Flight Safety Information - March 10, 2023 No. 048 In This Issue : Incident: Emirates A388 at Singapore on Mar 2nd 2023, runway excursion on landing : Incident: THY A332 near Istanbul on Mar 5th 2023, durian return : Incident: Spirit A320 at Orlando on Mar 6th 2023, engine stall : Incident: Virgin Atlantic B789 near Barcelona on Mar 8th 2023, engine problem : Korean Air Jet Evacuated As Bullets Found On Board Before Takeoff : Passenger on flight to Miami accused for trying to rush pilot's cabin : US airports now have software to prevent aircraft from landing on taxiways by mistake : Airplane rough landing west of Tusayan (AZ) : Pakistan-UAE flight: Flydubai plane returns to Karachi airport due to technical glitch : American Airlines Flight Attendants Demand 35% Raises ‘Plus What The Pilots Get’ : Airlines just can’t get enough jet engine parts and it could be a huge problem for the upcoming summer travel season : China reportedly stole US military technology for its J-20 fighter jet : Frontier Airlines admits it pays agents a bonus for charging passengers for oversized baggage : Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority Grounds Shree Airlines' Fleet : Global aviation safety improved in 2022 : Eight lines of code could have saved 346 lives in Boeing 737 MAX crashes, expert says Incident: Emirates A388 at Singapore on Mar 2nd 2023, runway excursion on landing An Emirates Airbus A380-800, registration A6-EVJ performing flight EK-354 from Dubai (United Arab Emirates) to Singapore (Singapore), landed on Singapore's runway 02L at 14:27L (06:27Z) but touched down right of the runway center line and damaged three runway egde lights near taxiway W7 with its right hand main gear. The aircraft returned onto the center line and slowed without further incident. The aircraft remained on the ground in Singapore about 9 hours, then departed for the return flight. Singapore's TSIB reported the aircraft sustained minor damage. The occurrence was rated a serious incident and is being investigated. https://avherald.com/h?article=5062e253&opt=0 Incident: THY A332 near Istanbul on Mar 5th 2023, durian return A THY Turkish Airlines Airbus A330-200, registration TC-LOH performing flight TK-1855 from Istanbul (Turkey) to Barcelona,SP (Spain), was already enroute at FL380 about 300nm northwest of Istanbul in Bulgarian Airspace when the crew decided to turn around and return to Istanbul due to a pungent odour on board followed by a cargo smoke indication. The aircraft descended to FL140 and landed safely back on Istanbul's runway 35R about one hour after the decision to turn around. Istanbul Airport reported cabin crew noticed noticed the odour, a sensor detecting bad gasses in the cargo bay activated. The crew returned to Istanbul. Upon inspection of the aircraft it was determined Durian fruit, tropical delicacies which however emit pungent odour when ripe, caused the odour and sensor activation. The passengers boarded a replacement aircraft, which reached Barcelona with a delay of 5.5 hours. https://avherald.com/h?article=5062296d&opt=0 Incident: Spirit A320 at Orlando on Mar 6th 2023, engine stall A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration N621NK performing flight NK-2078 from Orlando,FL to Baltimore,MD (USA) with 188 people on board, was climbing out of Orlando's runway 36R, when the crew reported they had a left hand engine (V2527) stall and needed to return. The aircraft levelled off at 5000 feet and landed safely on Orlando's runway 35L about 15 minutes after departure. A replacement Airbus A320-200N registration N968NK reached Baltimore with a delay of 7.5 hours. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Orlando about 38 hours after landing back. https://avherald.com/h?article=506213b1&opt=0 Incident: Virgin Atlantic B789 near Barcelona on Mar 8th 2023, engine problem A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9, registration G-VAHH performing flight VS-450 from Johannesburg (South Africa) to London Heathrow,EN (UK), was enroute at FL380 over the Mediterranean Sea about 160nm east of Barcelona,SP (Spain) when the crew decided to divert to Barcelona and drifted the aircraft down to FL240 due to an engine (Trent 1000) problem. The aircraft landed safely on Barcelona's runway 02 about 40 minutes later. The aircraft is still on the ground in Barcelona about 10 hours later. https://avherald.com/h?article=5061fd8f&opt=0 Korean Air Jet Evacuated As Bullets Found On Board Before Takeoff The Manila-bound plane, which was originally scheduled to take off at 7:45 a.m. (2245 GMT on Thursday), departed Incheon at around 11 a.m. (0200 GMT), after security checks identified no immediate terror risk, according to the police. "We are looking into how the bullets got into the plane," a police officer said. (File) Seoul: A Korean Air Lines Co Ltd jet with 230 people on board was evacuated on Friday morning after two live bullets were found before takeoff at Incheon International Airport in South Korea, police said. The Manila-bound plane, which was originally scheduled to take off at 7:45 a.m. (2245 GMT on Thursday), departed Incheon at around 11 a.m. (0200 GMT), after security checks identified no immediate terror risk, according to the police. The 9 millimetre bullets were found by a passenger shortly before the jet was to take off with 218 passengers and 12 crew members on board, leading to the plane to return to the terminal. "We are looking into how the bullets got into the plane," a police officer said. A Korean Air official said the airline was monitoring the results of the police investigation. South Korea has strict gun laws with illegal possession of a firearm subject to a prison sentence of up to 15 years and a fine of up to 100 million won ($75,300). https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/korean-air-jet-evacuated-before-takeoff-after-bullets-found-on-board-3848490 Passenger on flight to Miami accused for trying to rush pilot's cabin MIAMI - A video of an arrest on a plane bound for Miami has gone viral. Customs and border protection confirmed to CBS4 Thursday that a man was arrested for trying to rush the pilot's cabin during the flight from Barbados. They told CBS4 the man was restrained by passengers and crew until the plane landed. Investigators are still conducting interviews. No word yet on the charges. https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/passenger-on-flight-to-miami-accused-trying-rush-cabin/ US airports now have software to prevent aircraft from landing on taxiways by mistake The technology has already proven useful. Pilots have to worry about more than just mid-flight crashes and bad weather — they also risk a collision if they land on the taxiway instead of the runway. Thankfully, they have now have a digital safeguard. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tells Axios that 43 major US airports are now using ASDE-X Taxiway Arrival Prediction (ATAP), a software platform that warns air traffic controllers if an aircraft is lining up to land on a taxiway by mistake. An aviator shouldn't endanger lives on the ground simply because they're inexperienced or fatigued. The system relies on standard radar along with other sensors. It also works regardless of aircraft size — it can flag small turboprops and large airliners. ATAP first saw use at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in 2018, and the FAA says it finished software upgrades at compatible airports last September. Some of the airports using the tech include Boston Logan, Chicago O'Hare and New York's JFK. This is more than just a theoretical exercise. The FAA notes ATAP has caught over 50 potential taxiway landings since 2018, and there have been eight alerts so far in 2023. While accidental landings are far less common than crashes (and thus far less deadly), the software may still be helpful even if it prevents chaos from an aircraft disrupting the queue. ATAP's rise comes as aircraft and airports increasingly rely on digital safety systems. Airbus, for instance, recently began testing a pilot assist that can automatically divert flights in emergencies, aid with taxiing and even land if the pilots are incapacitated. Full autonomy is still distant, but there may soon be many safeguards against everything from simple errors to an unconscious crew. https://www.engadget.com/us-airports-now-have-software-to-prevent-aircraft-from-landing-on-taxiways-by-mistake-173646341.html Airplane rough landing west of Tusayan (AZ) TUSAYAN Ariz. — On March 8 around 3:30 p.m. Coconino County Sheriff’s Deputies from the Grand Canyon Substation responded to a report of an airplane crash about 18 miles west/southwest of the Grand Canyon National Park Airport. The airplane, a twin engine Piper Seneca originating out of Glendale, AZ was flying from Glendale to Kanab, Utah. While enroute to Kanab the plane experienced engine problems. The pilots, knowing they were not going to make it to Kanab, attempted to make it to the Grand Canyon National Park Airport. They were forced to make an emergency landing about 19.5 miles west of the town of Tusayan. The Pilots were able to make a successful emergency landing with no damage to the plane and no injuries. An Army Air National Guard Helicopter was in the area and overheard the airplane’s emergency transponder alert. They immediately responded to the location and located the airplane and both pilots. The pilots were transported to the Grand Canyon National Park Airport by the Air National Guard Helicopter. Both Pilots were treated by Tusayan Fire Medical Personnel at the airport and released on scene. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have taken over the investigation. https://www.williamsnews.com/news/2023/mar/09/airplane-rough-landing-west-tusayan/ Pakistan-UAE flight: Flydubai plane returns to Karachi airport due to technical glitch The passengers were asked to disembark and transported back to the terminal A Dubai-bound flydubai plane had to return to Karachi's Jinnah International Airport soon after takeoff on Friday morning. The flight (FZ 334) departed the terminal at 9.55am. Speaking to Khaleej Times, a spokeperson for the budget carrier said a technical issue caused the flight disruption. “Flydubai flight FZ 334, operated by Smartwings, from Karachi Airport (KHI) to Dubai International (DXB) on 10 March returned to Karachi due to a technical issue,” the airline said in a statement. The passengers were asked to disembark and transported back to the terminal “Passengers were provided with refreshments. We apologise to our passengers for the inconvenience caused to their travel plans,” said the spokesperson. The stranded passengers are scheduled to continue their journey to Dubai at 2.17pm local time, the spokesperson added. https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/aviation/pakistan-uae-flight-flydubai-plane-returns-to-karachi-airport-due-to-technical-glitch American Airlines Flight Attendants Demand 35% Raises ‘Plus What The Pilots Get’ American Airlines isn’t just negotiating with its pilots. They have an amendable contract with flight attendants as well, and have for years. Negotiations have progressed slowly but the Association of Professional Flight Attendants has now presented their economic proposal to the company. And as some in Dallas might say, bless their hearts? 35% raises – so that starting pay goes from $30.35 per hour to $41 per hour, and the top of the scale goes up to $95 per hour – plus 6% annual raises on top of that. Pay for time spent during boarding, which unions haven’t made a priority in the past because higher wages in lieu of pay during boarding benefits their most senior members. But now that non-union Delta added this without negotiations their members are jealous. Premium pay for working the galley, and for night time flying. Higher per diem allowances “along with a ‘me too’ clause that would see allowances increase automatically if pilots won a higher rate.” It’s quaint that flight attendants think they have the bargaining leverage to automatically get what pilots get. Pilots are in shorter supply and can do far more to bring an airline to a halt, so have much greater leverage. That’s why pilots get better benefits. Years ago, it became a meme in public policy discussions that you could improve any proposal by adding “that everyone would have their own pony!” An an airline passenger, I may wish for better inflight meals and ice cream sundaes on shorter flights. But someone else can make a better proposal – better inflight meals and ice cream sundaes and Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle. And I respond well, sure, Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle and a pony! American Airlines flight attendants, for their part, have made their economic proposal better by asking for the whole farm. There’s this strange notion of negotiations that some people have, maybe they got it from television or by reading The Art Of The Deal, that you want to start really high because you’re going to wind up meeting in the middle. The higher your opening offer, the better your final result. That’s not how any of this works. Rather, there’s a zone of possible agreement. Flight attendant pay will be similar at the major airlines, with differences based on priorities of management and the union. Some will want slightly higher pay and more generous work rules, others will prefer stricter work rules and somewhat lower pay. But there’s a certain amount that an airline can expect to pay in terms of economic cost across all of the elements of the contract. Sometimes delay changes the economic conditions – for better or worse – and thus the expected contract cost. Of course before even presenting their proposal to the company, the flight attendants union asked for a federal mediator, the first step in a potential strike (since the National Mediation Board has to ‘release’ a union to ‘self help’ in order to strike). At the same time that the union is negotiating aggressively in public, I’m told that leadership actually worked closely with the airline to bring back the attendance ‘points system’ that cabin crew loathe, that penalizes employees for calling in sick. The union feared that high sick rates would mean that the company scheduled more crew to work reserve as a backup, which is bad for senior members of the union. https://viewfromthewing.com/american-airlines-flight-attendants-demand-35-raises-plus-what-the-pilots-get/ Airlines just can’t get enough jet engine parts and it could be a huge problem for the upcoming summer travel season This year was supposed to herald air travel’s big comeback, with China reopening, airlines ramping up flight schedules and airports going on a hiring spree to handle the surge. But a potential bottleneck to that growth is looming in form of a shortage of aircraft engines and spare parts, particularly on workhorse Airbus SE and Boeing Co. jets. The shortfall is being exacerbated by the fact that more carriers are flying with the latest-generation turbines that — while as much as 20% more fuel efficient — also have been prone to far more frequent maintenance cycles than their more robust predecessors. As a result, airlines around the world have been forced to ground hundreds of airplanes just as they gear up for what stands to be a busy summer travel season. Air Baltic Corp AS says 10 of its 39 Airbus A220s are currently out of service due to engine issues. In the US, budget carrier Spirit Airlines Inc. warned it would scale back growth plans due in part to a spate of malfunctioning engines. And India’s IndiGo is seeking compensation for about 30 planes it has had to ground due to parts shortages, some of which are tied to engines. Supply-chain constraints were rippling through the industry even before the pandemic, and in its aftermath engine makers have struggled with a lack of skilled mechanics and component shortages. The latest engines from Raytheon Technologies Corp. and a General Electric Co.-Safran SA venture feature exotic metal alloys, coatings and composites needed for them to operate at furnace-like temperatures. Airlines say turbine components are wearing more quickly and being sent to the shop earlier than initially expected. Running Hot AirBaltic, Spirit and IndiGo have planes equipped with engines made by Raytheon’s Pratt & Whitney division. Another Indian discount carrier, Go First, is seeking compensation from Pratt for 24 aircraft that it has been forced to ground, according to a person familiar with the matter. “The engines are running hotter, and the materials used for that are not withstanding the pressure, so there are more engine-related problems than we used face previously,” said Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker. Turnaround times for engine repairs have tripled as waits for certain parts drag on for more than a year in some instances. Supplies of engine components are further stretched as Airbus and Boeing clamor for higher output of new engines as they strive to pump out their best-selling single-aisle aircraft models in record numbers. “Right now that’s hotter than hell,” Cliff Collier, a Texas-based aviation consultant, said of the engine sector. “There are parts shortages left and right and it’s impacting MROs badly,” he said referring to maintenance and repair organizations. GE Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp and other executives laid out the company’s future as a standalone aerospace manufacturer at an event on Thursday. Executives spoke about actions taken to improve the durability of the Leap turbine made by the venture, called CFM International, for Airbus’s A320neo aircraft family and Boeing’s 737 Max. “Durability is our No. 1 priority,” Russell Stokes, CEO of commercial engines and services at GE Aerospace, said of the Leap at the investor conference. “We want that engine on wing making money for our customers, exactly where it belongs.” The Leap engine’s time-on-wing is better than that of its predecessor, the CFM56, at the same point in its service life, about six years after its first commercial flight, according to Mohamed Ali, vice-president for engineering at GE Aerospace, while acknowledging that the engine’s removal rate and maintenance needs are falling short of customer expectations. Closing the Gap The turbofan models by Raytheon’s Pratt & Whitney division latest are flying an average of about 10,000 hours before they need to be removed for overhauls. That’s only about half the so-called time-on-wing of its predecessor engine, despite multiple fixes and upgrades to boost longevity, Raytheon CEO, Greg Hayes, said at a Barclays conference last month. Closing that gap will be a challenge over the next five years, he said. Around 370 Airbus A320neos and A220s, along with 737 Boeing Max jets, are currently classified as stored, according to data from Cirium. The aviation data and analytics company defines such aircraft as those that are idled for 30 days or more for any of a variety of reasons. Airbus said it’s closely monitoring the performance of engines on its aircraft. Boeing had no immediate comment. Many airlines keep a cache of spares on hand, but there simply aren’t enough replacement engines available to keep pace with repairs. Carriers may be forced to keep older craft longer than anticipated and fly each plane more hours per day. In a pinch, they might even bring planes out of their pilot training fleets and put them into regular flight service. The shortage could crimp industry plans to expand the number of flights offered in 2024 and beyond. Production Target Risk Airbus and Boeing are counting on rising output of turbines to keep their A320 and Max assembly lines humming. The glut of engine repairs looks likely to extend into next year or even 2025, raising the risk of too few power plants to meet planemaker production targets, said Paul Dolan, CEO of Aviation Technical Services, a large US maintenance provider. Introduced a little over a decade ago, the new engine options for the A320 family and the 737 helped spur an unprecedented surge in demand. Fuel is often among the single largest expenses for airlines, so any reduction in consumption instantly feeds through the bottom line. Pratt’s powerplant, which is used on models including Airbus SE’s best-selling A320neo family and the smaller A220, as well as Embraer SA’s E2 regional jet, struggled with teething pains after it was introduced, with multiple carriers reporting inflight shutdowns. Pratt subsequently said it had resolved the issues, but some carriers say they continue to struggle. The Pratt engine “has experienced diminished service availability, an issue that has been steadily increasing” since mid-2022, Spirit CEO Ted Christie said on an earnings call Feb. 7. “This is not just a Spirit issue.” Some A320neos have had engines removed after just 2,000 to 3,000 hours in operation, while A220s have had engines come off after only 1,000 hours, according to Doug Harned, an aerospace analyst with Bernstein. Go First’s A320neos have had engines fail at 4,900 hours, the person familiar with the matter said. The carrier has had 41% of its fleet grounded, and was forced to seek a $525 million over the past two years from its parent in order to stay afloat, the person said. Harned calculated that 18% of A220s and 13% of A320neos powered by these engines were out of service as of early March. CFM’s Leap has performed better, although 4% of A320s and 5% of Max jets are grounded — much to the consternation of customers, he wrote in a March 2 report. A Raytheon spokesperson disputed those estimates for the Pratt-powered planes, saying less than 10% of those jets are parked. The company declined to comment further on the issues, including Go First’s grounded planes. Frequent Shop Visits The GE-Safran Leap model also has faced issues. A build-up of carbon around the fuel nozzle has resulted in inspections after 1,000 hours of flight, Harned said. The engine’s high-pressure turbine shroud has been redesigned over the last few years “but is still leading to a degradation in engine performance” and consequently more frequent shop visits, he said. CFM said it introduced a new configuration of the high-pressure turbine shroud that went into production in 2019 and is retrofitting the remainder of the Leap engine fleet with the change. Once engines are opened up for repairs, airlines face another costly hassle: Long waits for spare parts. “What we’re seeing is basically a queue building up due to insufficient maintenance capacity,” said Andy Cronin, the chief executive officer of Avolon Holdings, a major aircraft lessor. “It was simply never intended that the engines would need this much maintenance at this stage in the program.” https://fortune.com/2023/03/09/airplane-engine-part-supply-chain-shortage-summer-travel-season/ China reportedly stole US military technology for its J-20 fighter jet China ripped off US military technology to build an advanced high-tech jet fighter, and experts warn that more must be done to protect American weapons information and keep Beijing from making such huge developmental leaps in the future, according to a report Thursday. “What we know is that because of the espionage efforts, [China’s] J-20 is more advanced than it otherwise would be, and that’s the important point here,” former Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Anderson told Fox News Digital in an interview. “They have profited greatly from their thievery over the years,” Anderson said. “They’ve put it to good use, and they’ve come up with an advanced fifth-generation fighter.” But he said it’s difficult to determine how the J-20 matches up against the US F-22 Raptor “short of actual combat.” Beijing started development on the J-20 stealth fighter for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force in 2008 with the aim to develop a warplane that would be able to compete with American fighters, the report said. But reports surfaced as far back as 2015 noting similarities in technology and capability between China’s jet and US planes — and an Associated Press report even pointed out that “some of its technology, it turns out, may well have come from the US itself.” The emergence of the J-20 fighter jet shows that China is beginning to bridge the technological chasm with the United States because of its ongoing intellectual property theft — a development that is garnering renewed attention amid tense relations between Beijing and Washington. Amplifying the concerns is China’s intentions for self-ruled Taiwan, where an invasion could draw the US into a military clash. Anderson told Fox News Digital that China employs a variety of espionage techniques, ranging from “old-fashioned” and “low-tech” — like using spies and honey traps, as well as bribery to recruit American contractors, university academics and government officials — to more advanced methods like cyber hacking to pilfer critical military information. “Unfortunately, they’ve had some success there,” Anderson said, pointing out that Beijing spent “well over a decade” repeatedly pursuing data about the Joint Strike Fighter for use in the design and construction of the J-20. “It saves the Chinese time and money. In effect, we end up subsidizing a portion of their research and development budget because they are successfully stealing some of our secrets,” Anderson said. “Ultimately, this puts our men and women at greater risk on the battlefield.” Matt McInnis, a senior fellow for the Institute for the Study of War’s China program, said the desire to “understand more sophisticated jet engines” in the West has been a substantial component of Chinese espionage. What do you think? Post a comment. McInnis told Fox News Digital that China has placed its focus “almost more than anything else” on acquiring jet engine technology after “struggling for decades” to stay on pace with the US. “As someone who’s watched China for a long time, that’s always the joke … will the Chinese ever be able to produce their own jet engine?” McInnis said. “So they’ve slowly been able to become more independent in creating jet engines for their more advanced aircraft.” https://nypost.com/2023/03/09/china-reportedly-stole-us-military-technology-for-its-j-20-fighter/ Frontier Airlines admits it pays agents a bonus for charging passengers for oversized baggage Practice to ‘incentivise’ employees came to light after carrier was accused of charging passengers whose bags fit in the luggage sizer Frontier Airlines has confirmed to The Independent that airport gate agents are paid a bonus for charging passengers for oversized baggage during boarding. The budget airline came under fire after a passenger claimed to have been charged $100 (£85) to check a bag which appeared to fit the size requirements. Dyana Villa shared a video of her experience travelling with the budget airline to social media, in which she and her friends can be seen fitting their bag into the luggage sizer, which dictates what constitutes hand luggage. The woman alleged that she and her friends were told to pay an additional fee, despite them demonstrating that the bags “clearly fit in the bag sizer”. In the video, which has been viewed nearly 100,000 times, the agent can be heard saying, “They don’t fit, you’re forcing them down”. A second airline employee then comes over to inspect the bag in the sizer and is heard saying: “That’s our policy, ma'am.” Since sharing the footage, Ms Villa uploaded another post in which she claimed to have been contacted by a Frontier Airlines attendant who said staff are eligible for a $10 (£8.50) bonus for every passenger bag they check and collect a fee for. Ms Villa recounts the email from the airline staff member in which she claims they say, “I’m so tired, we’ve been getting so many complaints and then people complain to us, etc.” She adds: “I could have just Venmoed them $10.” A Frontier spokesperson told The Independent that the fee is “simply an incentive for our airport customer service agents to help ensure compliance with our policies and that all customers are treated equally.” The spokesperson rejected Ms Villa’s baggage complaint, however, claiming that she had brought a second carry-on bag. “The video fails to show that the customer using the sizer box had an additional carry-on bag,” they said. “Each customer is allowed one free personal item that must fit within the smaller sizer box. This customer had more than one bag and they were not able to combine them into a single bag that fit in the personal item box. “The second customer’s bag did not fit into the free personal item sizer box without removing much of its contents. Most customers pay for their bags in advance, in accordance with our policies, and we provide multiple reminders and opportunities to do so at a lower price in advance of departure. Allowing these customers to board without paying would be inequitable to every other customer who was already onboard with paid bags.” According to Frontier, passengers are entitled to one personal item, measuring 14”H X 18”W X 8”D, including handles, wheels and straps. “Think purses, totes, computer bags, briefcases, diaper bags and kids backpacks,” it reads. “Note: the size of your personal item will be checked during boarding,” it states. “Items larger than the allowed dimensions are subject to an additional charge.” https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/frontier-airlines-flight-oversized-baggage-charge-b2297857.html Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority Grounds Shree Airlines' Fleet The news comes after one of the carrier's planes had to make an emergency landing. Nepalese domestic carrier Shree Airlines has had its fleet grounded by the country's Civil Aviation Authority, pending engine safety checks on its aircraft. The airline, which flies to seven destinations in Nepal according to data from ch-aviation.com, has therefore had to start canceling its flights while the inspections take place. Staying on the ground Shree Airlines currently flies a mixed fleet of Bombardier CRJ jets and De Havilland Canada Dash 8 turboprops. Despite these two aircraft families being rather different to one another, Nepalese newspaper Republica notes that the grounding applies not only to a specific aircraft type, but rather to the airline's entire fleet. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has stipulated that Shree Airlines' planes will only be able to fly again once its technicians have conducted thorough security checks of their engines. With Nepal having been rocked by the crash of a Yeti Airlines ATR 72 earlier this year, aviation safety has become a hot topic. The grounding of Shree Airlines' entire fleet is beginning to have knock-on effects regarding the carrier's scheduled operations. Indeed, as local publication Ratopati notes, Shree Airlines' Corporate Manager Anil Manandhar is frustrated that, with three out of 14 flights having already been canceled today, its passengers are suffering as a result of what he sees as a lack of notice by the CAAN. Yesterday's incident While the grounding order did come into place rather suddenly, it didn't exactly come out of nowhere. Indeed, it followed an incident yesterday whereby a Shree Airlines Dash 8-Q400 diverted back to Kathmandu after an engine fire indication. According to Reuters, it was bound for Bhairahawa with 78 passengers and crew. Speaking to Reuters, Manandhar explained that "the pilot reported an indication of fire in the right engine, and the plane was diverted to Kathmandu immediately." CAAN spokesperson Jagannath Niroula confirmed that the plane made a safe and injury-free landing, adding that "there was no indication of any fire when it landed." Passengers impacted by the grounding look to have a reasonable number of alternative options to their canceled Shree Airlines flights. Using the aforementioned Kathmandu-Bhairahawa route as an example, this corridor is also served by Buddha Air, Guna Airlines, Saurya Airlines, and Yeti Airlines. Nonetheless, amid such heavy competition, Shree Airlines will be hoping to return to the skies promptly. Shree Airlines' current fleet Let's conclude by taking a look at the makeup of Shree Airlines' temporarily grounded fleet. As well as flying Mil Mi-17 and Eurocopter AS350 helicopters, data from ch-aviation shows that it has eight fixed-wing aircraft at its disposal. Four of these are 80-seat Dash 8-Q400 turboprops, with an average age of 14.8 years old. Somewhat older than this are its four Bombardier CRJ regional jets. The carrier currently has two CRJ200ERs at its disposal with an average age of 20.3 years old, as well as a 17.1-year-old CRJ700 and a 20.6-year-old CRJ700ER. However, of these four rear-engined jets, just one of the CRJ200ERs is currently active. https://simpleflying.com/shree-airlines-fleet-grounded-nepal-caa/?newsletter_popup=1 Global aviation safety improved in 2022 According to statistics provided by IATA, in 2022 there were a total of five air accidents resulting in the death of passengers or crew members, compared to seven in 2021. Global air transport safety improved substantially in 2022 compared to 2021. According to statistics reported annually by IATA (International Air Transport Association), five accidents resulting in passenger and/or crew fatalities occurred in 2022, out of a total of 32.2 million flights operated. This is a significant improvement over 2021 (seven fatal accidents) and the previous four-year average (2018-2022), which was also seven fatal accidents. A total of 39 aircraft accidents recorded in 2022 The fatal accidents in 2022 involved four turboprops and one jet and resulted in 158 deaths. In 2021, seven fatal accidents had involved a jet and six turboprops. Including accidents that did not necessarily result in fatalities, 2022 had a total of 39 accidents, compared to 29 in 2021. This increase is due to the fact that statistically there were far fewer aircraft in flight in 2021 due to the global air travel crisis related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The "accident rate" is 1.21 for global air carriers (1 accident every 830,000 flights) and 0.49 for IATA members (1 accident every 1.6 million flights). Recall that IATA has a total of 300 members, representing 83% of all global air transport. The two most fatal accidents: China Eastern Yunnan Airlines and Precision Air Despite the reduction in the number of accidents, the number of casualties rose from 121 in 2021 to 158 in 2022. The majority of the casualties in 2022 are related to an accident in China on March 21, 2022, that killed 132 people. The plane belonged to China Eastern Yunnan Airlines, a subsidiary of China Eastern. Although China Eastern Yunnan Airlines is on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) register, it is not an IATA member. The accident involving an IATA member airline with the highest number of fatalities in 2022 was the crash that occurred on November 6, 2022 in Tanzania. An ATR 42-500 operated by Precision Air crashed into Lake Victoria during a landing in poor visibility and weather, killing 19 of the 43 passengers on board. IOSA Certification Reliability The "fatality risk" in 2022 was 0.11, compared with 0.22 in 2021. This index means that, on average, a passenger would have to fly every day for 25,214 years to experience a fatal accident. This rate is an improvement over the previous four years (one flight every day for 22,116 years). Finally, IATA recalls that its IOSA certification covers a total of 409 operators, including 107 non-IATA carriers. The total accident rate of IOSA-certified airlines is four times better than that of non-IOSA-certified airlines (0.70 versus 2.82). From 2018 to 2022, the accident rate for IOSA airlines is more than twice as good as that of non-certified airlines (0.88, versus 2.19). https://aircosmosinternational.com/article/global-aviation-safety-improved-in-2022-3672 Eight lines of code could have saved 346 lives in Boeing 737 MAX crashes, expert says Eight lines of software code could have prevented the twin Boeing 737 MAX disasters that killed 346 people four years ago. That’s the belief of Greg Travis, a software expert witness in a civil appellate case to be argued April 20 that seeks information from the FAA into how the Boeing’s MCAS control code was written and tested by both Boeing and the government oversight agency. As the second of the MAX crashes reaches its fourth anniversary on March 10, what the FAA did or did not do in its MCAS oversight is still on the minds of Travis and Flyers Rights Education Fund. The group is seeking full disclosure under a freedom of information request denied by a lower court in 2021. Flyers Rights’ appeal versus the FCC goes to oral argument in US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit on April 20. (USCA case #21-5257) “The original implementation of MCAS was unfathomably incompetent,” Travis said in an interview Thursday with Fierce Electronics. “I still cannot imagine how it was possible that something so obviously defective was ever fielded.” Travis and Flyers Rights wants transparency with FAA records on how the software was developed, partly to help the FAA (with congressional and taypayer oversight) prevent future crashes as more complex technology is introduced into planes that are heavily dependent on automation and control algorithms. So far, the transparency is missing, said Paul Hudson, president of Flyers Rights via email. “There’s lots of talk of commitment to transparency especially regarding MAX but the FAA’s actions are the exact opposite,” Hudson said. “The FAA has a culture of near total secrecy in safety regulation and enforcement. It claims nearly everything is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act [to protect] trade secrets, proprietary or internal communications or personal privacy.” In Flyers Rights’ original FOIA request, the FAA released 9,000 pages of documents and “redacted nearly everything of substance,” Hudson said. “This included details of the MCAS fix, the comments of the FAA to Boeing, the flight test protocols and the flight test results and names of the personnel involved.” MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) was implicated in causing the two planes to nosedive, causing the crashes, despite manual attempts by pilots to stop the dives. MCAS’ intended role was to automatically correct the MAX from climbing into a stall, which experts said could happen under the MAX’s design with larger engines mounted on an original 737 fuselage. The software was originally written to detect the angle of attack in an unsafe climb from a single sensor when it should have been written to detect more than one such sensor to call for a reduction in altitude. “A single sensor was relied upon for a decision and angle of attack sensor are unreliable because they are subject to weather, hit by birds and more,” Travis said. “But nobody ever said, ‘you are using just one sensor’ and that software should never have gotten out the door. Nobody can understand how that happened.” Which is one reason the FOIA request should be granted, Flyers Rights argues. In the Ethiopian crash on March 10, 2019, a single sensor indicated the plane had pitched upward by dozens of degrees in only a second, something not physically possible, Travis said. But a short amount of code in MCAS could have been added to discount impossibly high sensor readings and signaled the bad sensor to pilots. “Eight lines of code could have been added, even if only one sensor was used, saving 346 lives,” Travis said. Fixes after MAX planes were grounded allowed the FAA to recertify the planes for flights. They included relying on two angle of attack sensors and other measures. Travis believes the FAA’s contention that it must protect Boeing’s trade secrets with MCAS and other designs in the MAX should not apply because so many people died, making it a special case. “If we could trust the FAA, then 346 people would be alive. The FAA outsourced its job to Boeing and Boeing intentionally withheld information from you. How are we supposed to trust you, FAA, next time around when you failed the first time around and people died? The MAX is a special case because you screwed up so badly and you are under a special obligation now.” Flyers Rights is not seeking detailed information on the MAX development and FAA review after the crashes, Travis said. What the group seeks is basic insight into how Boeing was able to meet federal standards, specifically part 25 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, that specify parameters for how an aircraft under review is deemed airworthy. Boeing has made adjustments to its corporate procedures for oversight of aircraft design and construction and admitted two years ago in a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice to defrauding the FAA by concealing safety problems with the 737 MAX and has blamed two technical pilots for misleading regulators during the certification process. Boeing also agreed to pay $2.5 million, including $1.7 billion to airlines for losses when the planes were grounded for 20 months. Boeing agreed to pay $500 million in compensation to the families of those killed. However, In January, Boeing pleaded not guilty to a felony criminal charge of conspiracy to commit fraud in federal court in Texas. A federal judge last fall agreed relatives’ rights had been violated because they should have been consulted before the Department of Justice and Boeing reached their deferred prosecution agreement. The concerns over MCAS in the 737 MAX came up this week during a hearing by the Senate Commerce committee when evidence was presented of two recent incidents with trim controls on new Boeing 737 MAX planes in flight. At the hearing, Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, said experts at FAA need to ensure that during future aircraft certification reviews “another MCAS isn’t projected as part of the system and people don’t understand it.” https://www.fierceelectronics.com/embedded/eight-lines-code-could-have-saved-346-lives-boeing-737-max-crashes-expert-says Curt Lewis