invest in better systems. “Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools,” Jordan told employees. “We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that.” He said the airline is “committed to and invested in” improving its systems, but “we need to be able to produce solutions faster.” The US Department of Transportation said it is investigating. “USDOT is concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service,” the agency tweeted. “The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.” To recover, Jordan told the Wall Street Journal the company plans to operate just over a third of its schedule in upcoming days to give itself the ability for crews to get into the right positions. Not Southwest’s first rodeo If this is all ringing a bell, that’s because this isn’t the first time Southwest’s service melted down in epic fashion. In October 2021, Southwest canceled more than 2,000 flights over a four-day period, costing the airline $75 million. Southwest blamed that service meltdown on a combination of bad weather in Florida, a brief problem with air traffic control in the area and a lack of available staff to adjust to those problems. It has admitted it was having service problems caused by short staffing even before the thousands of canceled flights stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers. Similar to this month’s service mayhem, Southwest fared far worse than its competitors last October. While Southwest canceled hundreds of flights in the days following the peak of October’s disruption, competitors quickly returned to normal service. Later that month, on a call with Wall Street analysts, then-CEO Gary Kelly said the company had made adjustments to prevent a similar meltdown in the future. “We have reined in our capacity plans to adjust to the current staffing environment, and our ontime performance has improved, accordingly,” said Kelly on October 21. “We are aggressively hiring to a goal of approximately 5,000 new employees by the end of this year, and we are currently more than halfway toward that goal.” And, just like the latest disruption, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association claimed the cancellations were due to “management’s poor planning.” https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/27/business/southwest-airlines-service-meltdown/index.html FAA Survey Reveals Concerns About Its Approach To Southwest Airlines' Safety The majority of respondents have spoken of a lack of improvement. There are fresh concerns within the United States aviation industry. Now, certain employees of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are worried about how local staff members are approaching looking over Southwest Airlines. Internal woes According to the Wall Street Journal, an internal FAA survey raised concerns from some inspectors about how the agency oversees the Texan airline. Altogether, approximately 75% of those who responded highlighted that the culture in the FAA's Dallas-area location hasn't progressed recently. The journal writes about responses noting a toxic culture that sees FAA managers not listening to concerns raised by front-line inspectors. They are allegedly more interested in pandering to the operator. Recent issues Notably, in July this year, the US Office of Special Counsel shared a disclosure of wrongdoing. The disclosure stated that the FAA rushed oversight of accidents caused by pilot error and that it failed to inspect foreign-purchased planes for Southwest. Giving an example, the statement highlighted the following: “The FAA determined that pilot error caused a February 2019 accident involving a flight that suffered damage to both wings while attempting to land at the Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. Yet, the report was closed without further investigation by FAA's Event Review Committee, despite an ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. FAA determined that Southwest and union officials resisted its requests for additional investigation and pushed for quick closures, contrary to program criteria." The document further adds that several reports were made in this manner, despite proof that the incident demonstrated “an intentional disregard for safety.” A word from Southwest According to The Street, Southwest Airlines has since shared the following statement when asked about the matter: “Southwest maintains a culture of compliance, recognizing the safety of our operation as the most important thing we do, and any implication that we would tolerate a relaxing of standards is unfounded.” Get the latest aviation news straight to your inbox: Sign up for our newsletters today. This report comes at a time when Southwest has been dealing with a multitude of flight cancellations. It even declared an operational emergency heading into the weekend amid a high number of absences. Southwest has also been dealing with issues surrounding the Boeing 737 MAX this year. Last month, a couple of lawsuits regarding this saga were thrown out. Nonetheless, following the 737 MAX tragedies and the subsequent investigations, the FAA's top management will be keen to address any potential oversights across the agency's departments. After all, The US Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has recently confirmed that it will conduct a review of the FAA’s supervision during the 737 MAXs development. Simple Flying reached out to Southwest for further comment on this week’s report. We will update the article with any announcements from the carrier. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) president Casey Murray offered the following statement: "SWAPA has had the same concerns and expressed as much repeated to the FAA for years. We also have felt our concerns have been trumped by the pandering to the airline. SWAPA is hopeful that this sunlight being shed on the local office and the FAA as a whole will be the ultimate disinfectant and change will finally be brought to bear." https://simpleflying.com/faa-survey-concerns-southwest-airlines/ Australia grants extradition of former U.S. pilot over China military training - ABC SYDNEY, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Australia has approved a request to extradite former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan to the United States, where he will face charges that he trained Chinese military pilots, according to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation report on Wednesday. Duggan, who was arrested in Australia in October and remains in custody, is accused of breaking U.S. arms control laws by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers, according to a 2017 indictment unsealed by a U.S. court in December. The broadcaster said the matter would go before a magistrate in January, although Duggan has avenues to appeal. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and his office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Duggan's lawyer Dennis Miralis was not immediately available for comment. Miralis has said Duggan was an Australian citizen who renounced his U.S. citizenship and denies breaking any law. The 2017 indictment says "Duggan provided military training to PRC (People's Republic of China) pilots" through a South African flight school on three occasions in 2010 and 2012, while he was a U.S. citizen. The violations he is accused of also include providing aviation services in China, evaluating Chinese military pilot trainees, and instruction in landing on aircraft carriers. He faces four U.S. charges, including conspiracy to export defense services to China, conspiracy to launder money, and violating the Arms Export Control Act. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-grants-extradition-former-us-pilot-over-china-military-training-abc-2022-12-28/ GE Aerospace donates multi-million dollar jet engines to Cincinnati State Cincinnati State Technical and Community College offers an aviation maintenance technology program at its Harrison campus. Local aircraft company GE Aerospace recently donated two multi-million dollar jet engines to Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, which offers an aviation maintenance technology program to students. There are 160 students currently enrolled in the college's aviation program. Students can pursue associate degrees and certificates in airframe, powerplant and avionics. The program is housed at Cincinnati State's Harrison Campus. "This generous gift will not only benefit our aviation maintenance program, but also the regional aviation maintenance industry through our graduates," Cincinnati State President Monica Posey said in a news release. The region's need for aviation maintenance technicians is growing rapidly due to the expanding air cargo industry near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. GE Aerospace, headquartered in Evendale, donated two CF34-10E turbofan engines that can deliver up to 20,000 pounds of thrust, the release states. The new engines will allow students to gain hands-on experience in engine disassembly and with fuel, oil, ignition and electrical systems on a modern turbofan engine currently used in the industry. "We have a mission to inspire the next generation of aviation professionals who will shape the future of flight," Cristina Seda-Hoelle said in the news release. She is GE Aerospace's general manager for regional and business aviation. "We are proud to support Cincinnati State and their aviation students with this CF34 engine donation." Carl Leugers, a Cincinnati State alumnus and current employee at GE Aerospace, was "instrumental in making the engine donation possible," the release states. Leugers is subsection manager for development engine tests for GE Aerospace. He graduated from Cincinnati State in 2002. "I'm grateful to have the opportunity to help give something back to the school that got me into the industry," Leugers said in the release. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/education/2022/12/27/ge-aerospace-donates-jet-engines-to-cincinnati-state/69758740007/ POSITION AVAILABLE: AEROSPACE ENGINEER (SYSTEMS), GS-0861-14 www.usajobs.gov/job/693620000 www.usajobs.gov/job/693620500 Summary This position is located in the Office of Aviation Safety, Aviation Engineering Division in Washington, DC. Participates and directs engineering aspects of general aviation and air carrier accidents involving safety issues associated with aircraft flight control, hydraulic, electrical, avionics and pneumatic systems including design, manufacturing, certification, and maintenance conditions. Duties OAS investigates all U.S. civil aviation accidents, including those involving unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), public aircraft, and commercial space launches, and other significant aviation incidents, proposes the probable causes of these events, and develops recommendations to minimize recurrence. As an Aerospace Engineer (Systems), GS-0861-14, you will perform the following major duties: • Participates and directs technical analyses of general aviation and air carrier accident and incidents in the specialty area of flight controls, avionics, electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic systems. Serves as Group Chairman for limited scope investigations, documenting and analyzing airworthiness issues potentially involved in accidents and develops accident prevention strategies. • Coordinates efforts with other Group Chairman, the IIC, and the Team Lead to assure thoroughness of all investigations and that necessary documentation is accomplished as a result of the investigative activity. • Prepares factual and analytical reports covering specialty area on each accident. • Assists the IIC and report writers in the preparation of the Safety Board's accident report with particular emphasis on the accuracy of factual information and the logic of analyses of the evidence from the investigation. • Researches and develops appropriate safety recommendations to correct hazardous or unsafe conditions using information obtained in the course of investigations, personal observations, and knowledge of current aviation engineering trends and developments. Work Environment: The incumbent supports major go-team launches as well as significant international investigations. Major go-team launch teams commonly travel on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) jet from Reagan National Airport within two hours after an accident notification is received. Timely arrival at the scene of a major accident allows for timely documentation of a wreckage; a delay in this effort can have significant impacts, such as impeding the re-opening of an airport. International travel by US Government employees frequently requires the issuance of a visa from the host country, which is most efficiently obtained at the embassies located in Washington, DC. Additionally, security concerns in many locations make it essential that the investigative team travel together. Physical Demands: Occasionally the aircraft wreckage may contain hazardous materials that may be burning by the time the investigator arrives on-the-scene; therefore, the incumbent may be exposed to a variety of weather conditions and other environmental discomforts such as remote, rugged, snow, rain, temperature extremes, swampy or mountainous areas and hostile settings and may have to wear a hardhat, safety shoes, goggles, gloves, and other protective equipment. Curt Lewis