Flight Safety Information February 17, 2014 - No. 034 In This Issue Co-Pilot Hijacks Ethiopian Plane and Requests Asylum in Geneva Nepal plane crash kills 18 in snow, rain and fog Pushback tractor hits American jet at BWI Body found in jet wheel well at Virginia's Dulles Airport London-bound American Airlines jet lands in Canada to boot unruly passenger Nearly 4,000 laser attacks annoyed, injured U.S. pilots last year CASA director of aviation safety to stand down (Australia) Pakistan's Bhoja Air Crash Blamed On Poor Crew Training PRISM SMS Safety Comes First in Aircraft Manufacturing Civil aviation safety downgrade proves sector in perilous state (India) FAA Bars Airline Pilots From Personal Use of Electronic Devices in Cockpits FAA won't meet 2015 deadline for drone safety.. SERC of ISASI Annual Meeting 2014 Co-Pilot Hijacks Ethiopian Plane and Requests Asylum in Geneva Passengers evacuated the hijacked Boeing 767-300 on Monday after it was hijacked and diverted to Geneva. GENEVA - The co-pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet en route to Rome from Ethiopia seized control of the Boeing 767-300 early on Monday and flew it to Geneva, where he asked for asylum, a spokesman for the Geneva police said. The plane landed safely, and none of the 202 passengers and crew members on Flight ET-702, which originated in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, were injured, the police spokesman, Eric Grandjean, said. "Everybody was safe from beginning to end - no problem," he added. Other officials said passengers were unaware of the hijacking until the plane landed in Switzerland. The plane was in Italian airspace when the co-pilot, an Ethiopian national who was not immediately identified, took the controls when the pilot left the cockpit to use the restroom. After locking the cockpit door, he initially told Italian air controllers he needed fuel but then activated a transponder to signal that the plane was being hijacked, Mr. Grandjean said. Italian fighter jets were scrambled and escorted the aircraft out of Italian airspace. The plane landed in Geneva at 6:02 a.m. and continued to a taxiway, where the co-pilot cut the engines, opened the cockpit window and lowered himself to the tarmac with a rope, officials said. He then ran toward security officers and identified himself as the hijacker, declared that he was in danger in Ethiopia and requested asylum, the officials added. A Geneva prosecutor, Olivier Jornot, said the co-pilot will be charged with taking hostages, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison, The Associated Press reported. He added that the man's chances of winning asylum were slim. "Technically there is no connection between asylum and the fact he committed a crime to come here," he said, according to The A.P. "But I think his chances are not very high." Ethiopian Airlines, in a statement published on its website, confirmed all passengers aboard the flight were safe and said it was making immediate arrangements for them to continue to their destinations. The airport was closed briefly but normal operations were resuming quickly Monday. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/world/europe/hijacked-ethiopian-plane-lands-in- geneva.html?_r=0 Back to Top Nepal plane crash kills 18 in snow, rain and fog STORY HIGHLIGHTS Air traffic control lost contact with the plan on Sunday afternoon Snow, rain and fog led to poor visibility The state-run airline has a poor safety record KATHMANDU, Nepal - Rescuers on Monday found the wreckage of a plane that slammed into a snow-covered mountain in Nepal and burst into flames, killing 18 people, including a child, authorities said. Moving slowly through thick snow, rescuers walked 8 miles to the crash site. Air traffic control had lost contact with the plane on Sunday afternoon in poor visibility due to snow, rain and fog. "Our plane was technically airworthy and we believe it was the weather that caused the crash," said Ram Hari Sharma of Nepal Airlines. He said there will be a full investigation. The state-run airline is often criticized over allegations of corruption and flying old planes. The Twin Otter that crashed Sunday was 43 years old. Last year, the European Union banned all Nepalese airlines from flying to Europe because of poor safety records. The plane's charred wreckage was flung across a wide area, said police official Bam Bahadur Bhandari. Some victims were identified using documents found in the wreckage, he said. Officials aboard a helicopter spotted the wreckage earlier Monday near Machinelek, about 160 miles west of the capital, Kathmandu, but they only way to access the remote location was on foot. Rescuers used ropes and nets lowered by a small helicopter to retrieve the bodies. The helicopter transferred the bodies to a clearing where they were picked up by a larger army helicopter and flown to Kathmandu. Doctors at the Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital were performing autopsies before releasing the remains. The cockpit voice recorder was also recovered from the crash site, the air rescue office in Kathmandu said. The plane was flying from Kathmandu to Jumla, about 250 miles to the west, when it made an unscheduled fuel stop in the city of Pokhara, about a third of the way into the journey. The de Havilland Canada-manufactured Twin Otter had 15 passengers and three crew members. One passenger was believed to be Danish, while the rest were Nepalese. The age of the passenger with the infant ticket was not given. In May, another plane of the same make and model operated by Nepal Airlines crashed while attempting to land at a mountain airstrip in northern Nepal, injuring all 21 people on board. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/17/nepal-plane-crash-kills-18-in- snow-rain-and-fog/5548233/ *********** Status: Preliminary Date: Sunday 16 February 2014 Time: ca 13:15 Type: Silhouette image of generic DHC6 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 Operator: Nepal Airlines Registration: 9N-ABB C/n / msn: 302 First flight: 1971 Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27 Crew: Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3 Passengers: Fatalities: 15 / Occupants: 15 Total: Fatalities: 18 / Occupants: 18 Airplane damage: Destroyed Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: 7 km (4.4 mls) NW of Sandhikhark ( Nepal) show on map Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Pokhara Airport (PKR/VNPK), Nepal Destination airport: Jumla Airport (JUM/VNJL), Nepal Flightnumber: 183 Narrative: A de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter operated by Nepal Airlines was reported missing en route between Pokhara and Jumla, Nepal. Flight RA-183 was a domestic flight from Kathmandu to Jumla with an en route stop at Pokhara. The airplane took off from Pokhara at 12:43. Last radio contact was at 13:13. The airplane did not arrive at the scheduled arrival time of 13:45. The wreckage was located the following morning at an altitude of 7000 feet (2130 m). Thriteen bodies have been recovered so far. No surivors have been found. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Pushback tractor hits American jet at BWI LINTHICUM, Md. (AP) - A ground worker has been slightly hurt after a pushback tractor hit the nose of a parked American Airlines jet at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. An American spokesman said Monday that nobody on Flight 140 was injured and the MD-80 has been taken out of service. Kent Powell says the 119 passengers were being put on other flights to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Powell says the five-person crew was on the jet Sunday afternoon during boarding for the trip to Texas when the ground crew was hooking a tow bar to the front gear. Investigators are trying to determine why the tractor hit the landing gear and the nose cone that contains radar equipment. No damage estimate was released. A contract worker was treated for a minor knee injury. http://www.khou.com/news/national/245815551.html Back to Top Body found in jet wheel well at Virginia's Dulles Airport (Reuters) - A man's body was discovered on Saturday in the wheel well of a South African Airways jetliner parked at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, and investigators are seeking to determine when and how he died, officials said. A ground crew assigned to the plane, an Airbus A340, found the body at about 1:30 p.m. local time (1830 GMT), according to a statement from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. The plane arrived at Dulles in Virginia on Thursday morning from Johannesburg, South Africa, after a stop in Dakar, Senegal, authority spokesman Christopher Paolino said in an email. The plane was parked in a remote parking area at the airport, the authority said. Airport police, fire and rescue crews responded to the scene, along with the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. The body was turned over to the Fairfax County Medical Examiner's Office, according to the airport authority. The grisly discovery did not alter operations of the terminals or runways at Dulles, a major international flight gateway in northern Virginia. The wheel well, the portion of the plane where the body was discovered, is a recessed compartment that wheels are retracted into during flight. The Airbus A340 series of jumbo jets has a capacity ranging from 240 to 359 passengers, according to an Airbus company website. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-dulles-bodyfound- 20140215,0,1935107.story Back to Top London-bound American Airlines jet lands in Canada to boot unruly passenger GANDER, Newfoundland (AP) - An American Airlines official says a London-bound flight from Chicago had to land in eastern Canada so that an unruly passenger could be kicked off the plane. Airline spokesman Kent Powell told The Associated Press by phone Saturday that the man had refused to listen to the flight crew's instructions and was handed over to authorities in Gander, Newfoundland, where the plane had to land. He said he didn't have further details about what transpired. Powell said the plane was being refueled and was expected take off again around midnight for Heathrow Airport. Flight 86 left Chicago at around 6 p.m. CDT and was originally slated to land in London at around 4 a.m. local time. Authorities in Gander didn't immediately respond to phone messages seeking information. http://www.khou.com/news/London-bound-American-Airlines-jet-lands-in-Canada-TO- boot-unruly-passenger-245751971.html Back to Top Nearly 4,000 laser attacks annoyed, injured U.S. pilots last year STORY HIGHLIGHTS FAA: Laser strikes on aircraft occur an average of 11 times a day Locating pranksters with lasers can be hard, but it's doable The FBI and 11 U.S. cities are offering reward money for tips leading to arrests There were 3,960 strikes last year, up from just 283 in 2005 (CNN) -- Pulsating light bursts into the cockpit of a plane thousands of feet in the air, filling it with seething brightness, and blinding the pilot and copilot. What sounds like a cheap reenactment in a hokey UFO reality show has become everyday reality in the United States. Laser attacks on aircraft occur an average of 11 times a day, the Federal Aviation Administration says. Powerful handheld lasers are affordable and widespread, and some people are making sport of shining them up into passing aircraft. The trend seems to be catching on. There were 3,960 such strikes reported last year, the FAA says. That's up from 283 in 2005. But reporting of these crimes has also caught on, which has contributed to the rise in official numbers. Still, hundreds of attacks go unreported and remain uncounted. Perpetrator roundup The FBI wants them to stop and is offering reward money for tips leading to the pranksters. And it's making some arrests. Though it takes work to track down the source of the laser, it can be done with a helicopter, a dispatcher and squad cars. The FBI has posted YouTube video of one such bust. It has detained mostly teenage boys and men in their 30s, who face a possible five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. And the FBI is not the only one posting a bounty on them. For the next two months, 11 U.S. cities and San Juan, Puerto Rico, are offering up to $10,000 for information leading to arrests. Attacks are particularly common in New York and Los Angeles, and they often obstruct the work of the targeted pilots. "When a laser light flashes across the cockpit, it's about 25% brighter than a flashlight flashing in your face. So what that does is, that can cause temporary incapacitation," said Stephen Woolery, an FBI agent pursuing laser pranksters. Rise in lasers pointed at aircraft in New York, FBI says Eye injuries But the consequences can be much worse than just annoying. A pilot coming in for a landing at JFK two years ago radioed the tower right after an attack. "We just got lasered up here," he said. "Two green flashes into the cockpit. It caught the first officer's eye." A direct hit can burn the cornea, and that has put pilots in the hospital. So far, no laser strike has been known to cause a pilot to crash an aircraft. But the FBI fears it is only a matter of time. http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/12/us/pilots-laser-attacks/ Back to Top CASA director of aviation safety to stand down (Australia) John McCormick The Chair of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Board, Dr Allan Hawke, has today announced that Mr John McCormick will not be seeking a further term of appointment as Director of Aviation Safety. Mr McCormick has, however, agreed, to the Board's request to stay on in the position until 31 August 2014.This will allow for an executive search process to fill the position and enable the Director to assist the Board's initial consideration of the Government's Independent Review of Aviation Safety Regulation scheduled to be completed around the end of May. The CASA statement says "Mr McCormick's leadership over the last five years has been the critical factor behind the significant improvements to Australia's aviation safety regulatory regime and CASA's performance." The full, effusive, and ridiculous statement can be read here. In the more than four years since the Pel-Air ditching near Norfolk Island CASA has failed to make any changes to the safety regulations relating to aerial ambulance flights like that being performed by the Westwind corporate jet involved even though it recognised they were deficient and vowed to change them in a timely manner. Four years and three months is not timely. Or acceptable. McCormick admitted during a Senate committee hearing inquiry into the final report into that accident by the ATSB that he had with held certain CASA documents from the safety investigator which said that the accident could among other things, have been prevented had CASA carried out its obligations to air safety and the oversight of the Pel-Air Westwind operation. Mr McCormick apologised for his actions. However the actions of CASA in not making available to the ATSB a document relevant to the crash of the jet, which referenced the lack of a suitable refuelling policy for such operations at Pel-Air, was referred by the Senate committee to the Australian Federal Police for advice as to whether or not CASA had offended the Transport Safety Investigation Act of 2003. That reference has not as yet been returned to the Senators who made it. The Senators also heard testimony as to possible collusion between the ATSB and CASA over suppression or dismissal of evidence related to the crash. The committee issued a report which was highly critical of the ATSB and CASA, and made recommendations with the then Transport minister Anthony Albanese ignored, and which his coalition replacement and deputy PM Warren Truss has yet to respond to. (The same committee took the unprecedented step of devoting an entire chapter of their