Flight Safety Information - May 15, 2025 No. 097 In This Issue : Incident: People's E170 at Altenrhein on May 12th 2025, flaps problems : Incident: KLM Cityhopper E195 near Amsterdam on May 11th 2025, electrical problems : Sean Duffy Insisted Newark's Airport Is Safe, Then Avoided It For Wife : Air traffic control ‘hotline’ between Pentagon and Reagan Washington National Airport has been broken since 2022 : Air Force F-16’s collision with ducks in Alaska ended in ‘flameout landing’ : Security issue on AA flight leads to temporary, partial ground stop at DFW Airport : American Airlines A321 Drops Engine Part on San Francisco Runway : FAA pressed on hiring more controllers, safety concerns after crashes and close calls : FAA Orders Boeing 787 Inspections to Fix Water Leak Issues : Once ‘dead’ thrusters on the farthest spacecraft from Earth are in action again : Calendar of Events Incident: People's E170 at Altenrhein on May 12th 2025, flaps problems A People's Viennaline Embraer ERJ-170, registration OE-LMK performing flight PE-511 from Palma Mallorca,SP (Spain) to Altenrhein (Switzerland) with 50 people on board, was on approach to Altenrhein when the crew entered a hold for troubleshooting and subsequently decided to divert to Zurich due to problems with the landing flaps. The crew advised they needed the longer runway. The aircraft landed safely on Zurich's runway 14 about 40 minutes after aborting the approach to Altenrhein. The aircraft remained on the ground in Zurich for about 5 hours, then returned to service but needed to abort another flight the next day. https://avherald.com/h?article=527b833e&opt=0 Incident: KLM Cityhopper E195 near Amsterdam on May 11th 2025, electrical problems A KLM Cityhopper Embraer ERJ-195, registration PH-NXI performing flight KL-1481 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Nice (France), was enroute at FL390 south of Paris (France) when the crew decided to return to Amsterdam reporting electrical problems. On approach to Amsterdam the crew reported they needed the longest runway available, they were not sure whether they would have full braking available and they would not have nose gear steering, but would be able to vacate the runway via high speed turn off, then needed to be towed. The aircraft landed safely on Amsterdam's runway 06 about 2 hours after departure. The rotation was cancelled. The aircraft returned to service the next morning after about 9 hours on the ground. https://avherald.com/h?article=527b754d&opt=0 Sean Duffy Insisted Newark's Airport Is Safe, Then Avoided It For Wife Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy admitted to changing his wife’s travel plans to avoid Newark Airport amid a series of air traffic control failures and delays there, but said the decision was due to reliability concerns, not safety. “With all the delays in Newark, my wife had to do an event and she was in the city of New York, and so I did. I moved her from Newark to LaGuardia. Not for safety, but because I needed her flight to fly. She had to get there,” he said before a House Transportation subcommittee hearing on Wednesday. Duffy, while taking questions from lawmakers, had been asked about an interview from Monday where he admitted to diverting his wife through New York City instead of New Jersey. “My wife was flying out of Newark tomorrow, I switched her flight to LaGuardia,” he told radio host David Webb in that SiriusXM interview. (It can be heard around the 9-minute mark.) That clip “made it seem like I was talking about safety,” he said Wednesday of his comment to Webb while discussing snarled traffic and air traffic control issues. Duffy’s confession immediately raised eyebrows, as he has repeatedly insisted that flying out of Newark is safe. That’s despite the airport’s air traffic control experiencing two radar and radio control blackouts within the last two weeks. Duffy on Monday said that a software update prevented a third radar outage from occurring over the weekend. Hundreds of flights have been canceled and delayed at the airport after the Federal Aviation Administration restricted air traffic into the airport amid the issues, which include staffing shortages and one runway being shut down due to construction. Duffy told lawmakers on Wednesday that his department is working “at lightning speed” on upgrading the airport’s communication lines but that it’s going to take time not just because of infrastructure issues but because of the need to continue to slow air traffic and properly train staff, which he said can take a full year to do. “You can’t fix this overnight. I can’t fix this in a couple months, this is going to take us a year, two years, three years,” he said. https://www.yahoo.com/news/sean-duffy-insisted-newarks-airport-215102090.html Air traffic control ‘hotline’ between Pentagon and Reagan Washington National Airport has been broken since 2022 A “hotline” between air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the Pentagon, intended to coordinate aircraft, has not worked since March 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration revealed in a congressional hearing Wednesday. The FAA was not aware the direct line was broken until a May 1 incident where a helicopter circled the Pentagon and caused two flights to abort landings, Franklin McIntosh, the FAA’s deputy chief operating officer testified. The airport was the site of the deadliest US airline crash in more than a decade when an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter on a training mission collided on January 29. The unit flying the helicopter that circled the Pentagon was the same one involved in January’s midair collision, as CNN previously reported. Military flights to the Pentagon have been suspended since the incident and will not resume until the hotline is fixed, McIntosh said. The hotline is maintained by the Department of Defense and is one way for controllers to coordinate, in addition to using regular landline telephones. Before the military halted flights, the FAA considered revoking the permission that allowed helicopters to operate in the DC airspace without explicit clearance. “We were ready to deploy any option available that we could use or have that we felt was necessary to bring safety measures and better behaviors from the DOD,” McIntosh said. https://www.yahoo.com/news/air-traffic-control-hotline-between-155921120.html Air Force F-16’s collision with ducks in Alaska ended in ‘flameout landing’ A U.S. Air Force F-16 assigned to the 354th Fighter Wing, Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. An Eielson jet was able to safely land in May 2024 after a collision with ducks during take-off caused an engine failure. The white-winged scoter is a northern migratory waterfowl — a duck — with what the ornithologist at AllAboutBirds.org call “velvety black” feathers, an “upturned comma of white around the eye” and an “orange-tipped bill.” It nests in northern lakes across Canada, where it feeds on freshwater mussels, holding its breath for up to a minute as it dives underwater to search for the shellfish. Though rarely seen in the lower 48 U.S. states, the scoter’s migratory range extends as far north as the river valleys of interior Alaska, which is probably why several of the ducks were lurking on the departure end of Eielson Air Force Base’s Runway 32 on the afternoon of May 28, 2024 — prime migration season — as a flight of four F-16Cs lifted off for a routine training flight. An Air Force accident report released this week laid out what happened when the ducks and the jets met in mid-air, including the quick actions by the experienced pilot that led to a safe emergency landing, and the grisly results for the waterfowl. The four jets were from Eielson’s 18th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and were headed towards a simulated dogfight with four F-22s from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, near Anchorage. Both planes regularly patrol Alaskan airspace as part of the NORAD air defense mission. The day’s flight was also a yearly evaluation for one of the F-16 pilots, who would act as the flight’s mission commander while a senior pilot graded his performance. The F-16s took off 20 seconds apart in full afterburner, and perhaps the roar of the first jets startled the ducks into the air, but when the mission commander’s F-16 roared down the runway, the ducks were, well, in the way. His F-16 struck several ducks as it lifted off, and “at least one” was “ingested” into the jet’s engine, causing an engine stall, a deadly midair event at low altitude. One of the wingmen in another F-16, along with witnesses on the ground, saw flames shooting out of the plane’s engine, a sure-fire sign that the engine was failing. The pilot of the stricken jet, the report found, reacted perfectly. He first radioed the other jets of the emergency, calling out “serious engine stall” on his formation’s radio frequency. He then moved to drop his two under-wing fuel tanks that each held 370 gallons of fuel, telling his wingman, “Stores are coming off here, does it look clear below?” “You’re clear,” the second pilot replied, confirming the jets were over undeveloped forest outside Eielson with no sign of civilians beneath them. The pilot dropped the tanks. Finally, the pilot swung the F-16 around for an emergency “flameout landing” on the Eielson runway, the procedure pilots are trained to execute when an engine fails during takeoff. As the F-16 settled toward the runway, another plane was already landing, but air traffic controllers instructed the plane’s pilot to move quickly off the runway, which it did as the stricken F-16 touched down. Eielson sits in a swampy forest along the Nanana River, a region renowned for wildlife during warm months in Alaska. “Daily and seasonal wildlife movements of resident and migratory species present an enduring risk to operations at the base,” the report said. The base operates a Bird and Wildlife Strike Hazard program, or BASH, which is managed by U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife experts who work on base. Between April and September, when ducks and many other migratory birds are passing through, the base activates 24-hour “increased dispersal efforts” to scare birds away from the flightline, the report said. But no one had noticed the white-winged scoters on the day of the accident, and the base’s Bird Watch Condition was set to low for the afternoon flight. “There is no evidence that the [pilot] or other base personnel could have taken reasonable actions to avert this collision,” the report concluded. Back safely on the ground, maintenance crews determined the ducks had caused close to $1.3 million in damage to the jet, including the lost fuel tanks, which, at $50,000 each, were destroyed on impact. Searchers found their impact site in heavy woods a mile from the runway. Crews spent more than a month excavating the site to remove soil contaminated by the tanks’ fuel. “The total time elapsed from the bird strike to taxing clear was just under three minutes,” the report said, while investigators “discovered evidence of bird remains scattered throughout the engine.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/air-force-f-16-collision-134725781.html Security issue on AA flight leads to temporary, partial ground stop at DFW Airport Passengers get back on an American Airlines flight stopped for a possible security issue on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. A partial ground stop was ordered at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Wednesday afternoon due to a possible security issue on an aircraft, the airport confirms. Airport officials confirmed to NBC 5 that the FAA ordered a "brief, limited-scale ground stop due to a reported possible security issue on an aircraft." Airport officials did not elaborate on the security issue or provide any details about the flight, but they said airport police and other first responders were investigating. Fort Worth-based American Airlines said there was a "potential security incident" on a flight headed to New York's LaGuardia Airport and that the flight was cleared after the aircraft was inspected. “Earlier today, a potential security incident was reported on board American Airlines Flight 2484 prior to departure at Dallas-Fort Worth. Law enforcement responded, inspected the aircraft and cleared it to depart to New York (LGA). Safety and security are our top priorities, and we are in touch with our customers to apologize for the disruption. We thank our team members and law enforcement agencies for their professionalism.” The airline did not elaborate on the nature of the threat or say how it was received. A camera directed at the airfield showed an American Airlines 737-800 stopped away from the terminals with DFW Airport police and several other vehicles parked nearby. Shortly after 2 p.m., several large buses pulled up next to the aircraft, and people were seen getting off the buses and walking back onto the aircraft. After the passengers returned to the aircraft, it returned to Terminal A at about 2:30 p.m. The flight eventually departed at about 4:30 p.m. CT and is expected to arrive at LaGuardia just before 9 p.m. During the partial ground stop, flights were still seen arriving and departing the airport. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/partial-ground-stop-dfw-airport-security-issue-aa-flight/3840740/ American Airlines A321 Drops Engine Part on San Francisco Runway American Airlines confirmed the mechanical issue but emphasized that it did not compromise flight safety. SAN FRANCISCO- On May 9, 2025, an American Airlines (AA) Airbus A321-200 (registration: N159AN) operating Flight AA1175 departed San Francisco International Airport (SFO) at 07:32 local time, bound for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). During takeoff from Runway 01R, a plume of smoke was observed from the aircraft’s left engine, later identified as an International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500. Ground authorities conducted an immediate runway inspection, recovering a thrust reverser liner—a critical component of the engine’s thrust reverser system. On May 9, 2025, an American Airlines (AA) Airbus A321-200 (registration: N159AN) operating Flight AA1175 departed San Francisco International Airport (SFO) at 07:32 local time, bound for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). The aircraft climbed to a cruising altitude of FL350 and completed its three-hour flight to DFW without further incident, landing safely. American Airlines confirmed the mechanical issue but emphasized that it did not compromise flight safety. The A321 has been grounded in Dallas since the incident for comprehensive inspections and maintenance. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) noted the recovery of debris, underscoring the importance of clearing foreign object debris (FOD) to ensure runway safety for other aircraft. The aircraft involved, a nine-year-old Airbus A321-200 delivered to American Airlines in March 2016, has accumulated 30,663 flight hours and 10,912 flight cycles as of March 2025. Configured with 20 first-class and 170 economy seats, it is powered by two IAE V2500 engines equipped with cascade-type thrust reversers. These reversers use blocker doors to redirect airflow, enhancing stopping power during landings, particularly in emergencies or adverse conditions like wet runways. A thrust reverser liner protects engine components from extreme heat and stress. While its loss did not prevent safe completion of the flight, the incident highlights the component’s role in reducing brake wear and preventing overheating, which can pose safety risks if unchecked. The presence of FOD on Runway 01R posed a significant safety concern, as debris can damage other aircraft or disrupt operations. The swift response by SFO ground crews mitigated this risk, ensuring the runway was cleared promptly. American Airlines’ decision to ground the aircraft reflects standard protocol for addressing mechanical issues, prioritizing passenger safety and regulatory compliance. Thrust reversers, while not essential for safe landings, are critical in scenarios requiring rapid deceleration, such as short runways or emergency stops. Their deployment reduces stress on brake systems, extending their lifespan and enhancing operational efficiency. Ongoing Investigation The FAA and American Airlines are likely conducting a detailed investigation to determine the cause of the thrust reverser liner detachment. Potential factors include material fatigue, manufacturing defects, or maintenance oversights. The A321-200’s operational history, with over 30,000 flight hours, suggests significant wear, necessitating thorough checks to ensure airworthiness. This incident adds to ongoing discussions about engine reliability and FOD management in aviation. Airports and airlines worldwide continue to invest in advanced detection systems and maintenance practices to minimize such risks, reinforcing the industry’s commitment to safety. https://aviationa2z.com/index.php/2025/05/15/american-airlines-a321-drops-engine-part-on-san-francisco-runway/#google_vignette FAA pressed on hiring more controllers, safety concerns after crashes and close calls WASHINGTON (TNND) — Federal Aviation Administration officials appeared in front of lawmakers on Wednesday as the agency tries to undertake a significant modernization project amid safety concerns following a deadly crash in Washington and a series of close calls and other issues along with outages in New Jersey that have halted traffic. Air travel has been in the spotlight since January’s collision between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter above the nation’s capital that broke a 15-year streak without a major fatal airline crash. There has also been a string of other crashes and close calls since the collision that has prompted alarm among Congress. Issues with radars and communications systems over the last two weeks at Newark International Airport have also highlighted the aging equipment airlines and air traffic controllers rely on to keep passengers safe and flights moving smoothly. The FAA and Department of Transportation have undertaken widespread efforts to modernize technology and hire more air traffic controllers amid a longstanding shortage but is facing uphill battles and lengthy implementation times to make the plans into reality. Acting FAA commissioner Chris Rochleau was not present at Wednesday’s hearing in front of the Senate Transportation Committee that oversees the agency, but lawmakers pushed for more urgency to address the safety concerns and fast-track plans to modernize. “The recent critical safety lapses that we've seen, close calls, a deadly crash, equipment outages. These are all terrible, but unfortunately, they're not a surprise. Alarm bells have been ringing about near misses and aging equipment for years,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy previewed a plan last week to overhaul the nation’s outdated air traffic control system that runs on decades-old equipment and infrastructure that includes a request to Congress for “lots of billions” in funding. An outline of the plan includes replacing 618 radars, installing thousands of new high-speed internet connections and upgrading computers used by air traffic controllers, though an exact price tag is still unclear. Problems with the country’s air safety equipment and airport infrastructure date back decades and have been well-documented by government watchdogs and safety agencies. Many of the problems have been attributed to stop-and-start funding and cutbacks to the FAA and other safety agencies from Congress amid shifting political and spending priorities. There is bipartisan support in the committee for helping the FAA revitalize its equipment and boost hiring for air traffic controllers, but some lawmakers also questioned whether it was equipped to take on another massive endeavor. “The FAA’s multi-year failure to keep pace with technology and staffing needs underscores a larger problem when a bureaucracy has to fund and manage multi-year projects on behalf of private sector stakeholders like airlines and general aviation — all while acting as a safety regulator,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, the committee chair. “If you think the FAA as currently constructed is ready for this challenge, then you haven’t been paying attention over the last two decades.” Lawmakers also pressed the officials on an initiative to supercharge the hiring of more air traffic controllers to deal with a longstanding shortage that has led to controllers being forced to work long hours with understaffed towers at airports across the country. The Trump administration has moved to streamline the process of hiring more controllers by boosting pay for trainees, shorten the hiring process and boosted retention incentives to keep experienced employees. The FAA announced in September it had hit a hiring goal of 1,800 new trainees for 2024 but is still short and facing pressure from Congress to keep increasing hires. “There are shortages in staffing, not just at Newark, but across the country, forcing air traffic controllers to work intense schedules, longer and longer hours, that should raise a concern to everyone for what's happening in our skies,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. “When we do not take care of our air traffic controllers, it puts the efficiency and safety of aviation at risk.” A shortage of controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport has been a key issue in its recent struggles with delays and cancellations. FAA officials also revealed during the hearing that a hotline between military and civilian air traffic controllers in Washington hasn’t worked in more than three years and that the agency was unaware of the issue until a recent near miss. Frank McIntosh, the FAA official who oversees air traffic controllers, told lawmakers that controllers still had ways to communicate with the military, but the FAA is pushing for the hotline to get fixed before helicopter flights continue around Ronald Reagan National Airport. The Army has suspended all helicopter flights around the airport after the latest near miss and lawmakers have been scrutinizing the use of the airspace for training exercises after the deadly crash earlier this year. https://abcnews4.com/news/connect-to-congress/faa-pressed-on-hiring-more-controllers-safety-concerns-after-crashes-and-close-calls-federal-aviation-administration-air-traffic-control-modernization-hiring FAA Orders Boeing 787 Inspections to Fix Water Leak Issues ‍DALLAS — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has adopted AD 2025 09 12, effective June 18, 2025, mandating inspections and on condition sealant repairs on select Boeing 787 8, 9, and 10 series airplanes. This action was prompted by reports of potable water system leaks—stemming from improperly installed waterline couplings—that allowed water to seep into electronics equipment (EE) bays, risking electrical shorts and potential loss of critical flight systems. Under the new AD, operators must perform a detailed inspection of the floor seat tracks above the aft EE bays to check for missing, damaged, or deteriorated sealant, moisture barrier tape, and tape dams, following Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin B787 81205 SB530085 00 RB, Issue 001 (dated March 6, 2024). Any deficiencies must be corrected by applying new sealant, barrier tape, or tape dams before further flight. Compliance is required within the intervals specified in the bulletin, but no later than five years from the AD’s effective date. The FAA estimates the inspection will take up to 22 work hours per airplane (at an average labor rate of US$85/hour), with follow on repairs, if needed, taking up to 33 hours plus parts. All costs may be covered under Boeing’s warranty programs. 47 U.S. registered Boeing 787s are affected. Operators of aircraft compliant with the previous AD 2016 14 04 need to take no additional action under this new directive. We can recall that, due to horizontal stabilizer misalignment concerns, the FAA recently proposed a mandated inspection for all US-registered 787s. 138 Boeing 787s registered in the U.S. are active, stored, or undergoing maintenance. This includes a mix of the aforementioned Dreamliner models operated by United Airlines (UA), American Airlines (AA), and Hawaiian Airlines (HA). https://www.airwaysmag.com/new-post/faa-boeing-787-inspections-water-leak-issues Air Force delay on separation and retirement orders isn’t ‘stop loss,’ defense official says Even though the Air Force has temporarily stopped issuing retirement and separation orders for next year, the pause does not require airmen to involuntarily remain in the service, an Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose. “The Air Force is not delaying the requested separation or retirement dates of members,” the spokesperson said. “They will prioritize orders processing for affected members, ensuring orders are issued no later than 90 days prior to separation and 180 days prior to retirement. This still allows time for members to make necessary preparations for their separation or retirement.” A defense official confirmed to Task & Purpose that these delays are not “stop loss.” Stop loss refers to the involuntary retention of service members on active duty beyond the end of their contract. The Air Force has paused issuing orders to airmen with an approved separation date on or after Jan. 1 and approved retirement dates on or after April 1, the spokesperson said. Airmen with earlier approved retirement or separation dates are not affected. “As mentioned, this action does not impact the separation or retirement dates; it only adjusts the timing of order issuance,” the spokesperson said. “Airmen will still retire or separate on their approved date.” Normally, airmen can receive their orders on leaving the service several months ahead of time, but now they will get them starting three months