Flight Safety Information - May 25, 2023 No. 101 In This Issue : Incident: United B753 over Pacific on May 24th 2023, rudder issues : Incident: PIA A320 at Karachi on May 24th 2023, bird strike : ‘You shouldn’t be on the runway’: 2 pilots abort landings at SFO after spotting plane in their path : Korean Air's Safety Rating Downgraded from A to B by MOLIT After Accidents : Chinese researchers design digital stall sensing system for flight safety : Aviation Manuals Rolls Out Integrated SMS For Wider Safety Assessment : Boeing works to absorb lessons from the MAX crashes and improve safety : EUROCONTROL and ICAO strengthen cooperation to improve aircraft tracking around the globe : Boeing looks to embed experienced pilots with new airline customers : Hong Kong airline terminates flight attendants accused of mocking passengers' English and saying they could lie on the floor if they couldn't ask for a blanket : Air Force fighter pilot tapped by Biden to be next Joint Chiefs chairman has history of firsts : Embraer backs jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney Incident: United B753 over Pacific on May 24th 2023, rudder issues A United Boeing 757-300, registration N77871 performing flight UA-2380 from San Francisco,CA to Honolulu,HI (USA) with 223 passengers and 7 crew, was enroute at FL340 over the Pacific Ocean about 240nm westsouthwest of San Francisco when the crew descended the aircraft to FL290, turned around and returned to San Francisco, where the aircraft landed on runway 28R about 100 minutes after departure. The FAA reported the aircraft returned due to rudder issues. The airline reported a mechanical issue. A replacement Boeing 757-300 registration N75851 reached Honolulu with a delay of about 5 hours. https://avherald.com/h?article=5099c5ca&opt=0 Incident: PIA A320 at Karachi on May 24th 2023, bird strike A PIA Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320-200, registration AP-BLS performing flight PK-310 from Karachi to Quetta (Pakistan), was climbing out of Karachi's runway 25L when one of the engines (CFM56) ingested a bird prompting the crew to stop the climb at 5000 feet and return to Karachi for a safe landing on runway 25L about 15 minutes after departure. A post flight inspection revealed a number of fan blades were damaged. The aircraft is still on the ground in Karachi about 10 hours after landing back. https://avherald.com/h?article=50994d28&opt=0 ‘You shouldn’t be on the runway’: 2 pilots abort landings at SFO after spotting plane in their path United and Alaska flights aborted landings May 19 at SFO after their pilots noticed the same plane on the runway, leading to calls for an investigation by aviation experts. A United Airlines pilot making his final descent into San Francisco International Airport on May 19 aborted his landing after dipping as low as a few hundred feet from the bay and noticing a Southwest Airlines plane on his runway, according to flight data and air traffic control audio and video reviewed by The Chronicle. Seconds later, the same Southwest jet that had crossed Runway 28 Left entered Runway 28 Right, causing an Alaska Airlines pilot to abort his landing and circle around as well. The close call — which prompted the air traffic controller to scold the Southwest pilot, telling him, “You shouldn’t be on the runway” — alarmed aviation experts who told The Chronicle that the Federal Aviation Administration should investigate. The incidents also caught the attention of a Bay Area congressman who has been fighting for increased aviation safety measures since 2017, when SFO nearly became the scene of what could have been the deadliest accident in aviation history. On July 7, 2017, an Air Canada plane nearly landed on a crowded taxiway, passing over four fully loaded commercial jets, one by only 14 feet, before aborting its landing. Ross Sagun, who flew more than 40 years as a commercial airline pilot and worked for four years as an air traffic controller, called Friday’s incident a “runway incursion” and a “very serious event.” Both planes can hold more than 300 passengers if at capacity. “It’s definitely reportable and I hope it’s being investigated,” said Sagun, who owns an aviation consulting company based in Benicia. “If not, it should be.” In a statement, the FAA told The Chronicle that neither incident was a “runway incursion.” “The FAA looked into the incident and determined the appropriate steps were taken to ensure a safe operation,” the agency said in an email. Flight data, audio and video, obtained from FlightAware.com, LiveATC.net and the FAA, respectively, show that the United pilot initiated his go-around, a term used by pilots to describe aborting landings, while the Southwest plane was on the runway. FlightAware is a website that tracks flights around the world and Live ATC provides real-time and archived audio between air traffic controllers and pilots. The FAA provided The Chronicle an animated video showing the location, altitude and speed of the planes during both incidents. A United spokesperson praised the decision by the company’s pilot to abort the landing. “We commend our pilots for their quick thinking and good work during their response to this incident,” Charlie Hobart said. Alaska Airlines reviewed the incident after being contacted by The Chronicle and said its pilots made the decision to go around on their own and then “expertly landed the plane without incident.” A SFO spokesperson, reached Tuesday, referred inquiries to the FAA. A Southwest spokesperson, Chris Perry, called go-arounds “fairly routine,” saying, “If there was anything amiss on this one, we’ll work with the FAA on next steps.” Aborted landings happen somewhat regularly, pilots said, and can be necessary if, for example, the wind suddenly shifts or a pilot’s speed is too fast. They become serious when two planes come close, experts said. Since Oct. 1, there have been about 250 go-arounds overall at SFO, the FAA said. Friday’s incident began to unfold around 9:08 a.m., when United Flight 277, arriving from Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., was cleared to land on Runway 28 Left. Aircraft fly low over San Francisco Bay, moving east to west, before landing on 28 Left or Right, parallel runways that lie 750 feet apart. At about 9:10 a.m., the United captain broadcast that he was “going around.” At that moment, FlightAware data showed the Boeing 737 Max had descended to roughly 225 feet and was about a mile away from the start of the runway and the Southwest plane. The FAA video showed the plane dropped to about 350 feet before aborting. Ross Aimer, a former commercial airline pilot and aviation consultant, called the aborted landing “too close for comfort.” He examined the audio exchange between the tower and pilot and said it appeared the Southwest captain got clearance to cross Runway 28 Left to line up on Runway 28 Right and prepare for his departure to San Diego. However, Aimer said it appeared the Southwest flight moved too slowly. The GPS coordinates and the video appear to show that about 20 seconds passed between the time the jet’s nose entered the runway and its tail cleared the runway. It took 36 seconds to fully clear the hold-short lines on either side of the runway, according to the video, an area that should be clear of any portion of an aircraft when another flight is landing. Following the aborted landing, the United flight climbed to about 800 feet as it flew over the beginning of Runway 28 Left. It did not fly over the Southwest plane, but the Southwest tail was still inside the hold-short lines when the United jet crossed over the runway, according to the footage. Seconds after the aborted landing, according to the video, the Southwest flight taxied onto Runway 28 Right. Aimer, after reviewing the audio record, said it sounded like the Southwest pilot did not hear the controller’s clearance for departure from that runway because the transmission got blocked, meaning two pilots hit their mic buttons at the same time, obscuring the controller’s full instruction. Moments later, the air traffic controller asked the Southwest pilot, “Are you departing?” He responded: “We never got that clearance.” The controller replied: “OK, so you shouldn’t be on the runway.” The pilot began to explain what happened: “The last plans we got were to line up and wait.” The controller responded, tersely: “I don’t need an argument on frequency.” At that point, the Southwest plane was told to exit Runway 28 Right onto a taxiway as Alaska Airlines Flight 553, which was cleared to land on that runway, was closing in. But it was too close. As the plane dropped to about 550 feet, according to the data and audio, the landing was aborted. The controller alerted a third incoming flight about the aborted landings and said they were for “unknown reasons,” according to the audio. Aimer called for an investigation into the incidents. “If the United pilot had not gone around, this could’ve been disastrous,” Aimer said. “Somebody screwed up. What saved the day was the United pilot.” He noted that the biggest aviation accident in history — in 1977, when a pair of 747s collided on a runway on Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, killing 583 people — involved a blocked radio communication. “This day and age, why we don’t have anti-blocking radios is baffling to me,” Aimer said. Jim Lilje, a retired United Airlines pilot of 28 years and a flight instructor, called the incidents a “very serious communication breakdown” and an uncommon “close call.” He estimated the United aircraft was about 30 seconds from touchdown at the time of the pilot’s decision to abort. “The only thing that salvaged a potential catastrophe was the timely go-around initiated by the United pilots,” Lilje said. He added that the Alaska aborted landing was also “way too close.” Sagun said, “Just look at the air show that resulted. This was avoidable and introduced unnecessary risk and delays into the system.” William Highsmith, an airline captain and aviation safety expert with Habersham Aviation Consulting, said the pilots made the correct call to abort the landings, which are part of training and routine. “In this case, had the pilots of United 277 and Alaska 553 not gone around, there may have been an unacceptably high risk of hitting the plane on the ground,” he said. The incidents coincided with the passage on Monday of the NOTAM Improvement Act, a bill authored by Democratic East Bay Rep. Mark DeSaulnier that seeks to modernize how pilots receive critical flight information and is now on the president’s desk. DeSaulnier began working on the legislation after the July 2017 near-miss at SFO. Among other issues that emerged in the aftermath of that incident, the pilots appeared to not realize a runway was closed, despite receiving a notice of the construction, which led them to mistake a taxiway as a runway. DeSaulnier learned of the latest landing problems on Tuesday from The Chronicle. “This latest alarming incident is yet another reminder that we need to stay vigilant when it comes to overseeing aviation safety, because mistakes can have devastating consequences — something we almost learned firsthand after the 2017 near-miss incident at SFO,” DeSaulnier said. One of the passengers aboard Friday’s United flight was Tom Walsh, who was returning from a trip to the East Coast with his wife and seated on the aisle. Most of the passengers were asleep, the Penngrove resident told The Chronicle, as he watched the plane cruise in for landing. Walsh said the aircraft dropped low enough for him to see the ripples in the bay out the windows. “I’m expecting the wheels to touch down at any moment,” Walsh recalled. “All of a sudden, he starts going nose up, a little too steep for your typical landing,” Walsh said. “And then he hits the thrusters and we’re over the runway and next thing I see is we’re banking left over the terminal and (Highway) 101 and I’m like, ‘This is f— up.’ ” The few passengers who were awake exchanged nervous glances, Walsh said. “The quiet was kind of unsettling,” he said. Eventually, Walsh said, the pilot came on the intercom and, in a calm voice, explained to the cabin that “a Southwest plane got in our way.” He told passengers not to be concerned. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sfo-aborted-landings-18115641.php Korean Air's Safety Rating Downgraded from A to B by MOLIT After Accidents On the 24th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the results of the 2022 Air Traffic Service Evaluation, which assessed user satisfaction and comprehensive service quality for 10 national airlines, 16 foreign airlines, and six major international airports. As a result of the evaluation conducted last year, Korean Air's safety rating has been downgraded from A to B. This downgrade comes in the wake of incidents such as a runway departure accident in October of the previous year. In the safety category, which focused solely on national airlines, Asiana Airlines, Jeju Air, Air Seoul, and T'way Air achieved the highest scores (A**). Korean Air received a relatively low score (B*). The airline's safety rating dropped from A to B last year due to incidents including the contact accident at London Heathrow Airport in September and a runway departure accident during landing at Cebu Airport in October. http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=115400 Chinese researchers design digital stall sensing system for flight safety BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have developed a lightweight and conformable system on the wing surface of aircraft for stall sensing, according to a research article published in the journal Nature Communications. The digital-visualization array for turbulence stall sensing (DATSS) system can monitor the degree of airflow separation on the airfoil of fixed-wing aircraft in situ and provide stall warning, stall degree analysis, and flight state correction data for the aircraft operator. Turbulence can cause airflow to detach at the end of the wings, potentially resulting in the aerodynamic stall of aircraft and causing flight accidents, said the research article. The sensing system is irreplaceable in ensuring flight safety. Therefore, the researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences hope to enhance the accuracy of the stall sensing system. The system has passed the wind tunnel and flight tests. The results show that the DATSS system can visualize and directly measure the airflow detaching process on the airfoil, and sense the degree of airflow separation during and after a stall for large aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). ■ https://english.news.cn/20230525/098f7cf2c7f9414f885df903faaa4fd0/c.html Aviation Manuals Rolls Out Integrated SMS For Wider Safety Assessment GENEVA—As part of efforts to increase operational safety levels for business jet and other operators, Aviation Manuals is launching a risk-assessment safety management system (SMS) software package that interacts with a wide array of airport, weather and scheduling providers to offer wider situational awareness. “The main objective here is simpler, safer,” says Clement Meersseman, vice president of strategic partnerships at Aviation Manuals, which is based in Rockville, Maryland-based. “By integrating with a partner such as AC-U-KWIK—which provides information for airports, FBOs, and aviation support services—and weather services like NOAA and NOTAM information as well as other partners with scheduling software, we’re identifying risks and taking them in,” Meersseman says. “We recently announced an integration beginning with Leon, one of the top scheduling software providers here in Europe, and then down the line we're going to be bringing in other information that the operator has a lot of interest in like flight data monitoring. We're also looking at fatigue risk management,” Meersseman says. The input of additional information will boost situational awareness and overall safety awareness says Mark Baier, CEO of Aviation Manuals. “Anytime you start a flight, for instance, it'll pull in weather, it'll pull in destination information and any kind of risks automatically from your flight plan. Beyond that, say you’ve got a first officer that has low flight time and you’re going into a mountainous airport like Aspen, Colorado, you might identify that as an elevated risk element. It doesn't mean you can't fly with these risk elements. It just means you need to mitigate it,” Baier says. “Maybe you take a copilot who has more flight experience, or you go when the weather's better. As we identify from the software, those kinds of potentially risky behavior through the data and the metrics module, we help the operator basically determine if there's some changes to the way they operate,” Baier says. “The key is the adoption of SMS which we all know is actually good for the operator and we all know is going to make them safer and better. We're really driving the adoption of SMS through these integrations and through simplification of the process for the users. A lot of SMS systems are designed for large operators that have a dedicated safety compliance team like airlines or large commercial operators. We're really focused on bringing all the other operators to adopt SMS because we genuinely believe it's going to make the industry safer overall,” he adds. https://aviationweek.com/shownews/ebace/aviation-manuals-rolls-out-integrated-sms-wider-safety-assessment Boeing works to absorb lessons from the MAX crashes and improve safety Mike Delaney, right, Boeing’s chief aerospace safety officer, walks out of the federal court building after the arraignment of Boeing in Fort Worth, Texas, on Jan. 26. Delaney represented Boeing as relatives of some of those killed in two 737 MAX... More As Boeing tries to emerge from the four-year shadow of two deadly 737 MAX crashes, executives on Tuesday described diverse efforts to improve its safety culture and avert future airplane accidents. The company’s Chief Aerospace Safety Officer Mike Delaney outlined progress toward sweeping reforms in how Boeing operates and how it supports airlines. Boeing has sent experienced pilots across the globe to embed with airline customers and enhanced its training courses for pilots and aircraft maintenance mechanics. The company is mining flight data to assess and identify accident risks before anything goes wrong. And it’s preparing an internal education campaign for employees — from the executive suites to the engineering design offices to the factory floor — about lesson learned from the crashes. A new MAX operated by Lion Air crashed in Indonesia in October 2018. Just over four months later, a second new jet crashed in Ethiopia, with 346 people killed in the two accidents. Delaney suggested engineers who worked on development of the MAX are still coming to terms with how Boeing failures contributed to the crashes. Boeing’s 737 MAX crisis: The essential stories from the coverage of the crashes “Not everybody has perfect information,” Delaney said. “Not everybody was in every meeting. Not everybody was in every part of the business.” As part of its culture revamp and push to engage employees, Boeing is launching an internal interactive website — a “digital safety experience” — that will provide deep information on all previous airline accidents, including the lessons learned from each. And it’s developing a video for employees specifically about the MAX crashes, although what exactly will be included is still in progress. “When I talk to people about the 737 MAX, I’m not interested in atonement. I’m not interested in retribution,” Delaney said. “I’m interested in making sure that the Boeing Co., when it designs its next airplane, does not make a fundamental engineering mistake or program management mistake that was contributory to having an unsafe condition on an airplane that leads to an accident. “We’re trying to figure out how do we go forward and also make sure we learned the lessons from the last few years,” Delaney added. Support for pilots In a news briefing with Delaney, Lacey Pittman, Boeing vice president of the Global Aerospace Safety Initiative, described the company’s moves to extend its partnerships with airline customers. Historically, Boeing has sent out field service representatives — maintenance technicians and engineers — to airlines around the world to help fix technical problems with their airplanes. Now, it is also offering support to flight crews, whose flying experience varies widely across the globe. Boeing has hired 125 highly experienced pilots as “flight operations representatives.” Some of them are based in the U.S. and some are embedded with airlines around the globe to help flight crews that fly Boeing jets understand all aspects of the job. Delaney said the pilot shortage is holding back further hiring. “There are some challenges with trying to grow this to the scale and size we want,” he said. “Pilots are a scarce commodity.” Most of those recruited are veteran pilots who can no longer fly for an airline because they’re older than 65. Nevertheless, Pittman said the new flight operations reps engaged with 60 airlines last year. She said Boeing is also building safety support teams to be stationed in six regions of the world. “They’re living in the regions, and they’re connected with the regulators and the operators in those regions,” Pittman said, adding that these teams will “ensure that we are at the table as we talk about safety strategies in each region of the world.” https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/boeing-works-to-absorb-lessons-from-the-max-crashes-and-improve-safety/ EUROCONTROL and ICAO strengthen cooperation to improve aircraft tracking around the globe Montréal and Brussels, 25 May 2023 – In Brussels today, ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar and EUROCONTROL Director General Raúl Medina deepened the cooperation between the two organizations on the safety-vital topic of aircraft in distress. Their signature of letters tasks EUROCONTROL with the development and hosting of a Location of an Aircraft in Distress Repository (LADR) and an Operational Control Directory (OPS CTRL). Both will play a major part in assisting rescue efforts by coordinating all affected actors in the event of an aircraft in distress, supporting the ultimate goal of improving aircraft tracking and identifying distress situations during a flight in order to initiate a timely rescue operation. “This is a major step forward in addressing a global aviation need and we are delighted to be supporting global aviation and the flying public”, EUROCONTROL Director General Raúl Medina stated. “We are fully committed to deliver and host the LADR - a web-based repository which will collect, store and provide access to the last known position of an aircraft in distress information. Thanks to LADR, impacted stakeholders will be able to locate swiftly an aircraft in distress, greatly speeding up crucial search, rescue and recovery capabilities when a distress turns into an accident'”. LADR is part of the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) that covers autonomous distress tracking equipment on aircraft airframes, and improved systems and procedures to collect and share last known aircraft location information. The OPS CTRL will facilitate the exchange of information between air operators, air navigation service providers and rescue coordination centres. “Implementation of LADR will allow search and rescue services to better employ their resources in a timely manner to the most effective locations, thereby assisting in their mission to save lives,” remarked ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar. “The opportunity to collaborate with EUROCONTROL on this important development for the implementation of the ICAO GADSS concept reflects ICAO’s commitment to both look for new ways to work with partners and to focus on the development of implementation support for States.” The GADSS concept was developed by ICAO, with the help of worldwide experts and European subject matter experts led by EUROCONTROL, following two high-profile incidents involving airliners that went missing triggering complex and highly costly search efforts: the crash of Air France Flight 447 on 1 June 2009 and the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 on 8 March 2014. LADR will allow data submissions from accredited contributors in order to ensure all information related to the location of an aircraft in distress from suitably equipped aircraft is stored and made available to users. In case of an ‘aircraft in distress’ anywhere, anytime around the globe, LADR will provide a single point of access to the required information and notify the appropriate stakeholders, including aircraft operators, air navigation service providers and search and rescue, of a potential event. An initial version of LADR with core-functionality is expected to be delivered by the end of 2023, and an enhanced and scaled-up version that conforms with existing requirements is expected to be delivered by November 2024. https://www.icao.int/Newsroom/Pages/EUROCONTROL-and-ICAO-strengthen-cooperation-to-improve-aircraft-tracking-around-the-globe.aspx Boeing looks to embed experienced pilots with new airline customers WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co is deploying experienced pilots to airlines that are training their employees to fly Boeing aircraft, as part of a wider push to reduce aviation safety risks after two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. In 2022, a total of 125 so-called "flight operations representatives" worked with more than 60 airlines, Boeing officials told reporters in during a media event in Washington. "When there is an operator that is getting a new fleet type, we send them out," said Lacey Pittman, Boeing's vice president of its global aerospace safety initiative. "What we’re currently doing is deploying where there is that need and a request.” Boeing Chief Safety Officer Mike Delaney said that while it's up to aviation regulators to ensure airlines are ready to operate new aircraft types, having Boeing pilots on the ground allows the company to address practices that may be concerning. "We've had to make hard recommendations to some airlines, no doubt about that," he said. "All of them have accepted either our recommendation ... and in some cases we have offered additional resources from our company to help them do it." While Boeing historically has sent engineering and maintenance experts to embed with airlines, sending pilots on a semi-permanent basis to answer questions about flight operations procedures is a new endeavor for the company. Boeing hopes to recruit additional flight operations representatives - who are mostly former retired airline pilots with more than 13,000 flight hours under their belt, Pittman said. However, airlines' demand for training is high, and the older age of Boeing's pool of existing representatives leads to natural challenges in recruiting and retaining a workforce. "One challenge is that pilots are a scare commodity," Delaney said. “This is going to be a continuous (effort) trying to keep the pipeline full." Delaney and Pittman spoke to reporters during a media event tied to the roll out of Boeing's second annual safety report, required by a 2021 legal settlement over the 737 MAX crashes which killed 346 people. Other initiatives highlighted by Boeing officials included a machine learning algorithm developed by the company and the Federal Aviation Administration, which scours "service difficulty reports" that describes aircraft system malfunctions and identifies trends in the data. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/boeing-looks-embed-experienced-pilots-140220776.html Hong Kong airline terminates flight attendants accused of mocking passengers' English and saying they could lie on the floor if they couldn't ask for a blanket A voice recording apparently showing Cathay Pacific flight attendants mocking non-English speakers went viral. Cathay Pacific, the flag carrier airline of Hong Kong, has "terminated" three flight attendants after they were accused of mocking passengers' English, its CEO said. A passenger on Sunday's flight from Chengdu, China to Hong Kong accused the flight attendants of discriminating against non-English speakers, Reuters reported. They said the flight attendants complained amongst themselves before making fun of Chinese passengers who wanted a blanket but used the word "carpet" instead. An apparent voice recording of the incident shared on social media seems to show a crew member saying: "If you cannot say blanket in English, you cannot have it." "Carpet is on the floor, feel free if you want to lie on it," they added. In a statement sent to Insider, Ronald Lam, Cathay Pacific CEO, said: "In accordance with the company's policies, we have terminated three cabin crew members who were involved." It had previously suspended the flight attendants and launched an internal investigation, per Reuters. "I would like to extend my sincerest apologies again to the concerned customer and also to the community for the incident," Lam said. He added that he would lead a taskforce to review its service flow and people training. "We will take this as a valuable lesson and strive to provide a more satisfying travel experience to our customers," Lam said. The incident sparked outrage in China's state media. According to Reuters, the People's Daily accused the airline of "worshipping English and looking down on Mandarin." Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, which extended its power over the financial hub with legal forms in 2019 that provoked widespread protests. The city was first established as a British colony at the end of the First Opium War before control was transferred to China in 1997, but English is still an official language alongside Chinese. https://www.businessinsider.com/airline-apologizes-for-flight-attendants-mocking-passengers-english-2023-5 Air Force fighter pilot tapped by Biden to be next Joint Chiefs chairman has history of firsts WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force fighter pilot about to be nominated as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff got his call sign by ejecting from a burning F-16 fighter jet high above the Florida Everglades and falling into the watery sludge below. It was January 1991, and then-Capt. CQ Brown Jr. had just enough time in his parachute above alligator-full wetlands for a thought to pop into his head. “Hope there’s nothing down there,” Brown said in an interview at the Aspen Security Forum last year. He landed in the muck, which coated his body and got “in his boots and everything.” Which is how the nominee to be the country’s next top military officer got his call sign: “Swamp Thing.” Brown, now a four-star general and the Air Force chief, will be nominated by President Joe Biden on Thursday. If confirmed, Brown would replace Army Gen. Mark Milley, whose term ends in October. Biden is scheduled to unveil Brown as his pick during a Rose Garden event on Thursday afternoon. The call sign reveal was a rare inner look into Brown, who keeps his cards close to his chest. He’s spent much of his career being one of the Air Force’s top aviators, one of its few Black pilots and often one of the only African Americans in his squadron. To this day, his core tenets are to “execute at a high standard, personally and professionally,” Brown said this month at an Air Force Association conference in Colorado. “I do not play for second place. If I’m in, I’m in to win — I do not play to lose.” He’s been many firsts, including the Air Force’s first Black commander of the Pacific Air Forces, and most recently its first Black chief of staff, making him the first African American to lead any of the military branches. If confirmed, he would be part of another first — the first time the Pentagon’s top two posts were held by African Americans, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin the top civilian leader. Brown would not be the first African American to be chairman, the Pentagon’s top military post; that distinction went to the late Army Gen. Colin Powell. Brown, 60, has commanded the nation’s air power at all levels. Born in San Antonio, he is from a family of Army soldiers. His grandfather led a segregated Army unit in World War II and his father was an artillery officer and Vietnam War veteran. Brown grew up on several military bases and states, which helped instill in him a sense of mission. His nomination caps a four-decade military career that spans his commission as a distinguished ROTC graduate from Texas Tech University in 1984 to his White House nomination this week. He was widely viewed within military circles as the frontrunner for the chairmanship, with the right commands and a track record of driving institutional change, attributes seen as needed to push the Pentagon onto a more modern footing to meet China’s rise. For the past two years Brown has pressed “Accelerate, Change or Lose” within the Air Force. The campaign very much has China in mind, pushing the service to shed legacy warplanes and speed its efforts to counter hypersonics, drones and space weapons, where the military’s lingering Cold War-era inventory does not match up. In person, Brown is private, thoughtful and deliberate. He is seen as a contrast to Milley, who has remained outspoken throughout his tenure, often to the ire of former President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers. “He’s not prone to blurt out something without some serious thought in his own mind, some serious kind of balancing of the opportunities or options,” said retired Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley, who knows Brown from when Brown worked for him as a member of the Air Staff. Brown has more than 3,000 flying hours and repeat assignments to the Air Force Weapons School — an elite aerial fighting school similar to the Navy’s TOPGUN. Only about 1% of Air Force fighter pilots are accepted, Moseley said. When Brown had to eject from the burning F-16 in 1991, after the fuel tank broke off mid-flight, he said the timing couldn’t have been worse. “I was a bit frustrated because it happened just before the selection for weapons school,” he said at the Aspen forum. He said he had to apply three times before he got in, noting that it’s “pretty competitive.” But he rose to the top there, too, earning a spot as an instructor, “which is like 1% of the 1%,” Moseley said. Brown returned to the weapons school as its commandant. By then it had expanded from fighter-only exclusivity to teaching combined airpower operations, with tankers, bombers and cargo planes. Brown saw that the school “required a different approach and attitude,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Bill Rew. Earlier commandants had tried to institute a new mantra, “Humble, Approachable, Credible,” but it had not taken root. Under Brown the cultural shift took hold and remains in place today, said Rew, who was one of Brown’s instructors at the weapons school and wing commander during Brown’s time as commandant. “It takes a certain kind of leadership, that doesn’t force cultural change on people but explains it and motivates them on why that change is important,” Rew said. In June 2020, Brown was just a week from being confirmed by the Senate to serve as chief of staff of the Air Force when he felt the need to speak out on George Floyd’s murder. It was risky and inopportune time for the general to draw public attention and pull back the curtain on his private thoughts. But he did so anyway, after discussions with his wife and sons about the murder, which convinced him he needed to say something. In a June 2020 video message to the service titled “Here’s What I’m Thinking About,” Brown described how he’d pressured himself “to perform error-free” as a pilot and officer his whole life, but still faced bias. He said he’d been questioned about his credentials, even when he wore the same flight suit and wings as every other pilot. It’s been 30 years since Powell became the first Black chairman, serving from 1989 to 1993. But while African Americans make up 17.2% of the 1.3 million active-duty service members, only 9% of officers are Black, according to a 2021 Defense Department report. “I’m thinking about my mentors and how I rarely had a mentor that looked like me,” Brown said in the video. “I’m thinking about how my nomination provides some hope, but also comes with a heavy burden — I can’t fix centuries of racism in our country, nor can I fix decades of discrimination that may have impacted members of our Air Force. “I’m thinking about how I can make improvements, personally, professionally and institutionally,” so all airmen could excel. His decision to speak out did not cost him. His Senate confirmation vote was 98-0. But like the brief moment in Aspen, the personal video message was a rarity. After confirmation, he lowered his public profile again, and got to work. https://apnews.com/04a674e1d7aca1fa9f3c63797a9fc230 Embraer backs jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney LISBON, May 25 (Reuters) - Brazil's Embraer (EMBR3.SA) voiced "full support" for Pratt & Whitney as it battles durability problems on its latest jet engines, but said a separate business tussle with engine makers had forced it to suspend plans for a new turboprop plane. Chief Executive Francisco Gomes Neto told reporters that Raytheon Technologies (RTX.N) unit Pratt & Whitney was working hard to overcome premature wear problems grounding some jets. "I am personally involved in this; we recently visited them... We believe they have the competence to resolve the problems," Gomes Neto told a media briefing in Portugal, adding that Embraer jets had been less affected than other models. The world's third-largest planemaker uses Pratt Whitney's Geared Turbofan engines on its latest E2 series of jets. Similar engines are available on the larger Airbus A320neo family and are at the centre of a dispute between Pratt and India's GoFirst over the cause of the airline's bankruptcy. Gomes Neto said Embraer was involved in ongoing campaigns for potential commercial jet sales covering a total of more than 200 airplanes, which he said would support a goal of restoring annual jet deliveries to 100 a year within 3-4 years. Speaking at an annual media event, he also confirmed that the company's plans for a new turboprop aircraft were "on hold" and blamed a lack of attractive business offers from engine makers. "We have not yet found the right engine solution," he said. Pratt & Whitney Canada is the sole provider of engines for current turboprops, which are used for short regional routes. General Electric (GE.N) has declined to participate in the project, leaving Pratt & Whitney Canada or Rolls-Royce (RR.L). Chief Financial Officer Antonio Carlos Garcia said Embraer could have built a new turboprop alone but would not have made a big enough difference compared to existing models. Embraer would still need a partner for a more game-changing design, he added. The market for roughly 50-70-seat turboprops is dominated by Franco-Italian firm ATR, owned by Airbus and Leonardo (LDOF.MI). https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/embraer-backs-jet-engine-maker-pratt-whitney-2023-05-25/ Curt Lewis