Flight Safety Information - February 16, 2024 No. 035 In This Issue : Incident: Easyjet Europe A320 near Toulouse on Feb 13th 2024, loss of cabin pressure : Incident: Lufthansa Cargo B772 at Frankfurt on Feb 14th 2024, brakerod separated from brakes : Incident: Sunclass A333 near Amsterdam on Feb 14th 2024, engine trouble : Military jet forced into emergency landing in Hattiesburg by faulty sensor : Gun found in backpack at Pittsburgh International Airport; New Alexandria man arrested, police say : Atlanta airport aiming to no longer allow non-flying general public from entering terminals : Canada grounds some PT6-powered aircraft due to blade-failure risk affecting up to 180 engines : Robinson Helicopter Company criticizes FAA’s proposed MOSAIC rules : Air Force Says It Is Not Aware of B-21 Quality Problems Linked to Spirit AeroSystems : ACSF Advocates for Safety Management Programs : Holding company for private jet charter company based at Akron-Canton Airport files for bankruptcy protection : Fistfight breaks out onboard Southwest flight, passengers face up to $37,000 in fines : CALENDAR OF EVENTS Incident: Easyjet Europe A320 near Toulouse on Feb 13th 2024, loss of cabin pressure An Easyjet Europe Airbus A320-200, registration OE-IJX performing flight U2-1391 from Geneva (Switzerland) to Seville,SP (Spain), was climbing through FL350 out of Geneva when the crew initiated an emergency descent to FL100 (average rate of descent 4200 fpm) due to the loss of cabin pressure. The aircraft diverted to Toulouse, further descending to FL090, where the aircraft landed safely about 35 minutes after initiating the emergency descent. A replacement Easyjet Switzerland Airbus A320-200 registration HB-JXA reached Seville with a delay of about 3.5 hours. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Toulouse about 52 hours after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=514fcc2a&opt=0 Incident: Lufthansa Cargo B772 at Frankfurt on Feb 14th 2024, brakerod separated from brakes A Lufthansa Cargo Boeing 777-200 freighter, registration D-ALFC performing flight LH-8290 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to Cairo (Egypt), was climbing out of Frankfurt's runway 18 when the crew stopped the climb at FL280 and continued enroute for about 20 minutes before deciding near Zell/See (Austria) to return to Frankfurt. The aircraft landed on Frankfurt's runway 25C, during the landing a brakerod separated from the aircraft and came to rest on the runway. According to information The Aviation Herald received, brakerod #1 on brake #1 of the left hand main gear fractured during takeoff and collided with the gear door during gear retraction. Upon landing the brakerod was ripped off. There was damage to the gear and the gear door. The aircraft is still on the ground in Frankfurt about 19 hours after landing back. https://avherald.com/h?article=514fc909&opt=0 Incident: Sunclass A333 near Amsterdam on Feb 14th 2024, engine trouble A Sunclass Airbus A330-300, registration OY-VKI performing flight DK1784 from Stockholm (Sweden) to Las Palmas,CI (Spain) with 382 people on board, was enroute at FL380 about 40nm east of Amsterdam when the crew declared Mayday Mayday reporting an engine (Trent 772) was running too hot and decided to divert to Amsterdam. The aircraft drifted down to FL230 and landed safely on Amsterdam's runway 18R about 35 minutes later. A listener on frequency reported in the background of their radio transmissions to ATC continuous ECAM Caution sounds were heard. A replacement Airbus A320-200 registration OY-RUZ positioned to Amsterdam the following day and was estimated to continue the flight to Las Palmas departing about 29 hours after landing of OY-VKI. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Amsterdam about 29 hours after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=514fc585&opt=0 Military jet forced into emergency landing in Hattiesburg by faulty sensor HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - A United States Navy jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Bobby Chain Municipal Airport Thursday afternoon after a faulty sensor indicated a fire on board. The McDonnell Douglas T-45 Goshawk, stationed out of the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, made a “non-event” landing about 2:15 p.m. Thursday, Southeast Aviation personnel at the airport said. A Southeast Aviation spokesman said the jet was operating in a military operations area east of Hattiesburg when the sensor lit up. A City of Hattiesburg spokesperson said the sensor indicated a fire, which turned out not to be the case. Still, the Hattiesburg Fire Department was at the airport with four engines and two supervisors. The two-person aircrew was not affected and made a safe landing. The SEA spokesman said a maintenance crew was going through the jet to make sure it was safe to fly. The T-45 is used by the Navy as an aircraft carrier-capable trainer for Navy and Marine pilots. https://www.wdam.com/2024/02/15/military-jet-forced-into-emergency-landing-hattiesburg-by-faulty-sensor/ Gun found in backpack at Pittsburgh International Airport; New Alexandria man arrested, police say MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A New Alexandria man is facing charges after a gun was found in a backpack at Pittsburgh International Airport on Thursday afternoon. TSA officers saw a .40 caliber handgun in a passenger’s backpack at the main security checkpoint at 4:33 p.m., Allegheny County police said. The passenger was identified as Matthew Curry, 35. Police said Curry did not have