Flight Safety Information June 20, 2013 - No. 124 In This Issue Singapore Airport Takes Precautions 'Least safe' aircraft models revealed FAA looking to install inflatable lapbelts as safety precaution on airplanes First Saudi woman attains aircraft dispatcher license Arik Air wins Best Security and Safety Conscious Airline 2012 Award Helicopter Crashes In Maplewood, Killing Pilot (Minn.) Baggage handler causes £4million damage to British Airways jet 2013 CHC Safety Summit Presentations Annual SMS Audit Results Released Airbus clocks 59 orders for new A350 wide-body jet NTSB urged to reopen review of TWA Flight 800 crash Graduate Research Survey Singapore Airport Takes Precautions Singapore's Changi Airport has increased the allotted space between departing and landing aircraft as a thick haze from burning forests in neighboring Indonesia envelops the island nation, reducing visibility at its two runways. Still, flights have not been disrupted. Haze shrouded the Singapore Central Business District at sunrise on Thursday.Runway Visual Range - or the distance over which pilots can see along the runway - fell below 1,500 meters because of the haze, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said in comments emailed to The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. "We have the facilities and procedures to allow safe landing of aircraft in low visibility conditions in accordance with international standards," a spokeswoman said. Changi Airport stayed open during a prolonged period of haze in 1997, when visibility dropped to nearly 800 meters. At 0500 GMT Thursday, the city-state's pollution standards index soared to a new high of 371, indicating air quality had deteriorated to "hazardous" levels, and exceeding the previous record set Wednesday night when the index logged a high of 321. A PSI reading above 300 indicates "hazardous" air while a reading between 201 and 300 is classified as "very unhealthy." The Singapore government has advised people to stay indoors as much as possible. In neighboring Malaysia, flights continued to operate normally as authorities stayed on watch, according to a spokesman for Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd., the operator of Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Meanwhile, the Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Pekanbaru in Indonesia's Riau province, the worst affected by the haze, was closed for three hours on Thursday as visibility at the runway fell to 750 meters. The airport is served by nearly a dozen airlines, including Garuda Indonesia GIAA.JK -1.03%AirAsia Bhd. 5099.KU -1.55%and Lion Air. A spokesman for Singapore port operator PSA International said it has suspended nonessential activities and asked its workers to stay vigilant A.P. Moller-Maersk MAERSK- B.KO -0.56%Group, the world's biggest container ship operator by volume, said it didn't have to divert any of its ships but there were some short stoppages due to poor visibility for quay crane operators. http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/06/20/singapore-airport-takes-precautions-over- haze/ Back to Top 'Least safe' aircraft models revealed The world's 'least safe' aircraft models, based on an analysis of air crash statistics from the past decade, have been revealed. 'Least safe' aircraft models revealed The Antonov AN-12 is currently used by Egyptair, Iraqi Airways, and Russia's Aeroflot, among others The website AirlineRatings.com urged travellers to steer clear of four models in particular - the LET410, the Antonov AN-12, the Ilyushin Il-76, and the CASA C-212. The LET410, for example, has been involved in at least 20 fatal crashes since 2003, according to its research, while the Ilyushin Il-76 and the Antonov AN-12 have each been involved in 17. The LET410 - introduced in 1970 - is still used by around a dozen airlines, including four in Brazil, three in Honduras, two in the Philippines, two in Russia, and two in Hungary. Citywing, based in the Isle of Man, also uses four LET410s, leased from the Czech carrier Van Air Europe. The Antonov AN-12 is currently used by Egyptair, Iraqi Airways, and Russia's Aeroflot, among others. A handful of airlines count the CASA C-212 among their fleet, including Bering Air and Bighorn Airways in the US, while the Ilyushin Il-76 is now largely used for transporting cargo. Of the 55 models analysed by AirlineRatings.com, the safest were deemed to be Boeing's 777, 717, 787 and 767/757, the Airbus A380 and A340, the Embraer 135/145, and CRJ 700/1000 - none of which have ever been involved in a fatal accident. "The crash records of aircraft that dominated the 1970s and 1980s but are no longer in passenger service are irrelevant today," said Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline- Rating.com. "We only looked at aircraft that are carrying passengers in 2013." He added: "We have used the Boeing database which is an industry standard and supplemented that with our own records and those of Aviation-Safety.net and Ascend. The survey also ignores piston-powered planes and those smaller aircraft used mainly for charter work." Last week the website ranked 425 different airlines in terms of overall safety using a star system. One-star airlines, it claimed, were the least reliable. A total of 137 airlines have been given seven stars, the top mark, including British Airways, Flybe, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa and Aer Lingus. Ryanair, easyJet, Monarch and Jet2.com were each given five stars. More than 40 airlines were given three stars or fewer, including Lion Air based in Indonesia, Yeti Airlines in Nepal, and Solomon Airlines. Worst crash record Airline Number of fatal crashes LET 410 20 Ilyushin 72 17 Antonov AN-12 17 Twin Otter 18 CASA 212 11 DC-9/MD80 10 B737-100 / 700 10 Antonov 28 8 Antonov 32 7 Tupolev 154 7 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10129805/Least-safe-aircraft-models- revealed.html Back to Top FAA looking to install inflatable lapbelts as safety precaution on airplanes The device would operate a lot like airbags in cars - and the federal administration is already asking Boeing for its input. Boeing is being asked to comment on the inflatable lapbelts for its 717-200 model (above). WASHINGTON - If being crammed into a middle seat in economy wasn't bad enough, air travelers may soon wonder what the heck happens if their seat belt inflates. Yes, inflates. The Federal Register discloses a Federal Aviation Administration request for comments on a Boeing Company plan to install inflatable lapbelts on its model 717-200 planes, which have a 134-seat capacity. Underscoring what might seem obvious, the FAA informs that the belts are "designed to limit the forward excursion of occupants in the event of an accident." Sound familiar? "Inflatable lapbelts behave similarly to automotive inflatable airbags, but in these airplanes, the airbags are integrated into the lapbelts, and they inflate away from the seated occupants." Such belts may be standard in cars but are said to be novel for commercial aviation. Thus, the government is seeking comments on proposed rules. "While the automotive industry has extensive experience demonstrating the benefits of using inflatable airbags, the airplane environment presents unique and additional challenges," according to the notice. Inflatable belts may be standard in cars (seen above in a Ford), but they are novel for commercial aviation. Inflatable belts may be standard in cars (seen above in a Ford), but they are novel for commercial aviation. "In automobiles, airbags are a supplemental system and work in conjunction with upper torso restraints. In airplanes, inflatable lapbelts are the sole means of injury protection for occupants, i.e., they are not used in conjunction with additional restraints." "In addition," the notice continues with this not especially cheery reminder: "Automobile crash events have more definable beginnings and ends, and they do not typically last as long as aviation crash events, which can simplify the activation logic." There are many other elements at play for those in a plane, the notice makes clear. Those include the potential complexities presented by kids sitting in child safety seats, kids being held by adults, pregnant women and the potential inadvertent deployment of an inflatable lapbelt. "To be an effective safety system, inflatable lapbelts must function properly and must not introduce any additional hazards to occupants as a result of their functioning," according to the Federal Register notice. Those additional hazards could include an inflated belt impeding getting out of your seat in the event of an emergency landing. It might be a real hassle in an exit row. Current FAA rules require "that there must be an unobstructed passageway from the main aisle to the exit and that there must be no interference in opening the exit." Oh, here's one factor you might not be thinking about while strapping on an inflatable belt: "The system must be protected from lightning and high intensity radiomagnetic fields." http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/faa-inflatable-lapbelts-planes-article- 1.1376658#ixzz2Wl1ydu41 Back to Top First Saudi woman attains aircraft dispatcher license Aisha Jaafari has become the first Saudi female to attain an aircraft dispatcher license. Aisha Jaafari has become the first Saudi female to attain an aircraft dispatcher license, after passing the General Authority for Civil Aviation exams. Eight other Saudi women have been trained and are taking their final exam, reported Saudi daily Al-Iktisadiya. An aircraft dispatcher plans flight paths for pilots after gathering and studying technical data. "My love and passion for aviation pushed me to attain this license," Jaafari said. However, she added that she will not be going out on the field and will perform her duties in a "suitable environment." Khaled al-Khobeiri, spokesperson for the General Authority for Civil Aviation, said: "Aisha and her friends will work in a separated, well-equipped environment to aid the pilot by providing him with all necessary information before he takes off." Women in Saudi Arabia are in a lot of cases dependent on their male guardians. They need a close male relative to escort them if they enter government buildings or courts. However, there has been progress in integrating women in public life. Earlier this year, the world saw how women empowerment in the kingdom made a gradual shift when 3o women were sworn in as members of the Saudi Shura Council. http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/06/20/First-Saudi-woman- attains-aircraft-dispatcher-license.html Back to Top Arik Air wins Best Security and Safety Conscious Airline 2012 Award 23/10/2012 - Arik Air, West and Central Africa's largest airline has been adjudged the Best Security and Safety Conscious Airline in West and Central Africa for the second consecutive year. The honour was bestowed on the airline at the 9th Security Watch Africa Award held at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra, Ghana on Friday, October 19, 2012. Arik Air, West and Central Africa's largest airline has been adjudged the Best Security and Safety Conscious Airline in West and Central Africa for the second consecutive year. The honour was bestowed on the airline at the 9th Security Watch Africa Award held at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra, Ghana on Friday, October 19, 2012. According to the organizers, Arik Air was conferred with the award because of the airline's commitment to high standard of security and safety in its regional operations since inception as well as compliance to the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO's) standard for aviation operations internationally. The organizers found the airline's security and safety standards exemplary in West and Central Africa. The Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, who was among the several dignitaries from Nigeria and Ghana that witnessed the ceremony, presented the award to Arik Air's Aviation Security Training and Standards Manager, Akeem Oladimeji. Governor Amosun congratulated Arik Air and other award recipients and hoped it would spur them to do more exploit. Responding, Arik Air's representative, Akeem Oladimeji, thanked the organizers of the award and stated that the award bears testimony to Arik Air management's huge investment in safety and security. He stressed that the airline's Aviation Security (AVSEC) Department is the most sophisticated in the industry and the airline's commitment to safety is second to none in West and Central Africa. Arik Air has invested a lot of money on itemizer equipment used to trace drugs. The airline, which has 300 security staff in its employment, is the only Nigerian airline that conducts an independent secondary screening of passengers prior to departures. The airline also places a lot of emphasis on training and certification of its security personnel. The airline's Aviation Security Training and Standards Manager and the Chief Security Officer are ICAO certified Aviation Security Professional Managers. This is the third time Arik Air has won the Security Watch Africa award. The airline first won the award in 2007/2008 as the Best Security Conscious Airline in Nigeria and also as the Best Security and Safety Conscious Airline in West Africa in 2011. The International Institute of Professional Security also gave Arik Air an award for excellence in 2009/2010 in recognition of the airline's security consciousness. http://allafrica.com/stories/201306191565.html Back to Top Helicopter Crashes In Maplewood, Killing Pilot (Minn.) MAPLEWOOD, Minn. (WCCO/AP) - A pilot was killed Wednesday when the helicopter he was flying to spray for mosquitoes crashed into the backyard of a Maplewood home. Maplewood Police said they got calls about 8:15 a.m. that a helicopter flying low over a neighborhood a few miles east of St. Paul had crashed into the backyard of a private home. Firefighters who were first to arrive at the scene found the helicopter and a detached garage in flames. The pilot - 44-year-old Michael Kramer, of St. Charles - was found dead at the scene, authorities said at an afternoon press conference. No one was in the home or the garage at the time of the crash, and Maplewood's acting Police Chief Dave Kvam said Kramer was alone in the helicopter. "I heard a big noise and didn't know what it was," said Donna Basler, 70, who lives four houses from the crash site. "Then my neighbor called and said there's a big fire." The crash and fire woke up everyone at Hannah Phan's slumber party. "We didn't know what happened," she said. "We thought it was a plane. Then someone told us it was a helicopter." Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames, which did not spread to the house. The garage was damaged but was still standing. Kvam said he had no immediate details about what might have caused the crash. He said the National Transportation Safety Board would lead the investigation. Lt. Kerry Crotty of the Maplewood Police Department said the helicopter did not crash directly into the garage but that she believed several of its rotors struck the structure as it was crashing into the ground. The helicopter, owned by Scott's Helicopter Service in Le Sueur, had a contract with the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District to spray for mosquitoes. The helicopter will be taken back to Le Sueur on Thursday, after it's recovered from the house. Scott Churchill, the owner of Scott's Helicopter Service, who was on the scene Wednesday, said the crash was like losing a family member. Autopsy and toxicology reports will be conducted, the safety board said, as well as review of Kramer's training. The helicopter crashed about 15 minutes after taking off, shortly after 8 a.m. Neighbors said the small helicopter was swooping very low over the area before the crash, but that's not necessarily unusual for helicopters that spray for mosquitoes. The neighborhood backs up against a small but heavily wooded nature preserve. Kramer's wife, Tricia Kramer, said her husband was a loving father of two children - ages 12 and 9. He was also a foster parent to a 52-year-old with Down syndrome. She said her husband graduated from the University of Minnesota, served in the Army, worked as a dairy farmer and a pilot for WCCO. ************ Date: 19-JUN-2013 Time: 08:13 LT Type: Bell 47G Operator: Scott's Helicopter Services Registration: N.... C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Maplewood, MN - United States of America Phase: Unknown Nature: Agricultural Departure airport: Destination airport: Narrative: The aircraft, a Bell helicopter, impacted a building and terrain in Maplewood, Minnesota, and was consumed by a post-impact fire. The sole pilot onboard the aircraft received fatal injuries. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Baggage handler causes £4million damage to British Airways jet A British Airways plane had to abort take-off after a baggage handler left a tool on the engine cover and it was sucked into the plane. An aeroplane comes into land at Heathrow airport Passengers waited three hours for another flight to Romania after a loud bang on their plane. The error is said to have caused £4 million in damage to the Airbus A320, which was due to fly from Heathrow to Bucharest in Romania when a loud bang was heard. The 150 passengers on board were taken off the plane and reportedly left to wait three hours for another flight. The incident is understood to have happened after the baggage handler left his luggage- scanner gun on the cowling and forgot to remove it. An airline source told The Sun: "This accident could have been a lot worse. The plane could have been downed if it had happened after take-off. The baggage handler in question is mortified." British Airways said it was sorry passengers were delayed and said a replacement jet was booked "as quickly as possible". Last month at least three people were injured after another British Airways plane had to make an emergency landing at Heathrow airport following a fire in one of its engines. The crew and 75 passengers were evacuated from the plane, which was bound for Oslo in Norway, when smoke was seen coming from the back of the airbus A319. The airline blamed the incident on a "technical fault". A preliminary report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch found that fan cowls on the engines had been left unlatched after overnight maintenance work. It suggested that this led to them coming away and puncturing other parts of the engines. The final report into the incident is not expected for several more months. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/10131494/Baggage-handler-causes-4million- damage-to-British-Airways-jet.html Back to Top As part of CHC's commitment to the International Helicopter Safety Team initiative to drive down the helicopter accident rate by 80% by 2016, we are keen to share some of the presentations that were given at this year's annual CHC Safety & Quality Summit. The presentations can be viewed on the 2013 CHC Safety & Quality Summit channel on YouTube. We hope that virtual access to these high quality speakers will enable as many as possible within the helicopter community to play their part in achieving that aim. The theme of the Summit this year was: Building an Accident Free Legacy: Predictive Safety to Avoid 'the Inevitable.' We would like to thank all of the speakers who kindly gave their permission for their presentations to be distributed amongst the aviation community in the interests of safety. We hope to see many of you at next year's Summit: March 31 to April 2 2014, in Vancouver, Canada. Kind Regards CHC Safety & Quality Summit Committee CHC Helicopter Back to Top Back to Top Airbus clocks 59 orders for new A350 wide-body jet Airbus chairman Fabrice Bregier (left) with Air France-KLM chairman Alexandre de Juniac. Pascal Rossignol/ReutersAirbus chairman Fabrice Bregier (left) with Air France-KLM chairman Alexandre de Juniac. LE BOURGET, France - Airbus raked in orders Wednesday for its new A350, announcing 59 sales of the wide-body jet that flew for the first time last week. Singapore Airlines ordered 30 A350-900s, with an option to buy another 20 of the 900s or the larger 1000 model. The airline had already ordered 20 of the A350. Air France-KLM also put in an order for 25 A350 jets. Airbus also announced that SriLankan Airlines, the country's national carrier, would buy four A350s and six slightly smaller A330 jets. Wednesday's announcements at the Paris Air Show represent a vote of confidence in the A350, which Airbus is hoping will help it catch up to Boeing's popular 787 and 777 in the lucrative field of long-haul wide-body jets. http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/2013/06/19/airbus-clocks-orders-for-new- wide-body-jet/lU9dqiOj0fSATot9NhW2xH/story.html Back to Top NTSB urged to reopen review of TWA Flight 800 crash NTSB spent four years investigating crash and found no evidence to support missile theory Former crash investigators are urging the National Transportation Safety Board to reopen the review of what brought down TWA Flight 800 in a fireball in 1996. Former investigators from the NTSB, TWA and Air Line Pilots Association suggest in a documentary that missiles caused the plane to explode near Long Island and kill 230 people aboard. The plane was flying from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Paris. But the NTSB spent four years investigating the crash and rejected the possibility of a missile. The board found that the plane's center fuel tank exploded, "most likely" from a short circuit that jolted the tank through wiring from a fuel gauge. "The in-flight breakup of TWA flight 800 was not initiated by a bomb or a missile strike," the board concluded