Flight Safety Information June 17, 2010 - No. 119 In This Issue Three hurt as jet slides off runway FAA Removes 'Taxi To' From Controller Vocabulary Air Canada pilots call for creation of department to oversee security ASIAS aims to identify aviation safety risks before they occur Air India to set up MRO base in Dubai Afriqiyah crash: No immediate Airbus safety recommendations HAVE YOU TRIED ADVERTISING IN FSI? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Three hurt as jet slides off runway Emergency workers examine a United Express plane after it slid off the runway at Ottawa International Airport on Wednesday. The airliner, built by Brazilian aerospace group Embraer, left the runway as it arrived from Washington, D.C., injuring two crew members. Photograph by: Blair Gable, Reuters, Ottawa Citizen; Canwest News Service Two crew members and a passenger were injured Wednesday after a United Express plane slid off the runway at Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. Flight 8050 was landing in Ottawa after a flight from Washington, D.C., when it slid off the runway, said Krista Kealey, an airport spokeswoman. The Ottawa fire department, which sent three trucks and a safety officer to the airport, said it appears the plane's front landing gear collapsed after it left the runway. A spokesperson for United Airlines said 29 passengers were on board at the time of the incident, plus three crew members. The two male pilots on the plane were slightly injured; one suffered a neck injury, while the other hurt a leg. An elderly female passenger was treated for a minor neck injury. The Transportation Safety Board quickly announced an investigation into the incident. The board identified the plane involved as an Embraer 145. When Flight 8050 landed on Runway 7-25, Ottawa airport officials said, the plane was unable to slow down. It eventually made an abrupt turn and slid onto the grass. Passengers were led in orderly fashion onto one of the plane's wings, and from there, they jumped off. Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FAA Removes 'Taxi To' From Controller Vocabulary New Phraseology Goes Into Effect June 30th Beginning at the end of this month, Air Traffic Controllers will no longer be using the phase "Taxi To" when clearing aircraft to an assigned takeoff runway. The change establishes the requirement that an explicit runway crossing clearance be issued for each runway (active, inactive, or closed) crossing and requires an aircraft or vehicle to have crossed the previous runway before another runway crossing clearance may be issued. At airports where the taxi route between runway centerlines is less than 1,000 feet apart, multiple runway crossings may be issued after receiving approval by the Terminal Services Director of Operations. Aircraft will no longer automatically be authorized to cross all runways and taxiways which the taxi route intersects except the assigned runway. In the amended taxi and ground order procedures, controllers are instructed to issue the route for the aircraft or other vehicle to follow on the movement area in concise and easy to understand terms. The taxi clearance must include the specific route to follow. When a taxi clearance to a runway is issued to an aircraft, controllers should confirm the aircraft has the correct runway assignment. A pilot's read back of taxi instructions with the runway assignment can be considered confirmation of runway assignment. Movement of aircraft or vehicles on nonmovement areas is the responsibility of the pilot, the aircraft operator, or the airport management. Controllers are told that when authorizing either to proceed on the movement area, or to any point other than assigned takeoff runway, specify the taxi instructions. If it is the intent to hold the aircraft or vehicle short of any given point along the taxi route, routes should be issued followed by holding instructions. The absence of holding instructions authorizes an aircraft/vehicle to cross all taxiways that intersect the taxi route. Under the new procedure, an authorization for an aircraft to taxi to an assigned takeoff runway should include the departure runway followed by the specific taxi route. Controllers are instructed to issue hold short restrictions when an aircraft will be required to hold short of a runway or other points along the taxi route. Finally, the new procedures say that aircraft or vehicles must receive a runway crossing clearance for each runway that their taxi route crosses. An aircraft or vehicle must have crossed a previous runway before another runway crossing clearance may be issued. The FAA Runway Safety Call to Action Committee issued several recommendations to address improving runway safety across the NAS. In response to the Committee's recommendations, the ATO convened a Safety Risk Management Panel to evaluate the safety of the Committee recommendations. These are two of the recommended changes from the Call to Action Committee. FMI: www.faa.gov Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Air Canada pilots call for creation of department to oversee security Organization says major threats still exist despite progress made since 9/11 Airline crews and passengers face "substantial risks" when they board airplanes because of major holes in aviation security, Canada's largest pilot group says. The Air Canada Pilots Association's policy white paper on aviation security commends the federal government for the progress it has made since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but said big changes are still needed to enhance global aviation security. "Many major gaps in the overall aviation security environment remain unresolved and continue to pose substantial risks to civil aviation employees, users and facilities," said the association, which represents more than 3,000 pilots. This is demonstrated "on a regular basis through the execution of unsettling, 'near-miss' attempted terrorist attacks against the worldwide civil aviation network." The pilot group wants a single government department to assume responsibilities delegated to Canada's aviation security agency and local airport authorities. The current devolution of powers "precludes any ability for this agency to develop and implement the intelligence-based plans required to stay ahead of an evolving and adoptive threat," the report states. Part of this effort would be to shift emphasis from basic passenger screening to policing and intelligence gathering. This would include combining existing closed circuit television systems with facial recognition software to scan for known security threats at major airports, as well as bolstering policing at airports, the white paper argues. In addition to training security personnel in behavioural pattern recognition, Transport Canada should require training of flights crews and other airline staff in behavioural profiling so they can pick out physiological or bodily hints of hostile intent. The federal government earlier this week launched a full review of CATSA, responsible for the pre-board screening of passengers and baggage screening through airport explosives detection systems. Paul Strachan, president of the Air Canada Pilots Association, says the bottom line is the federal government has delegated too much responsibility to this Crown corporation. Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103488683313&s=6053&e=001xZ8lwQl6fVg_HxTFrNusvXKvxyEO3pKzOPMqvVf17pUh87wramvZxiXf-iXrwi-gyM1ObdCGFC-o-D2xX0dPh7cAd75PhuFSiBPvBL4_75x_SXfpxcKBPA==] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ASIAS aims to identify aviation safety risks before they occur Building on the tremendous success of the CAST (Commercial Aviation Safety Team) program in improving US airline safety, aviation stakeholders embarked on the next major step toward eliminating fatal accidents. According to Continental Airlines' Don Gunther, CAST industry co-chair, the goal is to "transition to a prognostic and diagnostic safety program" to identify potential problems before they occur. Speaking to media in Washington and by phone Tuesday, Gunther and other key participants in the effort outlined the goals they hope to achieve through a new tool, the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing system or ASIAS. FAA Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety and CAST government co-chair Peggy Gilligan said that CAST, established in 1997 with participation from FAA, NASA, the Dept. of Defense, the air transport industry, OEMs and organized labor, set a goal of achieving an 80% reduction in the US fatal accident rate over the next decade--and surpassed it. While noting that advances in aircraft and systems, regulatory actions and industry initiatives played a big role in the improvement, "there is no question that the continued work of CAST contributed to our accomplishing that ultimate goal," she said. Driving the accident rate even lower, however, will require a different approach. "We have so few accidents right now that we need more data points," Gunther said. That's where ASIAS comes in. ASIAS combines data from a number of sources, including Flight Operations Quality Assurance programs, Aviation Safety Action Programs, the Aviation Safety Reporting System, the Air Traffic Safety Action Program for air traffic controllers, the national offload program, radar track data and data from ASDE-X. In all, ASIAS draws from 46 government and industry databases with plans to grow this to roughly 64 by 2013. "We have demonstrated the capability to pull these data sources together, or fuse them," said Jay Pardee, director of FAA's Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention. This enables CAST to gain "insights into problems and emerging threats" that were not possible to identify using only some of the data sets. He provided a real-life example: Flight crews were reporting receiving TAWS warning signals at mountainous terrain airports despite being under positive control and on the correct flight path: "When they combined that with FAA's radar track data, it did in fact align in the locations the flight crews were reporting their concerns. When we looked at the aircraft FOQA data, where the terrain avoidance warnings were realized they were in the same location, latitude, longitude, height above terrain. I think from the ability to fuse all of those data sources with high-resolution terrain data, we saw the need to both have the FAA improve how it vectors traffic into arrival in mountainous terrain airports, such as through RNAV procedures [and] we saw the opportunity to require aircraft to upgrade their TAWS software, and to add GPS." ASIAS also can show whether safety enhancements are doing any good. "We have the capability to measure...penetration of the safety nets," he said. Having data from so many sources "gives us for the first time almost a 360-degree capability to view a problem or emerging threat through the eyes of controllers, maintenance technicians, dispatchers" as well as the aircraft's actual performance. http://atwonline.com/ Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Air India to set up MRO base in Dubai Air India plans to set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) base for its operations in the Middle East in Dubai from end-July. The centre will be stocked with spares and other inventory, and will also have stand-by aircraft with crew which can be deployed in cases of flight delays, says an Air India spokesman. "We have expanded our operations quite significantly in the Middle East, and there have been some small glitches when spare parts are not available," he adds. A maintenance centre in Dubai will minimise the need to have parts sent from Mumbai, says the spokesman. The carrier is reviewing its operations in the Middle East in the wake of a deadly crash last month involving an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which overran the runway at Mangalore International Airport in southern India after a flight from Dubai. However, Air India's spokesman says that the plan to set up a maintenance centre in Dubai is not an indication that maintenance fault was behind the crash. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103488683313&s=6053&e=001xZ8lwQl6fViDi5VoiBZaJNN_KWoiBwVZPEvBm0f2kAloPWJx6gQOCT2KJhwbVESw1TnWrkNhM8xPXVBje2WxPVrt8Rt8fDOy] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Afriqiyah crash: No immediate Airbus safety recommendations Airbus is not issuing any immediate safety recommendations following initial findings from the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330-200 crash at Tripoli last month. The twin-jet, arriving from Johannesburg, came down on approach on 12 May. Following initial analysis of the wreckage, and the cockpit-voice and flight-data recorders, Libya's civil aviation authority has cleared Airbus to issue a telex to operators confirming that there was "no aircraft systems or engines malfunction". "Both recorders were in good conditions to allow understanding [of] the main sequence of events," states the telex. There was no evidence of fuel starvation, nor any indication of a fire or explosion before impact. "At this stage, Airbus has no specific immediate safety recommendation to raise," says the telex. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Back to Top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC