Flight Safety Information December 7, 2010 - No. 250 In This Issue Investigation Into Tu-154 Accident Begins Jet makes emergency landing after dog bites Plane evacuated at German airport in bomb scare Plane loses metal parts over Lisbon suburb Gov't air safety questioned in firefighting crash Saudi with snakes on a plane arrested at UAE airport Qantas unhappy with Rolls-Royce reaction Continental to appeal 'absurd' verdict in Concorde trial Cathay's Tyler quits to become next IATA chief Masters Degree Survey Investigation Into Tu-154 Accident Begins All Three Engines Failed, Two People Fatally Injured Russian investigators have begun looking at the Tupolev Tu-154 airliner which broke apart after making what amounted to a dead-stick landing and skidding off a runway Saturday. All three engines on the Russian-built airliner reportedly failed shortly after takeoff, and part of the airplane's landing gear reportedly collapsed during an emergency landing. The aircraft broke into three parts. Two people were killed in the accident, and some reports indicate that as many as 90 were injured. Media sources including the Blaze report that the airliner belonged to Dagestan Airlines. It had departed from Vnukovo Airport en route to Makhachakala in the Dagestan region of southern Russia. The Russian federal investigative committee said that two of the engines failed just about 50 miles from the airport on departure, and the pilot requested an emergency landing. The third engine reportedly lost power on final approach to Domodedovo, which is southeast of Moscow. There were conflicting media reports concerning the number of people on board the aircraft and the number of those injured. The aircraft was the same type as the one which went down in heavy fog earlier this year, fatally injuring Polish President Lech Kaczynski. FMI: www.avia.ru/english/links/?j Back to Top Jet makes emergency landing after dog bites (AP) Pilot diverted plane to Pittsburgh to ensure passenger, flight attendant OK The 12-pound Manchester terrier named Mandy was riding in an approved carrier on Flight 522 from Newark, N.J., airline and local authorities said. The dog's 89-year-old owner was one of 122 passengers and five crew members aboard. The dog bit a passenger who had tried to calm it and then broke out of its cage, officials said. The animal then ran up the plane's aisle and bit a flight attendant who tried to grab it. The bites were not severe, but the pilot landed the plane as a precaution, US Airways spokesman Todd Lehmacher said. "We allow pets in the cabin as long as they are in an approved container and under the seat in the carrier," Lehmacher said. The flight resumed without the woman and her dog, and landed in Phoenix hours later. The woman, whose name was not released, spoke with authorities in Pittsburgh before boarding a different flight to Phoenix with her dog. Back to Top Plane evacuated at German airport in bomb scare (AP) BERLIN - An Aeroflot flight was evacuated at a Berlin airport on Monday after an unidentified person claimed there was a bomb on board, but the incident turned out to be a hoax, federal police said. Federal police spokesman Joerg Kunzendorf said 140 passengers were evacuated, and then searched along with their luggage. The plane was also searched, but no explosives were found. The plane was allowed to depart from Schoenefeld airport and head to Moscow after a five hour delay, Kunzendorf said. He said the threat was sent by fax to several German news agencies, who then alerted the authorities. He declined to say what was behind the threat. Back to Top Plane loses metal parts over Lisbon suburb A plane, believed to be an Angolan passenger jet that was forced to make an emergency landing, shed metal parts over a Lisbon suburb Monday damaging two cars and a building, authorities said. A Boeing 777 belonging to Angolan carrier TAAG with 125 people on board made an emergency landing in the Portuguese capital soon after takeoff, the airline said. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/ Back to Top Gov't air safety questioned in firefighting crash WASHINGTON (AP) - An investigation into the crash of a U.S. Forest Service firefighting helicopter that killed nine people two years ago has revived concerns about the safety of government aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board meets Tuesday to determine the cause of the Aug. 5, 2008, crash near Weaverville, Calif., and make safety recommendations. The Sikorsky S-61N helicopter was carrying firefighters from the front lines of a stubborn wildfire in the Trinity Alps Wilderness. It had been airborne less than a minute when it lost power and fell into the forest. Seven firefighters, the pilot and a Forest Service safety inspector were killed. The co- pilot and three firefighters were injured. Documents previously released by the board indicate the helicopter, leased to the Forest Service by Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore., was at least 1,000 pounds overweight when pilots tried to take off from a rugged mountaintop clearing. The documents also indicate Carson may have understated the weight of the helicopter, as well as others in its fleet, preventing the pilots from accurately calculating if the chopper had enough power to carry 13 people plus firefighting equipment and