Flight Safety Information - October 28, 2021 No. 217 In This Issue : Incident: Qantas B738 near Kalgoorlie on Oct 25th 2021, fuel imbalance and engine shut down in flight : Incident: I-Fly A332 at Paris on Oct 26th 2021, rejected takeoff due to nose gear vibration : Incident: Iberia A359 at Madrid on Oct 27th 2021, bird strike : FAA flags potential safety problem in layout of controls on Boeing 767 and 757 planes : Man carrying loaded firearm at Bradley International Airport arrested : American flight diverted after passenger assaults attendant, airline says : Inside the Air Force Training Program that Will Pit Human Pilots Against AI : ZeroAvia wins two new partners for H2 fuel cell jet development : Boeing posts $109 million Q3 loss amid jet production issues : Position Available: Aerospace (Pro Pilot), Tenure-Track Faculty Incident: Qantas B738 near Kalgoorlie on Oct 25th 2021, fuel imbalance and engine shut down in flight A Qantas Boeing 737-800, registration VH-VZT performing flight QF-888 from Perth,WA to Adelaide,SA (Australia) with 88 passengers and 6 crew, was enroute at FL390 about 190nm southeast of Kalgoorlie,WA (Australia) when the crew decided to divert to Kalgoorlie due to a fuel imbalance and decided to shut the left hand engine (CFM56) down as a precaution. The aircraft drifted down to FL260 and landed safely on Kalgoorlie's runway 29 about 45 minutes after leaving FL390. Passengers reported the cabin became very hot, everybody was asking for water. The captain subsequently announced that the left hand engine had been shut down. The airline reported the crew observed an issue with the fuel system and diverted to the nearest airport Kalgoorlie. Engineers are inspecting the aircraft. The ATSB reported: "During cruise, the flight crew received a fuel imbalance warning. During completion of the associated checklists, the flight crew conducted a precautionary shutdown of the affected engine. The aircraft was diverted to Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport, Western Australia and landed without further incident." The occurrence was rated a serious incident and is being investigated (short investigation anticipated to conclude in 2nd quarter of 2022). The passengers were flown back to Perth on flight QF-1611 (A320 VH-UVQ) and were accommodated in Perth over night. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Kalgoorlie about 55 hours after landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4ef4500a&opt=0 Incident: I-Fly A332 at Paris on Oct 26th 2021, rejected takeoff due to nose gear vibrations An I-Fly Airbus A330-200, registration EI-GVH performing freight flight F7-8531 from Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) to Moscow Vnukovo (Russia) with 15 crew, was accelerating for takeoff from Charles de Gaulle's runway 27L when the crew rejected takeoff at low speed (about 60 knots over ground) due to strong vibrations from the nose gear. The aircraft slowed safely and returned to the apron. The aircraft is still on the ground in Paris about 22 hours after the rejected takeoff. http://avherald.com/h?article=4ef43d8e&opt=0 Incident: Iberia A359 at Madrid on Oct 27th 2021, bird strike An Iberia Airbus A350-900, registration EC-NDR performing flight IB-6586 from Bogota (Colombia) to Madrid,SP (Spain), was on final approach to Madrid's runway 32L descending through about 1000 feet AGL when a vulture impacted the aircraft's nose. The aircraft continued for a safe landing about 90 seconds later. The aircraft's nose was cracked with the dead vulture trapped. The aircraft is still on the ground about 4 hours after landing. http://avherald.com/h?article=4ef43b08&opt=0 FAA flags potential safety problem in layout of controls on Boeing 767 and 757 planes The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a safety alert to all operators of Boeing 767 and 757 airplanes flagging a potential problem that led to the 2019 crash in Texas of an Amazon Air cargo plane and the deaths of the three pilots onboard. Although the first officer flying the plane was faulted in the investigation into the crash, the alert points to a potential flaw in the way the pilot controls are laid out in the flight deck that initiated the chain of events. Crash investigators believe that the first officer inadvertently hit a switch that was too close to a handle he was holding, then reacted incorrectly to the plane’s sudden change in the flight mode. Just 32 seconds after the inadvertent activation of that switch, the plane slammed into the ground, killing the captain, the first officer and a third pilot who was hitching a ride in the jump seat. On Feb. 23, 2019, Atlas Air Flight 3591 — a Boeing 767 cargo flight operated for and in the colors of Amazon Air — was en route from Miami to Houston when it crashed into a shallow marsh near Trinity Bay, Texas. On board were Captain Ricky Blakely, 60, of Indiana; First Officer Conrad Jules Aska, 44, of Antigua; and Mesa Airlines Captain Sean Archuleta, 36, of Houston, who was traveling home before beginning new-hire pilot training with United Airlines. The flight data recorder showed that as the plane descended from 6,000 feet toward a planned 3,000 foot level on the approach to Houston airspace, the pilot flipped a switch that shifted the plane to “Go-Around” mode. This is the mode used when a pilot close to the ground and slowing down on approach decides abruptly that it’s unsafe to land. The go-around signal immediately increases the engine thrust so that the plane can climb away from the runway. The altitude and trajectory of Flight 3591 at that moment was “inconsistent with any scenario in which a pilot would intentionally select go-around mode” the National Transportation Safety Board concluded after investigation. And neither the captain or first officer announced a go-around, as they would have if it were an intentional activation. What happened next doomed the plane. The sudden acceleration from the engine thrust would have pushed the first officer’s body back into his seat. If there are limited visual cues to the contrary, this can make a pilot think a plane is pitching up, a recognized phenomenon known as a “somatogravic illusion.” In fact the plane was already on a downward slope. Investigators believe that under the influence of that illusion, the first officer pushed the controls forward to point the nose further down. That “forced the airplane into a steep dive from which the crew did not recover,” the NTSB report states. Crash investigators re-creating what happened in a simulator observed that, when the first officer flying in the right seat kept his left hand on the speedbrake lever during the descent, as is normal procedure, “his left hand and wrist could be under the thrust levers and close to the left go-around switch.” They concluded that this was the likely cause of the unintentional go-around activation. “The NTSB demonstrated in a full flight simulator, that light turbulence could reasonably cause a pilot flying that is holding the speedbrake lever to move his or her arm enough to hit the go-around switch inadvertently,” the FAA stated. The FAA issued the safety alert to make sure pilots of both the 767 and the 757, which has a similarly configured flight deck, are aware of this potential hazard. Boeing declined to comment. The Flight 3591 crash investigators separately raised questions about the first officer’s competence. He had a “long history of training performance difficulties” and tended “to respond impulsively and inappropriately when faced with an unexpected event during training scenarios at multiple employers.” They found that he had also repeatedly provided inaccurate information on resumes and job applications that were “deliberate attempts to conceal his history of performance deficiencies.” In response to NTSB requests for data from Boeing, Atlas, another U.S. airline and NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System, none identified any prior reports of inadvertent go-around activation in 767s or 757s. The NASA database contained 11 reports of such events between 1990 and 2017 involving other airplane models, including the Boeing 737-, 747- and 777-series and the Airbus A320. Although this data indicates inadvertent go-around activation is rare, “the FAA recommends that pilots, operators, and training providers should be aware of the facts and circumstances” in the Flight 3591 accident. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/faa-flags-potential-safety-problem-in-layout-of-controls-on-boeing-757-and-767-planes/ Man carrying loaded firearm at Bradley International Airport arrested WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (WWLP) – TSA officers at Bradley International Airport stopped a man from carrying a loaded handgun onto his flight on Tuesday. During the security screening, the TSA officer on site detected a loaded .22 caliber firearm along with a magazine containing six rounds in the man’s backpack. Connecticut State Police came to the airport and during questioning found that the man did not have a gun permit. The Florida resident claimed to not know the firearm was in his backpack and police arrested the man on a state charge for attempting to circumvent security. Our TSA officers continue to do a fantastic job preventing firearms from entering the secure area of the airport,” said William Csontos, TSA’s Federal Security Director for Connecticut. “Saying you didn’t know the firearm was in your bag is no excuse. Responsible gun owners have permits and should always know where their firearm is at all times. Passengers who are traveling with firearms need to have a permit, declare with the airline during check-in that they want to travel with their firearm and ensure they are properly packed in their checked baggage.” Passengers are allowed to travel with firearms in their checked baggage if they are unloaded, separate from ammunition in a locked hardback case and declared at the airline check-in counter. TSA has additional details on how to properly travel with a firearm posted on their website. https://www.wwlp.com/news/crime/man-carrying-loaded-firearm-at-bradley-international-airport-arrested/ American flight diverted after passenger assaults attendant, airline says American Airlines said a flight attendant was physically assaulted Wednesday by a passenger during a flight from New York to California. An American Airlines flight was diverted Wednesday evening after a passenger reportedly assaulted a flight attendant. Flight 976 had departed New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and was headed to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, but was diverted to Denver because of the incident, the airline said. Law enforcement apprehended the passenger at the gate, according to American Airlines. The airline did not provide additional details or the flight attendant's condition. “Acts of violence against our team members will not be tolerated by American Airlines," it said in a written statement. "The individual involved in this incident will never be allowed to travel with American Airlines in the future, but we will not be satisfied until he has been prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This behavior must stop, and aggressive enforcement and prosecution of the law is the best deterrent." The passenger's identity has not been released, and no details were immediately available about charges. Denver Airport Police confirmed the flight was diverted into Denver around 6 p.m. and said the FBI is investigating. The flight left Denver for Orange County about 9:30 p.m., according to American Airlines. Reports of unruly behavior on planes, including violence against crew members, have increased since the start of the pandemic. Data provided by the Federal Aviation Administration show 923 investigations have been initiated this year into violations of specific regulations or federal laws. The number is up from 183 last year and 146 in 2019. Prior to 2021, the most investigations initiated in the 26-year period dating back to 1995 was 310 in 2004. In May, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant lost two teeth after a passenger punched her in the face and pulled her hair, according to court documents. The attendant had asked the passenger to fasten her seatbelt, stow her tray table and properly wear her mask during the final descent. The passenger told law enforcement that she was acting in self-defense, according to court documents. She was charged in federal court with assault and interference with flight crew members and attendants and has pleaded not guilty, according to court records. As of Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration has received 4,941 reports of unruly behavior by passengers this year, including 3,580 reports of mask-related incidents. The rate of these incidents has dropped about 50 percent since record highs earlier this year, but FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in September that progress needs to continue. “This remains a serious safety threat, and one incident is one too many,” Dickson said in a written statement. The FAA has no authority to prosecute criminal cases but can levy fines and implemented a zero-tolerance campaign in January that permitted it to issue fines without warning letters. This year, the agency has brought more than $1 million in fines against passengers for the allegations of unruly behavior. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-airlines-flight-diverted-after-passenger-assaults-attendant-airline-says-n1282597 Inside the Air Force Training Program that Will Pit Human Pilots Against AI Air Force fighter pilots will soon face new opponents in their training: artificial intelligence-based enemy pilots that can match humans based on their personal learning needs. After steering the production of numerous AI-enabled pilot agents for years, Aptima, Inc. confirmed it landed a four-year contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory to build an “automated librarian” that will categorize those AI pilots and pair them with military trainees in scenarios that are right to advance their skillsets. “The best case outcome is that AFRL determines that the products of this research are so promising that they create a library into which AI training technologies are shelved like books are shelved and they refine the sort of librarian that we're trying to build here so that it can sweep through that enormous library of AI, sweep through a library of scenarios—and for each individual student—pick out just the right pairing to advance them to expertise reliably and more quickly than we can do today,” Aptima’s Chief Scientist Jared Freeman told Nextgov during an interview on Tuesday. Freeman joined the company in 1999, four years after its launch. Aptima’s project portfolio has grown increasingly diverse since then, he noted. Now, much of it concerns AI support for human teams, like forming and measuring them, and helping people and AI to manage those groups. The company also does a bit of work developing sensors and wearables to monitor and improve military members’ physical and cognitive fitness. Efforts under Freeman’s purview as chief scientist deal heavily with big data and AI. He’s currently a principal investigator overseeing Aptima’s role in a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-led initiative to help imbue AI with social intelligence to pave the way for next-level human/AI teaming down the line. He’ll also be very involved in this newly unveiled contract with AFRL, which is worth potentially more than $5.2 million. “There's a wonderful line drawn, a thread from our work we did at our founding to this project that we are talking about now,” Freeman noted. The company’s formation dates back to “a contract from the Navy to use computational methods to design more effective command and control teams, which we then tested with human beings,” he explained, adding that that work lasted about a dozen years. The latest pursuit with the Air Force lab also involves people and technology teaming up, as well. “This time, the teams are human pilots and their adversaries—who are in a sort of a dance together—one trying to beat the other. And those adversaries are AI,” Freeman explained. “So here we're on, I think, the edge of really the next generation of AI research, which is human teams interacting with AI. AI as advisors. AI as trainers. AI as adversaries who exercise these skills.” The roots of this now-formal contract trace in part back to collaboration Aptima had been engaging in with the lab’s 711th Human Performance Wing and its Senior Principal Research Psychologist and Readiness Product Line Lead for the Warfighter Readiness Research Division, Dr. Winston “Wink” Bennett. This “builds on an ambition of Dr. Bennett's and the wing to ensure that America has robust architectures for building artificial intelligence,” Freeman noted. He and his team previously had been overseeing and assessing the development of AI agents that were meant to become enemies in Air Force pilot training. Often in simulated combats or “dogfights” for educational purposes, trainees will fly against human experts, to learn how to operate and survive in combat. But those expert trainers are costly and highly in-demand, so the services are pivoting to explore the potential for AI to fill that gap. Aptima facilitated the making of numerous AI pilots across a variety of commercial developers. In the prior work, which received recognition and an award from NATO in 2020, the researchers found that the performance of each of the computer-based pilots the various entities’ deployed varied significantly between scenarios—as if each were an expert in some types of encounters and a novice in others. “This tells us that [the Defense Department] needs to be quite careful about investing all of its funds in a single AI solution,” Freeman said. Under this new contract, he and his team will direct the development of AI agents by those other companies and form a scalable cloud-based testbed that allows many agents to generate flight data in parallel that can be used to assess the technology. Further, Aptima also aims to capitalize on AI-based pilots’ varying performances, by making a “smart” librarian—underpinned by AI—that will organize and match the computerized pilots to the human ones, depending on their experience levels. A “unique feature” of the system is that it will use training data in real-time to personalize learning based on each individual. Eventually, the pilots of all types will interact in simulators. “We don't have human pilot trainees in this loop. We're running AI through simulations against fairly scripted but smart—those other AIs are like the students, right?” Freeman noted. “It’s a very long term program. We have several more years of work to do and we hope to be working with human beings on the trainee end soon.” https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2021/10/inside-air-force-training-program-will-pit-human-pilots-against-ai/186418/ ZeroAvia wins two new partners for H2 fuel cell jet development Zero-emission flight specialist ZeroAvia has scored two new partnerships, most strikingly with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries RJ Aviation Group (MHIRJ). They intend to develop fuel cell-powered regional jets, including retrofit solutions. There’s also news from Alaska Airlines. First to Mitsubishi and ZeroAvia since they already signed an agreement to develop hydrogen-electric propulsion for regional jets. Plus, this is the first time ZeroAvia will look into jet engines – the company’s previous projects were propeller machines. The new partner MHIRJ, on the other hand, is one of the world’s largest companies for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of CRJ series aircraft – the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet is a widely used regional aircraft worldwide that can carry up to 104 passengers, depending on the version. MHIRJ will leverage ZeroAvia’s fuel cell powertrain technology for the cooperation at hand, while the Mitsubishi subsidiary will deliver aircraft design, certification, and support experience. The partners expect to not only create new hydrogen planes but also retrofit existing aircraft in the market. MHIRJ will also support ZeroAvia by providing engineering services to get the engines through PART 33 certification for aircraft and assisting ZeroAvia by delivering advisory services evaluating the feasibility of a green retrofit program for regional aircraft. Hiro Yamamoto, President and CEO of MHIRJ, considered regional aircraft “key to keeping smaller communities and regions connected” and said these were also more able to exploit the new technologies on the horizon than larger aircraft. “This is a logical place for this development to begin, and we are proud to be a part of this innovative solution,” he added. To date, ZeroAvia has reportedly completed more than 35 test flights of a six-seat aircraft using its hydrogen fuel cell powertrain. Currently, it is working on converting a larger 19-seat jet with its powertrain with a first test flight expected in the coming months. ZeroAvia plans certification and market entry for its 19-seat powertrain by 2024, with an eye towards larger aircraft (50-80 seats) by 2026, and regional jets around 2028. So while the MHIRJ collaboration is not expected to result in a series until 2028, ZeroAvia has also entered into another partnership, the result of which is likely to go into production sooner. Cue in Alaska Air Group, the parent company of Alaska Airlines. The company has turned to ZeroAvia for a hydrogen-electric powertrain capable of flying 76-seat regional aircraft over 500 NM. Alaska is also joining the list of top investors for the company, alongside a fellow Seattle-based Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Other investors in the UK and US-based company include British Airways and Shell. Alaska and ZeroAvia engineers will work together to scale the company’s existing powertrain platform to produce the ZA2000, an engine family capable of producing between 2,000 and 5,000 kilowatts of power with a 500-mile range. The partnership will initially deploy ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric propulsion technology into a full-size De Havilland Q400 aircraft. ZeroAvia further states they would work closely with aircraft regulators during this project and set up a location in the Seattle area to support this initiative. Should the project prove a success, Alaska has also secured options for up to 50 kits to convert its regional aircraft to hydrogen-electric power through ZeroAvia’s powertrain, starting with the Q400 aircraft. The company did not set a date for the launch—only ZeroAvia scheduled demonstrations for 2022. https://www.electrive.com/2021/10/27/zeroavia-wins-two-new-partners-for-h2-fuel-cell-jet-development/ Boeing posts $109 million Q3 loss amid jet production issues Boeing Co. lost $109 million in the third quarter as it struggled with production problems that have held up deliveries of the 787, a large plane popular on long international airline routes. Boeing said Wednesday it is building about two 787s a month and expects to stay at that low rate until deliveries resume. Problems including fuselage flaws are expected to cause $1 billion in "abnormal costs," the company said, including a $183 million charge recorded in the third quarter. CEO David Calhoun said on CNBC that the company will resume 787 deliveries by following the same process of working with regulators that it used to bring back the 737 Max after two deadly crashes and a worldwide grounding. It took 18 months for Boeing to win regulatory approval of fixes to the Max, including changes to a flight-control system that played a role in the crashes. Calhoun declined to predict when airlines will resume receiving new 787s. As long as those deliveries are stopped, Boeing is losing a key source of cash. China was Boeing’s biggest market for the Max before the crashes, and the company is still waiting for regulators there to let the plane fly again. If that approval doesn’t come in the next six to 12 months, the company will have to trim plans to boost Max production, Calhoun said. Boeing is currently building 19 Max jets a month at a plant near Seattle, and aims to boost that to 31 a month early next year, a goal that Cowen aerospace analyst Cai von Rumohr called "ambitious." Boeing also took a $185 million charge in the third quarter for its troubled Starliner space capsule. The company plans to try to launch the capsule in another test flight next year. The Chicago-based company offered a hopeful outlook for aircraft sales, saying that the rollout of vaccines against COVID-19 and easing of global travel restrictions will boost demand for planes. The $109 million loss attributable to shareholders compared with a loss of $449 million in the same quarter last year, when the pandemic caused demand for new planes to collapse. The most recent loss amounted to 19 cents per share, but the loss excluding special items was wider, at 60 cents per share. Wall Street expected an adjusted loss of 20 cents per share, according to a FactSet survey of 16 analysts. Von Rumohr called it a deck-clearing quarter. While the core loss was wider than expected, cash outflow was not as bad as feared, he said in a note to clients. Boeing’s commercial airline business suffered an operating loss of $693 million even as revenue rose 24% to $4.46 billion. Boeing delivered 85 jets, mostly Maxes, to airlines and other customers in the quarter, up from 28 a year earlier. The company’s defense and space division earned $436 million and its services wing earned $644 million, providing a sense of stability during all the turmoil in the commercial-airplanes business. Boeing’s total revenue was $15.28 billion, far short of the $16.70 billion forecast by analysts. Two years earlier, before the pandemic, quarterly revenue was $19.98 billion. https://www.q13fox.com/news/boeing-posts-109-million-q3-loss-amid-jet-production-issues Position Available: Aerospace (Pro Pilot), Tenure-Track Faculty Department Aerospace University Expectation MTSU seeks candidates who are committed to innovative teaching, robust research/creative activity, and meaningful service. We also seek to attract a culturally and academically diverse faculty who value working with a diverse student body. Salary Salary and rank commensurate with education and experience Job Summary/Basic Function The Department of Aerospace at Middle Tennessee State University invites applicants for two full-time, tenure-track faculty positions at the rank of assistant/associate professor. The start date for the positions is August 1, 2022. The positions are contingent upon funding. Successful candidates will be expected to teach classes in the Professional Pilot concentration, undertake collaborative and multi-disciplinary research within the department and university, and be actively involved in university and professional service. Required Education Master’s degree in Aerospace, Aviation or closely related field by appointment date Required Related Experience One year of aerospace or aviation industry experience is required. Required License/Registration/Certification Applicants must have : 1) FAA Commercial - Multi-Engine, and valid Flight Instructor Certificates (CFI, CFII, MEI) OR 2) FAA ATP with 14 CFR Part 121 or Part 135 Pilot-in-Command (PIC) experience. Other Desirables Candidates who possess industry or collegiate teaching experience and those with a terminal degree or ABD in Aerospace, Aviation, Education, Business, or other industry-related fields will receive special consideration. Documents Needed to Apply In order to successfully apply, applicants are required to include the following documents as separate attachments at the time of online application submittal: a cover letter, their curriculum vitae, a statement of Teaching Philosophy, and their Research Statement or Creative Activities (as appropriate to the discipline). NOTE: In addition to the REQUIRED documents listed above for successful application, applicants must include copies of FAA Certifications held attached as Other Document 1. Special Instruction to Applicants If you need help in applying, please contact the Faculty Recruitment Specialist at (615) 898-5128. If you have position-specific questions, please contact Dr. Chaminda Prelis at Chaminda.Prelis@mtsu.edu. MTSU is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer that values diversity in all its forms. Women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and protected veterans are encouraged to apply. Proof of U.S. citizenship or eligibility for U.S. employment will be required prior to employment (Immigration Control Act of 1986). Clery Act crime statistics for MTSU are available at http://www.mtsu.edu/police/docs/2021AnnualSecurityReport.pdf or by contacting MTSU Public Safety at (615) 898-2424. MTSU is a Tobacco & Drug-Free campus. This position requires a criminal background check. Therefore, you may be required to provide information about your criminal history in order to be considered for this position. For individuals requiring a reasonable accommodation to apply: In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), if you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation in order to apply for a position with MTSU, please call 615-898-2929 or email emp@mtsu.edu. Application Review Date: 11/22/2021 APPLY HERE: https://careers.mtsu.edu/en-us/job/496571/aerospace-pro-pilot-tenuretrack-faculty Curt Lewis