Flight Safety Information - March 12, 2024 No. 052 In This Issue : Incident: United B773 at Sydney on Mar 11th 2024, hydraulic leak : Incident: Delta A359 at Los Angeles on Mar 10th 2024, possible flight control problem : Aircraft Cabin Air International Conference - 17 & 18 September - London : Incident: Delta B712 at Atlanta on Mar 9th 2024, flaps up landing : Incident: American A321 at Raleigh-Durham on Mar 11th 2024, cargo door open indication : F.A.A. Audit of Boeing’s 737 Max Production Found Dozens of Issues : ‘Gauges Went Blank’ Before 787’s Sudden Loss Of Altitude : Flight Safety Foundation Annual Report Highlights Threat to Aviation Safety from Eroding Safety Culture : New Zealand says seizing black boxes from LATAM Boeing 787 as passengers recount incident : NTSB Releases Documents Behind Texas Warbirds Collision : The FAA found staff at Boeing's supplier using liquid Dawn soap as lubricant for a 737 Max door seal : If your car has a black box like an airplane’s, it could save you big money : Air Force Plans to Divest 250 Aircraft in 2025, Shrinking Fleet to New Low : CALENDAR OF EVENTS Incident: United B773 at Sydney on Mar 11th 2024, hydraulic leak A United Boeing 777-300, registration N2140U performing flight UA-830 from Sydney,NS (Australia) to San Francisco,CA (USA), was in the initial climb out of Sydney's runway 34L when upon retracting gear hydraulic fluid leaked from the right hand main gear. The aircraft completed the gear up and continued the climb reaching cruise FL300. Over the Pacific Ocean about 340nm east of Sydney the crew decided to turn around and return to Sydney, performed an alternate gear extension and landed with open gear doors but without further incident on runway 34L about 2 hours after departure. The flight was cancelled. The aircraft is still on the ground in Sydney about 16.5 hours after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=516053ed&opt=0 Incident: Delta A359 at Los Angeles on Mar 10th 2024, possible flight control problem A Delta Airlines Airbus A350-900, registration N505DN performing flight DL-301 from Atlanta,GA to Los Angeles,CA (USA), was on final approach to Los Angeles' runway 25L when the crew reported a possible problem with the flight controls and requested vectors. Tower cancelled the approach clearance and issued vectors for the left downwind. The aircraft joined the final approach for runway 25L again and continued for a safe landing at a normal speed. The FAA reported: "Delta Air Lines Flight 301 landed safety at Los Angeles International Airport around 10:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, March 10, after the crew reported a possible flight control issue. The Airbus A350 departed from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta international airport. The FAA will investigate." https://avherald.com/h?article=51604ba2&opt=0 Incident: Delta B712 at Atlanta on Mar 9th 2024, flaps up landing A Delta Airlines Boeing 717-200, registration N965AT performing flight DL-2961 from Lexington,KY to Atlanta,GA (USA), was on approach to Atlanta when the crew stopped the descent at 7000 feet reporting problems with the flaps. The crew subsequently advised they needed to do a flaps up landing, requested the longer runway 27R and performed a safe but high speed landing (about 190 knots over ground). The aircraft stopped on the runway for a check by emergency services, vacated the runway and taxied to the apron about 10 minutes after landing. A ground observer reported the aircraft had slats extended, however, flaps were not extended. https://avherald.com/h?article=51604374&opt=0 Incident: American A321 at Raleigh-Durham on Mar 11th 2024, cargo door open indication An American Airlines Airbus A321-200, registration N567UW performing flight AA-802 from Raleigh/Durham,NC to Dallas Ft. Worth,TX (USA), was climbing out of Raleigh's runway 22R when the crew stopped the climb at 5000 feet reporting they had a cargo door open indication. The crew decided to return to Raleigh where the aircraft landed safely on runway 22R about 15 minutes after departure. A replacement A321-200 registration N918US reached Dallas with a delay of about 2:15 hours. The occurrence aircraft returned to service about 3 hours after landing back. https://avherald.com/h?article=51603829&opt=0 F.A.A. Audit of Boeing’s 737 Max Production Found Dozens of Issues The company failed 33 of 89 audits during an examination conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines jet in January. The Federal Aviation Administration deployed as many as 20 auditors at Boeing, which builds the 737 Max at its plant in Renton, Wash. A six-week audit by the Federal Aviation Administration of Boeing’s production of the 737 Max jet found dozens of problems throughout the manufacturing process at the plane maker and one of its key suppliers, according to a slide presentation reviewed by The New York Times. The air-safety regulator initiated the examination after a door panel blew off a 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight in early January. Last week, the agency announced that the audit had found “multiple instances” in which Boeing and the supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, failed to comply with quality-control requirements, though it did not provide specifics about the findings. The presentation reviewed by The Times, though highly technical, offers a more detailed picture of what the audit turned up. Since the Alaska Airlines episode, Boeing has come under intense scrutiny over its quality-control practices, and the findings add to the body of evidence about manufacturing lapses at the company. For the portion of the examination focused on Boeing, the F.A.A. conducted 89 product audits, a type of review that looks at aspects of the production process. The plane maker passed 56 of the audits and failed 33 of them, with a total of 97 instances of alleged noncompliance, according to the presentation. The F.A.A. also conducted 13 product audits for the part of the inquiry that focused on Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the fuselage, or body, of the 737 Max. Six of those audits resulted in passing grades, and seven resulted in failing ones, the presentation said. At one point during the examination, the air-safety agency observed mechanics at Spirit using a hotel key card to check a door seal, according to a document that describes some of the findings. That action was “not identified/documented/called-out in the production order,” the document said. In another instance, the F.A.A. saw Spirit mechanics apply liquid Dawn soap to a door seal “as lubricant in the fit-up process,” according to the document. The door seal was then cleaned with a wet cheesecloth, the document said, noting that instructions were “vague and unclear on what specifications/actions are to be followed or recorded by the mechanic.” Asked about the appropriateness of using a hotel key card or Dawn soap in those situations, a spokesman for Spirit, Joe Buccino, said the company was “reviewing all identified nonconformities for corrective action.” Boeing did not immediately comment on the results of the audit. In late February, the F.A.A. gave the company 90 days to develop a plan for quality-control improvements. In response, its chief executive, Dave Calhoun, said that “we have a clear picture of what needs to be done,” citing in part the audit findings. Boeing said this month that it was in talks to acquire Spirit, which it spun out in 2005. Mr. Buccino said on Monday that Spirit had received preliminary audit findings from the F.A.A. and planned to work with Boeing to address what the regulator had raised. He said Spirit’s goal was to reduce to zero the number of defects and errors in its processes. “Meanwhile, we continue multiple efforts undertaken to improve our safety and quality programs,” Mr. Buccino said. “These improvements focus on human factors and other steps to minimize nonconformities.” The F.A.A. said it could not release specifics about the audit because of its ongoing investigation into Boeing in response to the Alaska Airlines episode. In addition to that inquiry, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what caused the door panel to blow off the plane, and the Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation. During the F.A.A.’s examination, the agency deployed as many as 20 auditors at Boeing and roughly half a dozen at Spirit, according to the slide presentation. Boeing assembles the 737 Max at its plant in Renton, Wash., while Spirit builds the plane’s fuselage at its factory in Wichita, Kan. The audit at Boeing was wide ranging, covering many parts of the 737 Max, including its wings and an assortment of other systems. Many of the problems found by auditors fell in the category of not following an “approved manufacturing process, procedure or instruction,” according to the presentation. Some other issues dealt with quality-control documentation. One audit dealt with the component that blew off the Alaska Airlines jet, known as a door plug. Boeing failed that check, according to the presentation. Some of the issues flagged by that audit related to inspection and quality-control documentation, though the exact findings were not detailed in the presentation. The F.A.A.’s examination also explored how well Boeing’s employees understood the company’s quality-control processes. The agency interviewed six company engineers and scored their responses, and the overall average score came out to only 58 percent. One audit at Spirit that focused on the door plug component found five problems. One of those problems, the presentation said, was that Boeing “failed to provide evidence of approval of minor design change under a method acceptable to the F.A.A.” It was not clear from the presentation what the design change was. Another audit dealt with the installation of the door plug, and it was among those that Spirit failed. The audit raised concerns about the Spirit technicians who carried out the work and found that the company “failed to determine the knowledge necessary for the operation of its processes.” Other audits that Spirit failed included one that involved a cargo door and another that dealt with the installation of cockpit windows. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/us/politics/faa-audit-boeing-737-max.html ‘Gauges Went Blank’ Before 787’s Sudden Loss Of Altitude Brian Jokat, a passenger onboard a LATAM Airlines 787-9 that had a sudden loss of altitude on Monday says the captain told him the “gauges went blank” and he was briefly unable to control the airliner. The airline had previously said “a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement.” The plane, carrying 263 people, was heading to Auckland, New Zealand, from Sydney, Australia, when the incident occurred. CNN interviewed an American passenger on the plane who said the captain appeared shaken as he surveyed the aftermath of the violent maneuver. He said the captain told him the panel quickly came back on and the systems resumed normal operation. The “sudden drop” sent a dozen people to a hospital in New Zealand after they were flung about the cabin. Many suffered head injuries when they struck the ceiling. About 35-to-40 others were treated at Auckland Airport by paramedics. The Dreamliner was cruising at 41,000 feet with about an hour left in the three-hour flight when the incident occurred. The plane left Sydney and was headed ultimately to Santiago with a planned stop in Auckland. The flight from Auckland to Santiago was canceled and rescheduled for Tuesday. https://www.avweb.com/flight-safety/technical-event-cited-in-787-sudden-loss-of-altitude/ Flight Safety Foundation Annual Report Highlights Threat to Aviation Safety from Eroding Safety Culture ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The international commercial airline industry did not suffer any fatal jet airliner accidents in 2023, according to Flight Safety Foundation's 2023 Safety Report, issued today, but a series of close calls last year and two accidents so far in 2024 are clear signals that the industry must guard against complacency and the potential for an erosion of safety culture to weaken its safety margin. "Despite last year being among the safest in aviation history in terms of accidents and fatalities, it's crucial to acknowledge and address the warning signs that were present in events that narrowly avoided disastrous outcomes," said Foundation President and CEO Dr. Hassan Shahidi. "Complacency is a stealthy threat that can erode safety and quality unless it is actively countered with a robust safety culture. Complacency can lead to shortcuts, degradation of quality, neglect of procedures, poor communication, and a delayed response to escalating risks. Failing to rigorously reinforce a strong safety culture can become the weakest link in the safety chain." The Foundation's 2023 Safety Report, which is based on an analysis of data drawn from the Aviation Safety Network (ASN) database, shows that were 94 accidents across all of types of airliner operations last year and that were no jet airliner fatal accidents; there were seven fatal accidents involving turboprop and piston engine–powered airliners. In addition, corporate jets used in a variety of operational roles were involved in 32 accidents last year, seven of which were fatal. The 2023 Safety Report is available on the Foundation Website, or by clicking here. The release of the 2023 Safety Report is accompanied by the release of an interactive dashboard that features accident data and information from the past six years that is searchable by a range of parameters, such as type of operation, region of the world, phase of flight, and accident type or end state, such as turbulence-related, runway incursion or excursion, and loss of control. The report and the dashboard present information that covers all types of airliners capable of carrying at least 14 passengers and a wide range of corporate jets. The dashboard can be accessed on the Foundation website. About Flight Safety Foundation (flightsafety.org) Flight Safety Foundation is an independent, nonprofit, international organization engaged in research, education, and communications to improve aviation safety. The Foundation's mission is to connect, influence, and lead global aviation safety. Media Contact: Frank Jackman Director, Communications and Research +1 703.739.6700, ext. 116 jackman@flightsafety.org SOURCE Flight Safety Foundation https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/flight-safety-foundation-annual-report-highlights-threat-to-aviation-safety-from-eroding-safety-culture-302084829.html New Zealand says seizing black boxes from LATAM Boeing 787 as passengers recount incident SYDNEY (Reuters) -New Zealand's Transport Accident Investigation Commission said on Tuesday it was seizing the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of a LATAM Airlines Boeing 787 after an incident that left more than 50 people injured. The airline and passengers aboard the Sydney-Auckland flight on Monday said the plane with 263 passengers and nine crew members on board dropped abruptly mid-air. "My neighbour who was in the seat two over from me, there was a gap in between us, as soon as I woke I looked and he was on the ceiling and I thought I was dreaming," Brian Adam Jokat, a Canadian citizen residing in the UK who was travelling on the plane said on Tuesday. Photos taken by Jokat after the incident showed damage sustained to the ceiling of the airplane where he said fellow passengers had hit it. The New Zealand accident investigator said Chilean authorities had confirmed they had opened a probe into the flight, and it was assisting with their enquiries. A spokesperson for TAIC said because the incident occurred in international airspace it fell to Chilean accident investigation authority Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil (DGAC) to open an inquiry. LATAM is based in Chile and the flight was due to continue on to Santiago after stopping in Auckland. "TAIC is in the process of gathering evidence relevant to the inquiry, including seizing the cockpit voice and flight data recorders," the New Zealand agency said, referring to the so-called "black boxes" that will provide more information on the flight's trajectory and communications between pilots. DGAC said in a statement it was working with TAIC on the investigation. LATAM did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it had given the black boxes to TAIC. The airline said earlier on Tuesday it would assist the relevant authorities on any investigation into the "strong shake" during the flight. The cause of the apparent sudden change in trajectory of the flight is currently unexplained. Safety experts say most airplane accidents are caused by a cocktail of factors that need to be thoroughly investigated. New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement it would also assist in the investigation if required. The has been renewed debate over the length of cockpit recordings in the aviation industry since it was revealed voice recorder data on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet that lost a panel mid-flight in January was overwritten. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zealand-says-seizing-black-boxes-015100357.html NTSB Releases Documents Behind Texas Warbirds Collision The NTSB has released 1,900 pages of documents that form the backbone of its investigation to the midair collision between an P-63 Airacobra and a B-17 at the Wings Over Dallas Airshow on Nov. 12, 2022. Five people died on the bomber and the pilot of the Airacobra was killed when the two aircraft came together just outside the airport perimeter fence on their way to a showline pass. Both planes were owned by the Commemorative Air Force. The docket of documents contains the investigative record of the probe and includes information about the aircraft, crew and airshow staff and procedures. “The docket contains only factual information collected by NTSB investigators; it does not provide the final report or a probable cause,” the NTSB cautioned. “No conclusions about how or why the crash happened should be drawn from the information within the docket. The NTSB will issue a final report at a later date that will include analysis, findings, recommendations, and probable cause determinations related to the accident.” https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/ntsb-releases-documents-behind-texas-warbirds-collision/ The FAA found staff at Boeing's supplier using liquid Dawn soap as lubricant for a 737 Max door seal • Mechanics at a Boeing supplier used liquid soap as a lubricant to fit a 737 Max door seal, per NYT. • The instance was mentioned in a document discussing FAA audits of Boeing and its supplier, per NYT. • This particular supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, is in charge of building the 737 Max's fuselage. The Federal Aviation Administration auditors saw mechanics for a Boeing supplier using liquid Dawn soap as a lubricant for fitting a door seal, The New York Times reported. The regulator then observed mechanics at Spirit AeroSystems, which builds the fuselage of Boeing's 737 Max, cleaning up using a wet cheesecloth, per The Times' Mark Walker. These findings were part of a six-week audit documented in a set of FAA presentation slides upon which The Times based its report. The slides said that Boeing had failed 33 of 89 product audits related to 737 Max production, while Spirit failed seven of 13 audits, per The Times. Global scrutiny is building on the quality of the 737 Max's fuselage after a door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight blew out in January while the aircraft was still midair. The incident triggered a push to investigate safety standards at Boeing, which had been accused of quality assurance lapses for several years. The Times reported that most of the issues flagged by the FAA involved manufacturing staff not following approved procedures, while some involved issues with documenting quality control. A note for the liquid soap incident said the door seal fitting instructions were "vague and unclear on what specifications or actions are to be followed or recorded by the mechanic,'" per The Times. In response to The Times' report, Boeing told Business Insider in a statement that it would "continue to implement immediate changes and develop a comprehensive action plan to strengthen safety and quality." "We are squarely focused on taking significant, demonstrated action with transparency at every turn," the statement said. Spirit did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider. A spokesperson for Spirit told The Times the firm is "reviewing all identified nonconformities for corrective action." The report comes after the FAA said in late February that it had found quality control issues at Boeing, and gave the aviation company 90 days to submit a plan for fixing these problems. In response, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said the company plans to follow through with the FAA's demands. "We have a clear picture of what needs to be done," he said. https://www.businessinsider.com/faa-boeing-spirit-aerosystems-dawn-soap-door-seal-737-max-2024-3 Aviation incidents seem to be proliferating, but experts say there's no reason for alarm A flying tire. A runway roll-off. Multiple emergency landings. It may seem like mishaps involving planes have been growing in frequency. But experts say there is no cause for major alarm, as the aviation industry’s safety record remains better than it’s ever been when measured by lives lost. “This is not a safety trend,” said John Cox, a pilot and the president and CEO of Safety Operating Systems LLC, of the recent spate of high-profile incidents. According to the aviation industry publication FlightGlobal, there were just six recorded fatal commercial aviation accidents worldwide in 2023, resulting in 115 deaths — the fewest on record. National Transportation Safety Board data confirms the downward trend: Compared with 27 major accidents involving large U.S. carriers in 2008, there were just 20 in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. The rate of accidents involving injury or death to a passenger or substantial damage to a plane has also declined — from 0.141 per 100,000 flight hours to 0.112 in 2022. In other words, the data shows flying has rarely been safer. “There’s not anything unusual about the recent spate of incidents — these kinds of things happen every day in the industry,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a pilot and the president of Guzzetti Aviation Risk Discovery LLC. Still, the flying public is now especially attuned to such reports — perhaps most notably because of January’s midair blowout incident on an Alaska Airlines flight involving a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet. Among the latest high-profile events: On Friday, a United Airlines flight on a Boeing 737-800 rolled off the runway in Houston while taxiing to its gate. No one was injured. United noted the plane was operating in rainy conditions at the time. On Thursday, a tire fell off a United Airlines flight on a Boeing 777-200 that had just taken off from San Francisco, forcing an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport. No one was injured in that incident either. Cox told The Associated Press tire incidents are usually a maintenance issue and not linked to the manufacturer. United said the plane, built in 2002, was designed to land safely without all tires in operation. On Monday, a United Airlines flight on a Boeing 737-900 from Houston to Fort Myers, Florida, had to make an emergency landing after flames started shooting out of the engine. United said in a statement that it appeared bubble wrap entered the airfield and was ingested by the plane’s engine. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating these incidents. The NTSB also revealed this week it was investigating a United flight on a Boeing 737 Max in February that had potentially faulty rudder pedals. In a statement, United said it is also looking at each of the incidents, though they all appear to be unique. “Each of these events is distinct and unrelated to one another,” the airline said. “Safety is our top priority, and we’ll continue to do everything we can to keep our customers and employees safe.” Boeing also said it was assisting with investigations of the incidents. No likely connection to any one airline or plane manufacturer Experts pointed out that each incident is unique and may not be related to United or Boeing. Even as he acknowledged the commonality of United and Boeing as the players in each of these incidents, Guzzetti said such cases were still fairly common in the regular course of flying. “If you look at the big picture, there hasn’t been an increase in the number of incidents,” Guzzetti said. “There’s just a lot of scrutiny now because of the door-plug event, so you have a jittery public and the news media picking up all these things.” Because consumers can use their phone cameras to immediately broadcast these mishaps over vast social media networks as they happen, that makes the public more aware of them, even if their frequency has not actually increased, Cox said. Still, while experts say there is little cause for alarm, they acknowledge a crucial part of the air travel industry has changed in recent years — namely, that aviation personnel on average now have less experience than previous generations of pilots and maintenance crews. “I think it’s a possibility that the lack of super-experienced and qualified pilots and mechanics could play a role in decreasing aviation safety,” Guzzetti said. “But it’s hard to quantify. I don’t think the decrease is alarming — you can’t quantify that — or even correlate it. But it’s worthy of consideration.” Another factor that could be at play is newer airplanes. In fact, older planes were in some ways easier to manage because they were less technologically sophisticated, experts say. But newer planes have more automatic or computerized features that may make flying easier for a pilot, but which are harder to deal with when something goes wrong. “The evolution of airplanes is requiring changes in how we train pilots, where there’s a focus not only on understanding the systems of an airplane, but also managing that automation while keeping manual flying skills sharp,” said Cox. Yet the reduced accident count is proof that, overall, these newer planes have made flying safer, he said. Boeing and its 737 Max line of planes remain under investigation by the NTSB in the wake of the January blowout incident. Earlier this week, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy blasted Boeing for failing to turn over information related to its 737 Max manufacturing process; a day later, Boeing provided the names of 737 Max employees, according to Reuters. The news wire service also reported the NTSB now plans to hold a multiple-day investigative hearing into the Max 9, likely in late summer. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/aviation-incidents-seem-proliferating-experts-144200932.html If your car has a black box like an airplane’s, it could save you big money For one driver, the event data recorder proved she wasn’t at fault A car’s event data recorder stores critical information about an accident or other event. Quick facts about car event data recorders: A car’s event data recorder gathers and stores crucial driving data and incident information before, during, and after a triggering event like an accident occurs with your vehicle. Some cars have had these black boxes since the mid-1990s. The length of time the recording lasts depends on the carmaker and vehicle. The device gathers information like the vehicle’s speed, impact timing, and braking and accelerating movements. Arizona resident Ivy Siltala didn’t know she had an event data recorder (EDR) in her $28,000 car until it was totaled last December. As it turns out, her 2023 Toyota Corolla Hatchback stored critical information in her car’s EDR, also known as a black box. A car’s EDR stores data about an incident or crash and can help car owners, police, and others determine the cause or actions in the seconds leading up to, during, and after an incident or crash. In Siltala’s case, the data she pulled from the black box proved to the insurance company that she was not at fault during the accident. The proof saved her thousands of dollars. Read on to learn about EDRs, how they work, and how they may save you money if there’s an accident. What is an event data recorder? An event data recorder in a car gathers and stores crucial driving data and incident information before, during, and after a triggering event occurs with your vehicle. Some cars may record information continuously. Manufacturers installed EDRs in some cars dating back to the mid-1990s, including the Buick Century, Chevrolet Impala, and Cadillac Eldorado. Most new cars today have EDRs, yet many vehicle owners, like Siltala, do not know these black boxes exist or how to retrieve their data (more on that later). The length of time the recording lasts depends on the carmaker and vehicle. According to the 2023 Toyota Corolla car manual (the car Siltala drove), the EDR typically records data for 30 seconds or less. The 2024 Hyundai Tucson exhibits the same behavior. The manuals also say that under “normal driving conditions,” the event data recorder is not capturing data. The car’s black box typically stores incident information, and while the length of time varies by vehicle, some will store the information for up to a month. Read: Here are some of the most advanced car tech features you should know about What information does an event data recorder store? Obtaining access to an event data recorder becomes vital if you’re involved in an accident, especially a no-fault one. The EDR gathers information, including details on: Whether the vehicle was on or off Speed of the vehicle Timing of impacts Braking and accelerating movements Seatbelts Airbag deployment Alerts or warnings from advanced safety technology in the vehicle Crash force angles Impacts Who can access the information on an event data recorder? Many carmakers like Toyota TM, -3.03% will generally provide car crash data to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This government agency uses the data to understand crashes and provide vehicle safety ratings. Also, carmakers may report data to law enforcement and courts when ordered. State and federal laws regulate the use of the data and when it can be provided. Vehicle owners can access the event data stored in the black box, though due to the special tools needed to retrieve the data, they usually must hire a specialist to obtain the information. Owners or those leasing a vehicle often must consent to access the data. NHTSA officials told Kelley Blue Book, “Nearly all new vehicles come with event data recorders. NHTSA does have regulations on data collection, storage, and retrievability for electronic data recorders. Automakers must comply with this regulation if an electronic data recorder is installed in the vehicle.” Toyota says on its website that the company has “always provided all data recorded by the EDRs to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, law enforcement authorities, and courts when requested or ordered to do so.” If your vehicle operates with adaptive cruise control or self-driving capability, the black box may record additional data on how the systems performed. It may detect the status and distances of the vehicle ahead and behind, potential external images from cameras, and if any malfunction of the systems occurred. Also, it may provide information only when airbags deploy or when systems activate, like automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection. You can read up on the details in your car owner’s manual. Editor’s Note: I’m driving the 2023 Nissan NSANY, -3.34% Ariya Empower+ as a long-term test vehicle. The manual says Nissan’s ProPILOT Assist systems come equipped with “supplemental data recording functionality,” and it assists in understanding how the system performs in “certain nontrivial crash or near-crash scenarios.” The system also provides information on the detection status of the direction of the driver’s face and eyelids at the time of the incident. It also says the system does “not record conversations, sounds, or images inside the vehicle.” How does an event data recorder save you money? Accessing an event data recorder becomes important when accidents occur. It helped Siltala save thousands of dollars after her accident when the insurance company totaled her Toyota. Also, her insurance rates will not increase because she was not at fault. Here’s how it unfolded. Siltala remembered being hit from behind in her vehicle, causing her car to hit the driver in front. The airbags in her Toyota Corolla did not deploy, but the front of her car looked like an accordion. She says the police blamed the driver behind her, yet she couldn’t believe the insurance company held her responsible for 50% of the accident. That’s when her grandfather researched her Toyota, determining that the vehicle had an event data recorder. “When I got the call that I would be 50% liable, I was so upset,” Siltala says, adding that all drivers involved carried State Farm car insurance. “It was just before Christmas. I had 1,800 miles on my car. I hadn’t even taken it for an oil change.” Then came the challenge of getting the data out of her car, which she says was in her driveway, not at a shop. She found an expert to read the data, costing her $250. “It was the best $250 I ever spent,” she says. As soon as State Farm got the information, Siltala breathed a sigh of relief because the EDR information cleared her of any responsibility for the accident. She didn’t even need to pay the $500 deductible. She says she’ll soon be searching for a new car. If you get into an accident, you can always hire an expert to download all the data related to your incident or accident. Also, because the data may not be stored for long periods, don’t waste time obtaining the data and keep your car within reach until you get the information. Always get your vehicle’s Kelley Blue Book value just after an accident to know what it’s worth. Siltala was relieved that her undriveable vehicle was towed to her driveway, making it easy to download. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/if-your-car-has-a-black-box-like-an-airplanes-it-could-save-you-big-money-07ff4db7 Air Force Plans to Divest 250 Aircraft in 2025, Shrinking Fleet to New Low The Air Force plans to shrink its total aircraft inventory in fiscal 2025, cutting its plans for new airframes while continuing to retire old platforms, the service revealed in its budget request, released on March 11. The Air Force plans to divest 250 aircraft in FY25, dropping its total aircraft inventory below 5,000, an unprecedentedly small number. “We’re protecting the current force’s capabilities at what we think is an acceptable level of risk,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall told reporters ahead of the budget’s official release. The 2025 budget predicts a total aircraft inventory of 4,903 aircraft, according to a service accounting of total aircraft inventory. Fiscal Year 2025 Divestments Aircraft Number of Airframes F-22 32 HH-60G 12 F-15C/D 65 A-10 56 F-15E 26 F-16C/D 11 C-130H 6 EC-130H 1 CV-22 2 E-11 1 KC-135 16 T-1 22 TOTAL 250 The Air Force is heavily focused on modernization, so protecting research and development comes at the cost of new aircraft purchases in the latest budget, according to top service officials. The aircraft divestment plan is worth over $2 billion in savings, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for budget Maj. Gen. Mike A. Greiner said. “For the most part, our divestments were planned because we need to start moving the funding into the modernization programs,” Kristyn E. Jones, the acting undersecretary of the Air Force told reporters March 11. The Air Force wants to purchase 42 F-35As and 18 F-15EXs—a total of 60 new fighters. That will not meet the service’s stated long-term goal of at least 72 new fighters annually. The Air Force is moving towards awarding the first contracts for Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs), semi-autonomous aircraft that will accompany the manned fighter fleet. CCAs will “rethink our definition” of the USAF fighter fleet, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said on March 7. Fiscal Year 2025 Procurements Aircraft Number of Airframes F-35A 42 F-15EX 18 KC-46 15 MH-139 8 T-7A 7 C-40 1 TOTAL 91 “The numbers are going down in the near term,” said Jones. However, she said CCAs could change that calculus in the long term. “We are ramping that program up as much as we can—if we have [fiscal] ’24 appropriation, even faster—to try to get that affordable mass capability to mainly offset those divestments of our old fleet,” she said. Jones said on March 11 that the decrease in the planned F-35 buy was due to budgetary constraints and delays in the fighter’s planned F-35 Technology Refresh-3 (TR-3), a significant but lagging software upgrade. However, the change does not mean the service is less committed to the F-35 in the long term, she said. “Given the fiscal constraints this year, as well as the delays in getting the capabilities that we need, we re-phased the program, but we haven’t cut off the total numbers,” Jones said. The service is seeking to ditch 65 aging F-15C/Ds, some of which are barely airworthy, and divest 56 A-10 Warthog aircraft, which the USAF wants to retire from the force entirely by 2029. The service also wants to get rid of 26 F-15E Strike Eagles with less powerful Pratt and Whitney F100-PW-220 engines but upgrade the portion of the fleet with more powerful engines with the Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS), which provides “an advanced digital electronic warfare system capable of defeating modern threat systems in contested airspace,” the service’s budget documents state. Some of the Air Force’s retirement plans are controversial: leaders are once more trying to retire 32 of their oldest F-22s, which they argue are no longer viable in combat. Instead, they want to fund “investments in F-22 sensor enhancements to more closely track and stay ahead of potential adversaries,” according to the Department of the Air Force’s budget request. “Block 20 airframes lack many of the enhanced capabilities of the Block 30/35 jets,” an Air Force spokesperson said of the rationale. “Upgrading them to Block 30/35 is not feasible due to cost and time constraints.” Congress has long balked at the prospect of retiring any models of what many see as the world’s best air superiority fighter and passed legislation prohibiting any such retirements until fiscal 2028. However, the Air Force has held firm in its desire to retire the old Block 20 aircraft—reducing the F-22 fleet from 185 to 153 aircraft—for several years. “We’ll comply with the law, obviously, but we’re putting those F-22s back on the table in order to fit in the other things we think are higher priority,” Kendall said That includes the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) platform, the replacement for the F-22, service officials say. The F-15EX, a modernized version of the venerable fourth-generation fighter, has been in a state of flux for several years now. The service initially planned to purchase 144 as an advanced fourth-generation replacement for the old F-15C/Ds. But now the service says it will buy 18 more in 2025 then end production, capping the fleet at 98. The Fiscal Responsibility Act, a 2023 law that capped the defense budget at a 1 percent rise, limited the service’s resources. The Department of Defense is also enacting a 4.5 percent pay raise for service members and a 2 percent pay raise for civilians, in addition to other benefits increases. “We’re modernizing to the extent we can under the caps as the Federal Fiscal Responsibility Act,” Kendall said. “We’ve made some adjustments in procurement and we’re going to fund some additional modernization, research, and development, so that’s the overarching picture.” A low-rate initial production of seven T-7A Red Hawk trainers is funded, which will help alleviate the aging T-38 fleet, which has been increasingly hard to maintain to keep training flying hours up, though the T-7 has faced significant delays. The Air Force also plans to procure 15 KC-46 Pegasus tankers to replace 16 1950s-era KC-135s it plans to divest in 2025. The service continues to move forward with its long-term plan to bring in the Next Generation Aerial Refueling System (NGAS), with investments in the program office to develop the future tanker. “We will work to define and finalize an acquisition strategy this year,” for NGAS, Greiner told reporters. https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-divest-fleet-2025/ CALENDAR OF EVENTS • 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 • Aircraft Cabin Air International Conference - 17 & 18 September - London • 2024 ISASI - Lisbon, Portugal - September 30 to October 4, 2024 • 2024 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition - Oct. 22-24 (Vegas) Curt Lewis