13 AUG 2009 _______________________________________ *Gulf Air gets latest flight safety system from Austin Digital, Inc. *Sequa Corporation Names Mark V. Rosenker to Board of Directors *CHRISTOPHER A. HART SWORN IN AS NTSB MEMBER *Two die in plane crash at Eden Prairie airport (Beech-18) *Essential airstrips fail to meet global standards (Australia) *Chinese Court Accepts CRJ-200 Crash Case *Boeing Statistical Study of Commercial Airplane Accident-2008 (Attached) **************************************** Gulf Air gets latest flight safety system from Austin Digital, Inc. National carrier Gulf Air has upgraded its flight safety standards by acquiring an integrated state-of -the-art Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) system, also known as Flight Operation Quality Assurance (FOQA) system. The airline has recently signed a three year partnership with Austin Digital, Texas, USA - a leading FOQA provider - to implement the complete infrastructure at Gulf Air headquarters. FDM is the systematic and pro-active use of digital flight data from routine operations that helps an airline to improve its fleet safety. It is a well accepted and mandatory part of today's safety management systems in global aviation industry. "Gulf Air has a well-established Accident Prevention and Flight Safety Program and regularly upgrades its systems and procedures so that it maintains the highest flight safety standards," said Gulf Air chief operating officer Capt Chris Cain. "The new integrated FDM system offers a robust and sophisticated functionality to analyse and optimise our daily flight operations helping us increase our fleet's technical dispatch reliability. "The system also offers remote access to in-flight data that facilitates a more efficient maintenance planning and in our daily aircraft system's troubleshooting processes. Furthermore, the service offers a solid basis for additional financial savings in the fields of guarantees and warranties, ATC charges, fuel savings, etc," he added. Besides setting up and implementing the FDM service, Austin Digital will also provide continuous support to technical system operation and flight safety/flight operations efficiency know-how after completion of the project.-TradeArabia News Service http://www.tradearabia.com/news/newsdetails.asp?Sn=TTN&artid=165737 **************** Sequa Corporation Names Mark V. Rosenker to Board of Directors NEW YORK, NY UNITED STATES (Rosenker Led National Transportation Safety Board Until July 2009) NEW YORK, Aug. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Sequa Corporation, a diversified industrial company owned by The Carlyle Group, today named former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Mark V. Rosenker to its Board of Directors. Rosenker, who held the top NTSB position until his resignation in July, also retired as a Major General in the U.S. Air Force Reserve in December 2006, after 37 years of combined active and reserve service. During a distinguished career, Rosenker also served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Military Office. In this position, he was responsible for managing the military assets and personnel that support the President and Vice President. "Mark's leadership at the nation's top accident investigation agency and his service and leadership at the Department of Defense is exemplary and will bring vision and guidance to Sequa Corporation and its operating units, particularly Chromalloy," said Peter J. Clare, Chairman, Sequa Corporation Board of Directors. Sequa Corporation operates as a holding company with four business units: Chromalloy, ARC Automotive Inc., CASCO Products and Precoat Metals. Chromalloy, the largest Sequa unit, is a worldwide supplier of gas turbine engine repairs, components, and Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) replacement parts used in commercial airline and military fleets, and by industrial power and utility operators. Rosenker was sworn in as the 11th Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board in 2006. His two-year term as Chairman expired in August 2008 and he was nominated by President Bush for a second two-year term as Chairman. Rosenker led the NTSB as Chairman or Acting Chairman since March 2005, and until July was serving his second five-year term as a member. Beginning in 2001 until joining the NTSB, Rosenker served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Military Office. Prior to his White House appointment, Rosenker was Managing Director of the Washington Office of the United Network for Organ Sharing. Earlier he served as Vice President, Public Affairs, for the Electronic Industries Alliance. His professional experience includes service in the Department of the Interior, Federal Trade Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Rosenker entered the Air Force through the University of Maryland ROTC program. He is a graduate of the Air Command and Staff College and Air War College. During his Air Force service, he earned a number of awards and decorations including two Air Force Distinguished Service Medals and the Legion of Merit. He was a member of the Board of Visitors to the Community College of the Air Force. The Carlyle Group is a global private equity firm with significant expertise in the aerospace, defense and information technology government services sectors. Sequa Corporation is a diversified industrial company with operations in the aerospace, metal coatings and automotive industries. Sequa is a Carlyle Group portfolio company. For additional information, visit www.sequa.com. ************* CHRISTOPHER A. HART SWORN IN AS NTSB MEMBER Christopher A. Hart was sworn in today as a Member of the National Transportation Safety Board. Member Hart joins the Board after a long career in transportation safety, including a previous term as a Member of the NTSB. Most recently, Member Hart was Deputy Director for Air Traffic Safety Oversight at the Federal Aviation Administration. He was previously the FAA Assistant Administrator for the Office of System Safety. He served as a Member of the NTSB from 1990 to 1993. After leaving the Board, he served as Deputy Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He had been at the FAA since 1995. From 1973 until joining the Board in 1990, Member Hart held a series of legal positions, mostly in the private sector. He holds a law degree from Harvard University and Master's and Bachelor's degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Lawyer-Pilots Bar Association. Member Hart is a licensed pilot with commercial, multi- engine and instrument ratings. His term expires December 31, 2012. *************** Two die in plane crash at Eden Prairie airport (Beech-18) On his first flight in a plane he recently purchased, a 53-year-old Osceola, Wis., man and an unidentified passenger died Wednesday in a fiery crash at an Eden Prairie airport. Wayne Monson had recently purchased the Beechcraft E18S airplane, a 50-year-old workhorse with twin-propellers and twin tail rudders. The experienced pilot spent day after day at Flying Cloud Airport working to make the plane airworthy. On Wednesday morning, Monson and a passenger took off from the airport in Eden Prairie en route to Osceola, Wis. Moments after leaving the runway, witnesses said, the plane began teetering back and forth, an engine chuffed black smoke and the Beechcraft fell from the sky. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the accident, the first fatal plane wreck at the airport since 2001. No cause has been determined, and authorities have not officially released the identities of the two victims in the plane. The FAA confirmed two people died in the accident. Monson's family said the father of 7 worked on airplanes for a living at Ratech Machine in Osceola and had his pilot's license for at least 20 years. They did not know who else was in the plane with Monson Wednesday when it crashed. The former Hibbing resident had three sons still living on the Iron Range - the oldest is 19 - and kept a trailer home on property there so he could visit them every weekend, said Lois Rengstorf, the mother of his ex-wife. The two were still friends, she said, and raised the boys together. "He was going to take them all to Valley Fair after this plane testing," Rengstorf said. "He just got it ready for flying." The plane had been on the ground at Flying Cloud for years, according to a mechanic and pilot who did not want to be identified Wednesday. Monson had only recently begun working on it. The previous owner is listed as Beech Transportation Inc. in Eden Prairie, http://www.twincities.com/ci_13045041?source=most_viewed ***** Date: 12-AUG-2009 Time: 11:45am (app Type: Beech E18S Operator: Registration: N3038C C/n / msn: BA-374 Fatalities: Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Eden Prairie, MI - United States of America Phase: Initial climb Nature: Private Departure airport: KFCM (Flying Cloud Apt., MI) Destination airport: Wisconsin Narrative: Aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie. (aviation-safety.net) *************** Essential airstrips fail to meet global standards (Australia) THE Federal Government has said it will do what it can to help bolster aviation safety in Papua New Guinea, a nation renowned for having some of the world's most difficult terrain and basic aviation infrastructure. Mountainous territory and a lack of adequate roads mean locals and tourists rely on aircraft for transportation. However, regional landing strips often fall short of the standards of most developed countries. Compounding safety concerns in PNG is the absence of a fully operational air crash investigator, despite numerous fatal accidents in the past decade and pledges by the government to set up an Air Accident Commission in 2004. The commission was supposed to investigate 19 crashes that had occurred between 1999 and 2004, including one accident that claimed the lives of three Australians in 1999. The commission was finally established in July last year, just weeks before an air safety audit from the International Civil Aviation Organisation, though government sources in Australia and PNG say it is still not fully operational. A source from the PNG Department of Transport, who asked not to be named, said the commission was hamstrung by a lack of government funding. A former Kokoda Track Authority chairman, Warren Bartlett, said airstrips across the country faced neglect, and that it was the poor condition of the airstrip at Efogi which contributed to an Australian Defence Force Caribou aircraft crashing there in October last year. ''There is a need to upgrade many airstrips in the country, especially the rural ones,'' he said. Mr Bartlett said he has been pushing the Australian and PNG governments to upgrade the Kokoda airstrip since 2006 so larger aircraft could land there. But no funding has been provided for the project, and it was put on the backburner after Cyclone Guba hit in November 2007, Mr Bartlett said The Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, said yesterday that the Australian regulators already worked closely with their PNG counterparts but the Government would consider further safety measures. ''In the aftermath of a terrible event like this, again, we will do an exhaustive assessment of what more we can do,'' he told Sky News. The aviator Dick Smith said many of the airstrips in PNG would not pass Australian standards. But, Mr Smith said, even with better regulation and improved facilities accidents would still occur in PNG because of the difficult terrain and notoriously bad flying weather. Source: The Sydney Morning Herald **************** Chinese Court Accepts CRJ-200 Crash Case Relatives of the victims of a 2004 crash of a Bombardier CRJ-200 under undertaking landmark litigation against the airframe manufacturer, engine maker General Electric and operator China Eastern. A Chinese court's acceptance of the case marks the first instance of air crash litigation going to trial in the country. The crash at the Inner Mongolian city Baotou on Nov. 21, 2004, killed 32. The relatives are seeking 123 million yuan (US$18 million) in compensation. http://www.aviationweek.com ***************** *Boeing Statistical Study of Commercial Airplane Accident-2008 (Attached) ***************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC