Flight Safety Information January 11, 2011 - No. 009 In This Issue Study Recommends Installing Air Bags on Private Planes Iran plane crash black box found Jordanian airplane passenger threatens flight with grenade Boeing Celebrates Final Assembly of 1,000th 767 3 Passengers Taken From JetBlue Plane, No Charges Delta backs Saudi Arabian Airlines for alliance Study Recommends Installing Air Bags on Private Planes By ANDY PASZTOR (WSJ) Federal air-safety investigators on Tuesday are slated to issue the first formal government nonbinding recommendations for installing air bags to save lives in private-plane accidents. The National Transportation Safety Board's groundbreaking study, according to people familiar with the details, is expected to outline the benefits of air bags in reducing fatalities and injuries when small aircraft crash. After assessing the performance of air bags in roughly two dozen such accidents over three years, they said, the safety board has agreed to call for more widespread use of air-bag technology on private planes. These planes typically carry less than half a dozen people, but some models can carry several more. Board members also appear ready to push for faster adoption of air bags on business aircraft, although that poses greater industry and operator hurdles. The study "looks favorably upon air bags" and staffers "are going to advocate for their use," according to Joseph Kolly, head of the board's office of research and engineering. Based on the study, the five- member board is poised to issue wide-ranging recommendations covering both newly manufactured and older models, according to people familiar with the matter. The safety board, which makes nonbinding recommendations, isn't expected to call for federal mandates for stepped-up air-bag deployment. Instead the board wants voluntary compliance. Only the Federal Aviation Administration has authority to mandate safety improvements. With approximately 1,600 general aviation accidents claiming roughly 500 lives each year across the U.S., experts believe many more crashes would be survivable with the help of air-bag technology. In an interview Monday, Mr. Kolly said air-bags provide "an opportunity to drive those [fatality] numbers down," adding that the safety board is in a good position "to make judgments about the technology" and its future applications. The majority of new general aviation models, including Cessna and Cirrus aircraft, already feature air bags that typically deploy from shoulder harnesses. In addition, the devices can be purchased as optional factory-installed equipment on many other models. The cost is around $2,000 total for installation on the two front seats. But in light of the huge existing fleet of older planes, overall less than 5% of the roughly 200,000 currently registered U.S. private aircraft have air bags. And those all stem from voluntary efforts by manufacturers and other groups. To accelerate installation of the devices-which have been embraced at a faster rate by airlines as a result of federal mandates-the board and other safety experts are now stepping up efforts emphasizing the importance of retrofitting private planes. Retrofits are more expensive, and so far private pilots generally have been slow to purchase the upgrades for older aircraft. Historically, safety-board members have been leery of the cost of calling for sweeping federal mandates affecting general aviation. Closely held AmSafe industries Inc., the primary supplier of air bags for general aviation, business jets and airliners, has sold about 19,000 air-bag devices for general aviation. Bill Hagan, the Phoenix-based company's president, said the uptake over just a few years "is a testament to the lifesaving benefit this technology offers" for pilots and passengers alike. Drawing parallels to the steady progression of safety enhancements in the automotive industry, Mr. Hagan said in an interview that buying a private plane in some ways is comparable to choosing a car. "You wouldn't buy one if it didn't have air bags," he said, and soon private pilots and airline passengers "will expect the same." According to AmSafe's own studies of more than 200 general aviation accidents in which air bags deployed, the equipment is credited with directly saving at least 18 lives. In May, a 35-year old female pilot on her third solo flight encountered a violent wind shift while landing in Arizona, snared a wingtip and the badly-damaged, single-engine Piper Cherokee skidded for 2,000 feet. According to AmSafe, the pilot "walked away with nothing more than a scratch on her knee." In an earlier accident cited by the AmSafe, a flight instructor and two others aboard a Cirrus aircraft attempted an emergency landing in Florida after a serous throttle malfunction. The plane impacted trees and ended upside down in a swampy area one-quarter mile short of the runway, but the company says everyone walked away from the crash scene. On airliners, air bags are used to protect passengers seated near bulkheads, or in premium seats that turn into beds or partly face sideways. Federal safety regulations mandate extra crash protection for occupants of such seats, otherwise airlines would have to reduce the total number of first-class or business-class seats in the cabins of many of their long-range jets. When it comes to general aviation, however, the safety board wants pilots and government regulators to be more aggressive in employing safety harnesses and air bags. In recent years, manufacturers have paid increasing attention to the crashworthiness of small, private planes, including designing stronger seats, more durable shoulder restraints and more rigid fuselages. Yet in many accidents involving older propeller aircraft, investigators have found that the lack of shoulder harnesses-or failures by pilots and passengers to adjust them correctly-contributed significantly to deaths and serious injuries. The impending safety study addresses those issues as well. Recently, the FAA has joined the campaign for greater voluntary reliance on advanced restraints or air bags. One FAA study of 647 general aviation accidents in Alaska between 2004 and 2009, for instance, determined that extra safety equipment would have turned about 75% of the fatal crashes into survivable accidents. Specifically, the study found that "inflatable restraints" likely would have prevented 38 of 133 fatalities by reducing the impact with hard surfaces. Back to Top Iran plane crash black box found (UKPA) - Investigators have found the black box from a passenger jet which crashed while trying to make an emergency landing in a snowstorm in north-western Iran, killing at least 77 people. The pilots of the Boeing-727, operated by Iran's national airline and carrying 104 passengers and crew, reported a technical failure to the control tower before trying to make the landing on Sunday, state-run TV reported. The IranAir aircraft broke into several pieces, but Mahmoud Mozaffar, head of the rescue department of Iran's Red Crescent Society, said there was no explosion or fire. Footage on state TV showed the plane's crumpled fuselage lying in a field, torn apart in several places, under whirling snow in the darkness as rescue workers and local farmers searched for survivors in the hours after the crash. Heavy snow hampered rescue efforts, the semi-official Fars news agency cited the head of the state emergency centre as saying. That report also mentioned fog in the area. State TV said the aircraft disappeared from radar and went down in farmland after making a second attempt to land at the airport in the north-western city of Orumiyeh. The nature of the technical failure was not clear. Iran's transport minister Hamid Behbahani said 77 people died and 27 were injured, some critically. He said the flight was carrying 104 passengers and crew, correcting earlier reports of 105 on board. He said the plane's flight data recorder, known as the black box, had been recovered "and is now being studied by a committee probing the crash". Some of the passengers were able to walk away from the landing, a spokesman for the civil aviation authority said. There were conflicting accounts on whether all 104 on board were accounted for, with some TV reports saying all were found and others saying two remained missing. The state news agency IRNA said two children were among the dead. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a message of condolence to the families of the victims and ordered a quick investigation into the cause of the crash. The aircraft was heading from Tehran to Orumiyeh, capital of West Azerbaijan province, a distance of about 460 miles. Back to Top Jordanian airplane passenger threatens flight with grenade AMMAN, JORDAN (AP)- A Jordanian airport official says police have arrested a Jordanian man for threatening to blow up the plane he was on with a hand grenade. The man told a member of the cabin crew about his intentions to blow up the plane as it was preparing to take off from Amman's Queen Alia International Airport late Monday. The pilot turned the plane around and the man was arrested without a struggle, the official added, insisting on anonymity because is not allowed to speak to the press. He said bomb squads were searching the plane and that the man was being questioned. No hand grenade was immediately found. Back to Top Boeing Celebrates Final Assembly of 1,000th 767 Landmark airplane is last to be built before assembly line moves EVERETT, Wash., Jan. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Final assembly started today on the 1,000th Boeing (NYSE: BA) 767 airplane. Workers marked the milestone with a celebration at the Everett, Wash. factory. "This milestone is a credit to every employee who had a hand in building 767s over the past 30 years," said Kim Pastega, vice president and general manager of the 767 program, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "It is a testament to engineering a high-quality product that continues to improve through the years." Final assembly is the last step of the production process before the airplane rolls out of the factory on its way to the paint hangar and the Everett Delivery Center for ground and flight tests. The 1,000th airplane - a 767-300ER (extended range) passenger model for ANA (All Nippon Airways) - is the last 767 to complete final assembly in its current home. Beginning with line number 1001 - also a 767-300ER for ANA - all future 767s will complete that step in a new, smaller bay where production is scheduled to increase in 2011. The 1,000th airplane is scheduled for delivery next month. ANA, a long-time Boeing customer, has taken delivery of 89 767s since placing its first order in 1979. Boeing will use the 767 as the platform for its NewGen Tanker if it wins the U.S. Air Force KC-X Tanker competition. That contract award currently is scheduled for early this year. The 767 family is a family of clean, quiet, fuel-efficient airplanes that provide maximum market versatility in the 200- to 300-seat market. The 767 family includes three passenger models -- the 767-200ER, 767-300ER and 767-400ER -- and a medium-widebody freighter, which is based on the 767-300ER fuselage. SOURCE Boeing Back to Top 3 Passengers Taken From JetBlue Plane, No Charges (AP) Three people were removed from a JetBlue plane at Boston's Logan International Airport after a flight attendant became "uncomfortable," but the passengers were not arrested and the airline booked them on a later flight. Massachusetts State Police said the behavior of the three men Monday morning "did not rise to the level of criminal charges." Sgt. Matthew Murray said it was not clear what made the flight attendant uncomfortable. JetBlue said three passengers were removed from Fight 1600 for "security reasons." The plane was about to depart Boston for Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. The company said the passengers were later cleared to depart on a later JetBlue flight. A spokeswoman said JetBlue would not release specifics about the incident. Back to Top Delta backs Saudi Arabian Airlines for alliance ATLANTA (AP) - Delta Air Lines Inc. said Monday it supports Saudi Arabian Airlines' bid to join the SkyTeam alliance of global carriers. The Saudi airline hopes to join SkyTeam - one of three major airline alliances - in 2012. Delta said Saudi Arabian's hub in Riyadh and network would give Delta customers access to more destinations across the Middle East. Delta customers could connect to Saudi Arabian flights at hubs including John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. SkyTeam also includes Air France-KLM and Alitalia. It expects to add China Airlines and several other carriers by 2012. Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC