Unfortunately, many people are beginning to panic about the present outbreak of the H1N1 Swine Flu virus, and that is causing a ruckus in the commercial air transport industry. Crews and passengers alike are worried that they will 'catch' the virus on board a plane. Are they right to be so concerned?
Yesterday I was speaking with a flight attendant about the current outbreak of Swine Flu (H1N1). "The news is so scary, I don't know what to think," she said. "Should I be afraid to go to work or not?"
Over the past several days there has been an explosion of news about an outbreak of a new kind of flu virus, Swine Influenza A/H1N1 (AKA swine flu), that began infecting large numbers of people in Mexico, and then spread to several other countries, including the United States. We in the aviation community may not like to admit it, but air travel almost certainly has played a central role in the rapid spread of the disease outside the area where it first emerged.The flight ban in the US after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent depression of the air travel market provided a natural experiment for the evaluation of the effect of flight restrictions on disease spread. The importance of airline activity was highlighted by the delayed peak of influenza in 2001-2002 following the period of reduced flying activity. This finding is further validated by the absence of a similar delay in influenza activity in France, where flight restrictions were not imposed.Of course there are many other factors besides airline travel that can influence the spread of seasonal flu. Nevertheless, the findings of this study do confirm to a certain extent what many have always suspected: that air travel during flu season does indeed figure into how and when the flu is spread.
You may have heard that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently proposed to keep the agency's database on aviation bird strikes private. Today the agency reversed itself and announced that FAA bird strike data will be available to the public by the end of this week.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will make its entire Bird Strike database available on a public website this Friday, April 24. Portions of the database have been publicly available since the information was first collected in 1990, but the public will now be able to access all of the database's fields.
The FAA is also withdrawing a proposal to protect the data, after a 30-day comment period closed earlier this week. The FAA has determined that it can release the data without jeopardizing aviation safety.
The FAA has redacted a very small amount of data in the database containing privacy information, such as personal phone numbers.
Over the next four months, the FAA will make significant improvements to the database to improve the search function and make it more user-friendly. In its current format, users will only be able to perform limited searches online, but will be able to download the entire database.
The FAA also plans to work with the aviation community to find ways to improve and strengthen bird strike reporting.
The database can be accessed through http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov/public_html/index.html#access
Pilots at Alaska Airlines are preparing to vote on a tentative agreement (TA) for a new four-year contract. The TA was reached after more than two years of negotiations between the airline's management and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents the pilots. The union leadership has approved the TA.
Air cargo carrier FedEx has announced plans to reduce its fleet by 14 aircraft. FedEx currently operates 670 aircraft. According to a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the freight carrier indicated that 10 A310-200s and four MD10-10s would be permanently removed from service by May 31, 2009.
Big news from Australia: Qantas is planning a major capacity reduction, and will downsize its staff, due to a "rapid and significant deterioration of trading conditions in the past few weeks". Among the 1,750 jobs cut will be 500 management positions.
The pilots at AirTran Airways have voted 'overwhelmingly' to merge their independent union, the National Pilots Association (NPA), with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). According to ALPA, a 'landslide' 87% of AirTran pilots cast votes in support of merging NPA with ALPA, with more than 94% of eligible AirTran pilots voting.
Pilots at Island Air have a tentative agreement (TA) after 16 months of contract negotiations with the Hawaii-based carrier's management. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents Island Air pilots, says that the agreement, if ratified by the pilot group, will provide wage increases, work rule improvements and furlough protection.The Island Air pilots’ contract became amendable November 30, 2007. Recognizing that they fly in a leisure market, the pilots and company began negotiating a short-term agreement that would provide job protections and improvements to pilots’ wages, benefits and work rules, as well as bolster the company’s financial status amidst declining tourism and rising fuel prices in Hawaii. While the cost of fuel has dropped considerably, tourism continues to suffer and is expected to remain the same for the remainder of 2009.The Island Air Master Executive Council of ALPA is recommending that pilots support this agreemenent.
Findings suggest that pilots might have have incomplete understanding or variable ability in areas such as use of auto-flight modes (particularly in relation to vertical guidance), energy management and poor weather operations. Limited use of simulation for recurrent training reduces opportunities for practice, lack of pre-course preparatory material reduces training effectiveness, and lack of training in additional duties peculiar to business jet operations may cause such tasks to distract pilots from primary flying tasks. There was concern regarding the limited ability of pilots to conduct safe flight without a serviceable FMS.The report's section on regulator interaction focuses on difficulties operators experience in interfacing with regulatory agencies. Several recommendations for improving two-way communication between regulatory agencies and the business jet community are offered.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has just released a synopsis of its forthcoming final report on its investigation of a 2007 engine fire on an American Airlines MD-82 aircraft. The report cites "American Airlines’ maintenance personnel’s use of an inappropriate manual engine‑start procedure" as the probable cause for the engine fire, and says that the fire "was prolonged by the flight crew’s interruption of an emergency checklist to perform nonessential tasks." The Board also found that the airline's "flawed internal safety management system, which could have identified the maintenance issues that led to the accident" was a contributing factor.The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was American Airlines’ maintenance personnel’s use of an inappropriate manual engine‑start procedure, which led to the uncommanded opening of the left engine air turbine starter valve, and a subsequent left engine fire, which was prolonged by the flight crew’s interruption of an emergency checklist to perform nonessential tasks. Contributing to the accident were deficiencies in American Airlines’ Continuing Analysis and Surveillance System program.Findings
Evaluate your Continuing Analysis and Surveillance System program to determine why it failed to (1) identify deficiencies in its maintenance program associated with the MD‑80 engine no‑start failure and (2) discover the lack of compliance with company procedures. Then, make necessary modifications to the program to correct these shortcomings.The NTSB Acting Chairman said, "The airline's own internal maintenance system, the purpose of which is to catch maintenance and mechanical issues that could lead to an incident or accident, failed to do what it was designed to do. And that allowed this sequence of events to get rolling, which ultimately resulted in the accident. Following the appropriate maintenance procedures would have gone a long way toward preventing this mishap."
An Indonesian court has found Marwoto Komar guilty of negligence in the 2007 crash of a Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-400 passenger aircraft at Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He has been sentenced to two years in jail. In a majority verdict, the Sleman District Court found Komar could have taken steps to avert the disaster.Aircrew Buzz has been following the developments surrounding this accident and the ensuing prosecution of Marwoto Komar since the outset. Here is a review of articles describing the progression of events:
"In the landing stages the defendant was not careful, and should have coordinated better with his co-pilot," one of the five judges said.
Komar, wearing his pilot's uniform despite being stripped of his licence, immediately declared he could not accept the verdict and intended to launch an appeal.
The court did not order Komar into immediate detention, meaning he will not go to jail until a higher court orders it.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued a preliminary report on the fatal crash of a privately operated Pilatus PC-12 aircraft at Butte, MT last month. The aircraft crashed while on approach to Butte's Bert Mooney Airport on the afternoon of March 22, 2009, killing the pilot and all 13 passengers on board.On March 22, 2009, at 1430 mountain daylight time, a Pilatus PC-12/45, N128CM, descended to ground impact near the approach end of runway 33 at the Bert Mooney Airport, Butte, Montana. The airplane was owned and operated by Eagle Capital Leasing, of Enterprise, Oregon, as a personal transportation flight under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. The airplane was destroyed in the collision sequence and post crash fire. All 14 persons onboard the airplane were killed in the accident and there were no reported ground injuries. The flight departed Oroville, California, at 1210 Pacific daylight time on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan and clearance destined for Gallatin Field, Bozeman, Montana. The airplane was diverting to Butte at the time of the accident. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at both the Bozeman and Butte airports.This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.
The airplane impacted the Holy Cross cemetery west of runway 33 at Bert Mooney Airport, Butte, Montana. The wreckage was confined to the impact area and consumed by impact and fire. Portions of all major structural components were identified.
Interviews with family members indicated that seven adults and seven children were traveling to Bozeman, Montana, to meet other family members and friends for a ski vacation. The owner of the airplane drove from California with his wife and other family members. The airplane originally departed Redlands, California, flew to Nut Tree Airport, Vacaville, California, where passengers were picked up. The pilot then flew to Oroville, California, where additional passengers were picked up.
