Flight Safety Information - December 28, 2021 No. 258 In This Issue : Incident: Emirates B773 at Dubai on Dec 20th 2021, overran runway on departure : Incident: Summit RJ1H near Thunder Bay on Dec 21st 2021, loss of cabin pressure : Incident: Cargolux B744 at Amsterdam on Dec 26th 2021, main deck fire warning : Learjet 35A - Fatal Accident on Approach (San Diego, CA - KSEE) : Video shows mask fight between passengers on Delta flight; woman detained at Atlanta airport : Indonesia allows Boeing's 737 MAX to fly again after deadly crash : Hong Kong to tighten air crew quarantine rules amid Omicron threat : REPORT: EMIRATES 777 NEARLY CRASHED DUE TO PILOT ERROR : Pilot Fired For Refusing Unsafe Flight Awarded $2 Million : American and Southwest said no more masks on planes: Then their doctor spoke up : Two planes collide at Punta Gorda Airport : Royal Jordanian Airlines Asks For A $282 Million COVID Bailout : FAA Steps in to Investigate Santa Clara County Airport Safety Issues : JET AIRWAYS READY TO RESTART DOMESTIC OPERATIONS IN INDIA : NASA Quietly Had a Stellar Year Incident: Emirates B773 at Dubai on Dec 20th 2021, overran runway on departure An Emirates Boeing 777-300, registration A6-EQI performing flight EK-231 from Dubai (United Arab Emirates) to Washington Dulles,DC (USA), was accelerating for takeoff from Dubai's runway 30R when the aircraft rotated for takeoff past the end of the runway and became airborne just at the end of the runway end safety area. The aircraft continued to Washington for a landing without further incident. The aircraft performed the return flight EK-232 on schedule, then was grounded in Dubai and remained on the ground in Dubai for 4 days. According to Mode-S data transmitted by the aircraft's transponder the aircraft remained on the ground until accelerating through at least 216 knots over ground about 4400 meters/14400 feet past the runway threshold and about 90 meters short of the localizer antennas, was airborne at 75 feet AGL at 234 knots over ground already over the first residential houses past the runway (5640 meters/18500 feet past the runway threshold), then climbed out to safety. According to information The Aviation Herald received, the aircraft sustained some damage in the departure. There is also information, that a total of 4 crew members may have been dismissed as result of the occurrence. On Dec 27th 2021 Emirates Airlines released a crew alert to their pilots following the occurrence suggesting the crew had not picked up the previous flight crew had left the altitude setting at the Master Control Panel at airport elevation/00000 feet causing the flight director to not indicate takeoff rotation and climb out but instead indicate to maintain that altitude (ALT mode). https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f24b2d7&opt=0 Incident: Summit RJ1H near Thunder Bay on Dec 21st 2021, loss of cabin pressure A Summit Air Avro RJ-100, registration C-FRJY performing flight SUT-8225 from Thunder Bay,ON to Waterloo,ON (Canada) with 31 passengers and 4 crew, was climbing through FL300 out of Thunder Bay when the cabin climbed through 8000 feet of altitude. The crew worked the related checklist, the cabin altitude continued to rise however. The crew requested a descent to 10,000 feet, donned their oxygen masks and initiated an emergency descent to 10,000 feet, the passenger oxygen masks were released. The crew determined that the #2 outflow valve was stuck open in about 1/3 open position. After levelling off at 10,000 feet the crew was able to regain control over the #2 outflow valve and the cabin altitude. The aircraft continued the return to Thunder Bay and landed safely back about 75 minutes after departure. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f22a1eb&opt=0 Incident: Cargolux B744 at Amsterdam on Dec 26th 2021, main deck fire warning A Cargolux Boeing 747-400, registration LX-UCV performing flight CV-7156 from Nairobi (Kenya) to Amsterdam (Netherlands), was on approach to Amsterdam's runway 06 about to intercept the localizer when the crew reported they had a main deck fire warning, they wanted to continue the approach. The crew subsequently was handed off to tower and indicated they would vacate the runway. While a major alert was issued by the airport calling airport as well as surrounding emergency services to the airport, the aircraft continued for a safe landing on runway 06 about 3 minutes after their report of the main deck fire warning. The fire alert was identified false, a number of surrounding emergency services still on their way to the airport aborted their drives to the airport and returned to their bases. The aircraft taxied to the apron about 20 minutes after vacating the runway. The aircraft was able to depart for its final leg to Luxembourg after about 100 minutes on the ground in Amsterdam. https://www.avherald.com/h?article=4f23ec1e&opt=0 Learjet 35A - Fatal Accident on Approach (San Diego, CA - KSEE) Date: Monday 27 December 2021 Time: 19:14 Type: Learjet 35A Operator: Med Jet Registration: N880Z MSN: 35A-591 First flight: 1985 Crew: Fatalities: / Occupants: Passengers: Fatalities: / Occupants: Total: Fatalities: / Occupants: Aircraft damage: Destroyed Aircraft fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: El Cajon, San Diego ( United States of America) Phase: Approach (APR) Nature: Unknown Departure airport: Santa Ana-John Wayne International Airport, CA (SNA/KSNA), United States of America Destination airport: San Diego-Gillespie Field, CA (SEE/KSEE), United States of America Narrative: A Learjet 35A crashed in a residential area, killing all on board. The aircraft was completing the turn for the final approach to runway 27R at San Diego-Gillespie Field, California. It struck Pepper Drive in a residential area of El Cajon, San Diego, 2,6 km east of the runway threshold and burst into flames. It is unclear at this time how many occupants were on the plane. At 19:08 Gillespie Tower cleared the flight to land on runway 17. At 19:11 the flight contacted Gillespie Tower, cancelling their IFR clearance and requesting to land on runway 27R. This was approved and the Tower controller cleared the flight for a left hand traffic pattern for runway 27R. The flight crew then requested the runway lights to be turned up, to which the controller replied that "they are at a 100% now". https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20211227-0 Video shows mask fight between passengers on Delta flight; woman detained at Atlanta airport A woman accused of unruly behavior aboard a Delta Air Lines flight was detained in Atlanta last week, police said. Video appears to show a woman slapping a man across the face after a dispute over masks. The incident occurred Thursday on Flight 2790 from Tampa, Florida, to Atlanta, Atlanta police said in a statement. Police said that once the flight landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, passengers told them that the woman, Patricia Cornwall, had caused the disturbance in the air. “This disturbance led to the injury of fellow passengers and Delta employees. Based on the statements gathered and visible evidence, officers detained Ms. Cornwall and contacted the on-call FBI agent. ... FBI agents responded and took custody of Ms. Cornwall,” police said. Delta said in a statement Monday: “Flight 2790 from Tampa to Atlanta was met by law enforcement after an unruly customer disturbance during flight. Situations like these are rare for the vast majority of our customers and Delta has zero tolerance for unruly behavior at our airports and aboard our aircraft.” Atlanta police deferred questions Monday to the FBI. An FBI spokesperson said Cornwall was expected to appear Monday afternoon in federal court in Atlanta. The spokesperson directed additional questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. No one with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia immediately responded to a request for comment Monday. It was unclear whether Cornwall has an attorney. She could not be reached for comment. Video posted to Instagram shows a woman, whose mask is around her neck and below her chin, speaking to a man sitting in his seat. The video does not show the beginning of the confrontation, and it is not clear what happened immediately before the recording. The two curse at each other throughout the nearly two-minute video. The woman repeatedly tells the man to put his mask on. At one point, the man responds: “You’re a ... Karen. Sit down.” “Karen” is slang typically referring to an entitled white woman. He also points out that the woman’s mask is down before he calls her a vulgarity. After the woman asks the man whether he called her the profanity, the video appears to show her slapping him in the face. The man responds: “Now you’re going to jail. That’s assault. You’re going to jail as soon as we get to Atlanta.” The video also shows the man claiming the woman spit on him. The woman is escorted away from the man by multiple people. The Federal Aviation Administration last month reported that 10 passengers were hit with fines totaling $225,287 because of allegations of unruly behavior on flights. In those cases, according to the FAA, passengers shoved flight attendants, used expletives, threw fits and refused to comply with the FAA requirement for masks. As of last month, the FAA had documented 5,114 reports of unruly passengers and 3,710 reports of refusing to wear masks this year. It said 239 cases led to penalties. To curb what it has described as a dramatic increase in unruly or dangerous behavior aboard passenger airplanes, the FAA released a public service announcement in August with a simple message: “Unruly behavior doesn’t fly.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/video-shows-mask-fight-between-000106445.html Indonesia allows Boeing's 737 MAX to fly again after deadly crash JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia has lifted a ban on the Boeing 737 MAX, its transport ministry said on Tuesday, three years after the crash of one of the aircraft operated by domestic carrier Lion Air with the loss of all 189 people on board. Aviation authorities around the world grounded the aircraft months later after a similarly deadly accident in March 2019 involving one of the aircraft operated by Ethiopian Airlines. The approval for the aircraft's return in Indonesia comes months after it returned to service in the United States and Europe, and follows more recent lifting of grounding orders in countries including Australia, Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Ethiopia. The lifting of the ban was effective immediately and it follows the evaluation of changes to the aircraft's system by regulators, the ministry said in a statement. Airlines must follow airworthiness directives and inspect their planes before they can fly the 737 MAX again, it said, adding that the government would also inspect the planes. Privately owned Lion Air, which operated 10 of the 737 MAX planes before the ban, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia said it had no plans to reintroduce the plane to its fleet as it focuses on debt restructuring, chief executive Irfan Setiaputra told Reuters. The state-controlled airline, which had operated one 737 MAX before the ban, has said it plans to cut its fleet from 142 to 66 planes under the plan. Anton Sahadi, a relative of one of the passengers on board the Lion Air plane that crashed, urged the government to ensure proper management of the risks before returning the aircraft to service "so that no planes of this model will ever fall and kill people again". "The trauma is still there," he said. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/indonesia-allow-boeings-737-max-080228880.html Hong Kong to tighten air crew quarantine rules amid Omicron threat HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong health authorities said on Tuesday the city would tighten quarantine rules for air cargo crew to tackle the growing threat of the Omicron coronavirus variant. The global financial hub has identified several dozen Omicron infections via regular testing during quarantine but neither Omicron, nor other variants, have spread into the community in recent months. But some of the new infections with Omicron were detected among air crew, who had only been required to quarantine at home, unlike most other people returning to the city, who have to quarantine in hotels. The new measures require that returning air cargo crew spend three days in hotel quarantine before a period of home isolation. Most recent infections of air crew staff have been discovered in the first three days. "We expect most cases in the future to be of the new Omicron variant," said Edwin Tsui, controller of the Centre for Health Protection. "We have a very high community outbreak risk. A single spark can start a fifth wave." Vaccination rates in Hong Kong are lagging those in many similar cities with less than 70% of the eligible population having received two doses of either China's Sinovac or Germany's BioNTech vaccines. This month, authorities demanded that all government workplaces ensure that all eligible staff are vaccinated by mid-February. The South China Morning Post newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified sources, that the measure may soon be extended to schools. Hong Kong has followed Beijing's lead and implemented some of the world's strictest travel restrictions, hoping China, its main source of economic growth, would allow some cross-border movement. Most non-residents are banned from travelling to the city and authorities demand mandatory hotel quarantine of up to 21 days for arrivals from most countries at the expense of the travellers. https://www.yahoo.com/news/hong-kong-tighten-air-crew-092720795.html REPORT: EMIRATES 777 NEARLY CRASHED DUE TO PILOT ERROR A sobering report suggests that an Emirates 777 came within 200 feet of crashing in Dubai due to pilot error. This report is not confirmed, but numerous data points suggest something went terribly wrong aboard EK231. Did EK231 Nearly Crash Over Dubai? here’s what we know about what happened: • The incident occurred aboard Emirates EK231 traveling from Dubai (DXB) to Washington Dulles (IAD) on December 20, 2021 • The flight was scheduled to depart at 2:25AM utilizing a Boeing 777-300ER (A6-EQI) • Pilots failed to set the autopilot to an altitude of 4,000 feet, the initial climb altitude, instead leaving it at 0 feet (presumably set by pilots on the previous flight in order to land in Dubai) • After takeoff, the plane’s nose pitched down • At one point, the aircraft was traveling at 262 knots at a flight level of 175 feet (far faster than normal) over Diera City Center (near the airport) • Pilots realized the error and corrected it, but even though the plane potentially “sustained damage” elected to continue to Washington, DC • At IAD, the plane was checked for cracks as well as damage to the wings, flaps, and landing gear • The return flight, EK232, departed about three hours late • The 777-300ER sat on the ground in Dubai for two days before operating to Kuwait (KWI) earlier today and is currently in Geneva (GVA) What Other Evidence Do We Have About EK231? Beyond this timeline, we have both flight data from Flightradar24 suggesting the low altitude over Diera as well as the following memo Emirates sent to pilots concerning the incident: CREWS ARE REMINDED THAT THERE ARE NO FCOM NORMAL PROCEDURE REQUIREMENTS TO CHANGE THE MCP AFTER LANDING OR SHUTDOWN. THERE HAVE BEEN TIMES WHEN THE MCP “ALTITUDE WINDOW” HAS BEEN SET TO THE AIRPORT ELEVATION WHICH MAY CAUSE ISSUES ON THE SUBSEQUENT DEPARTURE. CREWS SHALL NOT SET AIRPORT ELEVATION ON THE MCP AFTER LANDING OR SHUT DOWN. FCOM means “Flight Crew Operating Manual” and MCP means “Mode Control Panel” which is used to instruct the autopilot to hold a specific altitude. What Should We Make Of This? This is really big news and I find it highly unlikely there is not some truth to this report. It does not mean that flying is unsafe or that Emirates is unsafe. Flying remains one of the safest modes of transport and far safer, statistically, than stepping into your car and driving down the road. But this story does show that pilot error is possible and that it goes beyond a simple autopilot vs. human error tradeoff. Here, sloppiness may have led the autopilot, also called flight director, to be improperly configured. Still, pre-flight checklists should have prevented this and reports suggest all four pilots in the cockpit have been terminated. I’m not about to avoid Emirates if this report is true. If anything, it will make me more likely to fly Emirates because pilots will now be extra vigilant. As horrifying as this report is, it seems that Emirates is already holding responsible parties accountable and taking steps to make sure this does not happen again. CONCLUSION Initial reports suggest EK231 almost crashed while departing from Dubai on December 20, 2021 due to pilot error. A deadly crash would have deeply set back Emirates and commercial aviation in general, but far importantly led to the loss of life for what were probably more than 300 souls onboard. If this report is accurate, hopefully Emirates and airlines around the world will learn from this incident and pilots will take extra steps to ensure that pre-flight checklists are closely followed. https://liveandletsfly.com/ek231/ Pilot Fired For Refusing Unsafe Flight Awarded $2 Million A corporate pilot who was fired after refusing to fly a trip he deemed unsafe has been awarded $1.99 million in damages after suing his former employer. Ray Justinic worked for the flight operations subsidiary of a property management company with a large hotel on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. He was asked to load the aircraft with construction and cleaning supplies and fly staff and insurance personnel to the island after Hurricane Irma, a Category 4 storm, struck in September of 2017. The hotel was severely damaged by the storm. He then checked the weather and determined it was unsafe to make the trip. He told his employers he would monitor the weather and be ready to go early the next morning if conditions allowed. The aircraft operators hired another pilot to take the trip the same night and a week later told Justinic he was fired. They then sued him for $20,000 to recover part of the cost of getting him typed in their aicraft. At that point Justinic decided to sue them back and a jury in Boone County, Kentucky, actually awarded him $300,000 more than he was asking. “Everybody’s been on a plane; everybody’s experienced unpredictable weather so in that respect this was a compelling case,” his lawyer. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/pilot-fired-for-refusing-unsafe-flight-awarded-2-million/ American and Southwest said no more masks on planes: Then their doctor spoke up Still thinking of flying? Make sure you have all the information you need and then make your choice. Or are you somewhat more energized by the threat of Omicron? Tech's most self-regarding event is due to begin on January 5, yet many major tech companies -- Amazon, Twitter and Facebook, for example -- have already decided to give it an in-person miss because of COVID-19's new strain. Those who are still attending -- and, who knows, perhaps CES will suddenly get canceled -- are likely to be flying. It might be wise, then, to consider the latest evidence on the safety of flying. At a Senate hearing last week, outgoing Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly declared that wearing masks on planes doesn't do much. After all, he claimed, air filtration on planes is superior to that of most interior spaces. Outgoing American Airlines CEO Doug Parker chimed in with: "I concur." Subsequently, Parker backed away from his concurrence and insisted he believed in the current mask regulations. Meanwhile, Kelly tested positive for COVID-19. The issue of COVID-19 on planes has been a long-running affair. United Airlines was the first to parade its arrogance -- oh, it's become so much more sanguine over time -- by opening up middle seats and declaring the whole idea of keeping them empty a mere PR exercise. Then, some scientists wondered whether packing in a lot of people in a confined space wasn't asking for trouble. One study suggested that in-flight transmissions really do happen. It's all still a mess. Humans are tired of COVID-19. They're tired of the masks. They're making their own risk calculations as if everyone is now the actuary of their own lives. As CES hopefuls continued to weigh the wisdom of attending -- and I know some people who canceled their trips last week -- the airlines made another fascinating statement. This time, it came from the medical adviser to the International Air Transport Association -- which represents all airlines. Speaking to Bloomberg, Dr. David Powell confessed that Omicron offered an entirely new kink to safety on planes. "Whatever the risk was with Delta, we would have to assume the risk would be two to three times greater with Omicron, just as we've seen in other environments," he said. Powell was also insistent that airflows on planes are still far better than in other indoor areas. Airports, for example. "There's much more random movement, much more potential for face-to-face contact; you've got generally reduced air flows," he said. And you have to do a lot of sitting and standing around in airports. So if you really want to go to CES to see things -- and, perhaps more importantly, meet with people -- it's best not to listen to airline CEOs and instead be your own actuary. It seems that, with Omicron, every day brings both good and bad news. It's extremely infectious. It may be less severe than Delta. Cases have already gone down in South Africa, where the first identified strain. Cases have gone up in the UK, where the strain of indecision is stultifying. While some have already muttered that CES stands for Consumer Electronics Superspreader, the event's organizers clearly still believe it'll all be fine. They're insisting on every attendee proving their vaccination status and wearing a mask. If the event does go ahead, it'll be interesting to see whether the exhibition halls will be less crowded than the planes that brought attendees to them. And still, no one will likely know, should they get infected, where and how it happened. No one knows anything for sure. We've become used to that these days, haven't we? https://www.zdnet.com/article/american-and-southwest-said-no-more-masks-on-planes-then-their-doctor-spoke-up/ Two planes collide at Punta Gorda Airport PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — Two Allegiant airplanes collided Monday morning before taking off in Punta Gorda, canceling one flight. Allegiant flight 1687 bound for Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport sliced a hole in an empty plane parked nearby while backing up from the gate at Punta Gorda Airport. No injuries were reported. Passengers deplaned, returned to the terminal, and the flight was canceled. “Customers will have the option to receive a full refund or be re-accommodated to another flight. We’re very sorry for the disruption this has caused to our customers’ travel plans. We’ve issued additional compensation of $250 per itinerary through a secure electronic transfer portal, as well as $150 vouchers that can be used for future travel,” according to a statement from Allegiant Media Relations. https://nbc-2.com/news/2021/12/27/two-planes-collide-at-punta-gorda-airport/ Royal Jordanian Airlines Asks For A $282 Million COVID Bailout The national airline of Jordan, Royal Jordanian, is looking for financial assistance from the government. Severely impacted by the travel restrictions against COVID-19, the airline is hoping to secure $282 million in state funds to help with its lost revenue. The funds would also help the airline with an order it has placed for new aircraft Let’s take a look at the airline’s request and its current situation. Government assistance requested According to Bloomberg, Royal Jordanian is looking for some $282 million in government bailouts. This funding request will help the airline on two fronts: First and foremost, it would allow the carrier to offset the revenue it has lost during the global health crisis. Secondarily, some of the bailout funds would help the carrier finance an order for new jets as it looks to double its fleet in the next five years. According to Royal Jordanian’s Chief Executive Officer, Samer Majali, financial assistance is being requested in at least two separate phases. The first round of funding would see an initial $141 million go to the airline to cover its operations throughout the first half of 2022. The remainder would be distributed after this, with amounts and timelines unspecified for this portion. “It’s to cover the losses incurred since the second quarter of 2020 and help us bring back our network and expand and renew our fleet…It’s less than we lost but it will be enough.” -Samer Majali, CEO, Royal Jordanian The situation at Royal Jordanian It was late in March of 2020 that the Kingdom of Jordan made a decision to suspend passenger flights. Flag carrier Royal Jordanian had no choice but to comply and limit their operations to cargo flights only. Media outlet Zawya notes that just over a month later, in May 2020, the airline was requesting a rescheduling of debt payments owed to leasing companies and banks. Al-Monitor adds that it was in July of 2020 that the airline was able to resume domestic flights, operating a thrice-weekly service between the capital city of Amman and Aqaba. However, with Jordan’s relatively small size, domestic operations are quite limited overall. Details are scarce on when the Kingdom allowed international flights to resume. However, at present, data from FlightRadar24.com indicates that the airline has a relatively robust network of destinations, ranging from service to cities across the Middle East to cities further afield in Europe and North America. Simple Flying reported in early October that the carrier is planning to resume its flights to Syria, after almost a decade-long pause in its Amman-Damascus service. This is an attempt to boost trade between Jordan and Syria. At present, it doesn’t appear that service has resumed. Fleet renewal and expansion Bloomberg notes that the airline is close to a decision on a major aircraft order, which will possibly be announced in January. As reported by Simple Flying in October, Royal Jordanian aims to double its fleet within the next five years. The new additions will likely come through a leasing firm and include either the Airbus A320neo or the Boeing 737 MAX, as well as the Airbus A220 or Embraer E2. A request for proposals was issued in mid-October and is part of the airline’s five-year plan to grow the fleet and its destinations offered. https://simpleflying.com/royal-jordanian-airlines-covid-bailout/ FAA Steps in to Investigate Santa Clara County Airport Safety Issues Rushed ban of 100LL fuel among the things being looked at. In a strongly worded letter to the leadership of Santa Clara County California, the FAA is investigating the county’s ongoing safety issues, including its rushed ban of 100LL fuel as of Jan. 1, 2022, as it considers possible violations of federal law. Aviation groups, as well as local pilots and airport-based businesses, have shown that the ban carries significant safety risks, because it does not provide a safe transition to unleaded fuel. In the letter, the FAA “strongly recommends that the county take action to suspend the effective date of its ban on leaded gas at the county-owned airports until this matter can be resolved.” Since the FAA has received multiple complaints from airport tenants and users, along with a group representing industry stakeholders who allege violations of grant assurances at Reid-Hillview Airport (RHV) and San Martin Airport (E16), the agency is commencing an investigation under 14 CFR part 13 (“Reports of Violations”). The FAA has also shortened the response time for the county to 20 days, as it does so when “circumstances require expedited handling of a particular case or controversy.” The FAA cited a sizable list of relevant complaints as a basis for its investigation, including “the failure to address a significant number of significant safety concerns which have been enumerated in detail to the county via letters from the FAA. The county is on notice with regard to these serious safety concerns and the issues remain unresolved.” In addition, the FAA is looking into the county’s refusal to offer long-term leases for all tenants at Reid-Hillview airport whose leases will expire on Dec. 31. In all, the FAA is investigating eight potential violations by the county. The general aviation industry is strongly committed to an unleaded future, but through a smart and safe transition. The industry has pointed out that the reckless and hurried ban could cause risks of misfuelling and potential engine failure in aircraft with the wrong fuel. https://www.aviationpros.com/aircraft/business-general-aviation/press-release/21251382/national-business-aviation-association-nbaa-faa-steps-in-to-investigate-santa-clara-county-airport-safety-issues JET AIRWAYS READY TO RESTART DOMESTIC OPERATIONS IN INDIA Jet Airways is ready to commence domestic operations, according to the Jalan Kalrock Consortium, the successful resolution applicant of Jet Airways. The Indian airline suspended operations in April 2019 after it ran out of funds. The Consortium has approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the bankruptcy court where Jet Airways’ new owner was decided, to fast track the implementation of the Approved Resolution Plan by infusing fresh capital in Jet Airways. Consortium commits to funding and reviving Jet Airways. The Consortium has stated that they want to commence payments to all stakeholders including ex-employees, workmen, ticket claimants, and lenders of Jet Airways as per the plan approved by the NCLT in June. In its latest filing before the NCLT, the Consortium has intimated today December 22 as its plan “effective date” and seeks to forthwith implement the plan as approved by NCLT last June. Elaborating further, Mr. Murari Lal Jalan, Lead Member of the Consortium and proposed promoter and Non-Executive Chairman of Jet Airways, said: “We are excited to embark on the next phase of the revival of India’s most loved airline. We at JKC await the Hon’ble NCLT’s decision on our last filing and look forward to recommencing operations of Jet Airways at the earliest.” Jalan further clarified that “the Consortium is ready with its investments. Given the progress the team has made operationally since NCLT Approval in June, we feel it is time to fund the company immediately for the revival of the business, without delay”. He reiterated that “we are aiming to start domestic operations at the earliest in 2022 as a full-service carrier and look forward to creating history with Jet Airways revival.” https://www.airlineratings.com/news/jet-airways-ready-restart-domestic-operations-india/ NASA Quietly Had a Stellar Year Most people don’t notice when a branch of government has a very good year. What constitutes high times at the Department of Commerce? What makes them pop the Champagne corks over at the Office of Management and Budget? But NASA is different. When your job is to build rockets, light the fuse and send machines and humans into space, folks tend to notice if things go well—or don’t. For that reason, as NASA closes out 2021, people both inside and outside the agency are celebrating what easily has been one of the most successful years for space since the golden era of the 1960s and 1970s, when it sometimes seemed NASA did almost nothing but succeed. The media haven’t always touted all of the most noteworthy accomplishments—due at least partly to the headline-grabbing 2021 that the billionaire boys’ club of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have had getting their own space hardware off the ground. But NASA’s accomplishments have been there all the same. Here are just some of the points NASA has put on the board this past year: Never mind the familiar T-minus 10-second countdown. When the engines lit on the Ariane V rocket carrying the James Webb Space Telescope to space at 7:20 AM ET on the morning of Dec. 25, it was the culmination of 25 years of effort and no less than $9.5 billion in R&D and construction costs. But if the Webb works as advertised, the cosmic payoff will be orders of magnitude greater than the terrestrial expenditure. The telescope’s main mirror is a complex, 18-segment assemblage of gold and beryllium hexagons, measuring 6.5 m (21.3 ft) across, compared to the Hubble Space telescope’s smaller—2.4 m (7.9 ft)—single-piece, circular design. The new approach was necessitated by the very different kind of work the Webb will do. Hubble sees in the ultraviolet and visible wavelengths, while Webb is designed to see in the infrared. That is a very big deal, since infrared is the wavelength in which the oldest signals from the deepest regions of the universe stream to us. The farther away a signal source is, the longer the light has been traveling to reach us, so the image we see is not the star or other formation as it appears today, but as it appeared long ago. Hubble can see about 13.4 billion years into the past—just 400 million years after the Big Bang that began the universe. Webb will be able to see an additional 200 million years back—to the time when the first stars were flickering on and the first galaxies were forming. That is a door to cosmic history that has always been closed to us. On Christmas, NASA kicked it open. Landing metal on Mars has always been one of the most daunting challenges a space agency can face, with the long history of missions to the Red Planet littered with near misses, hard crashes and serial failures. But on Feb. 18, 2021, NASA hit it big, when the Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater, carrying along the little drone-sized Ingenuity helicopter. Long ago, Jezero crater was Jezero lake, teeming with water and fed by an inflowing river. For that reason, it is seen as a prime site to look for signs of ancient—or even extant—life. So far, Perseverance has driven 2.83 km (1.76 mi)—which counts as a lot, given the slow and painstaking way commands must be pre-written and loaded into the rover’s memory before it can move so much as an inch—drilling rocks, investigating geologic formations, and gathering samples of soil, which it is packing into titanium tubes that will be brought back to Earth by a future mission. The Ingenuity helicopter, meantime, has just completed its 17th flight—far more than the original five it was scheduled to fly early in the mission as a mere proof of principle that an aircraft could operate on another planet. To date, the little chopper has spent a total of 30 minutes and 48 seconds airborne, covering a collective 3.5 km (2.2 mi), flown as high as 12 m (40 ft) and reached speeds as great as 16 km/h (10 mph). There is no telling how long Ingenuity will last, and as for Perseverance? Well, think all the way back to 2012. That’s when Perseverance’s sister rover, Curiosity, landed in Mars’s Gale Crater. After more than 3,300 Martian sols, or days (which is about the same length as an Earth day), Curiosity is still chugging. Perseverance, if all goes to plan, can do the same. Hollywood is making much hay this season with Don’t Look Up, an improbably comic story about a comet on a planet-killing collision course with Earth. The movie plays for dark laughs—and earns them—but there is nothing remotely funny about the hard existential fact that we live in a shooting gallery of a solar system, and there is a lot of deadly ordnance out there that could spell the end of us as surely as a cosmic crack-up 65 million years ago wiped out the dinosaurs. On Nov. 21, 2021, NASA began taking matters in hand, launching the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft to see if it might be possible to deflect an asteroid or comet that was taking a bead on our planet before it could actually reach us. The spacecraft’s target is the asteroid Didymos—which poses no threat to Earth—a 780 m (2,559 ft) rock that circles the sun from just outside our planet’s orbit to just outside of Mars’s. Didymos is itself circled by a 160 m (525 ft.) moonlet named Dimorphos. When DART reaches the Didymos system, it will deliberately crash into Dimorphos, and astronomers will then measure the degree to which the speed and direction of the moonlet’s orbit changes. Should the mission succeed in changing Dimorphos’s path significantly, it will represent a first, critical test of what could one day become a robust planetary defense system. And that day could come none too soon; just ask the dinosaurs. Not every asteroid wishes Earth ill. Indeed most are harmless and some are priceless—4 billion year old artifacts of the primordial material that created the solar system. Get up close to those rocks and you open a geological portal in time. Some of the most intriguing of these cosmic relics are Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, two swarms of rocks—one of which precedes Jupiter in its orbit around the sun and one of which trails it—which are locked-in-time remains of the building blocks of the outer planets. There are a total of about 4,800 Trojan asteroids, and on Oct. 16, 2021, NASA launched a spacecraft named Lucy (after the primordial Australopithecus fossil that represents one of humanity’s oldest ancestors) that will explore at least seven of them—plus one asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter—marking the greatest number of objects in independent orbits around the sun ever reconnoitered by a single spacecraft. Lucy’s mission will be long and circuitous, taking 12 years to complete. As the spacecraft orbits the sun, it will make periodic flybys of Earth for gravity assists and trajectory corrections that will slingshot it first to the leading swarm of Trojans and then to the trailing one. The 821 kg (1,810 lb) spacecraft is equipped with a suite of instruments that will allow it to study multiple features of the asteroids, including their surface geology, their color and chemical composition, their densities and interiors, and any rings or moonlets that may circle the main masses. If there are secrets locked in the rocks, Lucy should reveal them. When plans for NASA’s newest, biggest moon rocket were first released, Shrek 2 was topping the box office, Eminem was leading the charts and the first iPhone was still three years away. It was early 2004, and then-President George W. Bush announced plans to build a 21st century version of the Saturn V moon rocket—called the Ares V—that would return Americans to the moon by 2014. It was an exciting plan but, like so much else in NASA’s start-stop return to the lunar surface, a doomed one. The rocket was scrapped in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama, who cited cost overruns and missed deadlines. But under pressure from Congress, Ares V was revived with a new name—the Space Launch System (SLS)—which would have its first flight by 2016. That year came and went, as did later promised targets. But now, at last, the SLS is set to fly. This year, the towering 98 m (322-ft.) tall rocket was finally stacked and assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, in preparation for an initial, uncrewed test flight in March. The vehicle’s propulsion system uses proven legacy hardware—four space shuttle main engines, and two shuttle-era solid rocket boosters. When all six engines are lit, they will produce a staggering 4 million kg (8.8 million lbs) of thrust, easily exceeding the Saturn V’s 3.4 million kg (7.5 million lbs), making SLS the most powerful rocket ever launched. If all goes to plan, that first mission, dubbed Artemis 1, will make an uncrewed flight around the far side of the moon; Artemis 2, flying the same profile, but this time carrying astronauts, will follow in 2024. Artemis 3, which will land on the moon, could come as early as 2025. The SLS, 17 years in the making and the planning, is at last having its moment. There were other triumphs in NASA’s big year as well—quieter ones perhaps, but triumphs all the same: In December, the space agency’s Parker Solar Probe became the first spacecraft to touch the corona of the sun; in May, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft began its journey back to Earth, bringing home samples from the asteroid Bennu; throughout 2021, the Juno spacecraft continued its years-long study of Jupiter, which it began orbiting in 2016. As we head into 2022, the deep-pocketed likes of Musk and Branson and Bezos will continue to stake their claims in the increasingly competitive race to space, and grab media attention as they do. But NASA, a government agency that pays government wages, remains—as it has been for generations—the biggest, if not always the flashiest, player in the global space game. The year just past offered yet more proof. https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-quietly-had-stellar-130048465.html Curt Lewis