Most senior Aloha Airlines pilot commands final passenger flight

On March 31, 2008, Aloha Airlines operated its final passenger flight, Aloha Flight AQ 251 from Kahului, Maui to Honolulu. Aloha's most senior pilot, Captain Darryl Wong (pictured at right), was the pilot in command of the Boeing 737-200 for that historic flight. The final flight came just a day after Aloha Airlines announced it was shutting down its passenger operations.

News reports said that Captain Mike Moore had been scheduled to fly the flight, but had relinquished the cockpit at the last minute to Captain Wong, who joined the company in 1976. In addition to flying for Aloha, Wong is a major general in the Hawaii Air National Guard. "It was very nice that they wanted me to fly, so I was very honored," he said.

In the right seat of Flight AQ 251 was First Officer Tasha Kobashigawa, Aloha's most junior pilot. Ms. Kobashigawa, who used to be a news reporter for Honolulu TV station KITV, joined Aloha Airlines just four months ago. An article about Aloha's final passenger flight in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin quoted Ms. Kobashigawa, who said, "You get to a place where you think you're going to be for the rest of your career and in a blink of an eye it's gone. I'm going to stay in flying. It's my passion. I worked too hard to let it go."

Flight attendants on the final Aloha Airlines passenger flight were Renee Jewell, Steve Oshiro and Tori Swoish.

[Photo Source]

A Tribute to Aloha Airlines

Late last evening, March 31, 2008, Aloha Flight AQ261 arrived in Honolulu from Maui. It was Aloha Airlines' final scheduled passenger flight. Aloha had publicly announced the shut down of its passenger operations just two days ago on March 30, 2008.

Here's a video tribute to a great airline, produced by Aloha employees - the Aloha ʻOhana.



(If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.)

You might also want to have a look at the AQ ʻOhana's wonderful collection of photos of Aloha employees and their families on PBase.

As a Hawaii resident and long-time customer of Aloha Airlines, I'd like to say to all of the Aloha ʻOhana:

"Mahalo nui loa, me ko`u aloha. A hui hou."

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Related: Some earlier Aircrew Buzz articles that featured Aloha Airlines:

• Aloha Airlines No. 1 F/A retires after 50 years - November, 2007
• Aloha Airlines B737 becomes a flying work of art -  May, 2007.
• Aloha ʻOe: Aloha Airlines Shuts Down Passenger Operations - March, 2008

Crew of Biggin Hill Cessna Citation crash identified

Yesterday, March 30, 2008, a Cessna Citation 500 aircraft crashed into a residential area shortly after takeoff from London Biggin Hill Airport (EGKB). The aircraft had just departed Biggin Hill en route to France when it reportedly experienced engine trouble. The crew declared a 'mayday' and attempted to return to Biggin Hill, but crashed 2.5 miles north of the airfield. There were no survivors among the two crew members and three passengers on board. No one on the ground was injured, but the crash caused a fire that did extensive damage to a home and its surroundings.

A press statement issued today by the London Biggin Hill Airport identified the pilot in command of the accident aircraft as Mike Roberts. The press statement said this about Mr. Roberts:

Mike Roberts, the Captain was a very experienced commercial pilot and a friend of many of us on the airport. His cool judgment in managing the aircraft emergency and minimizing loss of life on the ground is typical of such a remarkable man and he will be sorely missed.

His business partner of 15 years, Mike Wells said that Mike Roberts was an extremely experienced commercial pilot and a remarkable man.

“I have known Michael for 20 years and know that he would have done everything in his power to minimize the effects of this tragic incident on his colleagues, passengers and people on the ground. He will be missed by everyone in the flying community at Biggin Hill and by his many friends worldwide.”

The BBC News published an article profiling those whose lives were lost in yesterday's Citation crash. That article included a photo of Mike Roberts, above, and identified the other pilot as Michael Chapman, 57.

The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) is investigating the cause of the accident. Yesterday the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that it was dispatching a team to assist the AAIB in its investigation. According to the NTSB, an aviation systems technical specialist will accompany the U.S. Accredited Representative. The Federal Aviation Administration and the Cessna Aircraft Company are also sending investigators as part of the team.

Condolences to the families and friends of the deceased Citation crew and their passengers.

[Photo Source]

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UPDATE April 2, 2008: Here is a link to a video and accompanying article about the Biggin Hill Citation accident on FlightGlobal.com. David Learmount, Operations and Safety editor of FlightGlobal.com wrote the article and speaks in the video.

Aloha ʻoe - Aloha Airlines Shuts Down Passenger Operations

Today is a sad day in Hawaii. Aloha Airlines, which has been in business in the islands since 1946, announced that it is suspending all passenger operations as of March 31, 2008. The airline, which recently filed for bankruptcy, announced that all inter-island and trans-Pacific passenger services are slated to be shut down, a move that will affect about 1,900 employees.

On Friday, March 28, employees of Aloha Airlines staged a rally at the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu [photos] urging lawmakers to do what they could to save the airline -- and their jobs. Indeed, legislation that would have provided loan guarantees and certain tax exemptions was introduced late last week, and was to be heard during the coming week. A Pacific Business News (PBN) article about the legislation said:

House Bill 509 is modeled on 1993 legislation that was intended to help Hawaiian Airlines, which was struggling with financial difficulties at the time.

The bill's first hearing is before the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.

A Senate spokesman told PBN that, if passed by both chambers, HB 509 could be submitted for Gov. Linda Lingle's signature as early as April 9. The guarantee would take effect immediately.

PBN reported that language in the bill's draft says issuance of a loan guarantee is "in the public interest and for the public health, safety and general welfare of the state."

While well-intentioned, help from the Hawaii State Legislature apparently came too late. The airline said "Aloha ʻoe" [farewell] earlier today.

In an Aloha Airlines news release about the suspension of its passenger service, David Banmiller, the carrier's president and chief executive officer, said:

Despite the groundswell of support from the community and our elected officials, we simply ran out of time to find a qualified buyer or secure continued financing for our passenger business. We had no choice but to take this action.

“We deeply regret the impact this will have on our dedicated employees who have made Aloha one of the best operating airlines in the country. “Aloha Airlines was founded in 1946 to give Hawaii’s people a choice in inter-island air transportation.

Unfortunately, unfair competition has succeeded in driving us out of business, bringing to an end a 61-year-old company with a proud legacy of serving millions of travelers in the true spirit of Aloha. ”We realize that this comes as a devastating disappointment to our frequent flyers and our loyal business partners who have supported this company for many, many years.”

Aloha's recent filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection cited financial difficulties due to fierce competition, and record-high fuel prices. This was the second time that Aloha Airlines filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the past three years.

Aloha's air cargo and aviation services units will continue to operate while the U.S. Bankruptcy Court seeks bids from potential buyers. So far, one such bid has been announced. On March 27, 2008, Saltchuk Resources, Inc., announced its intention to buy Aloha’'s air cargo business. Saltchuk is the parent company of Young Brothers Ltd., an inter-island ocean freight shipping company in Hawaii.

Video: Possible scenario for pilot's accidental discharge of his firearm

By now, I'm sure that everyone has heard about the incident in which a US Airways pilot's firearm accidentally discharged during flight. The pilot, who was trained through the TSA's Federal Flight Deck Officer program, was authorized to have the sidearm in the cockpit. The question on everyone's mind is: How could this accidental firing of the weapon have happened?

A reader sent me the link to this interesting YouTube video that suggests one possible scenario. Produced by a man whose blog profile says he is a licensed private detective and former Chicago policeman, the video is a narrated demonstration of how the firearm incident might have happened.

Keeping in mind that the scenario in the video is conjecture, it does pose what appears to be a plausible explanation of what might have happened. I am wondering if this explanation makes logical sense to those who are actually familiar with this particular firearm. Comments are welcome.



(If the video does not display or play properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.)

Tip of the hat to the reader who sent me the link, and to Paul Huebl, who produced the video. Click here to visit Paul Huebl's website.

NTSB investigates separation of wing panel from US Airways Boeing 757

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced that it will investigate the recent aircraft accident in which a panel from the wing of a US Airways Boeing 757-200 separated during flight. That's right, I said "aircraft accident," because that's what the NTSB is now calling it.

Here is an excerpt from the NTSB press advisory about the investigation, issued yesterday:

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an aircraft accident in which a panel from the wing of a US Airways B-757, flight 1250 en route from Orlando, Florida, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, separated from the aircraft somewhere over Maryland. The aircraft landed in Philadelphia about 30 minutes after the separation occurred. None of the 174 passengers or 6 crew were injured.

On Saturday, March 22, 2008, at about 9:30 a.m. EDT, a composite panel, measuring about 4 feet by 5 feet, on the trailing edge of the upper side of the left wing, broke lose from the aircraft and struck several of the windows towards the rear of the aircraft. The impact caused the outer pane of one window to crack. The inner pane was undamaged and the pressurization of the aircraft was not compromised.