before their planned separation dates and six months prior to their retirements, the Air Force spokesperson said. An Air Force message recently posted on Reddit announced the pause in orders for separations and retirements. The Air Force confirmed the message is authentic. The Air Force is delaying issuing orders for separations and retirements to “ensure the solvency” of the fiscal year 2025 military personnel pay budget due to a shortfall in appropriations, the message says. When airmen separate or retire, the Air Force covers the costs of their final Permanent Change of Station, or PCS moves, the spokesperson said. By pausing the retirement and separation orders, the Air Force can better manage the costs of PCS moves. The message posted on Reddit advised airmen that the Air Force Personnel Center will tackle the backlog of orders as quickly as possible “but a delay at the restart should be anticipated.” “Service members will refrain from any financial obligations that would create expenses and/or a hardship associated with preparing for a move until they receive orders in hand,” the message says. In the meantime, airmen affected by the delays can request to be granted an exception to policy so they can leave the Air Force, the message says. “Orders will not be prioritized merely to accommodate terminal leave,” the message says. The language of the orders has led to commenters on Instagram and Reddit expressing their concerns that the Air Force had implemented stop loss again. The actions taken by the Air Force are different from stop loss, explained Katherine Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C. “Stop loss tends to apply to a situation where operational requirements are driving the retention of personnel,” Kuzminski told Task & Purpose. “So, when we saw stop loss in the earlier years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was: We need more people to deploy.” Between Sept, 11, 2001 and Sept. 30, 2009, an estimated 185,000 service members were involuntarily retained in the military through stop loss, according to the Army. The actions outlined in the memo posted are due to administrative and budgetary issues rather than operational needs, Kuzminksi said. “What this sounds like is a budget shortfall such that processing all of this paperwork and pays doesn’t quite fit into the Air Force’s budget for this year,” Kuzminski said. “Stop loss is operational, and this an administrative delay.” Similarly, the Air Force suspended reenlistment and retention bonuses and delayed permanent change of station moves in 2023 due to a shortfall in its personnel budget. The service received money from Congress 11 days later to address the issue. “This is the second time in three fiscal years where the Air Force failed to properly budget for necessary personnel outlays,” Kuzminski said. “It should be a priority of the incoming secretary of the Air Force to address the root causes of the failure to account for predictable personnel expenditures — and the issue should not reoccur in the future, as it affects the [U.S. Air Force’s] ability to drive trust among service members and their families.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/air-force-delay-separation-retirement-194716240.html Once ‘dead’ thrusters on the farthest spacecraft from Earth are in action again Engineers at NASA say they have successfully revived thrusters aboard Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from our planet, in the nick of time before a planned communications blackout. A side effect of upgrades to an Earth-based antenna that sends commands to Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, the communications pause could have occurred when the probe faced a critical issue — thruster failure — leaving the space agency without a way to save the historic mission. The new fix to the vehicle’s original roll thrusters, out of action since 2004, could help keep the veteran spacecraft operating until it’s able to contact home again next year. Voyager 1, launched in September 1977, uses more than one set of thrusters to function properly. Primary thrusters carefully orient the spacecraft so it can keep its antenna pointed at Earth. This ensures that the probe can send back data it collects from its unique perspective 15.5 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space, as well as receive commands sent by the Voyager team. Within the primary set are additional thrusters that control the spacecraft’s roll, which enables Voyager 1 to remain pointed at a guide star so it can remain oriented in space. If Voyager can’t control its roll motion, the mission could be threatened. But as the thrusters fire, tiny amounts of propellant residue have built up over time. So far, engineers have managed to avoid clogging by commanding Voyager 1 to cycle between its original and backup thrusters for orientation, as well as a set of thrusters that were used to change the spacecraft’s trajectory during planetary flybys in the 1980s. The trajectory thrusters, however, do nothing to contribute to the spacecraft’s roll. Voyager 1’s original roll thrusters stopped working more than two decades ago after power was lost in two internal heaters, which means the spacecraft