fuel. An executive for Carson declined to comment. Twenty-three federal agencies, including the Forest Service, operate 1,632 nonmilitary planes and helicopters, according to the General Services Administration. Some are owned and maintained by the government, while others are leased from private companies such as Carson. Hundreds more are operated by state and local governments. A string of fatal accidents involving government aircraft over the last two decades has repeatedly drawn attention to safety oversight by regulators, but little has changed. The Federal Aviation Administration says it doesn't have the authority to regulate and inspect government aircraft, especially when those planes are used for government missions like firefighting, wildlife surveys and border patrol. Companies that provide aircraft to government agencies for the occasional transport of passengers must follow FAA regulations, according the U.S. General Services Administration. But aircraft dedicated strictly to government use don't receive safety oversight. "The law that allows those entities to escape the scrutiny and requirements of the FAA is outdated and needs to be changed," said John Goglia, a former NTSB board member. Fatal accidents involving government aircraft are commonplace. A 2001 study by the board said there were 341 accidents involving nonmilitary government aircraft between 1993 and 2000. Among accidents in the last two years: - A Forest Service plane conducting an aerial survey of tree defoliation in southwestern Pennsylvania in June struck a light post while trying to land near Lock Haven, Pa. The pilot and two Forest Service employees were killed. - A California Fish and Game Department helicopter surveying deer collided with power lines near Fresno, Calif, in January. The pilot and three passengers were killed. - Also in January, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service helicopter on a repositioning flight crashed northwest of Corvallis, Ore., killing the pilot and a passenger. - A New Mexico State Police search and rescue helicopter that had just retrieved a lost hiker crashed into a hillside near Santa Fe in June 2009. The pilot and the hiker were killed; a patrolman acting as a spotter was seriously injured. - Two pilots and a passenger were killed in April 2009 when an air tanker leased by the Forest Service crashed near Stockton, Utah, in rain and fog. Back to Top Saudi with snakes on a plane arrested at UAE airport (AFP) "The man was just about to board a plane at the capital's airport when a member of staff noticed that something was moving inside a box he was carrying," said an English-language paper, 7Days. "The passenger was taken to one side and asked to open up his luggage, and inside were four snakes, two parrots and a squirrel, all alive and separated in different compartments inside the box," it added. The National said the Saudi, booked on Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways and whose final destination was another unspecified Arab country, "was caught at the first security checkpoint" after landing in the Emirati capital on Thursday. "Carrying animals on board is strictly prohibited. In this case, other passengers' safety was at risk," Khamis al-Marar, Abu Dhabi's acting chief of security affairs and ports, was quoted as saying. He told 7Days that "the passenger had no certificates or documentation for the animals. And we didn't know if they were rare animals or if they could have had diseases." Licensed animals have to travel in specially designed boxes, stored in the aircraft's hold, he said in The National, also an English-language daily. Back to Top Qantas unhappy with Rolls-Royce reaction Qantas has made clear that it is not happy with Rolls-Royce's handling of the Airbus A380 engine failure crisis, and has prepared the way for court action against the engine manufacturer. The airline says it will take legal action unless the two parties can agree a settlement over losses resulting from grounding of its six A380s after the uncontained failure of a Trent 900 on 4 November. This failure forced a Qantas A380 to make an emergency landing at Singapore, the airframe having received considerable damage from high- energy escaping engine fragments. On 2 December the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) provided more insight into the issues behind the failure, and recommended an additional one-off inspection within two flight cycles. This extra inspection requirement was advised following an examination, at R-R's Derby plant, of the failed engine and others which, during the initial inspection regime, showed evidence of the same problem. Industry sources say that the problem affects only the "A mod" and "B mod" Trent 900 variants. The latest variant, the "C mod", is not subject to the latest findings. This appears to indicate that R-R identified the fault and fixed it on the latest engine variant. The first Trent 900 that Lufthansa had to change was an early variant, but it is not known precisely when R-R applied the modifications, and customers have become increasingly unhappy with the way the manufacturer has handled the entire incident. Sources say that R-R's chief executive John Rose has visited Singapore and other Asian countries to try to explain the situation to both existing and future A380 operators. However, the carriers are making it clear that they expect the engine manufacturer to be more open about the problem. In the first public details about the likely causes of the 4 November incident, the ATSB says that there was "fatigue cracking" in a stub pipe that feeds oil into the high- pressure/intermediate pressure bearing structure. This led to an oil leakage, and subsequently an oil fire and the engine failure, it explains, adding: "While the analysis of the engine failure is ongoing, it has been identified that the leakage of oil into the HP/IP bearing structure buffer space, and a subsequent oil fire within that area, was central to the engine failure and IP turbine disc liberation event." The ATSB statement continues: "Further examination of the cracked area has identified the axial misalignment of an area of counter-boring within the inner diameter of the stub pipe; the misalignment having produced a localised thinning of the pipe wall on one side. The area of fatigue cracking was associated with the area of pipe wall thinning." Qantas and Singapore Airlines grounded their A380s as a result. SIA resumed services soon after the European Aviation Safety Agency issued guidelines for additional inspections. Qantas restarted A380 flights on 27 November. After discussions with Qantas, R-R and Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the ATSB has now recommended a more detailed one-off inspection of Trent 900 engines. These should be conducted within two flight cycles, and supplement the 20-cycle inspection mandated by EASA after the first incident. The findings apply to all "relevant" Trent 900 variants operated worldwide, so SIA and Lufthansa are also affected. "We have begun the inspections and are complying with the recommendations, which are intended to ensure the continued safe operation of the fleet," says SIA. Qantas does not expect any additional impact on international services, but says that it "will determine any further response after it has finalised the inspection regime and consulted with both regulators and the manufacturer". http://www.flightglobal.com/ Back to Top Continental to appeal 'absurd' verdict in Concorde trial Continental Airlines will appeal today's verdict by a French court that holds both the airline and a mechanic guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the July 2000 BAC- Aerospatiale Concorde crash on the outskirts of Paris. A metallic strip shed from a Continental Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 had been blamed for bursting a tyre on the supersonic Air France aircraft during departure from Paris Charles de Gaulle. Fragments of the tyre penetrated one of Concorde's fuel tanks. leading to a fire, loss of control and crash that killed all 109 on board. In a strongly-worded statement, the US carrier describes the verdict as "absurd" and an attempt to shift the blame for the accident away from domestic parties. "Portraying the metal strip as the cause of the accident and Continental and one of its employees as the sole guilty parties shows the determination of the French authorities to shift attention and blame away from Air France, which was government-owned at the time and operated and maintained the aircraft, as well as from the French authorities responsible for the Concorde's airworthiness and safety," says the carrier. "To find that any crime was committed in this tragic accident is not supported either by the evidence at trial or by aviation authorities and experts around the world." While welcoming the court's decision to clear Continental supervisor Stanley Ford of charges and sharing his relief "that his decade-long nightmare is over", Continental says: "We strongly disagree with the court's verdict regarding Continental Airlines and [mechanic] John Taylor and will, of course, appeal this absurd finding." No timescale for the appeal has yet been decided. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Cathay's Tyler quits to become next IATA chief Cathay Pacific chief executive Tony Tyler is intending to resign at the end of March next year to take up the post of IATA director general. Tyler will succeed Giovanni Bisignani in the top post at IATA. Cathay Pacific has confirmed Tyler's intention to step down, in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, and has named chief operating officer John Slosar as his replacement. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Masters Degree Survey I am a graduated student working on a research project as part of a Masters Degree in Air Safety Management with City University of London. Part of my project is a survey on the topic: "Use of procedures in Aircraft Maintenance"; which aims to collect information on how maintenance and engineering personnel (line, base and workshop) accesses and uses maintenance documentation in their respective workplaces. This survey is strictly anonymous and confidential and as mentioned is address to all Line, Base or Workshop maintenance personnel both licensed and unlicensed. In order to answer this survey simply follow this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PJ5NPCK For questions or comments on this survey please use the following email address: maintsurvey.cityuniversity@gmail.com Thank you Jorge Reis Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC