16 Jul

Mid-air collision between two planes averted

Author: Alisa Brodkowitz  |  Category: Other Events

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A last minute alert from the anti-collision device mounted on aircrafts helped avert a mid-air collision after a Jet Airways flight from Chennai came close to an Air India aircraft over Mumbai on July 10. The Jet aircraft, with 142 passengers on board, was asked to descend to 11,000 feet by the Air Traffic Control. It came close to e Air India flight that had 70 passengers on-board and was also on its way to Mumbai from Chennai. The Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), a hi-tech system designed to reduce the incidence of mid-air collisions between flights, on both the flights alerted the pilots of the intrusion in their path.

 

As a rule, two aircraft are required to maintain a vertical separation of 1,000 feet and a lateral separation of five-miles.
If any aircraft breaches these limits, the TCAS sends out an alert. In the present case, the two aircrafts were less than five miles apart laterally. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the matter.

 

“Our commander was alerted by the aircraft’s technological system well in time about the presence of another flight in its vicinity while approaching Mumbai,” said an Air India spokesperson.
Jet Airways said that the incident took place while holding over Mumbai under Air Traffic Control instructions.

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16 Jul

Continental Flight Left Runway, Six People Seriously Injured

Author: Alisa Brodkowitz  |  Category: Other Events, Turbulence

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NTSB Determines Probable Cause In 2008 Denver Accident

 The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday determined that the probable cause of the 2008 Continental Airlines flight 1404 runway excursion accident was the captain’s cessation of rudder input, which was needed to maintain directional control of the airplane, about 4 seconds before the aircraft departed the runway, when the airplane encountered a strong and gusty crosswind that exceeded the captain’s training and experience. 

 

Contributing to the accident was the air traffic control system that did not require or facilitate the dissemination of key available wind information to air traffic controllers and pilots, and inadequate cross wind training in the airline industry due to deficient simulator wind gust modeling.

 

On December 20, 2008, Continental Airlines flight 1404 veered off the left side of runway 34R during a takeoff from Denver International Airport.  as a result, the captain initiated a rejected takeoff and the airplane came to rest between runways 34R and 34L.  There was a post-crash fire.  All 110 passengers and 5 crewmembers evacuated the airplane immediately after it came to rest.  The captain and five passengers were seriously injured. �
At the time of the accident, mountain wave and downsloping wind conditions existed in the Denver area and the strong localized winds associated with these conditions resulted in pulses of strong wind gusts at the surface that posed a threat to operations at Denver International Airport.     

 

“This aircraft happened to be in the direct path of a perfect storm of circumstances that resulted in an unexpected excursion in an airport with one of the most sophisticated wind sensing systems in the country,” said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman.  “It is critical that pilots receive training to operate aircraft when high wind conditions and significant gusts are present, and that sufficient airport-specific wind information be provided to ATC controllers and pilots as well.”

 

As a result of this accident the NTSB issued 14 recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration regarding mountain waves, wind dissemination to flightcrews, runway selection,   pilot training for crosswind takeoffs, and crashworthiness.      

 

FMI: www.ntsb.gov

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14 Jul

LACK OF RULES REQUIRING DISSEMINATION OF WIND CONDITION DATA

Author: Alisa Brodkowitz  |  Category: Other Events

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************************************************************

                      NTSB PRESS RELEASE

************************************************************

 

National Transportation Safety Board

Washington, DC 20594

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 13, 2010

 

SB-10-27

 

************************************************************

 

LACK OF RULES REQUIRING DISSEMINATION OF WIND CONDITION DATA

AND PILOT’S INSUFFICIENT RUDDER CONTROL CITED AS PROBABLE

CAUSE OF 2008 DENVER RUNWAY ACCIDENT

 

************************************************************

 

Washington, DC - The National Transportation Safety Board

today determined that the probable cause of the 2008

Continental Airlines flight 1404 runway excursion accident

was the captain’s cessation of rudder input, which was

needed to maintain directional control of the airplane,

about 4 seconds before the aircraft departed the runway,

when the airplane encountered a strong and gusty crosswind

that exceeded the captain’s training and experience. 

 

Contributing to the accident was the air traffic control

system that did not require or facilitate the dissemination

of key available wind information to air traffic controllers

and pilots, and inadequate cross wind training in the

airline industry due to deficient simulator wind gust

modeling.

 

On December 20, 2008, Continental Airlines flight 1404

veered off the left side of runway 34R during a takeoff from

Denver International Airport.  As a result, the captain

initiated a rejected takeoff and the airplane came to rest

between runways 34R and 34L.  There was a post-crash fire. 

All 110 passengers and 5 crewmembers evacuated the airplane

immediately after it came to rest.  The captain and five

passengers were seriously injured.  

 

At the time of the accident, mountain wave and downsloping

wind conditions existed in the Denver area and the strong

localized winds associated with these conditions resulted in

pulses of strong wind gusts at the surface that posed a

threat to operations at Denver International Airport.     

 

“This aircraft happened to be in the direct path of a

perfect storm of circumstances that resulted in an

unexpected excursion in an airport with one of the most

sophisticated wind sensing systems in the country,” said

NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman.  “It is critical that

pilots receive training to operate aircraft when high wind

conditions and significant gusts are present, and that

sufficient airport-specific wind information be provided to

ATC controllers and pilots as well.”

 

As a result of this accident the NTSB issued 14

recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration

regarding mountain waves, wind dissemination to flightcrews,

runway selection,   pilot training for crosswind takeoffs,

and crashworthiness.      

 

A synopsis of the Board’s report, including the probable

cause, conclusions, and recommendations, is available on the

NTSB’s website, at

http://ntsb.gov/Publictn/2010/AAR1004.htm.

 

The Board’s full report will be available on the website in

several weeks.

 

###

 

NTSB Media Contact: Terry N. Williams

 

(202) 314-6100

williat@ntsb.gov

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09 Jul

NTSB TO MEET ON 2008 CONTINENTAL AIRLINES FLIGHT 1404

Author: Alisa Brodkowitz  |  Category: Crashes, Other Events

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************************************************************

                       NTSB ADVISORY

************************************************************

 

National Transportation Safety Board

Washington, DC 20594

 

July 8, 2010

 

************************************************************

 

NTSB TO MEET ON 2008 CONTINENTAL AIRLINES FLIGHT 1404

ACCIDENT AT DENVER AIRPORT

 

************************************************************

 

The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a Board meeting on

Tuesday, July 13, 2010, at 9:30 a.m. in its Board Room and Conference

Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C. There is one item on

the agenda.

 

On December 20, 2008, Continental Airlines flight 1404 departed the left

side of runway 34R at Denver International Airport during takeoff.  There

was a post-crash fire.  The captain and five of the 110 passengers were

seriously injured.

 

A live and archived webcast of the proceedings will be available on the

Board’s website at http://www.ntsb.gov/events/Boardmeeting.htm.

Technical support details are available under “Board Meetings” on the

NTSB website. To report any problems, please call 703-993- 3100 and ask

for Webcast Technical Support.

 

A summary of the Board’s final report, which will include findings,

probable cause, and safety recommendations, will appear on the website

shortly after the conclusion of the meeting. The entire report will appear on the website several weeks later.

 

 

 

 

 

# # #  

NTSB Media Contact: 

Terry N. Williams

(202) 314-6100

williat@ntsb.gov

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08 Jul

3 killed in helicopter crash off Wash. coast

Author: Alisa Brodkowitz  |  Category: Crashes

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by KING 5 News and Associated Press

LA PUSH, Wash. – Coast Guard investigators will begin looking into what caused one of its helicopters to crash off the Washington coast Wednedsay morning, killing three of its crew members.

A fourth member was rescued from the waters and is recovering at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with non-life threatening injuries.

Witnesses said that the helicopter was flying at a low altitude when it approached La Push, Wash., a small outpost on the Quileute Nation reservation. It is about 100 miles west of Seattle, on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

Rear Adm. Gary T. Blore was visibly shaken as he announced the deaths.

“I want to send our deepest sympathies to District 13, to the family and friends of this helicopter crew,” said Blore.

Blore said it’s not unusual for Coast Guard helicopters to fly low. He said the power lines had been about 250 feet above the water level and that those lines are marked in navigational charts.

Petty officer Nathan Bradshaw says the MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crashed in the waters off James Island, near La Push. He said the helicopter was carrying a crew of four and lost contact with the Coast Guard around 9:30 a.m.

The Clallam County Public Utilities District says the helicopter hit a power line between La Push and James Island. Blore said power lines were found down in the area when rescuers arrived, but says it’s not clear yet if they had something to do with the crash.

Blore says the power lines were about 250 feet above the water and that they would have been posted on aeronautical charts which the crew would have had with them. Blore also says it’s not unusual for a helicopter to fly that low to the water and that the crew may have been conducting normal Coast Guard operations. That will be determined during the investigation.

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07 Jul

Recent Near-Collisions Raise Air Safety Alarms

Author: Alisa Brodkowitz  |  Category: Crashes

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By JOAN LOWY

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON —Alarmed by a spate of near-collisions involving airliners, the government is trying to find out why air traffic controllers and pilots are making so many dangerous errors.

In recent months, there have been at least a half-dozen incidents in which airliners came close to colliding with other planes or helicopters - including in Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Burbank, Calif., and Anchorage, Alaska. In some cases, pilots made last-second changes in direction after cockpit alarms went off warning of an impending crash.

“This spring we had several close calls that got everybody’s attention, and I think that’s the thing that really keyed us into taking at look at some of the risks, try to identify what we’re missing,” Robert Tarter, vice president of Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Safety-Air Traffic Organization, told employees in a conference call kicking off the new safety effort.

Just last week, a United Airlines flight waiting to land at Reagan National Airport near Washington came within less than a mile of a Gulfstream business jet that was climbing after taking off from another nearby airport. The United pilot can be heard on an air traffic control recording saying to his controller, “That was close,” according to Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a passenger on the United flight who has listened to the recording.

The FAA has also seen a sharp spike in incidents in which planes violated minimum separation distances, a cornerstone of air traffic safety. Those distances depend on several factors, including an airplane’s altitude and its proximity to an airport.

The rate for the most egregious violations of FAA separation standards rose to 3.28 per million flight operations in the nine months ending June 30, up from 2.44 in the full year ending Sept. 30, 2009. Flight operations include takeoffs, landings and when planes pass from the control of one radar center to another. It’s the job of air traffic controllers to keep planes separated.

FAA has also been receiving about 250 to 300 reports a week under new a program that encourages controllers to disclose their mistakes. In exchange, the agency promises not to use the information to punish employees. Instead, the reports are used to spot trends. The program is modeled on a similar program for pilots.

In response to these warning signs, FAA is convening a summit of employees and management, as well as other safety experts, in Washington on Aug. 17. The event will mark the third time in less than four years the agency has hosted a special meeting to address urgent safety problems. In 2007, FAA held a summit in response to concern about planes coming too close together on runways. Last year, the agency called together airlines and pilots unions in response to revelations about the training, pay, experience and work schedules of pilots at regional airlines following a crash near Buffalo, N.Y., that killed 50 people.

Officials are asking every air traffic controller, as well as other employees involved in air traffic operations, to tell them before the meeting what are the biggest safety problems they see. FAA officials are also fanning out to major airlines for meetings with their chief pilots. They want to stress the importance of pilots using the correct terminology when talking to air traffic controllers to avoid confusion, and that they shouldn’t skip routine but important radio contacts with controllers.

By this fall, FAA officials hope to restart a program that gives controllers a chance to ride in cockpit jumpseats so that they can experience air traffic operations from a pilot’s perspective. The program was discontinued after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when the government cracked down on access to airline cockpits.

Although FAA has a history of rocky relationships with its unions, the new safety push is backed by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

“We see the errors also,” Dale Wright, NATCA’s safety director, said in the conference call last Thursday.

NATCA spokesman Doug Church said the union believes “we can help the FAA identify and address safety concerns in the system. … We appreciate the level of collaboration that’s now happening with the FAA on this.”

The recent incidents have also spotlighted long-standing concerns about the experience level of the controller work force. Many of today’s controllers were hired in 1981 after President Ronald Reagan fired striking controllers, and they are now retiring. FAA has hired 7,000 controllers in the past five years, but union officials say the rate of washouts has been high. They have complained that training waves of inexperienced controllers while trying to handle traffic at the nation’s busiest radar facilities endangers safety.

Major airline crashes have dropped dramatically over the past decade due in large part to advances in safety equipment in cockpits, such as the collision warning systems. However, one consequence has been that it’s easy for controllers and pilots to lose their edge, said former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo.

“People come to rely on the equipment and the collision warning systems, and that’s bad,” Schiavo said.

—

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07 Jul

FAA slow on cockpit fires in some Boeing jets

Author: Alisa Brodkowitz  |  Category: Burns, Fumes, Other Events

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By JOAN LOWY and JOSHUA FREED

WASHINGTON —

Federal aviation officials have known for years that cockpit window heaters in some Boeing planes catch fire. But they haven’t required airlines to fix the problem, even after dozens of incidents that unnerved pilots and, in many cases, forced emergency landings.

Pilots have complained about heaters that burned, smoldered or sent electric currents dancing across cockpit windows since at least 2002, according to an Associated Press search of a NASA aviation safety database. Safety investigators have traced the problem to a simple loose screw.

None of the reported incidents was deadly, but they were scary. Sometimes, flames would reappear after flight crews had blasted them with fire extinguishers. In many cases, the window heater would cause an inside ply of windshield to shatter into spidery cracks that obstructed pilots’ view. Sometimes, pilots and instrument panels were sprayed with glass.

Pilots reported having to remove their oxygen masks in smoky cockpits in order to reach circuit breakers or grab fire extinguishers.

The National Transportation Safety Board has prodded the Federal Aviation Administration to make airlines fix the problem, concerned that a major accident could happen if nothing is done. The FAA has yet to mandate the repairs, although it has promised the NTSB since 2004 that it would.

Read the entire article at:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2012232676_apuscockpitfires.html

 

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07 Jul

Two American Airlines Flights Make Emergency Landing at Sea-Tac Airport

Author: Alisa Brodkowitz  |  Category: Other Events

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KING5.com

Posted on July 6, 2010 at 12:36 PM

Updated yesterday at 5:21 PM

 

SEATTLE - Two American Airlines flights landed safely at Sea-Tac Airport after experiencing hydraulic problems on Tuesday morning. Both planes were MD 80s.

American Airlines flight 1086 touched down safely around 10:40 a.m.  It had just taken off for Dallas and about 30 minutes into the flight had to come back to the airport. The plane had 139 passengers and crew members aboard. The plane had to be towed off the runway and left some hydraulic fluid on the runway.

American Airlines flight 1603 from Saint Louis touched down safely around 11:30. One-hundred-forty-five passengers and crew members were aboard.

  Andrea Huguely, a spokesperson for the airline says, “It is a coincidence that we had two similar issues within an hour or so of each other.  We do not have any systemic issues dealing with the hydraulics on any MD80.” 

   That does not mean the FAA won’t investigate.  Mike Fergus, an FAA spokesman at the agency’s  Northwest Mountain Region headquarters in Renton says there is a specific protocol for looking into such cases, starting with a check of maintenance records.

American Airlines said maintenance people were checking out the flight 1086.  Fortunately for the passengers, American happened to have a spare MD-80 at Sea-Tac, and the flight continued on a different jet.   

by GLENN FARLEY / KING 5 News

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24 Jun

NTSB Assists Government of Canada in Quebec Crash

Author: Alisa Brodkowitz  |  Category: Crashes

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************************************************************

                       NTSB ADVISORY

************************************************************

 

National Transportation Safety Board

Washington, DC 20594

 

June 24, 2010

 

************************************************************

 

NTSB ASSISTS GOVERNMENT OF CANADA IN AVIATION ACCIDENT

 

************************************************************

 

The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched an

aviation investigator to assist the government of Canada in

its investigation of the crash of a Hawker Beechcraft

Corporation King Air B-100 (C-FGIN).

 

At approximately 05:58 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on June

23, the aircraft crashed near Quebec City, Quebec, Canada,

shortly after takeoff. Preliminary reports indicate 7

persons were fatally injured. There are no reported injuries

on the ground.

 

NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman has designated air safety

investigator Ed Malinowski as the U.S. Accredited

Representative. His team will include a technical advisor

from Hawker Beechcraft.

 

The investigation is being conducted by the Transportation

Safety Board of the Government of Canada, which will release

all information on the progress of the investigation. The

agency’s phone number in Canada is (1) 819-997-7887 (24 hour)

and the agency’s email address is: airops@tsb.gc.ca.

 

 

# # #

 

Media Contact:

Bridget Ann Serchak

202-314-6100

bridget.serchak@ntsb.gov

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24 Jun

Investigators Search For Cause of Quebec Crash

Author: Alisa Brodkowitz  |  Category: Crashes

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The Canadian Press

Date: Friday May. 21, 2010 6:55 AM ET

L’ISLE-AUX-GRUES, Que. — Investigators paced amid debris Thursday, looking for clues in a small field where a small plane crashed, killing all four people on board.

Standing a few metres from the scattered debris, a Transportation Safety Board official said the Cessna 172 carrying three men and one woman had slammed into an embankment before disintegrating into flames.

“All we can say is that the impact occurred with considerable force,” said Marc Perreault. “But when it comes to determining the speed, it is still too early.”

A Quebec provincial police helicopter aided TSB investigators in their search for clues in the tragedy, which happened Wednesday afternoon.

Orange and yellow ribbons still surrounded the impact area and the ditch where the barely recognizable remains of the plane’s cabin lay.

The charred bodies of two of the dead were removed from the plane late Wednesday by forensic investigators and Denis Boulanger, who was the first to reach the trapped passengers after the crash.

Provincial police identified two of the dead on Thursday as Michel Gagnon, 59 years, and Raynald Turgeon, 49.

Perrault said the plane was piloted by a young woman who held a private pilot’s license and was training to become a professional pilot.

Boulanger was working on his tractor Thursday at the same spot where he was on Wednesday when he saw the plane coming toward him.

He didn’t hide his sadness at learning of the death of a man he tried to help and stayed with for an hour before help arrived.

“The saddest part about it is that this man, he seemed to want to keep living,” he said.

“I wanted to keep him alive., the poor man. It’s a very bad end of the day for him, his family and me and all those who worked to save him. It’s sad that he’s gone.”

Boulanger said he held the man during the intense hour and assured him they would meet again.

“I’m working in my field,” he said. “I have to keep my head. We have to keep on working. But I find it really sad for the man. For the other three too, but he was alive.”

Investigators were working Thursday to identify plane parts, which were scattered across the field after the impact. Perrault said investigators will also examine flight instrument recordings and tapes of radio conversations.

“What the experts are doing is documenting the scene to have a good idea of the plane’s direction and the first points of impact,” he said.

“We will then recover the instruments on the ground and check them for speed, rates of descent, and engine revolutions, if they are not too damaged.”

The tiny village in the middle of the St. Lawrence River was bustling for a second day in a row as townsfolk grappled with the tragedy.

Frederic Poulin, the mayor of the community of 160, said that news of the crash on Wednesday had raised fears about children on the island, who travel daily by air to Montmagny to go to school.

He said the accident happened while the island’s seven elementary school students were travelling so people were worried until they learned they were safe.

“Now we’re sad for the victims.”

Poulin said the last such accidental death on the island happened 20 years ago.

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