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Monday, August 27, 2007

Safety News in Brief

Date	Incident
Marion Blakey has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of the Aerospace Industries Association, the trade association representing the nation's manufacturers of aerospace equipment, effective November 12, 2007. Blakey is the 15th Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, a position she has held since September 2002. Her term as FAA Administrator ends on 13 September 2007. The announcement was made 21 Aug by William H. Swanson, 2007 Chairman of the AIA Board of Governors and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Raytheon Company. Barbara Barrett, a former deputy FAA administrator under President Reagan has been suggested as Blakey's probable successor.
22 Aug	An ATSB report critical of QANTAS flight operations has caused the airline to change its fuel carriage policy for remote destinations. An A330 arriving at Perth in Sep 2006 had cause to transmit a Mayday on its 3rd approach in fog as it had no fuel to transit 1110km to the nearest clear destination of Learmonth. The jet carried out a non-standard autoland at Perth despite the airport's Instrument Landing System not being qualified for zero-zero ceiling and visibility operations. See tinyurl.com/2hyx3v
22 Aug	The FAA is investigating a series of Memphis air traffic controller errors that led to six near collisions in one week. Controllers say short staffing is the root cause of the errors. The FAA says that in addition to regular controllers, the Memphis facility currently has 63 trainees and is scheduled to get 15 more in October. ATC error counts caused by inexperience and inadequate supervision are now seen as a direct measure of the cost of allowing the ATC manning shortfalls to develop.
21 Aug	AN unqualified Qantas mechanical engineer signed off on the safety of more than 1000 international flights in the past year without having a licence to do so. The engineer, based at Sydney international airport, is being investigated by the Australian Federal Police after forging his licensed aircraft maintenance engineer's licence without having passed the Civil Aviation Safety Authority exams. Irregularities with the maint supervisor's license were exposed during a routine checking process last month. When confronted by Qantas management the engineer tendered his resignation and is now alleged to have fled overseas.
21 Aug	A report into the fatal crash of a Tutor jet from the Canadian Snowbirds aerobatic team says the pilot lost control of his airplane when his seatbelt's lapstrap unbuckled as he rolled inverted at low-level. Snowbird #2, Capt. Shawn McCaughey, was killed 18 May during an air show practice at Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls, Montana. Operators were aware of a potential interference between a component that leads from the ejection seat parachute that could compromise the seatbelt's buckle-up.
21 Aug	Investigators looking into the fiery 20 Aug burnout of a China Airlines 737-800 on the ramp at Naha Okinawa are focusing on the pressurized fuel leak being somewhere in the low pressure (tank to engine) fuel system. It passes through the pylon connecting the CFM56-7B26 engine to the right wing. It is possible that the fuel leak was there during the flight but only pooled and ignited once on-ground static airflows removed the cooling and flow-through that would have whisked away the leaking fuel in flight and stopped any accumulations in the vicinity of superheated surfaces. The fire may then have started during the late landing roll, courtesy of the engine reverser's disruptive airflows. Ground-slope induced flow of the leaked fuel and the prevailing wind are being blamed for the preponderance of damage having been to the left wing (in comparison to the right). The full firefighter video showing the evacuating passengers baling out on the RHS, just before the main fuel-tank explosion, is at tinyurl.com/29gvvt
20 Aug	A Modesto California family's breakfast was interrupted Monday when a piece of ice fell out of the sky and through their roof. The "blue ice" had dropped from an aircraft passing overhead enroute to the Bay area. The bowling ball-sized chunk of ice hit a 10-year-old boy who resides in the home, but without doing permanent injury. A large hole remains in the roof. The FAA is normally unable to relate incidents to a particular airline or aircraft unless complainants nail the ice's time of arrival quite accurately for radar-tape plot correlation. However that usually doesn't occur... and the evidence soon disappears.
19 Aug	After a rash of recent collisions with large birds forced their aircraft to carry out emergency landings, Spanish airline Iberia has warned its pilots to use caution flying out of Madrid. Since July 2006 at least four aircraft from national airline Iberia have carried out emergency landings at Madrid-Barajas Airport, one of Europe's busiest, after hitting vultures or eagles. Aircraft taking off and landing at new runways opened two years ago at Madrid-Barajas fly over a protected bird sanctuary that is home to large numbers of vultures and eagles weighing up to eight kilos.
19 Aug	Alaska's Pavlof Volcano, 590 miles southwest of Anchorage, may soon have a massive eruption, potentially affecting international flight paths. The FAA has sent advisories to airlines that usually operate in the area and is monitoring the situation, said a spokesman. If there is a significant eruption, flights would have to be diverted, possibly resulting in extensive delays.

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