Date Incident 03 Jan In our 17 Dec issue (article on the Report on the 2005 Air France A340 Crash at Pearson International) we stated that: "Canada currently requires a 60-meter runway safety area (i.e. cleared and strengthened overrun) as opposed to a 300-meter safety zone, an international standard...
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In our 17 Dec issue (article on the Report on the 2005 Air France A340 Crash at Pearson International) we stated that: "Canada currently requires a 60-meter runway safety area (i.e. cleared and strengthened overrun) as opposed to a 300-meter safety zone, an international standard adopted in 1999". That is factually inaccurate. ICAO standards are actually for 90m and there is only a recommendation for 300m.
03 Jan
Meanwhile Australia's air safety regulator CASA is sticking by its decision to adopt a minimum international requirement for runway safety buffers despite widely expressed pilot fears that it may not prevent planes from overrunning. Airports handling jet traffic have been told to add 90m safety zones to both ends of their runways to meet revised International Civil Aviation Organization standards. Sydney is one of two airports that have not completed the work. The International Federation of Air Line Pilots raised concerns in November that the last of six buffer zones Sydney Airport was adding to its runways did not go far enough. The pilots said they believed only the ICAO recommendation of a 240m buffer zone would provide adequate safety. They recognized that extending runways by 240m was not possible in all cases, but in that event that an "arrestor bed" of crushable concrete designed to retard aircraft should be installed. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority said it believed neither the 240m overrun nor the crushable concrete (EMAS) was necessary in Australia, which did not have weather-related extreme runway surface conditions. "It's interesting technology and it's there and it works, but it's for extreme conditions and not for everywhere," CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said. Thirty-four of the alternative safety systems have been installed in the US, Spain and China since 1996. Five planes - and all their passengers - have avoided potential disaster after overshooting runways at airports using the crushable concrete safety areas. IFALPA says that says 29 per cent of all air travel fatalities in recent years have resulted from overruns. A year-in-review issue of Runway Overrun Report, highlighting some of the achievements of EMAS during 2007 (114kb pdf file), may be downloaded from: tinyurl.com/2ers2k
03 Jan
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council has approved standards and recommended practices (SARPs) that will permit Iridium Satellite to provide Aeronautical Mobile Satellite (Route) Services (AMS(R)S) for commercial aircraft on transoceanic flights. "The ICAO AMS(R)S approval opens a significant new market for Iridium in the international commercial aviation sector," said Greg Ewert, executive vice president, Iridium Satellite. "The ICAO decision means that member states can now approve Iridium satellite equipment to meet the international requirements for redundant communications when flying over ocean regions. As a result, we expect to see rapid adoption among long-haul commercial carriers in the coming year." Iridium is the only mobile satellite service (MSS) that provides ubiquitous, gap-free, reliable coverage over Polar Regions, which are used by aircraft on international flights. Iridium's lightweight, low-drag aeronautical satellite terminals are less costly to install and maintain than those needed for geostationary satellite systems. Ewert noted that a growing number of air carriers have installed Iridium satellite terminals for cockpit communications, especially on high-latitude flights. "The ICAO approval means they can also have the Iridium systems certified by member states for air safety communications."
02 Jan
Figures for worldwide commercial aviation crashes in 2007 show an all-time low of 23 fatal accidents, and even the number of fatal casualties, at 597, was well below the annual average for the last decade. For comparison, the figures for 2006 were 27 fatal accidents resulting in 863 fatalities. For a measure against the annual average for the decade 1998-2007, compare an average of 34.5 fatal accidents a year and 846.3 fatalities. However it is also worth noting that one major accident with total loss of life, or a runway incursion crash of two airplanes, could easily turn that trend around. Meanwhile, accentuating the dangers in structured statistical conclusions, the Air Crashes Records Office in Geneva claims that 2007 provided the lowest number of overall aviation crashes in 44 years (i.e. since 1963) with 136 accidents and 965 deaths during an ICAO measured increase in air travel of 3 per cent in 2007. Shortages of qualified and experienced pilots plus revisionist thinking in pilot training syllabi may impact upon the figures in future. This has been recognized globally by raising the retirement age of pilots in order to keep the most experienced crews in their cockpits. According to IATA the industry is currently some 4,000 pilots a year short of what it needs to keep up with rising air traffic demand. However, at this point in time it is apparent that accidents attributable to pilot error are on the decline. The number of airline mishaps attributed to pilot error significantly declined between 1983 and 2002, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While the overall rate of mishaps remained stable during that time, the proportion of mishaps involving pilot error decreased 40 percent, due to better training and improvements in technology that aid pilot decision-making, according to the study. The findings are published in the January 2007 edition of Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine.
