Flight Safety Information - December 29, 2022 No. 250 In This Issue : Incident: Hi Air AT72 at Jeju on Dec 22nd 2022, temporary runway excursion on landing : Incident: Skywest CRJ2 at Rock Springs on Dec 27th 2022, runway excursion on landing : Incident: Ryanair B738 near Budapest on Dec 27th 2022, suspected fuel leak : Incident: American B738 near Wichita on Dec 22nd 2022, engine shut down in flight : 7 hurt as Grand Canyon tour helicopter makes hard landing : Two men cited for fighting on Sun Country flight from Tampa to Minneapolis : Flight PS752: Calls on Iran to settle dispute over downing of Ukraine jet : How Hydrogen Compares To Jet Fuel In Terms Of Safety : NTSB Publishes Comments On Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX Crash : Southwest Airlines staff say roughly 10K bags in limbo at STL airport : Southwest Airlines flight diverted to Milwaukee due to 'potential mechanical issue' amid cancellation chaos : New FAA Policy Could Delay Aircraft Transactions : NTSB POSITION AVAILABLE: AEROSPACE ENGINEER (SYSTEMS), GS-0861-14 Incident: Hi Air AT72 at Jeju on Dec 22nd 2022, temporary runway excursion on landing A Hi Air Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-212A, registration HL5244 performing flight 4H-1333 from Ulsan to Jeju (South Korea) with 26 passengers and 4 crew, had gone around two times at Jeju due to weather conditions (high winds) and performed a third approach to touch down on runway 25 at 11:22L (02:22Z), however, temporarily veered off the runway and went over soft ground before the crew was able to steer the aircraft onto the runway center line and taxied the aircraft to the apron. On Dec 26th 2022 South Korea's Ministry of Transport reported the aircraft had departed Ulsan at 09:30L scheduled to arrive at 10:30L. Due to the two missed approaches due to high winds the aircraft subsequently landed at 11:22L, went over grass but was able to return onto the runway. South Korea's ARAIB opened an investigation into the occurrence. The aircraft, the registration of which was not mentioned, was able to return to Seoul Gimpo at about 20:20L. The Ministry also reported the aircraft flew to Jeju the following day (Dec 23rd) again landing on the secondary runway 01/19 arriving from Seoul Gimpo Airport. https://avherald.com/h?article=502fb7ab&opt=0 Incident: Skywest CRJ2 at Rock Springs on Dec 27th 2022, runway excursion on landing A Skywest Canadair CRJ-200 on behalf of United, registration N958SW performing flight UA-5094 from Denver,CO to Rock Springs,WY (USA) with 50 people on board, landed on Rock Springs' runway 27 at 21:36L (04:36Z Dec 28th), slowed down safely to taxi speed and was about to turn off the runway at the last exit when the aircraft skidded with its nose gear beyond the end of the runway. There were no injuries and no damage to the aircraft. The NTSB have opened an investigation. Sweetwater Sheriff Office reported the aircraft landed in black ice conditions. https://avherald.com/h?article=502f3951&opt=0 Incident: Ryanair B738 near Budapest on Dec 27th 2022, suspected fuel leak A Ryanair Boeing 737-800, registration EI-DCZ performing flight FR-2101 from Brussels Charleroi (Belgium) to Bucharest Otopeni (Romania) with 176 passengers and 9 crew, was enroute at FL370 in Slovak Airspace about 60nm north of Budapest (Hungary) when the crew decided to divert to Budapest reporting they suspected a fuel leak at the right hand engine but needed no assistance on the ground. The crew requested to enter a hold and subsequently landed on runway 31R about 35 minutes after leaving FL370. A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration SP-RKO reached Bucharest with a delay of about 5.5 hours. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Budapest about 22 hours after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=502f246c&opt=0 Incident: American B738 near Wichita on Dec 22nd 2022, engine shut down in flight An American Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration N907AN performing flight AA-866 from Phoenix,AZ to Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA), was enroute at FL350 about 140nm west of Wichita,KS (USA) when the crew reported problems with their left hand engine (CFM56) and decided to divert to Wichita. The crew shut the engine down and landed safely on Wichita's runway 01L about 35 minutes after leaving FL350. A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration N819NN reached Chicago the following day with a delay of about 16 hours. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Wichita on Dec 28th 2022. https://avherald.com/h?article=502f2051&opt=0 7 hurt as Grand Canyon tour helicopter makes hard landing LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Grand Canyon tour helicopter made a hard landing at a Las Vegas-area airport, injuring seven people, officials said Wednesday. Authorities are investigating the cause. Local responders and the National Transportation Safety Board characterized it as a “hard landing” around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Boulder City Municipal Airport, while the Federal Aviation Administration called it a crash while landing. A photo posted on Facebook showed the red helicopter upright in a flat desert area. There were no reports of a fire. The pilot and six passengers were taken to hospitals in Las Vegas and suburban Henderson for treatment of injuries that Boulder City spokesperson Lisa LaPlante called not life-threatening. The FAA said it is investigating, and the NTSB identified the operator of the Airbus Helicopters EC130 T2 as Las Vegas-based Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopter air tours. Papillon representatives did not immediately respond Wednesday to a telephone message. FlightAware, an air traffic database, reported that the 25-minute flight originated at the Grand Canyon near Kingman, Arizona, and was headed for the Boulder City airport. Boulder City is a 30-minute drive from downtown Las Vegas. NTSB spokesperson Peter Knudson said a preliminary report should be available within about three weeks. https://www.yahoo.com/news/7-hurt-grand-canyon-tour-182955052.html Two men cited for fighting on Sun Country flight from Tampa to Minneapolis The men were cited for disorderly conduct for brawling or fighting, authorities told the Minneapolis newspaper. MINNEAPOLIS — Two men were cited Wednesday for fighting on a Sun Country Airlines flight that arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport from Tampa. A 42-year-old man from Chicago and a 30-year-old man from Belle Plaine, Minnesota, were both cited by police for disorderly conduct for brawling or fighting, the Star Tribune reported. The circumstances surrounding the fight weren’t immediately clear. “I don’t have any information related to what caused the fight,” the airport’s police spokesperson, Jeff Lea, said in an email. “No arrests were made, but citations were issued to the two individuals earlier today.” Airports across the country have descended into chaos during the busy holiday season. Airlines and travelers have experienced mass flight cancellations amidst dangerous storms and staffing shortages. More than 91% of canceled flights Wednesday in the U.S. were on Southwest, according to the FlightAware tracking service. The airlines has been unable to recover from ferocious winter storms that raked large swaths of the country over the weekend. The federal government is investigating what happened at Southwest, which carries more passengers within the United States than any other airline. https://www.tampabay.com/news/nation-world/2022/12/29/sun-country-airlines-tampa-minneapolis-fight/ Flight PS752: Calls on Iran to settle dispute over downing of Ukraine jet A group of four countries led by Canada has requested that Iran submit to arbitration to settle a dispute over its shooting down of a Ukrainian jet. Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was hit by two missiles after taking off from Tehran on 8 January 2020. All 176 people on board died. Three days later, Iran admitted mistakenly shooting down the plane. The group, made up of Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the UK, said it was taking "concrete action" against Iran. The four nations have been seeking reparations on behalf of the families of the victims - many of whom were citizens or residents of those countries. They accuse Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of having "unlawfully and intentionally" launched two surface-to-air missiles at the jet. Iran, for its part, said its air defences had been on high alert at the time of the incident after it fired ballistic missiles at two Iraqi military bases hosting US forces amid heightened tensions with the US. In a joint statement released on Wednesday, the four countries "requested that Iran submits to binding arbitration of the dispute related to the downing of Flight PS752" under a 1971 multilateral treaty on threats to civil aviation. It said the group remained "committed to pursuing efforts to hold Iran accountable for its multiple breaches of its international legal obligations". • Ukraine rejects Iran's final report on jet downing • Eighty-five of the passengers on the flight were Canadian citizens and permanent residents. "Those who lost loved ones in the downing of PS752 deserve justice," Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly tweeted on Wednesday. "We have taken an important step to advance our pursuit of that justice at the international level this week and will continue to work together to hold Iran accountable for this tragedy." https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64113070 How Hydrogen Compares To Jet Fuel In Terms Of Safety The hydrogen-based fuel can be as safe as jet fuel. Recently Simple Flying highlighted the use of hydrogen technology to power aircraft. Despite promising propositions for hydrogen-powered aircraft, significant challenges occur in the storage, handling, and infrastructure. With safety being the top priority in aviation, the safe use of hydrogen technology on aircraft is desired. Industry impression Before diving into the detailed comparison of hydrogen and jet fuel, industry perceptions around the use of hydrogen are briefed. In 1937, a hydrogen-filled passenger airship, Hinderburg (D-LZ129), caught fire during its attempt to dock at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. The airship quickly engulfed in flames, and 35 out of 97 onboard perished. The incident caused a wrong impression of using hydrogen as a fuel for aircraft. It is noteworthy that many land and space air vehicles have been using hydrogen as a fuel for decades. With extensive research and safety parameters in place, hydrogen is relatively safe compared to jet fuel. Properties of hydrogen The buoyancy of diatomic hydrogen makes the hydrogen fire less destructive to surroundings than the gasoline fire. The buoyancy keeps hydrogen flames upwards in the atmosphere. Gasoline contains hydrocarbons that tend to combust circumferentially rather than upwards in the atmosphere. Hydrogen burns a lot quicker than jet fuel and evaporates in the atmosphere more rapidly. Spilled or leaked hydrogen is likely to dissipate much quicker than jet fuel. For example, a 2,200 lb (1,000 kg) volume of jet fuel takes just over 60 seconds to dissipate. The same volume of hydrogen takes less than 2.5 seconds to disperse into the atmosphere. As such, the danger remains much smaller with hydrogen than with jet fuel in case of a spill or a leakage. Ignition and fire The auto-ignition temperature of hydrogen is higher than that of jet fuel. Jet fuel can ignite through a lit cigarette, whereas pure hydrogen will not be ignited with a lit cigarette. The hydrogen-air mixture may have a higher ignition point, depending on the percentage of air in the mix. Hydrogen radiates much more slowly with a lower ignition point due to its lower emissivity. Low emissivity of hydrogen prevents the heat from entering into insulated components in case of an isolated fire. Minor hydrogen fire could be deceiving due to its invisible flame. Jet fuel, on the other hand, has a visible flame. The toxicity of hydrogen is almost negligible compared to the toxicity of jet fuel. Jet fuel is toxic to human organs, including the liver, kidneys, and lungs. Detonation limit Hydrogen has a low detonation limit, meaning it does not detonate in a free atmosphere. Hydrogen can be used to power aircraft in a liquid state. Impact on liquid hydrogen tanks does not result in detonation. A perfect mixture of hydrogen and air may be detonated with a strong detonator (much more potent than a gunshot). Even though an internal impact of such scale is unlikely during flight, thick-walled tanks must be used to store liquid hydrogen onboard the aircraft. While the safety of hydrogen as a fuel is a concern for hydrogen-powered aircraft, its use can be as safe as jet fuel. https://simpleflying.com/hydrogen-vs-jet-fuel-safety-comparison/ NTSB Publishes Comments On Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX Crash The safety board agrees on the probable cause of the incident but feels Ethiopian investigators did not consider all possible factors. The NTSB has published comments in its final report on its investigation into the March 10th, 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8. The US federal agency made the comments public after Ethiopia's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (EAIB) failed to include the NTSB's comments into its final accident report on December 27th. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), charged with investigating transportation accidents and issuing recommendations to improve safety, generally concurred that the uncommanded nose-down inputs from the 737 MAX 8's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) system should be part of the probable cause for this accident. However, it suggests the EAIB's final report does not thoroughly discuss all the relevant factors, including the crew's inadequate use of manual electric trim and thrust to maintain airplane control and potential bird strike damage to the angle-of-attack (AOA) sensor. Potential bird strike damage The safety board's comments mention the potential bird activity at Addis Ababa Airport should be included in the report. Collins Aerospace, the manufacturer of the airplane's AOA sensor, demonstrated that the recorded data from the accident were not consistent with any internal failure of the AOA sensor; instead, the data was fully consistent with previous instances of partial AOA vane separation due to a bird strike. The EAIB draft describes the runway area search after the accident and suggests that the lack of bird remains or AOA vane remnants indicates that a foreign object did not impact the airplane. According to the safety board, the search occurred eight days after the accident. It did not include the area surrounding taxiway D. However. flight data recorder data indicated that the airplane would have been positioned above the taxiway when the left sensor data became inaccurate. Bird strikes are not new to Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. In its final report regarding a 2018 Boeing 767-300 bird strike incident, the EAIB found that Steppe and Tawny eagles are common around Addis Ababa airport. The report further recommended that the Ethiopian Airlines Group Airport authority "take practical measures to minimize/eliminate bird hazards around the airport so that arriving and departing flights are conducted safely without any human and material loss." Possible contributing factors The NTSB also suggests that the EAIB did not sufficiently develop a discussion of the accident flight crew's performance in its draft report, which focuses heavily on system design issues. The agency feels the absence of flight crew performance information will limit the opportunity to address broader and equally important safety issues. The comments note that the published probable cause indicates that the MCAS alone caused the airplane to be unrecoverable but does not take into account that if the crew had manually reduced thrust and appropriately used the manual electric trim, the aircraft might have remained controllable despite uncommanded MCAS input. The report also fails to note the operator's failure to ensure that its flight crews were prepared to respond to uncommanded stabilizer trim movement in the manner appropriate. The processes were outlined in Boeing's flight crew operating manual bulletin and the FAA's emergency airworthiness directive, which were issued four months before the accident. Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 ET-AOQ - The initial investigation The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-8 MAX, registered as ET-AVJ, was operating a regularly scheduled flight from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 10th, 2019. The aircraft came down roughly six minutes after takeoff, resulting in the loss of 157 souls onboard. Following the crash, US representatives and technical advisors traveled to Ethiopia to assist with the EAIB investigation. The US team included the NTSB, Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, and General Electric. The crew participated in the on-scene and immediate local follow-on investigative activities. Investigators were able to recover the "black box" cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, which provided information for the incident report. The Ethiopian authorities provided the NTSB with its first draft of the report last year. After a review, the NTSB responded with comments primarily focused on areas related to human factors that it believed were not fully addressed in the draft report. The most recent and expanded comments were not integrated into the final report, with EAIB including a hyperlink in their final report to an earlier NTSB's comments instead, prompting this response. https://simpleflying.com/ntsb-publishes-comments-ethiopian-airlines-boeing-737-max-crash/ Southwest Airlines staff say roughly 10K bags in limbo at STL airport Airport chaos continues Wednesday while the number of cancellations on Southwest Airlines has decreased slightly, the luggage continues to pile up. ST. LOUIS — Thousands of people are still searching for their bags at St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Southwest Airlines staff at Lambert said as of Wednesday afternoon there are roughly 7,000 bags at an airport warehouse and 3,000 bags actually in the Southwest Airlines. “It was absolutely awful trying to get any information. My family was on the customer service hotline for three hours just to find out if my bag was in Texas or in Missouri,” Southwest Passenger Jacob Knopp said. Knopp said he spent five days at the airport in Austin, Texas trying to get home to his family in St. Louis for the holidays. “There was one time where I actually got to be on the plane ready to go and I was so happy on Christmas night. But then they said that there was some sort of legal issue with flight attendants and just took us all off the plane. My Christmas was kind of ruined because of this,” Knopp said. The staff said this luggage pile up is happening for several reasons either the passenger made it, and the luggage didn’t, or the luggage made it and the passenger didn’t. The latter is what happened to Southwest passenger Christy Merrell. “I waited in line for seven hours on the day after Christmas to learn that my bag was flown on a cargo plane to Santa Ana and that it should be coming back soon,” Merrell said. Even though Knopp finally made it and found one of his bags, he’s not sure where the other one is. “I hope that I can find my stuff. I have a lot of very important stuff in there...like work equipment, Christmas presents, all sorts of stuff like that,” Knopp said. Southwest staff said they are working as fast as they can to scan each piece of luggage and contact the owners, but to make the process go faster, they have put up a web page. This is where you can claim your luggage and tell them what you want them to do with it, which has not been an option until now. Merrell said she has not been able to track her bag herself. “I have been tracking it on the phone, but you can't. There's the app and everything on the website that you normally would track. Things are just all fried and unusable,” Merrell said. If you need to file a claim with Southwest for your luggage or update a claim to add delivery or pickup instructions, click here. https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/southwest-airlines-staff-say-roughly-10k-bags-in-limbo-at-stl-airport/63-41d05344-3d1a-484f-b3f1-e86663fcfe87 Southwest Airlines flight diverted to Milwaukee due to 'potential mechanical issue' amid cancellation chaos Southwest Airlines flight 1715 diverted due to an issue 'involving one of the aircraft's flaps' Rep. Nancy Mace calls for investigation into Southwest Airlines meltdown Rep. Nancy Mace R-SC, reacts to the Southwest Airlines 'disaster' as flight cancellations and delays mount ahead of New Years holiday. A Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago to Phoenix was diverted to Milwaukee due to a "potential mechanical issue" on Wednesday afternoon, throwing a wrench in the beleaguered airline's efforts to get back on track following thousands of canceled flights in recent days. The issue on flight 1715 involved one of the aircraft's flaps, a Southwest spokesperson said. It took off from Midway International Airport at 12:45 p.m. and was taken out of service after landing safely in Milwaukee. "A different aircraft is being brought in to continue the flight to Phoenix," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "We appreciate our Customers’ patience as we work to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible." Southwest Airlines canceled thousands of flights over the Christmas weekend, leaving travelers stranded in airports across the country as they tried to get home for the holidays. The cancellations have continued this week, with 2,509 flights canceled on Wednesday and 2,348 canceled for Thursday, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan apologized to travelers on Tuesday, explaining that the airline's "highly complex" network was thrown off by the brutal winter storm that swept threw the United States over the past week, leaving dozens of crews and aircraft out of position. Casey Murray, President of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said that the chaos stems from outdated technology and was a "decade in the making." "We have sounded the alarm bells," Murray told "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on Wednesday. "We have tried to get them to change processes. But it's a combination of processes, outdated technology and infrastructure." Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said his agency will hold the airline accountable for the cancellations, while the Senate Commerce Committee announced Tuesday that it will investigate what caused the disruptions. https://www.foxnews.com/us/southwest-airlines-flight-diverted-milwaukee-potential-mechanical-issue-cancellation-chaos New FAA Policy Could Delay Aircraft Transactions A new FAA privacy policy could further delay U.S. aircraft registrations forcing buyers to temporarily register their aircraft with foreign entities. A new FAA measure to safeguard the privacy of aircraft owners could further mire the aircraft registration process in more delay. At the height of the aircraft transaction season, the FAA has blocked public access to ancillary records for aircraft ownership that are often required to complete transactions. These include documents pertaining to trusts, estates, mergers, consolidations, distributions, powers of attorney, and limited liability company statements belonging to those registered in the Civil Aircraft Registry Electronic System. However, the FAA will allow public access to a summary page of those records. Aircraft brokers and attorneys maintain that this is a half-measure that will further delay the U.S. registration of aircraft, which was already taking as long as six months, and likely force them to make time-consuming, individual requests for the records from the FAA general counsel’s office. In the interim, new owners may be forced to place aircraft on foreign registries such as Bermuda or Isle of Man in order to complete transactions, warns AIN contributor and aviation attorney David Mayer, a partner in the Dallas-based firm of Shackleford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton. “There will be delays in transactions if they [the FAA] stick by the policy, and it comes at an extremely demanding time transactionally because we're trying to get things done at year-end,” Mayer told AIN. “It’s extremely difficult to tell a client, ‘We know you want your airplane next week and we can accomplish that transactionally, but we need information from the FAA we can’t get.’” Mayer said an interim solution could be to foreign register aircraft temporarily. “You don’t need to request information [from the FAA] if you are registered elsewhere and that is what I probably will recommend [to clients] if there’s not a seamless path to get the information within the transaction timing, just do a foreign registry and then figure out how to deregister and register [the aircraft] back in the U.S. at a later time.” https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/general-aviation/2022-12-27/new-faa-policy-could-delay-aircraft-transactions 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