Flight Safety Information - January 5, 2024 No. 005 In This Issue : Incident: United B772 over Atlantic on Dec 19th 2023, passenger phone changes communication method : Incident: Azul AT72 near Maceio on Dec 28th 2023, engine shut down in flight : Rockwell B-1B Lancer - Accident (South Dakota) : Japan Airline’s Runway Collision Marks Test of How New Carbon Jets Cope in Disaster : JAL pilots did not see coast guard plane when touching down : Notice To 2 Airlines As Pilots Didn't Know How To Land In Low Visibility (India) : Japan Airlines pilots in Tokyo plane crash had to be told of fire by cabin crew – report : Japanese air safety experts search for voice data from plane debris : Report: Unruly passenger claiming to be ‘devil’ diverts flight to Orlando : China seeks European approval of C919, wants its home-grown jet to compete with Boeing and Airbus abroad : NASA to unveil new X-59 'quiet' supersonic jet on Jan. 12 : CALENDAR OF EVENTS Incident: United B772 over Atlantic on Dec 19th 2023, passenger phone changes communication method A United Boeing 777-200, registration N78001 performing flight UA-57 from Newark,NJ (USA) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (France), was enroute at FL330 over the Atlantic Ocean about 170nm northeast of St. John's,NL (Canada) about to enter Oceanic Airspace when a passenger's smartphone started to emit smoke signals. While flight attendants discharged Halon fire extinguishers onto the phone the flight crew declared emergency and requested to divert to St. John's. The flight attendants extinguished the fire and put the smartphone into a secure container, the flight crew cancelled the emergency about 9 minutes after declaring emergency and requested to continue to their destination, where the aircraft landed about 6:50 hours after departure. The Canadian TSB reported: "During cruise, as the aircraft was entering oceanic airspace, smoke was observed emanating from a passenger’s cell phone. The crew declared an emergency and ATC cleared them to the St. John’s International Airport (CYYT), NL. During that time, flight attendants discharged halon fire extinguishers and placed the cell phone in a thermal containment bag. No damage or injuries were reported. About 9 minutes after declaring the emergency, the crew cancelled the emergency and requested a clearance back to their original destination. The aircraft continued to LFPG without further incident." https://avherald.com/h?article=513446d8&opt=0 Incident: Azul AT72 near Maceio on Dec 28th 2023, engine shut down in flight An Azul Linhas Aereas Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-212A, registration PR-ATV performing flight AD-2767 from Aracaju,SE to Recife,PE (Brazil), was enroute at 12,000 feet about 60nm southwest of Maceio,AL (Brazil) when the right hand engine (PW127M) malfunctioned prompting the crew to shut the engine down. The aircraft diverted to Maceio for a safe landing on runway 12 about 27 minutes later. The aircraft is still on the ground in Maceio about a week later. Brazil's CENIPA reported work on this occurrence rated an incident has already been completed. https://avherald.com/h?article=5134368d&opt=0 Rockwell B-1B Lancer - Accident (South Dakota) Date: Thursday 4 January 2024 Time: c. 17:50 LT Type: Rockwell B-1B Lancer Owner/operator: US Air Force (USAF) Registration: 85-0085 MSN: 45 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4 Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Ellsworth AFB (RCA/KRCA), Rapid City, SD - United States of America Phase: Landing Nature: Military Departure airport: Rapid City-Ellsworth AFB, SD (RCA/KRCA) Destination airport: Rapid City-Ellsworth AFB, SD (RCA/KRCA) Confidence Rating: Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources Narrative: A USAF Rockwell B-1B Lancer, operated by 37th BS / 28th BW, crashed when landing at Ellsworth AFB (RCA/KRCA), Rapid City, South Dakota. The four crew members ejected safely and the aircraft caught fire and was written off. The incident occurred during poor weather in below-freezing temperatures with dense fog and limited visibility. https://www.aviation-safety.net/wikibase/349622 Japan Airline’s Runway Collision Marks Test of How New Carbon Jets Cope in Disaster Tuesday’s runway collision in Japan marks the first time a modern lightweight airliner has burnt down and is being seen as a test case for how well a new generation of carbon-composite airplanes copes with a catastrophic fire. The Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 crashed into a De Havilland Dash-8 coast guard turboprop plane shortly after landing at Haneda airport in Tokyo, bursting into flames. All 379 people aboard the A350 were evacuated from the burning aircraft, but five of the six coast guard crew were killed. While investigators seek the cause of the collision, the aviation industry is keen to confirm the survivability of high-tech composite airliners which have transformed the economics of long-haul flight and airlines in the past decade. Japan Airlines Counts Losses From Wrecked Tokyo Plane The crash “is really the first case study that we have, not only from a fire perspective, but also just from a crash survivability perspective,” said Anthony Brickhouse, an air safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Both Boeing, with the 787 Dreamliner, and Airbus, with the A350, made big bets in the early 2000s that lightweight carbon composites would produce major fuel savings and be less susceptible to fatigue, reducing maintenance. Shortly after being put into service, the Dreamliner contended with battery problems that led to fires, resulting in its brief grounding in early 2013. A later fire on an Ethiopian Airlines 787 in July 2013 was caused by a short circuit in the jet’s emergency locator transmitter and led to fuselage repairs. None of these incidents resulted in hull losses, however. The A350 contains 53% composite materials by weight, with composites making up most of its external structure, including its fuselage, major portions of its tail and wings, and part of the nose section. Experts said the fact that all passengers and crew evacuated safely while the structure was intact will renew confidence in the materials which were certified with special conditions. But they cautioned it is too early to draw full conclusions about how the A350’s composite hull held up against fire or what technological lessons may be learned. Comparing the A350 crash to a 2013 crash involving a Boeing 777 operated by Asiana Airlines – which caught fire after it struck a sea wall, killing three passengers – could provide engineers with valuable insights into the differences between composite and aluminum planes during a fire, Brickhouse said. The JAL A350 is the first commercial airliner built mainly of composites to be destroyed by fire but not the first transport aircraft, though it is unclear what lessons about composite fires will be available to Japanese investigators. In 2015, an Airbus A400M military airlifter – which also relies heavily on composites – plowed into a field outside Seville, Spain, after wrongly installed software jammed its engines. But an investigation into the crash by Spanish military investigators was kept confidential. The accident, which resulted in a high-speed impact and fire, killed all four flight test crew and left hardly any visible trace of the plane in the blackened earth. How Composites Work Composite airframes have several advantages over aluminum planes, said Bjorn Fehrm, a composites expert at trade publication Leeham News. While aluminum has a melting point of about 600 degrees Celsius (1,100 degrees Fahrenheit) and conducts heat, carbon fiber can withstand temperatures about six times that, with the structure smoldering and burning away instead of melting, he said. Airbus, in a 2019 guide for firefighters, said the A350 demonstrated “an equivalent level of safety” compared to traditional aluminum planes, with tests showing an “increased resistance” to fire penetration. But when exposed to intense heat for long periods of time, Airbus noted that composite airframes can lose their structural integrity even if the composite skin appears to be intact. In particular, the resin will burn off first and flames will propagate more slowly while the fire is ongoing, according to a United States Federal Aviation Administration document. The JAL A350 burned for more than six hours before firefighters were able to completely extinguish the flames, broadcaster TBS reported, citing the fire department. That raises a question about whether firefighters need additional training for handling fires involving composite jets. Photos of the accident showed firefighters wearing surgical masks and helmets but no other protective clothing. “The fire brigades of the airports actually have to look at why couldn’t they stop the fire,” Fehrm said. Airbus noted earlier tests have shown composites offer similar fire-resistance to aluminum, with a spokesperson adding that it had carried out a full evacuation test of an Airbus A350-1000 in 2018 with authorities present. Various factors can impact how flammable composites are, including the structure, fiber materials and layers of fire-blockers used, said Nabil Al Kabir, a sales manager at German fire safety solutions firm svt Products GmbH. “One point can be taken for sure, if the heat generated from burning kerosene is that intense, aluminum would also fail.” https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2024/01/05/754468.htm JAL pilots did not see coast guard plane when touching down The pilots of the Japan Airlines jetliner that collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda airport told an internal probe that they could not visually confirm the presence of the JCG plane when touching down, according to the company. The flight control data unveiled Wednesday showed no sign of controllers directing the JAL plane to abort its landing, suggesting both the airline's pilots and the flight controllers were unaware of the JCG aircraft entering the runway that the jetliner was approaching. The JCG aircraft is believed to have come to a stop on the runway for around 40 seconds just before the accident, sources close to the matter said, with JAL saying one of the three pilots aboard its plane said he saw something right before the accident that caused him concern. The flight control data showed controllers greenlit the jetliner to land while directing the JCG plane to proceed to a holding point, stopping short of allowing it to enter the runway where the collision happened. The 39-year-old captain of the JCG aircraft, who survived the accident, said he was cleared to enter the runway, according to the coast guard. The JCG added he said the back of the aircraft suddenly caught fire. JAL said it is providing all the necessary information to Japan's transport authorities and police, which are investigating the cause of the deadly accident on Tuesday that killed five of the six people aboard the JCG's Bombardier DHC8-300 aircraft. All 379 passengers and crew aboard the JAL Airbus A350 escaped through emergency slides without life-threatening injuries. The aircraft was engulfed in flames shortly after they all evacuated. The airline said Thursday that it will book a loss of 15 billion yen ($105 million) on an operating basis due to the plane being destroyed, although the loss will be covered by insurance. The overall impact of the accident on its earnings for fiscal 2023 is still unknown, JAL said. For the business year, the company is expecting to post a net profit of 80 billion yen on sales of 1.68 trillion yen. The JCG said its aircraft was heading to Niigata Prefecture to deliver relief supplies for people hit by the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula and surrounding areas on the Sea of Japan coast on New Year's Day. https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/01/84c5d91cfe38-jal-pilots-did-not-see-coast-guard-plane-when-touching-down.html Notice To 2 Airlines As Pilots Didn't Know How To Land In Low Visibility (India) Delhi Airport reported more than 50 diversions due to low visibility because of fog between the midnights of December 24-25 and 27-28. Delhi Airport reported over 50 diversions between midnights of December 24-25, 27-28 (Representational) New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Thursday issued a show cause notice to Air India and SpiceJet for rostering non-CAT III compliant pilots during low-visibility at Delhi airport that led to many diversions of Delhi bound flights. A senior DGCA official confirmed that the notice was issued to airlines after it was found that a large number of flight diversions that were reported at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi were large because these airlines rostered non-CAT III compliant pilots. The pilots were not trained to take off or land in low visibility. Delhi Airport reported more than 50 diversions due to low visibility because of fog between the midnights of December 24-25 and 27-28. "The airlines have been asked to reply within fifteen days," the official added. On December 26, Flight operations at IGI Airport were severely affected as visibility dropped to 50 meters. According to airport sources, the 50-meter visibility is considered zero visibility. There was a slight improvement in visibility at 8.30 am when visibility was 75 meters, but it again dropped to 50 meters. "While landings and take-offs continue at Delhi Airport, flights that are not CAT III compliant may get affected. Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted," the advisory issued by Delhi airport said. Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com The airport authorities had initiated the anti-fog landing system, technically called the CAT-III Instrument Landing System (ILS). The CAT III system helps with a precision approach and landing when the runway visibility level is low. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/notice-to-air-india-spicejet-for-rostering-untrained-pilots-4799366 Japan Airlines pilots in Tokyo plane crash had to be told of fire by cabin crew – report Flight attendants needed permission from cockpit to open emergency exits, broadcaster reports Pilots on a Japan Airlines plane that became engulfed in flames just after all 379 passengers and crew escaped were initially unaware the aircraft was on fire, according to fresh details reported in local media. The airliner collided with a coast guard plane after landing at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday evening. All but one of the six people on the smaller aircraft were killed. A ball of flames erupted from the airliner before it came to a halt, with the fire beginning to spread from underneath the aircraft, footage shot by passengers showed. But according to national broadcaster NHK, the Japan Airlines pilots in the cockpit did not know about the fire before being informed by the cabin crew. The chief flight attendant reported to the cockpit that the plane was burning, as the cabin crew needed permission to open the emergency exits, NHK reported. By this time, the cabin was filling with smoke and getting hotter, with babies crying and people begging for the doors to be opened, footage showed. In one video clip, a young voice can be heard shouting: “Please let us out. Please. Please open it. Just open it. Oh, god.” There were eight emergency exits but the evacuation began from two slides at the front of the plane because of the fire. Only one other exit at the rear left was safe from the fire, but the intercom system was no longer functioning, so the cockpit could not give the go-ahead, JAL said. The crew in the back deemed it was urgent for the passengers to disembark from the back door and opened it anyway, as they are trained to do. They used megaphones and their own voices to give instructions to the passengers. It took 18 minutes to evacuate the entire plane, with the pilot the last person to set foot on the tarmac at 6:05 pm. Soon afterwards, the entire aircraft was an inferno and dozens of fire engines tried to put out the blaze. That process ended up taking eight hours. Investigators from Japan, France, Britain and Canada were probing the crash on Thursday, with charred remains of the two planes still littering one of Haneda’s four runways. The flight recorder and the voice recorder from the coast guard plane had been found, but those of the passenger jet were still being sought. The transport ministry released on Wednesday transcripts of flight controllers’ communications, which showed that they approved the JAL flight’s landing. But the coast guard plane was reportedly instructed to go to a spot near the runway. Earlier on Wednesday, NHK had reported that the pilot, Genki Miyamoto, 39, said immediately after the accident that he had permission to take off. Japan Airlines estimated that the collision would result in an operating loss of about 15bn yen ($105m). But the loss of the aircraft would be covered by insurance, the company said, adding it was assessing the impact on its earnings forecast for the financial year ending 31 March. Shares of JAL rose 0.5% on Thursday, showing a muted reaction to the crash as trading resumed after the New Year’s holiday. They initially fell as much as 2.4%. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/04/japan-plane-crash-haneda-airport-japan-airlines-pilots-cabin-crew-fire-tokyo Japanese air safety experts search for voice data from plane debris Transport safety officials are searching for the voice recorder from a Japan Airlines airliner that caught fire after a collision with a coast guard plane Black smoke rises while a removal work is underway at the site of a planes collision at Haneda airport in Tokyo Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. Cranes were dismantling the Japan Airlines Flight 516 Airbus A350 that caught fire after hitting a Coast Guard aircraft while it was landing Tuesday at the airport. A team of transport safety officials searched for a voice recorder from the severely burned fuselage of a Japan Airlines plane Friday, seeking crucial information on what caused a collision with a small coast guard plane on the runway at Tokyo's Haneda airport. Meanwhile, JAL also started using heavy machinery to remove some of the debris for storage in a hangar to allow the runway to reopen. Six experts from the Japan Transport Safety Board, walked through the mangled debris of the Airbus A350-900 that was lying on the runway searching for the voice data recorder. JTSB experts have so far secured both the flight and voice data recorders from the coast guard’s Bombardier Dash-8 and a flight data recorder from the JAL plane to find out what happened in the last few minutes before Tuesday's fatal collision. All 379 occupants of JAL Flight 516 safely evacuated within 18 minutes of landing as the aircraft was engulfed in flames. The pilot of the coast guard plane also escaped, but its five other crewmembers were killed. New details have also emerged from media footage at Haneda airport. NHK television reported footage from its monitoring camera set up at the Haneda airport showed that the coast guard plane moved on to the runway and stopped there for about 40 seconds before the collision. In the footage, the coast guard aircraft is seen entering the runway from the C5 taxiway, then shortly after the passenger plane touches down right behind and rams into it, creating an orange fireball. The JAL airliner, covered with flames and spewing gray smoke, continues down the runway before coming to a stop. Transcript of the recorded communication at the traffic control, released by the transport ministry Wednesday, showed that the air traffic controller told the coast guard plane to taxi to a holding position just before the runway, noting its No. 1 departure priority. The coast guard pilot repeats the instruction, then offers thanks for the No. 1 slot. There was no further instruction from the control allowing the coast guard to enter the runway. The pilot told police investigators that his aircraft was struck just as he powered up the engines after obtaining clearance to take off. The small lights on the coast guard aircraft and its 40-second stop might have made it less visible to the JAL pilots and air traffic control. NHK also said that air traffic control officials may have missed an alert system for unauthorized runway entry while engaging in other operations. The JTSB investigators on Friday planned to interview seven JAL cabin attendants to get their accounts, after their similar interviews with the three pilots and two other attendants the day before. https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/japanese-air-safety-experts-search-voice-data-plane-106124328 Report: Unruly passenger claiming to be ‘devil’ diverts flight to Orlando Flight 170 lands in Boston after delay ORLANDO, Fla. – A JetBlue flight headed from Fort Lauderdale to Boston was diverted to Orlando late Thursday because of an unruly passenger, according to WCVB-TV. JetBlue said flight 170 took off from Fort Lauderdale just before 9:30 p.m. but was diverted to Orlando “due to a disturbance between two customers on board.” WCVB-TV reported a man made threats, claimed to be the devil and punched a woman who was with him. WCVB-TV reported that a passenger sitting close to the man said flight attendants put the woman who was attacked in the plane’s bathroom, and the man was punching the door to try to get her out. In a statement to WKMG-TV, JetBlue said the customers were “deplaned