02 Jan
Safety Research Corporation of America (SRCA) has just been awarded a 5-year contract with the FAA to develop, rewrite, and update various Aviation Handbooks. Thus far SRCA has delivered the new Instrument Flying Handbook (IFH) which (for first time) addresses both analog and digital displays. Other handbooks for publication within the next 2-months include the Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHOAK), the Balloon Flying Handbook, a newly developed Weight Shift-Control Handbook, and the Aviation Instructors Handbook. Future Handbooks include Risk Management, Two volumes of the Mechanics Handbook, various Rotorcraft Handbooks, and other miscellaneous updates to Handbooks. Particular attention has been paid to the level of graphics integrated into the manuals. SRCA is a company that supports assessment consulting to DoD intelligence gathering aerial platform organizations throughout the world additionally supports several Fortune 500 corporations for on-call investigative services and assists in developing standards and training programs that can meet regulatory processes. http://www.srca.net
01 Jan
The union of Australian air traffic controllers has raised concerns about staff shortages. Civil Air Australia says the government-owned corporation Airservices Australia has failed to recruit enough staff and as a result, airspace is occasionally uncontrolled, leaving it up to pilots to decide whether to fly through the area. Civil Air Australia spokesman Michael Haines says controlled airspace was closed between Sydney and Melbourne in the lead-up to Christmas. "The chance of something happening is still very, very low, but I believe the aviation system should be maintained at the highest level of safety possible," he said. "One of the critical elements is maintaining the staffing of Australian air traffic controllers at an adequate level." Airservices Australia says it is working to address a staff shortage. Spokesman Terry O'Connor says it has increased the number of trainees and is recruiting experienced controllers from overseas to address a shortage of 29 staff across a work force of 1,000. He claims that it is not a critical safety issue and that airspace is not left uncontrolled during peak hours.
01 Jan
To minimize the risk of fires, the FAA has disallowed air passenger carriage of spare lithium batteries in checked luggage beginning January 1. However it's not quite that simple. Some of the reports aren't making a distinction between lithium metal batteries and lithium-ion batteries, the kind in laptops and cellphones. The restriction applies mostly to professional and industrial-use batteries for heavy-duty applications (audio-visual) and does not affect most lithium batteries used in consumer electronics like laptops and cellphones. Batteries explode (see tinyurl.com/3bdr6y), which is the reason for the concern from the FAA. The biggest part of that concern is unattended batteries in cargo holds or in checked luggage. As for the batteries in your cellphone or the extra one in your briefcase, the Department of Transport says: "Under the new rules, you can bring batteries with up to 8-gram equivalent lithium content. All lithium ion batteries in cell phones are below 8 gram equivalent lithium content. Nearly all laptop computers are below this quantity threshold also. Passengers may also carry up to two spare batteries with an aggregate equivalent lithium content of up to 25 grams, in addition to any batteries that fall below the 8-gram threshold."
31 Dec
The Japanese Construction and Transport Ministry has decided to monitor foreign airlines operating in Japan with a view to improving safety and preventing accidents. The tighter supervision will start next fiscal year and is being seen as a major change in Japan's current safety policy, which depends upon foreign aviation authorities to oversee their own airlines international operations. The ministry judged that it is necessary to conduct its own safety monitoring ahead of an expected increase in the number of foreign airlines serving Japan. The ministry will appoint `safety control officers` who will become specialists in monitoring the safety of overseas airlines. When a foreign airline is classified as `caution necessary,` the officers will step up oversight of the company and call upon the aviation authorities in the relevant country to cause that company to address and enhance its safety or maintenance standards.
31 Dec
NASA on New Years Eve released portions of its three year old $11.5M NAOMS air safety study that documents incidents of pilots landing without clearance, unreported hard landings, comms loss, frequency saturation, falling asleep and lost separation, among other things - and much of it being allegedly due to chronic fatigue. The safety data was gathered from 24,000 interviews with airline pilots (8,000 pilots per year from 2001 until the end of 2004). NASA did not provide guidance for analyzing the raw (and now scrambled) data. It is also impossible to determine whether many pilots are reporting the same incidents as NASA has redacted and de-identified (aircraft types, dates etc) the survey based upon its privacy concerns. Coincidentally with its release, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Report (mentioned above) paints a contrasting picture of the pilot error bogeyman. The study, based upon analysis of 558 incidents, states the number of US airline accidents due to pilot error "significantly declined" between 1983 and 2002. (see http://www.jhsph.edu) Its key findings are that: Pilot error was most common during taxiing, takeoff, final approach and landing of the aircraft. Mishaps related to bad weather -- the most common decision-making error -- dropped 76 percent. Mishaps caused by mishandling wind or runway conditions declined 78 percent. Mishaps caused by poor crew interaction declined 68 percent (from 2.8 incidents per 10 million departures, to .09). Mishap rates increased greatly when aircraft were being pushed back from the gate or standing still, but pilot error was least common in such mishaps. Mishaps during takeoff declined 70 percent. The FAA has validated its findings saying that: "Our target was to reduce incidents by 80 percent. What we achieved was a 65 percent reduction." Since 1998, the FAA's Commercial Aviation Safety Team has analyzed every accident to determine what went wrong and improve pilot training. The FAA endorses that derivation of data and dismissively sees the 16,208 pages of NAOMS information as being anecdotal, subjective and perceptual.... as well as "hard to integrate with our other data" or utilize for trend analysis. The Air Transport Assn (ATA) supports the FAA view (tinyurl.com/274gck)
28 Dec
The chairman of Air China, the world's most valuable airline, has been appointed chief of China's civil aviation regulator, industry sources said on Friday. The appointment of Li Jiaxiang was announced by the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, the sources said. It was not immediately known what would happen to his predecessor, Yang Yuanyuan, or who his replacement at Air China would be. However the appointment is being seen as a further safety reinforcement of China's airline sector, which is already under a close rein.
28 Dec
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released a detailed report upon the standards and management processes at engine manufacturers, citing 20 engine-failure-related aircraft accidents reported to the ATSB between January 2000 and December 2005. Examining incidents from the 1,270 reciprocating multi-engine aircraft that flew a total of about 220,000 hours during the study period, the report details faults that "are dominated by combustion chamber component melting, plain bearing breakup or movement, and the initiation and growth of fatigue cracking in components that are designed to have a life not limited by fatigue." The report's conclusion is that engine reliability has declined sharply because of a failure of manufacturers in the areas of trend monitoring, quality control of sub-systems and product improvement initiatives. 28mb Report is at: tinyurl.com/3caqcu
23 Dec
The Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) advises that the 2008 Air Charter Safety Symposium, entitled "Developing a Healthy Safety Culture" will take place February 19-20, 2008, at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Training Center in Ashburn, VA, just west of Washington, DC. The Air Charter Safety Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the safety and security of air charter and shared aircraft ownership programs in the United States and worldwide. Through research, collaboration and education, the ACSF advances charter industry standards and best practices, promulgates safety, security and service benchmarks, and promotes the universal acceptance of safety management systems. It also provides accurate and objective information about air charter providers as one of the most important and versatile public transportation resources. Membership in the ACSF primarily includes Part 135 certificate holders, with the balance to include OEMs, brokers, insurers, customers, airports, and safety professionals. For more on the symposium, see http://www.acsf.aero
23 Dec
The Canadian Aviation Regulations will soon be amended to increase local accountability in the aviation sector. These amendments require airports and organizations providing air traffic services to implement safety management systems (SMS) in their organizations and appoint executives who are accountable for safety. These systems will make organizations more accountable for day-to-day operations while allowing them flexibility to determine the most effective means of improving safety performance within the regulatory framework. (Transport Canada)
