SAFETY: Aviation accident rate declines in the U.S.

Hat tip to NOTF.

With fewer people flying, the number of aviation accidents was down across the U.S., according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The number of general aviation accidents in the U.S. declined 6% in 2009 to 1,474 accidents, compared to 1,566 the year before. However, the accident rate increased in 2009 to 7.20 per 100,000 flight hours, up from 6.86 in 2008.

Safety: General Aviation Watch

NOTF reports; Airport Watch program offers safety tips for general aviation airports

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have teamed up to provide safety tips as part of a joint Airport Watch program.

The program recommends pilots keep an eye out for suspicious behavior - including people forcing their way into aircraft or misusing aviation lingo - at all general aviation airports.

Safety: FAA: 2 jets came within 90 feet on ground at LAX

At the CT Wing Conference last weekend, this exact scenario was shown on tape. The conclusion was; The crew got so active in pre-takeoff activities they forgot to hold as ordered. The solutions: Stay on task, obey sterile cockpit rules and if your not sure you have clearance - don't cross, ask again (don't be embarrassed to do so). Finally, if your on an unfamiliar airport ask for a progressive. Arrogance and or protecting the personal ego is always dangerous.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Federal Aviation Administration has determined a runway incursion brought two passenger planes within 90 feet of each other on the ground at Los Angeles International Airport.
FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said Wednesday the incident occurred Sunday.

It involved a Midwest Express jet that landed and taxied toward a runway on which a Northwest Airlines Boeing 757 was taking off for Honolulu.

The Midwest Express jet, arriving from Milwaukee, was told to turn onto a taxiway and hold there. Fergus says the jet was supposed to stop 200 feet from the edge of a parallel runway but continued on.

Investigators plan to question the pilots of both planes. Here...

SAFETY: Checklists are for a reason

Hat tip neptunuslex.com

SAFETY: Add Power!

Homeland Security: Portable EMP threat to aircraft

Weapons experts and techno-thriller fans are familiar with the concept of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) — a supermassive blast of electricity, usually from a nuclear blast high above ground, that fries electronic circuits for miles around, crippling computers, cars and most other modern gadgets.

Now comes word that a much smaller EMP device, or "e-bomb," could be carried in a car, or even on someone's person — and be used to take down an airliner.

"Once it is known that aircraft are vulnerable to particular types of disruption, it isn't too much of a leap to build a device that can produce that sort of disruption," Israeli counter-terrorism expert Yael Shahar tells New Scientist magazine. "And much of this could be built from off-the-shelf components or dual-use technologies."

Shahar says she's especially worried about two devices — one called a Marx generator, which beams an EMP at a target, and the other with the "Back to the Future"-like name of flux-compression generator.
More here...

SAFETY: If there’s any doubt at all, there’s no doubt

From Lex of neptunuslex.com

So, I’d asked for the day yesterday from my real job, one of 15 such being accorded to my annual station these days. On top of the federals. Mine being an hourly labor, with “paid time off.”
Spent half the day at work and the other half flying, four air combat demo sorties being my apportioned ration. The planes had already flown four times that morning before the afternoon shift rung in, and daylight was wasting.
With our guest pilots having been briefed, I ended up at the hold short in 50W, going through my pre-take off checklists with John in the trunk, a magnificently framed, blond headed farmer’s son turned tractor salesman. He was at least six four, and his shoulders were nearly half that width, with a broad, easy smile on his apple cheeked face that had no least hint of guile in it. It only took a bit of imagination to draw a beard on that face, some animal hides on his back and a Viking broad axe in his hand to render him a fearful (if imaginary) specter. I honestly don’t know how he poured himself in the cramped back seat of the tiny Varga, but he was sitting there, strapped in tightly and sporting a “oh, gosh” grin.
The magnetos were fine, but the carb heat check had to be done three times. On every other flight I’d ever flown the drop from 1800 RPM with carburetor heat selected had been a hundred RPM or so. Maybe two. But 50W dropped from 1800 RPM to around a grudging thousand or so, which was passing strange.
There’s no lower limit on the checklist for an RPM drop with carb heat on, but given that the airplane idles in flight at around a thousand RPM, the idea of losing 800 more in the landing pattern should carb heat be required was thought provoking. And yet there were all those young Midwesterners (and Canadians, too) all waiting for their turn at the donnybrook. The time line was taut to get it all done.
I thought about it again, which should have been a warning sign: If there’s any doubt at all, there’s no doubt. You’d always rather be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground. But I get paid to fly these airplanes, not to break them. And if the airplane was hard down, it’d be me taking bread off my employer’s table.
My lead took the runway with both of us cleared for take-off, I toyed with the throttle a bit trying to come to some sort of decision as the traffic stacked up behind me - the SNJ, a Cirrus SR-22 and a beautiful little blue Champ. On the runway, I eased the throttle back to ground idle when it sputtered down to 750 RPM - a 250 RPM drop, and that with the mixture full rich. I began to feel that old “mission accomplishment” pressure kick in - it’s almost always self-imposed - the pressing need to get things done against a mulish resistance to doing it. Everybody wants you to go, but even more they want you to come back and if you don’t, it’s all on you old sport. Pilot in command, and that.
The symptoms said carburetor icing, but it was a warm, pleasant day with never a trace of visible moisture. The knowledge that adding carb heat would have caused the engine to sag even further put paid to the notion of breaking the surly bonds. My only engine was running rough on the deck, the hope that things might clear up once airborne was fond fantasy. Enough.
There was a palpable disappointment in the air as I taxied back to the flight line. The plane had already flown four flights, the clock was ticking and it isn’t all beer and skittles in the air touring business these days.
My passenger stepped out and joined a handful of his confreres, chatting thoughtfully and looking on with feigned insouciance as maintenance Jedi master Skip turned up with his wrench and went swiftly to work. I guess I sort of understand powerplants, and if you tell me what the problem is I get it immediately after you’ve told me. Skip’s the kind of man that gets it first - you tell him what you were seeing in the cockpit and the light just comes on, he knows. I’ve always admired that in a mechanic.
In short order he identified the flaw: The airscoop is attached below the carburetor and it tends to vibrate in the airflow, which over time can cause the hardware that encloses the carburetor bowl and float to shake loose a little. Eventually you get a secondary air source in the gap between the seals, which affects the fuel/air mixture adversely. Skip worked quickly but authoritatively under the engine with the cowlings all peeled back, and eventually - having tested the motor at various RPMs, mixture and carb heat settings - I was as certain as I could be that we would both be fine, your correspondent and his Viking passenger, who’s Minnesotan ma no doubt loved him dearly, and whose father loved him so much that he almost told him so, once.
I don’t know that my only engine would have quit shortly after take-off, plunging us into the densely populated departure end subdivision of Kearney Mesa . But neither was I sure it wouldn’t. The difference between the two was a matter of thirty minutes maintenance time.
It was a good flight, and a squeeker of a landing. Turning off the runway though I noticed that the right brake required a great deal more force than did its peer on the left to achieve proportionate response. Was it flyable? Yeah, I guess. But it wasn’t right, and it was with a heavy heart that I asked Skip to once again go to work while our paying passengers milled about, having first done the obvious and checked the break pads and rotor. I didn’t want to come off as a nancy boy with passengers to fly and the sun casting admiring glances at the western horizon, but you’re supposed to have two brakes.
It had been air in the brake lines, which took him a trifling amount of time to bleed. We flew the rest of the passengers in good time before the sun went down, shared a beer at the end of the day and put the airplanes to bed. Mine in better condition than I’d found it. That’s not nothing. I got the important things right.

SAFETY: Raptor Down

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — One of the Air Force's top-of-the-line F-22 fighter jets crashed Wednesday in the high desert of Southern California, killing a test pilot for prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.

The F-22A Raptor crashed at 10 a.m. about 35 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. The Bureau of Land Management identifies the area as Harper Dry Lake, a vast and empty expanse of sometimes marshy flat land.

The pilot was David Cooley, 49, a 21-year Air Force veteran who joined Lockheed Martin in 2003, the company said in a statement. It did not release any details of the accident or say whether Cooley attempted to eject.
More here...

SAFETY: Fuel consumption

SAFETY: Helicopter Carrying 18 Crashes in Atlantic Off Canadian Coast

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland — A helicopter ferrying workers to the Hibernia offshore oil platform has ditched in the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland.

Gerry Grychowski of the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax says there were 18 people on board on Thursday.

Two people have been spotted in the water, as well as a life-raft, but there's no sign of the chopper.

A Hercules aircraft and four Cormorant rescue helicopters are on their way to the site and a coast guard ship and a supply ship are about an hour away.

Grychowski says winds are fairly strong in the area with six- to nine-foot waves.
More here...

CTWG: Civil Air Patrol Says 'Don't Trash The Beacon!'

Last night, Lt Col "Sandy" Sanderson warned our members to "not trash the beacons in a garbage dump" and so this article says...

Civil Air Patrol Says 'Don't Trash The Beacon!'
Fri, 27 Feb '09
Accidental Signals Distract Responders From REAL Emergencies
Boat and plane owners upgrading their emergency beacons to the newer technology may be tempted to toss their old ones in the nearest dumpster. But emergency beacons -- also known as ELTs in aircraft and EPIRBs in watercraft -- were not meant to be discarded like common trash.

The Civil Air Patrol, in partnership with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, has kicked off a communications initiative -- a "Don't Trash the Beacon" campaign -- to inform boaters and airplane owners about proper disposal of obsolete emergency beacons. CAP squadrons across the nation are supporting this initiative by displaying posters about proper disposal in their communities.

When discarding the older 121.5/243 MHz analog frequency emergency locator beacons in favor of the stronger, more reliable 406 MHz frequency digital emergency beacons, it is important to first remove or disconnect the battery from the device so it cannot be accidentally activated. Then, contact a local electronics waste facility for proper disposal.
More here...

SAFETY: Passenger exists A/C via slide after loading

A 26-year-old passenger on board an American Airlines jet from Charlotte to Dallas opened a door and slid down an inflatable emergency chute Tuesday as the aircraft waited to taxi to its gate at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

The man, who had not been identified Tuesday night, reportedly ran into the first class section of American Airlines Flight 1343 and opened the exit door, according to an airport advisory. The plane, an MD-80, had just arrived from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport about 1 p.m. and was parked on a ramp when the incident happened.

After opening the door, the man deployed the inflatable slide and slid down to the Aircraft Operations Area, where he was held by American fleet service clerks until airport public safety officers took him into custody.
More here....

SAFETY: Danger on the roads

At most of the SARX, I often hear the warning, "flight itself is not inherently dangerous. Arrogantly taking it for granted or ignoring procedures and demonstrating a lack of attention to detail is deadly". All true. Another point often made is, "we are at more risk when driving to and returning from our meetings". PAY ATTENTION TO THIS ONE TOO!

Last night, this PA officer was returning from Wing eastbound on Rte 384 East toward Manchester. Unfortunately another driver was traveling WEST on 384 EAST at a very high rate of speed. Myself and two other vehicles made, in the scope of about 1-2 seconds, an identical decision to jink our cars to the right avoiding a multiple vehicle, head on crash with a closure rate of at least 140 miles per hour by a foot or two.

All things considered I will always listen to my training instructors!

CTWG PA

SAFETY: Severe Turbulence Injures 50 on Tokyo-Bound Flight

TOKYO — Severe turbulence jolted a Tokyo-bound Northwest Airlines flight from the Philippines on Friday, injuring 50 passengers and crew members, a company spokesman said.

Four passengers were hospitalized, including one person with a serious neck injury, said Masashi Takahashi, spokesman for Northwest Airlines in Tokyo.

The 46 others, including seven crew members, received light injuries.
More here…

SAFETY: 1954 Ditching at sea, all souls survive

Marilyn Ogg watched news coverage last month of pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's successful ditching of a commercial airliner in the Hudson River, a passenger praised Sullenberger for being the first to ever pull off such a maneuver.

"I thought, That's not correct,'" Ogg said. "I almost e-mailed."

She would know. More than 50 years ago, her father saved all 31 passengers aboard Pan Am Flight 943 when he ditched a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser in the Pacific Ocean.

Capt. Richard Ogg was midway through a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco on Oct. 16, 1956, when, in the wee hours of the morning, the No. 1 engine began to sputter. Shortly after, the No. 4 engine failed, leaving the plane with just two.

The Stratocruiser was losing altitude. It wouldn't make it to San Francisco or back to Honolulu. Ogg had to ditch.

About 3:30 a.m. Pacific time Oct. 16, as the plane passed over the empty heart of the Pacific Ocean, Capt. Ogg, 42, a pilot for 15 years at Pan Am, turned on the plane's PA system.

"Sorry to wake you up," he told his passengers.

"We have developed engine trouble and may have to ditch."

Like Sullenberger, who saved all 155 people aboard his US Airways jetliner, Ogg and his crew stayed calm. Fortune would have it that a Coast Guard cutter, the Pontchartrain, was nearby. Ogg circled the ship for four hours as he burned heavy fuel and waited for daylight.

"We will try to stay aloft until daylight," he said over the radio.
More here...

SAFETY: Gremlins, Army Air Force 1943

SAFETY: Airliner Crashes, landing gear fails

LONDON (AP) - A British Airways passenger jet carrying 71 people crash-landed at London City Airport on Friday evening, scraping across the tarmac after part of its landing gear failed, officials and witnesses said. One person was taken to a hospital with a minor injury.

BA Flight 8456 was flying from Amsterdam to London and the airline said in a statement the four-engine plane's nosewheel failed on landing. Emergency slides were deployed to evacuate the passengers.

British Airways said the Avro 146-RJ100 - made by BAE Systems - was carrying 67 passengers and four crew.

London firefighters said the plane crashed onto the runway around 8 p.m. (2000 GMT, 3 p.m. EST), and ambulance officials reported that four people were treated for minor injuries.
More here...

SAFETY: Commentary on icing

Commentary by Neptunus Lex a recently retired USN F-18 Pilot, multi-cruise Squadron Commander and TOPGUN Instructor.

Known Ice
February 13th, 2009 · Flying
Military aviators tend to look at commercial airline flying as the “easy” life. The machines are very highly automated with redundant systems, the pay is generally very good (0r used to be), and the bed waiting on the other end comes with room service. You never have to throw yourself at the ground with high explosive ordnance under the wings, people rarely shoot at you and - at least for the Navy guys - the runway doesn’t move. Once you’ve put the jet to bed, your “real work” isn’t waiting for you on the ground. Get the machine safely on deck at your destination and your real work is done.

Sure, there’s a lot of responsibility. A commercial airline pilot “on the line” has the lives of many, many people in his hands. But if he takes good care of the life occupying his own seat - and he’s motivated to, the pilot is the first guy to the scene of most accidents - everyone else should be OK as well.

But the airline folks will fly into weather that military aviators wouldn’t brief in. They’ll shoot approaches well below the limits for a single-piloted aircraft. And they get paid for getting the pax/cargo to their destinations. If “get-there-itis” is a psychological hazard for a military pilot, for the airline guy, it’s an occupational one.

Take icing, for example. Anytime an aircraft is flying at or around the freezing level in conditions of visible moisture - clouds, rain, fog - ice can form on exposed surfaces. It can alter the aerodynamics of the wings and control surfaces, stop up pitot-static systems used to determine altitude and airspeed, and reduce engine performance, all of which can prove fatal, especially when low to the ground. Especially when on an approach to land, where the performance margins are most constrained.

Wind tunnel and flight tests have shown that frost, snow, and ice accumulations (on the leading edge or upper surface of the wing) no thicker or rougher than a piece of coarse sandpaper can reduce lift by 30 percent and increase drag up to 40 percent. Larger accretions can reduce lift even more and can increase drag by 80 percent or more.

FA-18 pilots are forbidden to fly in conditions of known ice, and if icing is encountered they must steer out of the weather, speed up and/or change to a safer altitude - anything to get the jet outside the critical 0° to +5° C band. When I browse through the online pages of controller.com and read of light aircraft equipped with “known ice” capabilities - wing boots, heating systems, de-ice fluids - I wonder to myself, who on earth would want that temptation? Who would want to have the option of flying into known ice?

It’s one thing to have an extra safety margin in pocket if the weather unexpectedly turns to squeeze. But a known ice certification carries with it at least the tacit implication that it’d be OK to fly into known icing conditions - a thought which my mind, conditioned by stern abjurations reinforced by bad memories - rebels against.

But the airline bubbas have a place to be, and sometimes that place is freezing cold, and sometimes there’s bad weather.

I don’t know whether the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 that flew into the ground near Buffalo last night went down because of icing. But I suspect that it did.

It’s a tragedy, either way.

SAFETY: Commuter Crash - 49 Souls Lost - Possible Icing?

Forty-nine people died when a Continental Express airplane crashed into a house in Clarence Center shortly after 10:15 p.m. Thursday, setting off a huge fire that could be seen miles away.

The dead included 44 passengers, four crew members and a person on the ground.

A nurse at Erie County Medical Center said the hospital's second shift had been told to stay late to treat survivors but was sent home before midnight.

"There were no souls to bring in and treat," she said.

Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority spokesman C. Douglas Hartmayer said there was little communication between the plane, Flight 3407, and the tower before the crash. Crew members aboard the flight from Newark Airport had not reported mechanical problems as they approached Buffalo.

The plane was a Bombardier Q400, a twin-engine turboprop with a passenger capacity of about 74.
More here...

SAFETY: Ready Room Gouge