a valid concealed carry permit. He was charged with carrying a firearm without a license and taken to the Allegheny County Jail. The FBI was notified. Passengers who bring firearms into an airport security checkpoint can face fines from the TSA of up to $10,000. Repeat offenders can be fined up to $13,910. https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/gun-found-backpack-pittsburgh-international-airport-new-alexandria-man-arrested-police-say/NADGETQ23VCKJIXMDSFNW3LVKM/ Atlanta airport aiming to no longer allow non-flying general public from entering terminals • According to the Associated Press airport now officials want to expand the hours of restricted access to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ATLANTA — Officials at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport want to prevent the non-flying general public from accessing the terminal at all times. On Wednesday, the Atlanta City Council transportation committee voted to change the loitering ordinance for the Atlanta airport. In 2018, the world's busiest airport announced that it would close its doors from 11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. to all but ticketed passengers and their parties, airport personnel and construction crews. Airport officials said in a 2018 statement that the change came "as a result of an increasing volume of passengers, visitors, and ongoing ATLNext construction projects at the Airport's campus." Officials said the new hours would improve safety during overnight construction periods and provide maintenance and custodial teams with access to high-volume areas for upkeep and cleaning. According to the Associated Press, that policy was codified into law in 2021, and now officials want to expand the hours of restricted access to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In a statement, the airport said, "This legislation aims to clarify who is authorized to enter the airport and enhance our safety and security protocols to maintain a secure environment for all." The new restrictions are being sought as the airport deals with luggage thefts and complaints about unauthorized drivers soliciting passengers, the Associated Press reported. The measure next goes to the full council for a final vote. https://www.11alive.com/article/travel/atlanta-airport-restrict-non-flyers-in-terminal-all-times/85-2c7cd57e-e4b2-48e8-a9f1-e084994f1cf3 Canada grounds some PT6-powered aircraft due to blade-failure risk affecting up to 180 engines Transport Canada has ordered operators to ground aircraft powered by some Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) PT6 turboprops pending turbine blade replacements, a move coming in response to failures of three second-stage power turbine blades. The order affects 160-180 PT6A and PT6E turboprops, according to P&WC parent RTX. The manufacturer adds that the issue is unrelated to a powder-metal manufacturing problem affecting Pratt & Whitney PW1000G geared turbofans. Daher’s TBM 940 is among aircraft with PT6 variants affected by Transport Canada’s order Transport Canada says affected engines contain blades manufactured from the same batch of materials used to produce the three failed blades. Those failed blades were all relatively new, having accumulated less than 25h of flight time, the regulator says in a 15 February airworthiness directive. That order takes effect on 16 February and requires operators to replace affected blades “prior to next flight”. It applies to about two dozen PT6A and PT6E variants, including those that power aircraft including Beechcraft 1900Ds, Daher TBMs, Embraer Super Tucanos, Piaggio Avantis and Pilatus PC-12s and PC-21s. “Pratt & Whitney Canada has recently identified a limited sub-population of high-power PT6A and PT6E engines that require part replacement before returning to service,” RTX says. “The population is limited to engine parts with less than 50 flight hours… manufactured from a single batch of sourced product.” Those 50 flight hours include total hours, hours since a last shop visit and hours since an engine underwent a second-stage power turbine repair. Transport Canada’s order responds to reports of three second-stage power turbine blade failures on PT6s. Two of those failures occurred “during testing at the manufacturer’s facility”, and one involved an in-service PT6, the regulator says. Transport Canada does not elaborate about the in-service failure, but RTX says it resulted in an aborted take-off. “P&WC is still investigating the root cause of the blade failures, but preliminary investigation determined that the power turbine modules in all event engines contained newly manufactured blades… from the same raw material,” Transport Canada says. “In all cases, the blades had accumulated less than 25h air time since new.” https://www.flightglobal.com/engines/canada-grounds-some-pt6-powered-aircraft-due-to-blade-failure-risk-affecting-up-to-180-engines/156956.article Robinson Helicopter Company criticizes FAA’s proposed MOSAIC rules Robinson Helicopter Company is unhappy with proposed rules in the United States that would expand the category of light sport aircraft to allow for larger and more powerful platforms, arguing it would reduce oversight and increase risk in helicopters of this class. David Smith, vice president of operations at the Robinson Helicopter Company, told Vertical that the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) proposed Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) requirements are objectively lower than Part 27 requirements. These prescribe