has been relying on the backup roll thrusters to remain pointed at a guide star ever since. “I think at that time, the team was OK with accepting that the primary roll thrusters didn’t work, because they had a perfectly good backup,” said Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement. “And, frankly, they probably didn’t think the Voyagers were going to keep going for another 20 years.” Now, Voyager 1 engineers are concerned that clogging from the residue could cause the spacecraft’s backup roll thrusters to stop working as soon as this fall — and they had to get creative, as well as take risks, to revive the long-defunct primary roll thrusters. Fixing broken equipment in space When the heaters on the primary roll thrusters failed in 2004, engineers thought they couldn’t be fixed. But with the threat posed by clogging looming, the team returned to the drawing board to see what had gone wrong. Engineers considered the possibility that a disturbance in the circuits controlling the power supply to the heaters flipped a switch to the wrong position — and flipping it to the original position might restart the heaters, and in turn, the primary roll thrusters. But it wasn’t a straightforward solution for a probe that’s operating so far away. The spacecraft is currently beyond the heliosphere, the sun’s bubble of magnetic fields and particles that extends well beyond the orbit of Pluto. The mission team had to take a risk by switching Voyager 1 to its primary roll thrusters and turning them on before attempting to fix and restart the heaters. The heaters could only function if the thrusters are also switched on. If Voyager 1 drifted too far from its guide star, the spacecraft’s programming would trigger the roll thrusters to fire — but if the heaters weren’t turned on yet at that moment, the automatic sequence could have triggered a small explosion. A nail-biting test In addition to the risk, the team, which began its work earlier this year, was facing a time constraint. A giant Earth-based antenna in Canberra, Australia, went offline May 4 for upgrades that will be ongoing until February 2026. NASA’s Deep Space Network enables the agency to communicate with all of its spacecraft — but its Canberra antenna is the only one with enough signal strength to send commands to the Voyager probes. “These antenna upgrades are important for future crewed lunar landings, and they also increase communications capacity for our science missions in deep space, some of which are building on the discoveries Voyager made,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager and director of the Interplanetary Network at JPL, which manages the Deep Space Network for NASA, in a statement. “We’ve been through downtime like this before, so we’re just preparing as much as we can.” While the antenna will briefly operate in August and December, the mission team members wanted to command Voyager 1 to test its long-dormant thrusters before they could no longer communicate with the spacecraft. This way, if they need to turn on the thrusters in August, the team would know whether that was a viable option. On March 20, the team waited to see the results return from Voyager 1 after sending a command to the probe the day before to activate the thrusters and heaters. It takes more than 23 hours for data to travel back from Voyager 1 to Earth due to the sheer distance between the two. Had the test failed, Voyager 1 may have already been at risk. But the team watched the data stream in, showing the temperature of the thruster heaters rising dramatically, and knew it had worked. “It was such a glorious moment. Team morale was very high that day,” said Todd Barber, the mission’s propulsion lead at JPL, in a statement. “These thrusters were considered dead. And that was a legitimate conclusion. It’s just that one of our engineers had this insight that maybe there was this other possible cause and it was fixable. It was yet another miracle save for Voyager.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/dead-thrusters-revived-help-voyager-003047672.html CALENDAR OF EVENTS · Sixth Edition of International Accident Investigation Forum, 21 to 23 May 2025, Singapore · Flight Safety Foundation - Aviation Safety Forum June 5-6, 2025 - Brussels . 2025 EASA-FAA International Aviation Safety Conference, 10 Jun 2025 to 12 Jun 2025, Cologne, Germany · The 9th Shanghai International Aerospace Technology and Equipment Exposition 2025; June 11 to 13, 2025 . South Texas Business Aviation Association June 20th at the Galaxy FBO at Conroe Airport, Texas. . Airborne Public Safety Association -APSCON / APSCON Unmanned 2025 in Phoenix, AZ | July 14-18, 2025 . 3rd annual Asia Pacific Summit for Aviation Safety (AP-SAS), July 15-17, 2025, Singapore, organized by Flight Safety Foundation and CAAS. . Asia Pacific Aviation Safety Seminar 2025; 10-11 September 2025; Manila, Philippines · ISASI ANNUAL SEMINAR 2025'September 29, 2025 – October 3, 2025, DENVER, COLORADO . Air Medical Transport Conference (AMTC™) - 2025 – October 27-29th (Omaha, Nebraska) . 29th annual Bombardier Safety Standdown, November 11-13, 2025; Wichita, Kansas · CHC Safety & Quality Summit, 11th – 13th November 2025, Vancouver, BC Canada Curt Lewis