When Air Safety Is Deemed Optional

The Life-Saving Systems That Regulators Ignore

Air Safety Week is starting a file on optional safety systems that seem to be a good idea, but which aren't mandated by regulators.

We'll kick off with the Emergency Vision Assurance System (EVAS). You can see what it is and what it does (and even what it looks like) at evasworldwide.com. There are testimonials and videos aplenty. In fact, if you look at tinyurl.com/34wsaf, you will note that even the FAA's pilots enjoy the protection of this non-mandated system (as do the Canadian Dept. of Transport's pilots).

So do the Armed Services of a number of nations and a wide selection of Corporate Flight outfits, including the giant NetJets and all the Fortune 500 companies.

Even that well-known fire-starter Phillip Morris is a carrier of EVAS. Among the airlines, you will note FEDEX, QANTAS, TransMeridian, Lufthansa and JetBlue, but surprisingly, not Swiss of Swissair 111 fame (but then again they're owned by Lufthansa).

I know that some of them have the system only because they have had first-hand close shaves with in-fuselage smoke. As a bizjet friend of mine (in fact he was my "best man") said to me: "You only have to have one nasty run-in with smoke, and you're a convert." He's a wheel with Cessna, and they're on that list.

In fact, EVAS has a very convincing mobile demonstration van that can give you those smoky "insights". I've tried it myself in the middle of New York, sitting in the seat alongside Bert Werjefelt, the inventor of EVAS. It's a very convincing demonstration. He can show you the difference between life and death when thick smoke fills the cockpit and you can't even see the flight instrument panel.

A transcript of the verbal battle royal that Werjefelt had with the FAA over EVAS (which had already been approved by the FAA) can be read at tinyurl.com/3apwuo. I often find myself wondering how one would go about writing up a Swissair 111 type accident for an airline that didn't have EVAS in its cockpits. I guess one would start off with the EVAS team's simplistic banner logo: "If you can't see, you can't fly."

The address info@evasworldwide.com sends a regular email list of smoke events to subscribers (the Daily Smoke Brief). However, in compiling the ASW Accident and Incident table, we find they are aware of only a percentage of cockpit and cabin smoke incidents. Today's offering on May 16 from EVAS had four.

When the FAA rewrote the ETOPS rules for February's rule release, it dodged the question of in-fuselage wiring-initiated fires and instead considered those easily addressed and halon-suppressed cargo-hold fires.

EVAS has a collection of articles on inflight fire (see tinyurl.com/3cd3m7). And would you believe that the U.K. Ministry of Defence has even purchased 45 EVAS units for use on their nuclear submarine fleet? See the image at tinyurl.com/34yf32.

Meanwhile, the Seahawk crew from NAS Fallon that engaged a set of high tension wires in the Nevada desert on May 7 had probably never heard of the proliferating wire detection systems that might have saved them.

Prior to embarking for the war-zone as part of Carrier Air Wing 3 aboard the USS Harry S. Truman, the crew from the Dusty Dogs (Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 7) of NAS Jacksonville were practicing one of their secondary roles. That is the rescue from hostile territory of a downed airman. The combat Search and Rescue role requires low-level incursion and often occurs at night using NVGs (night vision goggles).

NVGs won't help you see wires strung across your path and that's what killed the five. In fact, they missed the HT wire and initially hit the higher static wire that sits atop the 100ft tall transmission line. That smaller gage wire acts as a lightning rod, attracting lightning strikes to prevent direct hits and damage to the high-voltage line.

Military and Medevac helos have a high hit-rate when it comes to powerlines. However, there are a number of high-tech solutions on offer.

Twenty years ago it was a powerline cutter that sat out in front and deflected a small gage line up and over the cockpit, hopefully cutting the cable. But that was no solution for the thick high tension lines that sit up at helo low-flying heights.

Few experienced helicopter pilots won't have had a powerline fright and most will have seen the results of those who've encountered them. So what's now on offer to save the "collective" bacon?

Safe Flight's Powerline Detection System (PDS) is designed to sense the radiating electromagnetic field that results from the delivery of electricity. It will sense this field from any direction and warn pilots once a helicopter is in the vicinity of a live wire. When an electromagnetic field is sensed, the Powerline Detection System emits an unmistakable auditory alert.

Pilots literally "hear" their relationship to a power-line hazard, even without seeing it. As the helicopter gets closer to a live power line, the audio warning increases in frequency, much like a Geiger counter upticks. A red warning light also flashes. Ninety-five percent of the time, the pilot won't have seen the power line, so it's a life-saving advantage.

Safe Flight Instrument Corporation pioneered the development of Stall Warning and Angle-of-Attack, Automatic Throttle Systems, Wind Shear Warning, and many other innovations in safety-oriented aircraft instrumentation, flight performance, and control systems for fixed- and rotary-winged aircraft. They deserve a plug because they beaver away at safety innovations.

The Powerline Detection System will be marketed and distributed in Europe through Trans Helicopter Services of France. THS is in discussions with two major European insurance companies to obtain discounted aircraft insurance for helicopters with PDS installed.

The bonus? PDS weighs less than one pound. An EASA program that will certify the Powerline Detection System on the Eurocopter AS 350 series is expected to be completed before June 30.

If you're aware of a safety system, instrument, emergency comms device or innovation that's on the market (or coming soon) that could enhance aviation safety (or security), drop ASW a line or put a flea in our ear. We're willing to listen and broadcast to all stations.

The regulator only has to approve it and its STC (Supplementary Type Certificate for installation). He doesn't have to mandate it for you to avail yourself. Indeed, the record shows that he probably won't.

You can contact John Sampson, editor-in-chief of Air Safety Week, at: safety@iasa-intl.com