Because the loss of the wing panel adversely affected the flight characteristics of the aircraft, the event has been classified as an accident.

The errant wing panel is still missing. Investigators are at work trying to define a search area by "using a specialized computer program to perform a Ballistic Trajectory Analysis with data such as the aircraft ground track, speed, prevailing winds and other factors." Once the data have been modeled, the Board will notify local authorities in the vicinity where the panel is most likely to be found.

At present, the content of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR) are being evaluated at the NTSB's laboratory in Washington, DC.

The investigation team includes representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, US Airways, and the Air Line Pilots Association.

Final report issued on the crash of Adam Air Flight 574

A final report on the crash of an Adam Air Boeing 737-400 (registration number PK-KKW) in January of 2007 has been issued by Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), the agency responsible for aircraft accident investigations in that country. The NTSC report concluded that the pilots lost control of the airliner after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment -- specifically, the aircraft's Inertial Reference System (IRS) . The aircraft plunged into the sea at a high rate of speed. All 102 people on board were killed, including 96 passengers, four cabin crew, and the two pilots.

Adam Air Flight DHI-574 disappeared from radar on New Year's Day, 2007, during the cruise phase of a scheduled domestic flight between Surabaya (SUB), on the island of Java, to Manado (MDC), on Sulawesi island. After an extensive search on land and at sea some debris from the aircraft was found nine days after the accident.

On January 21, 2007, signals from the downed jetliner's flight data recorder were detected by an American ship that had been assisting with the search. The aircraft's Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) finally were retrieved from the seabed in late August of 2007. Much of the NTSC's accident investigation centered on analysis of data from these recorders.

The Synopsis section of the NTSC's final report says the following:

The CVR revealed that both pilots were concerned about navigation problems and subsequently became engrossed with trouble shooting Inertial Reference System (IRS) anomalies for at least the last 13 minutes of the flight, with minimal regard to other flight requirements. This included identification and attempts at corrective actions.

The DFDR analysis showed that the aircraft was in cruise at FL 350 with the autopilot engaged. The autopilot was holding 5 degrees left aileron wheel in order to maintain wings level. Following the crew’s selection of the number-2 (right) IRS Mode Selector Unit to ATT (Attitude) mode, the autopilot disengaged. The control wheel (aileron) then centered and the aircraft began a slow roll to the right. The aural alert, BANK ANGLE, sounded as the aircraft passed 35 degrees right bank.

The DFDR data showed that roll rate was momentarily arrested several times, but there was only one significant attempt to arrest the roll. Positive and sustained roll attitude recovery was not achieved. Even after the aircraft had reached a bank angle of 100 degrees, with the pitch attitude approaching 60 degrees aircraft nose down, the pilot did not roll the aircraft’s wings level before attempting pitch recovery in accordance with standard operating procedures. The aircraft reached 3.5g, as the speed reached Mach 0.926 during sustained nose-up elevator control input while still in a right bank. The recorded airspeed exceeded Vdive (400 kcas), and reached a maximum of approximately 490 kcas just prior to the end of recording.

A thump, thump sound was evident on the CVR about 20 seconds from the end of the recorded data. Flight recorder data indicated that a significant structural failure occurred when the aircraft was at a speed of Mach 0.926 and the flight load suddenly and rapidly reversed from 3.5g to negative 2.8 g. This g force and airspeed are beyond the design limitations of the aircraft. At the time of the thump, thump sound, the aircraft was in a critically uncontrollable state. [NTSC Accident Investigation Report No. KNKT/07.01/08.01.36, Synopsis, pp. 1-2]

The report faulted the pilot in command for failure to manage crew task sharing, and for not following crew resource management practices. The report noted, "There was no evidence that the pilots were appropriately controlling the aircraft, even after the BANK ANGLE alert sounded as the aircraft’s roll exceeded 35 degrees right bank."

This accident resulted from a combination of factors, including the failure of the pilots to adequately monitor the flight instruments, particularly during the final 2 minutes of the flight. Preoccupation with a malfunction of the Inertial Reference System (IRS) diverted both pilots’ attention from the flight instruments and allowed the increasing descent and bank angle to go unnoticed. The pilots did not detect and appropriately arrest the descent soon enough to prevent loss of control. [NTSC Accident Investigation Report No. KNKT/07.01/08.01.36, Synopsis, p. 2]

Among the other factors that contributed to the cause of the accident, the report found that the carrier, privately owned Adam Air, "did not provide their pilots with IRS malfunction corrective action training in the simulator, nor did they provide aircraft upset recovery training in accordance with the Airplane Upset Recovery Training Aid developed by Boeing and Airbus." Adam Air management also was faulted for being unaware of the seriousness of "unresolved and recurring defects" related to the aircraft's Inertial Reference System, referring to the finding that maintenance records and pilots' reports showed that there were 154 such defects reported between October and December of 2006. As well, the report noted several failings by Indonesia's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to properly oversee Adam Air's fleet maintenance practices.

The entire report has been posted to the NTSC website. Here is the link:

NTSC Accident Investigation Report No. KNKT/07.01/08.01.36 - NTSC of Indonesia, March 25, 2008

This is a 98-page 'pdf' file, so it may take awhile to load.

A shorter summary is available as a part of a media release issued by the NTSC, announcing their report (4-page 'pdf' file).

Related: Click here to view all posts about Adam Air Flt 574 on Aircrew Buzz.

Delta Air Lines opposes flight attendant unionization

As I wrote here last month, Delta flight attendants are seeking union representation. In that article I wrote:

Up to now, Delta flight attendants have not been unionized. Although there has been growing dissatisfaction with pay and work rules among the rank and file, it seems that the tipping point came as Delta began engaging in merger talks with other carriers. Now a growing number of Delta's flight attendants are acknowledging the potential value of representation by a formal collective bargaining unit such as the AFA [the Association of Flight Attendants].

On February 14, 2008, a majority of Delta flight attendants did indeed submit signature cards to the National Mediation Board (NMB), formally requesting union representation. Yesterday, the NMB officially announced that the flight attendants' request for election of a union had been authorized. In its letter to Delta Air Lines and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), the NMB indicated that "the election will be conducted by Telephone Electronic Voting and Internet Voting."

The Notice and Sample Instruction will be sent out on April 16, 2008. The Voting Instructions will be mailed to the employees on April 23, 2008. The voting period will be from 12:01 a.m., ET, April 23, 2008, through June 3, 2008. The tally will take place at the Board's offices on June 3, 2008, at 2 p.m. ET.

Yesterday, Delta's response to this news was to issue a press release with a very lengthy title:

Delta Flight Attendants to Decide on Union Representation; Company Says Direct Relationship with Management Best for Flight Attendants

That title, folks, is the story in a nutshell. But there is a longer version. The press release, referenced above, included the text of a statement from Joanne Smith, senior vice president – In-Flight Service and Global Product Development, as follows:

“Delta flight attendants will make one of the most important decisions of their careers over the coming months as they choose between a direct relationship with Delta’s management team or the cost and risk of a third-party representative,” Smith said. “Our flight attendants have long been successful at speaking for themselves and we continually demonstrate our willingness to respond quickly and directly to their individual and collective feedback. I’m asking all of our flight attendants to make an educated choice, based on fact.

“The facts are: Delta flight attendants have it better than what the Association of Flight Attendants’ has been able to deliver at other airlines, and those airlines’ contracts are not open to changes for several years to come – years in which Delta flight attendants will continue to enjoy higher rates of pay, a better profit sharing program and a better performance rewards program.

“In contrast, the AFA’s track record at other network carriers is not a good one. The AFA has demonstrated that its members have not been protected from pay cuts, job loss, pension termination or any other changes affecting the airline industry. And flight attendants at those other airlines also must pay hundreds of dollars per year in union dues.

“Delta has good momentum thanks to the hard work of all Delta people and we look forward to the ability to continue working on their behalf and responding to their feedback,” Smith continued.

A Forbes article about the upcoming union election quoted Corey Caldwell, an AFA-CWA spokeswoman, who said Smith's statement is "typical, anti-union rhetoric that companies use."

"The truth is when there is a union on property, there's just as much communication with management as there was before," Caldwell said. "The only thing that changes is this time the flight attendants get to determine the issues and policies that affect them as a group instead of being dependent on the company to make decisions for them."

For further insight about what rank-and-file Delta flight attendants are thinking about the unionization issue, visit the Delta Voices page of the website opened by AFA to support the campaign by Delta flight attendants for unionization. There, dozens of Delta flight attendants have come forward publicly to share with their flying partners their reasons for supporting the move to unionize.

Should Delta's flight attendants succeed in their bid to unionize, they will be airline's the second major work group to have union representation. At the present time, only Delta's pilots are represented by a union; they are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).