in its report. The documentary will air on EPIX cable channel on July 17, the anniversary of the crash. In the film, former investigators Hank Hughes from the NTSB, Bob Young from TWA and Jim Speer from the Air Line Pilots Association call on NTSB to reopen the investigation because of suspicions that missiles sparked the explosion. Speer, a former Air Force pilot, said Wednesday an initial test found explosive residue on a part of the right wing, which was retested without him present and the first result declared a false positive. He also found holes in the piece that he said indicated an explosion outside the plane. Hughes said Wednesday that information about physical evidence from the crash was "manipulated" and is "a cause for grave concern." Former FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom, who headed the criminal investigation into the crash, told CNN that the new accusations hurt the families of the victims. "I think it's preposterous," he told CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper. "You know, if they felt that way back then, they could have come to me." Hundreds of witnesses on shore stepped forward after the crash, including 258 who said they saw a flare or rocket or "streak of light" heading from the ocean toward the plane, according to the NTSB report. "We went back to many of these people and found them to be very credible," Hughes said of the documentary. But the safety board found that many of the shore witnesses were vague or imprecise in their descriptions. The board cited research that human memory is often subject to error, and that recollections can change over time. The board found 196 small holes in the plane's structure, but only 25 were from a high- velocity penetration. Of those, 23 were traced to the center fuel tank and the remaining two came from different directions and didn't come from outside the plane, according to the NTSB report. Meanwhile, the safety board documented 25 incidents from 1959 to 2000 where military and civilian planes' fuel tanks explode or catch fire. The board concluded that the plane's explosion "was initiated by a fuel/air explosion" in the center fuel tank. The spark "could not be determined with certainty," but was "most likely" a short circuit that sent excessive voltage through wiring from the fuel gauge. James Kreindler, a Manhattan lawyer specializing in aviation accident litigation whose firm represented families of about 130 Flight 800 victims, said Wednesday that he was "100% convinced" it was a center wing fuel tank explosion that brought the plane down, as the government investigation determined. Kreindler said his firm's investigation centered on the likelihood that the plane's scavenger pump - which was never recovered - triggered the blast. He said the NTSB was more focused on the fuel lines but had not ruled out the scavenger pump. Kelly Nantel, a board spokeswoman, said investigators will review a formal petition that documentary participants submitted Wednesday for any new evidence about the crash. Petitions are typically reviewed within 60 days, and Nantel said the five-member board would vote on any reply. "The TWA Flight 800 investigation lasted four years and remains one of the NTSB's most detailed investigations," she said. http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2013/06/19/twa-flight-800-crash- investigation-national-transportation-safety-board/2437829/ Back to Top Graduate Research Survey Embry-Riddle Capstone Survey - Helicopter Pilots Greetings! My name is Katherine Hilst. I have been flying helicopters for over 25 years, and have been involved in aviation safety as a safety manager or consultant for most of that time. I am finishing my Master of Aeronautical Science (MAS) degree with a concentration in System Safety through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Worldwide campus. Based on the results of the International Helicopter Safety Team's (IHST) findings that pilot judgment and actions is the primary cause of helicopter accidents worldwide, my research has focused on finding ways to create training programs that will help improve helicopter pilot decision making. This survey is designed for helicopter pilots at all levels of experience and is intended to gather information about the extent to which helicopter pilots have been, or are involved in scenario based training. Your participation in this survey may help advance the research understanding of the impact of the type of training received (scenario based training, maneuver based training, etc.) and its impact on safety. The survey should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. It is anonymous and the Survey Monkey software ensures that I will not be able to identify you or your computer IP address. Any results will be completely de- identified, analyzed, and aggregated prior to publication. There is no remuneration for taking this survey, except for my gratitude and the good feeling you will have that, with your help, we can get a better understanding of current training practices. If you are a helicopter pilot, please click on the link below to begin the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Scenario- based_training_survey_ERAU_Capstone_Project Feel free to forward this message to other potential participants. Thank you very much for your participation! Katherine Hilst P.S. I will post information about my research on my website at safetydesignconsulting.com Curt Lewis