12 AUG 2009 _______________________________________ *Pilots debate midair warning systems *Air Canada jet makes unscheduled landing at Boeing Field *No Survivors From PNG Plane Crash *Uganda: Nation to Host Aviation Experts Next Week *The Future of Flight Safety **************************************** Pilots debate midair warning systems By Alan Levin, USA TODAY A warning device similar to those required on airliners could help prevent midair collisions such as the one that killed nine people flying above the Hudson River, federal accident investigators and some pilots said. A small plane and a sightseeing helicopter collided above the river Saturday, heavily damaging both aircraft and plunging them into the water. Emergency workers pulled a portion of the plane out of the river Tuesday. Two bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the plane, meaning all nine crash victims have been recovered, police said. Medical examiners will determine whether the bodies are those of the plane's pilot and a passenger, said the New York Police Department's chief spokesman, Paul Browne. The crash killed three Pennsylvania residents on the plane and five Italian tourists and a pilot on the helicopter. The collision occurred in the congested airspace between New Jersey and Manhattan. After a midair collision killed four people on two TV news helicopters in Phoenix in 2007, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that a midair warning system could help pilots track nearby aircraft. The agency recommended that the government design improvements in the safety system and require them on news choppers. Gary Sizemore, who flies air ambulance helicopters in busy airspace around Orlando, said he has flown with the device and it helps pilots see aircraft that are obscured by glare, haze or blind spots. "It's just one more layer in the safety blanket," Sizemore said. However, some pilots said that the systems are not well-suited to helicopters. In a crowded corridor such as the Hudson River, it may issue too many false alerts, they said. Matthew Zuccarro, president of the Helicopter Association International, said the system could actually distract pilots from looking outside for other traffic. "There's no magic bullet to this," said Zuccarro, who flew helicopters around New York for nearly 30 years. Midair collision avoidance systems were mandated on jets more than a decade ago. They have virtually eliminated midair crashes on commercial aircraft. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-08-11-air-collision_N.htm ************** Air Canada jet makes unscheduled landing at Boeing Field A Seattle-bound Air Canada flight from Toronto made an unscheduled landing at Seattle's Boeing Field Tuesday night after the pilot detected a flap problem and sought a longer runway than was available at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Air Canada's twin-engine Embraer E-190, Flight 541, made a safe landing at Boeing Field about 8:34 p.m., said Karen Byrd, FAA operations officer on duty. She said the field's runway, at 10,000 feet, is longer than runways available at Sea-Tac, where the longest runway has been closed for construction. "They landed fine," Byrd said. Firetrucks and emergency crews were called to Boeing Field as a precautionary measure, she said. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009642934_weblanding12m.htm l ************** No Survivors From PNG Plane Crash CANBERRA (Reuters) - Rescuers have reached the wreckage of a passenger aircraft that crashed in Papua New Guinea and found no survivors among the 13 passengers and crew, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Wednesday. The Airlines PNG De Havilland Twin Otter 300 with 11 passengers and two crew went missing over thickly forested mountains on Tuesday during a flight from the capital Port Moresby to the tourist destination of Kokoda. "Papua New Guinea officials on the ground at the crash site have concluded that there were no survivors from the crash," Rudd told Australia's parliament. Two helicopters began searching for the aircraft, which had nine Australians, one Japanese and three Papuans on board, in the rugged Owen Stanley Ranges earlier on Wednesday after poor weather in the area cleared. Aviation is hazardous in Papua New Guinea due to rugged, high mountains covered in thick jungle and rapidly changing weather conditions. Airlines PNG, listed on the PNG stock exchange, operates to domestic destinations and to northern Australia. The company's Web site said it has eight Twin Otters in its fleet. Australian tourists visit Kokoda to walk the Kokoda Track, where during World War Two Australian forces halted a Japanese troop advance on Port Moresby. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/08/12/world/international-us-papua-plane .html *************** Uganda: Nation to Host Aviation Experts Next Week Uganda's Civil Aviation Authority will next week host over 200 guests at this year's global civil aviation meeting that will be held in Kampala at the Imperial Royal Hotel. The symposium will bring together industry experts under the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) to deliberate on financial issues affecting African airports, air navigation and passengers. Among the topics of discussion will be the impact of user charges on airline operating costs, charges formulae used in African States, comparison of airport and air navigation charges. The meeting will be held from August 17 to 19. Mr Robert Kobeh Gonzalez, the incumbent ICAO President, will be in attendance among other top executives of several aviation authorities in Africa, according to a statement from the Civil Aviation Authority in Uganda. http://allafrica.com/stories/200908120264.html ***************** The Future of Flight Safety A sobering examination of technology and aviation safety by Gerald Traufetter of Der Spiegel by way of abcnews.com: There is no doubt that today's airplanes are so reliable that we tend to forget that we are sitting in an aluminum tube equipped with a full tank of kerosene and traveling at just below the speed of sound. On the positive side: There is currently less than one accident with fatal consequences for every million takeoffs and landings. Around 1960, at the beginning of the jet age, this figure was still at 11. If aviation were as unsafe today as it was in the 1970s, an airplane would fall from the sky once a week. The question is how to sustain and improve this record, especially as world air traffic continues to grow. The failure of Air France flight 442 over the Atlantic on its way from Brazil led some partisans of Boeing jets question the higher degree of automation of the Airbus, as opposed to the more modular controls of Boeing designs. The so far unresolved issue is which is likely to be more lethal in the near future, computer failure or what the strategist Herman Kahn called a "warm, human error." US Airways flight 1549, landed safely by Chesley B. Sullenberger III in the Hudson early this year after both engines were disabled by bird strikes, was also an Airbus. The sociologist Charles B. Perrow, a leading analyst of technological risk, believes we can't turn back the clock on computer control: The computers multiply as we demand more of our systems, and the cognitive load on the humans who have to work them expands commensurately. But cognition is by nature limited. To push the envelope of travel (and so much else in our technological society), we'll have to program more and more of our brain capacities into the computer. The feats of pilots like Chesley Sullenberger and United Airlines' Al Haynes remind us of the value of training and experience. But relying on superlative skills isn't enough. Bertolt Brecht's Galileo put it well: "Unhappy is the land that needs a hero." Usually the safety technology of the future doesn't have to come from a crash program. The military often is well in advance of the civilian market; the aviation medicine researcher John Paul Stapp was campaigning for automotive seat belts in the 1950s. The Spiegel report cites improved interfaces under developed at a German research institute. The concerns the article describes are hopeful signs. In safety matters, pride goeth before stagnation. Worry is good for us. Ten years ago air safety appeared to be stalled, according to at least one British aviation journalist, yet in part because of such criticism, it improved a lot. And the industry's critics may be more important than regulators. Because implementation of new safety proposals needs so many rounds of discussion at the FAA, as Matthew L. Wald pointed out early this year in the New York Times, airlines often respond to public pressure without waiting for FAA mandates: Sometimes the process is so slow that the F.A.A. persuades the airlines to solve problems outside the regulatory process. After a DC-9 operated by ValuJet crashed in the Everglades in May 1996 because of a fire in the cargo area, the F.A.A. doubted that the obvious fix -- the installation of fire detection and suppression equipment -- would pass muster with the White House because the cost might exceed the benefit. But following a public outcry, the airlines agreed to install the systems. When cost-benefit analysis and statistical life values meet indignation, it's usually outrage that wins. And a good thing, too. http://correspondents.theatlantic.com/edward_tenner/2009/08/the_future_of_fl ight_safety.php *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC