Flight Safety Information October 04, 2012 - No. 201 In This Issue AA jet returns to DFW due to landing-gear warning Southwest Airplane Lands Safely in CT After Bird Strike American Airlines blames improperly installed base clamps for loose seats in Boeing 757s FAA Orders 737 Cabin Pressure Warning System Mods PRISM Certification Support U.S. airlines balking at onboard cellphone use Emirates offers first mobile phone service onboard A380 Aircraft Passenger sues Southwest Airlines over hot tea spill AA jet returns to DFW due to landing-gear warning FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- American Airlines says a jet returned to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport shortly after takeoff because of a cockpit indicator that showed a problem with the landing gear. Airline spokesman James Faulkner said Tuesday that the landing gear was still working and the plane made a safe landing. Faulkner says the pilot of the MD-80 jet declared an emergency but passengers weren't told to brace for a crash landing. Flight 1862 was carrying 121 passengers and five crew members. The airline says passengers have been put on another plane for the trip to St. Louis. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/03/3032521/aa-jet-returns-to- dfw-due-to-landing.html#storylink=cpy Back to Top Southwest Airplane Lands Safely in CT After Bird Strike WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (AP) -- A Southwest Airlines flight from Tampa, Fla. struck a bird on its final approach was able to land safely in Connecticut. Bradley International Airport spokesman John Wallace says Flight 2102 was about 25 miles south of the airport Wednesday afternoon when the crew declared an emergency after hearing a loud bang outside the aircraft. He says emergency crews were called to the runway and watched as the plane made a normal landing on time. No injuries were reported. Wallace says the plane taxied to the gate under its own power. An initial inspection of the plane revealed the bird strike. Southwest Airlines Inc. is based in Dallas. Back to Top American Airlines blames improperly installed base clamps for loose seats in Boeing 757s Here's a statement from American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Huguely: "Overnight, a group of engineers, tech crew chiefs and inspectors from American's Tulsa Maintenance Base evaluated airplanes at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport while other airplanes were inspected at other facilities around the country. Originally, American planned to evaluate the seats on eight Boeing 757 airplanes, but out of an abundance of caution, the decision was made to proactively evaluate a total of 47 Boeing 757 airplanes that have the same model Main Cabin seats with a common locking mechanism. Thirty- six airplanes were evaluated by maintenance personnel overnight and another 11 airplanes will be evaluated to finish the inspection. "American's internal investigation has focused on one of three types of Main Cabin seats on the 757s and how the rows of these three seats fit into the track that is used to secure the rows to the floor of the airplanes. Our maintenance and engineering teams have discovered that the root cause is a saddle clamp improperly installed on the foot of the row leg. These clamps were used on only 47 of our 102 Boeing 757 airplanes. "The issue does not seem to be tied to any one maintenance facility or one workgroup. "The FAA is aware of our internal review and its findings, as well as the steps we are taking to proactively address the issue. We continue to work closely with the FAA. "American regrets the inconvenience that this maintenance issue may have caused customers on affected flights. Safety is - and always will be - American's top concern." The latest word is that six airplanes were found to have loose seats, including four where the problem was discovered during the rush inspections overnight and two airplanes where the problem was found during flights. An airplane that flew from Dallas/Fort Worth to Vail, Colo., last month had a set of three loose seats. Contract maintenance in Vail reinstalled the seat. However, that airplane was the one that had a set of three seats come loose on a Miami-Boston flight. The sixth airplane was the one on a New York-Miami flight on Monday that returned to New York when a set of seats came loose. In each case of the six airplanes, one set of three seats came unclamped or were discovered to have the base clamp installed improperly. http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2012/10/american-airlines-blames-loose-seats-in- boeing-757s-on-base-clamp.html/ Back to Top FAA Orders 737 Cabin Pressure Warning System Mods Boeing 737 operators have six years to modify cabin pressurization loss warning systems, including installing redundant pressure switches and new warning modules, FAA orders in an airworthiness directive (AD 2012-19-11) issued Wednesday. TheAD, which applies to all 737 models, was prompted by a probe into an inflight cabin depressurization and passenger oxygen mask deployment. Boeing says the plane's pilots did not receive an aural warning when cabin pressure exceeded 10,000 ft.; a cabin crew member informed them about the problem. The depressurization had nothing to do with the defective warning system, FAA and Boeing are careful to note. FAA's AD is based on service bulletins originally issued by Boeing in 2010. The changes include a second altitude warning switch, aural warning modules (AWM) and wire bundle modifications. "The installation of a second 10,000 ft. pressure switch and a new digital AWM with two fully independent channels will reduce the probability of the flight crew being not aware of a depressurization event," Boeing explains in the bulletins. FAA says the AD applies to 1,405 U.S.-registered airframes. Cost per aircraft is estimated at about $39,000, including $33,000 for required hardware. The compliance deadline is Nov. 7, 2018. http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_10_03_2012_p0- 502832.xml Back to Top Back to Top U.S. airlines balking at onboard cellphone use U.S. carriers are not rushing to cell service, even though aviation experts say new satellite-based technology makes airborne calls safe. LOS ANGELES - In the skies over Europe, Asia and the Middle East, airline passengers can chat and text on cellphones without getting an angry look from a flight attendant. Thai Airways, with regular flights from Los Angeles to Bangkok, recently announced plans to offer onboard cellphone service, joining about 20 other foreign-based carriers that offer it. U.S. carriers are not rushing to jump on the bandwagon, even though aviation experts say that new satellite-based technology makes airborne cellphone calls safe. "It's not a priority of ours right now," said Mary Frances Fagan, a spokeswoman for American Airlines. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prohibit cellphone calls on planes over U.S. airspace, but federal officials say they would listen to requests by airlines to lift the restrictions. Don't expect U.S. airline officials to press for such changes. They cite the extra cost and hassle to test, install and operate cellphone technology as one reason to keep cellphones off domestic flights. Airlines also point out that passengers are not clamoring for the service, according to several surveys that say most air travelers expect in-flight cellular service will lead to loud phone conversations and onboard fury. "Cellphone offerings and voice-over data (are) not something that our members are seeing strong demand for from their passengers," said Victoria Day, a spokeswoman for Airlines for America, the trade group for the nation's airline industry. Even flight attendants have voiced opposition, saying cellphone calls would make their jobs more difficult. But on foreign airlines, reports of cellphone calls causing disputes or disturbances have been rare, primarily because calls are costly - starting at about $1.20 a minute - and noisy aircraft cabins deter long conversations, according to foreign carriers and their passengers. On a Virgin Atlantic flight this summer from London to Miami, record producer Corey Johnson's short cellphone call was met with curiosity, not anger, from fellow passengers. For a business owner like myself, it's an option that's great to have, if, like myself, you never shut off," he said. Brett King, an author and speaker on the banking industry who has flown on Emirates airline and Qatar Airways, said calls cause no friction because passengers are instructed to keep their phones on silent mode to stif-le the ring and calls are not allowed in a "quiet zone" of the plane where passengers might be sleeping. The fear that cellphones on planes will lead to loud conversations and conflicts, King said, are unfounded. Passengers on Emirates flights have used their cellphones more than 10 million times to send and receive text messages and emails and an additional 625,000 times for voice conversations since the airline began offering the service in 2008, according to the airline. The airline says it has received only two passenger complaints about loud calls. "The majority of people are considerate about using cellphones," said Patrick Brannelly, a spokesman for Emirates, adding that most passengers use their cellphones to send text messages. "It's a self-managing environment in many ways." Helping to keep the peace, onboard cell technology typically limits the number of phone calls that can be made simultaneously. "We found that people are courteous and most calls are shorter than two minutes," said Ian Dawkins, chief executive of OnAir of Geneva. It is one of two major technology companies that have installed cellphone service on 20 non-U.S.-based airlines. In the U.S., passengers and airline officials predict feuds and clashes among fliers if cellphone service is activated on planes. "If you let people use phones on planes, I'm afraid they will abuse it," said Meredith Wilson, a Seattle resident who recently flew into Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif. "It could cause a lot of problems." Craig Patton, of Denver, recently flew to Southern California and said he doesn't mind the ban on cellphone calls on planes. "I'm not addicted to my cellphone," he said. "I can go two or three hours without texting or talking on the phone. I'm old school." Without demand from passengers, U.S. airline representatives say they won't press federal officials to allow cellphone calls on domestic flights. "Right now our focus is on what customers say they want, and that is in-flight Wi-Fi," said Brad Hawkins, a spokesman for Southwest Airlines, the nation's most popular domestic carrier. In the U.S., the FAA and the FCC have prohibited in-flight cellular calls because they say strong signals from phones may interfere with the aircraft's navigation system and communication equipment on the ground. New onboard cellphone technology is designed to eliminate such problems. OnAir and AeroMobile Communications of London - the two leading onboard cellphone- technology firms - install in commercial planes small mobile base stations, known as pico cells, which connect cellular calls via satellite to networks on the ground. When a passenger turns on a cellphone, the phone emits a signal that gets progressively stronger as it searches for a cell network. Because the pico cells are in the plane's ceiling, the cellphone signal is too faint to interfere with onboard navigation systems or communication equipment, officials from both companies say. Dave Carson, an electrical engineer at Boeing and co-chairman of a panel that drafted a process to modify the ban on electronic devices on commercial flights, agreed. "That is all doable," Carson said. http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2019335659_airlinecellservicexml.html Back to Top Emirates offers first mobile phone service onboard A380 Aircraft In partnership with Emirates connectivity partner, OnAir, passengers aboard Emirates' A380 aircraft will now be able to stay in touch via phone calls or through the mobile data link on their personal devices with their family, friends and colleagues while inflight. The service is in addition to the OnAir WiFi service already available on Emirates A380 aircraft. DUBAI - Emirates offers the world's first inflight mobile phone service onboard an A380 aircraft; setting yet another record for inflight communications. Emirates has long set the industry standard for the latest inflight innovations and connectivity; including: 1993: First airline to equip entire Airbus fleet with in-flight phones. 1994: First airline to equip entire Airbus fleet with in-flight fax machines. 2003: First airline to offer live BBC text news headlines on its aircraft. 2006: Personal in-seat email and SMS installed throughout the fleet, in all classes. 2008: First airline to offer onboard mobile telephone services in collaboration. 2011: Emirates launches Wi-Fi internet access on A380 in conjunction with OnAir The OnAir system allows passengers to use their own mobile phones to make and receive phone calls and text messages from Emirates A380 aircraft inflight, just as they would on the ground, using EDGE/GPRS connections through their mobile service provider. Emirates first A380 equipped with the full suite of OnAir connectivity departed from Dubai international Airport to Munich International Airport on 2 October and the first recorded A380 inflight call was placed to China while the aircraft cruised at 11,500 metres flying across the Gulf. "Our goal on every flight is to exceed our passenger's' expectations. We believe that exceeding expectations should not only apply to our Cabin Crew's award-winning inflight service and our SKYTRAX 'World's Best Airline Inflight Entertainment' ice system, but also to our passenger's desire to stay in touch while travelling," said Patrick Brannelly, Emirates Vice President Corporate Communications Product, Publishing, Digital and Events. "Beginning in 1993 with first passenger satellite phone service to last year with our A380 Wi-Fi system, Emirates has always taken the approach that providing the latest in inflight service and connectivity is a key part of our passengers' journey. Emirates continues to invest in the most innovative technology possible and promises to keep pushing the boundaries of the inflight innovation for the benefit of our passengers." http://www.traveldailynews.com/news/article/51482/emirates-offers-first-mobile-phone Back to Top Passenger sues Southwest Airlines over hot tea spill A woman is suing Southwest Airlines and a flight attendant for $800,000 for serving tea she says severely burned her. Washington (CNN) -- A Tennessee woman sued Southwest Airlines and a flight attendant Tuesday for $800,000 for serving tea she says severely burned her. On December 28, 2011, Angelica Keller was seated in the window seat of the front row on Flight 955 between Nashville and Houston with a stop in New Orleans. She ordered hot tea, and the suit says the flight attendant brought her a cup of "extremely hot water" sitting in another cup which contained the tea bag and condiment packets. Air Force One aborts landing, second try successful In the "plaintiffs efforts to extricate the tea bag from its position of being wedged between the tilted paper 'hot cup' of extremely hot water and the shorter clear plastic soft drink cup, the extremely hot water spilled into her lap at her groin area," the suit said. Keller's body suffered second degree burns and her skin blistered, peeled and she was permanently scarred, the lawyers said. "Our Customers' comfort is our top priority at all times, and we safely serve about 100 million drinks onboard every year," Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said in a statement. "The referenced event is unfortunate, and we are currently reviewing it. We can't provide additional details due to the pending lawsuit that was filed." Southwest does not have tray tables in the front rows of its aircraft, and Keller's suit said that contributed to the accident. It also said the airline served the drink in an unreasonable manner and used "hot water at a temperature too hot for use in an aircraft." Mainz was unable to provide the standard temperature of the water on Southwest flights, but said it has never been an issue in the past. The suit, filed Tuesday, seeks $300,000 for property damages, medical bills, injuries and pain and suffering as well as $500,000 in punitive damages. Curt Lewis