Flight Safety Information - January 27, 2023 No. 020 In This Issue : Incident: Argentinas E190 at Iguazo on Jan 26th 2023, burst tyres on departure : Incident: ANZ B773 at Auckland on Jan 27th 2023, runway excursion on landing : Accident: Fly Africa L410 at Juba on Jan 27th 2023, forced landing after takeoff : Incident: Canada Rouge A321 near Tampa on Jan 23rd 2023, multiple failures cause FBW change to direct law : Incident: Jeju B738 at Sapporo on Jan 26th 2023, engine shut down in flight : Florida police break up wild fight between two women and airline employee, file charges : Illegal Charters Are a Thing, and The FAA Is Not Happy About That : Proposed SMS Rule Presents Challenge For GA Operators : S7 Airlines grounds their Airbus A321neo fleet : TSA hiring at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport : Boeing rethinking its plans for China MAX jets : US sanctions UAE-based aviation firm with ties to Russia’s Wagner : ISASI - Kapustin Memorial Scholarship : RESEARCH SURVEY Incident: Argentinas E190 at Iguazo on Jan 26th 2023, burst tyres on departure An Aerolineas Argentinas Embraer ERJ-190, registration LV-CHR performing flight AR-1731 from Cataratas del Iguazo,MI to Buenos Aires Aeroparque,BA (Argentina) with 95 people on board, was enroute when the crew was informed tyre debris from their aircraft had been found on the departure runway. In consultation with dispatch and maintenance the crew decided to continue the flight to Buenos Aires but divert to Buenos Aires' Ezeiza Airport. The aircraft landed without further incident on Ezeiza's runway 11 about 100 minutes after departure. Both right hand main tyres were found blown. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=504564ec&opt=0 Incident: ANZ B773 at Auckland on Jan 27th 2023, runway excursion on landing An ANZ Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300, registration ZK-OKN performing flight NZ-124 from Melbourne,VI (Australia) to Auckland (New Zealand), landed on Auckland's runway 05R 17:40L (04:40Z) but veered right and left on the runway before vacating the runway at taxispeed via a high speed turn off. The airline reported the aircraft contacted a number of runway edge lights and damaged them. According to the NOTAMs indicating the edge lights between taxiways A8 and A9 were damaged and the ADS-B data transmitted by the aircraft the aircraft contacted the right hand edge lights. The airport reported the runway lights were repaired by about 21:30L, but shortly afterwards the airport became flooded due to torrential rains and needed to be evacuated. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=504562c4&opt=0 Accident: Fly Africa L410 at Juba on Jan 27th 2023, forced landing after takeoff A Fly Air Africa Aviation Let L-410, registration EY-473 performing a flihgt from from Juba to Lankien (South Sudan) with three passengers and 2 crew, was departing Juba's runway 31 when the aircraft needed to perform a forced gear up landing on an open field about 2nm westnorthwest of the aerodrome in the surbub Hai Referendum. The 5 occupants exited the aircraft with minor if any injuries. The airline identifies EY-473 as their own via their Facebook profile. The airport reported the "crash" is true, the plane belongs to Fly Air Africa Aviation. All 5 occupants remained uninjured, the aircraft sustained substantial damage however. An investigation is underway. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=50455e8f&opt=0 Incident: Canada Rouge A321 near Tampa on Jan 23rd 2023, multiple failures cause FBW change to direct law An Air Canada Rouge Airbus A321-200, registration C-GHQI performing flight RV-1997 from Cozumel (Mexico) to Toronto,ON (Canada) with 123 people on board, was enroute at FL370 about 250nm north of Cozumel when the flight crew received multiple successive fault messages on ECAM concerning the ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer), stabilizer, autopilot and yellow hydraulic system, as result the FBW reverted to ALTN LAW. The flight crew declared Mayday and decided to divert to Tampa,FL (USA). During the approach the FBW further downgraded to DIRECT LAW. The aircraft landed safely on Tampa's runway 01L about 50 minutes after the onset of trouble. The Canadian TSB reported the aircraft was towed to the apron due to the loss of nose wheel steering. Maintenance is investigating. The aircraft is still on the ground in Tampa 3 days later. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=5044fdb8&opt=0 Incident: Jeju B738 at Sapporo on Jan 26th 2023, engine shut down in flight A Jeju Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration HL8337 performing flight 7C-1961 from Sapporo (Japan) to Seoul (South Korea) with 187 passengers and 6 crew, was climbing out of Sapporo when the crew stopped the climb at FL200 due to the right hand engine emitting bangs and streaks of flames. The crew shut the engine down, entered a hold to burn off fuel and returned to Sapporo's New Chitose Airport for a safe landing on runway 01R about 2:30 hours after departure. The aircraft is still on the ground in Sapporo about 15 hours after landing back. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=5044e7ed&opt=0 Florida police break up wild fight between two women and airline employee, file charges Miami-Dade police arrested two women on Tuesday after getting into a fight with an airline employee at Miami International Airport. NBC station WTVJ in Miami reported that the two women were 45 minutes late for their flight and prohibited from boarding the plane, according to police. Makyan Mercer, 20, of Durham, North Carolina then threw a plastic sign at one of the airline employees and the argument quickly escalated. The employee suffered a cut on her face when the sign hit her, police said, and she was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for her injury. As Mercer was taken into custody by police, Janaeah Negash, 21, also of Durham, North Carolina interfered by standing between officers and shouting, "Don’t touch her." Police also arrested Negash, the report noted, and she was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Mercer was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and aggravated battery. A spokesperson for Frontier Airline confirmed with Fox News Digital that the two women approached one of the airline’s counters to check in for their flight after the designated cut-off time for check-in. "They became aggressive, with one of the customers physically assaulting a team member who subsequently required medical treatment," the spokesperson said. "We are providing our full support to the injured team member and are appalled by the conduct of the two customers who were ultimately arrested. Both will be permanently banned from flying with us in the future." https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-police-break-wild-fight-230437097.html Illegal Charters Are a Thing, and The FAA Is Not Happy About That Jan 26, 2023 - 14 Commentson Illegal Charters Are a Thing, and The FAA Is Not Happy About That Government Regulation Did you know that illegal charters were a thing? I had no idea, but when a spokesperson from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approached me to talk about it, I was instantly captivated by this idea. I had visions of someone running a previously-misplaced 727 to shuttle people from Sheboygan to West Africa at 500 feet to avoid radar, but of course it’s nothing that amazing. Illegal charters are usually on aircraft of a much smaller scale, often by a company with someone licensed to fly airplanes… but not with the right licensing, training, safety, or maintenance program to actually carry passengers for money. But not all of these violations are small, including one case that actually involved baseball team charters. This appears to be a chronic issue, and the FAA ends up playing whack-a-mole with these fly-by-night operations. In fact, it’s a big enough problem that the FAA has formed a so-called Special Emphasis Investigations Team to really dig into what it calls “complex cases.” It puts out a list of legal/licensed air charter operators to help consumers, though having the page titled “Part 135 Aircraft Listing from OpSpec D085” doesn’t really seem like it’s going to make it easy for people to find or understand. I’ve been able to look through several enforcement actions, and man, is this world crazy. In general, it seems like some small mom-and-pop aircraft operator that picks people up and flies them somewhere for money, but like I said, it can be much bigger. In most cases, these are people who are properly licensed to fly airplanes, as I mentioned. If your buddy has a plane and you want a ride, you can pay for gas and that’s no problem. But once it turns into payment for services, then that puts this into a whole different world of Part 135 charter flying that has significantly more regulations to protect passengers. Just check out some of these I’ve been reading about. TapJets Gets an Emergency Revocation TapJets is a company that at one point had an actual certificate, so I suppose that gives them a leg up. The thing is, you can have a certificate and still fly airplanes in ways you aren’t allowed to fly them. It did just that back in 2016. The airline had a BAe 125 which it did not have on its Operations Specifications (OpSpec) as required, but that didn’t stop it from flying from New Orleans/Lakefront to Shenandoah Valley with at least one paying passenger. It did the same from Monterey to Aspen, Naples (FL) to Atlanta, and Spring (TX) to Las Vegas. This was no isolated incident. If that’s not problematic enough, it flew a Falcon 10 from Batesville (AR) to Mesquite (TX). That wasn’t a problem in itself, but the pilot just happened to not have an Airlines Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate, so he had no business flying any paying passengers. There were more pilot problems, including a second-in-command who wasn’t trained properly and held nothing more than his student pilot certificate. It was easy to catch TapJets in the act since they had sent out quotes to clients offering these services. By the end of 2017, the FAA revoked the airline’s certificate. It seems, incredibly, that TapJets still exists but not as an operator. As it says on its website: TapJets Technologies Inc, arranges flights on behalf of our clients with FAA Certified FAR Part 135 direct air carriers that exercise full operational control of charter flights at all times. All flights purchased on our platform will be operated by FAR Part 135 direct air carriers that have been certified to provide service for TapJets charter clients and that meet all FAA safety standards. Your itinerary will clearly state the name of the certified operator conducting your flight. Rosado Aviation Goes Rogue This might be one of my favorite ones in that Rosado so blatantly ignored pretty much all the laws. Between May 2019 and February 2021, Rosado flew at least 52 flights as an air carrier, but it has no certificate or people in any of the required positions to actually get a certificate. Rosado, it seems, used a Cessna 560, a Beech B200, and a Beech F90 to fly private flights mostly for companies. I see here mentioned Brynfan Associates and Metz Culinary Management going all over the place, ranging from the Scranton – Presque Isle route all the way to Greensville – Sarasota and Lubbock – Tucson. The fake airline was fined more than $1.1 million for doing this, but the FAA tells me that Rosado still hasn’t settled. Weathervane Aviation Services Makes Bank Weathervane Aviation Services apparently was a real company, but in reality it was just somebody who created an LLC and not much more. Using two Cessna 402Cs, this guy went out and did a deal with U.S. Drywall to fly a daily shuttle between New Bedford and Nantucket for $25,000 a month. After one month in 2016, Weathervane had flown 52 flights, and the FAA sent an email saying this was not allowed without a certificate. What did this person do? Oh nothing… just flew another 634 flights in the next three quarters. Then he renewed the contract and flew another 550 or so flights. It seems like the FAA needs some more physical enforcement power to actually stop these people from running these flights, because all it could do was put down a $1,001,000 fine. The owner clearly didn’t care, and he would not settle. The FAA has now “per our standard protocols, referred the case to the U.S. Department of Justice for further action.” Humes McCoy Aviation Put Your Packages at Risk Humes McCoy is, to the surprise of nobody, a Florida-based company. It had a few props and somehow convinced UPS that it was legitimate. It ended up flying dozens of Cessna Grand Caravan flights for UPS from Raleigh-Durham to Jacksonville (NC), New Bern, and Dare County (NC). It also ran Beech King Air from Columbia (SC) on short-hauls and a Casa 212 out of Cedar Rapids (IA). I can’t help but wonder how the heck UPS allowed this to happen, but maybe when you aren’t carrying passengers, you care a little less. I dunno. Either way, this was a big one, and the FAA agreed to settle for a mere $5.9 million… but Humes McCoy has not settled and again this one is heading to the Department of Justice. Sports Teams Go Illegal with Paradigm This may be the strangest one of all. Paradigm Air Operators, Inc had its certificate revoked at the dawn of the pandemic. Why is this strange? Because this wasn’t a small fly-by-night that could easily evade detection. Paradigm did have a certificate, and it flew 2 757-200s and a 737-400. It flew its flights on high profile routes with high profile customers. For example, it flew the Dolan family — founders of HBO and Cablevision — from St Louis to Cleveland and on to the Caymans. It also regularly flew on behalf of Private Jet Services Group for a variety of travelers all over. What’s most fascinating to me, however, is it got into sports charters, flying the Oakland A’s, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Texas Rangers, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Cleveland Indians despite having no legal authority to do so. It’s not like the teams were dealing with them directly. They apparently went through a broker who then got a nice commission from Paradigm. But that was the tip of the iceberg. Paradigm was flying all around the world and seemingly had no concerns about the legality of it all. Paradigm did have a certificate, but it was a certificate that only allowed noncommon or private carriage operations. That’s not enough. It also used pilots who were not adequately trained, and it didn’t have the economic authority. The scale of some of these violations is really remarkable. I can’t believe that this happens so regularly, but I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising considering there is good money to be made. If you’re worried about this, the FAA says these are some warning signs to look for: • If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. • If the company provides the aircraft and at least one crewmember, yet attempts to transfer operational control to the passenger. • No Federal Excise Tax charge. Legitimate operators have to charge this. • A lack of a safety briefing or passenger briefing cards. • Any evasiveness to questions or concerns. Legitimate operators should be transparent and helpful. • If the pilot or someone associated with the company coaches passengers on what to say or do if an FAA aviation inspector meets the aircraft at its destination. https://crankyflier.com/2023/01/26/illegal-charters-are-a-thing-and-the-faa-is-not-happy-about-that/ Proposed SMS Rule Presents Challenge For GA Operators NASHVILLE—NBAA welcomed the extension of the comment period for the FAA's safety management system (SMS) proposed rule, which the association views as the biggest regulatory issue general aviation has faced in more than a decade. The FAA proposes to update and expand its Part 5 requirement for SMS implementation beyond airlines to include Part 135 charter operators, Part 91.147 air tour operators and aircraft manufacturers. The agency published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register on Jan. 11 and previously set a March 13 deadline for comments. The comment period has been extended to April 12. If adopted as proposed, the rule would affect about 2,600 charter and air tour operators of all sizes, requiring them to implement organization-wide SMS programs to manage safety risk. Companies ranging from fleet operators to single-pilot, single-aircraft operators would have two years after a final rule is published to introduce their programs. The FAA estimates that about 200 operators participate in its SMS voluntary program, which operators have found difficult to implement, Douglas Carr, NBAA senior vice president of safety, security, sustainability and international operations, said Jan. 25. “Scalability is a very big component of whether or not the implementation of Part 5 is going to be successful,” Carr said. “We’ve heard a variety of feedback from operators who have attempted to pursue the FAA’s voluntary program and weren’t able to get very far before the workload consumed them and they weren’t able to see the value of the safety components that they were trying to get out of the program. I think there are far more starts than finishes to the program that we’re aware of.” Carr spoke during a special SMS session at the NBAA Schedulers and Dispatchers Conference that was scheduled after the FAA’s release of the NPRM in early January. In conversation after the session, he compared the pending rule to the biggest regulatory issue the GA industry has faced since the Transportation Security Administration in 2008 proposed, but ultimately withdrew, a requirement that operators implement a Large Aircraft Security Program. “I believe it’s going to be difficult, if not nearly impossible, for NBAA to oppose this [SMS] rule,” Carr told conference attendees. “We have been strong supporters of SMS for close to 20 years, and now to say SMS mandates are bad—that destroys a lot of credibility. What I think we’re going to be able to do is to help the FAA define what success looks like, and scalability is going to be the key to that.” Provisions of the proposed Part 5 update that are expected to have the most impact on GA operators, Carr said, include requiring companies to have a code of ethics and a confidential employee reporting system; changed definitions of words such as “hazard,” to more closely align with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) definitions; and requiring operators to maintain descriptions of the products and services provided by their companies as well as by interfacing persons and companies such as FBOs that contribute to the overall safety of products and services. The NPRM also represents a “fascinating intersection” of two major issues facing Part 135 operators—SMS and Part 135 flight and duty time requirements, “something the industry and the FAA have been struggling to address for about the last 30 years, unsuccessfully at this point,” Carr said. “The FAA has asked us, the industry and the public, to comment on whether we feel flight and duty time can be effectively managed through an SMS,” he advised. “[It’s] an interesting question, one that I think takes us to a program that many folks know of as a fatigue risk management system, which is a safety- and data-driven process for managing fatigue. It’s unclear where we may end up on this.” W. Ashley Smith Jr., president and operations director of Part 135 air medical provider Jet Logistics, said the company he founded in 2002 adopted the safety-centric International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO) voluntary standard when it planned to start flying to Bermuda, which required an internationally recognized SMS. The Johns Island, South Carolina-based company operates a fleet of 16 Citation, Lear and Hawker jets for patient and donor organ transport. During the question period, Smith asked: “Why could [the FAA] not look at IS-BAO as a deemed status? In states that require medical licensure for the business that I’m in, if you’re an accredited body, you don’t have to prove that you meet the requirements of the state because you’ve proven it to an independent third-party auditor. If you’ve done that in the case of IS-BAO, you’ve proven that you have an acceptable SMS. And that’s a little bit more scalable than Part 5.” Speaking later with BCA, Smith said Jet Logistics started implementing an SMS through the FAA’s voluntary program but abandoned the effort after finding that it was detracting from the IS-BAO process, which involves three progressive stages of maturity. “What concerns me is that the FAA will do one of two things,” Smith said. “They will either just simply make Part 5 applicable to us, which would make it complicated and overly burdensome, or they would try to mirror something like their voluntary program, which is also complicated and overly burdensome. That’s why I talk about, is there a way we could sell them on IS-BAO because a lot of industry has already embraced it and already started down that path. So, you would have a lot faster implementation. The problem is that the FAA does not like to outsource things.” Carr said NBAA had sought an extension of 30-60 days to the comment period for the FAA’s SMS proposed rule to gather more information from operators to help craft the new regulation. “A very significant portion” of the 1,907 Part 135 operators the FAA estimates would be affected by the regulation have one pilot and one airplane, and most of those are small piston-powered aircraft, Carr said. By percentage, the majority of those operators are based in Alaska. The FAA has also questioned in the NPRM if smaller operators should be included; it estimates there are 694 operators flying under Part 91.147. “When we’re thinking through this, the scale of the operator that I’m trying to understand is the smallest of the small, the one-person, one-aircraft operator who is either doing an air tour or maybe delivering mail up in Alaska,” Carr said. “How is this going to look for them? Not that it can’t [succeed] but what does it look like?” https://aviationweek.com/business-aviation/safety-ops-regulation/proposed-sms-rule-presents-challenge-ga-operators S7 Airlines grounds their Airbus A321neo fleet S7, Russia’s second-largest airline, has stopped all flights on their Airbus A321neo aircraft. The airline claims that the jets are being prepared for the summer season, though Russian social media channels suggest the grounding is a result of engine problems. According to Planespotters, S7 owns eight A321neos, seven of them currently operational. Flightradar data shows that all of them stopped performing flights by January 16, 2023, in some cases even earlier. Aviation-focused Russian Telegram channel FrequentFlyers was the first to spot this trend. According to the channel’s post, the A321neos were replaced on the airline’s routes with A321ceos and A320neos. The channel claims S7 is experiencing problems with Pratt & Whitney engines mounted on the aircraft, arguing that other Russian airlines which operate A321neos with CFM engines did not ground their fleets. S7 responded to the allegations on the evening of January 26, saying that the aircraft in question are not grounded but are in fact being prepared for the next season. Russian state news service TASS has quoted a spokesperson for S7 Airlines as saying: “Traditionally, during the winter season, a part of our aircraft fleet undergoes planned maintenance to prepare them for the summer season. Fewer routes require aircraft with large passenger capacity due to seasonal drop in demand.” Along with other Russian airlines, S7 is a subject of export sanctions from the US and the EU. Airbus aircraft, operated by the airline, are not supported by the manufacturer since the sanctions were announced in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. S7 received their A321neos between 2017 and 2021. All the aircraft were leased, and the airline did not return them to lessors as recommended by the Russian government. The jets were reregister in Russia in April 2022. Since then some Russian airlines, including S7, ‘legalized’ the commandeered aircraft by officially buying them from the lessors. However, it is unclear if the A321neos in question have been purchased in this way. https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/s7-airlines-grounds-their-airbus-a321neo-fleet TSA hiring at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport The agency is expecting to see a higher number of travelers in the coming months and needs additional officers to assist with security. CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — The TSA is looking for new recruits ahead of the spring and summer travel seasons. The agency is expecting to see a higher number of travelers in the coming months and need additional officers to assist with security. Both full and part-time positions are open with a starting salary of $38,353 for anyone hired before July. That pay rate nearly doubles for anyone who keeps their job for two years. You can find out more here. “The TSA is an agency that protects our national security and it is staffed by well trained and professional officers who ensure the millions of passengers who transit through airport arrive at their destination safely. It is also a personally rewarding Federal job that offers significant benefits and annual opportunities to see healthy salary increases,” said Bart R. Johnson, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the airports in Upstate New York. Applicants do not need past experience working in security or law enforcement. New hires will receive extensive training. Benefits of working at TSA include paid training, paid sick leave, a retirement plan, and health care. https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/tsa-hiring-at-airport/71-22256150-c861-4d29-b051-976c34c4ee84 Boeing rethinking its plans for China MAX jets Boeing CEO this week struck an optimistic tone about the prospects of the 737 MAX in China. That followed the jet's long-awaited return to service in the country earlier this month. The Boeing Co. is rethinking its efforts to re-market stored 737 MAX jet earmarked for customer in China as operations of the aircraft there accelerate since its recent return in the country. The manufacturer last fall said it would look to find new buyers for some of the roughly 138 MAXes its was still storing for Chinese airlines as part of the inventory built up during the aircraft’s grounding. But with MAX flights having finally resumed in China, Boeing CEO David Calhoun said on Wednesday that the company would be slowing and likely pausing altogether the sales pitch on those jets to new buyers. Asked directly by an analyst on Boeing’s (NYSE: BA) quarterly conference call following fourth-quarter earnings if the company would continue re-marketing the planes, Calhoun said: “Yes, but only partially and as of now, when you see the sort of the results of that effort, you can assume that we'll be on pause with respect to that … until we understand completely where China wants to go,” Calhoun said. “So the answer is yes and you'll see progress, but you'll also see a pause so that we can discern what China wants to do, and hopefully that's good news.” The MAX was grounded globally for 20 months beginning in March 2019 following two crashes in less than five months that killed all 346 people aboard the aircraft. China was the first country to ground the MAX, and remained the most noteworthy holdout in returning the jet to service — a dynamic roundly believed to have been caught up in trade tensions between Washington D.C. and Beijing. China Southern Airlines earlier this month operated the first passenger MAX flights in China since the grounding, marking the narrow-body aircraft’s return from a nearly four-year hiatus in one of aerospace’s most important international markets. Calhoun agreed in broad terms with analyst figures shared on the call that 60 MAX flights have now occurred in China since and that around 220 revenue flights are on the books for Chinese carriers in February. But for now, the chief executive said Boeing would focus on returning the roughly 100 MAX jets China still has on the sideline before turning its attention to new deliveries to the country. “For six months I think that's the course for all of us to stay focused on,” Calhoun said. “And then we're going to take up the question of deliveries, and is there a moment in time where that begins to come back. I don't want to predict that date … but the odds go up every day our MAX gets back into service. And the airplanes that we have on our tarmacs, hopefully, we get ready and deliver to our customers.” Deliveries are crucial to the manufacturer’s bottom line, as they are typically the point at which the bulk of an aircraft order is paid for by the customer. Boeing in November released a production and financial outlook past the middle of the decade that did not include potential deliveries to China as a means of “de-risking” its forecast for investors. Calhoun reiterated Wednesday that that remains the case for now. “I think there's a reason to be optimistic,” he said. “(But) we will not change guidance and/or predict those outcomes until they actually occur.” Spirit AeroSystems Inc. in Wichita builds the full fuselage and other components on the MAX, the structural lion’s share of a 737 that remains the most important individual aircraft program to the local economy. None of Spirit’s (NYSE: SPR) work was implicated in either crash, though Boeing-installed software was acknowledged as a factor in each. Boeing was arraigned in U.S. federal court on Thursday on a fraud charge related to the MAX crashes. The company pleaded not guilty, according to a report from Reuters. https://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/news/2023/01/26/boeing-rethinking-its-plans-for-china-max-jets.html?utm_source=sy&utm_medium=nsyp&utm_campaign=yh US sanctions UAE-based aviation firm with ties to Russia’s Wagner Washington says UAE-based Kratol Aviation helped Wagner operations ship personnel and weapons to Libya, the Central African Republic and Mali. The Biden administration slapped economic sanctions Thursday on a United Arab Emirates-based aviation company for its alleged role in transporting Russia’s Wagner mercenaries to conflict zones abroad. “The Wagner Group uses Kratol-provided aircraft to move personnel and equipment between the [Central African Republic], Libya and Mali,” the US Treasury Department announced. Wagner operatives have been accused of war crimes in all three of those countries. Kratol was targeted “for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, PMC Wagner,” the US statement read. Al-Monitor reached out to Kratol via WhatsApp, using a phone number provided on the company’s website. The message was seen, but no reply was issued. The move came amid a slew of other sanctions against Wagner-linked firms and individuals, including Russian defense contractors, alleged Wagner front groups in the Central African Republic and two Russian government officials accused of preparing Moscow’s annexation referendum in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region last year. On Thursday the Treasury formally labelled Wagner a “significant transnational criminal organization” after the White House announced the move late last week. Why it matters: The sanctions on UAE-based Kratol are the latest shot across the bow as Washington seeks to cut off Wagner’s ability to operate and source weapons abroad. “As sanctions and export controls on Russia from our international continue to bite, the Kremlin is desperately searching for arms and support — including through the brutal Wagner group — to continue its unjust war in Ukraine,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the press release announcing the sanctions. “Today’s expanded sanctions on Wagner, as well as new sanctions on their associates and other companies enabling the Russian military complex, will further impede Putin’s ability to arm and equip his war machine,” Yellen said. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said last week that the mercenary group, led by President Vladimir Putin's crony Yevgeniy Prigozhin, was emerging as “a rival power center” to Russia’s Defense Ministry amid the war in Ukraine. Prigozhin has sought to distinguish himself in the eyes of the Kremlin by enlisting tens of thousands of convicts and thrusting them onto the front lines of vicious fighting for control of the key areas of Bakhmut and Soledar in Ukraine’s east, US officials have said. Know more: In 2020, the US Defense Intelligence Agency divulged in a public report that the UAE had been funding Wagner’s operations in Libya. Early last year, the Biden administration greenlit a decision by the Paris-based international Financial Action Task Force to greylist the UAE for failing to sufficiently crack down on money laundering on its shores. Contacted by Al-Monitor, the UAE embassy in Washington was not immediately available for a comment. https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/01/us-sanctions-uae-based-aviation-firm-ties-russias-wagner#ixzz7rbNzfPsa ISASI - Kapustin Memorial Scholarship The Kapustin Memorial Scholarship for 2023 is now open! Royal Aeronautical Society: Human Factors Group: Engineer conference 2023 Better by Design: Designing Out Maintenance Error 9 February 2023 at 4 Hamilton Place, London, W1J 7BQ and online 0900 - 1730 GMT Are you or your Company, or Organisation involved in designing aircraft and their systems, or in maintaining aircraft that you think could be designed in a way that would make maintenance more efficient and less prone to mistakes? Do you educate or train people who go on to design aircraft or their systems? Have you an involvement in setting standards or regulating design organisations? When things do go wrong, are you involved in trying to understand why? Then this is the conference for you. RAeS Human Factors Specialist Group Conference: Better by Design - Designing Out Maintenance Error (aerosociety.com) RESEARCH SURVEY Greetings, My name is Nurettin Dinler, Research Scholar and PhD student at Department of Aviation Science, Saint Louis University working with Nithil Bollock Kumar, PhD Candidate, Gajapriya Tamilselvan, PhD, and Stephen Belt, PhD. We are working on a research project titled “Low-Cost Airline Pilots on Exercising Fuel-Loading Policies during Flight: A Phenomenological Exploration Study.” I am writing this e-mail to invite you to participate in a research study that we are conducting at Saint Louis University. Your participation in this study will involve taking a semi-structured interview that lasts for about 30 minutes. During the interview, you will be questioned about your experiences with Low-Cost Airlines’ fuel-loading policies developed to minimize pilot discretionary (extra) fuel. There is no compensation provided for your participation in the study. However, your participation will be a valuable addition to our research and your findings could lead to greater understanding of risk management for pilots and the sources of stressors in commercial aviation. Participation is completely voluntary, and your participation will remain confidential throughout the process of research. If you are interested in participating in this research, please take a moment to complete the survey at the following link: https://slu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0l9Awl5UkXDiKRo If you have any questions, please contact me at 321-245-8628 or nurettin.dinler@slu.edu Thank you for your time and consideration. Regards, Nurettin Dinler, M.S. Research Scholar Oliver L. Parks Department of Aviation Science School of Science and Engineering McDonnell Douglas Hall, Lab 1046 3450 Lindell Blvd., St Louis, MO 63103 nurettin.dinler@slu.edu (321) 245-8628 Curt Lewis