According to a preliminary briefing from the FAA regarding air traffic control, the pilot filed an instrument flight rules flight plan from Oroville, California (KOVE) to Bozeman, Montana (KBZN) with Butte, Montana (KBTM) as the alternate. The airplane departed at 1210 local. At 1359 the crew contacted the Salt Lake City Center. At 1403, the airplane was at FL 250 and the pilot requested to change his destination to Butte and gave no reason for the diversion. He was cleared at pilot's discretion to descend to 14,000 feet, and at 1405 the pilot again requested to divert to Butte. At 1427 air traffic control asked the pilot if he had the airport in sight and the pilot indicated he had one more cloud to maneuver around. At 1428 the pilot reported the airport in sight and air traffic control terminated radar service. At 1429, air traffic control called the aircraft in the blind with no response. The accident was reported to local authorities at 1433.
Initial reports from ground witnesses indicate that the airplane was flying approximately 300 feet above ground level in a north-northwesterly direction. Shortly thereafter, the airplane's nose pitched to a nose-low attitude and it impacted the ground. One witness with aviation experience reported that the airplane was west of the runway centerline and appeared too high to land on the runway. The witness then saw the airplane bank to the left and fly farther west when it rolled, pitched down, and descended out of his view. Although there is no air traffic control tower at Butte, the local fixed base operator lineman was monitoring the radio as the airplane approached the airport. He heard the pilot transmit that he would be landing on runway 33.
Butte was reporting the following weather conditions at the time of the accident: at 1353 local, winds were from 320 degrees at 10 knots, visibility was 10 statute miles, clouds were 4,400 few, 8,000 overcast, temperature was 7 degrees C, dew point was -3 degrees C, altimeter was 29.57 inches of Mercury. At 1453 local, winds were from 300 degrees at 8 knots, visibility was 10 statute miles, clouds were broken at 6,500, temperature was 7 degrees C, dew point was -3 degrees C, altimeter was 29.56 inches of Mercury.
Bozeman was reporting the following weather conditions at 1356, approximately 3 minutes before the pilot requested to divert to Butte: the winds were from 290 degrees at 7 knots (240 variable to 320), visibility 10 statute miles, clear skies, temperature 14 degrees C, dew point -1 degree C, altimeter was 29.94 inches of Mercury.
All times reference mountain daylight time (mdt).
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has issued a hefty, but fascinating, report on commercial jet aircraft runway excursions around the world. Here's an excerpt from the summary of 117-page report, which was just made available on the ATSB website:Over the last decade there has been a noticeable reduction in the number of non-fatal and fatal accidents involving the worldwide commercial jet aircraft fleet. Despite this, runway excursions continue to remain prevalent, accounting for approximately a quarter of all incidents and accidents in air transport, and 96 per cent of all runway accidents. Runway excursions involve aircraft running off the end of the runway (overrun) or departing the side of the runway (veer-off).The report first summarizes 141 runway excursion accidents, and then follows with sections providing detailed analysis of:
A number of catastrophic runway excursions occurred across the world in 2007 and 2008, resulting in hundreds of fatalities and significant property damage in communities adjacent to the airport. This report, the first in a two-part series, provides a statistical picture of runway excursion accidents over a 10-year period how frequently they occur, why they occur, and what factors contributed to those accidents.
A search of the Ascend World Aircraft Accident Summary identified 141 runway excursion accidents involving the worldwide commercial jet aircraft fleet between 1998 and 2007. Those accidents resulted in 550 fatalities. Of those 141 accidents, 120 occurred during the landing phase of flight. An in-depth analysis of those 120 accidents was conducted in order to identify the types of flight crew technique and decision-related, flight crew performance-related, weather-related, and systems-related factors that contribute to runway excursions.
Last night, Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) grounded 60 of its CRJ200 aircraft for engine re-inspections. The Delta Connection carrier reportedly discovered through an internal audit that the General Electric CF34 turbofans on some of its aircraft may not have been inspected according to the manufacturer's recommendations.