Flight Safety Information October 17, 2011 - No. 213 In This Issue Qantas jet returns to Bangkok due to engine noise Fury as Air India jet stranded in London for 9 hours Air-Traffic Errors Near Airports More Than Double in 3 Years Safety data sharing impediments at FAA, says GAO CASA sounds safety warning on Qantas PNG crash: Pilot saw smoke, attempted emergency landing National Aviation University to be Set Up Soon (India) Air France-KLM Board Said to Plan Replacement of CEO Today Graduate Research Request Qantas jet returns to Bangkok due to engine noise (AP) CANBERRA, Australia - A Sydney-bound Qantas Airways Boeing 747 jumbo jet returned to Bangkok due to an engine problem, the airline said Monday. The plane carrying 356 passengers had been flying for an hour after taking off from Bangkok on Sunday when "there was a bang and some vibrations were felt through the aircraft," Qantas spokesman Luke Enright said. The pilot turned off one of the four engines as a safety precaution and the plane landed safely back at the Thai capital, he said. A passenger told Australia's Macquarie Radio that he saw sparks flying from an engine. "There were some white sparks shooting out of the engine and then they informed us of what was going on, that the engine had been shut down and we were returning to Bangkok," said the passenger who identified himself only as David. Enright said all passengers had flown on to Sydney on other airlines by Monday. The Australia-based airline has canceled almost 100 domestic flights last week from Monday due to an industrial action by maintenance crews. Qantas image has taken a battering in recent years due to a series of mechanical mishaps and flight cancellations due to industrial action over Australian staff concerns that the airline plans to move jobs offshore. Back to Top Fury as Air India jet stranded in London for 9 hours LONDON (AFP) - Hundreds of air travellers were left stranded after an incoming Air India flight was grounded for nine hours at London's Gatwick Airport by a combination of fog and aviation rules. Police were called onto the Boeing 777 jet as tempers frayed among the 200 passengers after the airline prevented them from disembarking. The flight from Ahmedabad via Mumbai was due to arrive at Heathrow, London's other major airport, at 08:00 local time (07:00 GMT) but was diverted to Gatwick due to fog. The plane was unable to complete the 44-mile (70-kilometre) cross-city journey as aviation law limits the length of time for which flight crew are allowed to work in one shift. A replacement crew was shuttled across the British capital, but reportedly got lost in Gatwick Airport. Rahul Joglekar, a BBC journalist who was on the flight, said people became "very, very angry." "A group of passengers gathered close to the cockpit demanding an explanation from the pilot, but the pilots still didn't come out," he said. Another passenger Jas Johal blasted the lack of refreshments on board, saying "everyone was very hungry and there was no sign of any food." A spokesman for Gatwick said that it had been Air India's decision to keep the passengers on board rather than arrange alternative transport to Heathrow. "The plane remained off the runway and kept in the vicinity of the tarmac. The duty of care in those situations lies with the airline," he said. One passenger said Air India gave the weary travellers a letter, offering its "sincere apologies for any inconvenience," when they finally reached Heathrow shortly before 17:30. Back to Top Air-Traffic Errors Near Airports More Than Double in 3 Years By Alan Levin Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. air-traffic safety errors involving flights near airports more than doubled over the past three years, the Government Accountability Office said. The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees air- traffic and regulates airports, needs to better track safety lapses at airports, from jets that veer off runways to controllers who allow aircraft to get too close together, the GAO said today in a report examining data from fiscal 2008 to 2011. The rates of safety hazards on or near airports continue to rise, the GAO said, while crediting the FAA with taking steps to reduce hazards. Air-traffic error rates at facilities directing traffic within 40 miles of large airports increased to 22.6 per million flights from 8.5 over the period studied, the GAO said. The rate of similar errors at airport towers increased by 53 percent, it said. These errors occur when controllers direct aircraft to fly too close to each other. Most of the increases resulted from the FAA's efforts to encourage employees to report errors, rather than an increase in the number of incidents taking place, the aviation agency said in a statement. "More information will help us find problems and take action before an accident happens, which will help us build an even safer aviation system," the statement said. Following a series of incidents in which controller errors were covered up, the FAA created a non-punitive reporting system to encourage employees to come forward and stopped paying managers for keeping errors down. 'Incentive' to Hide "Everybody had an incentive to not report before," Steve Hansen, safety chairman at the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union, said in an interview. The FAA's efforts "have likely contributed to the increased number of incidents reported," the GAO report said. Some of the higher numbers may have reflected actual increases in incidents, the GAO said. Controller errors at FAA facilities with systems that automatically record mistakes were 38 percent higher in fiscal 2010 than the previous year, the GAO said. These automated systems are located at FAA facilities overseeing high-altitude traffic. A one-time misunderstanding of rules led to about 150 reported errors in Southern California, the GAO said. That represented about one-third of all errors in the U.S. from January through March of 2010, it said. Runway Collision Risks The FAA needs to do a better job of tracking incidents in which aircraft roll off runways, the report said. Near-collisions on runways rose from 11.4 per million flights in 2004 to 17.8 in 2010. The vast majority of those cases were minor, the GAO said. The most severe incidents, those that nearly caused a collision, fell to 6 in 2010 from 53 in 2001, GAO said. Back to Top Safety data sharing impediments at FAA, says GAO Information sharing challenges at the Federal Aviation Administration may impact the agency's ability to analyze safety data, says the Government Accountability Office. In a report dated Oct. 5 that wasn't posed online until Oct. 13, the GAO notes that the agency has adopted a nonpunitive reporting safety reporting program for air traffic controllers and a risk analysis process that, for now, just analyzes the severity and repeatability of incidents involving airplanes coming too close to each other. Yet, although those two programs--the Air Traffic Safety Action Program and the Risk Analysis Process, respectively--look at some of the same incidents, program officials use different categories to describe them. In addition, the Air Traffic Quality Assurance, a key database of incident information, lacks the capability to sort data according to the region or facility in which they occurred, FAA officials told GAO auditors. Also, employees lack a single, central source to make available all safety-related data sources, the report adds. The report is primarily about FAA safety measures at and around airports. It says the rate of runway incursions at airports with air traffic control towers has trended steadily upward. In fiscal 2004, there were 11 incursions per million operations at these airports; by fiscal year 2010, the rate increased to 18 incursions per million, says the report. FAA officials say the increase is primarily attributable to changes in reporting, including the rollout of ATSAP--a position the GAO mostly agrees with. The report notes that an error detection system that can automatically capture losses of separation between aircraft that occur in the vicinity of airports is already capturing errors that previously weren't reported by air traffic controllers. The system, Traffic Analysis and Review, is currently used an audit toll approximately 2 hours a month at some facilities, FAA officials told auditors, with further implementation on hold until the FAA evaluates the impact on controllers and determines to handle the additional investigatory workload that will result from wider implementation. The number of reported incursions also increased following roll out of a ground traffic surveillance system known as Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X, the report adds. Nonetheless, the increased number of reported incursions "may also reflect some real increase in the occurrence of safety incidents," the report says. FAA officials said they are migrating ATQA data into a new system called the Comprehensive Electronic Data Analysis and Reporting system, and that CEDAR should "address many of the deficiencies identified by regional and local offices." FAA officials also said ASTAP and RAP officials are developing a common set of contributing factors, as well as a translation capability that will allow past reports to be analyzed comprehensively. For more: - download report, GAO-12-24 (.pdf) Read more: Safety data sharing impediments at FAA, says GAO - FierceGovernmentIT http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/safety-data-sharing-impediments-faa-says- gao/2011-10-16#ixzz1b3BQxYlY Back to Top CASA sounds safety warning on Qantas THE increasingly bitter Qantas industrial dispute has prompted the aviation watchdog to warn the airline and unions that it will intervene if safety is compromised during the conflict. A letter to unions and Qantas from the acting director of aviation safety Terry Farquharson, obtained by The Australian, says the Civil Aviation Safety Authority will continue "a high level of audit and surveillance" during the dispute. "CASA has no role in industrial relations unless developments during industrial disputes introduce risks to aviation safety," the letter, sent on Friday, says. "I would like to remind all parties involved of the paramount importance of aviation safety . . . I would appreciate your assurance that you share this understanding during these difficult times. CASA will continue a high level of audit and surveillance of aviation safety-related activities during industrial actions and will take any necessary actions required to maintain aviation safety." The warning comes as the Australian and International Pilots Association said last night that Qantas had suspended negotiations before Fair Work Australia and Qantas boss Alan Joyce told Sky News he could see no quick fix to the stoush. "I have to say it is tough, you know, some of the action that the unions are taking is continuing to cause us real damage," Mr Joyce told Sky's Australian Agenda program. "We don't see this getting any better any time soon. If anything, this is getting worse." The Australian and International Pilots Association said it received a letter late on Friday informing it the airline would be walking away from scheduled conciliation meetings before Fair Work Australia. AIPA president Barry Jackson said he was "completely stunned" by the decision, which came after Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week warned the parties to negotiate or face government action. Mr Jackson said Mr Joyce as late as yesterday had been on television saying the parties needed to talk to get the impasse resolved. But last night Qantas denied it was walking away from discussions, saying it was "committed to negotiations with the pilots' union", and had been talking to them for 14 months. Qantas is preparing to send four Jetstar aircraft offshore for maintenance as overtime bans by engineers bite, raising fears that major international carriers could cancel maintenance contracts with the airline. Mr Joyce said Qantas had already lost a small contract with Air Caledonia because it could not guarantee services in Brisbane. The airline also revealed that it was in talks with two major international airlines which had sought maintenance assurances. Qantas said it understood some international carriers had resorted to flying in some of their own engineers in case the dispute delayed maintenance. But the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association said Qantas was being disingenuous. It believed the airline had an agenda to move engineering offshore by "stealth" -- concerns which have been central to the union's worries over job security. Mr Joyce also warned that Qantas would have to ground more aircraft if the workers' bans continued. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/casa-sounds-safety-warning-on- qantas/story-e6frg95x-1226167998657 Back to Top PNG crash: Pilot saw smoke, attempted emergency landing An official with the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Papua New Guinea says mechanical fault appears to be the most likely cause of last Thursday's plane crash which killed 28 people. Investigators from Australia's Air Transport Safety Bureau are assisting the PNG Accident Investigation Commission to establish why the Airlines PNG Dash-8 aircraft crashed about 30 kilometres south of Madang town. The plane's black box voice recorder has been recovered and sent to Australia for analysis. But the first secretary to the Minister for Civil Aviation, Levai Wama, says it already looks like there was a mechanical fault on the plane. "Based on the information that the pilot gave to the towers which was there's smoke coming out of the engines and we're running out of power, doing a forced landing, that's what they said, which resulted in it crash landing." Levai Wama says a team from Canada representing the airframe manufacturers and engine makers are doing their own investigations. Meanwhile, the chairman of Airlines PNG has defended the company's commitment to safety following the crash. In a statement on the company website, Simon Wild expresses his sorrow at the tragedy. The government has cancelled the planned merger of Airlines PNG with the state-owned carrier Air Niugini as a result of the crash. In 2009 13 people were killed after an Airlines PNG flight went down just north of the village of Isurava and questions are being asked about the company's safety record. But the chairman says safety is the first priority of the business and says in the past year alone that the airline has passed 16 safety audits. http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=63786 Back to Top National Aviation University to be Set Up Soon (India) Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi today said that the government is planning to set up an aviation university with world-class facilities. "To ensure that minimum standards of aviation skills are attained, a national aviation university is proposed to be set up with world-class facilities. We are preparing a project report for this facility," Ravi told the fourth International Civil Aviation Negotiation Conference (ICAN 2011) here today. The conference, being held in the country for the first time, was inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil early today. He said the government is also planning to set up an independent civil aviation authority for administration and regulation of civil aviation safety. Besides, an accident investigation committee is being set up on the lines of the National Transport Safety Board to assist in safety matters. The thrust of the conference is on modernisation of air service agreements (ASAs) by including certain safety clauses, code-sharing guidelines, security and tariff. The meet was attended by 65 International Civil Aviation Organisation member nations and India would negotiate with around 40 nations to amend existing air service agreements. The Indian government is expected to take up with the Swiss delegates the issue of ownership of Swiss International Airline. India's position is that the airline violates substantial ownership and effective control clauses in air services agreement, as it is now controlled by the German airline Lufthansa though the Swiss government has rejected the charge. Currently, the country has bilateral air services agreements with 108 countries and 72 foreign airlines are flying to the country, while three domestic carriers fly to 35 destinations in 25 countries. According to aviation industry sources, domestic private carriers are lobbying with the government to allow them to introduce more flights to Oman, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. While countries like the UAE have been demanding that India allow additional seats. http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=738536 Back to Top Air France-KLM Board Said to Plan Replacement of CEO Today Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Air France-KLM Group's board will vote today on replacing Chief Executive Officer Pierre-Henri Gourgeon a year early as the carrier struggles with slumping earnings and revelations regarding the role of its pilots in a fatal crash, two people with knowledge of the proposals said. CEO since January 2009, Gourgeon, 65, had been slated to stay in the role until January, 2013. Instead, he'll leave the company within a short period of time, said the people, who declined to be identified because the change isn't yet official. Gourgeon's position has weakened after a declining profit outlook prompted shares of Europe's biggest airline to drop 60 percent this year, the worst performance in the region, and safety experts said pilot training was a factor in a 2009 crash that killed 228 people. Possible successors include Alexandre de Juniac, a high-ranking government official due to take over as head of the group's French unit in January, and former chief Jean-Cyril Spinetta, who is currently chairman, the people said. "Air France is in a delicate situation, and will be all the more so if the macro-economic situation gets worse," said Yan Derocles, an Oddo Securities analyst in Paris who recommends buying the stock. "Gourgeon wasn't particularly appreciated by investors and having new leadership could help build confidence and provide an electro-shock for the company." Shares Gain An Air France spokeswoman in Paris confirmed that the board will meet today, while declining to say what will be discussed. Air France-KLM shares rose as much as 6 percent and were trading 5.7 percent higher at 5.84 euros as of 11:03 a.m. in Paris, where the company is based, giving a market value of 1.75 billion euros ($2.43 billion). That's still only about two- thirds of the company's worth when it was first listed in 1999. The Bloomberg EMEA Airlines Index has fallen 33 percent in 2011. Deutsche Lufthansa AG, ranked second in Europe by traffic, is down 38 percent and worth 4.62 billion euros. International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, the No. 3, has slid 40 percent since its January formation from a merger of British Airways and Spain's Iberia, valuing it at 3.15 billion pounds ($5 billion). Air France-KLM suffered operating losses in two of the past three fiscal years following 11 years of profitability on that basis under Spinetta, who ran Air France and later the enlarged company formed via the purchase of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines NV from 1998 through the end of 2008, with Gourgeon as his deputy. Government Link Juniac, 48, served as chief of staff to French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and more recently as an adviser to Francois Baroin, Lagarde's successor, after she stepped down in June to head the International Monetary Fund. Juniac has been identified as Gourgeon's likely successor in French media reports since June, with the plan originally for him to become deputy CEO and serve for a year as chief of Air France before taking on the top job for the whole group. The government holds a stake of about 15 percent in the company. Air France-KLM has lately come under renewed pressure to deepen cost cuts to achieve a level footing with Lufthansa and BA, and Gourgeon himself said at a Sept. 9 briefing that the airline was at a competitive disadvantage to rivals. The carrier's full-year earnings target is simply to avoid a loss. The global airline industry is likely to sustain a 30 percent drop in net income to $4.9 billion in 2012, and even that may prove too optimistic should the global economy slow further, International Air Transport Association CEO Tony Tyler said this month in an interview. Crash Concern France's BEA crash investigator has meanwhile published two reports showing that the crew of Air France flight 447 pulled the jet into a steep climb until it slowed to an aerodynamic stall before slumping into the sea while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in June 2009, killing everyone aboard. A book published last week with the title "Piloting Error, Volume 5" disclosed what it said were further recordings from the doomed Airbus SAS plane's cockpit, revealing a scene dominated by confusion, a lack of coordination and denial among the flight crew as the jet plunged toward the ocean. French daily newspaper Les Echos reported the board's plan late yesterday, saying Gourgeon was told on Oct. 14 that he would be replaced. The newspaper attributed the decision to disappointment with the company's financial performance. Graduate Research Request My name is Andrew O'Meally. I am currently conducting research into intergenerational communication in flight operations as part of my research thesis with the University of New South Wales. Some of the issues being explored are effectiveness of communication between Generation Y and older generations as well as how to improve communication between these groups to enhance safety in multi crew operations. The survey is designed to be answered by pilots operating in a multi crew environment. The survey should only take a few moments to complete. Your help with my research is greatly appreciated. The link for the survey is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3NMGFQN Andrew O'Meally PO Box 178 Bribie Island QLD 4507 Australia PH (61)409247658 Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC