Flight Safety Information - January 31, 2024 No. 023 In This Issue : Incident: Westjet Encore DH8D at Edmonton on Jan 28th 2024, engine failure : Incident: Eurowings A319 at Budapest on Jan 30th 2024, bird strike : Boeing 737-83N (WL) - Aborted Takeoff (Engine Surge) - (Russia) : Boeing was once known for safety and engineering. But critics say an emphasis on profits changed that : U.S. Fighter Jet Crashes off South Korea’s Coast, Again : Female Arrested After She Disrobed and Caused Disturbance On An Airplane : United Airlines leaked memo reveals major in-flight crackdown : Yakutia Airlines Superjet 100 makes emergency landing in Yakutsk : China's revised flight paths could harm aviation safety: MOTC official : ESA salutes Galileo satellite system meeting aviation standards : Brazil Speeds Up $1 Billion Rescue for Troubled Airlines : JetBlue, Spirit Airlines file appeal to merger block : Avelo Airlines to establish new base operations at Sonoma County airport, add dozens of new jobs : Women Account For 12 Percent Of New Canadian Pilots : ACSF Annual Safety Symposium : CALENDAR OF EVENTS Incident: Westjet Encore DH8D at Edmonton on Jan 28th 2024, engine failure A Westjet Encore de Havilland Dash 8-400, registration C-FWEW performing flight WS-3394 from Edmonton,AB to Calgary,AB (Canada), was climbing out of Edmonton's runway 12 when the right hand engine (PW150A) failed prompting the crew to return to Edmonton for a safe landing on runway 12 about 35 minutes after departure. The aircraft is still on the ground in Edmonton about 56 hours after landing back. https://avherald.com/h?article=51455452&opt=0 Incident: Eurowings A319 at Budapest on Jan 30th 2024, bird strike A Eurowings Airbus A319-100, registration D-AGWV performing flight EW-2781 from Budapest (Hungary) to Stuttgart (Germany), was climbing out of Budapest's runway 31R when the aircraft received a bird strike into the right hand engine (V2524) prompting the crew to stop the climb at about 12,000 feet and reduce the right hand engine to idle thrust. The crew decided to return to Budapest reporting they had hit a hawk. ATC reported remains of a bird had been found on the runway, the remains were cleared off the runway. The aircraft landed safely back on runway 31R about 25 minutes after departure. The aircraft is still on the ground in Budapest about 13 hours after landing back. https://avherald.com/h?article=51453e16&opt=0 Boeing 737-83N (WL) - Aborted Takeoff (Engine Surge) - (Russia) Date: Tuesday 30 January 2024 Time: 10:08 Type: Boeing 737-83N (WL) Owner/operator: S7 Airlines Registration: RA-73489 MSN: 28239/847 Year of manufacture: 2001 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 176 Aircraft damage: Unknown Location: Ulan-Ude Airport (UUD/UIUU) - Russia Phase: Take off Nature: Passenger - Scheduled Departure airport: Ulan-Ude-Baikal International Airport (UUD/UIUU) Destination airport: Moskva-Domodedovo Airport (DME/UUDD) Confidence Rating: Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources Narrative: S7 Airlines flight S73033, a Boeing 737-83N, aborted takeoff due to an engine surge. The aircraft taxied back to the parking lot. This is the second case of surge on a S7 airline plane at Ulan-Ude airport. The first surge of two engines occurred on January 27, 2024 on aircraft RA-73665, also operating flight SBI3034. https://www.aviation-safety.net/wikibase/351273 Boeing was once known for safety and engineering. But critics say an emphasis on profits changed that Part of the fuselage blowing off shortly after takeoff, leaving a gaping hole in the plane, and phones and clothing ripped away from terrified passengers. Investigations revealing sloppy work, including loose or missing bolts, instances of tools, trash and even empty tequila bottles left inside planes built for government clients. Worldwide groundings. Halts to deliveries due to quality issues. And, by far, the most serious problem - two fatal crashes leaving 346 people dead. Boeing is back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons again after the Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 incident. The National Safety Transportation Board, which is investigating, is expected to release its preliminary findings soon. That’s the Boeing of today and the last five years. But it wasn’t always that way. It wasn’t that long ago that Boeing’s reputation was that of a staid industrial giant, known for building the safest, most advanced planes in the sky. It helped introduce the world to commercial jet travel. Pilots and others in the industry, as well as members of the flying public, summed up their confidence in the company with the expression, “If it’s not Boeing, I’m not going.” The company still sells coffee cups and t-shirts with that slogan. So how in the world did the company whose brand was once synonymous with safety become mired in reputational disaster – to the point where at least one travel site has a feature that allows passengers to avoid Boeing 737 Max planes altogether. Experts and critics say that Boeing’s woes have been years in the making, some pointing to the result of a shift in corporate culture that started at the top and put profits ahead of the safety and engineering prowess for which it was once praised, placing not only its future, but the passengers on its planes, at grave risk. While Boeing denies there has been such a shift away from safety and excellence, what is indisputable is that its engineering and manufacturing problems have contributed to a series of shocking incidents, two of which resulted in the deaths more than 300 people combined. Boeing simultaneously became a financial basket case, losing more than $26 billion, and counting, over the last five years, with no end to the red ink in sight. Boeing executives insist that quality and safety are still a top priority for the company, and the problems of recent years have only increased its focus on quality and safety. Asked for comment on the claim that it now puts profits ahead of quality and safety, the company pointed to a recent statement by CEO Dave Calhoun. “Over the last several years, we’ve added rigor around our quality processes, hired tens of thousands of engineers and mechanics, advanced key investments in our future, transformed our functions and gradually increased our production rates,” he told investors in October. “Most importantly, we’ve worked hard to instill a culture of speaking up and transparently bringing forward any issue, no matter the size, so we can get things right for the future.” A week after Calhoun made the remark, the company delivered a 737 Max 9 to Alaska Air, the fourth it had built for the carrier that month. Code letters N704AL, the jet’s door plug blew out while the plane was mid-air, less than 10 weeks after it was delivered, just minutes into the January 5 flight. The company also pointed to what it called a “quality stand down,” on Thursday for its 737 factory teams in Renton, Washington in which it halted production to focus on quality issues. Boeing announced the move in the wake of a recently expanded federal probe into the company’s manufacturing practices following the Alaska Air incident and plans for Congressional hearings into its practices. The first 737 Max 9 planes that were grounded after that incident returned to service on Friday, and most are expected to be back in the air by the end of this week. “Our long-term focus is on improving our quality so that we can regain the confidence of our customers, our regulator and the flying public. Frankly, we have disappointed and let them down,” said a statement by Stan Deal, the head of Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, in a statement to employees following that return to service. “Over the last century, the people of Boeing have faced and overcome significant challenges. This is one of those times. We have to be better. We have to deliver perfect airplanes each and every time.” But critics say this crisis is unlike any earlier problems at the company, arguing that despite Boeing’s assurances, they believe there has been a cultural change within the company in the last 25 years that has put profits over safety and quality. “Leadership is more concerned with getting the planes out the door than quality,” said Ed Pierson, a former Boeing executive who is now the executive director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety, a public interest group, told CNN last week. He said planes are still being produced today with flaws not being caught. ‘Everything had to be cost justified’ The spark for the conflagration that has recently consumed Boeing might date back decades. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the huge American defense contractors began to consolidate. Fearful of their own survival without a communist enemy stalking NATO’s borders they began to merge with one another. In the decade after the end of the Cold War, 51 major American defense and aerospace contractors became just five huge companies. And one of the five left standing was Boeing, newly merged in 1997 with competitor McDonell Douglas. Critics said that before the merger, Boeing had a reputation as a company run by people with engineering backgrounds who cared about quality and safety first. But those critics say the merger put the company in the hands of executives with a finance background, who put profits as their top goal. “Boeing had a reputation before the merger of a company where engineers were high church,” Ron Epstein, an aerospace analyst at Bank of America, told CNN. It resulted in Boeing not being as profitable as some comparable manufacturers, he said. But after the merger he said, “everything had to be cost-justified.” On paper, Boeing was the company that bought McDonnell Douglas. But many of the leadership ranks became filled with McDonnell Douglas veterans, not Boeing executives. Many of them had financial backgrounds, not the engineering backgrounds of those who had run Boeing in the past. Or they came from outside of the company, such as from General Electric, where cost-cutting and improved efficiency was a near religion. One of those was Jim McNerney, who became Boeing CEO in 2005, after a career that started at consumer products maker Procter & Gamble, included time at management consultant McKinsey & Co., and was followed by years at GE. He was CEO of 3M before being tapped to run Boeing, without any engineering and limited aerospace experience. Moving away from its roots, saving cash Under this leadership the company moved away, figuratively and literally, from its Pacific Northwest roots, where top executives had been intimately familiar with the massive assembly lines there where commercial jets were built, and any problems that might be developing there. In 2001 it moved its headquarters to Chicago. And in the midst of various crises in recent years, it moved its headquarters again in 2022, not back to Seattle, but to a suburb of Washington, DC, near the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, and its various regulators, like the FAA. Ironically the move to Washington came the same week Airbus revealed that it was increasing production of commercial jets at its factory in Mobile, Alabama, only seeming to drive home the point to critics that Boeing was moving in the wrong direction. “One company is saying ‘We’re going to build lots of jets.’ The other is saying ‘We’re going to lobby the Pentagon and Congress for defense dollars.’ It’s a big contrast,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory and a leading aerospace analyst. Boeing became more dependent on suppliers to build more and more of its planes, seeking to limit its role to joining together the parts. And it spun-off some of the operations it had depended upon previously. Supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which builds the fuselages for its Boeing’s planes, including the 737 Max, was created in 2005 after Boeing sold its Wichita division and Oklahoma operations raising $900 million in cash by doing so. And in 2009, about a year after weathering a 58-day strike at its unionized plants in Washington state, the company announced plans for a non-union plant in right-to-work South Carolina to assemble its new, most advanced jet, the 787 Dreamliner, giving it a factory with lower pay that wasn’t at risk of going on strike in the future. Calhoun, Boeing’s current CEO, took over in January 2020, nine months into the grounding of the 737 Max following two fatal crashes. He also has no engineering background, having served as senior managing director and head of portfolio operations at investing firm The Blackstone Group, CEO of Nielsen and spending 26 years at GE. Just over a year and a half later, after the pandemic reduced demand for the long-range Dreamliner due to the drop in international travel, Calhoun and Boeing decided it needed to preserve cash and could no longer justify two 787 plants. It had a choice between consolidating production to a veteran plant in Washington state staffed by unionized employees and a non-union South Carolina plant. It decided to close the unionized line in Washington and keep the South Carolina plant. But it soon had quality problems with the 787 Dreamliners being produced there, leading to two costly halts in deliveries, one lasting over a year. Although Boeing says it values its worldwide staff, it made deep staff cuts during the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, offering buyouts to more senior workers. The loss of expertise has proven devastating, Bank of America’s Epstein said. “A key variable is your workforce,” he said. “You want it to be as experienced as possible. When it’s all said and done, how much do you really save closing the unionized plant?” Cost cutting’s impact on quality Aviation safety advocate Pierson served as a senior manager at Boeing’s 737 factory after a career in the military. He left the company in 2018, just months before the first fatal crash. He told CNN his frustration with top management attitudes on quality forced him to quit. In 2019 he testified to Congress that there was evidence that the 737 Max was having production quality issues, including planes being delivered to airlines that had faulty hardware or other system malfunctions, problems that involved more than a dozen safety issues, some of which he described as serious. He recounted that he had recommended a halt in production of the 737 Max to deal with quality issues in the months ahead of the first crash. He said the boss to whom he had made the recommendation told him, “We can’t do that, I can’t do that.” “I pushed back, explaining that I had seen operations in the military shut down over less substantial safety issues, and those organizations had national security responsibilities,” he testified. He said his supervisor responded tersely, “The military isn’t a profit-making organization.” Other experts agree with Pierson that despite its claims of being concerned with safety and quality, Boeing’s actions suggest otherwise. “You’re looking at a management team whose idea of acknowledging the problem is to readjust the cash flow numbers for next year,” said Aboulafia in an interview with CNN. Two fatal crashes And then disaster struck. The first fatal crash of a 737 Max occurred in Indonesia in October 2018, the second in Ethiopia in March 2019, killing a total of 346 people. It led to a 20-month grounding of all 737 Max jets. In addition to the horrifying loss of life, it cost the company more than $21 billion, making it one of the costliest corporate disasters on record, as well as one of the most deadly. After the first crash, Boeing successfully pushed to keep the planes in the air. Even after the second crash, as airline regulators around the world grounded the jet, Boeing pushed the FAA to hold off on its own grounding order, saying that it had “full confidence in the safety of the 737 Max” and that “based on the information currently available, we do not have any basis to issue new guidance” to airlines. When the FAA gave in to global and public pressure to announce its own grounding, Boeing said it accepted the move out of an “abundance of caution.” Eventually it was a design flaw in the Max that was blamed for the two fatal crashes, as a feature meant to stop the planes from climbing too fast and stalling instead forced the nose of the planes downward. But critics of Boeing say the problem wasn’t just the flawed design of the jet that led to the deaths, it was the decisions that Boeing made to not quickly acknowledge the problem with design after the first crash, and have a grounding take place at that time, which could have prevented the second crash. “In the light most favorable to Boeing, the first crash was an accident, the second crash is a crime,” said Robert Clifford, the attorney suing Boeing on behalf of families of the victims of the second crash, the one in Ethiopia, in an interview with CNN. He said if the plane had been grounded immediately, Boeing might have ended up fixing the problem much faster, and with less expense, as well as preventing the second crash. “They gambled with people’s lives and the people lost,” he said. In 2021 Boeing admitted to liability in the two crashes, agreeing to pay compensatory damages, which allowed the company to avoid the possibility of having to pay far more in punitive damages. “Boeing is committed to ensuring that all families who lost loved ones in the accidents are fully and fairly compensated for their loss,” the company said in a statement at that time. “By accepting responsibility, Boeing’s agreement with the families allows the parties to focus their efforts on determining the appropriate compensation for each family.” It has also agreed to pay a $2.5 billion fine to settle charges it defrauded the FAA when it first won approval of the flawed 737 Max. “I firmly believe that entering into this resolution is the right thing for us to do — a step that appropriately acknowledges how we fell short of our values and expectations,” Calhoun said at that time. But that agreement was criticized by the families of victims of the Ethiopian air crash as well as members of Congress as being far too lenient. About 70% of the $2.5 billion fine it agreed to pay was money it had already agreed to pay as compensation to its airline customers. Pierson said the probe that followed the second crash revealed Boeing executives were more concerned with continued production than finding the cause of the crash and fixing it. “They absolutely prioritized the delivery of planes over the investigation,” he said. Pierson said the design flaw, as problematic as it was, was not the total problem that led to the crash. He said the quality of the work that would produce various malfunctions while the planes were in flight was just as significant as the design flaw. He points to a report from the Ethiopian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau that looked at both fatal crashes and found that “These accidents were triggered by production quality defects that… presented as intermittent system malfunctions.” Without the build quality issues causing malfunctions, the design flaw feature of the plane that forced the nose of the plane down would not have turned on, and the flights would not have crashed, according to the Ethiopian report. But that finding got little attention as the US National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA focused on design flaws rather than the build quality issues, Pierson said. Eventually the probe provided an ugly look at the decision-making process at Boeing. Internal communications released during the 737 Max grounding showed one employee describing the jet as “designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys.” Boeing’s release of the documents included an apology to the FAA, Congress, airlines, and the public. The failed push for profits An ironic part of Boeing’s focus on profits is that it has resulted in a company that is in the worst financial shape in its more than 100-year history, with five years of deep losses already, and more expected losses ahead. As recently as 2018 Boeing was riding high, reporting revenue of more than $100 billion for the first time in its history and projecting more growth to come. It had just started deliveries of the 737 Max the year before. The short-term focus on profits was, indeed, producing profits. At least for a little while. Its rival Airbus was the one struggling, on the verge of abandoning its $25 billion mistake, the A380 superjumbo jet that had turned out to be a white elephant with little demand from airlines or passengers. Despite that, the two companies were neck-and-neck in orders and deliveries. But in less than a decade, all that has changed. Airbus delivered 735 commercial jets last year. Boeing only 528. Net orders and the backlog of jets each is waiting to build show a larger imbalance. And while Airbus is forecast to report adjusted net income of $4.3 billion euros, or $4.7 billion profit, for 2023 when it reports results, Boeing is forecast to report a loss of $3.6 billion next week. Aboulafia said the short-sighted push for profits has put the company at a severe competitive disadvantage to Airbus, and that Calhoun and other top managers at Boeing, as well as its board, need to go if the company is to have a chance to turn things around. Despite the losses and severely weakened market position of Boeing, there is little chance it could go out of business. The airlines around the world that have already bought Boeing planes basically need to keep using those models, whatever the problems. Commercial pilots are certified on specific models and are not able to easily move from single-aisle to widebody versions of Boeing jets, let alone between a Boeing and an Airbus jet. And having different models means the airlines need to have a large, expensive supply of spare parts on hand to keep their planes in the air. And any Boeing customer who canceled their orders today would have to get in line behind a backlog of more than 8,600 jets that Airbus has already agreed to build for its existing customers. “It’s a very weird industry. It has high barriers to entry and only two players. You can get away with nonsense like this,” said Aboulafia. Pierson said incident reports on planes that Boeing continues to build, while not nearly as dramatic as the Alaska Air incident, suggest the pressure to put profits over quality remains, despite Boeing’s claims. “The company has gutted quality control so they can produce more airplanes,” he said. “The employees are completely overwhelmed. Everybody is focused on the Max 9, and rightfully so. That incident should never have happened. But there are issues on other planes. It has become a recipe for disaster.” https://finance.yahoo.com/news/boeing-once-known-safety-engineering-230343748.html U.S. Fighter Jet Crashes off South Korea’s Coast, Again An F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 35th Fighter Squadron takes off for agile combat employment mission at Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea, Jan. 19, 2024. Amid an “in-flight emergency,” a U.S. F-16 fighter jet crashed in waters off South Korea’s west coast Wednesday morning, the U.S. Air Force said in a statement, adding that the pilot had “ejected safely” and was transported conscious to a medical facility for assessment. “We are very thankful to the Republic of Korea rescue forces and all of our teammates who made the swift recovery of our pilot possible,” Matthew C. Gaetke, commander of the 8th Fighter Wing, said in the statement. The 8th Fighter Wing, which was the first overseas unit to receive the F-16 platform in 1981, operates from Kunsan Air Base, about 115 miles south of Seoul. “Now we will shift our focus to search and recovery of the aircraft,” Gaetke said. Information on the cause of the emergency would not be made available until investigation has concluded, the statement said. This is the second time in less than two months that the U.S. Air Force has experienced incidents with its F-16s. In December, another F-16 fighter jet from the 8th Fighter Wing crashed into the Yellow Sea off South Korea’s southeastern coast, with the pilot also having ejected safely before the crash. At the time, Gaetke ordered a two-day pause on flights for investigation and recovery of the aircraft. It’s unclear if that investigation has concluded. Last May, another F-16 pilot ejected safely before the aircraft crashed into farmland near Osan Air Base. Wednesday’s accident also comes months after a U.S. Osprey aircraft crashed off Japan’s coast in November, killing all eight men on board. Ospreys remain grounded since the crash, and Congress has launched an oversight investigation into the program. https://time.com/6590333/us-f16-fighter-jet-crash-south-korea-again/ Female Arrested After She Disrobed and Caused Disturbance On An Airplane Dulce Huertas of Philadelphia was on a Frontier Airlines flight (4944) and was traveling to Philadelphia from Orlando. on November 20,2023. The plane started to descend into Philadelphia when the captain turned on the “Fasten Seatbelt” sign. Authorities said that Huertas allegedly stood up anyway and announced she had to use the toilet. She was told to remain seated but she instead started to curse at flight attendants and other passengers, before finally sitting down. As soon as the plane landed, Huertas is alleged to have stood up again. Her aggressive behavior was brought to the attention of the captain who made the announcement that all passengers were to remain seated. As soon as the seatbelt sign was turned off, authorities allege that Huertas started to make a run towards the front of the plane and pushed fellow passengers out of her way. The flight crew successfully blocked her from going to the toilet, as they had to still open the door.so passengers could disembark. At that time, it is alleged that Huertas pulled down her pants and underpants and said “sorry everybody”, and went into a squatting position. as if to urinate in the aisle of the plane, in front of passengers, including small children, authorities said. She then went back to her cursing and threatened to kill the gflight crew and one passenger. Huertas was arrested by the FBI and was charged by criminal complaint, yesterday, for the November incident. https://delawarevalleynews.com/2024/01/30/female-arrested-after-she-disrobed-and-caused-disturbance-on-an-airplane/ United Airlines leaked memo reveals major in-flight crackdown Airline passengers who travel frequently have come to expect flight attendants to provide a variety of services and ensure their safety during flights. Now, United Airlines (UAL) - Get Free Report is cracking down on one behavior the carrier does not want to see onboard its aircraft. Before takeoff, flight attendants provide passengers with information such as safety instructions and flight duration. While in the air, travelers can expect attendants to offer them food and beverage service, headphones, blankets, pillows, and other amenities. They are also prepared to handle emergency situations, such as medical emergencies, fires, and evacuations. Unfortunately, it has also recently become increasingly necessary for flight attendants to deal with difficult passengers and maintain order on flights. But on United Airlines, passengers should begin seeing flight attendants engaging less in one activity. Use of personal cell phones is prohibited A recently leaked United Airlines company memo contained reminders to cabin crew that they are required to be seen as attentive to customers. And the point of the memo was clear: If they are preoccupied with smartphones, being attentive to customers is not possible. "Use of a personal electronic device and/or accessories is not permitted while customers are on board the aircraft, with the exception of crew rest," it said, according to Live and Let's Fly. Further, the memo explained the harsh consequences flight attendants who are seen engaging at the wrong time with their personal devices could face. "Any crewmember found in violation will be subject to performance discipline up to and including termination," it said. Being 'approachable' while in uniform The memo contained a number of other items United wanted to communicate with its cabin crews. "Customers look to flight attendants for great service," it said. "How comfortable would you be asking someone for help if they were engrossed in their cell phone? What impression would that give you?" "Even in public, you should always remain approachable in uniform and display courtesy to customers and other employees," the memo added. The document warned about three unfortunate situations use of a mobile device in a jump seat could elicit, according to Live and Let's Fly: "Missing an onboard security incident." "Causing personal injury or injury to a jumpseat partner on landing if not properly