Flight Safety Information - October 26, 2023 No. 208 In This Issue : Raytheon Hawker 850XP / Cessna 510 Mustang - Ground Collision (Houston, TX) : NTSB sending 6 investigators to look into plane collision that sparked ground stop at Hobby Airport : How Data-Driven Video Technology is Elevating Air Ambulance Safety : Call for experts: advice on the implementation of the revised EU Emissions Trading System Directive for aviation : Air India Express To Induct 350 Pilots Over The Next Year : 5 Design Benefits Of Rear Mounted Engines On Private Jets : Air Force One debacle: Boeing has now lost more than $1 billion on each of the president’s two new jets : Elon Musk May Have Given Up On Privacy For His Jet Travels, But Taylor Swift Hasn’t : CALENDAR OF EVENTS Raytheon Hawker 850XP / Cessna 510 Mustang - Ground Collision (Houston, TX) Date: Tuesday 24 October 2023 Time: c. 15:20 Type: Raytheon Hawker 850XP Owner/operator: Whitmore Holdings LLC Registration: N269AA MSN: 258800 Year of manufacture: 2006 Engine model: Honeywell TFE731-5BR-1H Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 Aircraft damage: Substantial Category: Accident Location: William P. Hobby Airport (HOU/KHOU), Houston, TX - United States of America Phase: Take off Nature: Private Departure airport: Houston-William P. Hobby Airport, TX (HOU/KHOU) Destination airport: Waukesha Airport, WI (UES/KUES) Investigating agency: NTSB Confidence Rating: Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources Narrative: A Hawker 850XP (N269AA) and a Cessna 510 Mustang (N510HM), were involved in a ground collision at William P. Hobby Airport (HOU/KHOU), Houston, Texas. Both airplanes sustained substantial damage. There were no injuries. Preliminary information indicates that ATC had instructed the Hawker jet to line up and wait on runway 22. However, the aircraft commenced the takeoff roll and collided with the Cessna 510 that was landing on the intersecting runway 13R. The Hawker got airborne and was able to land back at the airport. Photos from the scene show that the Hawker sustained damage to the left winglet, while the Cessna sustained damage to the tail section. https://www.aviation-safety.net/wikibase/347213 NTSB sending 6 investigators to look into plane collision that sparked ground stop at Hobby Airport NTSB launches investigation into plane collision at Hobby Airport The FAA said one pilot took off without permission and collided with another private jet on the runway. Many travelers abandoned their luggage during the mess of cancellations, delays, and diversions. HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- An investigation is just beginning into a runway collision at William P. Hobby Airport on Tuesday that sparked a ground stop. The airport has since returned to normal operations, though the impact canceled or delayed 144 flights. Crews were collecting debris shortly after the incident Tuesday afternoon that impacted more than 130 flights at the Houston airport. ABC13 crews at the airport on Wednesday spotted a large pile of luggage. Officials said the bags were mostly left behind by people living around the Houston area who didn't want to wait when all the flights started getting diverted and canceled. According to the FAA, a twin-engine Hawker took off without permission and collided with a Cessna that was landing on a different runway around 3:30 p.m. Debris from the incident shut down the airfield, which meant all arriving and departing flights were grounded or diverted until around 7 p.m. On Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed eight people were on board between both planes. No one was hurt. We also learned new information about what happened. The NTSB said a Hawker plane was told by air traffic control to line up and wait on the runway. Instead, the pilot took off. It's not clear why the pilot kept going. As the Hawker took off, the NTSB said the tail clipped the wing of a Cessna plane. After the collision, the NTSB said the Hawker plane continued to take off. The pilot eventually returned to Hobby, but it's unclear how long that took. On Wednesday, six NTSB crew members arrived in Houston. They could be here for five days investigating the incident. The plan is to meet with both pilots and air traffic controllers. They plan to also review Hobby's arrival and departure procedures. A preliminary report could come out in 30 days. It could take two years for a final report. Due to the cancellations, delays, and diversions, some passengers were sent to Bush Intercontinental Airport. Meanwhile, some were sent to other states. One traveler told ABC13 that he ended up in New Orleans after his flight from Cancun was canceled. "They didn't give us any new boarding passes or anything, so we don't have any new official flight number or time we are supposed to be departing," Everett Brown said. In total, Houston Airport System officials said the ground stop caused cancellations to 24 departing and 30 arriving flights, as well as delays to 45 departing and 33 arriving flights. Eleven flights were diverted, including six to IAH. ABC13 asked the FAA if the pilot of the Hawker plane would face any consequences for taking off without permission. The FAA sent ABC13 this statement: "Investigations may take several weeks or longer to complete. We do not discuss open investigations." https://abc13.com/hobby-airport-collision-private-plane-clipped-pilot-takes-off-without-permission-national-transportation-safety-board-investigation/13969533/ How Data-Driven Video Technology is Elevating Air Ambulance Safety A combination of safety measures and technologies, such as cameras and sensors, can reduce the likelihood that your helicopter ambulances will have an accident. As the morning sun rose, a medivac helicopter took off from a hospital’s helipad with a critical patient onboard. The flight crew — a pilot, flight nurse, and paramedic — were all highly skilled and experienced in providing critical care during air transport. Bound for a city, only 30 minutes by air but nearly three hours by ground transportation, every minute saved was vital to the patient. The crew was confident they could deliver the patient safely to the receiving hospital during this routine flight. As the helicopter approached the facility, the pilot suddenly noticed a ground crew working on the helipad—unaware of the impending landing and potentially in danger. Without hesitation, the pilot aborted the landing and pulled up—narrowly avoiding a potentially catastrophic collision with the ground crew. This near-miss was a wake-up call for the hospital staff, highlighting the need for improved safety measures during landings on the helipad. Hospitals Face Diverse Challenges in Air Ambulance Safety There are a variety of causes of air ambulance crashes, including pilot disorientation, pilot errors, maintenance errors, vision impairment, fatigue, or rapidly changing weather conditions. According to a fatal air medical accident study, nighttime-related factors contributed to nearly 38.9% of fatalities, followed by weather-related factors (35.6%) and various mechanical failures (17.2%). These data show that the probable causes of fatal air medical accidents are primarily human factors and are, therefore, likely preventable. In a similar study by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, helicopter air ambulances have twice the fatal accident rate compared with all other forms of aviation per 100,000 flight hours. Accident records over a 35-year period (1983-2018) show that a helicopter that crashes while flying at night is three times more likely to suffer a fatality than helicopters flying in the daytime. Medical helicopter pilots flying under instrument flight rules (IFR) are nearly eight times more likely to be involved in a fatal accident, and a post-crash fire is nearly 19 times more likely to result in a fatality than a crash without fire. As the industry grapples with the consequences of these accidents, the focus must now shift toward proactively implementing measures that bolster air ambulance and hospital helipad safety. Advancements in technology, improved communications, and awareness systems present a promising avenue to address the risks involved in air ambulance operations. Proactive Video Technologies Can Help Despite the clear benefits of landing pad cameras, some medical transport companies and hospitals have been slow to adopt them. This is often due to concerns about the cost of installation and maintenance, as well as concerns about privacy and data security. However, a robust video technology meets these requirements. The benefits of landing pad cameras far outweigh the costs, and the technology — with its heightened situational awareness — effectively reduces the risk of accidents during landings. With the increasing demand for medical transport services and the growing focus on patient safety, the adoption of landing pad cameras and data-driven video technologies will become more widespread in the coming years. The good news is that the number of helicopter ambulance accidents has been declining in recent years due to a combination of increased safety measures and technology use, such as improved training for pilots and medical crew, night-vision goggles, and the use of camera and sensor systems on helicopter landing pads. While these advancements have undeniably made an impact, smart video systems could further elevate safety standards. Integrated video systems may be pivotal in driving air ambulance safety improvements through actionable data. Camera and sensor technologies that provide eyes in the sky and on the ground are incredibly impactful during the most dangerous phases — takeoff and landing. While air ambulance crews undertake training and precautions, human error can never be entirely eliminated. Data-driven video systems add a consistent, unbiased layer of hazard detection and response augmentation. More air ambulance services today are adopting integrated video technologies to enhance safety measures. These systems can integrate with a wide range of specialty and smart cameras and sensors with video analytics to provide real-time actionable insights. The following video technologies can deliver these safety benefits. How Data-Driven Video Can Ease Nurse Workloads, Deliver Patient-Centric Experience Landing pad cameras can provide critical situational awareness and a clear view of the landing area, allowing pilots to identify potential obstacles or hazards, such as parked vehicles, people, or misplaced equipment on the pad. Infrared and thermal imaging cameras can vastly improve visibility for pilots, particularly in nighttime, low light, or unfavorable weather conditions. With clear aerial views of the landing site, hazards like unauthorized people, building structures, or objects can be identified and avoided. Smart sensors, along with predictive video analytic software, can measure the helicopter’s altitude, speed, and distance to the ground. This information can help the pilot land the aircraft safely in difficult conditions, such as high winds or low visibility. Video analytics can take it a step further by automatically detecting potential risks and sending targeted alerts. All of this translates to heightened situational awareness and hazard mitigation during these high-stakes transports. Motion and object detection and tracking can identify and track objects in the vicinity of the air ambulance or heliport, such as people, vehicles, animals, or even drones. Personnel tracking can be used to precisely track the movements of personnel in the heliport area to ensure that everyone is in a safe area during takeoff and landing operations. Recorded video data from high-resolution cameras can capture all flight and landing activity, providing valuable information for investigating incidents. The data is critical in determining causal factors, accountability, and needed improvements, which are all key to promoting ongoing safety. The video data can also be an excellent training tool for preparing pilots and crew. Take a Systems Approach Open platform, data-driven video management technologies today can ingest, process, and present vast amounts of data to hospital facility and security personnel as well as ground and flight crews, allowing them to monitor events in real-time and make informed, proactive decisions as they occur, significantly improving overall helipad safety. These video management systems can also integrate with a facility’s other existing systems, such as access control, lighting, alarm, and intercom systems — creating a comprehensive, proactive approach to safety. Open platform video management systems have become the data platform for consolidating a broad range of cumulative digital intelligence. The journey of a medical air transport is one of time-critical stakes and immense responsibility. The blend of seasoned expertise from medical crews and pilots, with the augmented vision and insights of data-driven video technology, creates a formidable barrier against the unforeseen risks that can emerge during air medical transportation. https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/news/how-data-driven-video-technology-is-elevating-air-ambulance-safety/ Call for experts: advice on the implementation of the revised EU Emissions Trading System Directive for aviation Are you an organisation with expertise in aviation and climate change policy? Can you help us prepare the implementation of the changes to the ETS for aviation? Apply to join our expert group on aviation by 7 November. The European Commission has launched a call for applications to select additional members for the aviation formation of the Commission expert group on climate change policy. The call is open to organisations only. The deadline to apply is 7 November 2023. The expert group’s formation for the Emissions Trading System (ETS) for aviation is currently composed of representatives of Member States’ and EEA-EFTA States’ authorities. The Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) is now planning to increase the number of members to gather views of all stakeholders with an interest in the ETS for aviation and improve the overall progress of the implementation of the EU ETS Directive for aviation. The Commission is looking for applications from organisations whose work includes an EU focus, namely: • associations representing industries, sectors and solution providers related to the aviation sector; • non-governmental organisations, academic institutions with expertise in the aviation sector. • For the former (associations), the selection will be based on their representativeness at EU level and the relevance of the aviation sector for them. For the latter (non-governmental organisations, universities and research institutes), the selection will be based on their competence and experience in the industries and sectors relevant to the aviation sector. The results will be announced between 15 November and 15 December. The selected experts will meet according to the needs of the ETS implementation process for aviation, either virtually (e.g. Webex) or in person and will start working in 2024. The group will support the Commission in the implementation of the amendments regarding aviation’s contribution to the EU’s economy-wide emission reduction target and the appropriate implementation of a global market-based measure. It will deal with topics such as implementing a new support mechanism to speed up the use of the eligible sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), creating a new system for airlines to monitor, report and verify non-CO2 effects of aviation and implementing the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). The aviation formation will also exchange views on additional issues relating to the implementation of the EU ETS Directive for aviation. Background The ETS Directive has been amended as regards aviation’s contribution to the EU’s economy-wide emission reduction target and the appropriate implementation of a global market-based measure. The revision will help make the aviation sector ‘Fit for 55’, setting in law its contribution to our target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. The revision has several key outcomes. The updated rules on emissions trading will accelerate the implementation of the polluter pays principle by phasing out free allowances for the aviation sector by 2026. Until the start of 2027, EU carbon pricing will apply to flights within the EEA and departing flights to Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In 2026, the Commission will carry out an assessment of the CORSIA set up by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, to see if it is sufficiently delivering on the goals of the Paris Agreement and if the participation in it is sufficiently high. The legislation also provides for a new support mechanism, to speed up the use of the eligible SAF, which is 20 million allowances, with an estimated value of around €1.7 billion at current carbon prices. It will also create a new system for airlines to monitor, report and verify non-CO2 effects of aviation. https://climate.ec.europa.eu/news-your-voice/news/call-aviation-experts-2023-10-24_en Air India Express To Induct 350 Pilots Over The Next Year The airline will need a larger workforce to support its growing business. SUMMARY • Air India Express plans to double its pilot strength, with around 350 new pilots to be inducted into the airline over the next year. • The growth in pilot numbers is not surprising, as the airline has been actively hiring throughout this year. • The airline will receive 50 Boeing 737 MAX plans in the next 15 months and will need new pilots to fly these planes. The dust has barely settled on Air India Express’ big brand reveal, and now reports are circulating that the carrier is ready to almost double its pilot strength over the next year. More than 300 pilots are currently undergoing training at the airline and will join active duty over the coming months. The airline needs new pilots as it plans to get as many as 50 additional aircraft in the next 15 months. 350 pilots to join Air India Express Air India Express' workforce will receive a major boost as around 350 pilots will be inducted into the airline over the next year. The airline currently has 400 pilots on its payroll, and this figure will likely increase anywhere between 800 and 900 in the coming months, as reported by the Financial Express. This is not really surprising, as the budget carrier has been actively recruiting pilots this year. Air India Express conducted various roadshows in multiple cities towards the middle of the year amid a pilot recruitment drive. The airline invited applications for various positions, including Pilot-In-Command, Captains, Co-pilots, and Transition First Officers for the Boeing 737NG and 737 MAX aircraft. Recently, Akasa Air faced a mass resignation from a large chunk of its pilots, many of whom have reportedly joined Air India Express. Massive growth While Air India Express has been profitable for most of its operational years, it was sidelined as a state-run carrier as far as fleet growth is concerned. But that has changed significantly, with its new owner, the Tata Group, ordering more than 150 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for the airline. The airline will receive around 50 new MAX aircraft over the next 15 months, an impressive rate of fleet growth, and will naturally need more pilots to support this expansion. Furthermore, it will also get several Airbus A320 aircraft from AirAsia India, with the merger of the two airlines underway. Such is the growth trajectory of all airlines under the Tata Group that Air India CEO Campbell Wilson recently commented that the Air India Group collectively will welcome one aircraft every six days on average until 2024 end. And Air India Express’ plane deliveries will play a massive role in that. Working together with Air India Air India Express’ Managing Director Aloke Singh recently explained that the airline will continue to focus on budget routes in a way that complements full-service carrier Air India’s network perfectly. He explained to CNBC TV18 that the AIX will fly on routes like Trichy-Dubai. Kannur-Dubai, or Goa-Dubai, where demand for low-cost travel remains high, whereas something like Delhi-Dubai or Mumbai-Dubai is better served by Air India. He added, “Air India will look at routes which have a higher proportion of premium traffic, which have a higher proportion of business traffic, hub to hub traffic, which can be better served by the Air India product. “… we understand that market where we can cross-sell and upsell so, we will always charge for a meal, ancillaries will be a very important part of our revenue stream.” https://simpleflying.com/air-india-express-to-induct-350-pilots-over-the-next-year/ 5 Design Benefits Of Rear Mounted Engines On Private Jets A large majority of private jets feature engines on the aft fuselage. Today, most private jets have similar designs: rear-mounted engines with a T-tail and winglets. There are exceptions, of course, like the trijet Dassault Falcon 8X and Falcon 900 or the complete outliers, such as the Honda HA-420 HondaJet, whose engines are found above the wings of the private jet. Then, there is the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet, which has a single engine mounted on the top of the fuselage, a literal unicorn within the business jet market. The only commercial aircraft in production today with rear-mounted engines is the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) ARJ21, a Chinese-built regional aircraft. While Airbus never built a plane with such an engine configuration, Boeing produced the 717 (though it was designed by McDonnell Douglas). Boeing and McDonnell Douglas merged in 1997. So, what are the design benefits of rear-mounted engines, and why do most business aircraft use them? 1 Fuselage is lower to the ground Passengers can board the aircraft where infrastructure may be lacking One of the benefits of having engines mounted on the aft fuselage is that the landing gear does not need to be as tall as when engines are located below the wings, as there is less ground clearance required. This allows passengers to board the aircraft using the air stairs. Private jets typically operate from smaller private airports that lack the infrastructure for boarding via a jet bridge. Examples of such airports include Teterboro Airport (TEB), Farnborough Airport (FAB), and Van Nuys Airport (VNY). Even if private jets land at commercial airports, private terminals exist, such as the Private Suite – now known as PS – at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Furthermore, because the aircraft are closer to the ground due to the rear-mounted engines, passengers wouldn’t need to rely on the airport’s general infrastructure. Instead, they can access their private jets using air stairs, thus avoiding interaction with the general public during their travels. 2 Less noise in the cabin Rear-mounted engines generate less noise than wing-mounted counterparts Because the engines are positioned at the aft, the noise produced by the engines exits to the rear. While this could result in higher noise levels at the back of the aircraft, this translates to less noise in the middle and front of the cabin, where business jet passengers will most likely find themselves for the majority of a flight. Consequently, occupants can focus on their work more easily, allowing them to use their travel time more efficiently, especially if they are seated near or in front of the wing. Some private jets, like the Embraer Praetor 500, tactically place the lavatory in a typical configuration at the back of the aircraft, meaning that most of the cabin is not exposed to the engine intake noise. 3 Reduced FOD risk The higher the engines, the lower the risk of damage from Foreign Object Debris (FOD) Unlike engines mounted on pylons under the wings, rear-mounted engines are much higher off the ground. As a result, the risk of ingesting random FOD is much lower, in particular when operating from airfields with rougher terrain. Similarly, flying private jets with rear-mounted engines during rainy conditions could result in the engines ingesting excess water sprayed by the landing gear. According to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) document, “airplane turbine engines are susceptible to surge, stall, and flameout when they ingest excessive quantities of water.” However, the regulator added that, “All certificated turbine engines have demonstrated a capability of ingesting simulated rainfall without suffering operating problems.” 