Flight Safety Information - June 19, 2023 No. 117 In This Issue : Incident: ANZ B789 enroute on Jun 19th 2023, cracked windshield : Accident: British Airways B773 near Singapore on Jun 16th 2023, turbulence causes injuries : Incident: American B38M and Delta BCS1 at Minneapolis on Jun 14th 2023, near collision between go around and takeoff : Engine Mix-up Led To 737 Ditching : Late Ryanair Passenger Falls From Jet Bridge Trying To Make Flight : Delta Flight Canceled Because Pilot Arrested At Airport : Upping the retirement age for pilots to 67 is facing fierce opposition — from pilots : Boeing Readies For 777X Certification Push : GE ressurects the propfan aircraft engine, cutting fuel burn by 20% : Boeing sees $8 trillion jet market as climate reshapes travel : Boeing, CAE to Collaborate on Pilot Training to Enhance Aviation Safety Incident: ANZ B789 enroute on Jun 19th 2023, cracked windshield An ANZ Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9, registration ZK-NZJ performing flight NZ-99 from Auckland (New Zealand) to Tokyo Narita (Japan), was enroute at FL360 about 1360nm north of Auckland when the crew decided to return to Auckland after the right hand windshield cracked. The aircraft descended to FL350 for the flight back and landed safely in Auckland about 2:50 hours after turning around. The airline reported the outer pane of the windshield was damaged. The passengers are being rebooked onto the next flights. https://avherald.com/h?article=50aa6492&opt=0 Accident: British Airways B773 near Singapore on Jun 16th 2023, turbulence causes injuries A British Airways Boeing 777-300, registration G-STBL performing flight BA-12 (dep Jun 15th) from Singapore (Singapore) to London Heathrow,EN (UK), was enroute over the Bay of Bengal at FL300 about 950nm northwest of Singapore when the aircraft encountered turbulence causing injuries to a number of occupants. The crew decided to turn around and return to Singapore where the aircraft landed safely about 2.5 hours later. 3 flight attendants received injuries, one head injures when a trolley hit the head, a second received fractures to the ankle, a third serious bruises to her hip. Passengers reported that food trays and everything loose hit the cabin ceiling and came down again. The aircraft remained on the ground for about 44 hours, then departed as flight BA-12D. https://avherald.com/h?article=50a9fa9f&opt=0 Incident: American B38M and Delta BCS1 at Minneapolis on Jun 14th 2023, near collision between go around and takeoff An American Airlines Boeing 737-8 MAX, registration N338ST performing flight AA-2406 from Dallas Ft. Worth,TX to Minneapolis,MN (USA), was on final approach to Minneapolis' runway 30L. A Delta Airlines Bombardier C-Series CS-100 registration N311DU performing flight DL-1163 from Minneapolis,MN to Santa Ana,CA (USA), was preparing for takeoff. Tower needed to resequence a departure already holding short of the runway and had that plane taxi along the runway and vacate again and planned to have the next departing aircraft, flight DL-1163 line up runway 30L and be ready for immediate departure. When the B38M was about 5nm before the runway threshold tower instructed the aircraft to be resequenced to taxi onto the runway and cleared the Delta BCS1 to line up for departure, again re-iterating the BCS1 should be ready to go. About 90 seconds later tower cleared the BCS1 for takeoff with no delay on the roll and the B38M for landing, however, about 30 seconds later instructed the B38M to go around intending the B38M to keep right of the departure. The B38M kept to the left of the runway however while climbing out and overtaking the BCS1, the BCS1 climbed through the height of the B38M before the aircraft entered diverging trajectories. ADS-B data suggest, the separation between the aircraft, both airborne at 23:29:03Z, reduced to about 200 feet vertical and 0.14nm horizontal. The FAA reported the close call is under investigation by the FAA. https://avherald.com/h?article=50a8a110&opt=0 Engine Mix-up Led To 737 Ditching The NTSB says the crew of a first-generation Boeing 737 that ditched in the ocean off Honolulu on July 2, 2021, mixed up which engine was underperforming on the plane and steadily reduced power to the good engine while trying to coax more out of the damaged one. The aircraft went down a few miles offshore and both pilots survived. According to the final report, the Transair cargo flight had just taken off from Honolulu with the first officer flying when they heard a thud and the pilot flying correctly assessed that the right engine had lost some power. As the crew worked the problem, the first officer reduced power on both engines to slow the plane to a target speed of 220 knots and subsequently mixed up the engines and told the captain it was the left engine that was affected. “The captain accepted the first officer’s assessment and did not take action to verify the information,” the report said. The captain took control but remained under the incorrect assumption that the good engine was on the right. He added throttle to the damaged engine and it responded somewhat but not enough to keep the plane in the air. Meanwhile, the undamaged left engine was near idle and he did not adjust the left throttle. There wasn’t enough power to keep the plane in the air and he ditched in the ocean. The report says the failure to verify which engine was affected was “likely the result of the captain’s high workload and stress.” https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/engine-mixup-led-to-737-ditching/ Late Ryanair Passenger Falls From Jet Bridge Trying To Make Flight The passenger fell off the jet bridge, which had already been disconnected from the plane he wanted to get on. A late passenger attempting to board a Ryanair flight was captured on video falling to the ground while trying to get to the aircraft via the jet bridge at Malaga Airport in Spain. The jetbridge had already been disconnected from the Boeing 737, leaving the passenger precariously balanced on the edge of the opening. Falling onto the apron In an incident that unfolded at the Malaga Airport (AGP), a passenger, who caused a delay, was recorded pleading with airport personnel at the end of the jet bridge. According to the report, he was heard speaking in Spanish with a foreign accent, demanding, "Bring me a ladder." However, a few moments later, the passenger opted to make his way down on his own. Unfortunately, while attempting to do so, he lost his balance and fell from a height of approximately 3.5 meters onto the apron, Initially, there was a concern for the man's well-being, prompting airport staff to come to his aid quickly. However, he was observed sitting up and subsequently standing, indicating that he had no significant injuries. According to a Spanish airport operator AENA spokesperson, the country's civil guard, the Guardia Civil, handled the situation. However, it remains unclear whether the individual involved was permitted to board the flight he was so determined to catch. According to the Guardia Civil, the man in question violated the air safety rules and was fined by the Spanish civil aviation authority. The scheduled departure time for Ryanair flight FR 4460 from Malaga Airport to Fes Saiss Airport (FEZ) in Morocco was 12:05 local time in Malaga. However, due to the incident, the airline's Boeing 737 departed approximately an hour later, as indicated by data from Flightradar24.com. Ryanair operates five weekly flights between the two destinations. The flight duration is estimated to be around 40 minutes. Other attempts At times, late passengers attempt to break into the aircraft and, as a result, are refused to board their flight and face fines for violating the rules. Some silliest examples of attempting to catch a missed flight include passengers who start running on the apron and force aircraft doors to open. In August 2016, a Bolivian citizen was captured on video rushing onto the apron at Madrid's primary international airport in an attempt to catch a Ryanair flight. Carrying two bags, the individual leaped off the jet bridge and sprinted along the runway's edge to reach the aircraft. Surprisingly, he successfully boarded the plane and traveled to his intended destination of Gran Canaria. However, upon arrival, the individual was intercepted by the police, identified, and subsequently reported for breaching airport security protocols. Back in 2018, an irate passenger who missed his scheduled flight was arrested at Melbourne Airport and was caught on camera bounding up the stairs and attempting to force the plane's main door open. https://simpleflying.com/ryanair-passenger-jetbridge-fall/?newsletter_popup=1 Delta Flight Canceled Because Pilot Arrested At Airport This incident happened on Friday, June 16, 2023, and involves Delta flight DL209 from Edinburgh (EDI) to New York (JFK). The flight was scheduled to be operated by a 25-year-old Boeing 767-300ER with the registration code N196DN. So, what happened? At around 10AM (35 minutes before scheduled departure time), one of the pilots was arrested at the airport. Police Scotland has confirmed this incident, and that the arrest was in connection with the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003. Delta has also confirmed in a statement that this incident happened, and that the Atlanta-based carrier is assisting authorities with their ongoing investigation. The Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 covers alcohol and drug use by crew members, so it sounds like this incident is related to that. For what it’s worth, those regulations limit pilots to a blood alcohol level of 0.02, compared to the legal limit of 0.08 for driving. So even one drink in your system would be enough to be over the limit for operating an aircraft. If a pilot is found to be intoxicated, they could not only lose their job, but could also be facing jail time, so the punishment here is serious. We don’t have a sense yet of how this pilot was caught. For what it’s worth, I’m not seeing anything on social media from passengers on the flight, so it sounds like this wasn’t some huge spectacle, and that passengers probably had no clue what was going on. Bottom line A Delta flight on Friday from Edinburgh to New York was canceled after the captain was arrested at the airport in relation to alcohol and drug consumption. We don’t have any details beyond that, though this wouldn’t be the first time that a pilot for a US airline has been arrested at an airport in Scotland prior to operating a flight. https://onemileatatime.com/news/delta-flight-canceled-pilot-arrested/ Upping the retirement age for pilots to 67 is facing fierce opposition — from pilots The amendment is a part of the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, which reauthorizes funding for the FAA. Pilots and flight attendant unions are sounding alarms at an attempt in Congress to raise the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots by two years to 67. The Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, which reauthorizes funding for the Federal Aviation Administration and aviation safety and infrastructure programs for the next five years, includes an amendment that would raise the mandatory retirement age for pilots from 65 to 67. House bill 3935 was approved by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on June 14 after a House subcommittee tacked on the amendment to alter the age commercial airline pilots have to step down. The Regional Airline Association is supportive of the housebill, stating the age change is “modest” and allows for the retention of more experienced captains, who can in turn fly alongside and mentor new first officers, to stabilize attrition. Concerns have been rising over the crippling shortage of pilots that has accumulated over the last several decades. The Allied Pilots Association, the union representing American Airlines’ 15,000 pilots, vocalized its opposition to the bill, citing safety issues and health. In 2023, 712 American pilots will reach retirement age. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association anticipates 85 pilots to retire in 2023. “Safety considerations drove the establishment of the current international standard of age 65 mandatory retirement, and raising the pilot retirement age would introduce additional risk into commercial aviation,” said Capt. Ed Sicher, the Allied Pilots Association’s president. “Health concerns such as cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes become more prevalent as we age — something that has been studied extensively and demonstrated by American Airlines’ own data.” Sicher said one in three pilots near age 65 on the union’s seniority list is on long-term sick or disability. The rule also faces opposition from within unions from pilots that would have to wait longer to hit wait longer to reach seniority levels to advance to captain, fly bigger jets and have the first choice of schedules. Air Line Pilots Association, International, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO and Transport Workers Union of America released a joint statement stating the change would not increase the number of pilots and instead “exacerbate operational and scheduling complexity.” Under the new rules, pilots over age 65 would be limited to flying domestic routes. “The International Civil Aviation Organization limits pilots to age 65 for any international flying,” the statement read. “Therefore, senior pilots on international routes would have to return to domestic-only flying. This would require retraining on different equipment and would bump less-senior pilots to different aircraft or flight deck positions. This will have unintended consequences on airline operations that will complicate the return to travel post-COVID resulting in more delays and cancellations. It would also introduce unnecessary risk to the system.” Flight attendants are weighing in, too. The Association of Flight Attendants said in a release that it “will do everything in our power to strip from the bill the age 67 pilot retirement amendment.” The release cited that it is “not a serious proposal for meeting travel demand” because pilots over 65 would not be able to fly outside the U.S., pilots would have to be retrained to be qualified on smaller aircraft, reintroducing pilots who have already retired buy are under 67 conflicts with current collective bargaining agreements and the age would displace more junior pilots. “If not removed, this language will result in chaos in the operation and increased training costs and time,” the release said. “It’s not a legitimate proposal for meeting travel demand.” The full House of Representatives must take up that bill, dependent on when it is scheduled. The Senate Commerce Committee still has not yet held a markup of its Federal Aviation Administration bill. Once the senate passes an FAA bill, any differences must be negotiated. https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2023/06/19/upping-the-retirement-age-for-pilots-to-67-is-facing-fierce-opposition-from-pilots/ Boeing Readies For 777X Certification Push Boeing has completed VMU (velocity minimum unstick) testing on the 777-9. LE BOURGET—Boeing has completed responses to questions from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the FAA over new design aspects of the 777X, including redundancy in the flight control system, and says it is poised to begin certification of the aircraft as soon as the U.S. regulator gives the all-clear to begin testing. The 777-9, which is making its Paris Air Show debut, is targeted at entry-into-service in 2025 having been delayed by a series of issues ranging from the global pandemic to increased regulatory scrutiny in the wake of the 737 MAX accidents in 2018 and 2019. The aircraft’s appearance at the show comes as Boeing awaits type inspection authorization (TIA) from the FAA—a long-anticipated move that will mark the formal start of certification. “We are ready from an airplane standpoint for TIA,” says Justin Hale, Boeing's 777X customer leader and product marketing director. The three active development aircraft have so far amassed around 3,000 flight hours and 1,000 cycles in the program. The fourth is being refurbished with a full interior prior to joining the test campaign later this year. Tests have included validation of components added to address regulator concerns over potential common mode failures in the 777X flight control system and “have all been related to qualification of those parts,” Hale says. Technical exchanges with the FAA are a routine part of any Boeing certification project. But formal queries directly from EASA are rarer, since EASA's role under the U.S.