with the assistance of law enforcement.” Other passengers said they had to exit the aircraft, wait for a new crew and then re-board the plane, which landed in Boston early Friday. https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2024/01/05/report-unruly-passenger-claiming-to-be-devil-diverts-flight-to-orlando/ China seeks European approval of C919, wants its home-grown jet to compete with Boeing and Airbus abroad Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) will seek to work with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to allow its ‘domestic civil aircraft to go abroad’ The home-grown C919 narrowbody passenger jet made its maiden commercial flight in May, but has only been certified by China’s regulator China said it would promote the certification of its domestically built narrowbody passenger jet in Europe this year, as part of efforts to receive more international recognition for the C919 and compete with Boeing and Airbus. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) told an annual industry working conference in Beijing on Thursday that it would increase its efforts to work with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to allow its “domestic civil aircraft to go abroad”, according to CAAC News, a publication owned by the Chinese aviation regulator. https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3247291/china-seeks-european-approval-c919-wants-its-home-grown-jet-compete-boeing-and-airbus-abroad NASA to unveil new X-59 'quiet' supersonic jet on Jan. 12 The high-tech aircraft is designed to break the sound barrier without creating a super-loud sonic boom. NASA and Lockheed Martin are finally ready to unveil the new X-59 Quesst, a supersonic jet designed to break the sound barrier without creating a thunderous sonic boom. The X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (Quesst) jet has been under construction at Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works" facility in Palmdale, California since 2019. The experimental X-59 Quesst is designed to fly at supersonic speeds and reduce the typical sound of sonic booms, lowering the volume down to a "thump" similar to the sound of a car door slamming. NASA says the aircraft could help reshape regulations that currently prohibit supersonic flight over populated areas due to disruptions that sonic booms can cause. On Friday, Jan. 12, beginning at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT), NASA will host a free livestream as it rolls the painted X-59 out of the hangar for the first time. You can watch it here at Space.com courtesy of NASA, or on NASA+ or NASA TV. NASA is even inviting the public to host watch parties for the rollout, complete with agency-provided printable invites and free STEM toolkits for educators. The X-59 in a hangar in Palmdale, California. (Image credit: Lockheed Martin) The X-59 has been rolled out in front of cameras once before, in August 2023. But that was before the jet had gone into the paint barn for its final red, white and blue paint job, or livery. During that rollout, the striking and unique geometry of the X-59 was on full display. The aircraft features a sharp, elongated beak-like nose section that measures 38 feet (11.5 meters) in length. The nose section will help shape the shock waves the aircraft produces during flight, NASA said in a 2021 statement. A head-on black and white image of the X-59 supersonic jet. The jet sits on three-wheeled landing gear, and the sharp, sleek angles of the jet's body and wings reflect a s shapely light, highlighting the craft's curves and details. A head-on view of the X-59 supersonic plane. (Image credit: Lockheed Martin) That nose also means pilots flying the X-59 can't see out of the forward windscreen — because it doesn't have one. Instead, pilots use what NASA calls the External Vision System, or XVS, to see in front of the aircraft. This system uses a forward-facing camera, a cockpit-mounted display screen and custom image processing software to "create an augmented reality view of the X-59 pilot's forward line-of-sight along with graphical flight data overlays," according to a 2019 statement from the agency. The 99.7-foot-long (30 m), 29.5-foot-wide (9 m) aircraft is designed to reach a speed of Mach 1.4, or 925 mph (1489 kph), while flying at an altitude of 55,000 feet (16,764 m). The X-59 is powered by a single engine built by General Electric Aviation. Once it's ready for flight, the X-59 will carry out a research campaign in which it will fly over select residential areas in order to collect data on how people below experience and react to the quieter sonic booms it creates. NASA will then use that data to seek approval for commercial supersonic flights from regulatory agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration. https://www.space.com/nasa-x-59-quiet-supersonic-jet-rollout-livestream CALENDAR OF EVENTS • SINGAPORE AIRSHOW 2024 - February 20 - 25 • HAI Heli-Expo 2024 - February 26 - 29 - Anaheim, CA • 2024 Women in Aviation International Conference - March 21-23 (Orlando) • 2024 ACSF Safety Symposium – Air Charter Safety Foundation - April 1-3, 2024 • Airborne Public Safety Association, Inc. (APSCON 2024) - July 29 - August 3; Houston TX • 2024 ISASI - Lisbon, Portugal - September 30 to October 4, 2024 • 2024 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition - Oct. 22-24 (Vegas) Curt Lewis