4 Safety during emergency situations Several risks are mitigated with this engine setup Since the engines are mounted at the aft fuselage, an uncontained engine failure could only result in the rear of the cabin being punctured. Continuing with the same example mentioned earlier, the standard configuration of an Embraer Praetor 500 positions no passenger seats near the engine locations. In a worst-case scenario, an uncontained engine failure could result in passenger fatalities, such as Southwest Airlines flight SW1380. There, the aircraft’s CFM International CFM56 engine failed, with its cowl parts damaging the fuselage and sucking out a passenger. Moreover, during a belly-up landing, having a completely flat surface reduces additional risks, like the engines catching fire due to sparks generated by friction or engines scraping against the ground as the aircraft decelerates. However, that could be outweighed by the fact that since fuel is stored in the wings, leaking fuel during a belly-up landing could make the situation much worse. At the same time, however, rear-mounted jets could damage the control surfaces during an engine failure. One example is United Airlines Flight 232, when the McDonnell Douglas DC-10’s tail-mounted engine damaged the engine’s hydraulics, subsequently impacting the pilots’ ability to control the aircraft. This incident tragically resulted in 112 of the 296 occupants losing their lives. 5 Reducing asymmetrical thrust With the engines positioned much closer together, there is less asymmetrical thrust in the event of an engine failure Typically, aircraft engines mounted on the wings are separated by a significant portion of the wings and fuselage. Meanwhile, rear-mounted engines are integrated into the fuselage, meaning they are not mounted as far apart, allowing pilots to control the aircraft much more easily in case of an engine failure. A faulty autothrottle system resulted in a Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 crashing in Indonesia in 2021, with the system producing asymmetrical thrust as it reduced the left-hand engine’s rotational speed of the low-speed spool (N1), while the right-hand engine’s N1 stayed the same. The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) also noted that the pilots failed to monitor the thrust asymmetry and the 737’s deviation from the flight path. Sources: FAA, KNKT https://simpleflying.com/5-design-benefits-of-rear-mounted-engines-on-private-jets/#less-noise-in-the-cabin Air Force One debacle: Boeing has now lost more than $1 billion on each of the president’s two new jets Cost overruns for the new Air Force One jets continue to pile on massive losses for Boeing. Boeing on Wednesday reported another $482 million in red ink on the contract to retrofit two 747 jets into the next generation of the presidential plane. Boeing has now lost more than $1 billion on each of the two jets. The company has been reporting losses on the planes for years, as CEO Dave Calhoun admitted last year that the company should never have signed the contract with the Air Force to produce the jets for $3.9 billion. Supplier costs have soared since then, and the delivery date has been continually pushed back. Boeing took $1.45 billion in losses on the planes last year, and $318 million in 2021. “Air Force One, I’m just going to call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation. A very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn’t have taken,” Calhoun said in April last year when discussing $660 million of those losses reported at that time. “But we are where we are.” The company said the latest loss on the program is a result of engineering changes, labor instability, as well as the resolution of negotiations with one of its suppliers. Very often higher costs on defense contracts can be passed onto US taxpayers, but under pressure from then-President Donald Trump, who was threatening to cancel the contract for the planes, Boeing agreed to a fixed price contract on the two new jets. “In a fixed price environment, any unplanned hurdles can introduce unrecoverable costs,” Calhoun told investors Wednesday. “At the end of the day, we have two airplanes to build. We’re getting past these hurdles and are committed to delivering two exceptional airplanes for our customer.” Technically the program is known as the VC-25B, since the famous “Air Force One” designation is reserved for when the president is actually on any US Air Force-operated plane, not when it is on the ground, let alone under construction. The latest loss on the Air Force One jets is only a fraction of the losses reported by the troubled aircraft manufacturer, which has reported losses in all but two quarters since early 2019. Total losses at the company now total $25.5 billion since the grounding of its 737 Max jet for 20 months starting in March of 2019, following two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. Wednesday it reported another core operating loss of $1.1 billion, or $3.26 a share. While that’s down 65% from the loss reported in the same quarter a year earlier, it’s worse than the $2.96 a share loss forecast by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. The company had reported a bigger than expected loss almost every quarter since its problems began. Revenue was slightly better than forecasts though, rising 13% to $18.1 billion. And while the company trimmed the number of 737 Max jets it expects to deliver this year, it announced it is increasing the number of 787 jets it is building to five per month, and it plans to complete its increase in 737 production to 38 a month by the end of the year. That guidance, and the company saying it still expects to be cash flow positive for the year, helped lift Boeing shares 3% in premarket trading. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/25/business/air-force-one-boeing-loss/index.html Elon Musk May Have Given Up On Privacy For His Jet Travels, But Taylor Swift Hasn’t Forbes got an exclusive look at the celebrities and billionaires who’ve used a federal program to hide their private-plane flights. Here’s why it’s not working. When he bought Twitter in October 2022, Elon Musk’s to-do list included giving Jack Sweeney the boot. Sweeney, a college student from Orlando, Florida, had been tracking Musk’s $65 million Gulfstream G650 and tweeting the whereabouts of the richest man on Earth. Musk wasn’t amused. He saw his privacy as a security issue. “I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase,” he told Sweeney in a direct message. Musk took his quest for privacy one step further. He enrolled in a free Federal Aviation Administration program called PIA that allows private-jet owners to hide their location by having their planes transmit alternative identity codes. It didn’t work. Sweeney is still publishing the movements of Musk’s G650 in real time — he’s just switched to Instagram, BlueSky and Facebook. It was easy to crack the FAA’s privacy code, Sweeney told Forbes. “You can do it in a day.” Eventually, Musk and his crew quit trying, Sweeney said, and now Musk flies unmasked. Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment. The FAA’s PIA program has cloaked the travels of 48 private jets this year, according to JetSpy, a subscription flight-tracking service. The Delaware-based company has been able to figure out the owners of 38 of those planes and shared those findings exclusively with Forbes. They’re a mix of the bold-faced names of celebrity gossip and billionaire masters of the tech and financial universes, with some surprising exceptions. FREQUENT FLYERS Here are the jet-setters who tried and failed to travel under the radar. Despite the jet owners’ enrollments in PIA, it’s still possible to see how frequently Taylor Swift has visited her tall American boyfriend, Travis Kelce, in Kansas City; where Magic Johnson is chasing the next deal in his Gulfstream III; how many times Kenneth Griffin has visited France, or where Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and Evan Spiegel — or at least their planes — have taken off and landed. The public can also follow jets owned by Walmart and employee-owned WinCo Foods as they zig-zag the country, and we’re privy to the otherwise hush-hush athlete-recruiting efforts of the University of Kansas, which has been taking flak for years from faculty over the expense of its Cessna Citation CJ4. TRANSPONDER SIGNALS Plane watchers follow the aircraft by tracking transponder signals that planes have been required to transmit since 2020. The transponders flash out location, altitude, speed and a unique ID code assigned by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The system is called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B. When it was first sketched out in the 1990s, its designers didn’t anticipate that plane-spotting enthusiasts would use inexpensive receivers to capture the signals and collaborate online to create coverage maps that track planes around the world. Hence the FAA’s privacy program, which allows jets to send out fake codes to thwart identification by everyone except the authorities. It costs nothing to enroll in PIA — short for Privacy ICAO Aircraft Address — but it’s complicated and time-consuming for plane owners to change their codes and test whether they’re functional. Experts told Forbes that the program isn’t working because not enough aircraft are using it — the FAA said it’s issued about 390 alternate ID codes since PIA began in 2019 — and jet owners don’t change their fake codes frequently enough. “It’s useless,” says Martin Strohmeier, cofounder of the European crowd-sourced flight-tracking website OpenSky Network. “At worst you could even say it’s dangerous because people may believe it gives them some sort of cover, which it does not.” TAYLOR + TRAVIS Not that Taylor, if we can call her that, can hope for any cover. Millions of Swifties follow the pop icon’s every move. Still, flight tracking may provide special insight into her heart. Her plane has visited Kansas City three times so far in October. Just about everyone knows Swift was in the crowd at Arrowhead Stadium on October 12 to watch a football game featuring the guy whose career she made. JetSpy — and Sweeney’s Instagram account @taylorswiftjets — inform us that her jet dropped her off that day, returned home to Nashville, then came back to Kansas City on October 14. Heart-hands emoji. Others fly to destinations for reasons unknown to outsiders. Griffin, for example. Forbes estimates his net worth at $33.5 billion; one of his firms, Citadel Securities, acts as the intermediary for more than one in three U.S. stock trades. His plane, a Bombardier Global Express (price tag: $12 million used), has notched 195 flights this year through Monday, traveling 257,000 nautical miles. According to JetSpy, the billionaire’s plane has visited France more often this year than Chicago, where Citadel was headquartered until last year (it moved to Florida) and where it still has a big presence. Though we have no special insight into Griffin’s heart — he didn’t respond to requests to talk about his air travel — we can surmise that he, like Musk, has security reasons for wanting his jet to fly under the radar. For instance, Griffin’s whereabouts are tracked on Reddit by retail stock investors who blame him for the controversial 2021 halt in GameStop trading on the Robinhood platform, which helped big trading houses dig out from under billions of dollars in losses while hurting many of the trade-at-home folks. Griffin denied involvement. “I’ve seen my clients deal with threats to their safety because of people that were tracking them,” Dan Drohan, CEO of Solairus Aviation, a company that manages over 300 private jets for their owners but has no connection to Griffin, told Forbes. “It’s most upsetting for the ones that have kids.” Sweeney, who Musk allowed to set up a new account on X (nee Twitter) tracking Musk’s jet as long as he waits 24 hours to announce its location, defends cracking the PIA codes and publicizing what he finds. “This account has every right to post jet whereabouts,” he tweeted in 2022 before he was banished. The transmissions of planes’ locations are public information, he said, and “every aircraft in the world is required to have a transponder, even AF1,” a reference to Air Force One, the U.S. president’s plane. Another reason for the jet set’s touchiness: environmental advocates have used plane-tracking to measure the harm that private jets cause to the world’s climate and to shame their owners. For instance, the average American produces 16 tons of carbon dioxide a year. By comparison, Griffin’s jet, in the first nine-plus months of 2023, has emitted about 12 million tons. LEGAL ESPIONAGE Tracking also allows for corporate espionage of the legal variety. Brad Pierce, who owns Restaurant Equipment World, told Forbes that the sales calls he makes in his Cirrus SR-22 have enabled him to expand his Florida-based business. He said it’s also allowed a large competitor that he won’t name to monitor his travels and then drop in on the potential customers he’s been pitching. He said that the sources for that information are the company’s executives themselves, who’ve confessed to him at industry conventions. “They said, ‘We have one guy in our office who is just nonstop trying to track where you are so we can send our own people in afterward,’” Pierce told Forbes. Gaining an edge in business is a selling point for subscription jet-tracking sites like JetSpy, Quandl and JetTrack. For PIA to work, aircraft owners should ideally change their fake identity codes for every flight, according to Strohmeier of OpenSky Network. Right now that’s impossible, said Rene Cervantes, operations vice president for aircraft manager Solairus Aviation, which has a handful of clients who use PIA. Changing the code requires the transponder manufacturer to produce a software update on a compact disc, of all things, which can take a month. Many owners interested in the program don’t follow through after hearing what’s involved, Cervantes told Forbes. Some PIA enrollees appear to have given up. Among those who haven’t flown under an alternate address since last year are Kim Kardashian, Mark Zuckerberg and the private-equity giant Blackstone Group, led by billionaire Stephen Schwarzman. French billionaire Bernard Arnault has given up, too. But he’s taken it one step further. Last year, after the CEO of luxury conglomerate LVMH came under fire from a Twitter account looking to shame him over his carbon-dioxide emissions, he sold the company jet. Arnault, whose $187.6 billion fortune Forbes said this month makes him the second-wealthiest person in the world, is now a renter, not an owner. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2023/10/25/elon-musk-may-have-given-up-on-privacy-for-his-jet-travels-but-taylor-swift-hasnt/?sh=1f40855c5fb2 CALENDAR OF EVENTS • NATA Aviation Business Conference - November 1-2, 2023 • CHC Safety & Quality Summit 2023: November 14 – 16, 2023 Curt Lewis