-European Union safety bilateral is to validate the FAA's findings. With EASA seemingly satisfied, the process has “got us back to where the bilateral will work between the U.S. and EASA,” he adds. Although FAA TIA is not dependent on EASA approval of the certification basis, the 777X program needs international compliance across the board to progress. Agreement with EASA rebuilds towards the standard bilateral convention between the U.S. and Europe under which each regulator approves the validating authority’s (VA) system without any technical involvement or approval by the VA. Upcoming tests include minimum landing distance and braking system performance with the 777-9 prototype, WH001, while the second aircraft WH002 is performing stability and control as well as ride quality work. The third aircraft, WH003, is focused on engine performance testing. “We just completed takeoff performance and VMU (velocity minimum unstick) testing,” says Heather Ross, an experimental test pilot at Boeing. “That was a huge risk reduction effort to get that completed. We're still working on takeoff and landing performance and that testing will be continuing later on. We've got some more stability and control testing coming up as keep progressing the loads of updated software for our flight controls,” she adds. https://aviationweek.com/shownews/paris-air-show/boeing-readies-777x-certification-push GE ressurects the propfan aircraft engine, cutting fuel burn by 20% GE once thought super-efficient propfans were the future of air travel, until low fuel prices in the late 1980s moved fuel consumption down the list of priorities. Now, it's bringing them back with the CFM Rise, promising 20% fuel savings. Unducted fans (UDFs), also known as propfans or open rotor engines, first popped up in the 1970s. They look a little odd to the modern eye, with smooth nacelles and air intakes at the front, and two sets of fan blades poking out into open air at the back. NASA's X-66A transonic plane doesn't have a perfect wing, but it tries Typically, there's a lot of blades, and they're swept back, and heavily twisted. The rear blades are twisted in the opposite direction to the front ones; sometimes they counter-rotate, others don't rotate at all, acting as variable-pitch stator blades to help with flow recovery. "The history of aviation propulsion," reads a GE whitepaper, "tells us that all previous breakthroughs in efficiency were achieved by new technologies that allowed for a larger fan size and a higher bypass ratio." Propfans do both, in a way that combines the fuel efficiency of a turboprop with the speed and performance of a turbofan. The history of General Electric, meanwhile, tells us that this company had a propfan engine just about ready to rock back in 1989, capable of cruising at Mach 0.84 and promising a remarkable 30% fuel efficiency advantage over the popular turbofan engines of the day. The GE36 UDF, built in partnership with Snecma, made it to the prototype and flight testing phases, but once OPEC dropped the oil embargo, fuel prices crashed, and the design was shelved. Fuel prices have very much uncrashed in recent times, and as aviation faces the challenge of decarbonizing a highly energy-intensive business, propulsive efficiency is very much back in vogue. Batteries and hydrogen can't fully replace kerosene as an energy carrier, so any extra mileage you can squeeze out of your electrons has become critical. So GE is back on the propfan train again, and through CFM International, a 50/50 joint venture with Safran Aircraft Engines (formerly Snecma) that sadly doesn't produce boots, it announced a new UDF airliner engine called the Rise back in 2021. Open rotor designs place a large number of long, pitch-controllable blades in the air, combining the speed and performance of today's turbofans with the efficiency of a turboprop Open rotor designs place a large number of long, pitch-controllable blades in the air, combining the speed and performance of today's turbofans with the efficiency of a turbopropCFM Efficiency may have improved across the industry in the last 30-something years, but GE says the Rise engine should still give you 20% more miles than anything else currently on the market for a given amount of energy. While noise – both in the cabin and on the ground – has been a problem with some previous propfan designs, the CFM team says the Rise engine is being "validated to meet the most stringent ... noise emission requirements." “The industry can’t reach its net zero ambition by 2050 with status quo incremental improvements in fuel efficiency," says Mohamed Ali, vice president of engineering for GE Aerospace. "Revolutionary technologies are needed. That’s why we believe the time for open fan is now, an advanced engine architecture that could unlock the single greatest jump in generational engine efficiency that CFM has ever achieved. This is supported by our most comprehensive testing roadmap yet to prove out and mature these technologies for the future of flight.” The Rise engine can be mounted over the tail wings of an airliner, and it's just as happy under a top-mounted wing as it is on top of a low wing. The team has signed a deal with Airbus, which will lead to an open fan demonstrator of some kind that's