20 Dec
Airlines all over the world are being warned to check to make sure there's actually oxygen in their aircraft oxygen systems after an embarrassing mix-up by Qantas at Melbourne International Airport. For ten months, Qantas crews have been filling airliner oxygen systems from a nitrogen cart that's supposed to be used to fill tires. The mistake went unnoticed until a couple of weeks ago when an observant aircraft engineer spotted service workers using the cart. "He was walking around the plane and asked what they were doing. When they said they were topping up the oxygen, he said, 'No you're not, that's a nitrogen cart,'" As anyone who works with industrial gases knows, oxygen tanks have different fittings than other gases to prevent exactly this kind of mix-up. However, when the crews earlier discovered the fittings on what they thought was their new oxygen cart didn't fit, they swapped them for the ones on the old cart they were retiring. Of course, Australian officials are looking into the error and Qantas has been busy notifying other airlines that use its services in Melbourne. Hundreds of aircraft may be affected. Reflect upon what may have happened if and when pilots necessarily may have "gone on nitrogen".
20 Dec
An Australian Transport Safety Bureau analysis shows that an increase in reported airline accident and incident data since 2001 is mainly due to industry expansion, and that the rates of many types of occurrence have fallen. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau research report covered more serious airline Immediately Reportable Matters in the 5 years from mid 2001 to mid 2006. Despite the increased activity in scheduled public transport operations, the number of Immediately Reportable Matters has generally either remained stable or declined. When measured in relation to airline activity, the trend rate is generally downwards. Incidents examined by the ATSB include reports of crew incapacitation and cabin fumes. Serious crew injury or illness was rare, supporting the findings from an earlier study. The ATSB also received 140 notifications of fumes. Sources of fumes included oil or solvent residues following maintenance activities, failed or overheated electrical or mechanical components, or passenger's luggage. Smoke or fumes from burning food in the galley was also common. The ATSB confirmed that accidents in Australian regular public transport operations are extremely rare. Only one accident involved fatalities, with the loss of all 15 people on board a regional airliner near Lockhart River. All other accidents were limited to damage to the aircraft, including damage to aircraft by service vehicles before flight, or injury to crew or passengers, including from unexpected turbulence during a flight. The report is at tinyurl.com/2rv8pw
20 Dec
The US Air Force is cutting pilot flight training numbers for 2008 - reportedly by about 12% due to a shortage of jets and instructors. The Air Force has already reassigned almost 200 bomber and fighter pilots because there's nothing for them to fly. The shortage of experienced instructors is a tally with the civilian scene where flight instruction is no longer being seen as one of the few self-funded avenues into an airline job. Many might see this as a problem that will feed upon itself over time.
19 Dec
The mission of InternetSAR.org is to develop and promote the use of the Internet to conduct collaborative analysis of aerial and satellite imagery during search and rescue operations to help locate down or missing aircraft or vessels. This website and effort to organize an Internet based SAR organization for the purpose of analyzing aerial imagery grew out of the Internet search effort for aviator Steve Fossett who disappeared on September 3, 2007, in southern Nevada. The desire was to take everything that was learned from the online Fossett search effort, and build a truly efficient set of tools and processes that could become a cost effective and highly productive aid to the efforts of find missing aircraft. See http://internetsar.org/ for more details
19 Dec
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's (ATSB) released a report on CFIT accidents. It examines accidents from an international perspective, current and potential CFIT preventative strategies, and identifies those characteristics associated with CFIT in Australia. Australian data shows 25 CFIT accidents and two CFIT incidents in the period 1996 to 2005. General aviation accounted for the greatest proportion of CFIT accidents, fatal accidents and fatalities. In line with international experience, nearly two-thirds of CFIT accidents and incidents in Australia occurred in the approach phase of flight, of which half of these were during an instrument approach. The Report is at: tinyurl.com/2t3zzn
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