Flight Safety Information - May 15, 2023 No. 093 In This Issue : Accident: Cargolux B744 at Luxembourg on May 14th 2023, could not retract landing gear, on return right center gear bogey separated : Incident: HiSky A321N near Manchester on May 11th 2023, pilot incapacitated : Accident: Mesa E175 near Houston on May 11th 2023, turbulence injures passenger : Finnish military training jet crashes, forcing pilots to eject : Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways warns pilots against slow taxiing after some accused of congesting airport : Southwest plane returns to Hawaii after a cockpit window cracked during its flight : TSA tests facial recognition technology to boost airport security : Iraq suspends Airbus A220 airplanes Accident: Cargolux B744 at Luxembourg on May 14th 2023, could not retract landing gear, on return right center gear bogey separated A Cargolux Boeing 747-400, registration LX-OCV performing flight CV-6857 from Luxembourg (Luxembourg) to Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA), was climbing out of Luxembourg's runway 06 when the crew stopped the climb at FL100 due to being unable to retract the landing gear. The aircraft returned to Luxembourg for a landing on runway 06 at 19:00L (17:00Z) about 50 minutes after departure, upon touchdown the right hand center gear wheel bogey separated however. The wheel bogey came to rest in front of the Cargolux Hangar, the aircraft rolled out without further incident and was disabled on the runway. There were no injuries, the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The airline reported the aircraft was unable to retract its landing gear, as result it was forced to dump fuel for the return to Luxembourg. On landing the right body landing gear detached from the aircraft. The aircraft came to a controlled stop, there were no injuries. The aircraft remains on the runway and recovery efforts are underway. https://avherald.com/h?article=50920181&opt=0 Incident: HiSky A321N near Manchester on May 11th 2023, pilot incapacitated A HiSky Europe Airbus A321-200N, registration YR-WIN performing flight H4-474 from Dublin (Ireland) to Chisinau (Moldavia), was climbing through FL330 out of Dublin about 30nm southwest of Manchester,EN (UK) when one of the pilots became incapacitated prompting the other pilot to divert the aircraft to Manchester,EN (UK) for a safe landing on runway 23R about 40 minutes later. The pilot was taken to a hospital. The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground for about 14 hours, then a replacement crew continued the flight and reached Chisinau with a delay of about 13.5 hours. https://avherald.com/h?article=5091d797&opt=0 Accident: Mesa E175 near Houston on May 11th 2023, turbulence injures passenger A Mesa Airlines Embraer ERJ-175 on behalf of United, registration N88331 performing flight UA-6217 from New York La Guardia,NY to Houston Intercontinental,TX (USA), was descending towards Houston in the vicinity of New Orleans,LA (USA) when the aircraft encountered severe turbulence causing a serious injury to a passenger. The aircraft continued to Houston for a safe landing about 20 minutes later. The FAA wrote: "AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED SEVERE TURBULENCE INJURYING A PASSENGER, NEW ORLEANS, LA.", the passenger received serious injuries and rated the occurrence an accident. https://avherald.com/h?article=50911a29&opt=0 Finnish military training jet crashes, forcing pilots to eject Finland's air force announced on Twitter that the pilots are undergoing health checks A military training jet crashed in central Finland and Monday, the Finnish Air Force said, adding the pilots ejected. The British made single-engine Hawk aircraft crashed south of Keuruu, which sits some 180 miles north of Helsinki. The air force said on Twitter that the pilots were undergoing health checks. Police said they and rescue services were at the scene. https://www.foxnews.com/world/finnish-military-training-jet-crashes-forcing-pilots-eject Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways warns pilots against slow taxiing after some accused of congesting airport • Internal airline memo seen by Post says some pilots going at ‘considerably slower speed’ while taxiing • Union leader says go-slow issues reflects poor morale among pilots as salaries stay at 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels despite record profits Cathay Pacific Airways has warned its pilots against taxiing at “considerably slower speeds” after some were accused of contributing to congestion at Hong Kong’s airport, the Post has learned. In an internal memo sent on April 21 and seen by the Post on Sunday, the city’s flagship airline said it would look into any future cases flagged by the Airport Authority and its own internal team, but would refrain from reviewing past data. “The Airport Authority advised us that their data indicated that some Cathay Pacific aircraft were taxiing at a considerably slower speed than other operators for both arrivals and departures,” said Tim Burns, the airline’s general manager. “Our own Hong Kong airport team has confirmed that they have tracked similar instances in their own systems.” Cathay is also grappling with a training backlog for pilots amid a global shortage of workers in the industry. The Post reported in February that labour shortfalls plaguing ground-handling companies at the airport had delayed several airlines, including Australian carrier Qantas, from resuming or increasing flights to Hong Kong. Senior lecturer Andrew Yuen Chi-lok of Chinese University’s Aviation Policy and Research Centre noted that labour shortages were affecting “almost all sections” of the industry, and capacity constraints caused by the crunch had increased operating costs. “It will lead to cost pass-through to consumers in which they unavoidably face higher prices. Thus, Hong Kong may be less attractive to both airlines and passengers as an aviation hub, and the competitiveness will be diminished,” Yuen warned. While airlines could implement measures to increase staff numbers, such as offering higher salaries and better packages, the effects were likely to be limited, given the city’s tight labour market, he said. Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation advisory firm Endau Analytics, said he believed ticket prices would gradually start to decline towards the end of the year. “Hong Kong’s recovery depends on how quickly the mainland recuperates from its three-year-long self-imposed Covid hibernation,” he said, referring to the country’s isolation under tough pandemic curbs since early 2020. Cathay and budget arm HK Express reached 50 per cent of pre-pandemic passenger capacity in March. Regional rival Singapore Airlines Group achieved 79 per cent for the same month. The Cathay group plans to reach 70 per cent by the close of the year, covering 80 destinations. It aims for full-service restoration by the end of 2024. Cathay posted a loss of HK$6.5 billion (US$829 million) for 2022, 18.5 per cent higher than the year before. But the company’s core airline operations rebounded to a HK$2.26 billion profit in the last six months of 2022. The airline earlier said it planned to hire 3,000 frontline staff this year, while aiming to recruit 400 cadets, making up the bulk of the 700 new pilots it sought overall. Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific warns of HK$7 billion in ballooning losses 21 Jan 2023 Lam earlier pledged to start repaying HK$1.5 billion in deferred share dividends it owed the government on HK$19.5 billion in preference shares this year, as part of a HK$39 billion recapitalisation package in 2020. Asked by a shareholder when Cathay would dish out dividends, Lam said the airline was still in the preliminary stage of rebuilding but hoped to distribute them “as soon as possible”. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/transport/article/3220532/hong-kongs-cathay-pacific-airways-warns-pilots-against-slow-taxiing-after-some-accused-congesting?module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article&campaign=3220532 Southwest plane returns to Hawaii after a cockpit window cracked during its flight A Southwest Airlines flight from Honolulu to San Diego was forced to return to Hawaii after a layer of the flightdeck windscreen cracked. According to tracking data from FlightAware, Southwest flight 2367 was about an hour and a half into its scheduled five and a half hour journey to the mainland when it turned back to Honolulu. Southwest Airlines spokesperson Chris Perry told USA TODAY in a statement that the crack presented no serious danger, but the plane was taken out of service and given a maintenance review as a precaution. “On Sunday, the crew of a Southwest Flight from Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) to San Diego International Airport (SAN) returned to HNL for maintenance to review the outer layer of a multiple-layer individual window pane in the flight deck,” Perry said. “The flight landed uneventfully, and the aircraft was taken out of service for a maintenance review. A different aircraft was scheduled to complete the flight to San Diego.” Because aircraft windows are typically designed with multiple panes, a crack in a single pane rarely threatens the airworthiness of an aircraft. Southwest did not provide details on what caused the issue, and the Federal Aviation Administration said it will investigate the incident. “We apologize to customers for the inconvenience and appreciate their patience and understanding as we always maintain safety as our uncompromising priority,” a statement from Southwest said. Southwest has been under fire recently for a slew of tech meltdowns, and also in the news as the pilots there gear up for a possible strike while contract negotiations continue. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2023/05/15/cracked-window-southwest-flight-hawaii/70219229007/ Oregon-Based Mercy Flights Joins Air Charter Safety Foundation Mercy Flights, a Medford, Oregon-based civil air ambulance company, is the newest member of the Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF). The nonprofit ACSF now includes more than 310 aviation-centric businesses, including charter and fractional operators. Mercy Flight will now participate in the ACSF’s third-party facilitation of the FAA’s voluntary Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP). The voluntary program, administered in cooperation with the FAA, “is designed to help operators identify, report and resolve potential safety issues without fear of reprisal from the FAA,” according to the ACSF. The program incorporates tracking and corrective action recommendations to assist in enhancing and improving participating members’ overall safety culture. With 73 years of history, Mercy Flights completed 24,878 transports in 2022. It operates a Beechcraft King Air C90GTx turboprop twin as well as a Bell 407GX helicopter. The fixed-wing King Air is staffed by two pilots, a flight nurse and a paramedic. The single-pilot Bell 407 also is crewed with a flight nurse and paramedic. CEO Sheila Clough said, “Addressing safety through the auspices of the ACSF and its ASAP is one more extremely important milestone in [our] plan and our mission.” https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/oregon-based-mercy-flights-joins-air-charter-safety-foundation/ TSA tests facial recognition technology to boost airport security The technology is currently in 16 airports, but critics have have raised concerns about questions of bias in facial recognition technology. A passenger walks up to an airport security checkpoint, slips an ID card into a slot and looks into a camera atop a small screen. The screen flashes “Photo Complete” and the person walks through — all without having to hand over their identification to the TSA officer sitting behind the screen. It’s all part of a pilot project by the Transportation Security Administration to assess the use of facial recognition technology at a number of airports across the country. “What we are trying to do with this is aid the officers to actually determine that you are who you say who you are,” said Jason Lim, identity management capabilities manager, during a demonstration of the technology to reporters at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The effort comes at a time when the use of various forms of technology to enhance security and streamline procedures is only increasing. TSA says the pilot is voluntary and accurate, but critics have raised concerns about questions of bias in facial recognition technology and possible repercussions for passengers who want to opt out. The technology is currently in 16 airports. In addition to Baltimore, it’s being used at Reagan National near Washington, D.C., airports in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Jose, and Gulfport-Biloxi and Jackson in Mississippi. However, it’s not at every TSA checkpoint so not every traveler going through those airports would necessarily experience it. Travelers put their driver’s license into a slot that reads the card or place their passport photo against a card reader. Then they look at a camera on a screen about the size of an iPad, which captures their image and compares it to their ID. The technology is both checking to make sure the people at the airport match the ID they present and that the identification is in fact real. A TSA officer is still there and signs off on the screening. A small sign alerts travelers that their photo will be taken as part of the pilot and that they can opt out if they’d like. It also includes a QR code for them to get more information. Since it’s come out the pilot has come under scrutiny by some elected officials and privacy advocates. In a February letter to TSA, five senators — four Democrats and an Independent who is part of the Democratic caucus — demanded the agency stop the program, saying: “Increasing biometric surveillance of Americans by the government represents a risk to civil liberties and privacy rights.” As various forms of technology that use biometric information like face IDs, retina scans or fingerprint matches have become more pervasive in both the private sector and the federal government, it’s raised concerns among privacy advocates about how this data is collected, who has access to it and what happens if it gets hacked. Meg Foster, a justice fellow at Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology, said there are concerns about bias within the algorithms of various facial recognition technologies. Some have a harder time recognizing faces of minorities, for example. And there’s the concern of outside hackers figuring out ways to hack into government systems for nefarious aims. With regard to the TSA pilot, Foster said she has concerns that while the agency says it’s not currently storing the biometric data it collects, what if that changes in the future? And while people are allowed to opt out, she said it’s not fair to put the onus on harried passengers who might be worried about missing their flight if they do. “They might be concerned that if they object to face recognition, that they’re going to be under further suspicion,” Foster said. Jeramie Scott, with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that while it’s voluntary now it might not be for long. He noted that David Pekoske, who heads TSA, said during a talk in April that eventually the use of biometrics would be required because they’re more effective and efficient, although he gave no timeline. Scott said he’d prefer TSA not use the technology at all. At the least, he’d like to see an outside audit to verify that the technology isn’t disproportionally affecting certain groups and that the images are deleted immediately. TSA says the goal of the pilot is to improve the accuracy of the identity verification without slowing down the speed at which passengers pass through the checkpoints — a key issue for an agency that sees 2.4 million passengers daily. The agency said early results are positive and have shown no discernable difference in the algorithm’s ability to recognize passengers based on things like age, gender, race and ethnicity. Lim said the images aren’t being compiled into a database, and that photos and IDs are deleted. Since this is an assessment, in limited circumstances some data is collected and shared with the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate. TSA says that data is deleted after 24 months. Lim said the camera only turns on when a person puts in their ID card — so it’s not randomly gathering images of people at the airport. That also gives passengers control over whether they want to use it, he said. And he said that research has shown that while some algorithms do perform worse with certain demographics, it also shows that higher-quality algorithms, like the one the agency uses, are much more accurate. He said using the best available cameras also is a factor. “We take these privacy concerns and civil rights concerns very seriously, because we touch so many people every day,” he said. Retired TSA official Keith Jeffries said the pandemic greatly accelerated the rollout of various types of this “touchless” technology, whereby a passenger isn’t handing over a document to an agent. And he envisioned a “checkpoint of the future” where a passenger’s face can be used to check their bags, go through the security checkpoints and board the plane — all with little to no need to pull out a boarding card or ID documents. He acknowledged the privacy concerns and lack of trust many people have when it comes to giving biometric data to the federal government, but said in many ways the use of biometrics is already deeply embedded in society through the use of privately owned technology. “Technology is here to stay,” he said. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/tsa-tests-facial-recognition-technology-boost-airport-security-rcna84415 Iraq suspends Airbus A220 airplanes Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA) ordered the suspension of the Airbus A220 airplane used by Iraqi Airways because of a defect in its engines, according to a statement issued by the ICAA. The statement indicated that the decision was made to ensure the safety of passengers and air traffic after technical indicators revealed that last April an engine of one of the airplanes had damaged parts that affected an engine fan while the airplane was landing at Baghdad International Airport. This accident was followed two days later by another where an Iraqi Airways Airbus A220 plane suffered the same damage to one of the engines while flying to Tunisia, the statement explained. The ICAA emphasized that these indicators require appropriate and prompt action to be taken to guarantee the safety of passengers, aircrew, and airplanes from any other consequences. Many airlines that use the same type of A220 engines faced the same technical problems in their engines, and those companies decided to suspend flying the airplane. These companies include Swiss International Airlines, EgyptAir, and others. Iraqi Airways started last January operating flights using Airbus A220 airplanes to Europe and North Africa. The Director of Modern Aircraft Projects in Iraqi Airways, Farazdaq Adnan, explained at that time that the Airbus A220 will save the Iraqi government a lot of money as its fuel consumption rate is low compared to similar airplanes. The third Airbus A220 arrived at Baghdad International Airport last January to join the Iraqi Airways fleet, with two more airplanes of the same type scheduled to arrive in Iraq. In February 2022, the Iraqi Ministry of Transport announced the arrival of the second Airbus A220 at Baghdad International Airport, while the first plane of the same model arrived in October 2021. Airbus Corporation announced in January 2022 that Iraqi Airways has taken delivery of its first out of five A220-300 aircraft from Mirabel, Canada. Upon entry into service, Iraqi Airways will become one of the first airlines to operate the A220 in the Middle East region, Airbus Corporation mentioned. https://www.iraqinews.com/iraq/iraq-suspends-airbus-a220-airplanes/ Curt Lewis