report to their dissatisfaction with the testimony of the chief commissioner of the ATSN, Martin Dolan.) Under McCormick's tenure the Queensland Coroner John Hutton said it was "unbelievable" that CASA had allowed an aerobatic pilot, Barry Hempel, pilot to keep his private licence up until the day he killed a joyflight customer, Ian Lovell, by crashing their aircraft into the sea near South Stradbroke Island. The coroner found that CASA was fully aware of Hempel's history of seizures and safety breaches but did nothing about them. The inquest raised key parallels with CASA total failure of duty in relation to the Lockhart River Transair crash which killed 15 people in 2005, in which the safety authority knew that Transair was unsafe and in breach of the regulations but did nothing material and told a Senate inquiry that it had no duty of care to warn the public of unsafe operations. That incident preceded McCormick's appointment. Aspects of the Hempel crash and the Pel-Air crash strongly suggest that CASA's culture of indifference to public accountability or the enforcement of safety rules haven't materially changed under his tenure. There is widespread dissatisfaction and alarm in the aviation community as to the competency, fairness and accountability of the safety regulator. McCormick's replacement and the more timely and sensible and effective overhaul of air safety regulations have been long argued for in the aviation community. http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2014/02/14/casa-director-of-aviation-safety-to- stand-down/ Back to Top Pakistan's Bhoja Air Crash Blamed On Poor Crew Training, But Is Indian Air Safety Even Worse? Investigators in Pakistan have found that a deadly airplane crash in April 2012 in the north of the country was caused by a poorly trained cockpit crew. Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has determined that the pilots of the domestic Bhoja Air Boeing 737 -- a jetliner coming from Karachi that crashed in Rawalpindi, killing 127 people, including six crewmembers -- were not adequately trained in how to use its automated flight deck. The aircraft burst into flames as it approached the Benazir Bhutto International airport near Islamabad during a storm. No one survived the catastrophe -- many of the dead bodies were charred beyond recognition -- the second-deadliest air disaster in the country's history. (The worst air tragedy in Pakistan's history occurred in July 2010 when an Airblue plane crashed into the Margalla Hills just north of Islamabad, killing 152 people.) Specifically, the CAA found that the plane's captain, Noorullah Khan, 58, and his co-pilot were trained to fly the Boeing 737-200 but not the more advanced 737-236 (the craft that crashed on that fateful day), which features an automated flight deck. "The information with regards to automation capacities of aircraft was not in the knowledge of [the] cockpit crew even after [their] formal ground schooling, as the ground schooling did not cater [to] the automation of aircraft," the report stated, according to Agence France Presse. CAA also cited "ineffective management of the basic flight parameters" such as air speed and rate of descent as the principal factors behind the tragic incident. The Express Tribune newspaper reported that Captain Khan was a veteran pilot from the Pakistan Air Force with more than 10,000 hours of flying experience under his belt. But the eight-member investigative team of investigators found that the pilot was gripped in panic during the inclement weather as he spoke to the control tower upon approach. He apparently did not trust the plane's automatic technology and even seemed confused by the fact that that the plane was moving at a speed of 220 knots instead of 190. Bhoja's operations were suspended by the government shortly after the crash and has dissolved. In the wake of the CAA's findings, the Tribune reported that Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will also make an inquiry into the disaster upon receiving a summons from a Judicial Commission. Thereafter, a judgment could be made on proper compensation to victims' families. "We are waiting for a summons," said a senior FIA official. "Only [the] FIA has leads which indicate the reasons [behind] the crash. Our officials have completed their homework but they haven't been able to question anyone except Farouk Omar Bhoja [the 70-year-old former chairman of the airline]." The Tribune reported, however, that Farouk Bhoja only owns 5 percent of the company's shares, while CEO Arshad Jalil, his wife and his son together control 80 percent of shares. The Jalil family reportedly moved to Dubai after the crash, and they have already received $800,000 from the aircraft's insurer, FIA said. "Now [Jalil] is waiting for compensation [to be paid] to the victims' heirs ... Like all the cases, the CAA investigation report will blame the pilot for the accident and everyone will walk free," an official told the Tribune. Ironically, a few days prior to the CAA's findings, the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority downgraded the airline safety ranking of Indian aviation to Category 2 from Category 1, bringing it below Pakistan's rating. The FAA, after completing an audit last year, found 31 issues of "safety concern" with Indian airlines, including a lack of full-time safety inspectors. The FAA has "determined that India at this time is not in compliance with the international standards for aviation safety oversight," according to notes provided to the Indian regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. India now has a safety ranking similar to nations such as Bangladesh, Ghana and Indonesia. The downgrade means that Air India and Jet Airways will be prohibited from making an increased number of flights to the United States. The Indian government's aviation officials expressed confusion and surprise over the downgrade. "They have downgraded us to category 2. It is very disappointing and also surprising," Indian aviation minister Ajit Singh said at a press conference in New Delhi last week. Singh further stated that "95 percent" of concerns raised by the FAA have been addressed, while the rest should be resolved by March. http://www.ibtimes.com/pakistans-bhoja-air-crash-blamed-poor-crew-training-indian- air-safety-even-worse-1553810 Back to Top Back to Top Safety Comes First in Aircraft Manufacturing By CHRISTINE NEGRONI SAN FRANCISCO - When Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed on landing at San Francisco International Airport on July 6 last year, the first person to call for an immediate evacuation of the Boeing 777 was a flight attendant, Tae Sik Yoo. Mr. Yoo described seeing smoke and fire through the window. When the captain's first instruction was for passengers to remain seated, Mr. Yoo said he concluded that the pilot had not seen the flames. So he disregarded the announcement from the cockpit and told the passengers to leave the plane. Asiana flight attendants are authorized to use their judgment to order an evacuation, according to training records released by the accident investigative agency, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Whether Mr. Yoo made the correct decision is one of many questions the accident investigators are considering - along with what caused the pilots to land the nine-year- old plane short of the runway, in the course of which the tail was ripped off and the front end was sent careering down the pavement for 20 seconds before coming to a halt. The airplane ended up a total loss. Yet of 291 passengers and 16 crew members, only two certainly died from injuries sustained on impact. A third traveler, Ye Meng Yuan, was run over on the tarmac by first responders at the site. A lawsuit is pending that will examine whether she was dead already or was killed by the fire engine. To many air safety experts the low loss of life is a demonstration of the degree to which improvements in airplane seats and cabin materials have made it more likely that people will survive crashes. "This plane did exactly what designers want it to do," said Robert Salzar, principal scientist at the Center for Applied Biomechanics at the University of Virginia. "In the case of a survivable hard landing, the fuselage and the seating systems worked together to absorb the impact energy." Travelers may be primarily concerned with their personal space and comfort, but plane makers like Boeing are required to make sure that the interior meets three goals; that the passengers survive an impact, that the spread of fire is minimized and that the plane can be evacuated in 90 seconds or less. The push to make airplanes more protective began in the 1980s, after several accidents in which passengers were unable to escape the plane because of fire, smoke or debilitating injuries. Survivability became a two-step process, according to Joseph Pellettiere, chief scientific and technical adviser for crash dynamics at the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States. The seat had to protect the passenger but also prevent head and limb injuries that could be immobilizing. All airliners are now required to have seats that can withstand a downward force 14 times greater than gravity and a longitudinal impact of 16 times gravity. Fabrics and other interior materials must be resistant to fire. At a hearing held by the transportation safety board in December, Bruce Wallace, an engineer with Boeing, said the Asiana plane's seats and restraints did provide protection when it hit the seawall short of the runway, ripping off its tail, then pivoted in a circle with one wing pointing skyward, before thudding back to the pavement: But the forces experienced in that sequence of events were beyond what the plane was designed for, Mr. Wallace said. After watching videos of the event, Tom Plant, an executive with B/E Aerospace, a seat manufacturer, said he agreed: "When I saw it, I said to myself, 'Wow, that's a level of movement in an aircraft in a crash that must be in excess of what we actually test for,"' he said. B/E Aerospace was not the maker of any of the seats on the Asiana airplane. While the seats and restraints provided protection, many things did go wrong in the cabin. Two of the inflatable emergency exit slides opened prematurely, pinning flight attendants to their seats and making those exits inoperable. The front of the plane was severely damaged by fire, and seats beginning at Row 36 were broken, with the backs of some seats facing the ceiling - supporting Boeing's claim that the movement of the plane exceeded the certification standards. "In a 16-G crash test, it should not do that," Mr. Plant said of the damaged seats. When a seat or seat row falls onto another, it can cause serious injuries, obstruct evacuation or trap passengers. An Asiana flight attendant told investigators that one traveler had been pinned in her seat and another passenger had to break it to free her. Her leg injury made her unable to evacuate on her own. The safety board investigation will compare the cabin damage to passenger injuries to determine if safety can be enhanced. The passenger seats and the escape slides were all produced by Zodiac Aerospace, a French company. As a part of the official investigation, the company is limited as to what it can discuss. Phone calls and emails requesting comment went unanswered. For all the attention paid to the inside of the plane, how the passenger behaves is the less predictable part of the equation, officials say. In the Asiana 214 crash, Mr. Wallace told the safety board that one or two passengers were probably not wearing their seat belts: and flight attendants and passengers reported that during the evacuation as many as 10 people stopped to retrieve their carry-ons before leaving the plane. "Even when a plane is burning, they still want their bags," Ms. Kolander said. "That's relevant in a lot of accidents and we are trying to figure out as an industry, how do we stop that human aspect?" One passenger explained to investigators that he took his bag without thinking: Only after he had it on his shoulder did it occur to him that he had not been smart to delay getting out of the plane. On learning about that, Dan Freeman, director of payload engineering at Boeing, said: "This is a continuous learning process for us. The interviews with the passengers, the examination of the airplane, the examination of the components in the airplane and how well they performed, they are all a great source of information we roll back into our design process to improve things." http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/business/safety-comes-first-in-aircraft- manufacturing.html Back to Top Civil aviation safety downgrade proves sector in perilous state (India) India has an international civil aviation safety rating equal to Swaziland's and worse than Pakistan's. That the rating downgrade was done by the US' Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is irrelevant. The FAA's safety audits are based on prevailing international standards that India accepts. It is noteworthy that civil aviation minister Ajit Singh has not denied the FAA's criticisms, but merely argued that India had taken remedial measures that the audit did not take into account. What is troubling is that the downgrade was predictable. The gap between what international standards require and what the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is doing has been widening for some years. It is telling that no attempt has been made by the government to fix responsibility for this turn of events - possibly because it would boomerang on the authorities concerned. Civil aviation in India should have been a success story. India is geographically well- placed to be a hub. It is the sort of industry that the country would have done well by: A service industry with high rates of employment and where competitive labour costs matter, plenty of economic spin-offs in tourism and business, relatively low levels of investment and technology. Instead, the recent history of civil aviation in India is one of bankrupt airlines and volatile ticket prices merged with high levels of corruption and policy-fixing. The safety downgrade is symptomatic of the dominant culture of flying in India: A system treated as a milch cow from which to extract patronage, money and worse. Air India is jokingly called an urban employment guarantee scheme as it functions like an expensive, leaky welfare system. Foreign airlines are the only players which seem to be able to make profits from the Indian market. One can be proud of the new airports that have come up around the country - but also wonder why they are awash in red ink. There has been only muted criticism of the haphazard manner in which the flying business has taken off in India. As long as the sector seemed to outwardly improve, there has been a tendency to presume there was no reason to complain. The downgrade has shown that the sector is in a rickety state. The DGCA, for example, is a body largely unchanged from what it was 15 years ago. But the skies above India have become barely recognisable during that time. The civil aviation ministry is a vestigial organisation, largely an outpost of crony capitalism. In most developed countries there is no such ministry, they just have a regulator. The creation of a new civil aviation authority has been approved but remains to be implemented. India can become a monarch of the skies, but only after an overhaul of a system that keeps civil aviation permanently grounded. http://www.hindustantimes.com/comment/civil-aviation-safety-downgrade-proves- sector-in-perilous-state/article1-1183417.aspx#sthash.qff7z3iW.dpuf Back to Top FAA Bars Airline Pilots From Personal Use of Electronic Devices in Cockpits The New Rule Takes Effect In Two Months By ANDY PASZTOR The Federal Aviation Administration issued final regulations barring airline pilots from using laptops, cellphones or other electronic devices for personal reasons while on duty in the cockpit. The rule, which was released Tuesday and takes effect in two months, mandates prohibitions that were previously called for by Congress and included years ago in a nonbinding advisory document issued by the FAA. The move also parallels FAA rules issued more than 30 years ago requiring a so-called "sterile cockpit" in which personal discussions and other distractions are banned below certain altitudes. The FAA said the rule "codifies existing FAA policies and procedures" applying to both cargo and passenger carriers. In addition, individual airlines have included the issue in updated training curricula. The dangers of aviators distracted by electronic devices created a furor five years ago, when a Northwest Airlines crew overshot its destination by more than 100 miles because the pilots were engaged in a personal discussion and looking at their laptops. The plane landed safely, but the distracted crew was out of radio contact with air-traffic controllers for more than 70 minutes. The FAA also cited a 2011 medical helicopter crash, which killed the pilot and three other onboard, as an example of distractions caused by electronic devices. The rule follows a conclusion by the National Transportation Safety Board that the FAA's earlier nonbinding advisory circular was inadequate. The safety board also has advocated moves to crack down on texting and other electronic distractions by train engineers, marine operators and individual drivers. The FAA rejected arguments by some pilots that personal uses of such electronic devices sometimes enhance safety by alleviating cockpit boredom, lethargy and loss of concentration during cruise portions of flights. The agency also indicated it might extend the ban to small turboprop aircraft and charter operators. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/ Back to Top FAA won't meet 2015 deadline for drone safety STORY HIGHLIGHTS FAA recently announced six groups that are testing commercial drones Commercial drones are projected to spur $82 billion in economic activity in a decade's time Air-traffic controllers contend that existing automation can't handle drone flight plans WASHINGTON - Federal watchdogs told a House panel Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration won't meet its 2015 deadline for having drones fly safely in the same space as commercial jets. However, the head of the FAA says drones would be phased into the skies gradually. Congress set the deadline to spur integration of drones into the skies, with projections for $82 billion in economic activity over the next decade. But after the FAA set a five- year road map and designated six groups to run drone tests last year, significant work remains to ensure that drones don't crash into other aircraft. "The agency will not meet the September 2015 deadline for safe (drone) integration and it is uncertain when this will be achieved," Calvin Scovel III, the Transportation Department's inspector general, told the House Transportation subcommittee on aviation. Scovel cited "significant technological barriers," such as having drones detect and avoid other aircraft, and remaining linked to their remote pilots. He also said that air-traffic controllers contend that existing automation can't handle drone flight plans. Gerald Dillingham, director of civil aviation for the Government Accountability Office, said the FAA hasn't defined the safety and performance standards it needs from the six test groups, or how data will be collected and analyzed. "While progress is being made, there are some significant hurdles and challenges that FAA must still overcome to fully integrate" drones into national airspace, Dillingham said. "Given the status of these efforts, stakeholders remain concerned about FAA's ability to meet the 2015 timeline." FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told lawmakers that drones will be approved in phases. He said technology is developing rapidly, and that regulators will learn from the six test groups. "We won't get to a point where there will be one day where suddenly everyone can operate anything anytime," Huerta said. "But as we go through the certification and qualification process, there will be classes of these aircraft that we will be able to introduce." Lawmakers asked whether Huerta would need a deadline extension. "I don't want you to feel jammed by an artificial deadline created by Congress," said Rep. Pete DeFazio, D- Ore. Huerta didn't ask for a delay, but said drones will be approved in stages, "with the overriding concern that we want to maximize the highest levels of safety." http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/05/faa-drones-inspector-general- gao/5226427/ Back to Top SERC of ISASI Annual Meeting 2014 The Southeast Regional Chapter of ISASI would like to invite you to attend their 2014 Meeting to be held in Cape Canaveral, FL on Saturday, March 22, 2014. Please see the registration form below. A tour of the Columbia Research and Preservation Center is also being offered on Friday, March 21, 2014. Availability is limited, and the deadline for tour registration is Monday, February 10, 2014. Please contact astorey@srca.net for additional information and reservations. ISASAI Registration Form 2014 Curt Lewis