Flight Safety Information - February 28, 2023 No. 040 In This Issue : Accident: Niugini F70 at Port Moresby on Feb 20th 2023, loss of cabin pressure : Incident: Spicejet B738 at Kolkata on Feb 27th 2023, engine failure on departure, possibly uncontained : Incident: TUI Belgium B738 at Amsterdam on Feb 27th 2023, tail strike on departure : Incident: KLM A332 at Sint Maarten on Feb 26th 2023, nose gear steering malfunction : Pilot makes 360-degree turn at 37,000ft to let passengers view northern lights : DGCA's significantly increased checks to ensure flight safety: Arun Kumar : Medical aircraft likely broke apart midair in Nevada before crashing, killing 5, NTSB says : New Jersey man tried to board airplane with numerous firearms, DOJ says : Scientists pour cold water on UK aviation’s net zero ambitions : Singapore to buy eight more F-35B jets : Graduate Research Survey Accident: Niugini F70 at Port Moresby on Feb 20th 2023, loss of cabin pressure An Air Niugini Fokker 70, registration P2-ANT performing flight PX-188 from Port Moresby to Mount Hagen (Papua New Guinea) with 67 people on board, had been on approach to Mount Hagen but could not land in Mount Hagen due to weather conditions and returned to Port Moresby. The aircraft climbed to FL310 enroute but suffered the loss of cabin pressure. The aircraft performed a relatively normal approach to Port Moresby descending through 10,000 feet about 14 minutes after leaving FL310 and landed on runway 14L about 2:10 hours after departure. 7 people sustained serious, 15 people minor injuries. Papua New Guinea's PIC reported they were informed about the occurrence only 2 days later and wrote: "On disembarking the aircraft at Jacksons Airport, a passenger of the occurrence flight alerted Air Niugini Customer Service that a few passengers from the flight were bleedingfrom the ears and nose. On assessing the injured passengers, Air Niugini Customer Service then activated a response plan and had the injured passengers transported to Pacific International Hospital for further medical assessment.It was reported that atotal of 22 persons were injured;7 persons had serious injuries and were admitted, 6 persons were under review, and 9 persons were discharged from the hospital." The AIC is investigating the accident. https://avherald.com/h?article=505b9ae9&opt=0 Incident: Spicejet B738 at Kolkata on Feb 27th 2023, engine failure on departure, possibly uncontained A Spicejet Boeing 737-800, registration VT-SGG performing flight SG-83 (STD Feb 26th, ATD Feb 27th) from Kolkata (India) to Bangkok (Thailand) with 178 passengers and 6 crew, was accelerating for takeoff from Kolkata's runway 19R when the left hand engine (CFM56) failed. The crew continued takeoff, climbed to 2000 feet and returned to Kolkata for a safe landing on runway 19R about 17 minutes after departure. The airport reported one of the engine blades had fractured and separated. The left engine cowl shows a puncture just aft of the the engine inlet. A replacement Boeing 737-8 MAX registration VT-MXE reached Bangkok with a delay of about 6:45 hours. https://avherald.com/h?article=505b96ab&opt=0 Incident: TUI Belgium B738 at Amsterdam on Feb 27th 2023, tail strike on departure A TUI Airlines Belgium Boeing 737-800, registration OO-JAY performing flight OR-1631 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Las Palmas,CI (Spain), was departing Amsterdam's runway 36L at 10:35L (09:35Z) when upon rotation the tail contacted the runway surface. The crew stopped the climb at FL090 and returned to Amsterdam for a landing on runway 36R without further incident about 30 minutes after departure. The Dutch Onderzoeksraad (DSB) reported they have dispatched investigators on site. A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration OO-JAF is currently enroute estimated to reach Las Palmas with a delay of about 6 hours. https://avherald.com/h?article=505b9431&opt=0 Incident: KLM A332 at Sint Maarten on Feb 26th 2023, nose gear steering malfunction A KLM Airbus A330-200, registration PH-AOF performing flight KL-729 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Sint Maarten (Sint Maarten), landed on Sint Maarten's runway 10 and slowed to taxi speed. While turning around to backtrack the runway to the apron the aircraft experienced a malfunction of the nose gear steering system disabling the aircraft on the runway. The aircraft needed to be towed to the apron. The aircraft is still on the ground in Sint Maarten about 19 hours after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=505b8036&opt=0 Pilot makes 360-degree turn at 37,000ft to let passengers view northern lights The controlled detour at 37,000ft west of the Faroe Islands took just less than 10 minutes and occurred shortly after 8.30pm on Monday. An easyJet flight made a 360-degree turn to allow its passengers to watch an “amazing display” of the northern lights as it flew over the northern tip of the UK. On Monday evening, passengers on flight U21806 from Reykjavik in Iceland to Manchester Airport were able to take pictures of the celestial spectacle after the pilot decided to perform the circular turn. The controlled detour to the west of the Faroe Islands took just less than 10 minutes and occurred shortly after 8.30pm, while the Airbus A320 was flying at an altitude of 37,000ft (11,000m) and at a little under 500mph, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.com. A spokesperson from easyJet told the PA news agency: “We are pleased that the captain on our flight from Reykjavik to Manchester yesterday evening was able to perform a controlled manoeuvre in order to allow passengers to witness an amazing display from the air of one of nature’s greatest sights, the aurora borealis. “Our crew will always go above and beyond for our customers and we’re delighted to have been able to share this special view of the northern lights with them.” Photographs of the northern lights taken by the easyJet passengers have been shared widely on social media, showing hues of green and pink lighting up the night sky. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/pilot-faroe-islands-iceland-reykjavik-manchester-airport-b2291135.html DGCA's significantly increased checks to ensure flight safety: Arun Kumar We have significantly increased surveillance and spot checks. Where it used to be around 2,500 per year, DGCA is doing 4,000 spot checks a year now. After a few successive incidents, we also started doing night checks whenever we found that the aircraft was old but not maintained properly. DGCA inspected those aircraft and did not allow them to operate the next day till the time rectification was not done, said Director General of DGCA Arun Kumar . Indian civil aviation regulator is bracing for a change. Director General of DGCA Arun Kumar retires at the end of February. In this interview with Arindam Majumder, Kumar speaks about the progress and challenges made by the regulator, the challenges of maintaining air safety post Covid. India cracked the 50-mark for the first time in ICAO’s safety ranking recently; how robust is India’s aviation safety mechanism? India ICAO checks whether a country’s safety oversight program of aviation governance is strong enough to ensure safe travel. As part of that, they check the country’s aviation body has legislation backing, the regulator is well staffed to enforce, whether the body is properly licensing the personnels to carry out aircraft operations. It is a very scientific approach developed by ICAO to ensure robust safety regulation. India has significantly improved in all these areas which helped us to get a historic high rank in the audit What are the challenges that needs to be corrected in the aviation safety regulation of India? The areas in which we still are weak and where there is enough scope for improvement is aircraft accident investigation. We still need to make lot of strides in that area because learning about how an accident occurs helps to correct the faults to ensure that it will not happen in future. But all of this can be improved; we should now target to score 90% and break into the top 25 countries in the ICAO rankings How have you adjusted to the challenge that COVID brought in when financially weaker airlines started to cut corners on safety? We have significantly increased surveillance and spot checks. Where it used to be around 2,500 per year, DGCA is doing 4,000 spot checks a year now. After a few successive incidents, we had also started doing night checks whenever we found that the aircraft was old but not maintained properly. DGCA inspected those aircraft and did not allow it to operate the next day till the time rectification was not done. DGCA also identified a few airlines with weak finances and did systematic audit of their full system DGCA in the last few months have brought in work hour regulations for air traffic controllers, have brought in regulation mandating that only properly certified senior technicians can release an aircraft after the snag is rectified. This has significantly improved India’s aviation safety system proven by the fact that there have been no fatal accidents except the Air India Express incident at Calicut. Many have advocated for an independent Civil Aviation Authority for India which has its own power and is not an arm of ministry. Your views on that? The one area which is a matter of concern is availability of technical manpower in DGCA. Like there was a shortage of Flight Operations Inspector. They are pilots and they will want to be paid by industry standard which we are not able to. This is due to DGCA’s lack of financial power and the long process that it takes it to be approved from multiple level of the government. India’s capacity is exploding and many more aircraft will come rapidly. DGCA will also have to upgrade and strengthen itself. We are filling up 400-odd technical posts, over the next two years. We have a plan to add 1,000 more people by 2030. Debates have raged over if the chair of DGCA should be headed by someone with aviation experience and not an IAS. How do you look at this? A study was done in respect to that and it was found that among many developed countries it is a divided house. There was no set rule. Expertise in DGCA is very specific. While one can be an expert in air-worthiness he may not know anything about aerodromes. DGCA also regularly works in tandem with state authorities which are headed by civil service officers. Keeping that in mind, I think a bureaucrat having all round experience is suited to head the DGCA with able assistance from DGCA officials. What needs to be ensured by the head of DGCA remains a watchdog. That it remains a regulator and not a cheer leader. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/dgcas-significantly-increased-checks-to-ensure-flight-safety/articleshow/98288000.cms?from=mdr Medical aircraft likely broke apart midair in Nevada before crashing, killing 5, NTSB says Debris from single-engine Pilatus PC-12 recovered up to three-quarters a mile from crash site near Stagecoach, Nevada A medical transport flight carrying five passengers apparently broke apart midair before crashing in Nevada on Friday night, killing everyone aboard, including a patient, officials said Sunday. The single-engine Pilatus PC-12 aircraft is believed to have broken up before crashing into the ground in a mountainous area near Stagecoach, Nevada, after investigators found debris from the plane nearly a mile away from the crash site, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said. "How do we know if the airplane broke up in flight? We found parts of the airplane one-half to three-quarters of a mile away," NTSB Vice Chair Bruce Landsberg said during a news briefing. The aircraft was en route from Reno, Nevada to Salt Lake City according to the NTSB. The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane, which was built in 2002, was registered to Guardian Flight. The medical air transport flight, operated by Guardian Flight, crashed on Feb. 24 while enroute from Reno, Nevada, to Salt Lake City. Care Flight, a service of REMSA Health in Reno and Guardian Flight, identified the downed aircraft and said the pilot, a flight nurse, a flight paramedic, a patient and a patient’s family member all died. The pilot, a flight nurse, a flight paramedic, a patient and a patient’s family member all died in the crash, according to Care Flight, a service of the plane's operator, Guardian Flight. Poor weather and visibility were reported at the time of the crash. The National Weather Service had issued a winter storm warning issued in Reno for large swaths of Nevada, including parts of Lyon County. It was snowing steadily with winds around 20 mph and gusts up to 30 mph. NTSB investigators documenting the wreckage of a Pilatus PC-12 airplane at the crash site in Dayton, Nevada. Visibility was under two miles with a cloud ceiling about 2,000 feet above the ground when the flight left Reno for Salt Lake City and went down, according to the weather service. Debris from the aircraft was found strewn up to three-quarters a mile away from the crash site, raising the likelihood the plane broke apart midair, NTSB said. An NTSB team is investigating the wreckage to determine a possible cause of the fatal crash. "Right now, we just don't know. This is like a three-dimensional puzzle," Landsberg said. "It's harder when you don't have the pieces all in one place." https://www.foxnews.com/us/medical-aircraft-likely-broke-apart-midair-nevada-crashing-killing-5-ntsb-says New Jersey man tried to board airplane with numerous firearms, DOJ says A New Jersey man was arrested last year for trying to board a plane with an armory's worth of weapons in his luggage, the Justice Department said Monday. In a press release, the DOJ said that Seretse Clouden, 42, of Wilmington, New Jersey, was arrested on Dec. 30 at Newark Liberty International Airport. During a routine screening of Clouden's checked luggage, the DOJ said, TSA officers discovered "two .40 caliber Glock magazines, each containing 15 rounds of .40 caliber ammunition." Upon further inspection of his additional luggage, Clouden was found to be transporting "an ASP expandable baton, a spring-loaded knife, a taser, a .40 caliber Glock 22 handgun, a .308 caliber DPMS Panther Arms rifle, and one 5.56 caliber AR-15 rifle," the DOJ said. Clouden also had in his possession a vest with the words "U.S. Marshal" and a Marshal's badge and credentials with his picture. The DOJ's official criminal complaint noted that "the United States Marshal Service confirmed that Clouden is not, and was not, employed [as a Marshal]," and that the materials were fake. Clouden was charged with unlawful possession of firearms by a felon, as well as fraudulent possession of an ID document, the DOJ said. These charges together could carry a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. This is not Clouden's first brush with the law, NBC News reports, as he previously pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a weapon in 2016. News of Clouden's arrest followed the TSA's disclosure that it intercepted more firearms in 2022 than ever before; 6,542 guns were discovered by airport security last year, an average of 18 per day. "It's absolutely not acceptable for firearms to be anywhere near checkpoints," TSA spokesman R. Carter Langston said in a statement. https://news.yahoo.com/jersey-man-tried-board-airplane-234416740.html Scientists pour cold water on UK aviation’s net zero ambitions Country would need to devote half its farmland or more than double its renewable electricity supply, says study The UK would have to devote half its farmland or more than double its total renewable electricity supply to make enough aviation fuel to meet its ambitions for “jet zero”, or net zero flying, scientists have said. A report published on Tuesday by the Royal Society argues there is no single, clear, sustainable alternative to jet fuel that could support the current level of flying. The scientists say that while the government and aviation industry have set a target of 2050 to balance out emissions, huge challenges remain around the availability, costs and impacts of alternative fuels, as well as the need for new types of planes and airport infrastructure around the world to allow the most probable long-term solutions. Significant further research and investment would be needed, the scientists say, to address questions across four fuel types – green hydrogen (made from water using renewable energy), biofuels (energy crops and waste), ammonia and synthetic fuels or e-fuels. Producing enough biofuels would require about half of UK agricultural land, while other feedstocks such as municipal waste could only contribute “a very small fraction” of the jet fuel requirements, they report. Making sufficient green hydrogen or ammonia to power future planes would require well over double today’s entire UK renewable electricity generation capacity. E-fuels or synthetic fuels – which are made by capturing and converting carbon dioxide from the air – would require five to eight times today’s UK capacity. The Royal Society said the findings underscored the challenges of decarbonising aviation, and much work remained to be done in how such fuels were stored and handled – as well as their actual environmental impacts in production and when used in flight. Aviation’s CO2 accounted for 2.4% of global emissions in 2019. UK aviation (both international and domestic) caused 8% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Graham Hutchings, the regius professor of chemistry at Cardiff University and chair of the report working group, said: “We need to be very clear about the strengths, limitations, and challenges that must be addressed and overcome if we are to scale up the required new technologies in a few short decades.” The report said more research was needed to understand how alternative fuels would impact contrails, which contributes significantly to aviation’s heating effect. Sustainability would depend on how fuel alternatives were produced, said Prof Marcelle McManus, a director of the Institute for Sustainability at University of Bath. “We need consistency, and we need to apply this globally, because adopting any of these new technologies will create demands and pressures for land, renewable energy or other products that may have knock on environmental or economic effects.” While airlines are looking to sustainable fuels to reduce CO2 emissions by 70-80%, McManus said that for a number of different fuels types labelled as sustainable that was “definitely not the case” that would result from a switch. Dr Guy Gratton, the associate professor of aviation and the environment at Cranfield University, said: “The term SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] is quite nebulous … they don’t all have the same environmental footprint.” The government has said it will mandate airlines to use SAFs for at least 10% of their fuel needs by 2030. Gratton said that while that target could be met, what the overall environmental benefits were would be “a more complex question”. He said creating new fleets of radically different planes to run on hydrogen airliners would be hugely expensive but achievable, adding: “It does seem reasonable to say if we do get the investment in research and infrastructure we could get close to a massive reduction in emissions by the 2050 target.” A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “The UK’s sustainable aviation fuels programme is one of the most comprehensive in the world. “Our Jet Zero strategy sets out how we can achieve net zero emissions from UK aviation by 2050, without directly limiting demand for aviation. Sustainable aviation fuels and hydrogen are key elements of this, and we will ensure that there is no impact on food crops.” A spokesperson for the industry body Airlines UK said the sector was committed to achieving net zero by 2050. They said: “There is no magic bullet, but by modernising airspace to make flying more efficient, by introducing new zero emission technology like hydrogen aircraft and by upscaling the use of sustainable aviation fuels this decade, it can be achieved.” The spokesperson said the sector was working closely with government to “maximise both the environmental and huge economic opportunities from leading the jet zero transition”. A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 will fly from London to New York later this year powered entirely by fuel made primarily from waste oils and fats, in what is being billed as the first ever net zero transatlantic flight. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/28/scientists-uk-aviation-net-zero-ambitions-half-farmland-double-renewable-electricity Singapore to buy eight more F-35B jets MELBOURNE, Australia — Singapore will exercise a contractual option to acquire eight more F-35B fighter jets, bringing it fleet to 12 aircraft that manufacturer Lockheed Martin will deliver by the end of the decade. Speaking to lawmakers during a budget hearing, Singaporean Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said the decision came after a “full evaluation” of the F-35, which followed increased access to the aircraft program thanks to the country’s initial order. That access included Republic of Singapore Air Force pilots getting the opportunity to fly F-35 mission simulators under the tutelage of operational F-35 instructor pilots, as well as conducting an evaluation of the electronic systems onboard the aircraft. Singaporean personnel also visited overseas operators to study various aspects of F-35 sustainment, and they flew with Australia and the U.S. Marine Corps operators during a multinational air combat exercise in northern Australia. The U.S. State Department in January 2020 approved Singapore’s request to buy four F-35Bs — the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant of the Joint Strike Fight. The approval also included an option for eight more aircraft. The small Southeast Asian island nation has likely selected the F-35B because it can take off fully loaded with a runway of about 600 feet, and land vertically. This allows the Republic of Singapore Air Force to reduce its reliance on long runways and to mitigate potentially devastating effects of an attack on its airfields. Singapore currently has five established airports and air bases on its 280-square-mile main island, with a smaller emergency landing strip on one of its smaller offshore islands. One of the established bases is due to close in the early part of the next decade. The Air Force will replace its current fleet of 60 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole fighters with the F-35B, with the service to retire the F-16 fleet starting in the early 2030s, according to Ng. The F-16s are spread among three locally based squadrons and a training detachment based at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. The detachment is due to move to Ebbing Air National Guard Base at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and will become the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s F-35 training detachment when deliveries begin in 2026. Accompanying documents released by the ministry during the budget debate also revealed Singapore will acquire ST Engineering’s improved Bronco 3 armored tracked carrier to replace the original Broncos in service with Singapore’s Army. However, the documents did not reveal an acquisition timeline, a quantity of vehicles or a contract value. The country is setting aside $13.4 billion for its 2023 defense budget, a 5.6% increase over last year’s figure. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/02/27/singapore-to-buy-eight-more-f-35b-jets/ Graduate Research Survey Greetings, Aviation Professionals! If you are seeing this message, you are being asked to participate in an anonymous questionnaire about safety culture. This is for my Master’s thesis, and your participation would be greatly appreciated. Participation is voluntary, and you can opt out at any time. It should take less than 15 minutes of your time. Please complete the survey in one sitting, as there is a limited period to have your responses recorded. Click the link https://fit.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eEU2rcyJN3MzxH0 ,which will take you to an online survey platform. Please share this announcement with other aviation professionals you know; every response helps! Sincerely, Brandon Judy Master’s Student College of Aeronautics Florida Institute of Technology Curt Lewis