http://www.batechnics.com/ Brussels Airlines, Technics en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss GuppY v4.6.3 info@batechnics.com (webmaster) info@batechnics.com (webmaster) http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=767 http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=767 As oil prices soar, it may mean that some airlines may soon not be. United Airlines has announced it may have to ground 100 planes because gas has become so expensive. An investigation by WABC-NY reporter Jim Hoffer found that some airlines might be trying to cut costs by lightening the load and flying with less fuel. But that has put some flights and passengers at risk. In April, a pilot on a commercial plane entering New York airspace contacted air traffic control to say that his aircraft was running low on fuel. The recorded conversation between the pilot and air traffic controllers offered a chilling glimpse into the potential dangers in commercial air travel. Pilot: "We are minimum fuel, sir." Air traffic controller: "You're declaring an emergency at this time. The time is now 22:57. I need the souls on board and fuel in pounds when you arrive." Pilot: "Copy that. One hundred fifty-seven souls on board. We have exactly 38 minutes of fuel remaining." Controllers gave the plane priority landing and it safely touched down with just minutes of fuel remaining.  Retired Pilot Forced to Fudge the Numbers An examination of thousands of airport operational logs, air traffic tapes and interviews with pilots and controllers reveal airlines may be pushing the margin of safety by cutting back on the amount of fuel per flight. At Newark Liberty International Airport, just five flights landed under minimum or low-fuel conditions over a six-month period in 2005. In a similar period this year, 73 flights came into the same airport with minimum fuel. Perhaps most disturbing, an additional 10 flights had to declare the more serious emergency fuel situation — meaning they needed to land immediately or they risked running out of gas. Air traffic controller Ray Adams says in the last two years he's noticed an astounding increase in the number of flights coming into Newark under minimum or emergency fuel conditions. "When aircraft come into our airport at Newark with a minimum fuel state, they become a priority for us and it's an extra focus of attention on that aircraft, which increases the complexity of your already complex operation," Adams said. http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=766 http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=766 CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- A plane carrying more than 100 people made an emergency landing in South Africa after an engine fell off during takeoff from Cape Town on Wednesday, officials said. No injuries were reported.The Nationwide airline plane, bound for Johannesburg, touched down safely after the airport's fire and rescue services rushed to clear debris from the runway.The right engine of the Boeing 737 "separated from the wing. The aircraft continued to climb out," the airline said in a statement.One of the passengers, Pretoria businesswoman Ronel Derman, told the South African Press Association that she had been in a seat directly over the wing and a passenger seated next to her was looking out of the window when the engine dropped."I heard this huge bang, and he said, 'That's our engine that's just fallen off.' I couldn't believe it. He had to repeat it to me," she told SAPA http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=763 http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=763 A former RAF pilot has said lives are being put at risk due to the service's ageing fleet of rescue helicopters. Sqn Ldr Paul Coleman, who is retired, said: "The aircraft are very old, therefore they are less serviceable. "If they are less serviceable then you are unable to respond as quickly or as frequently as you would wish to, therefore peoples' lives are at risk." An RAF spokesman told people not to worry and said the availability from its helicopters was "second to none". Mr Coleman told the BBC's Inside Out team: "It is certainly not unheard of for all the aircraft on my squadron, number 202 squadron, to have been unserviceable at the same time so there would be no aircraft at Lossiemouth in Scotland, none at Boulmer in Northumberland and none at Leconfield. "So on the east coast there would be no immediately available search and rescue helicopters from north of Scotland all the way down to the Wash." Distress calls Figures obtained by Inside Out show for the first nine months of 2007, the RAF base in Leconfield, East Yorkshire, which covers 150 miles of the East Coast including the Humber estuary, did not have a single serviceable helicopter available for more than 300 hours. The aircraft are designed to last for 10,000 hours, but some of them have flown for 15,000 hours. And in the past four years rescue helicopters at Leconfield have had to put out distress calls for in-flight emergencies on four occasions. The government is planning to replace the Sea King helicopters, but it will be at least five years and up to seven years away. Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell said: "They need to be replaced. We do need an assurance that there is a ready presence of helicopters for any operation that comes up. "We are approaching winter now and things are going to get difficult and they will need to be called on. And that means replacement." 'Demanding rescues' The RAF admitted the Sea Kings at Leconfield had narrowly missed their availability targets, but denied they were ready to be pensioned off. Gp Capt Steve Garden, in charge of the RAF's Search and Rescue operations in the UK, said "This year alone we have been busier at Leconfield than we ever have been in the past. "Such demanding rescues require the aircraft to be maintained once they've been flown, that means they've been taken offline for maintenance more often. "Don't be worried, the Royal Air Force will provide search and rescue helicopters. The availability we get from our helicopters is second to none. "When aircraft are off-state, we provide cover from adjacent bases." http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=762 http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=762 Dutch carrier Martinair estimates that it has saved up to $­­2.2 million in fuel costs over the past year after conducting a year-long test of on-stand engine washing for its aircraft fleet.Martinair has been co-operating on the project with Pratt & Whitney and Amsterdam Schiphol-based Stella Aviation Technics, which claims to be the first independent maintenance company to offer an ecological package of services aimed at reducing environmental damage.  © David Kaminski-MorrowStella managing director Coen Smit sees the engine wash as a way for the company to move into more specialised operationsThe engine wash involves connecting a nozzle array to the nacelle which directs high-pressure water from a portable trailer through the fan, washing off internal contaminants which reduce the compressor’s efficiency. An effluent collector behind the engine collects and filters the run-off, which is returned to the tanks for recycling.Martinair believes that the project, initiated in May last year, has decreased fuel burn on its fleet by 2,400-3,300t and generated the additional benefit of cutting carbon dioxide emissions. This equates to a cost saving of $­­1.6-2.2 million. © David Kaminski-Morrow/ATI The engine wash involves connecting a nozzle array to the nacelle which directs high-pressure water from a portable trailer through the fan, washing off internal contaminants “If an A-check doesn’t run on time, the first thing you end up cancelling is the engine wash,” said Martinair vice-president for maintenance and engineering Paul Horstink, speaking to ATI, flightglobal.com's sister premium news source, during a demonstration of the system at Schiphol.Typically the wash programme comprises three cycles, each lasting around 90s, and the whole operation – from set-up to dismantling – can be performed in 60-90min. Martinair operates a range of aircraft and Horstink says the system can handle its entire fleet, including the fin-mounted engines on its Boeing MD-11s.Stella Aviation Technics is an equal partner in the strategic alliance European Maintenance Solutions, formed a year ago, which includes European Aviation and Louro Aircraft Services and which concentrates on a network of some 35 line-maintenance stations.The company is intending to consolidate a range of fuel-reduction maintenance activities into an ecological package. Martinair will participate in a pilot programme to refine this package, after which it will be put in place across the network.“We’ll definitely roll this out on our stations,” says Stella managing director Coen Smit. “It’s a different way of doing aircraft maintenance – it’s not just safety but also fuel savings. We believe this is the upcoming market in maintenance.”He sees the engine wash as a way for the company to move into more specialised operations, adding that diverse services are a “necessity” in the cyclic aircraft maintenance business.Smit says the pilot programme will begin in a month or two and the initial phase will include the company’s Paris, Madrid and probably its Frankfurt stations. “Quite a few airlines are interested,” he says.“Martinair took the risk to be the first European airline to start seriously reducing emissions. Initiatives like this should be rewarded. Investing in these kinds of washes and actions means investing in a lower fuel consumption and a cleaner environment.“Our ambition is, together with Martinair, to build up this ecological package to a stage that, at yearly or half-yearly intervals, aircraft will undergo a series of maintenance actions resulting in the aircraft operating maintenance-wise in the most efficient way.” http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=761 http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=761 Dr Bert Boquet heads the human factors and systems department at Daytona Beach, Florida-based Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He recently led a team which applied a human factors analysis and classification system to 1,935 maintenance-related commercial and general aviation accidents in the USA from 1990-2003. While maintenance-related issues are understood to cause fewer accidents than those errors committed by aircrews, with up to 23% of accidents thought to be causally related to maintenance, an examination of the nature of those accidents in commercial and general aviation is interesting."What really stood out was the skill-based level where errors occur: low processing tasks. Errors here are consistent throughout all industries. They are the tasks we have to do, but the ones we don't have to think about, the things we do by second nature," says Boquet. A further look at the level of violations by maintainers (30%) compared with pilots (10%) came as a shock to Boquet. "But then when you think about the different environment it makes sense, because violations are not so much about breaking regulations but deviating from procedures, and you have to acknowledge that figures may be inflated as the maintenance industry may tend to be harsher on itself."What strikes Boquet in terms of maintainers operating within a future safety management system environment in the USA where initiatives are just ramping up, is that one issue that will loom large is fatigue. "There has historically been a lot of protection for pilots in terms of crew rest, for example, but those things are still not in place for aircraft maintainers. In an industry where pay tends to be low, hours long and working conditions difficult, that speaks to their professionalism. If you look at aircraft maintenance as an aviation system that has not had any particular attention in terms of the development of a safety management system, it's done a pretty good job."Embry-Riddle University will soon assess the real business effects of fatigue at a US maintenance provider with whose permission it will be able to publish the study findings. "From interviews we know fatigue is a real issue. The big thing for the industry is the shortage of maintainers. You start to mention the need for rest and that's going to immediately affect workforce capacity which is already under pressure. It is a long overdue issue," says Boquet.A natural consequence of labour shortage is more outsourcing by major airlines' engineering departments with independent maintenance providers more likely then to use increased contract labour. "This all puts pressure on the already-overstretched Federal Aviation Administration inspection official. There are not enough of them out there to get the job done now and as more work is outsourced that puts even more pressure on that inspection system."Ideally, Boquet says safety management system efforts should be linked to maintenance error levels rather than the much lower MRO-related accident tally. "For me, the real issue is that what is lacking in aviation is the lack of any standardised approach to how we collect that data," he says. "That is holding us back. Everyone, especially as we become more global, needs to be willing to share data, accident data and especially error data." http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=760 http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=760 NEW DELHI: Dirty surroundings of airports have made landings and take offs a risky affair in India. Garbage in the vicinity and open meat shops on airport approach paths attract birds and bring them dangerously close to incoming and outgoing planes, which very often result in bird hits.While, almost all airlines say this is a routine feature, which causes hardships to passengers and great expense on repairing the damage to the aircraft, an airline has now compiled all such incidents over the past 13 months and reported a staggering 84 hits during that period. The idea - to attract authorities' attention to this problem.India's largest private carrier Jet Airways - whose plane carrying the Indian and Australian cricket teams had to return to Nagpur last month after suffering a hit - has recorded incidents from October 2006 to date. The number is very high for just one airline. Jet operates 350 flights daily, and is second only to national carrier's figure of over 550.Luckily for the airline, 49 incidents did not see the aircraft getting damaged, although, in many of these cases, the flights were delayed. But the sheer figure of 84 hits in 13 months for just one carrier is scary, admit aviation industry insiders. Damages reported in other cases include - engine blades getting damaged, dent on aircraft, cracks on some external equipment, windows getting shattered, and flaps getting hit.Last month, for instance, a Brussels-Delhi flight suffered a bird hit in Delhi and the wing got dented. As a result, the Delhi-Brussels flight was cancelled that day and Jet's London-Mumbai flight had to be rerouted via Brussels to accommodate passengers there.The airline has rated Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Vadodara, Hyderabad and Bangalore as being prone to bird hits. Other places like Bhopal, Rajkot, Nagpur and Kolkata also faces the problem but not frequently. http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=757 http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=757 ON BOARD FLIGHT SQ380_The world's largest jetliner made aviation history Thursday, completing its first commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney with 455 passengers, some of them ensconced in luxury suites and double beds.The Airbus superjumbo lifted off from Singapore's Changi Airport and landed about seven hours later in Sydney. Also aboard Flight SQ380 was a crew of about 30, including four pilots.Flight attendants handed out champagne and certificates to passengers, some of whom paid tens of thousands of dollars in an online auction for seats."I have never been in anything like this in the air before in my life," said Australian Tony Elwood, reclining with his wife, Julie, on the double bed in their private first-class suite."It is going to make everything else after this simply awful," he said, sipping Dom Perignon champagne after a lunch of marinated lobster and double boiled chicken soup. He paid $­50,000 for the two places.The double-decker A380 ends the nearly 37-year reign of the Boeing 747 jumbojet as the world's most spacious passenger plane. Its European manufacturer, Airbus SAS, also claims that the A380 is the most fuel efficient and quietest passenger jet ever built.Thomas Lee, who was also on the Boeing 747's first commercial flight from New York to London in 1970, described the latest experience as "spectacular ... fantastic ... incredible.""It was a festive atmosphere, I can tell you. Everybody was excited. People were up out of their seats in the aisle. It was quite difficult for the cabin crew to do their job, ... not like a normal flight I can assure you," he said.The A380 was delivered to Singapore Airlines on Oct. 15, nearly two years behind schedule after billions of dollars in cost overruns for Airbus. Still, the wait was worth it, says Singapore Airlines, which got the exclusivity of being the plane's sole operator for 10 months."This is indeed a new milestone in the timeline of aviation," said Chew Choon Seng, chief executive of Singapore Airlines (SIA) in a speech before the departure.The Boeing 747 jumbo jet generally carries about 400 passengers. The A380 - as tall as a seven-story building with each wing big enough to hold 70 cars - is capable of carrying 853 passengers in an all-economy class configuration.However, Singapore Airlines opted for 471 seats in three classes - 12 Singapore Airlines Suites, 60 business class and 399 economy class.Each suite, enclosed by sliding doors, is fitted with a leather upholstered seat, a table, a 23-inch flat screen TV, laptop connections and a range of office software. A separate bed folds up into the wall. Two of the suites can be joined to provide double beds, one of which the Elwoods occupied.On the upper deck, business class seats can turn into wide flat beds, while the economy class seats on both decks have more leg and knee room, the carrier says. Business class passengers also have a bar area.Francis Wu, a student from San Francisco who turned 22 on the flight, was updating his journal on the in-flight computer system when airline crew surprised him with a white chocolate cake and a song."This is the best birthday I have ever had in my whole life," he said.SIA auctioned most of the seats on the inaugural flight on eBay, raising $­1.26 million for charity. The highest bidder was Briton Julian Hayward who bought two suite seats for $­100,380. He was the first passenger to board.SIA has ordered 19 A380s, hoping to benefit from a boom in air travel that has seen global air traffic growing 5 to 10 percent a year.Dubai-based Emirates, Airbus' largest A380 customer with 55 on order, will take its first delivery in August.Not all analysts are convinced that the plane, which has a list price of $­320 million, will be a success."I see there's some demand for the A380, but it's an expensive way to address a small market," said Standard & Poor's Equity Research analyst Shukor Yusof.Shukor said the market was set to be dominated by mid-sized, long haul two-engine aircraft such as the rival Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which offers greater fuel efficiency than four-engine jets of the same size.He pointed out that orders for the 787 have exceeded 700. The A380 has received 165 orders to date.Shukor noted that Singapore Airlines renews its fleet frequently to maintain an average age of about six years. Once the planes are older than six years, Singapore Airlines might have trouble selling them, he said."What would happen if the plane didn't meet their expectations, say, in a year? Would SIA be tempted to sell it? What is the secondary value of the plane? It has not been commercially tested yet," Shukor said. http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=740 http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=740 The collision happened as the aircraft taxied to the runwayTwo airliners have been involved in a collision while taxiing at Heathrow airport in west London. One was a British Airways Boeing 747 departing for Singapore and the other was a Sri Lankan Airlines Airbus A340. Heathrow's operator, BAA, confirmed there had been an incident at around 2220 BST and that there were no reported injuries. BA said there had been a "minor collision" involving flight BA011 and an investigation has started. Investigation launched A BAA spokesman said: "Heathrow airport can confirm that two aircraft were involved in an incident earlier this evening on the ground. "There are no reported injuries." See the site of the incident A spokeswoman for Sri Lankan Airlines said the "minor incident" involved flight UL502 to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, via the Maldives, which had 286 passengers and crew on board. She said: "It is reported that the wing tips of the two aircraft brushed against each other while taxiing. "No injuries were reported. All passengers have been transferred to city hotels until alternate travel arrangements are made during the course of the day." An eye-witness, aboard the Sri Lankan airliner, claimed it hit the BA aircraft from behind while manoeuvring on the runway. "We turned our wing, almost hit what looked like the tail end of the British Airways flight, and we ended up chopping off a bit of wing. It cut through it like butter," said Danish journalist Annasofie Flamand. "It's pretty incredible to see something like that in a place like Heathrow airport. Thank God it was on the ground and not in the air." Next flight The BA spokesman added: "Engineers are inspecting the aircraft to ascertain the damage. "We do not have any more precise details of the collision while it is being investigated." He said passengers would either be given the option of a refund or spend the night in a hotel before leaving on the next available flight. The London Fire Brigade said it was alerted at 2213, although its crews had been stood down by 2228. A spokesman for the London Ambulance service said: "We were called to the airport at about 2220 BST, but we were stood down around 10 minutes later as there were no injuries." SITE OF THE AIRCRAFT COLLISION    http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=739 http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=739 New safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concerning pilot errors on airport surfaces include the use of moving maps and automatic pilot alerting systems. The NTSB on July 26 ruled that the primary cause of the Aug. 27, 2006 early morning fatal crash of Comair Flight 5191, a Bombardier CRJ-100 regional jet (N431CA), during takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, KY, was pilot error. The Safety Board said the flight deck crew repeatedly missed "abundant cues" that should have alerted them of the fact that they were taking off from the wrong runway. Forty-seven passengers and three crewmembers were on board. Only the first officer survived and is recovering from critical injuries. The captain had passed the controls to the first officer for takeoff. After an eleven-month probe, Safety Board investigators determined that the two-man crew failed to react to sure signs that they were taking off from the much shorter general aviation runway versus the air carrier runway. "It's very clear to us that the crew made a mistake. Their heads just weren't in the game here," said NTSB Member Debbie Hersman. Steven Chealander, another Safety Board member and former airline pilot, said "there comes a time for the flight crew to take responsibility. There were cues there. The flight deck crew was not doing their jobs. Human error far outweighs system errors in this case." Specifically, the NTSB ruled that the probable cause of the Comair regional jet accident was "the flight crew's failure to use available cues and aids to identify the airplane's location on the airport surface during taxi and their failure to cross check and verify that the airplane was on the correct runway before takeoff. New NTSB recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration resulting from the Comair fatal accident include a requirement that all Part 91K, 121, and 135 operators equip their aircraft either with moving map displays or an automatic system that alerts pilots when a takeoff is attempted on a runway other than the one intended. Current Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) offer such devices and Honeywell's Runway Awareness and Advisory System (RAAS) is an available alerting technology. Other procedural, good practice and signage recommendations made by the Safety Board include: * Require all Part 91K, 121 and 135 operators to advise flight deck crews to positively confirm and cross check the airplane's location at the assigned departure runway before crossing the hold short line for takeoff. * Require airports certificated under Part 139 implement enhanced taxiway centerline markings and surface painted holding position signs at all runway entrances. * Prohibit the issuance of a takeoff clearance during an airplane's taxi to its departure runway until after the airplane has crossed all intersecting runways. * Revise air traffic controller work rules to prohibit controllers from performing administrative tasks, such as traffic counts, when moving aircraft are in the controller's area of responsibility. http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=738 http://www.batechnics.com/news.php?lng=en&pg=738 Aircraft Engineers International (AEI) recently held their 35th Annual Congress in London. The congress hosted by AEI's UK Affiliate the Association of Licensed Aircraft Engineers (ALAE) attracted 65 delegates from all over the world.The main decision reached after heavy debate was a resolution to step up the campaign for better policing of aircraft maintenance carried out in the European Union.AEI are also calling for an investigation into "widespread abuse" of aircraft technical log books in which faults originating early in the day are not recorded by flight crew until several flights later, once the aircraft returns to a maintenance base.The moves come after a senior EU official failed to refute claims that over 1000 maintenance failings or non adherence/compliance to airline safetyregulations by the various European Aviation Authorities and airlines had been uncovered within a 12 month period with many remaining uncorrected.Deputy EU Commissioner for Transport, Olga Koumartsioti, who was questioned at the AEI conference in London, would only say: "This was just a snapshot."AEI are pressing for EU memberstates to investigate what Fred Bruggeman, AEI Secretary General described as "a massive fraud" by pilots who do not report malfunctions or systemdefects when they happen away from home base."Statistically these defects should occur periodically throughout the day" said Mr Bruggeman. "We know that a quick check of a number of aircraft technical logbooks would simply show if a disproportionate number of faults are entered into the logbooks on the last flight of the day where maintenance can be performed conveniently without disrupting the flight programme." The reason is that away from a maintenance base there are often no engineers qualified to deal with the defects or repairs would be too time-consuming thus being costly and too disruptive to the flight schedule.When pressed on this point the EU commissioner said Engineers should report such abuses to their employer. Unfortunately the fact is that reporting such matters often leads to dismissal as we are well aware that the European confidential reporting system has yet to mature.European Aviation Safety Authorities however could suggest to the various National Authorities throughout Europe to carry out their own audit of logbooks to discover the full extent of this scandal.After questioning of the EU Deputy Commissioner Mr. Bruggeman wasn't convinced. "I'm unfortunately still of the opinion that at the moment the EU just doesn't have the powers to police European aviation safety effectively.""I'm not saying that everyone of these failings could lead to a major incident. I do know however, that more and more affiliates are reporting and highlighting failings within the system. Proving the ineffectiveness of the authorities oversight.In our opinion the regulations are good but must be effectively enforced to ensure highest standards of maintenance and safety."