braced." "An inadvertent slide deployment if the personal device is held during the disarming of aircraft doors." Live and Let's Fly author Matthew Klint offered some thoughts on the issues addressed by the memo. "For better or for worse, we live in a world in which people are glued to their mobile phones," he wrote. "On the street. In restaurants. On trains. Certainly on aircraft, too. And in my experience, this is true for flight attendants too." "The harsh punishment for failing to abide by the rules suggests the seriousness of this problem," he added. "As a frequent United flyer, it will be interesting to see if there will be less use of personal mobile phones going forward with the threat of discipline now clearly laid out." At the time of publication, United Airlines has not responded to a request for comment. https://www.henryherald.com/arena/thestreet/united-airlines-leaked-memo-reveals-major-in-flight-crackdown/article_3e192acd-b0d0-59f2-9552-26a45296e83e.html Yakutia Airlines Superjet 100 makes emergency landing in Yakutsk A Russian Yakutia Airlines Sukhoi Superjet 100 on a flight from Harbin, China made an emergency landing in Yakutsk, in eastern Siberia after a fire warning indicated a problem in one of the aircraft’s cargo compartments on Monday this week. As the Russian aviation sector continues to struggle amid spare parts and components shortages as a result of sanctions, the landing incident at the Russian city of Yakutsk becomes the latest in a string of recent events. Yakutia Airlines flight Harbin – Yakutia The aircraft, a Sukhoi Superjet 100 operated by the carrier Yakutia Airlines carried out an emergency landing at Yakutsk and subsequently disembarked passengers via emergency slides. The aircraft, which was inbound on an international service from Harbin, China reportedly received a fire sensor indication from a cargo compartment, prompting the expedition of an emergency disembarkation. It is understood that 30 passengers and a compliment of nine crew were aboard the Sukhoi aircraft on the flight concerned. About Yakutia Airlines Yakutia Airlines is a Russian carrier based in Yakutsk, Sakha Republic. Founded in 2002, it operates domestic passenger services in Russia and within the Commonwealth of Independent States. Internationally the carrier serves destinations in Europe, Asia, and North America from its hubs at Yakutsk Airport and Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. Owned by the government of the Republic of Sakha, the airline flies to over 40 destinations, including regional locations of Moscow, Khabarovsk, Neryungri, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Saint Petersburg, Deputatsky, Udachny, and Pevek. The Sukhoi Superjet 100, now known as the SJ-100 after a recent rebranding under the Yakovlev name, is a regional jet carrying 87 to 98 passengers in a typical configuration. Despite relatively advanced technology and competitive features, it has faced challenges in its short history, and its future remains uncertain due to the recent rebranding and the current geopolitical situation. Ongoing Supply Issues The sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have significantly impacted the supply of aircraft parts and components, posing major challenges for both Russian airlines and the global aviation industry. The most immediate impact is on Russian airlines, which heavily rely on Western aircraft and parts. The long-term impact of the sanctions on the Russian aviation industry is still uncertain. Russia is attempting to develop its own domestic supply chain for aircraft parts, but this is likely to take years and may not be able to fully replace Western technology. https://aviationsourcenews.com/emergency/yakutia-airlines-superjet-100-makes-emergency-landing-in-yakutsk/ China's revised flight paths could harm aviation safety: MOTC official Taipei, Jan. 31 (CNA) China's recent adjustments to its flight paths in the Taiwan Strait could potentially affect aviation safety around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen and Matsu islands, Taiwan's transportation minister said Wednesday. Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材), who heads the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), was referring to an announcement by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on Tuesday on the flight path adjustments. China said the north-south M503 flight path would be moved back to its original path coming as close as 4.2 nautical miles of the median line of the Taiwan Strait after having "offset" it an additional 6 nautical miles to the west following negotiations with Taiwan in 2015. It also said it would begin allowing eastbound flights on flight path W122 between Fuzhou and M503 and W123 between Xiamen and M503 beginning on Feb. 1. Westbound traffic on those flight paths had been allowed since 2018. Wang said the W122 flight path was close to both airports in the Matsu islands, and the W123 path was close to the airport in Kinmen, posing aviation security concerns if cross-strait communications were not carried out properly. China unilaterally established the M503 flight path in 2015, and its proximity to the median line in the Taiwan Strait and the Taipei Flight Information Region raised safety concerns. After negotiations, China agreed to move the route westward, but it has now decided to move the flight path back, which Wang called "regrettable." Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) also condemned China's moves and said he has asked the government agencies concerned to assess possible outcomes and appropriate measures to safeguard aviation safety and national security. Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration and Ministry of Defense are currently planning responses, Wang said. According to Reuters, the M503 flight path is mostly used by Chinese airlines but also by some foreign airlines flying between cities in China like Shanghai and Southeast Asia. https://focustaiwan.tw/cross-strait/202401310007 ESA salutes Galileo satellite system meeting aviation standards The European Space Agency (ESA) has celebrated the Galileo satellite navigation system meeting civil aviation standards governing flight phases from take-off to landing and explained how the feat was done. The requirements around Safety-of-Life operations are laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and govern the use of systems where a malfunction would have catastrophic consequences. Galileo was not designed to comply with ICAO's rules. After all, Europe already had the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), which supplements the US Global Positioning System (GPS). The system permits accuracy to within 1.5 meters and since 2011 was declared compliant for Safety-of-Life operations. Considering Galileo is the European Commission's bid to free itself of dependence on GPS, using it for civil aviation had a certain inevitability. Augmentation by EGNOS would be required for take-off and landing. The question is, how robust is Galileo? According to ESA, only six events in the history of Galileo "exceeded the standards set by ICAO, and none of them were affecting more than a single satellite at a time." Impressive until one considers the 2019 event when the network suffered a "service degradation" and served up inaccurate positioning information over a period of several days. ESA fails to mention this incident in its latest wording about Galileo meeting avation standards, however, we imagine that any airline betting an aircraft full of passengers on the system would need reassurance that similar failures would not happen again. To get the coveted Safety-of-Life endorsement, engineers had to tweak the ground segment to mitigate the effects of the "very few" potential malfunctions. The satellites themselves were either already in orbit or on their way. Oddly, ESA should have commented on why it was that the requirement for the rigorous standards set by the ICAO only came up when it was too late to update the design of Galileo. The fix ended up being all in the software. "In the end, not a single infrastructure or hardware element was touched," said Stefan Wallner, head of the Galileo Signal-in-Space Engineering Unit. "We improved the monitoring and notification capabilities of Galileo purely by retuning the software in the ground segment." The improvements received the stamp of approval from the ICAO in March 2023, meaning that Galileo (alongside GPS) can support non-critical phases of flight. Upcoming augmentation with EGNOS is still needed for operations such as landing. However, why wasn't the Galileo system designed with this in mind in the first place? The first launch of the US GPS system was in 1978. Galileo's first launch happened in 2011. The second generation of the Galileo program is now under development and will go hand-in-hand with EGNOS v3, which is capable of augmenting Galileo as well as GPS. https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/30/esa_galileo_aviation/ Brazil Speeds Up $1 Billion Rescue for Troubled Airlines (Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s government is working on an emergency plan to help alleviate financial pressures on airlines and address the high cost of consumer litigation and a lack of competition, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The government is proposing using public funds as collateral for loans to the carriers from the country’s development bank, known as BNDES, the person said. It is expected to be issued it as a provisional measure in the coming weeks, allowing the changes to then take effect immediately. The amount of aid is still being discussed, but would not exceed 5 billion reais ($1 billion), the person said. While that is far from what companies need, it would help them to continue operating normally while they restructure debts, according to the person, who asked not to be named discussing private information. The government has been mulling a bailout for the industry for months. The plan took on added urgency after Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on January 25. A Finance Ministry representative declined to comment. Brazilian airlines have been struggling since the pandemic, and issues have been building amid rising fuel prices, delays in the production of new aircraft and currency volatility. Read more: Fourth Bankruptcy Shows Pandemic Haunts Latin American Airlines While demand has rebounded even as companies jack up prices — fares in Brazil have surged nearly 50% over the past year — carriers have also had problems with costs to handle frequent lawsuits from consumers. That has kept new airlines from coming into the market, the person said. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brazil-speeds-1-billion-rescue-200850601.html JetBlue, Spirit Airlines file appeal to merger block JetBlue Airways (JBLU) and Spirit Airlines (SAVE) have filed for an expedited appeal to the federal ruling that blocked the merger of the two airline operators. While JetBlue topped fourth-quarter earnings estimates — posting narrower-than-expected bottom line losses per share — the airline offers downbeat first-quarter guidance in 2024. Is there a path to profitability for these airlines and what does that say about the future of their deal? "This morning we got our first look at what Spirit and the stand-alone airline is going to look like from JetBlue management, and as a stand-alone airline, things are a little tough right now," Seaport Research Partners Dan McKenzie tells Yahoo Finance. "These guys have announced $300 million in revenue initiatives and the deferred $2.5 billion of CapEx, and the airline that we're going to get is an airline that will be growing a lot slower than what has historically guided to its... to mid to high single digits..." McKenzie comments on the future of this deal in terms of how much it is costing the two airlines as they struggle to achieve profitability post-pandemic. https://finance.yahoo.com/video/jetblue-spirit-airlines-file-appeal-153001561.html Avelo Airlines to establish new base operations at Sonoma County airport, add dozens of new jobs Avelo Airlines announced Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, it will set up its newest base operations May 1 at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, bringing about 50 new jobs to the region. Avelo Airlines announced Tuesday morning it will set up its newest base operations May 1 at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, bringing about 50 new jobs to the region. Burbank-based Avelo said in a news release it will initially base two Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft at the airport, and hire dozens of crew members to include pilots, flight attendants and aviation maintenance technicians. “Having more professional jobs in the community is a great thing,” said Airport Manager Jon Stout. “It gets (Avelo) more invested in the community, and they are big contributors to the economy.” Avelo’s deeper investment in Sonoma County also means the airline will be adding another four to six markets to the four it already services, Stout said. The existing markets are Burbank/Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Palm Springs and central Oregon, the latter two being seasonal service. “They’re evaluating new destinations and they plan on announcing those in the next couple of weeks,” Stout said. “They just have not been finalized.” Stout did say the new markets will be among those Avelo already services on the West Coast. Those destinations are Eureka and Redding in California; Ogden, Utah; Eugene, Portland and Salem, Oregon; Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Boise, Idaho; Bozeman and Kalispell, Montana; and Pasco, Washington. Stout emphasized Avelo’s added flights will not be connecting flights, but rather nonstop service to the aforementioned existing West Coast markets. The new flights would begin sometime after May 1, when Avelo launches its base operations at the Sonoma County airport, he said. Avelo’s further commitment to the regional airport will be a game changer for the facility. “With the aircraft actually being in Santa Rosa, they’ll start and stop their days here, which gives them the potential to have longer flights, and do more (flights) in a day from Santa Rosa,” Stout said. The new base operations at the Santa Rosa facility will mark the seventh for Avelo. It also has base operations at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), Southern Connecticut’s Tweed-New Haven Airport (HVN), Orlando International Airport (MCO), the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley region’s Wilmington Airport (ILG), Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) and Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), the release stated. “We will now be one of those cities,” Stout said. In the Tuesday news release, Avelo Airlines Founder, Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy said: “As the inaugural destination of Avelo’s first flight in 2021, the Bay Area has a special spot in our history. … We are very excited about the platform for growth the airport offers Avelo, and the meaningful employment and economic impact our investment will bring to the region.” Avelo Airlines flew 11,066 passengers in December, up 6.1% from a year prior. Its load factor — the measure of how full airplanes are on average — was 72%. That data was released Jan. 19, 2024. To learn more about Avelo’s career opportunities, visit AveloAir.com/Careers. https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/avelo-airlines-to-establish-new-base-operations-at-sonoma-county-airport-a/ Women Account For 12 Percent Of New Canadian Pilots A total of 12% of new pilot licenses issued in Canada in 2023 went to women, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Institute for Women of Aviation Worldwide (IWOAW). The Montreal-based organization said 13% of new recreational-oriented licenses, 12.3% of commercial tickets and 8.1% of airline transport permits went to women. Women have historically represented about 6% to 7% of pilots, but groups including IWOAW have been active in the last decade promoting aviation as a career for women and the needle is starting to move, the organization noted. IWOAW is making preparations for its annual campaign to introduce women and girls to aviation. This is the 15th anniversary of the Fly It Forward Challenge in which pilots donate their time and aircraft to give free flights to girls and women who have never flown in a small aircraft. There are also information booths with female role models at many of the events. The organization said that it has flown 22,403 Canadian females in the last 15 years and “the tangible impact of the initiative is uplifting.” This year’s events are planned for March 4-10. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/women-account-for-12-percent-of-new-canadian-pilots/ 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) • SMU Air Law Symposium - March 21-22, 2024 ( Dallas, TX) • 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 • Asia Pacific Airline Training Symposium - APATS 2024, 0-11 September, 2024, Singapore • • 2024 ISASI - Lisbon, Portugal - September 30 to October 4, 2024 • 2024 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition - Oct. 22-24 (Vegas) Curt Lewis