airworthiness standards for normal category rotorcraft weighing up to 7,000 pounds (3,175 kilograms) and as many as nine passenger seats. Smith said it would hurt the entire rotorcraft industry through higher insurance costs, more trial attorney attention and bad press if these expanded light sport aircraft crash. “For complex aircraft like rotorcraft, we have some good examples in the experimental home-built categories that really do question whether you can go a lot lighter, simpler and cheaper and still maintain safety,” Smith said. The FAA, with MOSAIC, proposes to amend rules related to the certification and operation of light sport aircraft. In its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) published in July 2023, the agency proposes expanding the light sport aircraft category to include aircraft weighing as much as 3,000 pounds (1,361 kilograms). The FAA believes this will encourage aircraft owners, who may be deciding between an experimental aircraft or a light sport aircraft, to choose aircraft higher on the safety continuum and, therefore, meet higher aircraft certification requirements. Robinson proposes the FAA, instead, make it easier to type certify these larger and more powerful rotorcraft that would qualify as light sport aircraft under MOSAIC. The proposed rules, said Smith, try to adapt the current certification approach to allow more, and novel, aircraft to be certified safely and efficiently. Robinson prefers to make the existing type certification process more efficient with better resourcing and accelerators to the existing process, rather than add an alternative safety standard. The type certification process, Smith said, does not lead to expensive and over-burdensome management of keeping rotorcraft airworthy or certifying them. Rather, the type certification process adds very little to the cost of a product that a rotorcraft developer would sell to the public. “It does add time, but that is an acceptable way to ensure products are adequately tested prior to entry into service,” Smith said. Helicopter Association International (HAI), which includes Robinson as a member, supports MOSAIC including rotorcraft as light sport aircraft. HAI, commenting on the proposed rules, believes this will increase the variety of aircraft available to aviation enthusiasts and provide economic benefits to the industry in aircraft manufacturing and related support services. https://verticalmag.com/news/robinson-helicopter-company-criticizes-faas-proposed-mosiac-rules/ Air Force Says It Is Not Aware of B-21 Quality Problems Linked to Spirit AeroSystems The Air Force says it doesn’t know of any problems with the work Spirit AeroSystems has done on the B-21 bomber but won’t say if it has launched any investigations of its own into the subcontractor’s processes. “I haven’t heard anything about a problem with the B-21” due to Spirit’s subcontractor work, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told Air & Space Forces Magazine at the AFA Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colo., this week. Spirit is under scrutiny after a Jan. 5 accident involving a door plug the company installed on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 fuselage blew out mid-flight, which led to a grounding of the 737-MAX 9 fleet until individual aircraft could be inspected for similar flaws. Spirit was already fighting a shareholder class-action lawsuit, lodged in December, alleging an “excessive” amount of work defects at the company, based on whistleblower reports. Spirit is one of only a handful of B-21 subcontractors the Air Force has permitted Northrop Grumman, the B-21 prime, to name. The others are RTX’s Pratt & Whitney, Janicki Industries, Collins Aerospace, GKN Aerospace, and BAE Systems. The specific work Spirit does on the B-21 has not been identified, as a matter of general secrecy about the program. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating production processes at Spirit and Boeing in the wake of the Jan. 5 accident. “Spirit AeroSystems has been working closely with our customer since the event with Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on Jan. 5,” according to a company statement. “A Spirit team is now supporting the NTSB’s investigation directly. As a company, we remain focused on the quality of each aircraft structure that leaves our facilities.” An Air Force spokesperson said the service continues to “monitor safety issues.” The Air Force “relies on the Defense Contract Management Agency to ensure all aircraft meet the DOD’s stringent quality standards before it accepts aircraft from any industry partner,” the spokesperson said. “DCMA supports the B-21 program through their on-site quality specialists at Spirit facilities, as at many other B-21 suppliers,” the spokesperson added. “The DCMA’s specialists have direct access to Spirit quality management systems and data, as mandated via the B-21 contract and in accordance with the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation. Suppliers must also submit to regular DCMA inspections throughout the manufacturing process and before acceptance of products, ensuring quality escapes and process issues are caught early.” The spokesperson did not offer a response when asked if any Air Force-specific scrutiny of Spirit is underway as a result of the recent quality escapes. Spirit is also a subcontractor to Boeing on the Air Force’s KC-46 tanker, for which it provides the forward fuselage, strut and nacelle components, and the fixed leading edge of the wings. On its website, Spirit says it “assisted in the design of the next-generation tanker,” which is replacing the KC-135. The shareholder lawsuit against Spirit alleges that a veteran quality manager at the company was asked to hide quality problems, and that the company retaliated against him when he refused. The suit charges Spirit with having a corporate culture that emphasizes “pushing out product over quality.” The first B-21 made its inaugural flight in November 2023, and the Air Force has acknowledged that it has made at least one test flight since then. Northrop received a low-rate initial production contract for the B-21 shortly after first flight, Pentagon acquisition chief William LaPlante announced in late January. https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-spirit-aerosystems-b-21/ ACSF Advocates for Safety Management Programs The call comes after several recent private aviation accidents In the wake of several recent fatal private aviation accidents, the Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) is urging the swift implementation of safety management systems (SMS) across the spectrum of Part 91, Part 91K, and Part 135 operations. At a minimum, the organization is calling on all operators to adopt a working SMS tailored to each company’s unique circumstances. ACSF believes that official mandates for SMS use are likely just a few years away; therefore, it is now calling on all stakeholders to take immediate steps along a “pathway to safety” to protect lives. It aims to foster success in achieving a low accident rate similar to that seen in the U.S. airline sector. Included in the ACSF plan is the implementation of SMS to foster a just culture throughout the industry. The nonprofit group noted that it offers a variety of SMS tools along with a member assistance program at minimal cost. ACSF also encourages operator participation in audit-based programs such as the Industry Audit Standard (IAS), Wyvern, or Argus, which incorporate global standards to ensure safety and operational vigilance. Lastly, as the largest aggregator of aviation safety action program (ASAP) data in the U.S., ACSF advocates for the widespread collection and dissemination of safety data. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2024-02-15/acsf-advocates-safety-management-programs Holding company for private jet charter company based at Akron-Canton Airport files for bankruptcy protection The holding company for Ultimate Jetcharters, the private jet charter company based at Akron-Canton Airport, has joined its operating unit in bankruptcy court. (File photo, Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer)The Plain Dealer GREEN, Ohio - Ultimate Jet LLC, the holding company for Ultimate Jetcharters LLC, the private jet charter company based at Akron-Canton Airport in Green, Ohio, has joined its operating unit in bankruptcy court. Late last week, Ultimate Jet filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Akron. As was true for Ultimate Jetcharter’s bankruptcy filing in October, the charter airline intends to keep operating as usual while its holding company restructures in bankruptcy court. https://www.cleveland.com/business/2024/02/holding-company-for-private-jet-charter-company-based-at-akron-canton-airport-files-for-bankruptcy-protection.html Fistfight breaks out onboard Southwest flight, passengers face up to $37,000 in fines Two passengers who got into a fistfight on a Southwest Airlines flight Monday are facing criminal charges of up to $37,000, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The "disruptive" incident occurred onboard SW flight 1288, en route from Oakland to Lihue, Kauai, a Southwest Airlines spokesperson told USA TODAY. In a video of the incident, a male passenger stands at a window seat with a woman in the middle seat. He slaps the arm of another male passenger standing in the aisle, saying, "Shut the f*ck up." The other passenger retaliates by punching him several times. A flight attendant and other bystanders break the two men up. Another passenger on the flight told Hawaii News Now he "heard yelling, screaming and punches. I turned around and saw one man bleeding and then the other man being separated." "Frankly, I was a little nervous because we’re 35,000 feet, and you’ve got two guys swinging at each other, which makes no sense whatsoever." The flight crew reported the "passenger disturbance" to the FAA, which will investigate the incident, the agency told USA TODAY. As part of the FAA's Reauthorization Bill, unruly passengers can face fines up to $37,000 and be prosecuted on criminal charges. The flight landed at Lihue Airport at 1:47 p.m. without incident. Kauai Police Department officers responded to the scene to assist Lihue Airport Security but no arrest was made because the incident did not occur under KPD jurisdiction, the police department told USA TODAY. "We commend our crew and customers for their professionalism in defusing this situation. Our number one priority is the safety and well-being of our customers and employees," the airline said. Earlier this month, on a JetBlue flight, passengers had to help restrain another unruly passenger who behaved "erratically and aggressively" toward his travel companion. As of Feb. 11, the FAA has received 206 reports of unruly passengers for 2024. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2024/02/15/southwest-onboard-fistfight/72615923007/ 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 • Blazetech - Aircraft Fire Hazards, Protection, and Investigation Course June 4 - 7, 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