Flight Safety Information March 10, 2014 - No. 050 In This Issue 'We have to find the aircraft': Days later, no sign of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 NTSB POSITIONING TEAM TO OFFER ASSISTANCE IN INVESTIGATION OF MALAYSIA AIRLINES 777 EVENT Preliminary Information Airline Warns Pilots About Runway After UPS Crash Footage after Asiana crash brings S.F. police-fire tensions Indian aircraft would have to upgrade avionic systems soon PRISM SMS Upcoming Events 'We have to find the aircraft': Days later, no sign of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Oil slick not from plane, Malaysian state media report "We have not found anything," official says Interpol tweeted Sunday it was examining additional "suspect #passports" The focus has shifted to the Andaman Sea (CNN) -- Despite the efforts of 34 planes, 40 ships and search crews from 10 countries, officials have not found any sign of a Malaysia Airlines flight that went missing nearly three days ago. "Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we have not found anything that appear to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft," Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Malaysian civil aviation department, told reporters Monday. So the mysteries surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 -- and the true identities of some of its passengers -- remain unsolved. So far, nothing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday (1 p.m. Friday ET). The Boeing 777-200ER, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, went missing while flying to Beijing. Since then, teams of searchers from Vietnam, China, Singapore, Indonesia, the United States, Thailand, Australia, the Philippines and New Zealand have been working alongside Malaysians to scour the Gulf of Thailand, part of the South China Sea that lies between several Southeast Asian countries. The focus has now shifted to the Andaman Sea, near Thailand's border, after radar data indicated the plane may have turned around to head back to Kuala Lumpur. But the pilot apparently gave no signal to authorities that he was turning around. From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., planes flew over the vast waters. Ships searched through the night. One promising lead has turned out to be a dead end. A "strange object" spotted by a Singaporean search plane late Sunday afternoon is not debris from the missing jetliner, a U.S. official familiar with the issue told CNN on Sunday. "We need hard evidence. We need concrete evidence," Rahman said. "We are increasing our efforts to do what we have to do." The stolen passports It is perplexing enough that a jetliner seemed to have vanished without a trace. Adding to the mystery is the news that at least two people on board were traveling on passports stolen from an Austrian and an Italian. The two passengers who used the passports in question appear to have bought their tickets together. Interpol tweeted Sunday it was examining additional "suspect #passports." "Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in INTERPOL's databases," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble in a statement. Terrorism concern The passport mystery raised concerns about the possibility of terrorism, but officials cautioned that it was still too early to arrive at any conclusions. One possible explanation for the use of the stolen passports is illegal immigration. There are previous cases of illegal immigrants using fake passports to try to enter Western countries. And Southeast Asia is known to be a booming market for stolen passports. Five passengers ended up not boarding the aircraft. Their bags were removed and were not on board the jet when it disappeared, Rahman said at Monday's briefing. Could the plane have been hijacked? "We are looking at every angle, every aspect," Rahman said. "We are looking at every inch of the sea." Agonizing wait For the relatives of the 227 passengers and 12 crew members, the wait has been agonizing. Among the passengers, 154 people were from China or Taiwan. The plane was also carrying 38 Malaysians, five Indians and three Americans citizens. Five of the passengers were younger than 5 years old. In Beijing, family members gathered in a conference room at a hotel complex. More than 100 people signed a hand-written petition that demanded "truth" from the airline. They also urged the Chinese government to help them deal with Malaysian authorities. Malaysia Airlines, which was helping family members apply for expedited passports, said it will fly out five relatives of each passenger to Kuala Lumpur. A fuller picture of what happened may not become available until searchers find the plane and its flight data recorder. And so far, that hasn't happened. http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/10/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/ Back to Top NTSB POSITIONING TEAM TO OFFER ASSISTANCE IN INVESTIGATION OF MALAYSIA AIRLINES 777 EVENT The National Transportation Safety Board has a team of investigators en route to Asia to be ready to assist with the investigation of the March 8 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 event. The Boeing 777 went missing on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Once the location of the airplane is determined, International Civil Aviation Organization protocols will determine which country will lead the investigation. Because of the lengthy travel time from the United States, the NTSB has sent a team of investigators, accompanied by technical advisers from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration, to the area so they will be positioned to offer U.S. assistance. The team departed from the U.S. tonight. The country that leads the investigation will release all information about it. www.ntsb.gov Back to Top Preliminary Information Vietnam Spots Oil Slicks in Hunt for Missing Jet Status: Preliminary Date: Saturday 8 March 2014 Time: ca 01:30 Type: Silhouette image of generic B772 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different Boeing 777-2H6ER Operator: Malaysia Airlines Registration: 9M-MRO C/n / msn: 28420/404 First flight: 2002-05-14 (11 years 10 months) Engines: 2 Rolls-Royce Trent 892 Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: 12 Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants: 227 Total: Fatalities: / Occupants: 239 Airplane damage: Missing Airplane fate: Presumed damaged beyond repair Location: NNE off Malaysian coast [South China Sea] ( Pacific Ocean) show on map Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: International Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL/WMKK), Malaysia Destination airport: Beijing-Capital Airport (PEK/ZBAA), China Flightnumber: 370 Narrative: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-370 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China was reported missing. There were 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. The Boeing 777-2H6ER took off from Kuala Lumpur Interational Airport's runway 32R at 00:41 and climbed to a cruising altitude of FL350. Data of flight tracking website Flightradar24 suggest that the flight flew a 25° course towards the IGARI waypoint. Overhead IGARI, at 02:20, the flight changed course to 40°. Last contact recorded by Flightradar24 was at 01:20 at 175 km NNE off the Malaysian coast and 223 km SW off the Vietnamese coast, just within the Singapore FIR, 6 km northeast of IGARI. Malaysian officials reported they had lost radar contact at 01:30 at a position 2 km south of IGARI. On previous days, MH370 followed the same course over the IGARI waypoint, heading approximately 37° into Vietnamese airspace. A search is in progress. On March 9 Vietnam reported spotting a composite inner door and a piece of the airplane's tail but DCA Malaysia reported the next day that these reports were untrue. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Airline Warns Pilots About Runway After UPS Crash BIRMINGHAM, Ala. March 8, 2014 (AP) The nation's largest regional passenger airline told pilots to avoid landing on the runway where a UPS cargo jet crashed in Birmingham because an internal review following the accident concluded planes come "dangerously close" to nearby hills if even a few feet too low. The Atlanta-based ExpressJet Airlines, in a company alert obtained by The Associated Press, said its pilots should use the primary runway at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport when possible rather than the shorter Runway 18, where a UPS A300 jet struck trees before slamming into a hill short of the runway in August. The two pilots died, but no one on the ground was hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board has yet to determine the probable cause of the UPS accident, and a hearing last month focused on pilot fatigue as the cause of the crash, not any possible problems with the runway. An aviation safety expert said the runway is "absolutely" safe. But the ExpressJet report, based on both an analysis of the UPS crash and ExpressJet landings in Birmingham, said a nonstandard flight path to the runway combined the "significant threat of terrain" meant its pilots should always land on Birmingham's main runway if it is available. Dated about one month after the UPS crash, the ExpressJet review said the study was meant to illustrate the "tight constraints" of Runway 18, "not to instill fear" in pilots. ExpressJet spokeswoman Samantha Harrison declined comment on the safety analysis. The company operates 14 flights daily through Birmingham as Delta or United Express, airport records show. A spokeswoman for the Birmingham airport, Toni Herrera-Bast, wouldn't answer questions about the ExpressJet report, including whether the authority that oversees the airport is considering any changes to the runway. Birmingham's main, 12,000-foot-long runway was temporarily closed for repairs the morning of the crash, and the pilot of the UPS jet decided to land on Runway 18, which is 7,000 feet long and has less guidance equipment than the longer runway. The airplane's path took it across several large hills at the northern end of the runway. Apparently unaware how close the aircraft was to the ground, the pilot flew into the tops of tall trees beside two homes before dawn on an overcast, drizzly morning. After impact, the aircraft plunged into the side of a hill more than a half-mile from the end of the runway, scattering wreckage across a wide area. ExpressJet's safety department reviewed both the UPS crash and 11 landings made by its own pilots last year on Runway 18, the analysis shows. While none of the ExpressJet flights crashed, the study found that two ExpressJet planes that were only a few feet below an ideal flight path came within 65 feet of a hilltop. "Due to the significant threat of terrain on approach to runway 18 and the non-standard glide-path angle, all landings should be made to runway 6/24, if available," the study concludes. "Flying 'low' or 'slightly low' ... puts the aircraft dangerously close to terrain." Veteran airline pilot-turned-safety consultant John Cox, who grew up in Birmingham and learned to fly on Runway 18, said the runway "absolutely" is safe. "How many hundreds and thousands of people have landed using that approach?" said Cox. But, he said, the ExpressJet analysis highlights the difficulty pilots face when landing on Runway 18 and other runways with difficult approaches over hills or buildings. The Birmingham runway is also tricky during takeoffs because of surrounding hills, Cox said. "It's an appropriate step for the company to say to the crews, 'This runway has some issues with it. If you can, use the other one,'" said Cox, who flew for commercial carriers and now is chief executive of the Washington-based Safety Operating Systems, a consulting company. Testimony during the NTSB hearing indicated commercial jets seldom use Birmingham's shorter runway, but investigators could not determine whether the UPS pilot, Cerea Beal Jr., ever had attempted landing on Runway 18 during 175 previous flights into Birmingham. The co-pilot, Shanda Fanning, was making only her second flight to the Birmingham airport. ExpressJet, a subsidiary of SkyWest Inc., calls itself the world's largest regional airline with more than 2,100 flights daily on average. It operates as American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/airline-warns-pilots-runway-ups-crash-22831994?page=2 Back to Top Footage after Asiana crash brings S.F. police-fire tensions San Francisco firefighter Roger Phillips directs a fire rig around Ye Meng Yuan after the July 6,2013 crash of an Asiana Airlines jet at San Francisco International Airport. Firefighters had concluded that the 16- year-old Chinese girl was dead, although the San Mateo County coroner later said she was alive when the rigÕs dashboard camera filmed this image. San Francisco police investigating the death of an Asiana Airlines crash survivor who was run over and killed by Fire Department rigs concluded that one of the firefighter drivers was lying to them and challenged a high-ranking fire official who didn't inform them about key camera footage of the incident, according to Police Department documents. Tensions between police and the Fire Department are evident in more than 200 pages of investigative documents compiled in connection with the death of 15-year-old Ye Meng Yuan, the Chinese girl who was run over by two fire rigs in the minutes after the July 6 crash at San Francisco International Airport. The Chronicle obtained some of the documents from police under a state Public Records Act request and others from sources close to the investigation. The Police Department ultimately submitted the case to San Mateo County prosecutors, who have jurisdiction over the airport. The officer in charge of the probe, Sgt. Kevin Edison, wrote in his log that no criminal negligence charges "appear evident" against any firefighter in Ye's death, and county District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe agreed. There were conflicts with the Fire Department throughout the police investigation, however, starting with the role of firefighter Elyse Duckett. She was at the wheel of the second rig to run over Ye as the girl lay on the ground near the burning airplane's left wing. Rushing to scene Duckett had been away from her airport fire station when the Boeing 777 came down short of the runway, crashed into a seawall and caught fire. She hurried back and drove one of the airport's foam-spraying rigs to the crash scene off the side of a runway, but soon ran out of water and headed off to get more. Three days after the crash, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White supplied police with footage from the helmet camera of Battalion Chief Mark Johnson. It showed Duckett driving directly over the spot where Ye's foam- obscured body was found moments later. To police Officer Wesley Villaruel, a hit-and-run detail investigator who compiled the collision report, the video was clear evidence that Duckett's rig had run over the girl. Story contradicted Duckett, however, told police July 10 - the day after police investigators viewed the footage - that she couldn't have hit the girl, because she had seen the tarp-covered teenager on the ground. What's more, she said, Johnson had told her Ye was there, so she backed up and drove around the girl. But Johnson's camera footage showed no such thing. Instead, after speaking with Johnson, Duckett drove in an arc forward and over where Ye was found a short time later. The footage showed a firefighter placing a tarp on the girl after Duckett's rig had left. "The video, which also had audio, contradicted Duckett's statement," police Sgt. Justin Erb wrote in a search warrant affidavit seeking news video of the scene. The assistant deputy fire chief in charge of airport operations, Dale Carnes, was present during the interview and agreed that Duckett had "lied to the police," Erb said in his investigative log. Carnes also told investigators he had informed Hayes-White that Duckett lied. 'Improper' driving Villaruel's report concluded that Duckett had been driving in an "improper manner," but that it was a "chaotic situation" and that Ye had been covered by "a significant layer of foam." For her part, Duckett filed a claim against the city in January, saying she was being wrongly blamed for killing Ye when hers was actually the second rig to run over the girl. John Hurley, her attorney, said Friday that the city has denied the claim and that Duckett is considering filing a lawsuit. "Her account at the time was based on her recollection, without having seen any video, of what was a very chaotic event," Hurley said. "After having seen the video that has been released, what is clear is that the city and the Fire Department have misrepresented the facts." Footage shot by a camera mounted in the first fire rig that ran over Ye was the subject of angry exchanges between police and Carnes, the police investigative documents show. The camera was aboard a rig driven by firefighter Jimmy Yee, who was at the crash scene before Duckett arrived and before the teenage crash survivor had been covered with foam. Footage from the rig's dashboard camera showed that another firefighter pointed out the girl to Yee as she lay on the ground and that Yee initially drove around her. A few minutes later, however, he returned to the spot and drove over her, the footage shows. Police learned of the footage's existence from airport officials on July 11, five days after the crash. Guidelines violated Erb wrote that when he heard about the footage, he promptly headed to the airport maintenance shop. When he arrived, he found airport technicians downloading the footage from rig cameras to a portable hard-drive device - violating investigative guidelines that require police to maintain control of potential evidence from start to finish. An airport maintenance supervisor said his boss had told him and other workers to download the footage and "keep it to themselves," Erb wrote in his investigative log. Fire Department official Carnes, who showed up at the scene, told Erb that the footage was being downloaded for the National Transportation Safety Board, which was investigating the cause of the crash but had nothing to do with the criminal probe. "He told me he believed the (police) investigation was closed," Erb wrote. When advised the probe was still active, Carnes said "he was told otherwise." Uncomfortable with tone Carnes added that he had just had "a three-way conversation with his chief (Hayes-White) and my chief (Police Chief Greg Suhr)," Erb wrote. Carnes denied trying to obstruct the investigation, but asserted that he was "not required to notify the police regarding the videos" and said he was "getting pissed off." Carnes insisted he had learned about the footage from Yee's rig only the day before and that he had been helping with the police probe as much as he " f- could," Erb wrote. "I ain't hiding jack s-," Carnes told Erb, the police investigator wrote. At that point, Carnes ended the interview, saying he was concerned that the investigators were "going to make this official," according to Erb. A fire battalion chief interviewed by Erb at the airport, Ed Dea, "stated he felt like they were being treated like criminals and they weren't hiding anything," according to the police sergeant's notes. "Dea advised me that my tone was making people feel uncomfortable" and that he intended to complain to the deputy police chief at the airport "about my questioning," Erb wrote. Carnes did not return calls seeking comment. He has long insisted that Ye was dead before the first fire rig ran over her, but San Mateo County's coroner concluded otherwise. Police findings Mindy Talmadge, a Fire Department representative speaking for the firefighters involved, said other police investigators had told Carnes that the probe was over. She said Carnes had told airport officials and federal safety board investigators about the existence of the rig's camera footage, and that they had told police. Carnes, she said, wasn't "trying to hide anything." The day after the airport confrontation, Suhr announced that the police investigation had found that one rig drove over the girl - Duckett's. It wasn't until later, when the footage from Yee's rig was given to police, that investigators realized that his was the first Fire Department vehicle to strike the teenager. An analysis by Edison, the police sergeant in charge of the investigation, concluded that Yee actually ran over the girl twice - once when he approached the burning plane to spray foam on it, and again when he backed up. Edison said the rig appeared to roll over her lower body. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Footage-after-Asiana-crash-brings-S-F-5300678.php#page-2 Back to Top Indian aircraft would have to upgrade avionic systems soon All Indian aircraft would have to upgrade their avionic systems soon to match with India's own satellite- based navigation system GAGAN, to be launched later this year, a top official said today. If the airlines can take advantage of the GPS-aided Geo- Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system by equipping their aircraft with matching avionics, almost USD 10 million worth of jet fuel could be saved annually, Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Lavasa said. He was indicating at the fact that a lot of fuel could be saved as the GAGAN system would help pilots navigate in all- weather conditions by an accuracy of up to three metres. It would enable an aircraft to fly on a specific path between two three-dimensional defined points, straighten routes and reduce fuel burn. Such a capability would also help in landing an aircraft in tough weather and terrain. Addressing an ASSOCHAM event here, Lavasa said "virtually require all aircraft to be equipped with GNSS (global navigation satellite system) avionics" in order to realise maximum benefits from the global navigation satellite system. "Implementation decisions obviously should take into account aircraft operators' plans to equip (their fleet), which in turn depends upon cost savings that justify avionics and related costs," he said. The Secretary also said that air navigation service (ANS) providers and aircraft operators would be required to work together and co-ordinate investments in the GNSS technology. "With the proposed implementation of Indian indigenous regional network of satellites by India and with GAGAN becoming fully operational by the year end from en route to approach, the operators would be well-advised to embrace satellite based navigation considering its inherent benefits," Lavasa said. Maintaining that India was poised to become the third largest market in terms of air traffic growth, he said satellite navigation technology was the vision of future and GAGAN was an essential cornerstone to future safety. The first phase of the ambitious navigation system GAGAN was certified by aviation regulator DGCA in January, which would be a major step to make it fully operational in the next few months. http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/indian-aircraft-would-have-to-upgrade-avionic- systems-soon-114031000674_1.html Back to Top Back to Top Upcoming Events: 8th World Cargo Symposium March 11-13, 2014 Los Angeles, California https://www.iata.org/events/wcs/pages/index.aspx Tucson Jet Rally lands in Marana next week The Tucson Jet Rally next week featuring radio-controlled, turbine-powered electric jets is expected to attract aeronautics aficionados from across the country. The three-day rally March 13-15 will feature planes that measure up to 6 feet and can cost $15,000 to $20,000. Many are scale models of military aircraft. Spectators can sign up for a behind-the-scenes tour. The rally runs from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. all three days at Tucson International Modelplex Park, 3250 N. Reservation Road, west of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Marana. Cost is $5 per vehicle for spectators. There's a $40 registration fee to fly. Go to www.timpa.org for more information about the rally and directions to the Modelplex Park http://azstarnet.com/news/local/tucson-jet-rally-lands-in-marana-next-week/article_8e638856-555f-5ea2-90b7- 07951177f7e9.html Middle East Air Cargo and Logistics Exhibition & Conference 2014 April 9-10, 2014 Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) http://cargomiddleeast.com Airport Show Dubai May 11-13, 2014 Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) www.theairportshow.com/portal/home.aspx Curt Lewis