expected to fly "in the mid-2020s." For now, there are prototypes built, and CFM has already performed some 400 tests on the ground. Meanwhile, GE Aerospace has been doing some serious simulation work, announcing in a press release on Friday that it's engaged the world's fastest supercomputer. The Frontier supercomputer, at the US DoE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, can perform more than one quintillion calculations per second, and as such, it's providing exceptionally detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling on how ambient air will interact with these big propfans at speed and altitude. Innovation in the airliner business tends to happen at a snail's pace; we wouldn't expect to see anything like this on a commercial airliner until well into the 2030s, if it indeed happens at all. But between this and other efforts like the Rolls-Royce Ultrafan, there could well be a highly efficient propulsion technology ready by the time companies like ZeroAvia and Universal Hydrogen get their clean aviation powertrains built, tested and certified up to full-scale international airliner size. https://newatlas.com/aircraft/ge-cfm-rise-open-fan/ Boeing sees $8 trillion jet market as climate reshapes travel Boeing Co. predicts airlines around the world will add 42,595 jets valued at about $8 trillion over the next two decades, even as concerns over climate change affect the way consumers travel. The U.S. plane-maker’s latest tally of industrywide deliveries over the next 20 years takes into account growing activism over jet emissions, said Darren Hulst, a Boeing vice president of marketing. He predicts a falloff in commercial flights that are shorter than 500 miles, as governments urge consumers to switch to greener transport such as trains. Airlines’ ability to wring more flying and profit out of their aircraft will also temper sales. Boeing estimates that carriers will find ways to squeeze about 20% more productivity out of their fleets by moving to large planes, adding denser seating patterns and keeping the airliners airborne more hours each day. Still, Boeing expects the global fleet will nearly double through 2042, growing at a faster pace — 3.5% per year — than its 2.6% forecast for annual global economic growth. Airbus SE predicts that 40,850 new jets will enter the commercial market over that span. Both plane-makers expect single-aisle jets to dominate the market for the next two decades. Boeing sees the workhorse jets like its 737 MAX and Airbus’s A320neo accounting for 76% of projected sales, compared with a 80% forecast by its European rival. The Arlington, Va.-based manufacturer doesn’t expect every category of jet to enjoy robust growth. Boeing reduced the numbers of air freighters and regional jets that it expected to enter the market by 1.6% and 14.6%, respectively, from last year’s forecast. Hulst is skeptical that single-aisle jets capable of flying between continents, like rival Airbus SE’s A321XLR, will ever command more than a small niche of the market. The US planemaker doesn’t have an offering that directly competes with its rival’s long-range narrowbody. “You run out of the capacity for bags. You run out of the ability to provide a premium product,” Hulst said. “The cargo element that is such a big part of medium- and long-haul is simply not an option.” https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-sees-8-trillion-jet-market-as-climate-reshapes-travel/ Boeing, CAE to Collaborate on Pilot Training to Enhance Aviation Safety Boeing and CAE have signed an agreement through which CAE will become a Boeing Authorized Training Provider and the first to offer Boeing’s Competency-Based Training and Assessment (CBTA) curriculum. With this arrangement, Boeing and CAE will expand accessibility to high-quality, innovative flight training to commercial aviation customers worldwide. “This partnership expands our competency-based flight-training capacity to better meet the needs of our customers worldwide,” said Stephanie Pope, president and CEO, Boeing Global Services. “By sharing data, leveraging digital capabilities, and providing greater accessibility and affordability, Boeing and CAE are enhancing global aviation safety.” The shift to CBTA methodology in pilot training focuses on developing and evaluating skills, knowledge and behaviors essential for pilots to operate safely and efficiently in a commercial air transport environment. Boeing’s implementation of CBTA leverages digitally-advanced tools and fleet operations data to customize training to each individual, and helps pilots efficiently respond to in-flight challenges. The first CAE locations to adopt Boeing’s curriculum will be in India, with expansion anticipated into additional global markets. Boeing is implementing the CBTA curriculum through its global training campuses in Seattle, Miami, London-Gatwick, Shanghai, and Singapore, as well as at customer locations worldwide. “As a Boeing authorized training provider, CAE will leverage its expertise and global network to expand access to high-quality training on Boeing commercial aircraft and give pilots the skills and knowledge they need for peak performance in the flight deck,” said Marc Parent, CAE’s President and CEO. “Boeing and CAE are working together to enhance aviation safety, and this agreement ensures more pilots worldwide are ready for the moments that matter.” https://airlinergs.com/boeing-cae-to-collaborate-on-pilot-training-to-enhance-aviation-safety/ Curt Lewis